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Yow-Rabntah

Yow Rabntah

Ignorrrance is bliss, as they say.

Yow Rabntah

Yow Rabntah is a non-playable Mithra ranger in Final Fantasy XI. She traveled from Olzhirya, the Mithran homeland, to Mindartia ten years before the Crystal War. During this brief sojourn in the north she was hired to accompany Iru-Kuiru, a Windurstian white mage, on the influential Multinational Expedition.

Story[]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Some years before she journeyed abroad Yow Rabntah lived in Yhoh, the capital of the Gha Naboh Matriarchate. There she gave birth to a son, Lehko, as the result of an unknown union. This was auspicious as males are most rare among the Mithran people and are well-protected by their culture.

Northlands[]

Having crossed the sea to the Middle Lands, Rabntah met Rhinostery Minister Iru-Kuiru preparing for a mission to Fei'Yin, a ruined Zilart city. His nation had been invited to investigate the site in cooperation with the Republic of Bastok and the Kingdom of San d'Oria. He would have to cross the whole of Mindartia to join them in Quon, however, and requested Rabntah's company.

The pair were eventually joined by three of Bastok's Mythril Musketeers, Ulrich, Cornelia, and Raogrimm, and a San d'Orian knight, Francmage M Mistalle. They followed Ranguemont Pass to the Beaucedine Glacier and made their way across the frozen landscape to Fei'Yin. They were unable to explore much of the ruins, though, as the fiends swarming within were too numerous.

Discouraged by their lack of progress, the Adventurer's party turned west to see what might lie in Xarcabard. They found a snowy wasteland so empty that it had no scent Rabntah could detect. The expedition remained in the area, however, and its members had opportunities to look around for themselves. Rabntah seized this chance and subsequently discovered a piece of magicite. Sensing the power of the crystal and elated at what it might do for Gha Naboh, she kept the find to herself and rejoined to the group.

At some point the Mythril Musketeers wandered away from the rest of the Adventurer's party and left Rabntah and Iru-Kuiru to debate the value of their investigation with Francmage. As they exchanged opinions they were suddenly approached by Ulrich. He quickly explained that the Musketeers had been ambushed and that Raogrimm and Cornelia had fallen into a crevice. Rabntah and the others immediately followed him to the scene of the incident.

In spite of her tracking skills, Rabntah failed to locate their lost comrades. Francmage suggested that they withdraw before more lives were lost and Rabntah, having already found her prize, was quick to agree. The Adventurer's party resolved to depart the next day and its surviving members prepared to return to their respective nations. The expedition ended in failure but Yow Rabntah did not leave the Northlands empty-handed.

Homecoming[]

Rabntah arrived on Olzhiryan soil with the magicite safely in her possession. She planned to harness the stone's power by fashioning a weapon around it. Her design would be known as the Bow of Light, an enchanted armament whose beauty was a testament to Rabntah's craftsmanship. Her unique creation surpassed all other bows, its great strength could defend Gha Naboh from any threat.

Yow-Rabntah-Crafting-Bow

Yow Rabntah crafting the Bow of Light.

The magicite at the weapon's heart proved most dangerous, however. Those who wielded it found the worst aspects of themselves forced to the surface. Overcome by fear, hatred, and jealousy, an archer would lose control and attack her sisters indiscriminately. Before anyone realized what was happening the Mithra were plunged into a bloody civil war.

Tracing the bow back to Rabntah, the Matriarchate deemed her a sinner for having unleashed such chaos upon the motherland. Rabntah insisted that her creation could still be an asset in the hands of a pure-hearted wielder but such platitudes were of no value to the suffering Mithra population. They intended to execute the ranger for her crime.

As Rabntah awaited judgment a great demon, the Shadow Lord, appeared before her. Born from Raogrimm's fury as he died in the frozen north, the creature sought vengeance against those that had abandoned him. He cut Yow Rabntah down and vanished before her kin could see their justice served. With her dying breath she chanted a spell to seal the Bow of Light's power so that her people might never suffer its evil again.

Yow Rabntah's spirit found no rest in death, however. Drifting helplessly between reality and the dreamworld of Dynamis, she watched as violence continued in Olzhirya even in the bow's absence. She saw her son forced to live as a fugitive since, under Mithra law, he had inherited her sin and the associated punishment. The following decade brought the defeat of the Shadow Lord and the birth of a granddaughter, Nanaa, but Rabntah remained a disembodied observer.

Present Day[]

Thirty years after Rabntah's death the Shadow Lord returns and is vanquished a second time. This succeeds in freeing Raogrimm from the rage that had bound him but reveals a separate problem. When Raogrimm first transformed a fragment of his soul had broken away and settled in the dreamworld. Over the years this splinter had grown into a new Shadow Lord, or Dynamis Lord. This creature hoped to absorb the remainder of Raogrimm's spirit and venture forth into reality.

As Raogrimm is unable to resist the Dynamis Lord's pull, the ghosts of his former companions are left to orchestrate an opposition on his behalf. Adventurers wandering into the dreamworld are recruited by the expedition members and a makeshift army soon marches across the shrouded land. Admitting that she had been happy to ignore tensions among her comrades and that Raogrimm's transformation was partly her fault, Rabntah guides the living through a illusory copy of the Ru'Lude Gardens.

In time they face the new Shadow Lord and break his towering figure across the plains of a false Xarcabard. No longer overwhelmed by the creature's pull, Raogrimm explains that his fractured soul is trapped in Dynamis and that the dreamworld's architect, Diabolos, has tasked him with a vigil that will last until hatred no longer exists. Other expedition members offer to stand with him during this task and Rabntah urges everyone to celebrate their thirty-year reunion. The six of them therefore begin their eternal surveillance of Dynamis.

Spoilers end here.
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