3, 5, 6
3. What occupations did their parents have when they were born? Did this job influence your muse in any form?
It’s uncertain what Shou’s birth parents did, but she’s told they were bandits. Shou regards them dimly. Her adoptive mother, a Hellsguard named Skinned Tree, ran a discount hostel for Nald’Thalite pilgrims called Chanter’s Rest which had become a de facto orphanage due to the number of little brats dropped off there. The squirts did most of the gruntwork for Tree, who tended bar. They were wretchedly poor and tree was a strict parent, though never neglectfu or abusive. Skinned tree kicked the kids out when they reached an age old enough to find a job on their own, though some (especially cooks) stayed into adulthood to help out. Tree discouraged that fate for most of the kids, especially kids she considered problematic or promising. Shou was both.
5. What sort of religion was practiced in their home? Did religion play a role in their upbringing?
Chanter’s Rest was a very orthodox Nald’Thalite sorta establishment, espousing a very transactional and repressive interpretation of Nald’Thal’s virtues of magic and commerce. Shou hated it, but now acknowledges Skinned Tree was trying to keep the kids safe and out of trouble, even if it didn’t work for Shou, who was even then a trouble magnet. Ultimately, Shou turned from the faith and became a Sister of Rhalgr... but she still loves magic and money so something stuck.
6. How many siblings did they have? What was their relationship like? Were they an only child who wished for siblings?
Shou’s fellow orphans averaged about 15 in number, with Skinned Tree regularly kicking out older kids who were able work on their own. With that many kids it’s a clusterfuck that’s hard to make any kind of blanket assessment about, but there was absolutely a level of solidarity among them, even despite their constant squabbling and despotic pecking order. Kids are mean, but having a family that big means that everyone’s covering everyone else’s six.
The most significant relationship among them was between Shou and her older adoptive sister Zhena. Zhena not only sheltered Shou from the worst things of growing up in poverty in Ul’Dah, but also introduced her later to a lot of those same worst things, teaching her hoodrat shit like how to effectively shoplift, how to break a handsy creep’s wrist and the economics of the hustle. They later went into business as airship smugglers in their early teen years after Zhena and Shou after both got kicked out of Chanter’s Rest.
