If you like something, you can use it too! Some of these are pretty common headcanons anyway, I think? I just want most of mine in one place instead of scattered across 983247 notes
Teaching style is... loose. While he's very good at relaying historical knowledge and the philosophy behind various aspects of Red Mage, and will at least offer feedback on major mistakes he sees crop up during training... he certainly doesn't hold his student's hands. Believes experience is the best teacher and prefers to set them up against novel confrontations and enemies to force them to learn how to adapt and react quickly. In his mind, that's what will keep them alive when they go their own way. Mends their wounds, tries to give them challenges within their level of skill, but allows them to make mistakes and even fail.
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Likes to tease, taunt, and poke fun, responds better to being challenged than coddled, and tends to try to inspire his students in the same way. Painfully honest at times. (Being said, it's not always criticism. He knows how to balance encouragement, too)
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Has a very particular little smile when he's proud of you.
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Will talk. All day. About Red Magic. If you let him.
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Can be a little impatient if he feels someone is behaving unreasonably, and, as a result, snarky.
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Folds his arms when deep in thought, particularly if he's upset about something. But the gesture is more defensive than standoffish.
When he really sets his mind to something, he will not relent. Absolutely incorrigible. Quitting or giving up - it's just not in him. He respects this trait in others, too, and nurtures a certain degree of stubbornness in his pupils.
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Likes to show off. You could say excessive confidence is a tactic to unsettle his enemies... but mostly, he just likes to show off. He knows he looks good.
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Knows someone everywhere. Has myriad contacts, people he's worked with or helped throughout his life. He might show up years after you first met him with an adventure on his lips and some peculiar favor to ask. "Goodbye" is never really goodbye.
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Hard to get to know. You can surmise the "basics" of him quickly - he's a Red Mage, he wanders around helping those in need and passing on his art, he likes ale, he can turn anything into a quip. But who is he, really? What does he do when he's not gallivanting around? What was his childhood like?
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Keeps folks at a certain distance. The last time he had a home, their efforts to free their nation led to its destruction, and all his friends were murdered in an act of treachery. While he doesn't specifically want to be alone, it's "safer" now if comrades are temporary and he's always only passing through - then he doesn't need to risk getting attached.
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Immense feelings of shame and unworthiness about his failure and status as the last Crimson Duelist. Another reason he tends to keep his relationships casual, and remains in self-imposed exile for so long even after Ala Mhigo's liberation.
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Still believes in his ideals. Red Magic is, frankly, all he has left. Nothing will stop him from continuing to try to do good and in many ways this is an all-consuming purpose. He struggles sometimes to believe that good will win out and has occasionally given up on his hopes for the future, but perseveres stubbornly regardless.
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Functional alcoholic. But begins to drink more responsibly over time after he has Arya under his wing/Lambard is defeated.
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Plays down his own negative feelings or injuries, tries not to brood over them. Prefers action or focusing on others to distract himself.
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Tries to make it easy for others to leave him. Initially struggles to ask for help with personal matters. The people he might trust enough to assist him are the same ones he most wouldn't want to "impose" his troubles on, and it takes awhile to unlearn that. He's used to taking care of people, not the other way around.
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Feels he is past his prime, and therefore less important in the scheme of things, than others like his apprentices. He is keenly aware of his age, and even overemphasizes it a bit, perhaps due to some underlying crushed vanity at no longer being 20 (but honestly 42 is NOT that old X'rhun why do you keep acting like you're decrepit in game dialogue)
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Nonetheless, is both warmed and accepting when friends reciprocate his dedication. Actions like this help him to heal.
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A great deal of his communication is shown through actions. The man can talk all day, but it's what he doesn't say that is the most meaningful.
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Generally very accepting of people who are Different. Doesn't care what you read, how you speak, what your culture is, what you look like. He cares about whether you are humane, whether you are caring, whether you are honorable.
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As a native of the region, with a traditional Seeker of the Sun name, his home tribe is somewhere in Gyr Abania. Still not settled on what happened with them. Perhaps they were destroyed in the revolution/Garlemald's invasion - an act of retaliation against him. Or maybe, despite the fact that he could easily assert himself as Nunh, X'rhun has no interest in such a position as it would force an end to his pilgrimage, or because he feels unworthy of such a role after what is, in his own words, a lifetime of failures. He may simply not desire the role, or at the very least doesn't want to go about usurping another for it.
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He's certainly no snob, but he keeps clean between capers. His suit is at least twenty years old but made exceptionally well and kept in good condition. If he can't mend or adjust it himself he will pay a weaver to do it for him. Buckles are shiny. Stains are scrubbed out. Boots polished. Besides - you think it's easy to keep white fur clean on the road? Man's dedicated to his hygiene. If you're going to be a wandering do-gooder, it's important to look the part.
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Has really good teeth despite his age. Yes, they're all still original.
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Remarkably few scars. Not completely without them, but far less than you'd expect from a man who's spent a life in a martial profession.
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Obsessed with the color red. Bafflingly good at naming various shades of it by eye. Will make a face at you if you mislabel one. (it is stated in the Encyclopedia Eorzea that the Weaver's Guild made absolutely no profit when X'rhun commissioned them to make clothes for his apprentices, due to how difficult it was to get the attire an appropriate shade of red.)
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Bisexual, with no particular gender preference.
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Sexually experienced, and has spent many a night enjoying temporary company and comforts. Especially before the fall of Ala Mhigo, being a dapper young hot-blooded Crimson Duelist with no shortage of admirers.
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Responsible about it, though. He won't indulge in extramarital affairs, lead people on, or take anyone to bed who does not seem 100% enthusiastic about the prospect. This is a particular point of pride for him.
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Can be exceedingly gentle, perhaps surprisingly so given how fierce he is in battle. Not just with lovers, but also in his daily life. Around animals, children, flowers, when treating wounded, X'rhun knows how to use a delicate, precise touch.
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Can dance the flamenco exceptionally well and will show off if given the chance.
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