Aranea Highwind
—⠀portrayed by いけ０５
Name: Aranea Highwind │ ( アラネア・ハイウィンド )Nicknames: Lady A, DragoonAge: 30Gender: FemaleOccupation: Commodore of the Third Army Corps 86th Airborne UnitHeight: 167cm ( 5'5 )Weapon: Stoss Spear
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❛ Imperial airborne division commodore known for captaining a distinct red aircraft as well as a squad of mercenaries. Even in hand-to-hand combat, Aranea is most at home in the skies, wielding a magitek lance in dragoon-style aerial attacks. ❜
Index:
dossier
Commodore of Niflheim's Third Army Corps' 87th Airborne Division. Born and raised in the western continent, she first proved her prowess in the field as a mercenary. She excelled in combat, putting her impressive athletic abilities and spatial awareness to good use. Yet Aranea was unsatisfied with her de facto superiority: she desired a greater challenge. She then turned her gaze to the skies—and the rest is history. With her trusty magitek lance in hand, she leaps into the air, soaring to and fro with the aid of an inertia-controlling device built into her armor. This incredible midair mobility has earned her the moniker "the Dragoon," and she has become something of a legend across Eos. Aranea has long held doubts about the empire's devotion to its daemonic research. It is only when the imperial army's failed assault on Altissia leads to countless civilian casualties that she decides to officially cut her ties. Now, she has turned against her former employer, hunting down the daemons and magitek troopers they created while saving innocents from harm.
APPEARANCE
Aranea has fair skin, green eyes and shoulder-length, silver-blond hair. She wears red and black leather armor that has a "scaly" appearance to allude to dragons. Her long white cape with a red symbol also somewhat mimics the appearance of a dragon's wings. She wears a black helmet and wields a magitek-enhanced lance, the Stoss Spear, that is considered "extremely difficult to wield". She wears red-brown boots with unique high heels.
During Episode Prompto, she wears a winter variation of her combat outfit. She wears leather trousers and a long fur-lined black coat and a muted red scarf with matching fingerless gloves. She has no helmet in her winter gear and wears long heeled boots. The zipper of her jacket has a large round accessory with a red gem.
PERSONALITY
Aranea talks to people in a casual and playful manor. She tends to tease around with people, and she gives nicknames to jest as well. Aranea has been described by her English voice actress, Kari Wahlgren, as "edgy" and "street smart", though her loyalty at first remains ambiguous . Though she holds the rank of commodore, she prefers people speak to her in a casual manner. She does not agree with immoral practices, such as the empire using daemons in their war efforts.
As a free-spirited woman, she encourages Prince Noctis to not let anyone tell him how to walk his path in life. She displays a mischievous side when she flirts with him in battle. In Episode Prompto she encourages Prompto Argentum to decide his path and make the right choices despite Prompto learning the dark truth of his origins. She claims to not like working after hours when she withdraws from her fight with Noctis. She is implied to be a strong leader, as her subordinates Biggs and Wedge follow her loyally no matter which side of the war she wants to support.
Aranea is skeptical of the empire, and voices her distrust of the emperor, the new high commander and the chancellor, mentioning she "really can't stand that guy" on the latter. She eventually defects to save innocent people and hunt daemons rather than harvest them for the empire as she had been doing before. In Episode Prompto, she alone sets out to defeat the empire's newest magitek monster, and to look for Noctis's friend. Though she is hard on Prompto and threatens to abandon him if he doesn't keep up with her, it is implied she is doing it to snap him out of his indecisive state.
Final Fantasy XV: Comrades describes her as never the one to obsess over birthright and rank, as having forward-thinking attitude and pragmatism, a no-nonsense attitude and a confident demeanor.
STORY
SPOILER WARNING
Aranea was a mercenary who was hired by Niflheim due to her unique fighting abilities. She was given rank and soldiers to see her missions through, including her two subordinates, Biggs and Wedge, whom she has known since their teenage days. She is the commodore of Niflheim's Third Army Corps 87th Airborne Division and reports to the high commander. Her service record in combating daemons and Astrals for the empire earned her the use of her own magitek engine. Perhaps due to her distaste for the magitek infantry, her unit is composed only of humans. Aranea stands before Emperor Aldercapt in the aftermath of Insomnia's invasion, who implores them to kill Prince Noctis and capture Lady Lunafreya. Aranea attacks Noctis when his party infiltrates an imperial base, but leaves since she does not get paid after a certain time.
When Noctis is looking for mythril in Vesperpool he gets help from the chancellor of Niflheim, Ardyn Izunia, who has Aranea join Noctis's party as they raid a temple to "train them". Aranea is suspicious of the empire's recent activities, and reveals the empire is harvesting "specimens" to make into daemons for warfare. Examples of this include the magitek troopers. She disagrees with this practice, and is considering leaving the army and hunting the daemons down as a mercenary again. She does not approve of the emperor and the new high commander, and especially detests Ardyn.
They fight through legions of daemons and defeat Quetzalcoatl, the temple guardian, and retrieve the ore it protected. Afterward, she promises to train the party more if their paths cross again and gives them a ride to the industrial town of Lestallum on her personal magitek engine. Aranea continues to patrol Lucis at night, and when she spots Noctis and his friends fighting daemons and hunt marks in the dark, she sometimes swoops down to aid them. Prompto becomes smitten with her and wonders if she has a boyfriend. After the empire's attack on Altissia results in countless civilian casualties, Aranea cuts her ties and starts working against them. After the empire attacks Tenebrae, Aranea heads there to help the displaced citizens in a relief effort. She meets Noctis, Gladiolus and now-blind Ignis, explaining she had nothing to do with the attack and that she has left the empire with her soldiers under her command joining her. Aranea lends her aid to Noctis once more by arranging for Biggs and Wedge to take the party to the imperial capital of Gralea. She notes one of Noctis's friends, Prompto, is missing from his party.
During the events of Episode Prompto, Aranea infiltrates the First Magitek Production Facility to find the truth behind Verstael Besithia's magitek project. The facility is located in a remote arctic region. She fights the monsters in the facility, busting through the main room, and is surprised to find Prompto. She has read the notes and blueprints around the facility, realizing what Verstael is planning. She gets Prompto to his feet and gives him a snowmobile to escape the facility. She finds Prompto camping out in the wilderness and joins him. Aranea urges him to return to his friends, but Prompto hesitates because he has learned that he is a clone born in an imperial magitek facility to be made a magitek trooper before being kidnapped by Lucis and raised in the Crown City. Aranea insists his origins don't matter, and that Prompto must decide what he wants out of life for himself.
The next day they infiltrate another magitek facility to destroy Verstael's newest magitek creations. They defeat Barbarus together, and Aranea rides the snowmobile as Immortalis chases after them, with Prompto downing it with a mounted machine gun from the back seat. At the end of their adventure Prompto declares he is heading to Gralea to meet up with Noctis and the others so he can tell them the truth about himself. Aranea watches him ride the snowmobile to the distance, smiling.
Aranea dedicates her life to helping the populace against the daemons that run rampant as daylight disappears from the world. She posts herself to areas ravaged by daemons and war and travels to Lestallum, mankind's last outpost. She stands besides the former Lucian marshal, Cor Leonis, and all who stand up for mankind's survival. She helps a member of the Kingsglaive take down two Niduses that spawn outside Lestallum. In the decade following, Aranea makes a name for herself by hunting daemons and saving people in danger. When Noctis returns to bring light back to the world, Talcott tells him that Aranea was once feared far and wide as a warrior dragoon, but is now revered by the people of Lucis and along with Biggs and Wedge leads her own army.
ADMIN ( MUN ) INFORMATION
☆彡 iketsuya ( ike / iketsu / tsu )☆彡 she / her☆彡 lesbian☆彡 japanese, chinese☆彡 20th September // virgo☆彡 English is ( not ) first language☆彡 Not new to character, or verse.☆彡 Dark themes, (n)sfw warning.
