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BACKSTORY + ARR ONWARDS.
cw: brief mention of child abuse (physical), forced separation of mother and child
Yvelont Greystone is the bastard son of Ursielle Tourcenet — a well-know and independent courtesan of Ishgard — and the current Count de Dzemael. He was raised by his mother after his father refused to claim him as an heir, however this all changed when rumours of witchcraft began circulating Ishgardian high society about Ursielle and her relative power and influence. Unwilling to have blood of his House associated with a woman whose name could one day be mired in the worst kind of scandal, Count de Dzemael forcibly removed Yvelont from his mother and installed him at the Dzemael manor. He was not to speak of his mother (to whom the family referred as "that whore witch" in an attempt to distance themselves from her further) and was regularly reminded that he was no trueborn heir but rather a burden on the family coffers.
Of all his relatives, it was his cousin Grinnaux who took that charge most seriously. Yvelont's beatings at his hand were frequent, brutal, and largely ignored by the rest of the family, and as they grew older he would regularly slander his mother by making up salacious lies about having paid to bed and beat her multiple times. His poor treatment only worsened as it became apparent there was something "wrong" with him — an affliction he would later learn was the manifestation of Hydaelyn's Echo. It gave him the ability to identify [ ], which the family chose to believe was proof of his mother's dabbling in heretical arts. Unwilling to take their suspicions further for fear of guilt by association, Count de Dzemael ordered further restrictions on Yvelont's communication with Ursielle — letter-writing, their only form of correspondence, was forbidden — and the majority of his personal belongings were removed from his room so that he wouldn't be able to "practice foul arts" in his own time.
This was especially devastating to him as his life's dream had long been to escape Ishgard by means of acceptance into the ranks of the Sharlayan scholars in the North — a place where he could research his magicks freely and contribute to the history of the Black Mages. Instead, he was pushed even further into State-sanctioned tutoring and worship of Halone, and began to despise the goddess he so feared as a cold, unyielding replacement for his mother.
Yvelont had barely turned twenty-one when, under the ink-dark veil of night, he smuggled himself out of Ishgard. Desperate to leave the city behind so that he might find a way to grow stronger, burn down his family tree, and return to take his mother with him to Sharlayan, Yvelont saved every coin he could until he was able to make a break for the city gates in the back of a merchant's cart. He was battered and bruised by the time he made it to Gridania, which is where he first heard tell of the Thaumaturge's Guild in Ul'dah — the jewel in the desert that would become his current journey's end. It took him weeks of working, travelling, and saving his gil before he finally made it to the city, where he shed the name Yvelont Greystone and took his mother's surname to become Yves Tourcenet. Tired, dirty, and with barely a handful of gil to his name, Yves headed directly to the Thaumaturge's Guild and committed himself to the path of destruction.
It was there that he met a Miqo'te woman by the name of Anya Rose: a fellow Thaumaturge who eventually grew interested in the intense, quiet young man who seemed to have nothing more than his studies to hold on to. Impressed by his level of education and committment to the arcane arts she offered him a job with her: he would join her at Thal's Lockbox, Purveyors of Finest Curios and Antiquities, where he could earn a living for himself in minding the shop in her absence while continuing his studies. Yves was wary of the at first but he was desperately low on coin, and so he accepted her offer after a few long days of careful consideration.
Their partnership would turn out to be a hugely stabilising moment in his life. For the first time since he left his mother Yves felt that he truly had a friend; it took several summers for him to consider her such, of course, however as the years passed their relationship only strengthened into the bond of a brother and sister. Yves took on further responsibilties at Thal's Lockbox — was given an office of his own for his own research — where he was finally able to pursue his hobbies and indulge his forbidden dream of becoming learned enough to apply for a studentship in Sharlayan. With Anya heading the business and Yves focusing on the research the Lockbox began to truly flourish, and Yves's expertise as an antiquarian, historian, and treasure hunter would come to be requested all over Eorzea.
It was this reputation that one day landed him an invitation to an establishment called the Waking Sands — a small business of sorts, he assumed, situated out by Vesper Bay. There he met an Elezen by the name of Urianger Augurelt who, having taken an interest in Yves's reputation, asked him to consult on a relic recovered from the Warrior of Light's most recent battle with the primal Titan.
Little did he know, but this meeting would be the first step towards the true path that Fate laid out for him.
After learning of his abilities as a thaumaturge and his possession of the Echo the Scions invited him to join their organisation. Still distrustful of all save Anya he firmly refused the offer — however he would continue to consult (and at times, fight) when needed through his contact with Urianger. When the Warrior summoned him to battle Thordan and his Knights of the Round Yves was hesitant to return into the orbit of Ishgardian politics — and yet the opportunity to finally put an end to Grinnaux, the man who had made his childhood such a misery, was too delicious to ignore. To know that he played a role in his death was one of the first times he ever experienced true, unmitigated joy — a sensation he has chased ever since.
That moment meant more the Yves than he would ever let on to anyone else. Something within him shifted that day: where he had once been consumed with thoughts of ruining his family he now found himself thinking about the Warrior of Light, utterly taken by how inviting him to such an act of violence was perhaps one of the greatest kindnesses they could offer him. Unsure of how to best show his gratitude Yves found himself beginning to accept more jobs for the Scions, beginning to train harder in the art of the Black Mage, so that he might be of better use to the Warrior of Light should they need to call on him again. They were the first person who had ever managed to ease some of the desperate ache in his soul, and for that? He simply couldn't allow them to come to harm.
Yves knew he had to find a way to sharpen himself even further when Zenos descended on the Warrior of Light in Rhalgr's Reach. The Garlean prince was a force that he couldn't begin to reckon with as he was: he needed more power, a new way to combat the man who seemed unstoppable in his pursuit of his "friend" (of Yves's friend). His personal research back at the Lockbox took a turn for the dark, and Yves began to follow up on whispers of ways in which a person might harness the bottomless power of the Void and turn it to their own goals. It's funny, really, how one's hopes and dreams can vanish in an instant beneath a thoughtless touch of kindness; how Yves's dream of an academic life in Sharlayan was so quickly replaced with the pursuit of twisted power.
He discovered the Lemures of Ul'dah while the Warrior of Light was, quite literally, spirited away on the First. Drusilla rejected him at first — just another selfish boy meddling with that which he did not understand — however his dogged persistence and unwillingness to leave eventually granted him a proper meeting with the Reaper. She heard his story with a face of stone, giving nothing away of her thoughts on the matter, only listening as he became more and more frantic in his attempt at persuading her to teach him that he might dedicate his all towards protecting the person who, for their own part, was protecting them all.
In hindsight, Yves will never fully understand why Drusilla agreed to put him through the trials of becoming a Reaper when he was little more than an increasingly panicked, shaking mess. Perhaps she recognised in him the same thing others have recognised in Zenos himself: that he would stop, that he could not stop, and the Gods only knew what lengths he would go to if denied at this door. Although it started poorly their relationship would solidify and strengthen as he continued to train under her, to the point where he now considers her one of his dearest allies.
When the Warrior of Light returned from the First — when the Endsinger's Song once again found its way to Etheirys — Yves knew that he was going to have to leave some part of his life behind. They all were. After acting as a consultant to the Scions for years he finally accepted a position among their ranks, and he left Anya and Thal's Lockbox as a chapter of his past he bbought himself passage to Sharlayan. It wasn't quite how he'd imagined he might one day reach its shores, to be sure, and yet even he couldn't deny that he was still there in service to something in which he believed.
Them.
Always them.
DRUSILLA