Rhea de Baphineaux was born with her twin, Philippe de Baphineaux, to Baron Noé de Baphineaux and his wife, the Baroness Amalia, five years before Ishgard closed her borders. Although minor nobility, the Baphineaux's held a proud and long history within Ishgardian society calling back to the founding of Ishgard's Four High Houses.
Along with her brother Philippe, Rhea was born destined to be the co-heir to the barony. Yet, for all the grooming her mother tried to do with her, it was her twin who took more to Ishgardian high society than his sister. Rhea's passion, and nature, was far closer to that of her father - an enthusiastic historian and an amateur archeologist. While Philippe was learning how to wine and dine and dance with the elites of Ishgardian society, Rhea was off traipsing ruins and digs with her father, drinking deep of the excitement of adventuring. Being the only daughter of four children, and the eldest of them, the Baroness Amalia was often vexed with how willful and adventurous Rhea was.
Still, being the good Ishgardian lady she was, Rhea was eventually reigned in enough to begin to learn her duties - not only as debutante but as the future co-ruler of her family's house and holdings. The only way, she had been told, that the barony would fall solely to her brother was if she married above her station and took over running her husband's household instead. Otherwise, her husband would marry into her family while Philippe and Rhea managed the affairs of the Baphineaux estate.
No matter how much she dove into her studies, however, her mind was never far off from the world outside of Ishgard's borders. Dreams of adventuring and exploring the other realms and cultures occupied her thoughts incessantly and when she was not being tutored, she was reading all she could get her hands on about the world beyond.
While her mother remained ever annoyed by the lack of conformity in her daughter, her father rejoiced in it. So it was that, for her eighteenth nameday, he gifted her with a bargain. She would remain in Ishgard until her twentieth nameday, being the good and dutiful daughter of House Baphineaux. She would be the perfect picture of an Ishgardian debutante and court the young lords of Ishgard as her mother directed. However, if by her twentieth nameday, she was not yet engaged or married, she would be free to leave the house, and Ishgard, for one year to get her adventuring out of her system.
It was the best gift she could have ever asked for and she readily accepted.
For two years, she held true to her side of the bargain. She threw herself into the soirees and social events, played the good little noblewoman and let lordlings abound attempt to woo her. Yet none caught her eye - or her father's for that matter - and when her twentieth nameday came upon her, she readied herself to see what the rest of Eorzea had to offer.
Though her departure was bittersweet, she went with even her mother's blessing. Joined by her childhood best friend and companion, her chocobo Tchu'kee'pu*, she set out for the Gates of Judgement with an eye towards Limsa Lominsa. Very early on a tutor had identified her as having a keen aptitude for the arcane and, as the first step on her journey, she wanted to learn all she could about her abilities.
Little did she know, however, that the moment her foot crossed the threshold of the Gates, a destiny was set in motion that would sweep not only her, but the entire world, up in its storm.
Author's Note:
* - Her chocobo, named Tchu'kee'pu, was named due to an accidental misspeak with her father when he gifted him to her on her tenth nameday. She had been trying to say "I'm going to keep you" to the small creature but in her excitement, and a bit of a childhood lisp, she spurted "tchu kee pu". It was so endearing that her father declared the bird to be called Tchu'kee'pu - or Tchu, for short.