Origins
The Azim Steppe: a vast stretch of treacherous mountains, fertile valleys and constant warfare between the tribes of Xaela. Few adventurers to the land of Othard have stepped foot in the contentious and diverse lands of the Steppe. None have explored the mountains that dominate the landscape of Onsal Hakair. These mountains have a history of dangerous creatures calling the land home, threatening the safety of any who would attempt to stake a claim on these ancestral lands. Hidden in this jutted stretch, however, are the peoples of the Namat tribe: a group of Raen seeking to become one with their ancestral land and escape the unceasing conflict that rages in the plains below. In this tribe live warriors, battle-hardened by the need to survive in competition with the monsters of land and air that refuse to surrender their habitats without a fight. A fight that has been won many times over by the warriors of this tribe at great cost. One clan, however, stood above all as proud protectors of the Namat: the Uzuka, consisting of patriarch Taketeru, matriarch Tomoe, and two sons: Ietake, the younger, and Nobuharu, the elder.For many years, the Namat held the Uzuka tribe in high regard for their many missions into hostile territory with the intent to kill those who would otherwise kill them. Their heroism, experience and innate leadership earned them prestige and honor in the tribe, a position they strove to uphold for the benefit of the settled tribe. This love for their fellow men and women of the tribe was drilled into Nobuharu and Ietake from a young age. Childhoods were spent not in the comfort of home or the embrace of friends and loved ones, but in the backyard training with sword and shield. Countless hours were spent sparring, perfecting techniques and preparing for the day when they would become warriors and leaders of the tribe. Nobuharu, in particular, was groomed from birth as the eldest son to succeed his father as commander of the tribal defense forces, leading to many hours spent learning under his father's belt, by will or by force. Finally, though, after years of hard training and rigorous practice, the day came when Nobuharu was of an age where he could lead warriors into combat against the monsters of the mountains. His task to earn full membership in the tribe was simple: kill a pack of roving Muu Shuwuus that threatened potential farming land for the Namat. With blade in hand, Nobuharu took the honor of leading his family into combat and hoped to return a hero. This hope...would soon be dashed.
The mission seemed simple enough at first. Nobuharu had studied the habits of the Muu Shuwuu and knew just where to send his blade to deliver the tribe's judgment on the avian beasts. Within hours, with the help of his family under his command, the beasts were killed and the land cleared. As the last monster fell, Nobuharu took a moment to see his father's eyes deliver a message of pride under a stoic face, knowing this was only the beginning for the young leader-to-be. The look of his father's hidden pride in his eldest son would haunt Nobuharu the rest of his days. For it would be the last time he would see his father...and his family...alive. As they made the return trek to the village, the sounds of an aerial attack filled the family's ears. Suddenly, the group was swarmed by an incoming swarm of large yols! With no other alternative and no means of easy escape in the tight mountain path back home, the family took up their swords for one great battle. Unfortunately, the yols would have the upper hand this day. Ietake would be the first to fall, the wings of a yol clipping through him like a knife through butter. Taketeru, the great patriarch who had led the tribe through its worst years, fought with honor and valor only to be blinded by one yol's feathers and gored by another's large beak. Knowing this would be the end, Tomoe begged her eldest son in a moment of unforeseen compassion to run back home before he died. In the heat of the moment, with death around him, Nobuharu made a choice that would haunt him all his days: he ran. He fled. He failed to defend himself, he failed to defend his family and he failed to prove he could defend the tribe.Upon his return alone, bearing the scars of the ambush, the tribe greeted him not with triumph and tribute but scorn and hatred. To the Namat, he was henceforth and forevermore a failure, a wretch of a leader who let his soldiers die and fled from them to save his own self. If he was as good as his father or as strong as his bloodline, he should have stayed and fought to the bitter end to die as a hero! It was for this failure that the tribal council sentenced Nobuharu to spend his remaining days in the mountains that claimed his family. He would never be allowed to return home, his name stripped from the tribal history and his honor permanently tarnished. So it was that Nobuharu, with only his father's prized katana in hand, left the tribe of the Namat, never to return. And thus began the journey of decades that would lead him to the faraway land of Eorzea, to live the rest of his days a wandering warrior doomed to live in the shadow of his dead family and fail to be the leader they hoped he would be.