Eros Astarael

Male

Yes

Yes

Yes

Connor was born to a Viera woman named Dalla, never knowing his father because his mother worked in a brothel. She and the other workers did their best to raise him right, and the only expectation for him was to help with basic chores when he was old enough. Things like doing laundry, mopping floors, making beds and the like.

Such was life for the Viera as he aged, though he found love with Lorelei Kryskaet, an Elezen girl born to a similar situation as his own. But when they were teenagers the house sold Lorelei as a maid-servant to a private master and Connor was sure he would never see her again.

Tragedy struck once more when just a few years later his mother died. The work was just finally too much for her and her body gave out, and though he was grieving Connor was told his mother owed the house a debt and now it was his, and they expected him to repay it by taking up her work.

Connor became Eros, a name to separate himself from the work he was forced to do. The things done to him, the trauma he endured again and again and again and again. His body was altered with aether manipulation, giving him both sets of working genitals and a programmed response to turn any pain into pleasure. He was humiliated, pushed to the brink, and finally...sold.

Sold to a man whose name Eros never knew. He was kind, using money saved up from years of business practices to buy high-end brothel workers like Eros and help get them back into society so they could finally escape the life. But not everyone agreed with that kind of thing, so to keep up appearances Eros was only ever allowed to know him as Master and as the man was somewhat solitary no one else ever spoke his name in the house.

Eros asked if he could be changed back. To being just male, to not feeling every jolt of pain as horny pleasure. His Master agreed and called in someone more qualified to help but...well, help was the furthest thing from what he got. Quietly, under the guise of 'fixing' Eros, the mysterious stranger instead experimented on him. Turned him into a creature that needed to feed on aether to survive, like the sin eaters in the First (even if Eros had no clue what those were at the time) and didn't tell anyone.

When the hunger began to grow Eros didn't know what he was feeling, or what to do. And just as a starving animal eventually will try for a reckless kill to save itself so too did Eros unfortunately kill another woman the Master had rescued and was rehabilitating, sucking her dry of aether before hiding the mummified body and fleeing.

Eventually he was found by the man who had changed him yet again, and told the truth of things. But now Eros had no help, nowhere to go, and a condition that could lead to him murdering innocent people if he couldn't find some other way to feed. Following the stranger's advice Eros joined the adventurer's guild in Gridania and started feeding on the beasts he felled to protect the area but that wasn't long-lived as soon the Hearers were whispering that the Elementals had bore witness to his actions and were quite upset.

Having no desire to put the Shroud in danger Eros made his way to Ul'dah instead, sleeping in the streets when he couldn't afford an inn room. It was there he was found by Cerreo, another Viera who had taken up the Garlean art of being a Reaper and through his connection to his Voidsent could tell that Eros was different. He and his wife Mina (a Garlean woman, third eye and all) gently took Eros in and helped him as best they could until he trusted them enough to tell his story.

Horrified though the pair were there was nothing they could do. The Garleans had been driven out of Eorzea and it seemed as if with the reforming of the Eorzean Alliance the three primary city-states wanted Ishgard in on things as well - a matter easier said than done with the nation's closed off nature and distrust of outsiders who did not follow their fanatical faith. Eros joined Cerreo on his mission to try and bring Ishgard into the fold, thus starting his journey along the main storyline for Heavensward.

Somewhere along the way Eros established his own Free Company; formally they were all adventurers vetted by the guilds, agreeing to essentially have a house together and work together on various endeavors for the good of the world. There he met Frederick Makalt, and in time Frederick had a vision...of Eros' mother and his father, a man named Alfric, together. The Echo did not show things unless they were important, and Frederick told Eros that based on what he had seen he had enough reason to suspect they were half-brothers...something a little more bolstered by the fact that Frederick's mother had left his father over his chronic infidelity.

Having found family in more than one way, Eros was content. Time progressed, Ishgard ended the Dragonsong War and Ala Mhigo was liberated from the Garleans. Eros married Cerreo, met other members of the free company, and was happy.

Then a package came. One holding quite a bit of coin and a letter simply signed 'L'. Eros had not dared hope that Lorelei was still alive much less that she remembered him if she were, but it had to be her...it had to be.

Frederick put his skills to use and tracked the woman to Radz-at-Han, working there as one of the blacksmiths. He told Eros but knew he could not accompany his brother on that trip - Sharlayan awaited, and there hopefully some answers to strange happenings. So Eros set out alone and was reunited with Lorelei, still feeling as much love for her as he had all those years ago.

For her part, Lorelei had been sold off and served as a maid in her new master's house. But he was elderly and eventually passed, and his children opted to set all of his servants free. From there Lorelei actually joined the Maelstrom, but with no fighting skills or desire to fight she dedicated herself to learning how to smith to make better weapons and armor for those who served on the front lines. Eventually they shipped her off to Radz-at-Han with a few others to learn their techniques. Lorelei had been able to track Eros during her time with the Grand Company and eventually sent him the money she'd saved up; money she promised she was going to use to buy his freedom if he was still in servitude at that point. She found he wasn't, however, and was married and had a life and rather than interrupt that she opted to just send him the coin that Frederick had tracked back to her.

Time passed, the world changed. Eros went to the edges of the universe and back while Lorelei was pregnant, arriving just before Rhys Krystarael was born. Later, while Frederick and the others headed for Tural Eros decided to stay behind; obviously if he was needed he'd be there in a heartbeat, but otherwise he wanted to stay with Lorelei and spend time with his daughter, to help raise her and just be a family.

Because several timelines exist for these characters things can get a bit confusing, so I wanted a space to give a small explainer of this.

Please be aware there may be spoilers for any point of the game's story, so read at your own risk.

The Primary Timeline is the one that you can safely assume applies to most of the information on this page about Eros. It's also the timeline listed in his history section.

The Secondary Timeline focuses on Rhys and their generation, and not a whole lot changes except for the when. Eros reconnects with Lorelei and Rhys is born when Ahewann is a child, connecting the lore that they grew up together and Ahewann didn't die during the Final Days, leading to Rhys having Alex and Julian down the line as well. Because Broil and Cordelia are serving as the co-WoL's during this time Eros is more passive during this timeline compared to the Primary Timeline, but he's still present in their lives.

The Tertiary Timeline is where the game's events are taking place post Rhys and Ahewann getting together where Alex and Julian are adult enough to be helping out with WoL business. Eros is less present here, being older and with a lifespan much shortened from typical Viera, but he is happy to help as much as he can at any given point in time.

Menphina

• Bard, Reaper, and Viper are Eros' only canon classes. He cannot use magic due to how his aether supply works, it's too dangerous.

• Eros is great with freestyle cooking and with money (or other simple maths) but he cannot do advanced math and he's illiterate.

• Food: pasta in all its glorious forms