the misfit from another world

What Yako remembers about her past before coming to Eorzea is that she'd been a high-school student in a world where magic didn't exist and technology reigned supreme; that she'd gone to bed one day, had a strange dream, and when she opened her eyes, she was lying on the pavement in the busy Limsa Lominsa with a tail and cat-ears. A ghost - a terrifically powerful one - had stolen her away from her own world and brought her to this one, though for what purpose, they were cagey about; apparently, whatever they'd planned didn't work out, and the two of them were trapped in the same body together. Yako spent that year failing out of several jobs throughout Limsa before deciding on becoming an adventurer-for-hire, throwing her lot in with the Rogues' Guild, finding a natural aptitude for combat, and eventually crossing paths with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and the Ascians - tying her fate to theirs, and to the fate of the world itself.

From adventurer to metalhead-slayer to defender of Eorzea to savior of the realm, Yako gained some crucial clues about herself: that the ghost inside her was named Odysseus, and though not being an Ascian, was like them in most ways; that she was meant to be an incubator for them until they could regain their strength and overtake her (but they'd underestimated the strength of her will, and eventually gave up on the idea); that the home she once longed to return to had been destroyed in a Calamity, and Odysseus had pulled her aether-rich soul from the wreckage; and that she had a crucial role to play in the world's salvation, though neither Odysseus nor Hydaelyn could tell her what it was. Call it destiny or determination, but at every pivotal moment, Yako would be standing between the world and its ruin.

It's a heavy burden, they say, but Yako takes to heroism like a bird taking flight. Nothing more fulfilling, and nothing more exciting, than living on the knife's edge for the sake of other people. She'd finally found her calling.

warrior of light

Despite being a Warrior of Light, Yako doesn't bear the Echo, being that she isn't from this world. She does bear the Blessing of Light that marks her out as a favorite of Hydaelyn and wards her from tempering against Primals. The peculiar trait of surpassing her own limitations at crucial moments and last stands, often thought to be a trait of the Echo, instead seems to come from Yako's own powerful emotions - a trait others call Hero's Conviction.

Over the years, she's trained in multiple jobs, the first being rogue: a dagger-wielding class specializing in stealth and dexterity; in all other classes, she falls back on her rogue training and instincts and augments her job skills with rogue skills. Prior to being drawn to the First, she rescued some roving bodyguards in the Shroud and joined them for work, becoming a gunbreaker with her very own soul crystal, bearing centuries of memories of prior wielders (learning new jobs could have been this easy the whole time?!), and her gunblade would become her main weapon while she acted as defender of the realm - though she always carried a pair of knives on her person, just in case.

Being from another world, she's familiar with technology like what the Allagans created, and can intuit the use of many Allagan and Garlean machines (though many more are completely mystifying to her). She keeps a stolen Allagan terminal in her home and an Allagan Tomestone of Mythology on her person, which she writes her journals in for safekeeping, although she laments that she misses having Internet access.

champion of azem

Yako bears Azem's soul crystal and station, given to her with their blessing and departure. Bearing the title of Traveler, her status as a world-wandering hero seems to be a job description now. She can use the magic within it to summon other heroes to aid her in her time of need, even pulling heroes from other timelines and other worlds as Odysseus once did to her. Being bestowed with Azem's powers also means inheriting an Echo-like ability that lets her understand others and be understood by them, even if they don't share a language (a gap Odysseus bridged for Yako until now). It's rather empty of actual memories, being Emet-Selch's creation, so Odysseus has tasked Yako with filling it with her own memories of her travels.

monster hunter

A hero needs hobbies, and Yako's is hunting monsters. Her house in the Mist is covered with trophies commemorating her kills (among her expensive impulse purchases), and she's rated among the best of Clan Centurio, Clan Nutsy, and the Maelstrom. She loves fighting against powerful foes, and in the absence of primals, she's always looking for leads on new, powerful opponents to test her steel against. In one case, Krile managed to lure her into spending half a year mapping out the Isle of Val with the promise that there would be unusually powerful monsters there, and far more locked in the Baldesion Arsenal...

In a non-WoL AU, Yako is a Clan Centurio hunter and traveling adventurer who fights dangerous monsters for the thrill of the hunt. She's still from another world, but the circumstances bringing her to Eorzea are less fated, and more 'fell into an interdimensional rift and woke up as a catboy'.