This Lore Entry contains spoilers up through Stormblood, with major spoilers about Heavensward. Thanks for reading!
Mint was born in the west of the Azim Steppe’s great plains, in the Towering Still, as part of the Qalli tribe. Her settlement was one of the smaller of the Au Ra, and being a fiercely territorial group, in which ones herd determines their strength, it was quickly overrun by stronger Au Ra. Mint’s parents, more unorthadox than most of their kind, refused to let their child be raised in servitude, and thusly paid to have their then one-year-old daughter moved to an orphanage in Ul’dah where she could be properly taken care of, with the help of a traveling Lalafellin merchant named Papoki Poki.
However, as Papoki did his duty, he came to find himself rather fond of the girl, with her piercing green eyes and cheerful song — even as an infant, Mint never cried. Feeling that he could do just as good, if not better a job than any Ul’dan orphanage, Papoki took the girl under his own wing, and named her Popoki Poki.
Thus did Mint, then known as Popoki, grow up with her adoptive Lalafellin father. She travelled throughout Eorzea with Papoki as he went on with his merchant duties, and in doing so learned more about the world, and how to communicate within it. As an Au Ra of the Qalli, she had learned to communicate through song, and so the common-tongue came as a struggle to her. To this day, she still finds herself ending her sentences with a faint lilt, a reminder of home.
As Popoki grew up, she realized she found herself well in-tuned with the elementals, who communicated with her often in her teenage years. Papoki, an earthly man with little interest in the aetherial, did little to engage with this aspect of Popoki’s growth, electing to instead have her focus on the ability to defend herself with sword and staff.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck soon after Popoki’s 17th year, when their merchant cart was attacked by bandits near Limsa Lominsa. Papoki was mortally wounded in the process, and he bade Popoki run to Gridania, where he knew the Padjal would take her in due to her conjuring capabilities. He passed before he could tell the girl more of her Au Ra past, a subject he regrettably never approached with his daughter, in fear that she would leave him.
Alone, Popoki made her way to Gridania, but with no coin to her name, there was no way to get there by Airship, Chocobo Cart, or Aethryte Crystal. And so the trip took closer to a year, especially as the girl took various odd jobs as a healer and found she was quite good at it, in no small part to elemental attuning. Popoki soon found herself part of a rag-tag group of medics that took to the Carteneau Flats after Bahamut was struck down, giving aid to any who needed it. Exhausted, the girl finally found herself in Gridania, where E-Sumi-Kan took note of the girl’s healing ability, just as Papoki predicted, and bade her join the Conjurer’s Guild, where she would go on to become a White Mage. It was a Job that Popoki found she took great joy in, as she felt that she was in some small part making up for her inability to save her father.
Soon thereafter, Popoki’s adventures as a Warrior of Light began. The story has been told a million times over already, but there have been some facts omitted or unknown up to this point. However, after my chance meeting with the famed adventurer in a bar in the Ishgardian Brume, I’m able to reveal them to you!
First — though many an admirer has professed to her, Popoki is already married. The circumstances of said coupling were…curious, to say the least. Apparently she met the Miqo’te, named Brimstone, while galivanting through the Gridanian wilderness during a Starlight Celebration. After a one-night stand that apparently involved a moogle’s pom-pom, a unicorn the Warrior of Light found and tamed, and a bet on who could hold their breath in one of Gridania’s waterfalls longest, Popoki found herself married to the girl the next day. Luckily it seems to have worked out alright for the two of them, despite everyone else’s confusion.
Popoki’s life as a White Mage ended after her dear friend, Haurchefant lost his life in the Dragonsong War. Having grown disillusioned with the art of healing, and its inability to save anyone she was fond of, she took on the mantle of the Red Mage during the rest of her time in Ishgard.
Popoki also found herself slowly losing her ability to commune with the elementals, apparently after she briefly lost the power of the Echo during the Dragonsong War. Her ability to speak to them would end completely soon after the Stormblood revolution.
Speaking of — during her time in Doma, Popoki found herself in the Azim Steppe once again, and had a brief encounter with her Qalli tribe. Though she had no deep connection with the tribe at this point in her life, it felt good to come home and be amongst her cultural roots. It was then that she also learned her original name: Sarantuya Qalli.
But why does everyone call her Mint, you may ask? It was a nickname bequeathed to her after she dyed her hair a deep green in honor and memory of her father Papoki, who called it his favorite color.
So, where is Mint now? Well, it’s said that after the events in Doma, Mint went on a bit of a vacation, where she could be found most often in the Golden Saucer and Costa Del Sol. She apparently took on dancing as a hobby in the meanwhile. But, last I heard, she had somehow found herself in the First, greatly changed. In what way, I can’t be sure, but I imagine she isn’t too stressed about the situation. One thing Mint told me in our time in the Brume was that her multifaceted life and upbringing, and her connection with the aether, has made her worry very little about the physical and material. Au Ra, Lalafell, or whatever else, what matters most to her are the bonds she forges with others. Regardless of what’s changed about her now, I’m sure that part of her has stayed the same.
