The Story of Hwei
Hwei is an Ionian artist who discovered, to his horror, that his emotional states manifest as magical art with real-world effects. Joy becomes light that heals. Sorrow becomes ink that wounds. Fear becomes something that reflects back at the thing causing it. He did not choose this ability and does not entirely control it — what he feels shapes what his art does, which means that being a person with genuine human emotions makes him unpredictably dangerous.
He trained under an artist named Hifuu, who recognized his gift and attempted to teach him the discipline needed to use it responsibly. The training helped. It didn't solve the fundamental problem, which is that feeling things and then having those feelings become physical forces affecting the world around you is an exhausting and isolating condition. Hwei's art is exquisite precisely because he puts everything into it. That is also why it's dangerous.
He fights because the alternative is allowing things that cause suffering to continue uncontested, and the part of him that expresses itself through art cannot make peace with that. He is not a warrior and does not want to be one. He is an artist whose emotions are weapons, trying to become someone who can use what he has responsibly, in service of a world that is — he still believes this, despite evidence — capable of beauty.