Griff
Information
Contents
Player: falcophoenix
Character Full Name: Griff Skythunder
Character In-Game Name: Griff
Nickname(s): He's been called Griffy.
Association(s): Wildhammer Dwarves / Alliance
Race: Dwarf
Class: Storm Shaman
Skills and Abilities: He has taken up inscription, writing with dwarvish spell runes for ability-boosting scrolls.
Age: 45
Sex: Male
Hair: Light ginger, usually braided in one way or another even when the length may vary.
Eyes: Bright green, though glow white when using his shamanism abilities.
Weight: 195 lbs-- slightly heavier having less fat than muscle
Height: 4'9"-- only slightly shorter than average
Appearance
Usual Garments/Armor: An underlayer of clothing consisting of: cloth pants with heavy leather platings, leather wraps around his feet and hands, and a leather harness covered with beads and teeth; over this he wears a heavy fur-lined leather kilt, covered in beads and blue draping, a vest of owl feathers with pauldrons of raven feathers, set with gems that may be decoration or mystical, matching blue decorated wristbands, and a sturdy blue leather headdress with feathers. He almost always has a pair of heavy, intricately-carved hammers of polished stone at his sides.
Other: For rainy weather, he dons a hooded cloak, blue with yellow fur and leather lining. When in one-on-one sanctioned combat, he discards the kilt, vest, pauldrons and headdress. His chest, back, and biceps are tattooed with intricate blue designs; blends of his clan mark, spiritual symbols, or other markings he simply liked the look of. The designs are mainly serpentine in structure, made up of tiny pieces flowing together, symbolic of the planet and its winding paths of life.
Personality
While spiritual in that he reveres the land and the spirits in it, he takes a near-childish excitement in exploring the vast world. Ever with a case of wanderlust, he is usually unable to stay in one place for long without getting antsy, especially when inside dwarven dwellings, finding them more stuffy than other buildings. Despite his energetic nature, he takes his shaman work seriously, seeking to heal the land wounded in war and disaster. He is always willing to drop in and lend a hand to people on his travels, joining in random adventures when he stumbles by the chance.
He is usually open with people, offering optimistic or humorous conversation, and always willing to listen to problems; but when it comes to females, especially nondwarven ones, he becomes slightly more reserved, or at the most awkward. He gets easily flustered when flirted with, even if he makes some jokes about it; but despite any awkwardness around women, he always makes an effort to be courteous and helpful.
He is wary of machinery, but will tolerate devices that are used beneficially. He views a majority of the Horde races as cruel monsters and defilers, though as a shaman he respects a portion of the Tauren. He both despises and fears the walking dead of any form, seeing them as aberrations against nature. But worse are demons and the Old Gods and their creations; thinking of them makes him feel anger, but usually brief if only mentioned in conversation. In battle, he becomes serious and focused, usually in the fray himself when he isn't enhancing ally weapons or healing them, and when the going gets tough he channels the fury of nature in the form of a primal rage, but this is not a state that would ever turn him on allies or friends.
Alignment: Neutral Good
History
Born into one of the few small Wildhammer tribes to live outside the Hinterlands - in the hills of green Loch Modan, to a hunter mother and warrior father. When he was very small he would laugh and chase creatures only he could see; this was a sign he could see and speak with the spirits of nature, and so he began training as a shaman at age ten, under the tutelage of his clan's elder shamaness. While his father was mainly confused by the spiritual path his son was set on, and would get more impatient than his wife at their son's short attention span and habit of goofing off, overall his relationship with his parents was stable.
Being impatient with his lessons, he would often run off with friends to play games in the mountain forests, as teenagers learning to ride borrowed gryphons they would often fly off to have reckless races around the peaks. Between his training or running off to play with the other boys, womenfolk were always the farthest concern from his mind; to this day he has no idea how to handle the idea of even brief romances.
When he was fifteen, however, the wars began with the first invasion of the Horde. At the time, not yet fully come into his ability, he was confused and distraught to find some of the natural spirits he'd befriended were killed in the mindless destruction of the land. Though he took no active part in the wars himself, he took to his shaman training more seriously than before, as he wished to help heal the wounded planet in whatever way he could. Some time after the First War, he bade goodbye to his family, as he began his spiritual pilgrimage of gaining the trust of the elementals that would allow him to call on the forces of nature when he would need them.
At some point early into his journeys, he found a wounded gryphon hatchling all by herself. They became travel companions, and as the gryphon grew she refused to leave his side; he named her Skybeak, and when she was big enough she became his trusty mount.
In his many travels, he passed through settlements of humans and dwarves, and eventually Night Elves once they became more outspread after the Third War. He became intrigued with inscription, minor enhancing of physical capabilities through magical scrolls, after watching some human mages at work. And so he took up the art himself, researching with various dwarven scholars when he could find them, looking up ancient magic-based runes their people used long ago that could call upon various magics when written, which he could use with scroll paper to create boosting enchantments.
Feeling the turmoil from the Cataclysm, he briefly returned home to check on his homeland and clan, and was devastated to find the land wounded by disaster and encroached upon by cultists. This drives him now more than ever to see how the world has changed, and direct his efforts toward aiding anyone who seek to heal the land or drive away defilers like the Forsaken or the Twilight Hammer.
