Kerutah

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Information

Player: OfMeeseandMen

Character Full Name: Keru'tah Windcatcher of the Bladewind

Character In-Game Name: "Kerutah"

Nickname(s): "Old Hag"

Association(s): The Horde Expedition, Warsong Clan, Frostwolf Clan, Bladewind Clan

Race: Orc

Class: Warlock

Skills and Abilities: Peak hearing abilities, proficiency with knives/blades and a good talent for subversive tactics in a variety of combat situations.

Age: 57 Years Old

Sex: Female

Hair: Dusty Gray

Eyes: Blood Orange

Scale/Height: 1.1/6'8"

Weight: 422Lbs

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Robes, lighter garbs, anything that doesn't completely cover her right leg.

Other: Various scars, some deeper/larger than others. Most notable is a gash down her right cheek, another across her left forearm, and three dark-purple gash-streaks down her right leg.

Personality

For the Horde. That is Keru'tah's life. The good of the clan and for the good of the family. A history of unerring loyalty and traditionalism dating back to her younger years on Draenor has, however, been tempered by compassion brought about by motherhood and interactions with the Frostwolf clan. Keru'tah is impatient, aggressive, and extraordinarily blunt. Keru'tah's history of scouting has given her a great deal of independence that makes her somewhat lacking in the realm of teamwork. But she is also very cunning and wise, preferring to gaze out and observe others. Keru'tah may have become cooled down in her older years, under the hammer of discipline and the anvil of experience, yet she still holds fast to the traditions of Strength and Honor.

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

History

A sickly baby girl was born to Gorun Flitspear and Otah Swiftstrider of the Bladewind Clan. While both Gorun and Otah were renowned for their strength and service in the civil wars of Draenor, their child did not seem to share their strength. She was pale, and seemed to be dying. Gorun took the child in his massive hands, and began to drown her in the birthwaters--as was customary for children seemingly unable to make it. He held the baby down for over a minute... but bubbles began to rise. She refused to drown, yet did not struggle.

So she was named "Keru'tah", or "Patient Child" for her strength, and was removed from the waters. If she did or did not die, Otah and Gorun were going to at least try to nurse her to health. So Keru'tah lived, if only to be hypocrite to her given name. Keru'tah was a disastrous child in her youth--constantly throwing around tables or chairs, ripping apart precious trophies to the family, and no amount of punishment could dissuade her maelstrom path. Her parents could soon endure no more, and so Gorun and Otah sent her to be disciplined by the Clan leader.

The Bladewind Clan was a large collective of Orcs from the Blade's Edge Mountains, having suffered the Blood Curse but having rejected Ner'Zhul's influences and orders following. To survive in such harsh terrain, one had to be swift, agile, strong, and have excellent reflexes. Keru'tah was going to learn, and learn she did. While many other clans would have had their young slay a Talbuk on their own, the Bladewind Clan instructed them to slay ogres that have, to this day, a high population in the sharded mountains. Keru'tah was noted for using stealth and subversion to overcome the Ogre threat, choosing to use traps, snares, and cunning rather than full-out aggression that Keru'tah had been known for.

Ten years later, Keru'tah had left her maelstrom far behind her. Like her parents, she was swift, she was very strong, and through harsh training and discipline had actually grown closer to her mother and father--as much as culture allowed. Keru'tah's once hazardous energy now had a channel: The Civil Wars. Keru'tah, part of the Bladewind Clan (along with her family) had been taught to honor the wolf; the stalker of prey. During the civil wars, scouts were paramount to the Bladewind defenses, and Keru'tah could scout with the best of them.

Keru'tah knows very little of the First and Second wars on Azeroth, and instead spent her years as an adult continuing to fight for the good of the Bladewind Clan. This became increasingly difficult--the ogre threat was only growing, and the growing Demon population was only adding to their problems. The Twisting Nether was constantly gnawing away at the shattered precipice of the Blade's Edge Mountains. Reluctantly, Keru'tah, her mother and father, and the Bladewind clan fled with Ner'Zhul through the Dark Portal into the Black Morass--now the Blasted Lands.

The Bladewind Clan, like many others, were forced to split up for maximum livability. Keru'tah went West with her mother, father, and a handful of other Orcs from Draenor. Many died on the journey Westward, including Keru'tah's now elderly mother, slain by an over-eager Dwarvish Paladin who took advantage of the aged woman's vulnerable state. Her father, not in much better condition, was afterwards treasured by Keru'tah. There was regret on the Patient Child's shoulders, but she set mourning, burial, everything but her love for her ancestors and mother aside.

Using the tactics she'd learned so well as a young child, Keru'tah led them through the roughest of terrain. Through Daemon nests, across infested swamps and dangerous coastlines. All in the meantime, she taught the young about the Bladewind traditions, and the path she had chosen. The Bladewinds revered the Wolf--moreso than other clans. More specifically, the claws: Razor-sharp, quick, and vicious like the wind. Keru'tah embodied the wolf on that journey, looking out for her pack in every way she could, and as a result of her scouting and hunting expertise and teachings, the refugees made it alive, mostly. But the deaths of many young Orcs on the way left its scars upon Keru'tah.

Keru'tah met with the rest of the Orcish refugees and former prisoners. They sailed Westward, and as stories of Keru'tah's skills were whispered about the clans, she was named "Windcatcher"--for her exquisite hearing skills, that could track an eagle's wings as they flow through the air. Hyperbole, of course, but Keru'tah took the name and mantle with great pride. She was an adult, at long last. But to this day, she communes with her mother through an old token--a carved wooden medallion. Whether or not Keru'tah actually speaks with Otah may only be symbolic, but for Keru'tah, it is a matter of honor to keep the memory of her mother near and dear to her.

It also championed her to join the Horde Expedition. After Orgrimmar had become stable and self-functioning, Keru'tah lent her prowess to the Warsong and Frostwolves exploring Northrend. Keru'tah's skills were top-notch, perhaps saving a dozen lives or so from the icy grip of the North continent. Yet, as she walked with the Frostwolves, she met a man: Torc Limbsplitter. Torc learned plenty of Keru'tah's accomplishments pragmatically, yet frowned upon her attitude theologically. Keru'tah seemed to hate humans--but why? Keru'tah is a fantastic scout--but why? What does she do it for?

Keru'tah, when posed with these questions, would simply say 'for the clan'. But the questions stuck as she traveled with the Frostwolves, and Torc. Psychology couldn't generally be considered an Orcish forte--but in this case, Keru'tah was beginning to question. Not her honor, Ancestors, no. But the honor of the people they were fighting--humans, Demons, the Lich King. As Torc questioned her, Keru'tah began to question the world around her. As the world around her grew more esoteric, more subjective--less "Horde and Alliance", or "Horde and Demons", she grew more comfortable around the steadfast and all-accepting Torc. He seemed to take this deep philosophy with a grin on his stupid face.

And so, Keru'tah became the mate of that stupid-faced Torc. While shaken, Keru'tah's goals remained the same: Do for the good of the Clan. For the good of the Horde and for the good of the family. Torc was now the family, and as time grew, Keru'tah and Torc finally had a young baby boy of their own. The boy's name is Tar'roc--"Rock-Face". Keru'tah's father had grown quite elderly, and Keru'tah wasn't all that young herself by the time Tar'roc was born. After the birth, Tar'roc was given to Gorun to watch while Keru'tah and Torc continued their journeys in Northrend. Child or no, Keru'tah would serve.

That was before they encountered the Pit Demon.

Deep in the North, Keru'tah had been tasked to lead a small expedition to the East of Mt. Hyjal with intent to explore Azshara. Risky in and of itself, it wasn't until Torc and Keru'tah headed through the Ashenvale Forest that they stopped to scout ahead. Keru'tah went first, of course, but her ears deceive her. She could not hear the Warlock's incant soon enough. A conjured Voidwalker lashed out at her, ripping open her right leg and sending corrupted gashes down her thigh. More Demons were summoned by the remaining party members, and they quickly dispatched the remainder of Keru'tah's squad. Including her mate, Torc.

Keru'tah managed to slay the Demon in close and painful combat, as well as kill the Warlock who had summoned it. Keru'tah had to hide from the rest, using the unfamiliar forest as an advantage--and with a bad leg, no less. But there was pain--lots of pain--from the loss of yet another loved one, and the squad under her control.

It took Keru'tah several agonizing weeks to return to Orgrimmar. The wound was unquestionably infected--but not by a virus or bacteria. Keru'tah became enraptured by Fel energies, the Blood Curse giving rise to an addiction she didn't even know she had. Withdrawing from Gorun and Tar'roc in a combination of mourning and necessity, she slipped into the Shadow Cleft. It was there she began to learn how to twist Fel to her desires. Wound or not, Keru'tah would serve the Horde in any way she can. Her addiction was now her boon--she learned very quickly, and in six years' time she's slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with.

At 57, she is an elder. Fighting is not so much her thing, and her scouting days are far behind her. But now, with magic in hand, she searches for a new way to serve her clan, serve her family. To live with strength and honor.