Linevi

Information

Player: Rowgen

Character Full Name: Linevi Duskfeather

Character In-Game Name: Linevi

Nickname(s): Lin, Kitten (by Aris)

Association(s): The Alliance, the kaldorei, the Ashwatch Vigil

Race: Night Elf

Class: Priestess

Age: 382

Sex: Female

Hair: Blue

Eyes: Silver

Weight: 210 lbs

Height: 7'

Appearance

Linevi’s most prized article of clothing is an open-shouldered dress of Draenic design that matches the blue of her hair, with trims of purple. When utility matters more than aesthetics, though, she prefers to wear a traveller’s garb of human design, complete with a warm, hooded cloak. When she travels, she tends to carry a shoulder bag with her, stuffed with most of her earthly possessions.

She also has a few ornaments, amongst these two rings – one of them gold with a sapphire and the other silver with an emerald – and an amulet. The amulet is wooden and crescent-shaped, with protrusions like claws.

Personality

• Alignment: Neutral Good

A major defining factor in Linevi’s life is her faith. By many, it could only be described as heretical, as it builds on a philosophy shaped by the virtues taught by the Sisterhood of Elune, and the Shadow’s focus on the self. To her, it is as much a part of her as the tips of her fingers or a limb. Two strong ideals of hers are self-preservation and compassion – taking care of oneself and others. The two are connected, in her mind. While she puts her own good first, the wellbeing of others remains a priority. That there is safety in numbers is undeniable, but she knows better than to rely entirely on the safety provided by others. She is alert, but not paranoid.

On the contrary, one might call her very reckless. She is confident in her skill and intellect, and quick to follow her urges, knowing that she’ll succeed. As most elves are susceptible to hubris, Linevi is no different. Her judgement is easily clouded by success, which in turn can lead to her underestimating a challenge set before her.

From a long life as an eccentric and more recently as an exile, Linevi has developed a strong sympathy for outsiders – particularly those on the fringe of kaldorei society, like the quel’dorei and the worgen. Intrigued by their peoples’ intertwined fates, she often welcomes members of either race with an enthusiasm rarely found amongst the kaldorei.

History

In the past Ethiras Duskfeather had been a druid, but he abandoned this path – without ever sharing why. This greatly disappointed his beloved. They had an already strained relationship, the two of them. Though they both lived in Darkshore, they lived apart. His companion was Shorell Summerbough, a sentinel, and she lived in Auberdine – her duty was to protect the town and the people living there. Meanwhile, Ethiras lived in a small hut in the woods, far away from the town, far away from the people and most importantly far away from his supposed lover. While the two had loved each other before, his eccentric nature and surprising choice had only served as the catalyst of a host of other problems coming to light.

It was better that they lived apart, they had finally decided after much arguing – but they had both assured each other that they could visit one another. Couldn’t they? Perhaps, but they rarely did. It was as the product of this strained relationship that Linevi came into the world, and temporarily thawed the ice that had kept them apart. Unfortunately, the child’s birth would also lead to conflict between them.

Linevi lived with her mother in Auberdine the first years of her life, until she could walk, and talk, and run. She played with the other children, but too soon did it become clear that the girl was unhappy. While most of the other children had grown used to the absence of their fathers, Linevi never quite did. She saw him whenever he came to the town – which was often enough – but they rarely had the time to talk. Ethiras had been a craftsman since he left the Cenarion Circle, more specifically a fisherman, and he had to deliver his catch.

The other children quickly discovered why she was so desperate to talk to this man – and some mocked her for it. It was clear that her father didn’t want her, they said. Linevi was upset, and became determined to prove them wrong. She asked her mother to live with Ethiras, and after many a desperate plea, she got her wish. She also got something few night elven children ever had; a relationship with her father.

Moving to Ethiras’ hut was a cumbersome process at first, but it didn’t take her long to settle in. A routine was established, in which Ethiras would leave early to fish and return late to spend time with his daughter before they went to sleep, while Linevi waited at home and eagerly awaited his return. Sometimes she was struck with longing, and would sit on the beach and wait for him. Other times, she ran out into the forest the first chance she got, and spent the day catching and playing with small animals – not much unlike a kitten taking its baby steps in the big world – and terrorizing the lesser creatures while she’s at it.

In truth, Kitten was the nickname one of her nannies had given her, and she never lived up to the name as much as when she was laying on all fours in the forest, in the cover of a heap of leaves and ready to pounce at an unsuspecting lizard. On occasion her mother would come to visit, and she was at least pleased to see that her daughter’s play was not much unlike hunting. Shorell showed her daughter the ropes – and the strings – and soon enough the girl was running about the woods, cackling with glee while clutching a small bow in her hand. Her mother had made it for her.

Besides an affinity for scaring little animals, Linevi had also discovered another, new passion during her stay with her father: Reading. She was always excited to see her father when he’d returned from the sea, while he was too tired to play with her. One time it occurred to him to try and sit the girl down in his lap and read for her. It worked like a charm. The girl was all but captivated by the stories he read for her, about young elves befriending furbolgs and outwitting cunning satyrs. She dreamt of one day becoming an adventurer herself, to hunt with furbolgs, dance with dryads and see the world from the back of a hippogryph.

Instead, she learned to read and write, and began to write about the adventures she would one day experience. It began well, but she was growing older. Soon, she didn’t have time for writing stories anymore, because that was only a pastime for when her father was gone. Now he offered her to come with him – what she’d always wanted to do when she’d been sitting on the beach waving goodbye to him.

On the sea, Ethiras taught his daughter fishing – every aspect of fishing, from catching them and preparing them to navigating after the stars and swimming. Night elven craftsmen took great pride in their craft and refined it to perfection, and Ethiras was no different – despite his humble nature he was a master of the art. Linevi’s mother was not amused by Ethiras’ decision to raise their daughter as if she were to live out the rest of her days as a fisherman’s daughter and assistant. Linevi’s destiny lay in the Sentinels or the Sisterhood – her mother insisted – like every other girl, not in being a fisherman’s assistant. This lead to another split in the family, but Shorell got her way. She took Linevi back with her to Auberdine when she left, despite their daughter’s protests.

In Auberdine, Linevi found that most of her peers had moved on to greater things than fishing, children’s fairy tales and catching lizards. Something she hadn’t. Suffice to say, it didn’t take her long to alienate herself from the others, with her child-like craving for adventure and excitement. Most of the girls she had known as a child had joined the Sentinels or the Sisterhood by now. Linevi was no closer to either than she was to touching the moon with her toes. The boys she grew up with, whom she could’ve shared interests with, had either sought out the sanctuary of the Emerald Dream or found a tutor to teach them one craft or other.

Against all logic, Linevi was more alone in the town than she was in the little hut with her father, and she told her mother as much, but Shorell wouldn’t listen. Shorell was intent on limiting the damage of Ethiras’ lack of responsibility. While she loved her daughter, it was her tiring task to try and beat it into the girl’s head that she was a girl no more – she was a woman – and that took its toll on her patience.

Linevi, on the other hand, longed for her father’s company. Whenever he came to town with his wares, she would rush down to meet him. Ever since her mother had taken her away from him, the little time she spent with her father was the happiest of all her time in Auberdine. To her mother’s grief and envy, she never enjoyed the time with her as much – perhaps it was all too similar to the time spent with all the other women who had taken it upon themselves to raise the town’s children. To Linevi, the time spent with her father had been unique.

In the end Linevi ran away from home, and Shorell was forced to admit that her daughter would be happier with Ethiras. She did not make any new attempts to take the girl away from her father, nor did she make any new attempts at anything, really. Shorell Summerbough accepted Linevi’s running away with a sense of resignation, and decided that she couldn’t bear to cause their child any more grief. Instead she promised herself that she would watch over her – and she always did, from afar.

While her mother faded out of her life, her father became her closest friend. Linevi was used to spending much of her time with no other company than her thoughts, but living with her father changed that. He rose early to fish, and returned late to rest. Sometimes she came with him, and those times they spent hours together at sea. Sometimes they would talk, and other times they were silent. The times she didn’t come with him, she waited for him at home, on the beach, or in the forest. For a long time, it was no more complicated than that. The only contact they had with the outside world was when they went to Auberdine to deliver their catch.

Then one day great change struck, and Linevi’s life was turned upside-down completely. Erithas and Linevi had only just returned from the sea and walked through the door of their home when they heard strange noises from outside. Noises neither elf had ever heard in Darkshore before – or anywhere else, for that matter. Erithas told Linevi to stay inside, and stepped out into the night. She was afraid. She heard horrifying shrieks, roars and the sound of fighting from outside. In the end, she conquered her fear and stepped out of the hut.

All of a sudden a disgusting creature leapt at her – a mangled corpse looking nothing like any creature she’d ever seen before. She screamed and thrashed and tried to fend off the creature, but it had her pinned down on the ground and was about to silence her cries for help when another, larger creature knocked it away as if it were a stuffed doll. It was the largest bear she had ever seen. The beast seemed to have already had its fair share of fighting, but it barreled towards the ghoul and tore it to pieces.

Only then did she realize that there were other corpses littered about the hut, of varying shapes and sizes. The bear turned to her, and for a moment she thought it would give her the same treatment it had given the ghoul, but the bear shrunk and took the shape of an elf – of her father. He warned her that she must flee, that war was upon them and that they had to seek refuge. He told her to go to Auberdine, and find her mother. She would be safe there, he promised. He would come for her. Linevi trusted him, and despite an ominous feeling in her gut, fled to Auberdine.

Her mother was not in Auberdine – nor was anyone else she knew. As she drew closer to the town, she saw smoke rising to the skies. The fires had not yet died out when she arrived. She searched the ruins, but couldn’t find anyone. Traces of battle were everywhere, but no sign of anything else. All alone, she took shelter in someone’s ruined home and resolved to wait for her father. She didn’t dare leave the ruin until the food and water she’d brought ran short. She realized that soon, she would have to hunt and forage – but she wanted to wait. What if her father came and she was gone? She stayed until hunger began to gnaw at her, and then finally she snapped and left the safety of her den.

She plunged into the forests, and encountered no one – neither did she encounter much in terms of wildlife either, but stubbornness prevailed at last, and a dinner was her prize. This repeated itself many times, though she gave up on hunting fairly quickly. The only times she went into the woods was to find water – food, the sea could provide. The fish had not been disturbed by the war.

Saying that she was untouched by the war raging around her may have been an exaggeration, but she had at least been oblivious to the greater happenings in the world. Despite them being so distant, the loss of her parents had been so close. After searching for them proved futile, she was forced to accept that they were most likely gone. Confirmation came in the form of a Sentinel army passing through – reclaiming lost territory in the aftermath of the war. They could tell her that her mother had died in battle against the undead invaders, but there had been no sign of her father. No one had seen him, no one had heard of him – he was gone. The Sentinels offered their condolences, and left her to her grief. Settlers – or re-settlers, rather – came close behind, and the effort to restore Auberdine began.

Linevi lingered. She hoped that maybe her father would one day come back to her, walking up the same road that he’d walked so many times before. He never did. There was never as much as a glimpse of him, or his fish. He was gone too. She grieved and she felt guilty; only now did she realize how alone her mother must’ve felt. The dock became her favorite place in the new Auberdine. Like when she’d waited for her father as a child, she could sit there for hours. In rain and in sun she sat, letting her feet dangle off the edge. She would watch the ships come and go, and let her imagination take her to far-away places. She dreamt of getting away from Auberdine and away from the memories – the ghosts of the past. She was convinced that on one of those ships, on one of those days, one of those once-in-a-lifetime adventures would be waiting for her.

In a way she was right, but the adventure was not like those in the stories she’d read as a child. One day she boarded a ship bound for Stormwind. It set sail, and with that she was free. Aboard the ship she kept mostly to herself, and the crew mostly let her be – except for the occasional curious look which had a lot more than just curiosity to it. Fortunately, the ship reached Stormwind without incident and as the grand city of the Alliance came into view, she was stunned by its sheer size. As she had not seen anything larger than Auberdine before, she could not believe her eyes.

Setting foot in the Eastern Kingdoms for the first time was no less alien to her. The stone streets of Stormwind were foreign to her feet, and it was hard getting accustomed to the enclosed environment. While there were some buildings in Auberdine, here they were in abundance – as long as her eyes could see. The beasts of the wild were nowhere to be seen, and the trees were few and far between – except for in the park.

The park was a welcoming sanctuary, and she sought refuge from the city within. Its moonwell was like a little piece of home right there with her, and sometimes she would meet other night elves there. Often she would ask them for help in some way or other, hoping they could teach her a few phrases in the Common tongue or the like. Most of them obliged her, and before long she had learned enough to manage on her own and learn more of the humans she had surrounded herself with.

After a few weeks in Stormwind, she began to explore the city – starting with its inns and taverns. She would come there to watch the people of the city go about their lives, to overhear them talking about their joys and their woes, and occasionally she mustered the courage to speak with them. Some were suspicious, some fascinated and others simply didn’t care – and they were all new to her. She greeted them all with an undeterred enthusiasm, and despite her alien origins, even made a few friends – though in truth, she was never more than a visitor to their city. It could never be her home.

She spent a few good years in Stormwind she’d remember fondly in the time after, but in the end she was seized by a longing for somewhere to belong – which would become a lifelong companion of hers – and returned to her native continent shortly after the Lich King’s defeat. Ashenvale became her new haunt after her return, where she strived to catch up on all the things she had missed while in the human lands. At first, she found it hard to find her place among her people, but it was during these difficult times that she made some of her first true friends.

One such friend was Rija Silentshot. She was a priestess of the Sisterhood, and became a trusted confidant. Rija’s boundless acceptance and adoration had a strong effect on her. She felt at home in her company. In the end, she was convinced to join the Sisterhood as her apprentice. Through Rija, she came to know another young woman by the name of Kalah Ironraven. A part of her was envious of Kalah’s prestigious heritage and early success. She seemed predestined to greatness, while Linevi found it difficult to picture a future for herself.

Even despite this, Linevi warmed up to Kalah and a close friendship began to form between the two. In both duty and play, the two young women got to know one another, and they travelled far and wide together, sharing many adventures. In time, they grew close as sisters. Time would also put this sisterhood to the test, as Linevi’s life became a turbulent one.

A coincidence lead to Linevi’s first meeting with Therai Nightingale. Her friends had heard rumors that a Kaldorei would preach in Elwynn, and invited her to join them. Intrigued, she did. However, the sermon proved to be very different from what the elves had expected. Not a mention of Elune was made. On the contrary, the preacher spoke of the Shadow. While her friends dismissed the words as raving madness, the promises of growing stronger under the Shadow’s tutelage appealed to Linevi. In a time of doubt and insecurity, the priestess’ words were far too alluring. She stayed behind after her friends left, and took the first steps down a darker path. She learned to understand the Shadow’s philosophy, to wield its power and to master herself. As she progressed, her success gave her a confidence that leaked over into other aspects of her life. Before long, she enjoyed much happier days than the ones she’d had. She grew confident, and perhaps overconfident.

She had made the mistake of revealing her new path to Rija, who watched her progress with growing concern. In the end, it lead to a schism between mentor and apprentice, and Linevi set off on her own – abandoning her people altogether to go into a self-imposed exile and rethink her priorities. Unfortunately, she turned to Therai and her fellow acolytes during this time, which ruined all chance of a change of heart. The cult welcomed her with open arms, and took her in once again. It appeared as though she would not return, until the great cataclysm shook the world.

While she survived the event largely unscathed, rumors reached her that her homeland had been horrendously torn. Compelled to learn of what had happened to her home, she returned once again to Kalimdor to find the situation dire. Besides the new Horde aggression, the land was scarred deeply, and horrors from other planes infested the forests. Despite her notoriously fickle nature, she was grudgingly welcomed home again – by all, except for Rija. She welcomed her with a mother’s warmth. Still, their differing views on the Shadow strained their relationship. It became difficult, because either was adamant in their belief that they were right.

One of their arguments became heated. Rija threatened with exile, if Linevi wouldn’t turn away from the Shadow. The argument escalated, until Linevi in blind fury struck and gravely injured Rija. Her horror was beyond words, when she realized what she had done. Fortunately, they were found by friends before it was too late. Rija was rushed to safety and the care of healers. Though they were suspicious, they accepted the lies Linevi told them and left her alone. While Rija recovered, Linevi was haunted by horrid nightmares and struggled with regret.

Against all odds Rija let the matter rest, with the hope that Linevi would learn from the accident and perhaps redeem herself. But Linevi was restless. She knew that the secret wouldn’t remain hidden for long, and she was right. Her friends learned of her deed, and an uneasiness grew in her. In the end, she couldn’t bear her shame anymore. She chose exile, hoping to escape the past – and that perhaps her friends would agree that it was punishment enough for her crime. She left Kalimdor once again, perhaps forever if fate hadn’t willed it otherwise.

She one day woke up in darkness. She was in a damp cave, surrounded by several others. They were trapped deep under the earth, by unknown jailors. Once, while food was being handed out, the crowd became restless and agitated. In response to this, their captors mercilessly fired into the crowd. Linevi was shot. The gunshot injured her spine, and crippled her. For the remainder of her stay in the dark cave, she was trapped not only under the earth, but also in her own body. Days and nights blended into one another, and often she was haunted by nightmares. Hope seemed faint, but it was in this darkness that she finally turned her heart to Elune again and prayed.

In spite of everything, prayer eased her suffering. The burden was not as heavy for her to bear. Through continuous prayer, Linevi managed to separate herself from the isolation and the pain, replacing it with a sense of inner peace. As the days went by, hope sparked within her. She convinced herself that she would one day escape, that she’d return to her people and her loved ones, and that she’d better herself. Then, the fantastic day of liberation came, and she was free at last. Her goal became to deliver on the promises she had made in captivity. She had escaped. Now, she was going home. She was going to better herself.

Skills and Abilities

Strengths

• Freethinker: Linevi’s faith grants her the power to bend both Holy and Shadow energies to her will. Her specialties are dispelling magic, defensive magic – in the form of barriers both mental and physical – and magic pertaining to the mind.

Weaknesses

• Frail Body: Due to a recent injury, Linevi has been left physically frail. While she can move with the help of crutches, without them and without her magic she is utterly helpless.