Nahwe

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Information

Player: Bovel

Character Full Name: Nahwe (Soft-mule) Thunderhorn

Character In-Game Name: Nahwe

Nickname(s): Soft-mule

Association(s): Thunderbluff, Thunderhorn Clan

Race: Tauren

Class: ((Warrior;)) Hunter

Age: 62

Sex: Male

Hair: Darkbrown pelt

Eyes: Yellow

Weight: 375 kg

Height: 2,44 m

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Appearance

Hides, pelts, leather, primitive scalemails, feathers and beads.

Personality

Honourable, gentle, respect for duty and tradition.

Beliefs: Tauren shamanism/druidism with an almost religious tie to the Great Hunt.

History

Age 11

As is tradition within their family, Nahwe was brought up on the steppe, rarely sleeping at the same place two night in a row. Alongside his father he was taught the way of the Land; where the Zhevra graze and where the Lioness hides her cubs while prowling after an old Kodo with the rest of the pride. His father chose axe and club, stalking prey for days to tire it before ending the hunt swiftly and Nahwe was taught to hunt the same way. Unlike his brother before him, Nahwe had the stamina to keep up across the Barrens and followed his father through three seaons.

Their return was not at random, cause his mother was carrying a third child. Nahwe was awakened that night by his grandfather who led him and his older brother out from the tent onto ledge up on the rockface, a place with overlooking starlit malachite-coloured plains of Mulgore. Beneath a waning moon grandfather told the young of Nahwe's birth as tradition predictcs. As the first rays of An'she spread across the grass the family greeted Aukwa into the Thunderhorn Clan.

Age 15

As winter waned Nahwe alongside his grandfather, father and older brother paced onto Mulgore. So far he had only followed his father a few strides behind watching him track, stalk and kill followed by skinning and butchering the game, making use of every part of the animal. The time had now come for Nahwe to down a beast himself and the game beeing kodos. For two days the tauren tracked the pack leading south. West of Stonebull Lake the beasts were spotted by Nahwe's grandfather, a group made up of an aged matriarch with her last years calves.

First they surronded the pack and with drums forced the animals together, then Nahwe approached the kodo with his club slung over his shoulder. Death came swift to the beast with carefully aimed slams across the 'hump' breaking it's back yet the Hunt always continues. All four with straps in hand dove for a calf and the true stuggle began. Nahwe's had been told many times of how shu'halo can sense a beast while dominating it, often described as a third eye opening or rediscovering the dirt beneath ones feet. But to him it was like the world shook violently around him faster and faster to ebb into subtle vibrations of a part of himself that is not corporeal. Cause of this Nahwe named the kodo 'Was'ani' or 'tremble of spirit'.

Age 16

Up to this time Nahwe had little insight on the threat that loomed just at the horizon posed by the centaurs, his family had made a good job in sheltering their young from this truth until they were ready to learn and most importantly; to see. He did not understand why his older brother was so quiet and somber right before they left their camp, it was much later it dawned on Nahwe. His brother was against it from the first time grandfather had mentioned it, but there was naught he could do to shift ancient traditions. In the middle of the steppe they intercepted what seemed like a massive path trampled by large zhevras or perhaps even a herd of giraffe, in absolute silence they stalked the herd. The tracks lead straight into an oasis but Nahwe's father had them arch around it and by the cover of the dark, outcrops and thornbushes creep closer towards campfires lit among the trees.

From where they stood it looked like some small humanoid creatures with alot of horses, but what struck Nahwe first was the smell. A heavy and pungent stink like rancid lard carried by the dense winds preceding a thunderstorm. As one of the horses rose to it's feet Nahwe fathomed their true form, the body of a dark and bulky zhevra with the torso of a really tawny tauren where the zhevra's neck should have started. He could not contain a shrill yelp at the sight, a sound pitched enough to catch the centaurs attention. His father strong arm grabbed his neck and yanked him to his hooves and forced him to run ahead with long strides. They both kept moving almost all night before Nahwe's father judged it safe to pause and regain some breath. He took the moment to begin telling his son of the centaurs history and the conflict between their races.

Age 24

There comes a time in every hunters life to get out on her own into the wilds and Nahwe's father was convinced that time had come. The family had set camp in the hills on the outskirts of the brambles in the southern most part of the Barrens. Following his older brother's advice Nahwe avoided following cliffs where thunderlizards acutally manage to hide and instead ran straight across the steppe, eyes locked far infront of him spying for that perfect prey.

The heavy breeze rolled in from the marshes carrying that slightly tangy air with it. Tracks were plentiful cause rains or strong winds had not caressed the sandy ground yet and Nahwe could tell a pack of kodos were moving towards the gorge that led into the marshes, probably to aquire some greens to feed on, a thunderlizard had lumbered over this spot over a day ago, a pregnant one. Two thunderhawks had swept by in the swirling aerial dance of their mating ritual, and there were fresh tracks of a lone hyena, most likely a younger male that recently left it's brithpack.

A perfect prey for Nahwe so he began stalking. Barely a day passed until he spotted it and made sure to stay downwind from the animal, with caution Nahwe closed in on it and when it finally noticed the taurens presence, Nahwe charged. The struggle was neither long nor intense, but it was never expected to be with such a young hyena. Nahwe finished the deed with his knife while he recited thanks to the Earthmother.

Age 37

When Nahwe still was very young, his parents made an agreement with another clan that he one day were to marry a daughter of theirs, she was chosen by the other clan at the day of her birth. Nahwe played with her as a calf, mostly they just snuck off to lie beneath the bush to get away from the heat of day. His father had told him of the arrangement so he knew that one day she was the one to carry his offspring and Nahwe took fancy of her, by duty rather than love.

The Thunderhorn Clan are said to be guided by thier ancestors in their dreams and is considered a rite of passage. Almost a decade had past since it was predicted by the Elders that Nahwe would spoken to, when the other clan dissolved the marrige agreement. It was a hard blow for Nawhe and his clan for a such promising youth to not have been recognized by the ancestors. His father's word did not offer much comfort, cause Nahwe felt that he had failed his clan as a hunter but most importantly his promised mate. In silence he swore to devote his life to the Great Hunt.

54 years

The news came by a holy strider to their camp on the edge of the Flats, an urgent call spread to all clans to rally on the steppe ushered by the chieftain of the Bloodhoof Clan. Their greatmother told the clan to pack up and leave right away and sent runners to intercept the rest with the news. She said it was a call from the Earthmother herself in there, that An'she closed so that the clan could travel with haste. Nahwe arrived along with his brothers ahead of the others and the sight was truly epic. Raised where steppe meets grassland were the homes of several thousand tauren, a so called 'tent-city'.

At dawn the next day drums and horns echoed across the plains and a meeting was held at the city's empty center. The Elders within a big and colourful tent for hours and out with them came a few odd figures; broadshouldered, greenskinned and tusked humanoids. That evening their Elder told of the centaurs fall at the hand of Cairne's clan joined by these strange new creatures, of the goal to erect a place of their people upon bluffs in recaptured Mulgore and lastly of their people's debt to the newcomers, that wish to be called 'orcs'.