Rancoura

Information

Player: Memnoch

Character Full Name: Rancoura

Character In-Game Name: Rancoura

Nickname(s): Coura or Ran

Association(s): Knights of the Ebon Blade

Race: Night Elf

Class: Death Knight

Skills and Abilities: Proficient at two-hand great swords and wearing heavy armor, excellent at general survival skills out in the wild. Decent at blacksmithing.

Age: 955

Sex: Female

Hair: Dark Blue

Eyes: Death Knight's Blue (glow is slightly subdued compared to normal)

Weight: 248 lbs

Height: 6’8”

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Almost always in her armor, which is made of thorium.

Other: If someone gets the rare chance to see Rancoura without her armor, her body is covered in scars, and some from wounds that weren't healed by the time she was raised (i.e. - cause-of-death wounds), which means of course, that they never did.

Personality

Alignment: True neutral, leaning a bit toward chaotic neutral.

Rancoura has amnesia, and does not remember most of her life, save for a brief time leading up to her death, and random memories and feelings from times beforehand. Because of what little she remembers, she's very reserved, and does not readily approach people. Another reason for this is that she's rather self-loathing, and subsequently is slightly more suspicious if someone approaches her, and is friendly (who could like a creature like her?). She is also still quite resentful of Arthas for taking her honourable death from her, and to Elune, for not protecting her from the Lich King. On the rare chance someone wins Rancoura's favour, she’s as steadfast and loyal a companion as any, and will sacrifice much to and for those she cares about.

History: Rancoura was born during the War of the Shifting Sands. Because of this, she grew up hearing tales of the ferocity of the Qiraji, and the wondering questions of if another such threat would come about. As she grew, she wanted to protect and fight for her people and Elune, and thus became a warrior, training in the uses of medium-weight armors and all manner of melee weapons (especially swords), eventually becoming a Warden when she was 100. Her mother encouraged this, and was proud that her daughter had such high loyalty to her kin and country.

For the next several centuries, her life was much the same, stamping out dangers to her people, capturing criminals and re-capturing the escaped ones. When the rumors of the Orcs coming into the world reached her, she paid very little mind when it became apparent that they weren't a direct or even as-yet-indirect threat. It wasn't until she had heard about the Orc clan cutting down the forests that she became interested. Travelling with some Silverwing Sentinels, she made her way to the part of Ashenvale forest were the Orcs were rumored to be. When she saw what they had done to the forest (and later that they had killed Cenarius), a deep-seated hatred toward the beasts took root within her.

Eventually, she caught up on the events of the war between the Horde and Alliance. After word of Mannoroth reached her, she tried to make her way to where he was supposed to be as fast as she could, but was too late to help, and therefore did not see Grom Hellscream and Thrall defeating the Legion demon. What she did get to stick around for was the waking of Malfurion and the druids in the face of the Burning Legion. Seeing these powerful icons of Kaldorei strength filled Rancoura with wonder, even if most were feral from millennia spent in caves, dreaming. However, word of Tyrande Whisperwind's actions also reached her from her superiors, and she was ordered to try and stop the sentinels' progress at any cost.

Making her way to the Betrayer's prison, she was in the fighting between Sentinels and Wardens and sustained a blow to the head that knocked her out cold. When she woke, the Betrayer was free. It was the first time an unsuccessful mission had acted on her so powerfully. Illidan was THE prisoner, and the fact that he was freed meant that she and all her sisters had failed. She agreed with Maiev's decision to re-hunt him down, but knew she’d only get in the way, and so tried to make herself useful elsewhere.

During this time, the story of Illidan vs. Arthas circulated around. The aftereffects of that fight were also discussed (Illidan's transformation), and was slightly less concerned that he had defeated the leader of the Demon Lords, Tichondrius, and more concerned with what he did to himself to accomplish it.

Then she got the call to return to Nordrassil. Fortifications were being made, and she helped as much as she could. Her hatred of the Orcs was still burning within her, but she at least understood the necessity of working alongside them in the face of the Legion threat looming above all of them. During the fighting, she stayed within a knot of Wardens who all worked as a group, moving about and killing demons around one of the bases. She fared no better than anyone else when Archimonde himself started up his path of destruction, and watched with horror as the gigantic demon made his way up to the World Tree. When the horn sounded and the spirits came, a bittersweet satisfaction overcame her, and though she later cried for the loss of the Tree, she was obviously relieved that Archimonde was defeated.

It was after this large battle that Rancoura realized that the best way to protect her people was not to stay around and wait for a threat to appear on their doorstep, but rather to leave a neutralize threats as they came up in the world, before they got out of hand. It was this that made her ask to leave her beloved forests and explore that larger world outside to find such threats, and she was given leave to do so.

This time of her life was rather uneventful, a constant stage of resting a fighting for the Alliance, always keeping an eye out for anything that could affect her kin back home. She was near Stormwind when she therefore heard rumors of infected grain, undead, and a Scourge army. When she arrived at Stormwind, she was one of the last few allowed entrance before the gates were closed and the assault began. Once the Frost Wyrms and Abominations had been dealt with and the Alliance Vanguard was formed, she joined them and marched to Icecrown. Once there, she saw that the Scourge were just the same as the Burning Legion, a massive threat to everyone unless stopped.

During the fighting there, she was lured away from her comrades and ambushed. As she lay dying, she thought to herself that it would be a release to finally let it go. She would be raised as a star in the night sky like many fallen warriors before her, and she would know peace. However, the Lich King had other plans for her, and raised her as a Death Knight. She was, just like everyone else in her shoes, completely enthralled and unable to fight him off for a long time. It was here that she lost most of her memories, and it wasn't until she was told to kill a certain Argent Dawn prisoner that she began to awaken.

It was her mother. She had no choice, for both the situation, and her enthrallment drove her to kill her own mother, but from that point on, she began to fight, always. Could she twist her wrist at the last second to spare this person from her killing blow? Could she take a few moments longer to look up for her next target? What about hesitate before moving toward them? Anything, everything, whatever she could do. Then, Light's Hope happened, and she was free. She was free, but had never been so lonely in her life. She was so disgusted with herself and what she had done, disgusted with the Lich King for having denied her a proper death, and even disgusted with Elune. What had she ever done to deserve this half-life? She had literally given the ultimate sacrifice to try and save her world and her people, and she had been (or so she felt) abandoned by the Goddess.

Then the rage set in. She threw herself at any and every Scourge she came across when she got the chance, taking out her anger and hurt on those beasts she had served with. Even a few other Knights of the Ebon Blade regarded her carefully, so unstable was her temper.

She wanted desperately to go into Icecrown Citadel and fight Arthas himself, to repay him for what he'd done to her, but lost her place in the Argent Tournament to an Orc with a warhammer the size of a small child. She stuck around to help defend the camps, and the help the Ashen Verdict a bit, however she had no desire to try and shape saronite herself. If the Lich King was going to use it, she wasn't going to touch it. Following this train of thought, she began working on her own set of armor, made of thorium, during the lulls in the fighting. When she finished one piece, she gave away the one it was replacing to the Verdict, that they might use the saronite within it to help further their project, Shadowmourne.

After the fall of Arthas, Rancoura stayed in Northrend for a long time, weeding out Scourge as she met them. The Shattering wasn't as bad there, just a few, smaller earthquakes that were unexplainable. They didn't interest Rancoura a great deal, and she still spends most of her time in Northrend around Icecrown Citadel, trying to destroy what Scourge she can, trying to lose herself in the heat and cold of battle to forget what she lost.