Rucawen

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Information

Player: anji

Character Full Name: Rucawen Summerbough

Character In-Game Name: Rucawen

Nickname(s): "Rook"

Association(s): The Kaldorei, the Alliance

Race: Night Elf

Class: Blacksmith/Warrior

Skills and Abilities: Rook's ability to fight is ultimately impaired by her bad right leg, which has been crooked and weak since it was injured thousands of years ago. She was once a capable warrior in the service of the Sentinels, and still knows how to fight with blades and bows, but Rook's bad leg makes her slow and unbalanced. Consequently, it is impractical for Rook to fight, though she will use a bow or a dagger if her life is threatened. She has no trouble standing and can move on two feet, but she uses a walking stick to endure longer walks.

Rook became a blacksmith when her wound rendered her an inadequate soldier. She specializes in glaive-smithing, but she can craft other weapons, as well as armor.

Age: 11,842

Sex: Female

Hair: White

Eyes: Silver

Weight: 256 lbs.

Height: 6'7"

Appearence

Usual Garments/Armor: Rook usually wears simple clothes that are often dirtied or worn by her day's labor. For her own protection, she sometimes wears leather with a chain shirt while travelling.

Personality

Alignment: Neutral Good

Rook, being ancient in her years, is well-accustomed to her own culture, so she is naturally wary of new and foreign things. However, her own experiences have made her more sympathetic to outsiders, and she treats her allies with respect. Of course, she has nothing better than contempt for the orcish Horde. As a witness and veteran of the War of the Ancients, Rook also distrusts Arcane magic. She worships Elune and reveres nature, but as a blacksmith, Rook is more appreciative of man-made things.

Above all things, Rucawen aims to benefit the lives of her friends, neighbors, and society in general. She is a very hard-working woman, in part due to a sense of guilt. While many of her comrades in the Sentinels died in battle over the years, the crippled Rook lived a crafter's life, away from danger. Because of this, Rook feels obliged to give more than she takes from society. She tends to stay out of harm's way, but Rook is sometimes more courageous than she should be.

Rook is usually a very friendly and approachable person. Her many years have made her wise, but she thinks humbly of her mental capabilities, and sometimes she is a little absent-minded.

History

Rucawen was born in Ashenvale two thousand years before the Sundering. Her parents were rather conventional elves - her mother was a huntress, and her father was a bowyer. In her childhood, the girl nicknamed "Rook" was naturally uninterested in her father's craftsmanship; instead, she aspired to be a proud Sentinel like her mother. She had a happy and prosperous childhood, and had plenty of friends to play with. The young Rook became particularly close to her friend Landarion, the son of a fisherman.

After living with her parents and her younger siblings for twenty years, Rook followed in her mother's footsteps and joined the Sentinels. She spent her first few years training, and proved to be an excellent fighter with a glaive or a spear in her hands. However, her first thousand years as a Sentinel would not test her strength nearly as much as the Burning Legion's first invasion of Kalimdor.

The War of the Ancients was the fiercest conflict the night elves had ever seen. Rucawen fought in a few large battles, but she spent most of the war skirmishing in western Ashenvale. Rook was fortunate enough to survive the war without any serious wounds, but the world that remained around her seemed miserably empty. Many of her friends and family fell to the Legion's onslaught, and the sundering was a sure sign that the Kaldorei's golden age had ended.

But despite how much the elves lost, many, including Rook, were relieved to know that Kalimdor was safe again. She continued to serve the Sentinels, who protected their war-ravaged forests from what remained of the Legion. Some years after the sundering, the evil satyrs who lingered in Kalimdor waged a war against the Kaldorei. Rucawen, now an officer of the Sentinels, was promptly deployed to the last war she would ever fight. During a heated battle, Rook was surrounded by a gang of five satyrs. After cutting down two of her foes, Rook was knocked over, and two others swung down their heavy swords. Rook attempted to tumble away, but her armored leg was struck twice, and another satyr pierced her calf with a spear. A fellow Sentinel slaughtered the satyrs before they could finish their business, but the fight left Rook with a critical wound.

In a few months, Rucawen's right leg was strong enough to walk, but too weak for anything more. The leg was misshapen, crooked, and almost inflexible. The Sentinels had no choice but to dismiss her from her duties, because Rook's bad leg would make it too difficult for her to fight again.

Rook's disability gave her a great sense of guilt. Protecting Ashenvale had been her duty for two-thousand years, and she had never been anything but a Sentinel. But Rook knew she could be of use, if only she could adapt to her condition. So she chose a new career - making glaives, rather than wielding them. For the Kaldorei, women were always fighters, and men were always craftsmen, but Rook was willing to defy convention for a greater good.

Rucawen sought out a blacksmith she had once met in a small town in western Ashenvale. She explained her situation, and asked if she could be an apprentice. The kind blacksmith, eager to help a wounded veteran, agreed to teach her his trade. Rook spent the next four years working in the man's shop, and when the blacksmith believed she was ready, she left his shop to work alone.

For her first thousand years as an expert weaponsmith, Rucawen traveled across northern Kalimdor to work at numerous Sentinel outposts, and she lived in many towns for only a few years at a time. Eventually, she settled in her homeland of western Ashenvale, where she could lived and worked comfortably in one place for hundreds of years at a time. Over the years, she also practiced archery and learned much about fishing, gardening, and cooking. Rook would even go hunting, but only when accompanied by someone who could protect her.

Roughly two thousand years after the War of the Ancients, Rook was visited by someone she thought had died long ago - her childhood friend, Landarion. Rook learned that Landarion had become a druid after the war, and was visiting from the Emerald Dream. The druid stayed with Rook for a few months, and they grew more fond of each other than they ever had as children. Friendship quickly turned into romance, and the two decided to mate. But Landarion had a duty to return to the Emerald Dream, so they lived apart, like many elven couples did.

During Landarion's visit, a child was conceived. It was a boy, and Rook named him Davarion. She raised the boy herself, but Landarion visited once every few years during Davarion's childhood. The boy, much like his father, was self-sufficient and loved nature. By the time he was twenty, Davarion had discovered his kinship with nature, and left home to become a druid. After his training was complete, Davarion joined his father in the Emerald Dream.

From this point on, life became comfortable and consistent for Rook. Her work was fulfilling, and she had a loving family that visited as much as they could, though over time this became a less frequent occasion. When she was lonely, she had enough friends, or at least books, to keep her company.

One thousand years before the Dark Portal opened, the night elves entered their largest conflict in thousands of years - the War of the Shifting Sands. Landarion and Davarion returned from the Dream to fight in the war, but before they did, they visited Rook, and the family spent a week together. Rook and Landarion agreed to have another child, and a girl was born by the end of the year. Rucawen named the child Caladriel, but unfortunately, Landarion did not survive to see his daughter.

Though she seldom ever saw her mate, Rook was deeply saddened by her loss. However, she suppressed her mourning, and instead cherished the daughter he had left her. Caladriel grew up to be just as strong and naturalistic as her father was, but she also learned much about swordsmanship and archery from her mother. Caladriel became a huntress in her adulthood, and moved to Darkshore. The Summerboughs grew accustomed to staying out-of-touch for centuries at a time, and the last time Rook ever saw Caladriel was over one hundred years ago.

The Burning Legion's second invasion of Kalimdor, known as the "Third War" to the Kaldorei's new human allies, changed the night elves' society arguably as much as the first invasion did. The war effort lengthened Rook's hours of work, but she felt a sense of accomplishment when the Legion was finally defeated. But Rook and her people paid the highest price for Azeroth's victory - they had lost their immortality. To make things worse, orcs were now encroaching upon Ashenvale and depriving the ancient forest of its most precious resources.

Still, Rook's life remained just as it always had, and she continued to craft blades for the elves of Ashenvale. Rucawen was troubled by her mortality, just as all night elves were, but the following decade did bring some good news. One day Rook was surprised by a visit from her son, who she hadn't heard from since before the Third War. Davarion introduced Rook to his mate and their first child, an infant girl, and Davarion announced that he was joining a Cenarion expedition to the Outland. However, he brought bad news as well - Caladriel had fallen during the Legion's assault on Auberdine.

A few years later, Rook met Linevi Duskfeather, a Sisterhood of Elune initiate who Rook discovered to be Caladriel's daughter. Today, Rook is still the same person she's been for thousands of years, but knowing that she still has her life and her family has greatly improved Rucawen's outlook.