Taiga

Information

Player: Etmosril

Character Full Name: Taiga Serynzheri

Character In-Game Name: Taiga

Nickname(s): Wendigo (For humans.)

Association(s): The Ebon Blade, House Serynzheri

Race: Blood Elf

Class: Death Knight

Skills and Abilities: Taiga is nothing special as far as Death Knight abilities go. She's average in Frost and Blood specialties, and close to incompetent in Unholy (which is why she has no ghoul). Her trump card is her Death Grip - the shadow of which tends to be clawed or fanged. She's an excellent swordsman, but this particular skill comes of much practice.

Age: 129

Sex: Female

Hair: Extremely long silver hair.

Eyes: Runic blue

Weight: 113lbs

Height: 5'11

Alignment: Chaotic something.

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: The Taiga of today gives little thought to clothing. Although, given her living circumstances, even indifference usually yields a presentable result.

Other: Her hair and skin were both bleached of color after becoming a Death Knight. Both are well-tended to. She has a curlicuing tattoo on her left cheek, inked in runic blue, and raised in a way suggesting either scarification, or still-broken skin.

Personality

The clearest aspect of Taiga's personality is her inconsistency. She always changes her mind according to her own desires of the moment, offering some kind of philosophical justification for it whenever questioned. However, when the mood strikes her (or she meets the right people), she is remarkably friendly, and will make all sorts of generous offers to her guests. Until her mood changes again, that is.

Her behavior is selfish and manipulative. She cares more about herself than anyone else, and constantly lusts after power, hiding this fact behind her affected nobility and politeness. It can best be compared to the proverbial iron hand in the velvet glove. This has grown more pronounced after her transformation into a Death Knight. It's still possible - but rare - to see her soft side.

Though self-centered, she's not hedonistic or even happy. Her existence is spent on finding a way to minimize her own suffering. Since her removal from the Serynzheri leadership, she's become much quieter and more isolated, and is prone to longing for the wilderness she left.

Birds and flying lizards of all sorts are fascinating creatures to her. She has observed them for years, learning their behavior and traits for no other reason than enjoyment. Her years of working with them while she was still a huntress have left her with a sort of obsession over all flying things feathered and scaled. She also has some experience with Proto Drakes from her time spent in Northrend.

History

Taiga was born in the Serynzheri estate on the eastern borders of Silvermoon, as the first (and only) daughter of Arrian Serynzheri and Chione Dawnthunder.

While Arrian was an upper-class noble always searching for a way to gain influence and money, Chione was a temporary mistress only; a Farstrider and huntress who rarely lingered in cities or even lodges. She was a traveler in her youth, and named Taiga after the snowy flatlands of Northrend. When Taiga was born, she was given over to the care of a nursemaid almost immediately to permit both of the partners to return to work.

She learned early on what her parents expected of her. Her father wanted her to be knowledgeable, witty, and power-hungry to follow in his footsteps and gain political influence in Silvermoon. Her mother wanted her to become a Farstrider - specifically, a worthy and savage huntress in case the Amani Trolls resurfaced as a greater threat. It was never a question in Taiga's mind as to which path she wanted to follow. Chione was near-godlike in Taiga's eyes, and could do no wrong.

While her father was insisting on proper lessons in the sciences, arts, history, and etiquette, Taiga occasionally bribed her tutors or simply escaped from the estate and into the forests of Eversong. This became a source of great tension between her parents. When Taiga was in her eighties, they separated for good. She left with her mother to travel through Eversong.

A decade or two later, Taiga was named a worthy Farstrider. She took it as a sign that she was an adult, and left her mother and the other Farstriders to settle down on her own in the southeast of Quel'thalas. She used this time to study and frequently tame the animals she loved - which were almost always birds and other flying creatures. She also began to realize a connection she had made early in her life: everything and everyone she admired always possessed the same qualities of wildness and strength. It was what separated the Farstriders and hunters from the pampered, soft Quel'dorei of the city.

She did continue her Farstrider's duties, but she grew fond the birds of prey she sometimes found in the forest. In her mind, they exemplified everything Chione had encouraged her to be. She was too respectful of them to steal a chick or egg from a nest. Instead, she set out befriending an injured hawk whose damage to the feathers prevented it from hunting as it should have.The hawk was never 'tamed', but he came to see her as a conditional hunting partner. Taiga never named him, believing that wild creatures had better names than a civilized language could give them.

This calm existence ended when Taiga was recalled to a Farstrider encampment for closer duties. It was a sort of wake-up call to her - she realized how much of civilization she had forgotten when she encountered other people once again. She began working to recall all of the lessons on civilized subjects that she had been given years ago. She remembered many of them, but her mentality stayed the same. The time alone in the forest with 'her' creatures had given her a wild outlook which could not be erased so easily.

When the Scourge emerged in Eversong, Chione was in a Farstrider troop near what would later become the Dead Scar. She and almost all of the others died immediately. Taiga was on the eastern border of Eversong, and escaped harm. She later returned to the Farstrider Retreat and discovered it almost empty. She learned of the attack from two of the badly wounded survivors. Indifferent to the fate of those in Silvermoon, she searched out the remains of the troop her mother had been in. The mangled and half-eaten corpses she encountered left no doubt as to what had happened.

Taiga set off south alone. She followed the general path of the Dead Scar, but kept the Farstrider's methodology of remaining well hidden in the forests.The hawk she had fed rejoined her on the border of Eversong. They traveled together through the rapidly declining terrain of what would soon be known as the Ghostlands. Each time they were attacked by small bands of undead, they banded together to kill. This sort of slaughter appealed to Taiga. She grew bolder and bolder, going out of her way to kill even when it was not necessary.

She was caught and taken prisoner by the Lich King's troops when she was almost halfway through the Eastern Plaguelands. Although she was wounded, she continued trying to harm her captors long after most people would have passed out from blood loss. She was transported to Acherus. When she was risen after her death, she didn't develop the same degree of power as most other Death Knights. She was instructed in its use by other senior Death Knights during the destruction of the Scarlet Enclave.

The aftermath of the Battle of Light's Hope Chapel signaled the return of her rational side. While the plans for the Ebon Blade were being formed and other Death Knights were coming to terms with their new twisted selves, Taiga was spending most of her time out in the ruins of the Scarlet Enclave. She mourned the loss of her mother and the departure of her hawk, but not for long. She left the Eastern Kingdoms with the Ebon Blade soon after.

After the death of the Lich King and the betrayal of her own kind in the Ebon Blade, she returned to Silvermoon. The House of Serynzheri had reestablished itself in her absence under the leadership of her younger cousin, Artairis. She fought with him over the leadership for a month.

It took several months of her own reign for the truth about the Serynzheri family and her own gradually degrading mind to come to light. And even then, she refused to step down from leadership. It took the rest of the family members to reinstate someone else. She remained with the Serynzheris, but has visited a priest regularly twice a month ever since. Time will tell if she'll make another bid for leadership - or if she'll abandon it all, and return to the wilderness.