Ce

Ce
Player	Geoni
Gender	Male
Race	Draenei
Class	Templar
Age	36,301
Height	7’6” (1.01)
Weight	354 lbs.
Eyes	Purple iris, blue glow.
Hair	Bald, but he has a short beard, the color of the facial hair being a solid white.
Affilliation(s)	Mac’Aree, Oshu’gun (Genedar), Telredor, Shattrath, The Exodar, The Argent Dawn (ex), The Argent Crusade (ex), The Cenarion Circle (ex)
Occupation	None
Status	Alive/Wanted

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Ce has lost a great deal of his old armor and supplies. He only owns two sets of clothes at the moment: A large hooded coat that looks like a patchwork of various furs. Underneath the coat he wears a matching set of shirt and pants that are made out of thick brown leather. Underneath this he has a thin shirt of chain-mail that extends to his elbows and thin chain-mail leggings that extend to his ankles. His belt holds a coin pouch, a canteen, a small lantern, and a sheath at the right hip for a blade to fit in. He has a large wooden backpack that has compartments on the sides. On the back of the backpack there is a large slot for a shield to latch on. This shield is made out of scrap steel and held together with ropes that crisscross the metal.

His other outfit is a more casual one and rests in his backpack. If he's wearing it, it is a thick blue and white striped woolen long-sleeved shirt and a similar pair of pants to the ones he wears on his main outfit.

Other: His only accessory is a beaded necklace made from ancient wood. The spheres of this necklace are so old that they appear like dry sponges rather than smoothed wood. The ring on his right hand is also rather old, is made of silver new and old, and since it has been reinforced twice the veins of the darker, older silver, sprawl across it. Those who have a keen sense of soul-bound items may see something even deeper beneath those old silver veins.

He also has two runic tattoos on each of his upper arms and twelve more on his back. The rings on his other hand, as described in the history, hold power. The first he obtained is the one of titan-origin, the reality ripper, which allows the occasional use of a portal to protect him from harm. The second, unbeknownst to him, will save his life if it is ended.

History

Utopian

Fast asleep in the womb, Ce already traveled the world before he learned to crawl. His mother, a woman who spent millennia to reach a state of inner bliss and self-actualization, left on her second journey around Argus. This was the first time she would go it alone, as her mate killed himself in silence, shattering the wholeness she felt about herself, and shaking the foundations of her identity. She was as torn as the nearly blank note he left underneath the empty bottle of poison. As she realized that she was with child, she realized that her mate finally accomplished all that he wanted to in life, and decided that it was time to leave it. As a result, he bastardized Ce from the very moment of his conception.

Her water broke the moment her feet touched the edge of the sea, as if it were the expanse of the water that pulled the child out from under her belly. She sought rest at a nearby port, and before she left by ship, she had a ceremony held for her newborn child, where she would toss her mate’s suicide note into the fire and name her child Ce, after the single and unfinished word that he left on the split paper. The ink that faded by the second letter was the last inch of the parchment to remain visible before the entirety of the note was reduced to black ash. For the duration of the oceanic voyage, she nursed and cradled her child in her arms as she created a wrap to carry him in from crystal weave.

By the time the ship set its anchor down against the seafloor of its destination, Ce’s mother had already decided her own fate, and the fate of her son. The first words that Ce learned to mutter and shout were those that he overheard in his mother’s prayers, and the first of his toys were the beads that she pressed her fingers against as she projected said prayers. Though there were many towns and villages scattered among the shining rivers of the planet, she never settled in one place. As a result, Ce had a childhood without many friends or role models; he learned the devastation of loss as he made and had to leave friends as his mother continued on her journey around Argus. Until she had taught all that there was to teach her child, his mother made this journey a number of times, until hundreds of years passed by. By then, she had already told him all the stories she could tell, taught him all the virtues she could teach. The two of them eventually returned to the capital and his mother settled there so that Ce might find a path for his life. He became a mage's apprentice for a few centuries, learning as much as he could about the arcane energies of his world, and through this process he learned of portal making and the important purpose it played for travelers, fragmented families, and the economy. He became a portal specialist and an archivist, listening to all of the stories travelers would tell him.

The high point of Ce's first full career was when he published his first encyclopedia of Argus. Having gained a comfortable amount of wealth from being a portal maker, he was able to fund the mass production of this encyclopedia, which was sent to schools and libraries around Argus. It was at this time, when out of the blue, Ce's mother took her life. She had been living off of the money that her son generously provided her through his work, but rarely spoke with him because she told him that he needn't worry about her and that she will always have fulfillment with Ce around. She told this to him again and again for centuries, until he fully believed it. When she read through Ce's entire encyclopedia she ripped out one of the blank pages at the end of its last volume and wrote her final words on it:

Suicide Note

“My dear Ce, I have given you all that I have to give. You must continue to give to others as I have given to you. This is love. It is written bold on every page of these books. My last wish is that you never let go of what you have attained in this past millennia: a love for everyone.

I grow cold and weak with this emptiness. No, perhaps it is that I'm too full. You must now move past hating me for having left you alone just as you were able to move past what your father did to us. I myself now understand it, that nothing lies beyond the experience of a moment where you feel everything is in a state of sheer perfection, and that since forever is not promised, that time and one's personal universe have aligned. He felt that when you were born. I felt that when I finished these books. I have reached my own perfection, and that perfection is you, Ce. Know that your father loved you, and that I loved you, as we wrote our last words. We may be dead, but you are our immortal vow, alive with grace.”

Ce only felt bereft because of this. He could not forgive himself for being unable to sense that his mother had spiraled into this deranged philosophy that occasionally plagues the immortals of his world, an existential summit too clouded to climb down from. After he buried his mother, he buried the drafts of his encyclopedia's second edition with her. After he closed her casket, he closed all of the portals he made. He decided it was time for him to travel the world alone for himself, if just to get away from Mac'Aree. During these travels, Ce found that he had become addicted to the use of the arcane as incidents arose during this journey where he found himself abusing it. He stopped himself before it got worse and returned to the city in less than a year after leaving it. He approached one of his old teachers about ceasing the use of the arcane and she agreed with Ce; she organized a plan to wane him off the use of it by staying within a controlled environment for a little over two years. During this time Ce reflected on what it was he really wanted out of life and realized it was time to travel again, but this time with a clear mind. His trainer endorsed the idea of Ce giving travel another try and released him from the program she made.

Ce set out once again, and thanks to his teacher's program he truly did so with a clear mind, so he was able to absorb a truer sense of each atmosphere he found himself in. Each town held the souls of the hands that built them, each mountain or forest its unique smell and climate, and each person an experience to pause for. It was through this journey when Ce realized the absurdity of his mother's philosophy: nothing is perfect, every thing and every person is dynamic to a molecular level. One morning, as he nearly reached the end of his journey across the planet, he sat at the table of a small bed and breakfast that a lovely artisan couple ran and had a conversation with both of them that lasted until dinner, until he had to stay another night just because they spent an entire day doing nothing but reflecting and sharing thoughts. When he left that next morning, he'd made up his mind that he would attempt to run an inn if he could get everything he needed to do so. First, he needed a few lessons on how to run an inn and so he traveled the entire world one more time so he could get tips and suggestions from those who ran their own inns or bed and breakfast. He learned that the most important supply to build and run an inn, which is hospitality in its purest sense, was something he already owned. The rest was learning about business, applying for a grant and license, and finding an ideal location to build one.

The place he decided on was far from Mac'Aree, across the ocean at the foot of the world's second tallest mountain, which travelers visit for varying reasons. After obtaining the land successfully, Ce used the grant for material and a few hands to help him build the inn. There were only three men who helped him out, each one dropping out of the project with no conflict about it because they knew Ce could finish it on his own and there were other projects to be worked on elsewhere. The basic construction of the inn took him three years, but the designing phase lasted over ten, and even after he opened it for business it continued to change with those who came in went. For centuries, Ce would constantly change small elements of the building and property until every small thin at the inn had a specific and special memory tied to a person who came and went. After about a thousand years he stopped changing the inn and merely maintained it. This was out of sentiment; his existence here, although it continued to be fulfilling, was a lonely one. Even if they were to stay with him for a few days or less, Ce became a friend to many travelers, and to a select few, a lover. Some returned occasionally but there was never another permanent resident. Passing the millennia in this way became a burden to Ce, so he often escaped in his dreams, spending much of his time sleeping.

One night, Ce had an unsettling dream. In this dream, the planet was frozen over and he was the only person alive. He walked across an icy/crystallized wasteland, finding nobody but himself. Eventually, he stumbled across two large creatures, giant beasts often used as mounts in Argus. Both were completely frozen to the ground, unable to do anything. One had died this way, but the other was struggling to break free of the ice. Ce could see behind the layer that the creature’s eyes were open, moving, and terrified. He lit a torch and held it before the creature, hoping to free it of the chilling capsule, but woke up to find out that he had lit his building on fire with a candle and that he was trapped within it. He had to jump from the second floor of the building to escape, and injured himself as a result. Yet, he felt blessed that on this night because nobody else was staying in the building.

Eventually, Ce was found lying beside the rubble by a colorful traveler named Zokhirr, one of the few lovers he was able to have over the millennia of running the inn. The man was clad in clothing from many different cultures throughout Argus, but despite the delicate threads he wore, he carried the injured Ce on his back until he was able to recuperate. As he was being carried, Ce told Zokhirr the story behind his injury and the pile of rubble he was found lying beside, and compassionately, Zokhirr made an offer to Ce, “You have done so much for travelers like me and expected nothing in return, and now that you are without any home, I want you to stay at mine for a while.”

Zokhirr’s home, as it turns out, is one in the blessed city of Mac’Aree that he had recently purchased. With Ce’s experience and old network in the city, he was able to find a job as a tutor in Mac’Aree and picked up where he left off on his very outdated encyclopedia. Zokhirr was a mage and a clothing artist. He wanted to get Ce back into magic but was unable to convince him due to his past with it. He respected Ce's wishes on this front but Ce felt bad for not sharing magic and creation with him because it was all they had outside of a lover's comfort. Eventually, the nature of their relationship turned from friendship to love, and Ce and Zokhirr shared vows as mates. Now that he wasn’t alone, Ce didn’t find it to be as much of an existential burden to pass the millennia when he could pass them with Zokhirr, even though Zokhirr’s parents disapproved of Ce because they thought his parents were, as was much of his upbringing, full of insanity. Ce himself recognized this, but asserted that it was the future that mattered, and being the husband of their son that gave him a satisfying purpose in life. Not only this, but Ce fell deeply in love with fashion and after he learned to sew and design the two of them became joint artists who created personally tailored clothing for the people of the city as well as travelers. For the next 12,000 years the two of them created a legacy of clothing and fashion, often travelling the world to renew their style and find inspirations new and old as well as adventures and dangers that they faced together. All in all, they didn't get into anything too deadly, especially since the people of Argus did not war or attack one another. Yet, peace never lasts forever, not even for a utopia.

The conflict that Sargeras brought to Argus was one that would forever change as he disturbed the triumvirate, a disturbance that led to Velen’s theft of the ata’mall crystal. Having been one of the hundreds of the trusted, Ce traveled with the others to the mountain on that fateful day, and Zokhirr pleaded Ce to go ahead, that he would arrive shortly after he did. At first he was unable to convince Ce to go without him, so he set his robes on his shoulders and sent him away. This was to be the last Ce would ever hear from Zokhirr. When he was escaping the city, he found his next-door neighbor alone with his son. The son was named Tavus, a man who was bound to a wheelchair due to a deformity. The father asked Ce to take his son to the mountain with him. Ce agreed to wheel him up, if only as a mindless obligation to keep himself from worrying about Zokhirr. Other eredar offered to help so he took turns wheeling him up the mountain with them, but eventually carried him on his shoulders after the rest became frustrated with how much this slowed them down. Ce was frustrated as well but not with Tavus, but with the absence of his husband and the realization that it may be too late for him. When he reached the summit, he waited not only for Zokhirr but for any possible salvation from this situation. His heart pounded as he could hear the man’ari scrambling up the mountain, and it wouldn’t stop beating in such a way until the vessel appeared above the untainted few and lifted them up into the sky. Ce stared to the ground as he was being pulled away, and felt the resistance in his ascension as he realized that he would never see Zokhirr again.

Voyager

The flight from Argus did not feel like a rescue to him. He lost everything that was dear to him. Ce considered the Naaru; here is something that is new and full of warmth, the light. He tried to embrace it after much consideration, a resort to lift him out of his fugue state and reconnect with his people now that they've been dramatically reduced in number and impacted with loss just as he has been. However, in his attempt to become a pious man, he put up a mask that he would learn how to wear well, the mask of a pious man. He found himself connecting with many other Draenei because they too had lost family, and they too were in the same boat, not just metaphorically but physically as well. For the first centuries of their ride on the Genedar, the Draenei began their first steps as not only worshipers of the light, but beings of the light as well. This was a major shift in culture for them as well, a transformation of an arcane-based Utopian culture to death fearing worship of light. Many were close to Velen, and many of them trusted him deeply. Additionally, many of these people led a draft of faith, a new series of goals for their people that had to be made. The Draenei must be thankful for life and family that they still have. The Draenei must find a new place to live so they can reproduce and regain their numbers. The Draenei must stay faithful and devout, they must take part in rituals, ceremonies, and rites that would further bond them as a newly branded people. The Draenei must reproduce and grow the family. And, once all of this is achieved, the Draenei may just be able to face the Legion that chases them and one day retake their home.

Ce, while deeply depressed during these first few centuries, did what everyone else did and took part in light worship. He remained a tailor in these first few centuries while attempting to rewrite the history of Argus due to the loss of both his planet and his old encyclopedias he so widely distributed during his time there. He partook in small rituals of his own as well, mostly dedicated to the memory of Zokhirr. Since Zokhirr was bald he began to shave his own head over and over again until he had trouble growing hair on his head. His creations in their fashion-line on Argus always trended towards muted tones while Zokhirr preferred vibrant colors, and so he began to only wear and create the latter on the Genedar. Eventually, many Draenei gathered around him to assist him in the latter endeavor because they missed their home and knew of Ce as the author of one of Argus' most read encyclopedias. Many enjoyed Ce's presence. The colors of their people's fashion had grown bold and deep in color, and so this colorful man was a breath of fresh air. Ce could see this was his appeal, and so he returned the favor by breathing out that fresh air, by emulating the culture of Argus as his people grew away from it. It was in this endeavor that Ce found new meaning, rather than the light he was trying to worship. Of course, he couldn't air that he wasn't truly faithful like most others were. His ambitions didn't line up with all of the aforementioned series of new goals. He wasn't entirely thankful to still be alive even though he, at this moment, felt the Draenei were his family. He wasn't interested in finding a new place to live due to his nostalgia for Argus and the fact that others were trusting their own nostalgia in his record-keeping project. He became obsessed with the project and often missed taking part in ceremonies and rituals. He didn't want to reproduce because he was never attracted to females, never concerned with reproduction as a utopia-born. He did, however, want to face down the Legion one day, so he did what he was told and tried to get along with everyone. This didn't work out so well as time went on.

After around two-hundred years he was getting close to finished with his history of Argus series when an anchorite by the name of Adviine got in his way. She led a service one day when many of the Draenei were gathered and this service was one of the first of many that were about about letting go of the past for the sake of being able to make a future. In this service she spoke against the arcane use that her people's old world was based around, and pointed out that not only did it make everyone complacent to what was going on when they weren't paying attention but that it was abused as well. It was hard to argue against, because many were too busy to spend time getting to know Velen or learn fast enough that something bad was approaching. Ce spoke up in this service and after airing that he agreed that it led to complacency, confessed that he had to overcome arcane abuse as well, but also coyly noted that worship or over-dedication of any kind can lead one to blindness of what's going on around them. Adviine, since she half agreed but felt half-attacked, saw though the undertones of Ce's words and approached him a few days after that service. She pushed herself to get to know more about his history. Ce knew that he was somewhat pointed in his words towards her, but still opened up to her. He shared his past, all of it: the mental illness of his parents and incomplete name, the portal-making profession, the journey to rid himself of arcane abuse, the publishing of his encyclopedias, his time as an innkeeper, and most intimately his marriage and life with Zokhirr.

Not but a few days later, Ce was betrayed by her. In revenge for his pointed words, Adviine invited Ce to the stage to speak about his life. She knew all of it now, and every time Ce politely asked not to talk about things, she brought them up. Everything she brought up she used as an example not to follow as their people moved on. She pointed out that arcane was not to be abused. She pointed out that mental illness comes from it and leads to broken families. She made the suggestion that men should only lay with women now that their population was low. But most of all she spoke about his encyclopedia on Argus and compared it to what he was doing now with his history of Argus project: it was dwelling on a past that she saw and successfully convinced many was a mistake. The audience rallied for her as they began to argue. A few stood by Ce and expressed that if they hope to return to Argus one day, they needed to have a history of their home, so that when and if they return to it they will know why it was so important to them in the first place. He response was overwhelmingly approved by around 95% of the audience. She said that the Legion ruined Argus and it will never be as it was, that if they want to survive they must hold onto the light and let it guide them away from what they used to be as it physically did on Argus, and that a project such as Ce's should be abandoned for the sake of occupying intelligent minds with something more important: their future. Ce just sat down as most of the audience clapped in response to her retort in the debate and lowered his head. She asked the audience to calm down and upon pointing out Ce's defeated body language implored Ce to keep his chin up and move forward with them, that she wasn't attacking him here, only trying to help him.

He received many hugs and pats on the back after the service, many of them telling him they were happy that he opened up to them, and that they will be there for him moving on. Yet, after that service, nobody visited Ce. There were no more informative and nostalgic conversations in Ce's life after the service, no more finding warmth and friendship in reminiscing about the past. The only person who approached him was the anchorite herself, who was only there to make sure Ce was abandoning his history of Argus project in guise of providing religious guidance. Thus he had become completely friendless after that service, an irritable and reclusive Draenei that people would occasionally approach with reluctance in order to get new shirt, or an alteration here or there, maybe learn a thing or two about how to sew themselves since he was one of the few tailors on the Genedar. Eventually everyone went to a different tailor to get these services completed. Not only had his purpose as a historian been taken from him, but he was somehow out-competed as a tailor in a non-competitive, tightly-knitted community stuffed into a cramped interplanetary ship. It was at this time when Ce truly entered a fugue state. He felt hunted, displaced, and isolated not just because of the Legion but because of his people as well. And yet the small physical space he was trapped in forced him to interact with these people.

"How fitting..." he would often think to himself, "to be considered one of the exiled ones."

It was at this time Ce began to feel suicidal. At first, after his isolation, he began to make clothing for himself in order to try and replicate some of his favorite creations back from Argus, but they did not match the current fashion trends on the Genedar which favored bold and basic tones. Supply and demand here was mutually agreed upon rather than through physical currency, so as time went on and less people sought Ce's creations, it was mutually agreed to supply the strange and reclusive tailor with cloth and other supplies. It got to the point where the only social interaction he had was when he had to eat with the others or a rare alteration visit was made to his shop. He began to spend his days staring blankly at walls, letting dust collect on his furniture, taking robes and blouses apart and putting them together again with the same material to waste the time away. The colors of his own wardrobe became muted and dull again due to the aging of the dye and the lack of resources. He began to realize the lack of color he had in any cloth he still owned and began to lose his hunger and drive to even take his clothing apart and put it back together again. He slept for sixteen hours a sleep cycle, only left his shop for a bowl of water here and there, and just watched the dust collect not only on his furniture but even his forearms as he just sat on his desk with his head laying to the side and his arms stretched out over its surface. Eventually, those arms reached for chemicals he knew in a large concentration could end his life. Yet, when he reached for a combined chemical cocktail he stared at in contemplation for hours, the wedding band on his ring finger shined and almost vibrated with energy. It even caused a physical pain in his hand when it occurred. Had Zokhirr's spirit found Ce? Had part of it been poured into it when they crafted the band? Was it completely possessed by his spirit before the Naaru took Ce away from the planet? Ce didn't know. All he knew was that in some spiritual sense Zokhirr might still be with him in the form of this band and he was telling him not to take his own life.

And so Ce didn't take his own life. Yet, that deadly cocktail remained in his reach. Yet, he continued to stare blankly at his work station as it collected dust. One day, a fellow tailor entered his shop and asked if he could borrow a tiny needle that was used for stitching fine designs on cloth. Ce was one of the few who still had these due to his colorful designs he made before his people stopped supplying him for his fashion tastes. But now, apparently, his people were needing to make patches for some reason. That reason was for the explorers, a newly founded initiative to form a band of Draenei that would explore planets as the Genedar found them, and according to the navigators that this was going to take place very soon, for the first time in the voyage's history. And so they needed to make a design for the explorers to represent themselves as people in case they found other life on these planets. Ce didn't know about any of this, but the other tailor did, since he worked close with the man responsible for forming the explorers. During his request for a needle, the tailor had to stop himself and examine Ce after Ce just willingly gave up something he figured might have been important to himself. All he knew about Ce was that he was fond of vibrant patterns in the beginning of the voyage, when he was more colorful, and that him just saying 'go ahead' when it came to the tool responsible for fine patterning was out of place. He picked up the cocktail of chemicals and noticed that other chemicals had been emptied near it, and put two and two together.

A group of people were sent in to forcibly remove Ce from his shop and provide him therapy, as it was obvious that if he wasn't just potentially making that cocktail because he had gone mad, it was because he was suicidal. After examination by an anchorite it was easily concluded that Ce was simply depressed and perhaps suicidal. They asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he didn't know. They asked him if he had any friends or family left, and he said he had none. They asked him if he wanted to join a prayer group to make some and he refused. By this point most of the Draenei had figured out some new purpose or come to terms with the horror they'd been through to continue living in a healthy fashion, but Ce hadn't. They all cared for each other deeply and many reached out to try and help him. Even Tavus, the cripple who he saved the life of by carrying him up the mountain on Argus, had become a jewelcrafter and offered him a necklace of crystal prayer beads. Ce merely gave Tavus empty thanks and set them aside to collect dust in his shop with his other belongings, preferring to keep his mother's prayer beads around his neck as well. It wasn't until he got help repairing an aging wedding band on his finger that he began to open up to the Draenei who were spending a good year to try and lift his spirit, as well as opening himself up for another avenue. "I guess I'm willing to try a new line of work," he told one of the anchorites.

One day, he was approached by Jovhaal, one of the leaders of that newly formed band of explorers. He had heard about Ce's troubles and recalled him as the author of his two favorite books. It wasn't the two encyclopedia editions that Jovhaal was attached to, but rather Ce's rare and limitedly published collections of short non-fiction stories 'Tales from the Inn-side' and 'The Tailors' Tales' that only had around a hundred copies of each made. Jovhaal had them in his backpack when he fled to the mountain, and Ce himself did not, so as a result they were the only surviving copies. Jovhaal offered him a job with the explorers, as well as offering to allow Ce to keep the books if he joined. It angered him at first, in fact in outrage he accused Jovhaal of blackmailing him to the anchorites that were helping Ce, but in response they openly approved of this blackmail as blackmail of a benign sort. This was the first time in centuries Ce desperately wanted anything with such yearning, and it was this yearning that drove him to accept Jovhaal's offer. Once they reached their first planet and Ce finished his first expedition, Jovhaal explained to Ce, then he would give him the two books. But the training to become an explorer took centuries, and it wouldn't be until five hundred years later when they reached their first planet. So for half a millenia Ce had to reintegrate himself with the Draenei he shared the Genedar with, namely those training to become explorers. It was difficult training, the first attempt by their people to combine the power of the light into melee combat and casting. The only combat experience Ce had was wielding some arcane with Zokhirr on their travels and the use of a crossbow for the food hunting they had to learn when they hiked Argus for fun. But this was not fun, it was life or death. Ce had to learn how to fight with a sword and shield, wear armor, cast the light for both destructive and healing purposes, use a bow, fight bare-handed, and work with others. It was the last bit on that list of requirements that gave Ce the most difficulty. He couldn't conform to the culture that his brothers and sisters in arms had quickly grown dedicated to and couldn't even feign being dedicated to the same culture himself. As a result it caused a rift between his to-be comrades that pushed him close to quitting and falling into despair multiple times over those centuries. But he stood strong by his beliefs and they eventually accepted the stubborn man's reluctance to be like the rest of his people as one of the family. They treated him as such only for the sake of keeping peace within the ranks for the sake of solidarity. Ce saw right through this but played into it happily.

When the explorers actually began their exploration of the Genedar's first planet-find, they journeyed out into this find only for nothing to be found. This planet had icy lakes. It had frigid deserts of black sand. All of the earth on its plains and mountains were black and what little soil there was couldn't sustain the few plant species that were by their own miracle taken onto the Genedar from Argus by a few forward thinking farmers who prevented their people from starving to death in doing so. But these same forward thinking farmers brought them back off the ship and joined the explorers only to find that they couldn't grow on the planet. The explorers spent years trying to find an area with the most promising looking soil on the planet that was near an ice river with ice that could in the least be melted. They even put forth a large ice-melting project to consistently water the crops when the sun was shining over that land of soil but this, as well as what could have been a village, wasn't meant to be. The navigators caught wind of the Legion approaching the planet fast and the explorers had to pack up after only a few short years. While most of the explorers returned to the Genedar with despair in their hearts, Ce had hope and joy for the first time since he began his history of Argus project. This meant Jovhaal had to hand over his books to Ce, which he wasn't unhappy to do, as he had spent those 500 years Ce was in training transcribing both of the books for himself.

It would be another 700 years before the Draenei found another planet. During this time, Ce read both 'Tales from the Inn-side' and 'The Tailors' Tales' while the explorers kept up with training and waited for the navigators to do their job. Ce found something new in himself when reading the first of those two books, his personal auto-biography: 'Tales from the Inn-side' was written during the time after both his parents had committed suicide and he had to build a home for himself and find meaning through other people, and its collected stories of Argus travelers reflected that idea. Zokhirr treasured this book more than anything. Ce knew that Zokhirr would push him to build a new home for himself once again and find meaning in his people because if he didn't he would forsaking the lesson Argus taught Ce. Ce found both pain and resolve when reading 'The Tailors' Tales' because they were lighthearted, fabulist musings of two shared minds who found both beauty and danger in their physical journey as artists hoping to interpret the aesthetic of Argus' life to be worn on the bodies of people through their patterns and designs. He wrote his own personal addendum to this as a means to document all of the more personal and intimate moments he shared with Zokhirr during these journeys before they fall into that state of forget. At times, when he was making addendum to passages written by Zokhirr, his ring would vibrate and pain his hand into writing memories down that didn't feel like his own, as they weren't from his own perspective. Once this was complete he began to open himself to his comrades more and even if not fully worshiping the light, utilize it with a purposeful heart, just as they were doing as well. For those next few centuries, Ce strove to become the best he could at combat and learn to be a teacher, something he hadn't been since Argus. He even picked the history of Argus project back up and completed it in the face of protest that he was now able to overcome. Indeed, he had faced off with the anchorite Adviine once again and found the courage to not overcome her in debate as he was tempted to, but forgive her instead, in front of an entire audience. After this, he was truly able to complete and with finally title 'History of Argus' due to the support of his people once again.

After revisiting his old work, and finalizing the new book, Ce continued to try and be one with his people and dedicate himself to training. Rather then worshiping the Naaru and the light with externalistic meaning, he worshiped it more internally, learning to channel the light into his combat and casting through meditation and practice so he could use it to better himself. Despite this, he couldn't see the Naaru as all-powerful or be thankful of it since it didn't do enough to bring Zokhirr with him, but he viewed using it as an explorer as a means to forgive the light if it can help him build something new. Deep down, he knew this was just abuse, but he convinced himself that it was otherwise and began what would be a longer journey of self-delusion and false oath-taking, as he would never be able to worship or take oath to anything more powerfully than he did to Zokhirr. But for these next few centuries he grew powerful as an explorer and when it came time again to explore a new planet, he was able to lead rather than just follow, and this time the soil seemed more promising. On the next planet they found Ce was able to mutate one of the plants taken from the Genedar and make a new one. This planet, while not holding any new life (animal or plant) had soil that could actually grow crops. The assisted in setting up the first village of his people more successfully this time, but this only lasted six years. The first winter lasted a little over a year and wiped out all crop life, but they were able to grow them again in the two year long summer that followed. However, the winter that followed this one was three years long and the Draenei decided that it would be best to abandon this planet as a project after calculating sustainability.

Sometimes it would be centuries between planet-finds, sometimes only decades, but as the millennia went on the Draenei became better at calculating whether or not a planet would be able to sustain life as they needed it to. Specifically, it needed to sustain life without wiping it out with overly cold or overly hot climates or seasons, to sustain it fast enough to expand crops to be larger than the bio-farms on the Genedar so they could actually increase their population to the point where it had a chance of combating the Legion. For the 24,000 years following Argus, none of the planets were capable of this. However, each time they found a planet it had the promise of life or already had some. Indeed, although it hit hard every time a planet failed, Ce made it a point to transplant soil and new plants if they're found on a planet, or find a male and female of animal life if it too was found on a planet. Ce completely abandoned his old tailor shop and for those tens of thousands of millennia created a specimen zoo in what used to be the shop, taking care of plants and breeding the creatures he's able to sustain if there's compatible plant-life in his possession as well. As time stretched on and doubled his lifespan, Ce could feel his age not in his physical being but in his soul. He could understand how his parents and others felt about the purpose of life when he reached over 30,000 years of age. Instead of falling into that perfectionism, however, his constant attempts at helping colonize a planet only to fail every time, as well as seeing the species he tried to keep on the Oshu'gun often die out, he knew he would never be the type of ancient they were. Instead, he would push himself to work with other researchers who were documenting their finds on the planet and helping him with his interplanetary zoo. Instead, he often humbled himself by losing in a style of combat he grew rusty in and attempted to get better at it again. This was a difficult life for Ce, especially as time marched forward and the number of failures grew, but like his people he didn't give up. So long as his people had the bio-farm on the Genedar and he had his zoo he could work towards achieving the dream of finding that sustainable planet and playing a key part in making it a permanent home.

Eventually, this long chapter of his life would eventually have to come to a close because eventually, fate as twisted as the vines that crawled up the walls of Ce’s zoo led to the crash of the Genedar on Draenor. In the crash, Ce’s entire room was destroyed. Much like his dreams his plants had been uprooted, shattered out of their containers, their soils mixed together with displaced fruits and seeds. Due to his room being closer to the crashing end of the ship, even the walls were crushed and distorted beyond recognition. Yet, it didn’t matter, because Ce would never lay eyes on it again. Luckily for Ce, he wasn’t in his room at the time of the crash, and had been combat training with other explorers on the other side of the Genedar, so he was able to safely escape without being crushed. He would take one last look at his crushed zoo after the flames of the crash died down and searched for all of his books, only to find that they'd been burnt. He found a few pages that hadn't been completely destroyed. With hope in his heart he picked them up, hoping they were the addendums he made to 'The Tailors' Tales' but they were from 'History of Argus' instead. He let them fall onto the shattered floor and never set hoof in the room again.

Hunter

The loss of a functioning Genedar meant that sustainable or not, Draenor would have to be the planet his people colonize whether it means a new beginning or the end of their existence. Thankfully, it was one of the most fertile and life-sustaining planets they encountered on their interplanetary journey and was even able to sustain other humanoid races such as the Orcs and Ogres to name a few. Ce was used to exploring the planet with fellow explorers, but now he and the other explorers had to account for their entire race. Thankfully, Velen took care of things and help settle the entire race on the planet but there was a lot of new things to encounter here. Ce was open to the Orcs and how they lived and understood them as a more confrontational race. He could see things going bad quickly if his own people viewed them in an inferior way and for the most part they didn't, although the sophistication of their own technology, history, and lifespan put up a thick cultural barrier. Ce hoped to do diplomatic work but others were selected instead. The leaders of his people asked that instead Ce be an agricultural consultant and spend time figuring out how to sew the toughest of the lands on Draenor. He would spend the first fifty or so years with the Draenei in the first village containing all of their people before journeying outwards with some fellow explorers and small families willing to settle challenging lands for the sake of cultivating more land and expanding the population.

Ce imagined that by the end of Genedar's flight, the man he became is somebody Zokhirr would have been proud of, but he's also the man he was at the time of landing on Draeneor and helping found these villages because he lost Zokhirr. He told Ce that whenever he faces somebody or thing that says he can't do what his heart desires, that he should turn away from them. However, despite knowing that this was Zokhirr's advice and wish of him, he followed the orders of his people. He was beginning to be one of the elders of his people and he didn't want to forsake them for his own desire. He bottled that desire and traveled with a specific group sent to settle the difficult lands that bordered the lush fields that would later become the Hellfire Peninsula and the always harsh climate of the Blade's Edge Mountains. Quickly, the group was faced with violence when they explored the foothills of this mountain and discovered the Ogres for the first time. Thankfully, all retreated with quicker feet but given the weapons they saw the Ogres wielding, they knew it would have been a gruesome death. And so they pushed back closer to those pre-hellfire lands and founded a village there named Elhaar. The lands here grew wheats and oats easier than the group expected, but Ce was not surprised with the fertility of the soil due to its proximity to the forest and mountains.

After sending his reports back to the leaders, Ce was tasked to travel alone to the moor that would later become Shadowmoon Valley to try and grow anything in this land of eternal night. Labii and Skotav are two interchangeable words that Ce often uses when recounting his past. Both are names for the village he would end up residing in the longest during his stay on Draenor. When he lived within it, the village was called Labii, the village of light. It earned its name for the bright crystal that was erected in the middle of the village so that travelers could use it as a landmark during the darkness of the night. The pillar that held the crystal shot up out of the ceiling of the village’s small temple, the center of worship but more importantly a waypost to an even larger temple further into the moors. The name of this temple was Skotav due to the light pillar's tendency to change brightness depending on the angles of the moons overhead. The spiritual leader of this small village was none other than Adviine, the anchorite he feuded with when they were both on the Genedar. Thus, he was more unwelcomed than welcomed due to her feeling that Ce was a being who 'brought more darkness to an already dark place' and the fact that many of the Draenei there had made her their defacto leader. Ce completely ignored the negativity he walked waist deep into and gathered everyone for a discussion on why he thinks this village will not work: because they have yet to see sunlight in these lands. Since Ce had to complete his task anyhow, he recommended that they at least try low growing vegetables such as peas, radishes, and beans. Adviine used this as a moment to try and show Ce the error of his faithlessness in the light. She had some of the members of the village request a number of bright crystals to scatter on top of poles in the village's attempts at fields.

One year later, two out of three of the proposed crops were able to survive thanks to the light provided by the smaller crystals surrounding Skotav. When Ce attempted to try and request a new village placement his letters were returned and the response was that all other villages are being tended to by other consultants, and that since Ce was a key player in finding the right crops for the village of Labii, that he stay there and protect it as a warrior and a hunter. Ce did as he was told, and shared the response and new task with those in the village. Many of them were in agreement that Ce was welcome to stay since the village didn't have one of the original explorers and one of its most well-trained fighters would do well to help protect the village. Ce was paired off with one other ex-explorer who actually only saw to exploring two planets, so he was relatively inexperienced in hunting and fighting. His name was Lucaan. He was one of the largest Draenei Ce knew and remembers him as being so due to the fact that he attempted to teach him how to fight back on the Genedar only to find that he was very timid despite his size and had almost no pain resistance. Yet, since he had fathered many children with his wife over the past thousands of years and had another coming, that he would dedicate himself to learning from Ce with more courage this time. For a few decades, Ce would teach the man how to hunt properly, from small creatures to large, and Lucaan with his size and strength was able to pull a creature as large as an Elekk back to the village with Ce's help. Despite Adviine's influence over the people of Labii they found themselves unable to ostracize Ce the way he was ostracized on the Genedar. That is, until an incident that occurred between Ce and Lucaan around seventy years later.

Ce and Lucaan had grown quite close as partnered hunters for almost a century. Lucaan shared all of his feeling with Ce. Ce shared some of his feelings with Lucaan which is a lot considering how reserved Ce had been since Argus. During the one of the resting hours of the land's eternal night, Ce and Lucaan had unpacked some of the food they hunted down and decided to cook it for themselves before trying to finish the trek back to Labii when a terrible storm appeared over them. It rained as if it were monsoon season and trapped the two on an islet. When Lucaan confessed that he was afraid of the situation they were in, because he struggled with swimming, Ce told him that when he and Zokhirr were travelling across Argus when they were writing 'The Tailors' Tales' they got trapped on a rock in the middle of a raging river for an entire day when a natural dam broke as they crossed. At the time, Zokhiir wasn't a great swimmer either and so Ce came up with idea that they would take off their belongings and hold it above their heads as they waded through. He told Lucaan that this should work again, especially since the water isn't raging and the rain had died down. When both of them had removed their clothing and put their belongings in a pack to hold above their heads, Ce noticed that Lucaan was examining his body and showed signs of arousal. Ce looked at the wedding band on his finger and then Lucaan. He approached Lucaan, and set his right hand against the left side of his face. As his thumb caressed Lucaan's cheek Zokhirr's wedding band did not vibrate or cause him pain as it once did when he attempted suicide, and so he believed Zokhirr approved of the decision. Lucaan's eyes bounced around in his head as he asked Ce what he was doing, and when he asked this Ce attempted to kiss him, only to be thrown into the water by Lucaan. Ce emerged, immediately apologized to Lucaan for misreading him, and pleaded with him to keep what just happened to themselves. Lucaan said nothing. He put all of his clothing back on and waded through the water to reach the other side soaked in muck.

Ce crossed through the water while sticking to his original plan. He almost had to chase Lucaan through it, but when he arose on the other side he had to clean the muck off his own body with a cloth before getting dressed again. As he rushed to clean the grime off, Ce yelled his pleads to Lucaan one last time before he shrunk in his own sight. He knew it was a lost cause, and that the village would be entirely hostile towards him if he returned. He stood there, uncertain of what to do as he let the air dry him. Naked, cold in the post-storm air, and in shock over what happened, Ce just stood there and shivered for two hours before dressing and making his reluctant return to Labii. He decided to return instead of just outright running away because Lucaan might have just taken the silent response to the situation and kept it to himself considering he had a wife. He felt sure that this is what Lucaan probably did when he arrived ahead of him, having lived alongside the man for almost a century. When he got back to the village, during the hours when most would be sleeping as signaled by the covering of Skotav for extra darkness, he instead found a line of lanterns waiting for him. It was almost half of the village waiting for him. Only the younger Draenei were left to sleep, but he could still see their glowing eyes behind windows of homes despite that. Adviine was in front of all of them with Lucaan and his wife at her sides. Ce felt dizzy, his stomach and heart dropped, and his vision almost went black. He walked all the way in front of the group almost subconsciously.

"I've always had my uneasiness about you, Ce," Adviine began, "but I never thought you would be the kind of man to molest a married man the way you just did."

Lucaan's wife chimed in, "We decided among ourselves not to report you but will instead ask that you keep distance from everyone in this village as you pray to Ku're and allow the anchorite to guide you back to the light."

"I..." Lucaan swallowed his words, "I...I will not hunt alongside you again until Anchorite Adviine convinces me you are still...with us as a brother. I...cannot trust that you value the D-Draenei family after what you did."

After the wife and husband said their piece most of the village returned to their homes, leaving Adviine alone with Ce, who ushered him into the temple and as she spoke to him she lured him into a closet full of preserved and packaged food for their rationing. She told him that he should be proud of his accomplishments as a hunter as he looks at these shelves as a means to encourage him. She asked him to stare at the food and reflect on this, so that he may one day channel this pride into worshiping the light. He just silently stared at the floor. She stepped behind him, shut the door, and locked it. With widened eyes he shook off the shock and banged on the door, telling her to just report him instead of locking him in a closet and taking justice into her own hands. She preached from the other side of the door that she doesn't trust anyone but herself to guide him into the light because Ce would apparently wander away once again in the hands of their leaders. "A fast performed by all of Labii," she added, "should accelerate the process. Pray, Ce, pray until our fast has ended and let us hope you've saved us a few morsels by the time I open this closet once again."

Ce simply yelled at her through the door to stop this, calling her insane, before giving up. For three days, he was trapped in the closet. He could hear the village going on about their business through the walls, and each time he heard voices, he yelled out for them to unlock the temple closet only to get no response. He found the resolve not to eat or drink anything for three days until he had to open a bottle of wine in order not to die of thirst. After the third day was over and everyone went to rest Adviine unlocked the closet to find an almost unconscious Ce on the floor, having only opened the wine in order not to die of thirst. She congratulated him and as she held up his head to pour water into his mouth she told him that he'd taken the first step towards redemption. After she fed him water, she asked Ce, "Would you help me prepare a feast for tomorrow morning, to break this fast for our people and allow them to welcome you back into our fold?" Ce didn't answer her, weakened and drunk, he just stared up at her with his eyes wide in disbelief. She used her arms to help stand him up and regain his balance, and walked him into the temple kitchen. Although weak and in stupor Ce saw the open doors of the temple, saw that he could probably find the energy to strangle this anchorite and make a run for it, but with an empty stomach and mind he helped her prepare food in what felt like a zombied state. During the last few hours of cooking, he fell asleep while standing over a wooden table, and wasn't woken up until it was time for the feast.

Adviine and a few other Draenei helped a drowsy and weak Ce wash his hands and face before guiding him to an empty seat at the end of three long tables that had been set up in front of the temple. The wedding band on his finger began to vibrate and shine once again, and caused him an incredible amount of pain in his right hand, but he sat anyways. Many of the villagers looked at Ce with confusion in their eyes, especially the younger ones, but still obeyed their anchorite when it came to her saying a prayer of grace. Ce just tiredly stared at everyone as they bowed their heads and paused when he noticed that one villager didn't have their head bowed. It was Lucaan. Lucaan just stared at Ce with regret in his eyes until he noticed that Ce was looking back at him in return. He didn't bow his head in prayer to join the rest, but just stared elsewhere. When they were finished, Lucaan stood up and addressed the entire village, "I regret taking part in trapping, socially torturing, and humiliating our brother Ce. This is not how the Draenei behave, and not how I was taught to behave, so my family will be taking our leave from this feast." He turned to look at Adviine who struggled to keep a smile on her face but didn't fail in that endeavor. "I pray for better guidance."

After Lucaan and his family left the tables Ce decided to devour every single thing that was passed to him while most of the Draenei just took a few bites and left when they were no longer hungry. One of them added before they walked away, "He's right, this is bizarre. This isn't us."

Ce waited for everyone to leave and reclined back in the chair with a full stomach, a white beard stained in food, and a right hand shivering in pain. Once the entire village had left the tables he looked to a still smiling Adviine and asked, "What now?"

She told him that the village agreed that after the fast and her personal guidance that they would allow him to become the guard of the village and stand in front of the temple during resting ours to protect what is stored within while also allowing pilgrims to rest within as they prepare to take the final journey towards the Temple of Karabor. Ce just silently resigned himself to the job, which he performed in silence and quiet guilt for years, while the villagers moved around him and carried on with life. As time wore on he caught more and more glances by the villagers, until some began to ask if he was okay with what was asked of him. A few apologized for agreeing to the fast. After three long years, a number of the villagers got together in a mob to face Ce once again, this time to forcibly remove him from his current position, all the while thanking him for the lessons that the situation Ce brought taught them. After they led him to the edge of the village, Lucaan put a crossbow in Ce's hand, the crossbow that Ce made for Lucaan when he was teaching him to hunt. He pat Ce on the shoulder gently a few times before shoving him forward roughly, "You're forgiven, Ce, now go do something more important!"

This was the last time he would ever see the villagers alive, as he would avoid it in the future despite his next and final job on Draenor while it was still whole. He became a caravan guard, hoping to put forth a sense of diplomacy he'd always wanted to bring to the world, even if it was on a small scale. For the next nine centuries he would travel the planet as a caravan guard and begin to write a new series of stories, which he kept hidden to all but himself. Additionally he learned to speak the language of the Orcs for the sake of the caravan. Over the centuries Ce performed a small side project in addition to his writing. He became a record keeper for a family of Mag'har that sent sons of generations to be the receivers of traders and their caravans. This tradition began when Ce watched the Kosh'arg festival from afar, all of the games the Orcs competed in annually bringing in trade even from the Draenei, Ce got a first-hand look at how the Orcs could set aside their differences and come together in the spirit of competition. Watching this, he believed he could bring the Draenei into a closer relationship with the Orcs. He met with the first generation of this family line, an older Orc named Krad'lak, he noted that he was a great fighter and deserved the first place he earned in a sparring match but looked a little worn out by the end of it. Krad'lak laughed in Ce's face and told him he wouldn't last a minute in a fight against him, to which Ce accepted as a challenge. He asked the Orc to meet him under one of the large trees near the festival once it grew dark and he would fight with him. As was tradition, when they met under the tree, Ce removed his blade weapons, upper body armor, and gauntlets. Krad'lak's son was brought along to moderate the match and when it began, Ce attempted to enrage the older Orc with successful punches to the ribs because he wasn't protecting him so he'd punch harder and faster, and dodged said punches aside from three for a good five minutes before a fist landed square on his jaw and nearly displaced it. Ce himself was able to get two hits on the older Orc's face, one right on an already misshapen nose and the other a jab to the chin. After another four minutes, Krad'lak finally landed a blow to the head that knocked Ce flat out, winning the match. He was impressed with the Draenei's stamina but spit on the ground near him, simply telling him to come back next year before leaving.

Ce came back next year, at the same time and place since he still had the same position in the caravan, and found only Krad'lak's son to receive him. The son informed Ce that his father passed in the previous month before that years Kosh'arg and that since the Draenei was promised a rematch that he would fight in his father's stead. Although even stronger and with more muscle behind his punches Ce wore the son out fast and only suffered a small fracture to the rib by the end of the fight, having bested the son in four long minutes. Ce noted that as a prize for his win the son was to tell him the story behind his father's name, and in the following year with a subsequent defeat, the story of his own name. It became a tradition for men in Krad'lak's family line to fight the half-name Draenei to see if they could keep secret from him the origin of their names. Eventually, after a few generations, it became the custom for Ce to retell the stories of great grandfathers' names as they were told to him after a fight if they happened to best the Draenei in that year's fight. After a few hundred years Ce earned the title 'Namekeeper' among this family. Although he enjoyed travelling the world and improving on his skills as a warrior, Ce looked forward to Kosh'arg perhaps more than anything.

A little under nine hundred years later, one of the Orcs eventually broke tradition when the Draenei caravan was threatened and denied access to the grounds with no explanation. However, Ce recognized the son of the one who threatened him as somebody who moderated his and his father's sparring in previous years. He gave Ce a glare and a nod before looking behind himself in the direction of the tree while his father threatened his old sparring partner. The last son's name was Zasrek. It would become the only name of Krad'lak's descendants Ce would never learn the name of. Indeed, the two fought that year under that same tree. Zasrek, though shorter and smaller framed than all of his ancestors as a fully grown male, ended up putting Ce through the longest spar in the history of their tradition at twenty two minutes. By the end of it Ce had two black eyes, a broken nose, a swollen lip, and three missing teeth, but the Orc picked him up, slammed him against the tree, and warned Ce. He told him that he didn't want the Namekeeper to tell him the name story of an ancestor but to stay away from all Orcs for as long as possible. His tribe had recently learned of Gul'dan's corrupting of almost all the other Orcs with the blood of Mannoroth and heard a rumor that he had ordered all of the Orcs he influenced to exterminate the entire Draenei race. Ce asked that Zasrek immediately come with him to the temple of Karabor to help warn Velen of the Orcish plot to exterminate his people. Zasrek not only refused to do so but warned him that it was probably too late to do so and a few Draenei salesmen didn't have a chance of making it. Angered, Ce attacked Zasrek and began a second fight, this time Zasrek did not know for what until two minutes into the match Ce asked him that if he bested him this time that he would come help Ce. Zasrek said nothing, and for eleven more minutes the two would fight with all the had, which wasn't much due to exhaustion on both sides. Zasrek however was getting the best of Ce and after almost knocking him out for the third time and watching him struggle to his hooves with all his might decided to throw the match and shift his hand last minute to allow Ce to land a knockout blow. After spending a few minutes tending to both Zasrek's wounds and his own, Ce put his armor back on and confirmed the agreement they made during the fight when Zasrek came to. Zasrek, through his exhaustion, huffed and nodded.

Namekeeper

Zasrek turned to the camp where his people had stayed and remarked at how this Kosh'arg didn't even happen, remarked that over the years the number of tents shrunk until there was just the Mag'har. He mouthed a quiet goodbye to his home and began his quest with the Namekeeper. The journey through Nagrand wasn't difficult until they found Ce's caravan overturned and the bodies of his fellow salesmen missing. Additionally, their killers or abductors weren't around, at least to their own senses. Zasrek noted that based on the direction the wagon was facing before it overturned it was headed towards Zangarmarsh for some reason, and suggested to Ce that he might want to go in that direction rather than Karabor. Fueled with paranoia that would only grow as they made it into the next step of their journey, as they made their way through Terrokar forest, and the threat finally confirmed itself when they were spotted by a small band of six Orcs within the darkest and thickest part of the forest. Ce had fought bandits on Argus alongside Zokhirr and protected his caravan from an Ogre but neither of those fights seemed to compare to this one as he stood back to back with Zasrek and squared off with the now savage Orcs three to one. Ce put his faith in his new companion and let him handle the other three and focused on those three in front of him. He remembered a time when he fought three to one with fellow explorers in training and proved himself by not gaining a scratch and was able to repeat this act as if the memory was repeating itself through the fight. By the time they made it through Terrokar the two had taken part in three different fights and had to retreat from the last one due to the numbers being seven to one. By the time they made it into the valley that used to be the moors Ce helped settle a large portion of his armor had been damaged, dented and chipped, while Zasrek had to recover from multiple wounds with Ce's help.

Although Ce knew the land like the back of his hand, it would prove to be one of the most dangerous and harrowing moments in his life. Not since Argus had he seen something like this. He explained that to Zasrek only then, telling him stories from his home planet, and Zasrek warned him to turn around one last time, that nothing would be found here but death and danger. Ce told Zasrek that if he wanted to leave him he should go, but Zasrek held to the oath he took due to the battle. He avoided battles with the hordes of Orcs that walked the land, being able to hide from them well due to knowing the landscape. When he made it to Labii, Ce almost fell to the ground immediatly. He instead vomited. Scattered on the ground of the village were a little over a hundred decapitated corpses that were beginning to rot. The only body that still had a head was tied to the pole that held the big crystal on top of the temple of Skotav. It was Adviine. When Ce climbed on top of the temple and climbed to the top of the pole, he almost lost his grip when Adviine turned her head to look him in the eyes, still alive despite stab wounds having bled her out significantly. She weakly opened her eyes and let out a coughed laugh, "Not drinking for three days...Ce. I could use some wine."

"Get down -now- Namekeeper, they're coming for us!" Zasrek shouted from below.

Ce turned his head and Adviine added, "No, not in the c..loset. Get my personal collection. My chamber. Only the smallest stone can be turned."

Ce pulled a knife off his beltline and tried to cut her down only to be grabbed by the hoof and dragged off violently by Zasrek and wrestled into the temple to hide. He threw a punch at Zasrek and the Orc threw him onto the floor in return, "Now we're trapped!"

Ce, shellshocked and dizzy, just looked at the floor for half a minute. Eventually his eyes widened, noticing that the flooring of the temple was composed of various stones. He dragged himself to his feet and stumbled into Adviine's chambers, getting on all fours to crawl around and look for the smallest stone on the floor. The voices of Orcs were growing louder and Zasrek could hear that they saw them enter the temple. He raised his axe and looked at Ce with fury in his eyes, "Quit slithering on the floor like a shitworm and fight, Namekeeper!"

Ce remained there until he found what he was looking for. The small stone in the flooring looked more like a knob embedded deep with the stones. So deep that it was difficult to turn. And had Ce not forgotten to trim his fingernails he wouldn't have been able to pop the secret door open. Zasrek quickly yanked it open and dragged Ce in before quietly and yet forcefully shutting it. The room was completely pitch black until Ce shined light from his hand. There was indeed a lot of wine in the cellar and half of the shelves were empty. Ce began to shout at Zasrek about what he'd just seen, and began to blabber quickly as he could to explain what this village meant to them and how that woman who tortured him throughout his life had been a decent person all along in this last act, and pleaded with Zasrek to let him out of the cellar to go save her, but he threw the Draenei down on the floor and covered his mouth with both hands as doors above began to slam open and the sounds of heavy boots, furniture crashing, and grunted voices could be heard above. The two remained completely silent thanks to Zasrek until they could hear someone shout from outside, "Burn it down! Surround it with twenty and kill anything that comes out!"

Zasrek just closed his eyes for a moment, knowing there was no escape from the situation, as he listened to flames grow above. After two minutes the surprisingly piercing screams of a weakened Adviine could be heard from above as she burned alive. Ce was able to wrestle Zasrek's hands off his mouth and begin to scream Adviine's name before it was covered by Zasrek again. This time not with his hands but with his lips. Ce's eyes were the only thing glowing in that room and Zasrek believed they would be the last thing he'd see. He'd never dropped any hints or suggestions of his own inclinations to the Namekeeper, but after hearing about Ce's history, knew this was what fate brought them together for. Ce's eyes stared into Zasrek's soul with shellshock, comfort, and eventually tears as he added 24,000 years of withheld passion into the kiss. He embraced Zasrek's body and head against his own and held the Orc's face in the crook of his neck as they waited to burn to death together. For hours, Zasrek kept his face within the crook as Ce stared into a darkness that grew more and more silent as time began to pass slower than it ever passed for the immortal.

When all of the flames had made their last crackle and the voices disappeared into the mystery of auditory range, Zasrek lifted himself off Ce and helped him to his hooves. Ce let light pour out of his hand and illuminate the room once again. He didn't look for the knob that would let them back out but instead looked Zasrek in the eyes. He noticed the wetness under Zasrek's eyes and then stared into them again, eventually opening his mouth only to be interrupted by Zasrek, "If my ancestors ever hear from the Namekeeper that Zasrek of Nagrand shed tears I will come back to -haunt- you until the end of your days."

Zasrek tried to provide Ce a weak smile but Ce just stared at him, and it was as if the attempt to humor the Draenei after what he'd just been through only returned him to a shell-shocked state, as if the hope he had just seen in Ce's eyes as they kissed had returned to nothingness. Angry, he just punched the ceiling of the secret room and broke the trap door open, stone and all. He yanked Ce out of the room and almost had to drag him out of the village. He held an arm around his body and shoved him forward each time he attempted to look back at the charred remains of the temple and the black and shriveled body of the anchorite they were leaving behind. Zasrek would have to do all the work to lead Ce to a place of hiding once again, and once he finally found a good little cavern at the edge of the moor, he slammed Ce against the wall and stared at him with crazed eyes, "Listen to me Namekeeper. You're going to -get- your shit together and you're going to -get- us out of these lands and back to Nagrand. I don't know these lands. You know these lands! If you don't come out of this we'll both die."

"No..." Ce said weakly, shaking his head and looking off, "I don't want to die." He looked back into Zasrek's eyes, "But I'm tired. I'm tired and I'm cold."

Zasrek wrapped his arms around Ce to embrace him, and Ce embraced him in return. As his hand wrapped around the back of Zasrek's head and the ring on his finger began to burn though the short buzzcut hair that covered his scalp. Zasrek stopped hugging Ce and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck when he began to feel the ring, "Your hand is burning me Namekeeper."

"It's because he's proud of us," Ce responded.

Zasrek ended their embrace and pulled Ce to his hooves by the scruff of his neck, "Stop speaking nonsense and get us out of here. You have to be the hunter again, or we'll be the ones who are hunted."

Ce took a deep breath, rubbed the ring on his finger, and regained his composure. He looked at Zasrek with fire in his eyes now and began to run, leading him out of the moor as fast as he could and sneaking through the woods that the both of them knew a little better this time around. When they found a quiet spot in the woods, they shared a moment together and then had a long conversation before digging holes to cover with leaves so they could sleep. They spoke about their pasts. Zasrek had a lot to inquire about but Ce began to grow tired of explaining his past and began to tell him what he finds special about him now that he has gotten over being blindsided by Zasrek's unexpected affection. He told Zasrek that something about him seems incomplete, just like his own name, and Zasrek responded by telling Ce that the only incomplete thing about him is that he has no sons to fight the Namekeeper in future Kosh'args. They were able to sleep together undisturbed in those ditches they dug, for the first time and the last time, and did not rest after they awoke. When they reached Nagrand, Ce motioned for Zasrek to return to his village before he is seen with him but Zasrek refused to return, telling Ce that he will not return there until he finds at least one living Draenei to unite him with so he can safely return to what's left of his people, if there was anything left. Ce asked him to promise that he'd leave the moment he does and Zasrek nodded in agreement.

The two of them passed near the sacked city of Shattrath on their way to Zangarmarsh, and this was a grievous mistake. They both made the stupid decision to try and spy on it to see if there were any Draenei still alive there but before they could even reach it they were spotted by a band of Orcs over forty strong, many of them even riding Worgs this time. Both Zasrek and Ce ran faster than they'd ever run in their lives and thankfully Ce knew the forest due to his past as a traveler. Zasrek followed every small move Ce made to get the fast approaching Orcs off their heels and after making it to the secret trail to Telredor they were able to lose all of the Orcs except for three that were on the backs of Worgs. Multiple times the Worg riding Orcs got close enough to slash them both in the backs and due to his lack of armor Zasrek received the brunt of this. He began to lag behind Ce a little as they made the final stretch towards Telredor, which was now in sight.

From the Draenei's perspective, they couldn't be blamed for killing Zasrek. They saw a lone Draenei with an axe wielding Orc running right behind him. Not far behind him, three Orcs riding Worgs. They didn't care that Zasrek's skin was still brown, an Orc was an Orc in this time of genocide. Arrows rained down on all Orcs until their bodies were covered in them. Ce stopped running and froze in place when the arrows streamed by him. He slowly turned and looked behind himself at Zasrek, who was was slumped on the ground with multiple arrows in his skull. One eye had been shot into, but the other just slowly moved to look up at Ce. All Ce could do was watch as the life quickly dimmed into nothing in Zasrek's one eye. Jovhaal, who Ce hadn't seen in a millennia, was the one to run towards Ce's rescue and put a final arrow in Zasrek's skull to make sure he was dead. As he did this, all Ce could do was stare at Jovhaal with horror stricken eyes and let his mouth hang open, as if to scream, only for his voice to produce nothing but silence. More Draenei joined Jovhaal at the base of the great mushroom to help wrap Ce in multiple blankets and help Jovhaal escort a now wholly broken Ce up to safety.

Conveniently for the medics Ce just blacked out on the way up the mushroom and woke up in the care of the medics, stirred by the pain of medics sewing up the gashes on his back and pouring healing energy to help seal them. He began to fight the medics to try and get back down to recover Zasrek's corpse but they only saw it as a patient trying to fight them due to the pain, which they were prepared for. Many Draenei were there to keep him held down and eventually they had to incapacitate him again in order to make sure he didn't rip his wounds open again in the movement. When the came to, Jovhaal had been patiently seated beside Ce's bed as he waited for him to wake up. When Ce did wake up, he immediately lunged to grab a hold of Jovhaal's neck, an attempt that was easily deflected by the equally combat experienced leader of the explorers. As Ce tried to attack the man he yelled at him for killing a good friend who deserved protection as much as he did. Jovhaal quickly responded with profuse apologies upon the revelation that the brown Orc was indeed not an enemy after all. He got Ce to calm down after restraining him with other Draenei but wasn't able to get a response or even an acknowledgement to the apologies. He'd been through this before with other Draenei, but Ce was special to him, and knew that there was only one thing he could truly do for him in this moment. He left the room, and returned a few minutes later with his transcribed copies of 'Tales from the Inn-side' and 'The Tailors' Tales' which he set on Ce's lap. Ce was limp and unresponsive to anything but offers of food and water but he had healed, so he'd been put in a room on his own for a few days with the books. Eventually, Ce slowly crept out of his shock and began to lethargically read through the books, books which could be read in one sitting that now required a week in his current mental state.

Even after he closed the second book, the one that was most important to him, he couldn't be brought out of his lethargic state of shock. So he sat there for an entire day until the ring on his finger began to vibrate again. Each time he slumped it pained his hand. The more times he slumped and let his mind go empty the pain was worse. Eventually, the ring put him through a whole-body pain that was one of the worst he experienced in his life, and when that shock was over he came to his senses. He approached Jovhaal the following day, having taken up his sword, and asked that he allow him to join the fight and not ask any questions. Jovhaal asked no questions.

In Telredor he reunited with his old friend Tavus who by that time had found his legs through technology and become a vindicator. He helped Ce relearn the ways of the vindicator so that he could stand strong for his bastion, aiding in the fight against those who sought to destroy him and the last of his people. It was there, when he learned to fight with light covering his sword once again, that he felt the most connected to it than he ever had. He still felt empty despite the pain his ring put him through and as a result an incredible amount of light was able to use his body as a vessel, which he welcomed. However, as warlocks entered the fray, Ce noticed that this attracted a demonic corruption that would turn them into broken versions of what they used to be. From then on, he had to continue fighting knowing that he was at risk of becoming a broken himself while neglecting to notice that he was straying down a dangerous path of abusing light when he began to take notice to how it used his empty spirit as a vessel. These battles lasted over seven years until things finally settled down. He enjoyed them as they allowed him to accept that his emptiness could in return be abused by the light, and after growing used to this and remembering what he was fighting for, reversed the abuse once again.

During his few years of stay in Zangarmarsh, Ce found himself estranged from his people after his experiences with a man of another race and his newfound light abuse, so in the little downtime they had in their defense he studied fungal ecology and learned about the struggles of the Sporelings when he wasn’t on the battlefield or helping out with things in Telredor. He made a promise to a Sporeling child that he would one day return to this place to drive off the monsters that threaten to exterminate the Sporeling race. It was, if anything, a displaced idealism of a much smaller scale that seemed easier than promising his own race they won't be exterminated.

Plans were being devised in Telredor about escaping by taking the Tempest Keep, which was guarded by the Sin’dorei at the time. Ce was one of the first to raise his sword and urge the others to aid in the storming of Tempest Keep. And though he was victorious there, he lost many comrades in that battle, including Jovhaal.

Templar

Being one of the first few to find his way out of the wreckage of the crash, in his dazed state Ce could only admire the beauty of Ammen Vale as he crawled out into it. The trees were purple. The air was dampened by a cool blue mist. The sky was almost blue as it rained crystal flakes from the crash. It was a sight like nothing he'd seen before. But behind him were the moans and shouts of those still trapped; he had no time to admire the scenery. The first few days were exhausting for Ce, as he volunteered himself to be one of the wreckage removers, which meant the lifting of many large pieces of rubble and that he had to carry people two and from the medical tents that were set up. However, as the Kal’dorei arrived to the scene and helped them out, things moved along faster and smoothly, and all that could be saved were saved. He found the Kal'dorei particularly surprising, as in previous instances with the Draenei meeting new races, those meetings were lukewarm at best if not entirely hostile. This, however, was a surprise. In the future, he would think back on this moment with even more surprise, as he would later find out how deeply they cared about nature, and what had just happened here was a decent amount of destruction to one of their world's beautiful vales.

Meanwhile, Ce would learn about Azeroth from one of the Kal’dorei as he continued to help out in the medical facility over the next few months, although it had to be little by little as the two races struggled to find a means of translation in order to communicate. Once he learned about all of the wars that had been going on while his people were struggling to stay alive, he knew that he would readily join Azeroth’s forces to fight back against the corruption that had followed him there. But on a personal level, he wanted to meet all of the different peoples the new world had to offer despite all of the negative things the Kal’dorei had to say about them. He'd finally escaped the cruelty of a world he once felt was promised to be sustainable and lived through another genocide. Curiosity was the only positive emotion he had left. By the time he got used to Azeroth’s atmosphere, recruiters of the Argent Dawn arrived to the Exodar in search of able Draenei to fight for their cause. Ce, eager to fight the Legion and now the Scourge, found the recruits before they found him. After an interview with one of the recruiters, Ce was immediately accepted into training.

For the next year and a half, Ce borrowed from the ways of the Paladin and added these skills to what he already knew as a vindicator as he trained his way up the ladder within the Argent Dawn. He respected the Humans’ worship of the light and their interpretation of holy warriors, and felt that although his only motive to go down the path of the paladin was one of revenge rather than being dutiful towards an oath it still gave him an incredible amount of energy to transfer to the profession. He knew that the oath to dedicate all of his time to the cause of the Argent Dawn and The Army of the Light were just words he had to say; every job he'd ever had has had its downtime here and there. He knew that if he was willing to accept the virtue of chastity, that he could ignore his sexuality and not worry about the constant pressure by his people to settle down with a woman and help reproduce. The more Ce had to think about this unspoken duty given to all of the men of his people the less he cared about it, particularly as he recalled the incidents on the Genedar and in Labii. Lastly, in his transformation as a member of the Argent Dawn, he knew that the promise to always do what is right when faced with the option to do wrong would be an easy oath to take because he left it all to his ring to decide.

At the end of the day, he knew he took none of these oaths to heart, and so swearing them became another lie he had to build around himself and wear like armor. An armor that from thereon would weigh him down with every step but protect him through it all.

After swearing his oaths upon joining, Ce desired isolation in order to reflect on what these lies meant to him, but was constantly pestered into conversations with his new comrades. Not being pestered and making these friendships was at the very foundation of his social armor and so with anger and frustration bottled up behind it all he smiled in front of every face he met and became everyone's cheerleader. The only place to release his anger and frustration towards his self-forced friendships was on the training grounds towards his sparring partners and on the battlefield towards his enemies. His superiors began to take notice of not just his ferocity and valor in battle, but the dynamic of fierce and unmerficul training when dealing with people he treated as true friends when on the training grounds. After he saw a few more battles his superiors pulled him away from the front lines to appoint him as an officer of training but he denied the appointment and remained on those front lines. And so he was instead named an officer of their vanguard. He would lead the small forces he was charged with directly into Scourge territory with a graceful combination of expert caution he gained as a hunter and the military strategy he gained from not only his previous battles but his studies as well.The result of his command of this small but also close-knit group of paladins and warriors he began to groom was nothing but victorious.

Soon enough, Ce became a person who gathered attention from people of various units, and when he did, he learned about the few who decided to take their holy powers to another length, the Argent Dawn Templars. With the ferocity he held inside of himself over the years, and the false sense of closeness he felt to the light as he began to masterfully abuse it, Ce was much more accepting of the idea of using spells of divinity in a much more destructive and effective way. Yet, due to his current position as an undefeated officer the command wasn't willing to let him go easily, and were in fact considering promoting him again sometime soon, so all of the Templars refused Ce's requests to shed his title and become a trainee again. All but one. Her name was Tyshuawyn Marblebelly, a fiery red-haired Dwarf woman who like Ce had been denied this valid path by her superiors due to her military prowess and performed both of her duties as an officer and then a Templar trainee. She told Ce that if he was going to honor the men he has been leading he would have to do the same, and if he hopes to be any bit as good as she now was, he wouldn't get a wink of sleep in the following weeks. Becoming a Templar was an easy feat for Ce. He had already learned how to effectively allow his body to become a vessel for the light and as a result that energy was always brimming within his soul and pouring out whenever he used the light. Committing his skin was the last step he needed to take, and so he covered his back and upper arms in runes and learned how to use each of them while he was still with the Templars. That being said, becoming a Templar and remaining an officer for the Dawn was the true test.

With falseness in his oaths and an emptiness still driving him, Ce would find it hard to dedicate himself to the point where it affected him physically, prevented him from getting more than two to three hours of sleep on average for months without end. While he became incredibly adept and powerful in the use of his runes and with an even larger oversurge of light constantly coursing through his body that only a few Templars had ever achieved, he lost sense of good military tactics as an officer. He could no longer be the friend he was to the men he helped lead due to his absolutely religious dedication to becoming a Templar, and this led to a loss of awareness of what his soldiers were capable of, leading him to his first few defeats. Eventually, he had to let go of his position on the front lines and instead accept a position as an officer within the specialized forces of the Argent Dawn Templars. From that point onwards, he would dedicate himself to training Templars and now dedicating himself to learning the only thing Tyshuawyn could teach him, which was the creation of light-runes. As the battles with the Scourge slowed down his personal research endeavors could now gain his attention. He quickly learned to create all of the runes Tyshuawyn could create with the exception of one of the finest, most difficult runes to make, of which she was only three people in Azeroth who could do so. When Ce insisted on not allowing Tyshauwyn to graduate him as her pupil because of this rune, she disregarded this and graduated him anyways, as well as surprising him with the permission to perform the research she could tell he'd been beginning to look into in secret, which was the study of disease on Azeroth.

Eventually the forces dealing with the Scourge reorganized themselves and Ce found himself within the Argent Crusade. After a series of valiant decisions in the battles of Northrend, and becoming a Crusader Champion, he was promoted to the rank of officer once again in a unit commanded by a man he had gotten to know since joining the Crusade, Krilari Dawnsend. Things were a lot different in this unit than in The Argent Dawn, as Ce was pushed to dedicate himself to interacting with and getting to know the newer recruits within the unit and applying their skills to the missions the unit was sent on, and there were many. Having failed in doing this before, Ce made a promise to himself not to lose sight of constantly knowing the skill levels of those he fought with, but it was one he would struggle to keep during the entirety of his third and final officer assignment. He felt that his commander was putting too much on his shoulders as the recruits he was in charge of helping oversee grew to almost fifty, and resigned to the fact that it was impossible to be their friends. He began to change the way he'd been an officer now that he felt an effort to get to know all of the recruits as a good friend wasn't something he could do. He became cold, distant, and demanding of them. Distance grew from the others in similar command positions in the Crusade, distance from friends he fought alongside of in Northrend. He was losing sight of the way of the paladin and templar. The oaths were easily false-kept until this point, but it was the last oath, the simple and straightforward word to righteously choose to do right instead of wrong, that he would struggle to falsely keep.

Outlaw

Right and wrong, of course, is and has always been subjective. To Ce, ever since his suicide attempt on the Genedar when Zokhirr revealed himself through his ring, there was only wrong, and wrong was when that ring caused pain to surge through his right hand. Like many Templars before him it was zeal that led him astray. But this zeal was zeal over a ring that he believes harbors the spirit of Zokhirr; after losing Zokhirr and later realizing he might still be with him, his love could make no wrong decision. But as two other officers were added to the Crusade to help with that large number of recruits Ce found himself with more relief and was able to travel Azeroth during his time off. Well paid and now equipped with a good amount of vacation time, Ce became a researcher of diseases and their cures. Completely alone, he journeyed all of Azeroth to learn from various cultures about their local illnesses and how they can be cured in an attempt to get to the root of the toughest disease of all, the one the Scourge uses. Eventually, after using his position to gain a few samples of the very essence of the disease itself with the help of his fellow Crusaders, he led his own personal crusade across Azeroth. He would find thieves and violent criminals and whether through baiting them into attacking him or rescuing somebody else, he would drag them away to a quiet and shady location and inflict them with the disease. They would become his personal experiments, here and there, who he would inject with whatever latest attempt at a cure he'd concocted. He made sure to kill and bury them all when there was no success.

His final experiment wasn't performed on a thief or a violent criminal, but a sweet and innocent man who secluded himself in a small house that strayed off the path to Hearthglen. When Ce approached the house he only did so because he wanted some water, deciding to ask whomever was in this house if they could kindly fill his empty canteen for him. When he knocked on the door it was answered by Albert, a sickly middle-aged human man who had the gift of socially entrapping people, at least Ce. Given the facade he'd been putting up for years, the Draenei wasn't the most difficult person to socially entrap. A strong and quick friendship began when they spoke about many things, particularly plant and animal life of this planet and all of the planets Ce had seen, and unlike many over these years Ce was truly speaking to somebody as he would a friend. He had within his home a large number of books from Lordaeron and other human settlements and there were a good number of rare ones on disease that Ce hadn't seen in libraries of the major cities. In exchange for spending time and keeping him company now and then with a good conversation, Albert allowed Ce to read from his library. There was only one book, a loosely bound one locked within a case, that Ce wasn't permitted to read.

After a few weeks of visiting every so often, after getting to know all Ce was willing to tell about himself (which even included his relationship and encyclopedia work on Argus and the Genedar), Albert finally revealed to the Draenei that he was sick with an unknown disease unrelated to the Scourge and can tell that it will slowly kill him over the next few months. Ce had finished all the books he was interested in reading, except for the locked one, and Albert could tell. Ce told him not to worry about the locked book, and that with the books he already read he'd already reformulated a new and more promising cure to the Scourge. He asked Ce a favor anyways, to help him kill himself. Not with any use of force, but by allowing him to be inflicted with the disease of the Scourge to test out that new reformulated cure Ce just spoke of. Ce told him that he wasn't a fan of suicide and that if he did the favor Albert asked of him he would die painfully and slowly. And Albert simply responded by reminding Ce that another disease was slowly taking him anyways. He'd rather allow a different disease to take him if there was any chance it would lead to an important discovery, because either way, Albert was set to die. No mage, doctor, or priest had been able to help him up until now. With that logic explained to him, Ce reluctantly agreed to do this for him. He was locked in his cellar by Ce and injected with the disease. Every few days Ce would visit the home to see how the disease was progressing. When Albert reached the stage where the mind begins to go as well, Ce finally injected him with what he hoped would be a cure, and told him he would be back in two days. Another two days passed, and Albert hadn't gotten any worse nor gotten any better. Due to his job, however, Ce was unable to stay with him for these most important days of the process all the way through. He had to leave and come back for two more days. The last thing Albert said to him is that when he came back in two days, he would appreciate it if he checked his mailbox for him.

Ce never peeked into the man's mailbox. In fact, it was rather full when he did. All of the letters were dusty and yellowed and some of the oldest even eaten away. Yet there was one sealed envelope that was mostly clean and still white in color, and it had 'To Ce' written on top of it. Inside, there was a letter and a key to open the locked book.

To: Ce, From: Albert

“I'm sorry to inform you that if you have received this letter then you have failed to cure me of a disease I had you inflict on me, but succeeded in one last favor, an act of mercy on a sad old man. I know you're not the type of person to sneak into anyone's mail and read it, so I placed this here in the event that I must tell you to retrieve it. Today, after I finish writing this and you visit at sundown, I will ask you to inflict me with the disease you hope to cure so you may attempt to do so. You will politely refuse, but I know you will give in if you hear me out. And so now you've gone through with it, and I've gone with it. If I could tell your cure didn't work, I would ask you to check the mail as one last favor. Inside this mailbox you will find letters, probably from my son. Ignore those just as I have for this last decade. In this envelope, however, I have placed a key to the locked book you have longed to read since you met me. Sorry, it's just a diary. When you return to the cellar I'm having you lock me in I imagine I'll have completely wasted away mentally. I may even attack you if I'm still strong enough. So, before you open that door, read the first day through the door. I probably won't understand them anymore, but I want the last thing that I physically hear to be the words that I put to ink of a time when I was a man with hope and love in my life.

P.S. Do not feel guilty over any part you've taken in this, please. When I first saw you and heard that you were researching disease, I thought, 'this big blue alien ought to do the job.' Thanks.”

Ce took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and just pocketed the key. He had no idea that the son Albert told him about, the one who walked away from his home when he joined the army and told him he would never live just to inherit his doomed farm, was still writing him and at least trying to keep in touch all of these years. Not only that, but he noticed there was no postage on these letters and that the levels of decay on the letters suggested they were placed in the mailbox once a year by somebody. He removed them as well, unable to ignore what they could possibly contain, and read those that were still legible. In one of them the son mentioned that even though he'll never answer the door for him, he would continue to leave his father letters because he knows he reads them. He also mentioned that he could tell that his letters had been opened, carefully resealed, and left in the mailbox to appear unread. This was the last letter he left, the one containing this realization, and upon reading that Albert's son had realized what his father was doing Ce just dropped the pile of letters from his hands and let them scatter in the wind, his stomach and heart dropping once again as life put him in an awful situation.

Ce did as Albert asked him. Albert was already banging on the cellar door and letting out inhuman screams before he even reached it. The first page of the diary was the day his son was born and his wife died giving birth to him. The passage was three paragraphs. The first mourned the death of his wife. The second full of poetic prose about the beauty of his newborn son. The third were his wife's final parting words, "When he grows up, I want him to be kind, like you. And to know his mother loves him dearly no matter what he decides to do with his life."

Ce just let the diary drop to the floor when he finished shouting it over Albert's screams. He sat down on the steps in front of the cellar and just laid his face in his palms before gathering the strength to do what he had to do. When he opened the door, Albert lunged for Ce, and the Draenei swiftly unsheathed his sword and decapitated him. Before the body could fall to the floor he dropped his sword and embraced it, watching in horror as the severed head rolled across the room. Ce didn't let go until the opened neck had finished showering him with blood. He let it fall to the floor and just stood there for a few minutes, staring at the small pool of blood that came out of the neck as the body was now on a flatter surface.

Ce was late to work the next morning. He spent all night burying Albert's body and head, locking the cellar, and then searching the house frantically to find the key that locks the front door only to find that the sun was already rising and he had to get back to Hearthglen. Not only that, but he had to stop by a river and spend over two hours to clean all the blood off his body and his armor. He neglected to leave Albert's house when he left it, leaving the blood stain patterns in the cellar despite locking it and the rest of Albert's diary on the steps in front of it. These two things would later be used as incriminating evidence. He went on with work life as normal, command shrugging off his unusual tardiness as travel-related, and went three weeks without hearing of what just happened, by then having hoped he'd hear nothing at all. But apparently that son had come to visit and leave another letter in the mailbox only to find none of his letters there, and upon finding an unlocked front door and investigating the house, was able to read the diary and bust down the closed cellar. Since Hearthglen was the closest place with law enforcement, he approached them first with the situation, suspecting that the Draenei his father casually mentioned only as a kind occasional visitor was perhaps the one who murdered him. Indeed, he found the blood stains on the ceiling and suspected it was an attack, and with the help of an investigator from Hearthglen, located the fresh burial site on the farm to dig up a separate body and head.

The investigator immediately recognized the Draenei mentioned in the final diary entries as Ce based on the descriptors of a bald head and intense purple eyes. Ce was called in for a meeting only to find himself surrounded by other officers and crusaders. His trial would have to wait, as his commander wasn't there at the time, and Ce was requesting that he be. He believed his friend would hear him out personally and help him in this situation. Unfortunately, he didn't come to the trial, but instead not only Albert's son came but the brother of a man he murdered and experimented on in the past showed up as well after hearing about it. The latter was the brother of a brigand who attempted to rob and murder Ce along the paths of Elwynn Forest and was able to escape justice before his brother could when they found out Ce wasn't some pushover salesman they thought he was. He told the jury that he couldn't tell law enforcement what Ce was doing to his brother but knew that he couldn't take him on on his own when they asked why he wouldn't intervene. They questioned the word of a brigand coming to a trial out of the blue, but upon hearing a story about his brother he would understandably want vengeance for, took the brigand's word as the truth. It matched what Albert's son suspected was done to his father, except Ce didn't gag him and chain him to a tree, he locked him in his own cellar.

They could understand Ce's point of view when it came to Albert perhaps having consented to what Ce did to him as Ce admitted, but doubted the Draenei's words after hearing the brigand's testimony. They decided there wasn't enough testimony to convict him for the other brigand he murdered however. He was sentenced to an undetermined amount of time in prison for two counts of murder, human experimentation, and violation of oath. During his imprisonment those who he thought were friends to him trusted not a word he said and didn't listen to his situation despite having been completely honest about it during the trial. His physical prowess slowly drained from him over the months but it was his mind that truly slipped away. He had never been imprisoned for the tens of thousands of years he had been alive and in his loneliness and loss he aired a thought of suicide to one of the other prisoners, who then snitched him out the next day. For his last two months, he was kept in chains. They allowed him to keep his wedding band, thankfully, so when he tried to bite his own tongue off the ring vibrated his entire body with pain and prevented him front clenching down with his teeth.

An old face, a gnome that he caught committing a crime a few months in the past when he was visiting Dun Morogh, showed up one day in the cell next to his. It was Charlie, a man he blackmailed into serving the Argent Crusade instead of turning him into the authorities. At first, Charlie told Ce that he was actually preparing to break Ce out for a few months after hearing about his trial and imprisonment. Still holding Ce to his blackmail threat, he told Ce this was a means to make them equal. He didn't say much more about it to Ce, only that it would take a few days for his plan to work itself out. In the meantime he became a listening ear to Ce, the first person to show him kindness in over half a year, and it was then when Ce opened up to Charlie and told him his story and more about himself. A few nights later Ce awoke to find Charlie standing above him in his cell. Ce had been unchained, the guards were on the ground unconscious, and the cell door was open. Ce asked no questions. He escaped Hearthglen with Charlie through a little portal and a lot of stealth and made it to Ironforge where he lived with Charlie for a month before running into somebody what he knew from the Argent Crusade that recognized him. He was reported, and hunted down, and barely escaped into the wilderness alone.

He has been surviving as an outlaw ever since. Upon the discovery of Pandaria, he saw the continent as an opportunity to escape from the lands he had spent his last few years on, and began to refer to himself as 'Azzan' to the natives. He befriended many of them and committed himself to assisting in their endeavors where he was able to as a means of survival. He joined a band of heroes who faced off against the troubles that faced Pandaria: the sha, the Horde, etc. He didn't get much money from his assistance but he did score two items that granted him two incredible powers: one with the ability to open a rift in reality to escape from harm, the other unbeknownst to him can revive him once if he is killed. He simply enjoyed them for what they were, fine rings, and wore them on his left hand. He decided against selling them because he knew at least one held some sort of power that he could use and that the other might as well. Unfortunately for 'Azzan,' his supposed spiritual journey on Pandaria would have to come to an end if he wanted to remain with this band of heroes and help finish what they started by aiding in the Siege of Orgrimmar. He wasn't worried about Orgrimmar having any of his wanted posters, but he was worried about Stormwind, which he had to stay in for a few days when following the Alliance members of the band of heroes to Orgrimmar. His worry came to be validated when a fellow Draenei confronted him after recognizing his wanted poster and true identity, and when he confronted her, he attacked her and ran into the alleys of the city. She gathered other heroes to find him, and when they did, Ce had to face off with three of his own people and almost got killed in the process. After submitting defeat, he answered the many questions they intended to ask him before taking him to the city's authorities and as they did, he opened up a portal with his new reality ripping ring and escaped into the sewers.

Down in Stormwind's sewers, covered in the filth of all its residents, Ce just said to himself, "Let them all go to Orgrimmar and rip each other to pieces. I could care less about what that Orc is doing at this point."

But his ring began to cause his hand pain again, and whenever he turned away from the direction of getting to Orgrimmar, it pained him again. With an annoyed but dedicated spirit, he joined the siege.

Personality

Ce's personality has changed dramatically throughout the ages. As of right now, first and foremost, Ce is both untrusting of others and untrustworthy himself. He can hardly trust himself anymore, which is why he let the ring make his decisions for him, and yet he is self-aware of his own mistrust of himself. All and all, he's a wounded person who at this point only listens to what the situation is telling him since the ring is silent most of the time. He's quite an aimless person in his situation as an outlaw and with paranoia and loneliness he seeks out others all the same, but with caution and needing a good reason to help a person. Those who happen to get to know Ce and attempt to form a friendship with him may find it to be a challenging process to actually get to know him given his current situation, but he's at least considerate and decent to people who treat him the same way, especially if they treated him well despite knowing he's wanted, but at the end of the day he wouldn't even trust that person right off the bat due to his past.

Those who do get to know Ce better will first have to pass through multiple philosophical conversations that he purposefully forces on people in order to complicate what he's actually trying to express and confuse them. He does this as a defense mechanism and views it as a reaction test to find out more about what kind of person he's dealing with. But that is only with people who attempt to try and get to know him better. With strangers, he will speak with them normally albeit be quiet in larger groups due to their nature.

Despite the above, his social persona is a surprisingly naked and transparent mixture of ritualistic politeness and hedonism. Indeed, Ce enjoys a good drink and decadent food, and if he wasn't a hunter who wears what he does now due to the need for camouflage, he'd wear vibrantly colored outfits. He is quite open minded on the note of food and drink as well as cultural games and practices of races he doesn't belong to, particularly the ones he doesn't know well.

Lastly, if one were to find themselves under his training, may it be physical or academic, Ce would find himself attached to them as if they were a son or daughter. Even if they would later cross him with those skills, knowing that he was the one who helped grow them, he will find it difficult to end them. Unwilling to father real children, but a father to the men he was responsible for teaching or training throughout the ages, a deep paternal instinct is at times pulled out in front of the many clouds in his mind when dealing with any of his past pupils.

Skills and Abilities

A portal maker, a four time author, an innkeeper, world-traveling tailor, explorer, botanist, zoologist, hunter, caravan guard/merchant, brawler, warrior, vindicator, templar, officer, scientist, and now a scavenger-fugitive. He's led many careers over his long lifespan, and the skills and library of knowledge he stores in his head is vast. Many of the books within it are rotting, others burned by both himself and others, and so only a little remains from many of the older careers.

For example, while he may still have a vast knowledge of how to use the arcane, it wasn't the arcane of this world and he hasn't used it for about 30,000 years, so he's no mage. That being said, he can still easily identify and utilize an artifact with arcane power or arcane enchanted items. Certainly, while he could probably run a bar given how he's always been a drinker and can cook a good meal if he has the privilege of good ingredients, he lacks a sense of hospitality he once had as an innkeeper, in all senses of the word. The attention to detail that was necessary to grow the plants and animals on the Genedar would be difficult to repeat if tasked of the contemporary Ce. Like a language, skill requires consistent immersion, but even if lost it can be pulled deep from the subconscious if the situation calls for it and he's able to see through the clouds in his mind.

What he has been immersed in ever since he became an explorer is the art of combat, particularly fist fighting, wrestling, sword fighting, and acrobatics. Although he's been through a lot, he's been religious about keeping those skills up from the moment he built them on the Genedar. Although being a hunter was lost from his life he has recently been able to relearn how to become one in order to survive in the wilderness as a fugitive. Although he also knows how to use a bow well, he still prefers a crossbow on the note of hunting, and thus is better with the latter. He has also been keen to enchant anything he has in his possession whenever he gets his hands on the means to enchant. And given that it's been a common requirement of all his most recent careers, Ce is above all his other talents formidable as a swordsman and a user of light and runes.