Darlenai

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Information

Player Name: Emmara

Character Full Name: Darlenai

Character In-Game Name: Darlenai, Dar

Association(s): Alliance, Thunders Pack

Race: Draenei

Class: Hunter

Age: 6700

Sex: Female

Hair: Dark blonde with light streaks of blue and cut into a short style.

Eyes: [luminescient] light blue

Weight: 260

Height: 7'0"

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: She mostly wears leather clothing that is light and minimally restricting. It is comfortable for when she is hunting or socializing around town.

Appearance: Darlenai is tall for a female Draenei. Her build is athletic, but in combination with her excessive height she is a little on the thin side. Her hair is short to keep it out of her eyes and to keep it from getting tangled in the foliage while exploring nature. It's not unusual to see her with a mesh bag hanging from her pack; it holds the fish she catches. If she is not in town she will have one of her favorite companions, Snowcap, with her. He is a large ice bear with a stable disposition. She has also recently befriended a shadowmaw panther cub.

Personality

Alignment: Lawful good

Personality: Darlenai is very upbeat and enthusiastic about new experiences in life. She is always looking around even if she is someplace familiar. She would say: You never know when things might change. From time to time her enthusiasm makes her seem like a ditz as her mind is prone to going on a tangent. There are very few things that will dampen her spirits, but someone being a bully will bring out her aggressive side.

History

Darlenai was born during one of the hops between planets during the Draenei's flight from extermination. Her formative years were filled with happiness and contentment. Her father was a hunter and her mother was an herbalist. Both were positive minded people and raised Darlenai in a happy household. Darlenai was forever keeping her parents on the move. From an early age she showed an insatiable curiosity for her surroundings. Fortunately nothing bad ever befell Darlenai in her toddler years due to her very watchful parents. She grew up tall and a little lanky. Peers early on made fun of her for her unusual height. She tried to avoid them as much as she could, but in the long run she developed a deep seated disdain for bullies.

Darlenai's mother spent less time going out to collect herbs after Darlenai was born. Her father continued to hunt and supply the local butcher with food for the town. When Darlenai was a 1000 years old her mother started to let her go out on short collection day trips to help collect herbs. Darlenai always returned with a full basket. Unfortunately, it wasn't always full of herbs. Some times the basket was occupied by an injured or lost animal. The herbs had been left behind in a haphazard heap where she found the animal.

When she was 1600, she was out on a week long expedition for some rare herbs. The group was accompanied by hunters and a couple warriors that needed a side job. During the evening, when everyone was back at camp. The camp was attacked by a pack of predators. A warrior fell wounded while trying to get between one of the predators and Darlenai. In a moment of adrenaline, she picked up the sword and defended the warrior as best she could. It was a hunter that finished the animal off with a shot from his rifle. That expedition ended early due to the number of injuries, but there were no deaths except the predators. That night Darlenai talked with her father about wanting to learn more about nature. He was a little surprised to hear that since she was the one that was always saving the animals. After a long talk he learned that Darlenai's logic had changed about animals. She knew that some animals were meant to be used for food. He started to show her the basics of hunting and wilderness survival. When it came to a weapon they both decided that a crossbow might be best for her. The experience of a gun just did not go well. However with her being taller she was able to handle an ax fairly well, which was a relief to her father. It was the only weapon besides the gun he was proficient at using.

At the age of 1800, she fell ill during a planet hop. The illness lingered for a long time and she missed her first opportunity to experience snow. During her confinement indoors she took an interest in alchemy, it was the first time she had ever really had a chance to see how some of the herbs were used. By the time she was well enough to go outdoors again, the snow was gone. She was really disappointed. All the kids she could see from the house were having so much fun, and she had missed it. When the snow returned the next year, she was excited and found why the other children had so much fun, even the older ones. From then on, she has always loved the snow.

Darlenai was deep in a wilderness on a solo hunt when she was 3500. She had come to love planet hops. Her love of exploration and learning new things thrived on the variety of environments to which she had been exposed. It was then she had her epiphany about the relationship of her love of nature and the Light that had guided the Draenei for thousands upon thousands of years. Her love of nature and how easily she learned her skills to hunt and forage was her way to give back to the Light for all that it had created. When she was in town she would talk to the herbalists, the alchemists, and the butchers to find out how much supplies they really needed. She started to pay closer attention to how much her hunting parties and the herbalists took from the land. Her catches were usually the smallest, but since she was frequently helping her father lead the hunts, no one really thought much about it. She was gauging the loads to avoid harvesting more than what was needed.

By 4500 Darlenai was pregnant with her first child. Unknown to anyone, the illness she had had as a child had affected her body's ability to sustain a pregnancy. The child died shortly before the delivery date. Darlenai's heart was broken. She spent more and more time in the wilderness because it was something she understood. She never cursed the Light during her mourning. Prayers for answers were always offered, but no reason was ever given back to her. Her motherly urges to nurture were turned toward the land. The principles were always the same planet after planet that she had been on and would be on. She pieced together the similarities and she developed a system that enabled her to explore and understand new lands faster. Overtime, her happy go lucky attitude returned as she learned to accept that she could not become pregnant. She became more social again, but she usually tried to stay away from children if at all possible. Her urge to nurture the land and do what was necessary to keep it healthy never faded. She started to pay more attention to sentient beings and figuring out their part in the web of nature. When it came down to it, the wilds were more home to her than the towns.

The arrival of the Draenei on Draenor was the final piece of the puzzle for Darlenai's recovery from her unborn child's death. She returned to leading hunting parties out into the wilds of Draenor. Her experiences with watching behaviors of the wild and her new found curiosities about sentient beings may have inadvertently saved her. When they had first arrived the Orcs were amicable and respectful of the Draenei. Occasionally when orc hunting parties would cross paths with Draenei hunting parties there was no tension, but Darlenai started to notice a change in the Orc attitudes. They were becoming more hostile. Other hunters noticed it also, so no one argued when she started taking parties out to areas not between the Orc lands and the Draenei lands. She never suspected the genocide that would occur in the future.

It was in the middle of the night when their town was attacked by the orcs. She grabbed her crossbow and tried to slow the orcs to give her neighbors time to flee. She was separated from her husband in the confusion. It was a horrifying sight to see the enraged orcs barely flinch as arrows stuck out of their armor. She saw how ineffective her attempts were, and she fled with the rest. Eventually, they reached the capital where other survivors had sought sanctuary. Velen's public speech was grim. When he called for volunteers to defend Shattrath the cries of Draenei pride was deafening. Velen reassured the others in the crowd that there was no shame in following him to the marshes, not everyone was meant to be a fighter. Darlenai thought long and hard for a few moments and decided she was not a warrior. Her talents would be best used to help create a refuge in the marshes.

In the marshlands, she found her parents but never her mate. It wasn't a glorious 20 years, but Darlenai always managed to keep a smile. Her smile and good spirits were usually infectious and lightened the mood for a short while. Darlenai was actually relieved when she started to hear rumors that they might be leaving Draenor. She hated being confined to one area, her legs were meant to roam. She did not turn away from the new call for fighters to take the Exodar from a race called blood elves. They needed archers and hunters to lay down arrow volleys early in the battle in order to weaken the elves. Once the paladins and warriors entered melee combat, the military archers would continue to support the fighters. The hunters were to guard and assist the non-fighting citizens to the Exodar and prepare for a hasty evacuation.

During the crash her father's arm was severely injured to the extent he was no longer able to hunt. The years of the war and hardships of the swamps had left him yearning for a quiet home life. He was not heartbroken, and he was happy to spend his time in nature helping his wife gather herbs. Darlenai used her hunting skills to go on scouting missions to explore their new home. Eventually Draenei found peace with the Night Elves and even were accepted into the Alliance, she enjoyed talking with the night elf hunters and the druids about their theories and philosophies of nature. She had heard rumors in a tavern one night of a land that was always covered in snow. Snow all year long. She had to find this land. It didn't take long to learn of the city of Ironforge. Now she was even more excited: snow and an entire city built inside a mountain. She had to find this land!

Her arrival in Kharanos was greeted with suspicious looks. At first she felt a little self conscious standing so tall above all the inhabitants. Her first acquaintances were gnomes, they were cheerful and open minded about her. Fiffer was her first gnome friend. They struck up a conversation about hunting. She quickly realized he didn't know anything about nature, but he did build guns for the dwarf hunters. He showed her around the area of Kharanos and Iron Forge. During her tour she became absolutely enamored with the rams that some of the dwarves rode. Fiffer helped her find one that was tall enough for her to ride, no easy task. She found her first animal companion there. An ice bear cub had gotten part of his paw caught in a steel trap by a less than ethical hunter, in her opinion. Over the duration of her caring for him, they bonded. She named him Snowcap. Her positive attitude and helpful nature finally won the hearts of most of the dwarves she dealt with during her years there. Despite other draenei that would pass through Iron Forge, it was the Draenei with the winning smile and the bear cub that was always warmly welcomed at the taverns.

One day Fiffer asked her for a favor. He was afraid of the wolves and bears in the wilds, but he had a gun that needed to be delivered to a client. The dwarf was in the military and was stationed out in the northwest region of Dun Morgh. Darlenai was more than happy to deliver the gun for Fiffer. She had been warned that she would be near lands inhabited by the trolls. She came over a rise and caught a glimpse of a dwarf struggling through the snow. Her eyes traced back along his snowy track and saw a ram carcass pierced by several spears. A group of 3 trolls were just arriving at the carcass. She realized the wounded dwarf wouldn't stand a chance against multiple trolls. Her ram raced the trolls to the dwarf. She unslung her crossbow and dropped one troll before they reached the dwarf. As she got to him one of the trolls fell under the dwarf's ax, but the dwarf's leg was taken out from under him by the remaining troll. Darlenai grabbed her ax and swung as she rode past the troll. His head sank into the snowdrift ten feet away from where the body crumpled. She hid her smile as the dwarf picked himself up. He muttered he had it under control and didn't need a lady's help, especially a blue one. She had lived with the dwarves long enough by now to know that it was the closest thing to a thank you she would hear. The dwarf did accept her offer for him to ride her ram since his leg was injured, but only after a lot of blustering about not needing to be coddled. During the ride to the outpost where he could get medical attention and she could deliver the gun, the old dwarf began to ask her a lot of questions about the aging ram. After awhile he offered to get her a better ram. She said her ram was fine. He agreed....for a work ram, not a steed. It was then that he told her that he was the head of one of the families that bred rams for the military cavalry. One of the steed rams was freakishly big....like her. It was a fine ram but not even the tallest of the cavalry dwarves or royalty could ride it. It was a shame to waste its potential by having it pull carts for the rest of its life.

Recently she met a night elf that was different than any she had met previously. They met while she was fishing to feed her newly acquired malnourished orphan Shadowmaw panther cub. The more she talked with him the more she began to realize there was a whole other way to commune with wildlife. Tirius has invited Darlenai to hang around with Thunders Pack to see if she would fit into his family. Darlenai thinks that Tirius sees something special in her, but she laughs it off to herself that she is something as special as anyone else.