Kanilis

Player: Etmosril

Character Full Name: Kanilis Shallaxas (Ruin-from-Shadows; adopted after completing her initiation)

Character In-Game Name: Kanilis

Nickname(s): Lurker. Tuaehion.

Association(s): Bound to protect the non fel-corrupted mortal races, but mainly Kaldorei. Needless to say, this association is very one-sided.

Race: Night Elf.

Class: Demon Hunter (OOC Rogue)

Skills and Abilities: Despite the origin of her demonic essence, Kanilis is no more powerful than your average Demon Hunter.

Shadow-walker: Kanilis' presence is easily overlooked. She moves and fights almost silently, showing little of herself except her outline, and traveling with little difficulty past obstacles which should be enough to contain a normal being. This stealth - slightly exceeding the norm for her kind - is the limit of her ability.

Spectral Sight: In lieu of normal vision, Kanilis 'sees' Fel and Arcane.

Immolate/Tainted Fireball: Kanilis has access to a limited amount of Fel-fire, which she either forms into a shell around herself, or uses as a projectile weapon. She may also set her glaives aflame.

Mana Burn: Arcane-wielders who fight Kanilis run the risk of having her burn the Arcane energies inside their bodies.

Drain Demon Soul: Exactly what it says on the tin.

Age: 10,032

Sex: Female

Hair: Light sea-blue, bound in a short braid.

Eyes: What are those 'eyes' of which you speak? She uses marbles of appropriate sizes as false eyes, to keep her eye-sockets from collapsing.

Weight: 265 lbs.

Height: 7'2.

Usual Garments/Armor: Mottled leather armor with a surprising amount of coverage. She hates kilts.

Other: Kanilis is muscular and solidly built, with fangs a touch longer than your average Kaldorei's. Her skin color is an odd one; a dull royal blue crisscrossed by designs and scars in a paler shade. One might be forgiven for thinking that the paler skin is tattooed: it's actually all that remains of her original skin color.

Alignment: Neutral Evil.

Personality: Kanilis' nature is immoral and ambiguous as mist, much like the common perception of the race. She goes where she wants and does what she wants, ignoring human laws in the process of getting her work done. The laws of Night Elves are treated a bit differently. She'll behave herself in Kaldorei lands, in the interest of looking like a decent person to other elves, and to prevent her own execution by Warden. As she speaks rarely to begin with, this is easy.

Wealth, goods and companionship have little value to her: they'll either be taken away as painfully as possible, or they were useless from the start. Stories or opportunities to do something hands-on are some of the few things she'll accept.

She's a loner, but this isn't to say she hates people - quite the opposite. They fascinate her. The only problem is that she has very poor taste in when to break off contact with some people. Devotion is enough to keep her holding someone long after they've become detrimental to her. As a result, her love, skepticism and bitterness are mingled, and it's anyone's guess as to which one will show itself first. Her concepts of companionship and love are equally off-kilter; desensitized to cruelty by some combination of long, miserable experience and demonic influence.

Kanilis is misandristic, prone to either ignoring men, or telling them to get back to their Barrow Dens where they belong. She's seen them die repeatedly, and has become convinced that it's because they're just that bad at fighting. Women aren't free of this venom either: she despises those who are weak-willed or reliant by her standards. This includes Tyrande Whisperwind.

There are no races which Kanilis considers friendly ones. The closest would be Kaldorei and Draenei, likely because of their lifespans and their shared hatred for the demonic. Humans are "monkeys", too short-lived and crude to be anything other than tools for her use. She has more liking for Dwarves, Gnomes and Tauren - much of her racial preferences are predicated on lifespan. She has many similarities with Trolls, but ignores them. And it goes without saying that she reserves the most of her hatred for the fel-tainted races; Orcs and Sin'dorei.

History: "I was born on a dark day; the Day of Storms when the earth broke, and the waters rose up to meet it..."

Kanilis was born during the Sundering, of which she and her mother Sannvei were the sole survivors in her family. Although she was too young to remember it, the impression that something vast and changing had destroyed the once-glorious race was something that would shape her as she grew.

She lived alone with her mother on the northern coast of Azshara, keeping the Naga at bay and watching the tides carry in evidence of the destruction. It was a life with few pleasures, except for the occasional traveler and the artifacts which washed up on the shore. The travelers most often traded stories for shelter and food. The older she grew, the more eagerly she listened. Here was evidence that there was life beyond theirs - that the Kaldorei remained, and grew stronger.

She grew stronger too, as she got older. The wilderness was too dangerous for anyone to stay weak for long. Soon, she traveled alongside her mother - killing Naga, hunting, gathering and fishing their food, and diving fearlessly into the water to explore the sunken portions of Eldarath.

It was in her fiftieth year that she ventured on south into Ashenvale. Here she began to understand that not only were there more elves than she'd ever dreamed possible, but they were also much more complicated in their dealings. She had come at an opportune time - they were still reclaiming their territories and building more cities - and soon found her experience in the wilderness earned her a place amongst the huntresses of Ashenvale.

Years passed peacefully, if not happily. Kanilis still held others at arm's length, preferring solitude to the companionship of her fellow huntresses and Sentinels. So nothing held her back when she decided to keep traveling on through Kalimdor to explore the rest of the world.

She spent about a hundred years wandering the farthest reaches of Kalimdor; from Azuremyst to Silithus and back and settling in wherever she pleased. It was in charting the Isle of Dread that she saw a creature in one of the tunnel mouths of the Isle, half-hidden by the shape of the rock. She shot it, thinking it was a Naga - only to find that it was another elf. She did what she could with first aid, then loaded him onto her ship and went on north to Feathermoon Stronghold for a healer.

Yet for some reason, she didn't just dump the other elf in the arms of a healer and run off. She stayed there out of curiosity. Why was a male out hunting Naga? Shouldn't he be asleep in a Barrow Den? Those questions were answered soon after arrival. Evraean Rainwander (as he introduced himself) was a failed druid; not without potential, but judged too risky to teach. And he'd taken the same path as her - as an exile, and a hunter.

They became friends easily. They had much the same mentality (a dutiful one, and resentful of other elves) and goals in life. Kanilis invited him to travel with her only a week or so after that fateful arrow to the knee. In retrospect, it was a foolish move. They had a way of reenforcing one another in their worse habits.

A decade or so passed before an incident during a visit to Evraean's home led to a confession on his part. The druids who had refused to teach him hadn't done it out of dislike or malice, as he'd told her. It was because they knew a risk when they saw it. Evraean had seen and fought the demons during the Sundering, and he was convinced beyond all doubt that one day, they would return.

She didn't care. That was another way they were similar. Kanilis hated and feared demons, though she didn't remember seeing them. All she remembered was that they were the cause of all grief since the Sundering; Highborne pride conveniently forgotten. She became convinced that Evraean was right. Why wouldn't he be?

Oddly enough, that similar fanaticism made them even closer. She and Evraean were comrades-in-training, confidantes, and - in time - mates as well. By that time, her mind had become poisoned enough by Evraean's demon-loathing that nothing would stop her from preparing for their return. The two children they had (fraternal twins: one female and named Eythernia, one male, and named Ilethuir) were taught in similar fashion. It became painfully obvious, though, that only one of them believed the teachings. Eythernia sympathized with the Highborne.

Eythernia was disowned by Kanilis and Evraean for magical use, and exiled along with the Highborne. Ilethuir remained with his family until he was grown, then traveled on for his own adventures. His parents rarely contacted him - as far as they were concerned, their duty as a family was over. _________________________________________________________________

"They have nothing except torment and death to offer us now. Not even the kindest of them would ask us why we've taken this path before cutting us down where we stand. No. I won't allow it. When the demons return, Kanilis, so will we. Maybe then, they'll understand..."

They lived in almost complete solitude for millenia in southern Azshara, training, hunting, and proselytizing to anyone who wandered their way. But it was beginning to wear on Kanilis. She'd believed in Evraean and the final, cataclysmic event he never stopped talking about. So where was it? And they'd been alone for so long that even the typically antisocial woman was longing for more people in her life.

Evraean however, didn't - and he saw no reason for Kanilis to like people either. People had tried to kill him for his obsession, he told her, while others thought he was deluded. Why should they live in a society whose people hated and feared those who wanted to protect them? Kanilis had no reason. She was more than willing to shed her desire to kill in trade for a more normal life. They came close to fighting on that disagreement, until she gave up. Evraean her been her friend and travel-companion for thousands of years, and he was her mate as well. Nothing was worth giving that up.

She would wait. _________________________________________________________________

"The demons have not left us forever. And when they return, will you have fight to offer - or merely regret?"

As it turned out, he was right. The mixed forces swept through Ashenvale like creatures from a nightmare, hindered at every step by Kaldorei forces in every way possible. It was by some unnaturally keen sixth sense that Evraean knew and traveled on towards Hyjal with Kanilis. Here - at last - was their duty. This was the end of their exile.

They both fought in the Battle of Mount Hyjal. What's more, they both survived. The long span of time in between the Kaldorei's two great battles had left Evraean rusty, and the techniques both he and Kanilis used had changed over time to something less efficient. But the knowledge served them in good stead as they set out to clear Ashenvale with the others, and spread their teachings to the other Kaldorei.

The resurgence of demons hadn't done much as far as their status was concerned. They were still feared and disliked as ever. Growing irritated by the whole affair, Kanilis refused to go back into the same exile from which they'd emerged. She studied the humans instead. They were more accepting of the two - either because they didn't understand what a normal Kaldorei was like, or because they knew the value of killing demons.

An even more frightening obsession seemed to have gripped Evraean. He'd never seen Illidan Stormrage as being imprisoned for just reasons. When he learned that the Stormrage brother had absorbed demonic power and become stronger, it became his next goal. If defending the world from demons required sacrifices, then so be it.

A long trail of events and information led them to Outland along with the other adventurers who'd ventured on to the next world. They wasted little time with exploration, traveling instead into the demon-ridden wilds to continue what they had begun. Without the knowledge of true Demon Hunters and their methods, it was all either of them could do to learn more of the place. More of where Illidan had gone.

It was not demons which ultimately felled them - it was their own foolishness. Evraean was blinded by an errant (but swift) neck-movement of a demonic hound they fought alone, which sent mixed felblood and saliva spraying all over his face. Most of the flesh on his face had been eaten away, and his eyes burnt out of their sockets by the corrosive liquid. And just like stubbornness nearly killed him, it also saved him: he refused to die. No matter how close to death he seemed, he never got there.

He told her of terrifying sights when he was feeling well enough to speak: of glowing demonic energies he saw in the darkness, and the disorienting feeling of 'seeing' them in all directions, yet never knowing which one he faced.

Kanilis was frightened. Of those stories, of Evraean, and what they'd both become. She was equally stubborn, though, and refused to abandon him or their 'duty'. So when they were approached one night by another one of their kind, she was willing to listen. She poured her heart out to this new Kaldorei Demon Hunter, telling him the story of their hunt. She in turn heard about the training the hunter had undergone, and what was still left for him to do.

This Demon Hunter was a mere apprentice. His eyes had been burned out in almost the same way as Evraean's, his body tattooed with marks in ink and demon's-blood, and he carried glaives - but there was one more task left for him to do. He had to kill a demon, and drink the blood from its heart. The more powerful, the better.

He was also not averse to cheating if it meant more strength. As soon as Evraean's mind had left its haze and he was capable of walking, the three made a bargain together: if they helped the apprentice to kill the strongest demon they could find, then he in turn would help them by either hunting demons with them, or training them.

Kanilis still feared for their lives. In time, she persuaded them to join another group of adventurers. As long as the adventurers killed demons, she assured them, that would be enough. The apprentice would have more power than he'd ever dreamed of.

On the adventurers' battles through Netherstorm as mercenaries to the Ethereals, they encountered the worst: a camp of the Legion on the border of the Nether, ruled over by a minor Dreadlord. Although they all fought with such zeal that it did their respective races honor, they died one after another to the Dreadlord's claws and spells. Evraean perished, as did the apprentice. Kanilis was one of those who remained by the end. She was so badly wounded, and there were so few of her comrades left that there was no chance for a resurrection. Even carrying only Evraean's body would be too much.

There was nothing left for her after that. Nothing except to finish what her friends had started. She went south alone to where she had met the apprentice Demon Hunter, hoping to win favor with the apprentice's master by way of the Dreadlord's severed heart.

It worked in the worst way possible. When she had found the wanderer who had trained the apprentice, and told her all that had happened - the centuries of waiting for demons, the shared obsession between her and Evraean, the wandering on Outland, the accident, and the deaths of all whom she valued in that final battle -, she listened to her plea. _________________________________________________________________

"Ostracism, death, compulsion.. no matter how great those changes, the last one will be the greatest. You will have no security or comfort anywhere - your own mind will be turned against you. I ask for the last time, Kanilis: is this what you want?"

Under the tutelage of Therellia, Kanilis took the last steps of the journey she'd begun millenia ago. She was tested over and over again; in mind, spirit, body. When the time came, she burnt out her own eyes with a fel-bloodied dagger, and was tattooed with the essence from the Dreadlord's heart. She returned from her last trial having killed a demonic hound as vengeance for Evraean.

Was it weeks or months she'd spent in that final training? She didn't know. Only that she felt sicker than she'd ever been, and some part of her (which she barely recognized) was distant. Changed. That rift only got worse with time.

She remained in Outland for a long time after that, pursuing her duty before traveling back to Kalimdor and her racial home. She had decided it was senseless to remain: what good was it to kill demons which would only re-form? And what about the others who were killed in the process? They couldn't be replaced.

She would do the most good possible. And if that lay in protecting others, then so be it.