Richard Saurlen

Information

Player: Vrahn

Character Full Name: Richard Saurlen

Character In-Game Name: Richard

Nickname(s): None

Association(s): The Queen's Knights, The Forsaken

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Race: Forsaken

Class: Warrior

Age: 43

Sex: Male

Hair: Black, rather scraggly.

Eyes: Glowing Yellow

Weight: 153

Height: 6'1

==Appearance==Richard is generally clad in his blackened armour when out in public, though he is perfectly fine with wearing shirts or other less combat oriented clothes when in garrison. He will carry his sword with him wherever he goes, and can usually be seen with his Forsaken tabard clearly visible.

Personality

In life Richard was courteous and loyal, in death this hasn't seemed to have changed. Richard carries a strong sense of honour and conducts himself politely whenever in the presence of those who deserve his respect. He is a man on a mission, and when his mind is focused on something he is determined to reach it, no matter the cost to himself. He is loyal to the bone, and sometimes is prone to being used even when he is aware of it, and he doesn't place too much value on his existence.

History

Richard began his life in the city of Stratholme where he was raised from infancy by his father, a strong willed, but honest man named Alric who served as a member of the guard for the noble house Harker, a small but wealthy estate in the city. In his early days he would often play knights and robbers with the local townsfolk until at the age of five he accompanied his father to the Harker household one day when the neighbours were too busy to babysit him. This would be the first time he caught a glimpse of the nobles his father protected, and the first time he laid eyes on their young daughter Elizabeth, who was only four.

Naturally curious the young boy slipped away while his father was discussing incredibly boring things with the nobles to go find the potential playmate and get into some trouble, and so he did, and thus their first encounter went reasonably well, at least as well as it could have gone with a commoner's son speaking to a noblewoman. It wasn't too long before his father caught up with him, distraught over the thought of the consequences he pulled his son away as quick as possible, however the entire incident was forgotten in good humour, as Lady Harker seemed to find Alric's embarrassment rather amusing and besides, they were only children.

Unfortunately Richard didn't really understand the concept of a class structure, all he saw was a challenge to overcome, and thus from then on Richard occupied much of his time finding innovative ways for sneaking into the estates to play with his new friend. Elizabeth for her part was rather sheltered, she had never played knights and robbers, nor had she experience the thrills of stealing mother's pies from the windowsill, or cat tail catching, and so Richard summarily took the time to educate his poorly informed friend. These meetings went on for quite some time until eventually Lady Harker seemed to catch on to it all, and, being not very fond of seeing her daughter's clothes stained with dirt and pie, proceeded to try and talk some sense into her daughter. Since that day Alric kept a much closer eye on Richard, and so running off became increasingly difficult. Even so, over the years whenever he could sneak away for a bit he would, and what turned into a silly childhood friendship blossomed into a deeper friendship, which eventually furthered into love.

All the while Richard trained with his father whenever he could, in the hopes that he would develop the same level of prowess as his father held, it was a bitter affair, leading to lots of blood and sweat, but he stuck through it and managed to become rather skilled himself. At the age of eighteen Richard and Elizabeth came to realize more and more that they wished to be together, however equally sure that it would be completely unthinkable. For a noblewoman to spend time with a commoner could be overlooked, but to get romantically involved was unthinkable, thus the only acceptable way for Richard to stay close to his woman was to become employed by her family, and so he did, entering their payroll in the place of his father who had grown too old for the rigors of combat and had instead decided to earn money as a blacksmith.

No one seemed to question when Elizabeth elected Richard to be her personal guard, and so for twelve long years he was by her side. Somehow they managed to meet in secret, Elizabeth would request he bring her tea, books, all manner of things to her private chambers of course, and all in all, life was kind to them, and that was enough.

Then Arthas came,

It was late in the night, the city was ravaged, fire was everywhere, the smell of blood and corpses filled the sky. Arthas' army stalked through the streets cutting down men and women without mercy. There was no reason behind it, the traitor prince was butchering his own people, women, children, loyal, tax-paying, hard working citizens. But soon enough they were at the estate's gates. The men fought hard after the initial confusion, but they weren't a match for the well-armoured royal guard Arthas' had. Elizabeth retreated with Richard and the few men that remained into their upper corners where he barricaded the door as well he could, buying time for a quick kiss and then forcing her down under the bed with the parting words “Run when they go.” Well, eventually they broke down the door, and Richard fought well, taking at least three of the men with him until eventually a lucky blow got the best of him, and so he fell, bleeding out his last thoughts were not peaceful, but instead filled with his sense of failure, failure as a guard and failure as a knight.

Of course, that would be the end had he not ate bread that morning. He did not recall what happened during his time as Scourge, nor does he know what became of Elizabeth, or if she still walks as Living, Scourge or Forsaken. But in any case he set his mind to the grim task of redemption ahead. He would need to find her, some way or another, but to do that, he was going to need the endorsement of someone, and he found that someone, Sylvanas would be his lady until he could recover his own.