Riven

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Information

Player:Dae

Character Full Name: Linde Emeth

Character In-Game Name: Riven

Nickname(s): Riven

Association(s): The Ebon Blade

Race: Worgen

Class: Death Knight

Skills and Abilities: Riven uses frost magic to empower her cleiving abilities when fighting with her twin rune axes, but otherwise focuses on Blood-based magic, as it makes her feel more alive. She has an especially keen sense of smell when it comes to blood, especially fresh blood. She entirely eschews all Plague-based abilities that are not vital to her self-preservation. She cannot take human form.

Age: 30

Sex: Female

Hair (and fur): Black

Eyes: Glowing blue

Weight: 256 lbs

Height: 7'9"

Usual Garments/Armor: Riven usually wears some sort large pauldrons, bracers and (relatively) less bulky chestplates covered in runes to empower her magic, but otherwise wears fabric to allow herself greater mobility.

Other: At her neck (and to the right) is a long, horizontal row of stitches where her juggular had been severed upon her death.

Personality

Riven feels very alone, not fitting in with the Forsaken, her former people, the Ebon Blade, which is made up mostly of much more hardened and worldly individuals, or even the Alliance in general, who now welcome sane worgen, as her undeath separates her from the Light. Riven never had a proper coming-of-age, as she never became a true mage initiate before being turned into a worgen, then into a semi-conscious tool of the Lich King. Her undead state provides a physical stasis that only further distances her from the need to develop as a fully mature, functioning person. This is not to say that she is particularly childish- the violence of the past decade of her life ruthlessly beat that out of her. Her immaturity is more strongly reflected in poor coping skills and resolve. Why become a functional, working member of society when she could just run through the forests as an immortal wolf with no responsibilities? That being said, she is not heartless or particularly ruthless. She still yearns for the, Light-filled, mighty Lordaeron of her childhood and would fight to keep others from having to suffer the tragedies she experienced.

History

Riven was born Linde Emeth, a citizen of Lordaeron city, child of a Ranger of the Lordaeron army and a jocular young man whose passion was cooking, but turned to alchemy and the arcane arts as a way of better supporting his wife. Like many Lordaeron youth, being too young to fight in the conflicts against the orcs, she weathered wartime from within the walls of the capital, an experience that only enforced her faith in the Light and loyalty to her people. She was determined to support Lordaeron, and tried to do so by learning to fight with the arcane arts, though her parents felt that they should be striving for a bright, peaceful future for their child. Her father did teach her the basics of magic, the art of ice magic being of particular interest to her, though they groomed her to be a scholar rather than a fighter.

That is why, as the Scourge became clearly too much of a threat to Lordaeron to ensure their child's survival, they sent her to seek refuge outside of the country. Reluctantly, she left, following some of the others who were late to leave the capital, and only came to truly understand the gravity of the situation when her refugee group was ambushed by a Scourge scouting party, decimating their numbers. She and the remining members of her group came across a large number of other refugees, lead by a paladin of the Silver Hand, and followed him as he led his people to seek shelter to the West. She took solace in this paragon of Light, despite his youth, and again found strength in the Church and her potent patriotism.

This hope in her heart would be crushed when the Gilneans turned the Lordaeron refugees away. She felt a new sense of dread, a physical sickness that she had never felt before, and paranoia made her fear that what she felt might be more than emotion, but symptoms of the Plague. She saught some privacy from the group as she tried to assess what it could be that she was feeling, she was assaulted by a Pyrewood villager, in a beastial Worgen form. As fate would happen, she did not die in the vicious mauling, but instead became worgen herself. She grappled with her humanity, retaining her identity enough to come to resent Arugal and his followers, but not enough to be more than an impotent member of her pack, in service to Arugal. As some of Arugal's worgen came to terms with their curse, these few again took to following more human values, organizing themselves and escaping to the North, before being slaughtered by the Scourge.

Despite her youth and inexperience, she was still an interesting subject for the Lich King's forces, as the menacing appearance and strength of a worgen only added to the qualities desired for the new generation of Death Knights. While the Lich King's omnipotence dominated the remainders of her humanity, her feral side thrived as a Death Knight. During the early portion of her training, she was nearly slaughtered for her frequent refusal to use runeblades in lieu of her teeth and claws. At the threat of her own (un)life, she took up heavy twin rune axes, accessing the Death Knight's greatest asset, the art of runic magic. She recieved the name of "Riven" from a dwarven Death Knight, who maintained quite a bit of personality despite being under the Lich King's control, and would often speak for the young worgen, as she said very little at this time. In fact, it was this dwarf who helped her regain her mind as the Lich King's power waned, calling to her as his dread was vanquished by a massive abomination as the Knights of the Ebon Blade took over Archerus. That finally snapped her from the Lich King's control, and she joined the forces of the new Death Knight organization to secure the Ebon Hold for their own. Though she appreciated the kindness that the Ebon Blade showed her, with her own conscious to suppress her worgen savagery, she found herself very different from the hardened, dark heroes of the Ebon Blade and left to return to her homeland. She refused to believe in what she had been told of Lordaeron until she had seen it for herself.

Riven, a name she felt now better suited her, came back to her country only to find it as a shadow of its former self. Her people were angry undead, lead by an elf and allies to the orcs, and though she was glad to see that a sense of Lordaeron pride remained with her people, she could not bring hersel to have much to do with their vengeful ways, and gave in to her feral side for months at a time, sating both her inner beast and Death Knight bloodlust through the hunt. After having been under the sway of the Lich King, though, she was never consumed by her worgen side as she had in life; it was much more a conscious decision. At times, she would serve as hired muscle, especially for goblins who might come her way and pay little heed to her undead state, but often tired of such work after a few months of unsavory company.

On one of her infrequent trips to civilization, Riven was suprised to find that the humans who saw her approach were surprisingly calm about her presence, and she learned of the recent Cataclysm's effect on politics, of sentient, shapeshifting worgen, and the state of Gilneas as a part of the Alliance. This societal shift and the possibility of her again being accepted into civilization led her to again be more social, and get out into the world a little more.