Torok

Torok Whiteclaw
Player	muhaha8
Title	<Spirit Walker>
Gender	Male
Race	Orc
Class	Spirit Walker
Age	44
Height	6' 8" (scale 1.03)
Weight	415lb
Eyes	Brown
Hair	White
Affilliation(s)	The Earthen Ring, The Horde, The Ancestors, The Frostwolf Clan
Occupation	N/A
Relative(s)	Krin Feralheart (father), Rema Mendpaw (mother)
Mentor(s)	Mochla Stormcaller
Student(s)	Zik
Companion(s)	Thragash Blackjaw
Alignment	Lawful Neutral
Status	Alive

Appearance

Torok wears a rather simple set of leather robes, light brown interspersed with blue cloth. He wears plain leather boots of the same make as the robes, as well as simple gloves. Torok bears white tattoos of claws on his shoulders, reminiscent of his early years as a member of the Whiteclaw Clan.

Personality

Torok is a very gentle individual. He is fiercely loyal to the Horde, but performs what could largely be considered an auxiliary role. He dislikes fighting, although is capable of holding his own in most situations. He is not wholly against working with members of what many of his kind consider to be enemy factions. Torok is as much a Frostwolf as he is indeed a Whiteclaw. Bring raised by the clan offers both its benefits and its detriments. His distrust for the Dwarven people is strong, having lived through many of their assaults on his home. However, over time, his general dislike of Humans has even begun to fade, seeing no overall reason to hate them for what others have done. Fel users hold a special place in his heart: one filled with hatred and mistrust, and for good reason. Oddly enough, he views the Undead loyal to the Horde with a measure of trust, believing that they may be one day cured, and remain with the Horde.

He is fairly well-known and well-liked among the Frostwolves, and always seems to have a place amongst their people. While he is no longer a true Elder of the Earthen Ring, he does still hold connections within the organization and occasionally works with them to complete jobs that need to be done. He does know men and women of rank now within the Frostwolf Clan and the Earthen Ring, but this no longer offers him the level of influence he once held, due to his more or less walking out on his old ways. Some may or may not even view him as less than most due to a perceived abandonment of his post.

History

Torok was born, the youngest of three children, to Krin Feralheart and Rema Mendpaw, his father and mother, respectively. He was the youngest of the family, and as such, never received the full attention of his parents. He, however, grew up wanting to be like his older brother, Go’ren, who was to become the next village Shaman, after his father. For most of the young Orc’s life, it was a peaceful existence. Strife was little, and armed conflict was even less. However, by Torok’s twelfth year, everything changed. In that year, the demons came in massive waves, threatening to burn down the very village in which he grew up; almost all he ever knew was at stake. Torok didn’t fully comprehend what was happening when his father forced Go’ren to take him and Krona and flee, but he left anyway. It wasn’t until many years later that he fully understood the gravity of the situation.

The three were taken in, albeit a bit skeptically at first, by the fleeing Frostwolf clan, and raised by one Mochla Stormcaller. The woman saw the same potential in Torok that her elders had seen in herself, and chose, with her own teacher’s permission, to train the promising young Orc in the ways of the Far Seer. His training began with lessons on the calling of the elements, the one which he learned the most from being Earth. It became something of a companion to the young Orc, an elemental bond that has lasted throughout Torok’s life. To his dismay, he could never, throughout his entire training, forge such an intricate bond with the element of Fire. To this day, he struggles immensely with quelling the urge to destroy that Fire holds, although only when dealing with the Elementals themselves.

The Orc’s training continued for eight more years, concluding with his Om’riggor at the age of twenty. He was sent out to hunt a large bear that had been terrorizing the local populace for some weeks up to that point. He tracked the beast for nearly a week, before he caught it alone. As was tradition, he brought with him a single weapon, a hand-axe, no more than a foot and a half in length, with a ball on one end to be used for bludgeoning. He engaged the bear in one of Alterac’s many small valleys, hacking into the bear’s flesh with the axe with near wild abandon. Torok knew what this tradition meant to his people; it was his rite to adulthood, and he would not fail. After some minutes of fierce combat with the creature, the fatal blow was struck, with the iron ball connecting with the bear’s eye socket. Blind and disoriented, the beast stumbled around before crashing to the ground violently. Torok took his chance and leapt on the beast, hacking with the last of his strength into the bear’s neck, severing the spinal column soon thereafter. As per tradition, he painted his face with the creature’s blood and returned to the Clan.

Having completed his Om’Riggor, Torok was formally accepted into the Frostwolf Clan via ceremony. It also was an occasion marking the conclusion of his training under Mochla. While it was the finish of his formal training, Torok would be learning for the rest of his life, through his experiences. Torok remained with the Clan through the years, helping to guide his newfound people through life secluded from the Grand Alliance.

With the return of Thrall, it all changed. Torok left with the Frostwolves to follow their Chieftain by birthright, and set about freeing the rest of the Orcs from the internment camps. For the second time in his life, Torok became uncertain about his own future, as well as that of his people. He followed the New Horde west across the sea, picking up the Darkspear Trolls along the way to Kalimdor. Upon landing on the continent, he participated in the liberation of the Tauren people, and remained for several years with them, helping to establish the settlement of Thunder Bluff. It was during this time that he became aware of the Earthen Ring and its goals, feeling the purpose of spiritual and Elemental balance and unity to be his calling.

Having remained in Thunder Bluff as part of the Earthen Ring, Torok quickly garnered respect among the organization and, to a lesser degree, the Tauren people that supported it, becoming a well-respected Shaman in the city. He has helped to quell several incidents of Elemental unrest in the Horde’s lands since their first landing in the region.

In the time prior to and since the Cataclysm, life for Torok has been difficult, to say the least. He spent his time plagued with doubt at the actions of the world around him, never truly knowing what would happen. His power with the elements had faltered prior to the return of Deathwing, and he never seemed to regain his full grasp over them. No matter what he tried, nothing appeared to work. And it was not just him; several of his followers within the Ring experienced similar such issues. No one seemed to know what to do about this, or why exactly it was the case. It caused a significant problem within his branch of the Earthen Ring, as a lack of power with the Elements raised a significant problem: what had they been doing wrong? As far as anyone knows, the answer has not been found.

With the events surrounding their loss of power, Torok’s branch of the Earthen Ring began to falter. Some members fled to try and uncover what about them could have caused this, while almost all the rest were killed in the Elemental invasions and wars that occurred in the time just before and after the Shattering. Torok, with no one left to lead, announced that he was leaving his post, and fled the breaking world to spend time back in his family’s village on the Outlands. It was in this place that he found his final, true calling. In his old home, he met an Orc: his brother, Go’ren, who had been dead for years.

Go’ren told him that he had been under the watchful eye of the Ancestors for some time, and that the Orc without a path is a dangerous being. They would give him a path, but he would have to learn to listen. Before Torok got a chance to ask any questions as to what that meant, the spirit disappeared. Over the coming days, weeks, and months, Torok was plagued with dreams, visions, and voices. He held memories in his head of places that he had never seen, things he had never done, and people he had never known. He was driven to find one of the fabled Spiritwalkers who could help him advance down the path and control the voices in his head, but to no avail on the Outlands. After much internal debate, he managed to make the commitment to return to Azeroth.

He ended up back in Kalimdor shortly after his return, which led Torok to seek out the people he knew prior to his leaving, most of a year before. He eventually found one Thragash Blackjaw, whom he has been traveling with since. Through Thragash’s word, he finally found a Spiritwalker he desperately needed, one Grakor Spiritaxe. Through regular ritual and education, Torok is steadily improving toward grasping control of the Ancestors’ constant voices, and is gaining the ability to better control his connection with them. He has almost reached the point where he is able to fully summon his Spirit Companion, and such an event is not far from occurring. As well, as he advances along this path, some of his power with the Elements is returning to him.

Skills/Abilities

Torok is, at his heart, a Shaman of Earth. However, times have caused a change in his focus, as he now works more directly for the Ancestors, instead of the Elemental Spirits. He holds the ability to use some of his Earth powers, but certainly not the most powerful among them, such as the ability to cause earthquakes. His powers, however, with the Ancestors are growing daily. He is able to call to mind certain memories that deal, at least vaguely, with situations similar to some things he is in. The Ancestors speak to him on a deeper level on occasion, providing information that can be more or less relevant. However, what he receives is oftentimes shrouded in metaphor and flowery language, which can take him some time to decipher. As such, these abilities are hardly as useful in a combat situation as he might like them to be. He is often able to call upon the Ancestors to allow him to see into their world, or even walk in it. He will soon be able to call upon one of his Ancestors to visit him directly and manifest in the material world and aid him in whatever he might be doing at the time. This Ancestor spirit is his older brother, Go’ren. Lastly, when he becomes weak, Torok can be overwhelmed by the torrent of Ancestral knowledge, allowing a spirit to overtake his body for some time. This does not last, however, and he is able to regain control after the spirit becomes weak.