Zhaei

• Player: Zhaei

• Character Full Name: Zhaei

• Character In-Game Name: Zhaei

• Nicknames: None yet.

• Associations: Her people and the Naaru officially, but she's independent.

• Race: Draenei

• Class: Shaman

• Age: 14,158

• Sex: Female

• Hair: Ever-changing. Upheld with an enchanted pin, it can be styled in any way imaginable. A rich auburn colour.

• Eyes: Luminescent azure.

• Weight: 184 lbs.

• Height: 6'9

• Usual Garments/Armour: Usually something casual and colourful. When travelling, leathers to protect against harsher climates.

• Other: She carries a few assorted spice jars on her belt in metal pots. From worlds long destroyed by the Legion, they are very unique and soon empty.

Personality

A Draenei that does not adhere to the world's perception of her kind. She is not hugely courageous, heroic or valorous; she does not preach the Naaru's teachings to all who would hear; and she does not have the same bright, luminescent and social personality that is so typical of her people. This is not to say she is weak, or cowardly - while she still finds Orcish kind fearsome, she stays true to her self-made moral view and philosophy to respect all for who they are, not who they could be. She knows, despite the countless tragedies that have befell her kind, that her race is more advanced and, though she would never admit it, better in many ways than near any other. Though, she does not boast - she shares her ageless wisdom and experience, in both monetary, social, and physical ways.

Zhaei has a strong sense of honour. Her chaotic nature leads her not to follow a creed, but to listen to her conscience when the time comes. She has had much time to think over the years, and has defined a, although loose, comprehensive set of rules that she follows. While she could not be accurately described as heroic, she does use her abilities to aid those in need when she can. Zhaei is also an inherently peaceful creature. She abhors violence in any form - even the rites of strength that many races follow seem backward to her. She encourages others to follow her methodology, and, although she is a quiet, asocial creature, is very open about her beliefs.

Zhaei reveres, but does not worship the Naaru. She is, of course, eternally thankful, but she sees them not as gods or deities but as selfless beings that are kind to their very core. She sees the spirits as similar things: eternally mysterious and intriguing, but not gods. While she may indeed be wrong, she sees Shamanism as an equivalent exchange.

Seen as exotic to most she comes across, Zhaei is very broad culturally. She has taken in aspects that she liked from all the different worlds she came across on a personal level, and those are reflected in her character. She is a polite, friendly and kind person who, contrary to her asocial manner and ochlophobia, very much enjoys interaction with others.

History

Born on one of the countless worlds Argus' Exiles stopped on in their flight from the Legion, Zhaei was thrown into survival from a very young age. The planet a dense, luscious and humid jungle, despite the incredible adaptivity and skill of her people, it was a harsh environment to survive in. Her father, an unimportant but loving Vindicator, saw little of the infantile Zhaei. Her mother dedicating herself to her new child - along with her other, slightly older one, stayed with Zhaei and kept her safe at a personal level.

The planet, like many others, was uneventful. Zhaei spent the first two decades of her life on the jungle-world, before her people boarded the Oshu'gun and departed. Many years of her life were spent on the inter-dimensional ship, and many events occured. By her hundredth year, she had decided that the Magical path was not for her, and her three hundredth marked her decision to stay away from the physical manifestation of the Naaru's light. She found solace not in the arcane, the lavish intellectuals, nor in the brash, headstrong vindicators, but in peace, quiet, and the sound of a quiet forest. The resplendent birdsong and the moment of rapture when a flower blooms.

She was not an incapable combatant; she could hold her own with a blade, but nothing to a properly trained warrior. She found life on Oshu'gun boring, and relished her opportunities to explore the new lands the Draenei would land on. She was at home in the abnormal - while she was discouraged from socializing with locals, she took every opportunity she could. It was in one particular alien world that she came across her love for cooking and food. A simple, yet ingenious cuisine of the friendly locals caught her eye (or, perhaps, tongue) and she instantly fell in love with the style. She traded a luminescent crystal for some spices and recipes; while they did not speak the same tongue, cooking is a universal language, and she picked it up quickly.

While the threat of the Legion was constantly present in tale, word and warning, there was no physical manifestation of Demonkind aboard Oshu'gun or the planets they visited. She did not think to feel guilty about the countless worlds destroyed in her wake, and was not properly aware of the looming threat. She didn't catch much glimpse of the benevolent crystalline beings that had become gods to her people, but the constant reverence and worship of their kind had its effect, and Zhaei shared in their love for the Naaru. Yet, she was never truly satisfied with it.

Any being left to their own devices for thousands of years has much time to think, and Zhaei was no different. She very much enjoyed philosophising, musing, meditating &c. She would consider her own self; her beliefs, morals and interests. Many Draenei can not help but be proud, but Zhaei was a relentless advocate of self-evaluation. She began to move away from her people's forward joviality and benevolence, finding herself not becoming faithless, but putting the Light of Creation in the background - present, but not primary.

The façade of peace continued, and Zhaei grew bored of doing so few things. She had mastered the art of cookery, with countless recipes in her repertoire. She could not find interest in art, combat, magic. Scholarly studies grew tiresome for her. So, she took her creativity, her pragmatism and practicality, and her interest in the natural world and took up artificing. She was no Mage, she could not enchant her creations, so she took comfort in making them beautiful and of cultural importance.

Many more years were spent with this new hobby. She took inspiration from the cultures she briefly witnessed, and time moved slowly for her. There was no major events: Talgath's attempts failed, and the thousands of years blended together into an endless drawl of time.

At last, the Exiles found a world that was different. A remote, out-of-place world, the Draenei kept their magic hidden and subtly rebuilt their civilisation. There were locals on this world; Orcs. Brown-skins - peaceful, a simple society. At least, that is how it seemed. The two races lived harmoniously together for many years. Zhaei, of course, integrated herself in the alien society. She didn't think the Orcs special or different: this planet is like any other and would have to be left before long.

But this time was different. Kil'Jaeden found Nerzhul, and the Orcs found the Draenei. The slaughter had begun, and the pure suddenness of the attack was what did the damage. Zhaei, luckily, was safe in Telaar - and her family, too. The Orcs brutalized her kind. Zhaei had known nothing like it! A hostile race was not an uncommon occurrence, but such a strong, bloodthirsty race was shocking.

The eight year conflict scattered the Draenei race, and Zhaei was no exception. She had managed to reunite with her family, and with them she fled north-east, to the area now known as Zangarmarsh. They hid and ran, for they could not properly fight more than one or two Orcs at once. Their fleeing led them to Velen and his group, who they joined with great relief. It was with them that they made the trek to Netherstorm, to Tempest Keep. They wrestled control of but a single wing of the great fortress - the Exodar. The satellite was still intact, and they managed to leave Draenor. Or, so they thought.

The Blood Elves had tampered with the ship, and they crash-landed on a small group of nondescript islands. There, they started to recover.

Zhaei was psychologically damaged from the eight years of hiding, fear and death. Though eight years, in the long run, is a blink of the eye for Draenei kind, she knew that the horrors she lived through would live with her eternally. Thankfully, the isles of Azuremyst were mostly calm - although the Exodar's crash had greatly affected the wildlife and landscape, peace was finally available.

A race that lives so long are not quick to change, nor to overcome their emotion. Zhaei spent a little over a year in a mixture of depression and post-shock, aimlessly ambling her way around the crash site. Eventually, the need to pick herself up became apparent: eighty percent of the Draenei race had been slaughtered, there had been contact with strange races called Humans and Night Elves, and tales of the grand Alliance. Zhaei was not particularly infatuated with the glorious tales, though they did spur her to do something more with herself.

Whispers of Nobundo's tale were not uncommon around the isles, and they got to Zhaei more than the tales of joining the Alliance did. Shamanism slotted into place with her - it felt natural even thinking about the subject. She travelled the relatively short distance to the makeshift capital of her people, the largest remains of the Exodar to find out more about the spiritual path.

She spent some time on Azeroth, then move back to Draenor - it was a hard tale from a psychological standpoint, and being so close to Orcish kind still scared her. She took refuge in an out-of-the-way nook in the Nagrand plains with a teacher, and began to walk the path of the Shaman.

Skills and Abilities:

In a combative sense, she is fairly weak. She has no real melee skill and her Shamanism is mostly theoretical. She draws on the spirits, elemental or otherwise, to aid her in wisdom, as well as cast minor spells to aid her main professions. She is a skilled artificer, enchanter and cook, as well as an excellent flautist.