(no subject)
Player Name: Lins
Player LJ: wakamoto
Contact: AIM: Motomiya, email: motomiya@gmail.com
Character Number: First!
Character: Sylvanas Windrunner, The Dark Lady, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken
Fandom: Warcraft/World of Warcraft
Personality: Imagine, if you will, that everything you knew and loved was taken from you -- that everything you loved and knew was destroyed in front of your eyes and by your own hand. Imagine that you had to watch as you destroyed your home and your family, slaughtering innocent children and citizens, unable to control your body from committing the horrors.
Welcome to the conscious mind of Sylvanas Windrunner.
She is filled with rage and bitterness, anger at Arthas Menethil and by association, the Lich King, and refuses to let anything stand in her way at revenge. Sylvanas channels her rage, uses it to fuel everything else that she feels and the energy that she uses to lead her people, the Forsaken.
Granted, some of her personality still remains from when she was alive, despite Arthas' attempts to twist her soul into an empty shell. Sylvanas is always quick and to the point, demanding nothing from the best from those serving her, and dispensing swift kicks to the ass of those who don't live up to her standards. She's proud and picky and has rather high standards for pretty much anything, an ironic feat for someone who rules over what are essentially a bunch of sentient zombies living within a sewer. Still, though, it isn't what she rules so much as what it represents: her freedom, plain and simple, and one would find it near impossible to reign Sylvanas in under their command.
Its only 'near' impossible because getting Sylvanas to ally with you is rather easy, provided you've got something for her in return. With the Dreadlords, it was the fall of Arthas Menethil, and with the Horde, it's the protection the Orcs, Tauren and Trolls can provide her people when they are beyond the limits of her city. The only race she feels even slightly altruistic to are her former race of High Elves -- and even the remaining High Elves are subject to her scorn. She instead focuses her attention on those remaining withing Quel'Thalas, the race known as the Blood Elves. Guilt is a powerful emotion indeed, and Sylvanas (while hiding it very well) feels it in spades. She believes that it is her fault that Quel'Thalas fell, partially because she could not protect the city while alive and partially because she aided the Scourge in its demise.
She regrets her time alive -- she knows it is something she can never return to, and the knowledge of this fills her with such sorrow as to have her keen out a wail that reverberates through her city. It's known to her people as an ancient song called 'The Lament of the Highborne', first written and transcribed thousands of years prior during the First War. This is not something that happens often. More often than not, when confronted with remnants of her past, Sylvanas lashes out in anger, hiding her sorrow with rage, refusing to allow anyone to see her hurt and suffering. Pain is weakness, and weakness can be abused, and abuse will not be tolerated. Ever.
Sylvanas allows none to walk over her, and refuses to back down from a battle, whether it be of words, wits, or physical or magical prowess. Whether or not she'd win isn't the point -- she will not and can not allow her pride to be wounded. In extreme circumstances, however, Sylvanas knows to run, and knows to ask for help. Its just not something she enjoys doing often, and loathes it when she has to.
History: Sylvanas was born the middle sister of the Windrunner family, a prominent Elven family located within the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. Boasting the eldest daughter, Alleria as the Ranger-General of Silvermoon, head of the elite task force of Elvan Rangers, Sylvanas and her younger siblings were among some of the more elite warriors the Elvan capital had to offer. Living in the Windrunner family spire, Sylvanas and her siblings lived rather idyllic lives before the advent of the Second War, when a portal from the Orcish home of Draenor was ripped open to the world of Azaroth, and thousands of bloodthirsty orcs came marching through, laying waste to everything within their path.
Due to an ancient treaty with the Human capital of Stormwind, a small, almost token band of rangers was sent to aid the humans in their resistance of the orcs. However, Alleria, Sylvanas' elder sister, decided this wasn't enough and left briefly to send more aid in the form of herself and her own personal band of rangers. Quel'Thalas itself was left to it's own devices, until one day when the forest surrounding the Elvan capital was found to be bursting into flames under mysterious pretenses. Sylvanas enlisted the aid of a few of the rangers of Silvermoon and took to the forests to find the cause.
What they found was Veressa, Sylvanas' younger sister, and Alleria being chased by orcs through the forest. The small band of orcs was quickly dispatched and Alleria informed her middle sister that the cause of the fires were the orcs, who were using Dragonfire to burn down the forests surrounding their home. Sylvanas took charge of the situation, using her band of rangers and the knowledge given to her by Alleria to trap the army of orcs between the forces of the Alliance and the forces of the High Elves. Though the battle took many days and nights, eventually the horde of orcs and trolls gave up, abandoning Quel'Thalas. Alleria then officially left Silvermoon to join with the forces of the Alliance, passing her title of Ranger-General on to her sister, Sylvanas, and followed the orcs back to the dark portal from whence they came, and was never seen again.
Months came and went, and politics took their toll -- the High Elves defected from the Alliance, blaming the humans for not coming fast enough to save their beloved home from burning by the forces of the Horde. Her sisters remaining loyal to the Alliance, Sylvanas herself refused her loyalty and remained within Silvermoon as the new Ranger-General. After this, things were all but silent within the forests of Quel'Thalas. Sylvanas and her army saw barely anything more than the occasional gnoll or troll, though she remained ever vigilant. She'd learned her lesson with the burning of the forests, and it was a lesson well learned -- only a few years had passed when the traitor prince, Arthas Menethil, came storming through Quel'Thalas with his band of undead, annihilating all who came before him and raising them from death to become part of his unholy army.
She refused to give up, however, and became a thorn in Arthas' side, though he kept her in a constant state of retreat. The two met in battle periodically, where she would taunt him that he knew nothing of how to smash through the gates protecting Silvermoon from attack. Little did she realize that Arthas was not the only traitor; one of her own, an elf named Dar'khan Drathir who lusted for power. With his help, Arthas managed to find the pieces of the key to the final Elf Gate, and it was there that he met with Sylvanas in their final battle.
Arthas slew Sylvanas in one swift motion, and she knew the blissful peace of death only for a moment. Using his powers, he ripped her soul from her body, threw it onto the wagons that claimed the bodies of those he would raise for his zombie army, and turned her into an incorporeal banshee, bound to him and to his will. She was trapped within her own conscious mind, unable to speak or move her body, forced to watch herself slay those whom she called friends and loved ones, and made to help Arthas destroy her beloved home of Silvermoon. For months, she remained bottled up within her own mind, her rage and hatred of the traitor prince boiling away and fermenting.
She would discover a while later that occasionally she was able to move on her own, to freely voice her opinions and step away from Arthas when he wasn't looking. Though she hid this new development from Arthas and his second-in-command, Kel'Thuzad, well, the Dreadlords, demons who also served Arthas and his master the Lich King, could see right through it. They contacted her, stating they knew the cause of her and her banshee rangers' newfound freedoms, and offered her a place in their coup. Sylvanas agreed, on the condition that she would decide how she would help, and that she would serve a master no longer.
The Dreadlords also revealed to Sylvanas the way to retrieve her body. Arthas had kept it near all this time, another way to torment his prized Banshee Queen, and Sylvanas jumped at the chance to return to it, though it was no longer the bright golden body of a high elf. She was now a monstrosity, an undead elf, and she used her knowledge of her ranger skills as well as her new knowledge of the dark arts of necromancy to create a new set of powers for herself. Calling herself a Dark Ranger, she plotted with her banshees to set a contingency plan for the trap the Dreadlords were attempting to set for Arthas within his old kingdom of Lordaeron.
Sending her Banshees in, feigning loyalty to their former captor, she had them escort the Death Knight to a secluded spot in the woods. There, the banshees slew his protectors and before Arthas could react, Sylvanas stepped from the shadows and shot him in the shoulder with an arrow. It was, she told him, a special poison arrow she had made just for him, one that would render him immobile and helpless. When he begged for her to end it, she refused, stating that she would grant him the same torture and pain that he had given her. However, as she was preparing to begin his torture, Kel'Thuzad appeared, sending Sylvanas fleeing with her banshees into the forest. There, she vowed she would never stop hunting who had done this to her.
She would never be free of the curse. Though she was free, now, her rage and anger at being turned into a monster still weighed heavily on her mind. It was during such a time that Varimathras, one of the Dreadlords she had conspired with, appeared before her, inviting her to join in with he and his brothers within their new world order. She refused, telling him that she had taken part in their coup and now simply wished to be left alone. Varimathras laughed at her and departed, his last words a thinly veiled warning. Knowing that if she and her loyal minions were attacked they would be destroyed, Sylvanas began scouting the wilderness in search of those she could either coerce or bring into control to help her build an army.
What she stumbled upon was a village of ogres, and Sylvanas and her banshees made quick work of them, her banshees possessing those they could and destroying those they could not. They soon came across the leader of the ogres, and Sylvanas bended his mind to her cause. Soon after, she also had the leaders of the Gnolls, Murlocs and a human Bandit lord under her control and with their combined forces, she took the fight the Dreadlords so longed for to them. Varimathras was her first target, and with so many within her army, he fell swiftly. Before she could deal the killing blow, he begged for mercy, claiming he would serve her and only her. Sylvanas pondered this, and allowed him to live. It was risky, but his aid would serve her well in defeating his two brothers, and his own army would increase her's greatly.
Their next target was Varimathas' brother, Detheroc. Using Detheroc's human puppets against him, she was able to infiltrate the base (which she was wholly unimpressed with) with ease under the cover of night. The alarm raised by those awoken by the noise of battle was too late, and soon Sylvanas found herself face to face with Detheroc, whom she took down with little more than an arrow to his forehead. Released from Detheroc's control, the leader of the human forces, Garithos, agreed to aid Sylvanas in her attack on Balnazaar with the condition that she would relinquish the Capital City of Lordaeron to him upon their victory. Sylvanas agreed.
Flanking the city, Garithos stormed the rear while Sylvanas came from the front, using the remnants of the city in her attack. While he was the most difficult of the three battles, Sylvanas and her armies prevailed, cornering Balnazaar with Varimathras within the city walls. As a final test of Varimathras' loyalty, she ordered him to kill his brother. Varimathras protested at first, but when reminded that Sylvanas could just simply kill them both, he agreed and supposedly ended his brother's life. When Garithos arrived, he told Sylvanas that now that they had succeeded, her and her abominations were to leave his city. Sylvanas turned and ordered Varimathras to slay him as well. The Dreadlord was far less reluctant to kill the human leader.
Proclaiming the city of Lordaeron to be the home of her and her armies, Sylvanas christened them 'The Forsaken', and vowed to rule the Plaguelands, striving to find their own destiny without being the pawn of any other.
Leaving The Undercity (as the new race of undead now called their home within the sewer systems of Lordaeron), Sylvanas traveled back home to Silvermoon as an attempt to make peace with her former people. However, it was not to be as uneventful as all that -- upon her return, Sylvanas came across an attack against her former second-in-command, Lor'Themar Theron and his small army by Dar'Khan Drathir, the very elf who had betrayed his people in a bid for power. She attacked him and briefly held the upper hand, though he soon overpowered her and threatened to use her in his plan to corrupt the human embodiment of the Sunwell. His plan failed, due to the intervention of the Red Dragonflight, as well as the Sunwell's own willpower. She soon vanished after her rescue, but returned to Silvermoon to speak to Lor'Themar. The Forsaken had joined Thrall's new Horde as their presance in Lordaeron, and as Sylvanas still felt some guilt over her role in the destruction of Silvermoon, she offered them aid and a bid to join the Horde for her former people (now calling themselves Blood Elves).
It was a shaky bid at best, not least of which because the Forsaken themselves were on a tenuous line to the Horde. The Forsaken themselves busy with the re-opening of the Dark Portal leading to Draenor, Sylvanas left it in their capable hands and began making many trips towards Northrend, the area where the Lich King had last been seen. When the Scourge rose again and began to attack the various cities of Azeroth, Sylvanas knew her time for revenge had come. She had been giving leeway to her Royal Apothecary Society, who were working under the pretense that they were not only looking for a cure for their undeath, but also a way to eradicate the Scourge once and for all. That they chose to use humans and other Forsaken as test subjects was something she turned a blind eye to -- she was willing to do anything to find a way to destroy the Lich King slowly and painfully.
What she hadn't counted on was the Grand Apothecary, Putress and her second in command, Varimathras to attempt to overthrow her. During the initial confrontation in Northrend with the Lich King, the Grand Apothecary, having finished his plague and being given permission to use it by Sylvanas (who was completely clueless to the plague's true nature), launched the plague on the unsuspecting armies of the Horde and the Alliance, destroying nearly everyone there. Had it not been for Queen Alexstraza and the Red Dragonflight, the plague would have quickly spread and killed thousands more.
Sylvanas was unaware of what was happening, however. At the same moment that Putress unleashed his plague on an unsuspecting populous, Varimathras was summoning his demon brethren and laying waste to the Undercity, slaughtering the Forsaken and nearly Sylvanas herself, had she not managed to escape with some of her people towards the Goblin Zeppelins to the north of Lordaeron. Pleading with Thrall to help her regain her city, she managed to convince him that this was just as unknown to her as it was to the rest of the Horde. Thrall agreed to send aid, and the pair, along with the Troll leader Vol'jin, teleported back to just outside the gates of Lordaeron with an army of their own and prepared to face Varimathras.
It was a task made easy, with Thrall's ability to wield the elements as a Shaman and Sylvanas' ability to use her voice to strengthen her allies and weaken her enemies. They, and the army, cut a path to the Undercity, where within Sylvanas' own royal quarters, they finally managed to destroy Varimathras once and for all. Their victory was short lived, however; King Varian Wrynn, leader of the Human forces of the Alliance had also managed to battle his way within the Undercity and there he challenged the Horde forces to a final battle. Before blows could be made, however, Lady Jaina Proudmoore, a friend to both Varian and Thrall appeared, incapacitating both armies. She then proceeded to teleport them away from the Undercity. It was now official -- the Horde and the Alliance were enemies once more.
It is during the restoration of Sylvanas' city and her plans to destroy the Lich King once and for all that she is whisked away.
Abilities:
As the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken, Sylvanas has retained some of her ability to use her voice as a tool, for both offensive and defensive purposes. She mainly uses it to inflict Silence on her enemies in the form of the stereotypical Banshee Wail, a high pitched screech used to render her enemies incapable of casting any form of magic, as well as preventing psychic attacks. Physical abilities are unaffected.
Her abilities as the first Dark Ranger have also enabled Sylvanas to combine her former knowledge of the arts of the Ranger that she used in life and twist them to fit the powers she learned in death, creating an almost sort of Shadowcraft. With this, she can use shadows to wrap herself within them, able to blend in with the darkness and sneak and spy upon foes. Sylvanas can also imbue an arrow with Shadow and thusly use it to cause more damage against a target for the next thirty seconds.
Finally, the final power Sylvanas will be retaining upon her arrival to the city is the ability to summon Skeletons from the very earth to aid her in battle. Depending on the situation, Sylvanas can summon anywhere from one to three of these Skeletons at a time.
She also comes equipped with a fancy bow and a quiver full of arrows, as well as the knowledge on how to make her own arrows, should she need to. As one of the better archers from her world, however, she very rarely needs to.
Link to an image of the character: We are Forsaken.
Sample writing:
She felt more at home in the seedier parts of The City, the grime infested brick walls and dank smell reminding her of her own Undercity, and a small piece of familiarity within this strange and unusual world. Separated though she was from her people, she could only imagine what was happening to them now -- perhaps anarchy, uprisings.. more than likely the Horde itself would turn on them, blaming them for the lives lost at the Wrathgate. The closest wall to Sylvanas was not spared the sudden white hot flash of anger she felt, and her gauntlet covered hand left a sizable dent within it, though Sylvanas herself felt nothing of the dull throb that ached its way up her wrist.
All that she had moved to work for, all that she had prepared -- gone, and not just because she had been dragged here. That fool Varimathras and his pawn Putress -- and she had not even been able to take the pleasure of the killing blow of the former Grand Apothecary. That honor had gone to the King of Humans, Varian Wrynn. She vaguely recalled him from her life; they'd never formally met while she was still living, and having met him now she was all the more sure that it was for the best.
Her mind was wandering. Sylvanas frowned a little at the realization, disliking it. With her people separated from her from some sort of magic that could not be reversed, not even by Proudmoore, she had taken to being idle, and being idle led her mind down paths she had closed herself off to long ago.
"The only redeeming quality of this accursed city," she quietly mused to herself out loud, "is that he is here as well, and significantly weakened at that. Even if I cannot have my revenge at home, I will have it." She paused at that thought, and then smirked to herself, the grip on her bow tightening. At least some things could not be taken from her.
Sample journal entry: [ VIDEO ]
[ It seems Sylvanas has finally figured out how to use the network without accidentally shutting it off and/or throwing the phone out the window. In fact, she even seems rather amused, though she's not looking directly at the screen. ]
I do not recognize the uniforms, but the target practice is much appreciated.
[ Her lips curl up into a cruel smirk, and she looks directly at the camera then, eyes glowing deep red in the dark. ] I am sure this is not your doing, Lich King, but I will enjoy killing what passes as Scourge here nonetheless.
I will show you what power I possess. [ She laughs then, and reaches over with her thumb to click the device off. ]