Ravenstill, daughter of wind

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Background

Powers & Abilities

Being a Draenei, Ravenstill is a regal and academically superior humanoid with hooves, horns and a tail. Draenei have a deep connection with the Light, and can even offer some extra life force from their body to heal others.

Ravenstill is an excellent melee fighter. She specialises in a variety of paired weapons fighting styles – such as knife-and-hatchet, asymmetric knives or paired hammers. These are aggressive, fast styles meant to overwhelm and kill the opposition. She practices them in light armor (usually leather or scaled) to allow for maximal speed and mobility.

Ravenstill usually wields a pair of identical 10-pound hammers. The observant observer will thus quickly reach the conclusion that, while Draenei women are much slimmer than their powerfully muscled men, they’re not much weaker than they are. Their power-to-weight ratio is certainly higher than Humans’.

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Her academic speciality is the anthropological study of dance, particularly of the Elves people. She is herself a professional-level dancer and choreographer, and in the process of writing her field thesis.

Since her teachers have something of a mens et manus philosophy , she’s a seasoned leatherworker as well as an academic and dancer.

Ravenstill was also trained in shamanistic traditions since she was but a toddler, and wields considerable magical might as a battle shaman.

Video

The Burning Crusade launch trailer in 1080p, which introduced the Draenei (and Blood Elves) as playable characters. It features some footage of a male Draenei paladin.

Totem and taboo

Shamanism is one of the combination faith and magical power sets in World of Warcraft, along with Druidism or being a priest of the Light. These seem to be the “Big Three”.

Beyond the “Big Three” there are various other traditions and magics such as voodoo magic used by some Trolls, the Shadow used by some Forsaken, multiple demon cults, Pandaren geomancy, etc.

The main concept behind shamanism is forging ties with spirits from another layer of reality – or rather entire categories of spirits rather than individual ones. There are many categories of spirits, and depending on culture and area the emphasis can be on different categories.

Ravenstill next to a typical Draenei fire totem. Click for a larger version.

For instance many Tauren shamans commune with their ancestors, or with nature spirits also well-known to druids. By contrast Orcs are more interested in the power and flash of the spirits of raw elements.

Since shamanism is primarily a Horde thing, and Orcish cultures dominate the Horde, most shamans make extensive use of their ties with spirits of fire, air, earth and water. This is also convenient as most Horde members will see combat, and a competent elemental shaman can be a great asset on the battlefield.

In practice

Adventuring shamans such as Ravenstill will have ties with an heteroclite mess of spirits. In the field, theological coherence is generally seen as less important than “whatever works”. Typical spells include :

• Hurling bolts of lightning. This is usually granted by spirits of air, but some shamans deal with lightning spirits.
• Keeping a very small spirit of lightning or air that, when active, shocks anybody striking the shaman.
• Turning into a spectral wolf. This form is none too useful for subterfuge (they look clearly magical and people know about shaman spells), but it runs swiftly. Though it has no prehensile limbs, cannot talk, etc. changing shape can be done very swiftly, even in mid-leap for a skilled shaman.

Ravenstill in ghost wolf form. Click for a larger version.

• Setting people and objects ablaze in a shock of flame, or freezing them in a shock of ice.
• Buffeting and disorienting enemies with a gust of wind. This is usually used to break the concentration of hostile spell casters
• Vanishing into the ether to reappear far away in a specific, prepared place (often a room at an inn). This can also be done with magical stones called Hearthstones, but shamans can go without if needed (or if their Hearthstones is still recharging, which takes a while).
• Levitation.
• Magical healing.
• Breaking curses on allies, and dispelling beneficial enchantments on enemies.
• Farsight.
• Raising the recently-slain (which might even include themselves !).
• Charging one’s melee weapons with the power of fire, lightning and/or wind.
• And other, higher-level-still spells.

Sticks in the ground

One of the more distinctive magical practices of shamans is totems. These oft-ornate magical structures are about a foot high, and are conjured on a spot in the ground.

Totems are immobile, though many shamans can dispel and re-conjure them a bit later. But they can channel strong elemental energies and operate on their own. Totems are short-lived, though, especially if the shaman doesn’t stay nearby.

Click for a larger version.

At the level covered in this profile, Ravenstill will use such totems as :

• A fire totem that hurls minor flame bolts at her enemies.
• A water totem calling down semi-material streams of healing water.
• An earth totem that has the ground animate to restrain opponents, slowing them down.
• An air totem that will draw one hostile spell aimed at the shaman into itself and vanish.

More powerful totems can have dramatic effects, such as letting in a large fire elemental for a short while. Usually, a shaman can only maintain a totem of each of the four main elements.

Spirits be with ya, mon

Elementals, especially the Big Four elements, have a hierarchy. It ranges from very minor and passive creatures to great Elemental Lords that are practically gods and command immense armies. The intelligence and physical size of an elemental are usually a pretty good indication of their position in the hierarchy – which seems somewhat feudal in nature.

The more intelligent elementals are persons, with their own values and individuality. More common elementals do not seem to be meaningfully sapient . Some personality types seem more common among some elementals. For instance fire elementals tend to be angrier than water elementals.

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Some elementals see themselves as waging an eternal war against their rival elements. That seems pretty common. Meanwhile wiser elemental spirits seek peace and unity among the elements.

Elementals used to rule over Azeroth, but were kicked out by ancient gods. Albeit imprisoned in other dimensions, they aren’t too difficult to summon and retain their ties to the inanimate elements of Azeroth. Like with… almost everything on Azeroth that isn’t grass or pebbles, warping them so they become murderously insane and warlike occurs at the drop of a hat.

Elemental spirits are used by all sorts of magical traditions, not just shamanism. But it is for shamans that they are the key to understanding the world.

Renaissance

A recurrent theme of shamanism is that of return to the roots. It is far from the only form of animism on Azeroth (Druidism immediately comes to mind), but it has a more primal character to it.

For the bulk of the Horde, the return to shamanism was a cultural, religious and magical revolution after rejecting demonism, corruption and subjugation. The Orcs essentially reinvented their lost traditions, their ties with the elements, the world and their cultures to return to whom they were back before their fall.

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The Troll tribes allied with them were significantly impacted by this, though they also had their own tribal traditions to fall back on.

For the Draenei, discovering the spirits and building bridges toward them was a major revelation for those who had lost the ability to commune with the Light. Though this discovery of a new way to see the world and magic was originally a Broken phenomenon, it spread to other Draenei.

(More about the Broken and the Draenei below).

Howbeit the renaissance theme doesn’t apply to the Tauren. These have continuously practiced their shamanistic faith and magic for centuries. The influx of Orc-influenced practices did shake things up, though.

The Earthen Ring

The Earthen Ring is a sort of “high council” of powerful shamans. They are a cryptic, discreet and loose organisation, unlike the druidic Cenarion Circle. The Earthen Circle is chiefly concerned about politics… among elemental and quasi-elemental spirits and gods.

They seem to primarily act as peacemakers between elemental lords and factions, preventing wars that would ravage or even destroy the world. Some of their members have also various prophecies and intuitions – which tend to be respected by the Horde. Earthen Ring shamans are often seen intervening in areas where the elements are going out of control.

The Circle was originally a Tauren affair. As the situation on Azeroth kept worsening, shamans from other species joined without prejudice. The mighty Draenei shaman, Far Seer Nobundo, was welcomed to act as a champion of the Ring to help prevent the world disintegrate during the Cataclysm, even though he’s firmly aligned with the Alliance.

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Modern Earthen Ring shamanistic circles are usually interracial, and seem to have members from species that are not normally shamans (for instance Sabina Pilgrim  in Ashenvale seems to be a Earthen Ring shaman, or at least an ally, despite being Worgen). And of course many members of the Ring are elemental lords, barons, sages and other dignitaries.

The mightiest and most famous Earthen Ring shaman is Thrall, the great liberator of the Orcs and the former Warchief of the Horde.

The Eredar, the Draenei, the Broken – a short history

The Eredar come from what seems to be another world in another dimension . They developed an advanced culture wisely wielding powerful magic.

Their world is in the same multiverse as Azeroth, where the bulk of World of Warcraft stories occur. Entities capable of traversing the Twisting Nether (a sort of astral plane  between dimensions) can reach both planets.

Ravenstill among her penguin friends. Click for a larger version.

Thus did Sargeras, an infernal lord of the Burning Legion, come to the Eredar. He subtly persuaded them to follow his path by promising great knowledge. He would eventually turn the Eredar into a species of horrible warlocks aligned with the Burning Legion. Many of the Legion’s mightiest mage-lords are Eredar.

However one of the great leaders of the Eredar, Velen, was also contacted by a na’aru.

Angels of light

The na’aru are otherdimensional, alien beings who often manifest as light and complex geometric forms. They seem to have deep ties with The Light, a sort of divine life-force principle often harnessed by clerics and paladins.

This na’aru gave Velen a vision of the Eredar’s future corruption, then offered a way out. Though Velen couldn’t convince the bulk of the Eredar to renounce Sargeras’ teaching, he telepathically contacted hundreds of Eredar he knew he could trust.

You see, these penguins can be quite friendly. Click for a larger version.

The na’aru summoned a “ship” – one of the crystalline, living diamond-like structures built by their kin which can move laterally through space and dimensions. Each ship also seems to be a na’aru – perhaps it is their body or avatar , or perhaps they merge with it and power it.

Fleeing their world, Velen’s friends called the new servants of Sargeras man’ari (“abominations”) and renamed themselves drænei (“exiled ones”). The Draenei used their luminous vessel to roam across worlds, serving the Light whenever they went. All the while, their corrupt and hateful brethren chased them.

The draenei narrowly escaped several times, and each time the world they had to flee fell to the Burning Legion – though of course it would have been the case even if the draenei had not been there.

It’s so very lonely…

The exiles ended up crashing on a luxuriant world. K’ure, the na’aru advising Velen and power the vessel, was badly wounded. The exiles had to settle for the long haul, even cannibalizing parts of the ship that had come apart to build cities.

This world was inhabited by primitive orcs, with whom the Draenei had distant but peaceful relations. The Draenei lived there for at least 10 generations of orcs, so 200+ years. They called this world “Draenor”, since orcs had no name for it but “the world”.

But sometimes they need to shut up. Click for a larger version.

The orcs adopted the main remnant of the na’aru as their holiest site, though they didn’t realize it was tied to the draenei. They called the crystal mountain Oshu’gun. The spirits of their ancestors settled there, attracted by the na’aru’s presence and the crystal’s properties.

However, the Eredar leader Kil’jaeden reached this world and corrupted the orcs, turning them into fel creatures. This was the birth of the Horde, an immensely powerful army. They devastated Draenei lands and cities before turning toward other worlds.

In their demonic madness and by renouncing their connection with the elements, the Horde shattered their world. It decayed into lifelessness and dust and would eventually break apart to become the Outland.

They also used fel magic and demons to close off Oshu’gun, condemning the spirits of their own ancestors and K’ure to annihilation.

… you’re 20,000 light years from home

The Draenei capital, Shattrath, was the last to fall. The bulk of the population sacrificed itself to give the impression that almost all Draenei had been slain. It was a ruse to let a few dozen survivors, among them a reluctant Velen, escape. They fled to a hidden refuge in the marshes.

The vast majority of the defenders at Shattrath died as intended. Many fell victim to a strange crimson mist that seeped into the city as a sort of chemical weapon.

Though a few survived and crawled away in the confusion, they found that the mist had mutated them and broken their connection to the Light. At least one hidden camp in the marshes was found, and likewise bombed with the crimson mist.

Ravenstill near an energy cascade on the Exodar. Click for a larger version.

The mist mutants found themselves slowly degenerating, growing dim and deformed. They were named krokul, or “broken ones”, and eventually banished as it was impossible to heal them.

As orcs flowed away from Draenor to invade Azeroth, the draenei built a new city in Zangarmarsh. They kept the Broken away from them in disgust, as they had been abandoned by the Light and most had taken leave of their senses. The Broken called those among them who fell to dementia and wandered away the Lost Ones.

Still, while the Outland was shattered, some life returned to it as the bulk of fel magic practitioners left for Azeroth. The tiny Draenei and Broken communities could survive in hiding.

Earth’s cry, Heaven’s smile

One of the Broken, Nobundo, was a former paladin  of the Light. For years he vainly attempted to reforge his connection to the Light. All the while he saw fellow Broken around him go Lost, or kill themselves as they felt they would soon be. His dogged meditations never succeeded, but Nobundo became able to hear the voice of the wind – and eventually other elements.

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Though the orcs had lost all connections to the elements as they accepted the fel magic of the Burning Legion, Nobundo recreated such a contact for the Broken. The elements rose to help him, even against those Draenei who despised his kind. Nobundo and the elements hammered out a balanced alliance, sustaining and healing each other.

Though most Draenei would not listen to Nobundo, still seeing him as krokul, Velen the Prophet did. Over time shamanism became accepted, among non-Broken Draenei, and allowed for the restoration of some remains of the Outland.

To Azeroth

(The following sequence of events is, to my knowledge and as of this writing, undocumented. It also went through a significant retcon . The broad facts are :)

• Another na’aru vessel arrived on the Outland. It was called Tempest Keep by outsiders. Velen sensed this.
• At this point, an army of blood elves and naga was stranded nearby. Though they came from Azeroth, they had been forced to find refuge in the Outland after their leader, Illidan Stormrage, was killed by the Lich King.
• This army stormed Tempest Keep, probably not too long after it arrived in the Outland. Only one na’aru was aboard the vessel, and it was captured.
• At this point an expedition led by Velen the Prophet and Nobundo the Far Seer arrived to Tempest Keep. Though they had been beaten to the punch, they rushed one section of the Keep, called the Exodar. They gained control of it and detached it from the rest, but the other invaders managed to damage it.
• The Exodar was hurled in the Twisting Nether between the worlds. It seems likely that time within the Exodar passed much more slowly than on the outside.
• The Exodar eventually crashed on Azeroth, perhaps because it was the “nearest” world. This seemingly took place much like the vessel of K’ure crashed on Draenor.

History

Ravenstill’s mother is one of the two unmutated survivors of the Baa’ri village, in the Shadowmoon Valley. After years of lonely survival and night-time travel that significantly damaged her sanity, she found a Broken community in outer Zangarmarsh.

She thus was one of the very first non-Broken Draenei to study the ways of shamanism under the guidance of the great Nobundo. Though she became markedly less sick she was still somewhat nuts. She claimed adoption by the spirits of air and renaming herself “Bluejay”.

According to Bluejay, the birth of her daughter was inspired by the vision of a raven hovering in place in the wind near a great cliff. After this she knew “communion and immaculate conception” with a “great lord spirit of the wind”.

Ravenstill is pretty sure that her actual father is Narasu, originally from the Kurenai Broken tribe, who raised her whenever her mother couldn’t. But he never confirmed this.

However, Ravenstill’s aura does resemble wind spirits at its fringe, and she has no sign of Broken degeneration whatsoever. So the maternal rantings about the “mighty lord of the sky” and her “daughter of the wind” aren’t a complete hallucination. What happened exactly will likely be never known.

Daughter of wind

Bluejay spent most of the time on her nonsensical vision quests and Narasu was very poor. Thus, the kid was chiefly sheltered and fed by the local shamans. They soon detected her magical potential (especially with air and lightning spirits), and started training her before she was even three.

Darnassus’ entrance by night. Click for a larger version.

During Raventsill’s childhood, Nobundo’s Broken tribals were reunited with Velen and his community. Bluejay and Ravenstill, not being Broken, were considered to naturally belong to Velen’s people as well as to Nobundo’s community.

Seeing little Ravenstill demonstrate her beginner-level shamanistic talents helped convince Velen that shamanism belonged to all Draenei and not just the Broken.

Ravenstill was still a girl when Velen’s community, including her and her mother, made their mad dash to Tempest Keep. They then fled the Outland using the Exodar quarters. Ravenstill grew up on the Exodar as it was adrift in the Twisting Nether.

Ravenstill took a break from her shamanistic studies for several years to become a trained dancer, which she was more interested in. She also studied writings about dance traditions among the Eredar and civilisations encountered during their past travels under Velen’s guidance.

Deep impact

When the Exodar intersected with Azeroth and violently rematerialized, Ravenstill was on a small part that crashed kilometres away from the main ship. More lives were lost, but though Ravenstill was knocked out by the crash she was quickly revived. The lass greatly helped rescue and heal fellow survivors.

This group of Draenei also worked on containing the damage from the crash on the local fauna. The complex technology of the Exodar was full of magically-charged fluids and energies that could have terrible and nigh-instant teratogenic effects. A lot of those were splattered about during the collision.

Draenei crash site. Click for a larger version.

Within weeks, Ravenstill helped reestablish links with other modules that had detached from the Exodar and crashed to and fro through the Azuremyst Isles, and with the Exodar itself.

The hardy, industrious Draenei had soon built villages using Exodar debris and local resources. They started farms and trading partnerships, and joined the Alliance.

(This follows a common assumption that crossing the Azuremyst Isles and doing the quests actually takes weeks if not months in-universe. Thus, going from your spawn point to the Exodar also covers a significant span of time, from the crash itself to a point where the Exodar is already in contact with the Alliance and a lot of infrastructure has been built.)

Doctoral candidate

Ravenstill helped Draenei diplomats establish contacts with various indigenous peoples such as Furbolg tribes. She was a well-trained battle shaman, had read a lot about anthropology, and wasn’t bad with languages.

She lobbied to do more of this, and to establish cultural ties with Alliance peoples to do her doctoral thesis on the study of dance. Since to the academically-inclined Draenei that made perfect sense, she was detached to Darnassus, the Night Elf capital.

The Exodar some months after the crash. Click for a larger version.

These exchanges went swimmingly. Soon, the young Draenei was allowed to travel among the villages scattered across the branches of Teldrassil, the world tree where most Night Elves live. There she studied and learned the ritual dances in honor of Elune, the most important goddess of the Night Elves.

While interviewing priestesses in Shadowglen, Ravenstill stumbled upon a resurgence of the corruption of Teldrassil. Parts of the great tree (and the local flora and fauna) were becoming evil and violent.

Being a capable fighter, having earned the trust of Night Elf authorities, and having insight into the spirit world the Elves did not, she acted as an agent for druids and priestesses. She battled maddened creatures, reconnoitered several isolated moonwells (magical pools sacred to Elune) and eventually destroyed this spurt of corruption.

May Elune light your path

Ravenstill leveraged these good deeds to interview Tyrande Whisperwind — the immortal, charismatic, mighty High Priestess of Elune and de facto queen of the Night Elves. She gathered information about otherwise lost Darnassian sacred dances, which became the high point of her thesis.

She also received authorisation to travel through the Elven settlements on Darkshore unhindered. She was officially a “Friend to the Kaldorei” – the name of the Night Elves people in their own language.

Within the Temple of Elune in Darnassus. Click for a larger version.

The warrior women of the Sentinels, the elite guard of the Night Elves, also offered the Draenei a young nightsaber that would soon complete its training as a mount. The picky cat had been named Doctor Fluffyfluff by the breeder’s very young son and refused to answer any other name.

Ravenstill suspected that the gift was because no Sentinel wanted to be know as the rider of a nightsaber called Doctor Fluffyfluff. Still she arranged for the gifting of a young elekk — a traditional Eredar mount — to the Sentinels as a further diplomatic exchange.

After Doctor Fluffyfluff grew accustomed to her, Ravenstill left for Darkshore. She left her nightsaber behind to complete its training with the Sentinels.

But as it happened, while she was with the Sentinels’ catmistresses, things had gone really, really bad in Darkshore and beyond. This forced Ravenstill to put her studies aside, as a competent warrior and shaman whom the Kaldorei trusted was now sorely needed.

(Standard WoW zone progression ensues, with a Teldrassil/Darkshore/Ashenvale/Stonetalon opening to reach Exalted faction with the Night Elves and unlock their mounts).

Description

As a Draenei, Ravenstill is a tall blue-skinned humanoid with luminous eyes, horns, a little tail and goat-like hooved legs. Despite their inhuman features most Draenei look attractive (if alien), very fit and regal. Her skin is ice-blue – Draenei have a number of skin tones and horn shapes that they might consider as ethnicities.

Click for a larger version.

Ravenstill usually wears a sort of cropped, quilted tank top made of hard boiled leather. She specifically moulded it after her shoulder and bust. Out of combat she’ll complement it with her favourite sarong worn as a long skirt.

Personality

Like many Draenei Ravenstill is serious, hard-working, intelligent, disciplined, kind and generous . She has a very academic set of habits, always taking written notes about her travels and having off-the-cuff discussions/interviews with the locals.

Left to herself she simply would dedicate herself to her various crafts – dance, anthropology, leatherworking, spirit contacts, combat training… and maybe take up painting as she has been intending. She needs to stay intellectually and creatively busy and learning.

Visiting Darnassus. Click for a larger version.

However, she cannot stand idle if there is misery to relieve, rights to be wronged or innocents to protect. The danger is irrelevant – her culture, her personality and her religion all mean that she’s going to intervene. As she often fatalistically says, “the Light compels”.

Though she strives to be a detached observer, once she has to step forward as a champion of the Light she acts in a very emotional manner and wears her heart on her sleeve. Macho and/or predatory types might assume that it makes her weak — and would be totally wrong about that, quickly followed by a ten-pound elementally-charged hammer to the face.

Quotes

“Favour the road travelled by few.”

“Everything that is, is alive.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Based on a World of Warcraft player character. Most of the historical lore for the draenei comes from the novel Rise of the Horde and the short story Unbroken.

Writeup completed on the 15^th of August, 2015.