Character Backgrounds for the Shattersongs

[Aritria]

The Shattersongs are my two Blood Elf Hunters that I've recently created in my head cannon of the characters. Here's Aritria's. Please let me know of any errors in the timeline, or the events that happen here. I've taken some liberty in some places to forward the story, but let me know with any feedback you might have for this. I'll post Killasandra's up later this weekend.

Thanks!
-C.


Name: Aritria “Arit” Shattersong (formally Darksong)
Race: Blood Elf
Class: Hunter
Age: Middle Age (160 years or so)
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 145 lbs
Affiliation: Farstrider, neutral oriented. Former Ranger-General of the 5th Battalion of Farstriders.

Physical Appearance: Tall, slender, slight athletic build. Aritria has dark Fel-green eyes and naturally dark Auburn hair that falls past her shoulders, that she changes colour on a regular basis. Her body is marked with tattoos and scarification designating the sacrifices of the Farstriders, the Blood Elven sect of dedicated hunters to protect Quel’Thalas.

Personality: Kind and wise, Aritria takes everything with a bit of salt and a light humour. She is methodical and thinks out possibilities before she acts on her gut. She is kind, compassionate, and takes criticism poorly.

Biography: Born 129 years before the Dark Portal was opened, Aritria was born and raised in a minstrel family in the seaside town of Windrunner Village. Her parents were devout to Priesthood of the Quel’Dorei, and were adamant that Aritria was to follow in the family line of business. At the tender age of 12, she found a stray injured Lynx near her house, and took it in for rehabilitation with the limited healing spells she had learned from her parents. The Lynx, named Wilshelmina, or Mina for short, found a home in the Darksong residence, and soon became the Village cat. As she grew up, she found herself in a romantic relationship with a Farstrider in training, Ana’thiel Shattersun. They married 25 years later, 79 years before the Dark Portal opened. Aritria, now 50, decided to break away from priesthood training and become a Ranger for the Village.

She excelled at training, with help of her husband, and graduated her class with honours. She fought side by side with him, protecting her beloved kingdom. At 109, after a 3 and a half month pregnancy, she gave birth to Killasandra, her daughter who would soon take her steps into being a Ranger herself.

Once the Dark Portal opened, devastation befell Quel’Thalas, as the Second War ravaged the kingdom’s resources and forests. With a hostile front on two sides, the Old Horde to the south and the Amani Trolls to the east, the High Elves joined the Alliance, only to be betrayed by the Alliance of Lorderon, and broke away quickly once the War died into the history books. Aritria and Ana’thiel, returning from the front, found Windrunner Village in ruins, and Aritria’s parents severely wounded inside their hut.

Over the next 10 years, Quel’Thalas rebuilt itself. In year 20, the Scourge, led by a corrupted Arthas Menethil, descended onto the Kingdom, leaving a wake of destruction behind them. Aritria and Ana’thiel were called to Silvermoon to defend the home city with the other Farstriders. Now a Ranger-General, Aritria was in charge, luckily, to her own town. She and 20 other archers made their way back to the Village and Windrunner Spire, the lighthouse that guided lost ships to Sunsail Anchorage.

When they arrived, Windrunner Village was under attack by Gargoyles and Phantasms, her friends being turned into Scourge, and her parents were already infected. After much inner turmoil, she drew two arrows, said her last prayer, and fired into her parents’ hearts. They crumbled to the ground, and as she approached their lifeless bodies, she took her mother’s Mithril and Ruby Pendant from her neck. She clasped it on herself, and heard a mew. The Lynx she had rescued so many years ago, had survived the attack! With Mina by her side, she ran back into the throng of swords and bones. Arthas was successful in gaining access to their precious Sunwell, and corrupted the well with immense Fel Energy. The campaign was over and the High Elves, now sanctified as the Blood Elves, surveyed the damage as they descended into withdrawal and addiction.

As the dust settled, Ana’thiel’s body was found in the ruins of the Scorched Grove, and, like the rest of the bodies found, untainted by the Scourge, were given a proper burial at sea. Aritria, along with Killasandra, vowed to keep the Farstrider’s promise: to eradicate evil, wherever it might take them. To commemorate both families, they decided that their last name would be combined to represent who they were: Both a Darksong, and a Shattersun. Thus, their last name, Shattersong, was solidified. At Sunstrider Isle, they said their goodbyes to each other, and went their separate ways.

[Ket Shi]

Very solid, sticks to lore and doesn't mess with the timeline. That's a very hard feat to do. Obviously you put in a lot of time, effort, and research!

I only have two minor quibbles:

That pregnancy is awfully short! Is there a reason why?

Is scarification and tattooing something that high elves did? From what I can remember, the only tattooed blood elves I've seen are death knights. Again, minor: individuals could go against the grain.

[Aritria]

Ket Shi, thanks for your feedback! I'm surprised that anyone could read through that. I was debating on a TL;DR option for those who can't sit and read everything.

As for the pregnancy, I looked up the question on Google, and it came up with a source used multiple times. According to the answerer (as someone had asked how long would a Blood Elf pregnancy be as well), the Blood Elves are almost Super Humans in their life span, as they can live up to their 300th birthday, just like humans can live up to 100, or there abouts. They've a mulitple of 3 compared to us, in that they are 3x stronger, 3x quicker, and 3x faster in pregnancies. So that's where the 3.5 months came in for a pregnancy.

Now, I might be wrong, and so might be the answerer, but we haven't really had anything official from the Big Blue. So, it's just an estimate, just like the age of Arit, depending on the sources that you use.

Also, as an additional note, just because she grew up in Windrunner Village, she did not meet any of the Windrunner sisters staying there. They're off doing something else, but they are not in the Village at this time.

E: Sorry, I forgot to answer the scarring and tattoos that she has. According to WowWiki, Blood Elves do have tattoo and marking rituals to seperate themselves from their High Elf ancestors:

Many painted runes or mysterious tattoos on their faces, arms and shoulders for warding off demons or celebrating significant kills or simply to look intimidating — something high elves would never do.

Aritria just took it a step further and permanantly scarred the markings into her. That could be considered part of the spiritual practice her parents made her take up.

[Ket Shi]

I'm not sure about the 3x thing. If they had that much more proportional strength and speed, no other race would be able to compete. But yet they're more above average in those terms. I'm not sure what a correlation between pregnancy duration and lifespan/physical abilities is, either. Me, I'd just stick with 9 months. 9 months for us humans is exhausting and draining -- 3 months would kill outright from the stress. Minor thing, but to me it doesn't make sense.

[Bubbleme]

I want to mention here. Blood elves do not live for three hundred years. Infact, their lifespan is drastically over that amount. 3-4 thousand years is what people usually believe. I agree with Ket Shi, also. Pregnacy with a blood elf would be roughly about 7 1/2 months, as this 'religion' so to say, relies on mainly fel energies for most of their living, meaning they would be swifter and more powerful than the average human being. Because of this, most actions and timespans will be a lot shorter. I may be incorrect, but I should not be incorrect by large capacities.

Edit: I also looked through your basic descriptions. If your character was 160, that would be basically being a little child. I believe you have forgotten the extra zeroes on your numbers, because roughly the years 1500-1600 is about the middle, as Blood Elves lifespan is about 3000 years, four thousand if they're lucky. I would correctly mark mostly everything else . No hard feelings, though, as this is just constructive critisism and advice, as well as knowledge/research.

[Aritria]

Oh, no, not at all! I'm happy that there's a few people on here who know what the limitations of Blood Elfs are. I'm a roleplayer by no means necessary, I just like having a background for those that I play often, my Hunter being one of them. Hopefully, it's as accurate as possible.

For the age, I used the chart at the Moon Guard Wiki: clicky link! Here they list Blood Elves as a race that can live up to 2000 years, but that might be in a rare case. For the pregnancy length, I used this answer I found from a Google Search that linked to Yahoo! Answers: clickylink #2! These are the sources I found and used, but any input to make them more realistic in the World of Warcraft is always useful.