Server:Moon Guard US/Ashantae

Character Stats
Name: Ashantae Bitingrock

Title: Blessed of M'uru, Grand Matriarch of the Azure Order, Priestess of Elune, Mekgineer

Age: The Draenei equivalent of 19

Hair Color: Sable

Eye Color: An unusually bright silver

Skin Color: Pure white

Height: Noticeably tall for a Draenei woman

Marital Status: Engaged

Mother: Deceased

Father: Deceased

Siblings: Unborn sister, deceased

Appearance
Ashantae is tall for a Draenei woman. Her body is composed of cut muscle, the toned form of a well-seasoned warrior. There is a certain softness around the edges however; motherhood is still evident in the curve of her hips and chest. She moves with the intensity and grace of a tiger. Her silvery eyes shine brighter than is usual, and the Mark of Elune shimmers on her forehead. Naaru sigils spiral down her arms and across her collarbone. These sigils glow with a steady, purple-black luminescence.

The markings of the Light so clearly visible on her skin almost distract from those markings that are less than pleasant, but eventually the eye is drawn to her many scars. There is a large jagged scar across her throat, the healed over reminder of a wound intended to be fatal. There are angry, red abrasions furrowed into the flesh of her wrists and ankles, though they are most pronounced on her wrists.. Her hands always shake with palsy, indicative of mangled nerves, and are usually encased in braces or claw weapons. There are knife scars just below the line of her jaw, and her back is a mass of whip marks and healed over lacerations. There is a phoenix brand just above her right hip, slightly blurred, indicating that she struggled when it was done. Those knowledgeable about such things will recognize the Blood Knight phoenix. A set of claw marks mars the image, but cannot distort it to the point of being meaningless. She seems quite unconcerned about displaying these marks, and will bear up under the scrutiny of others with a strange sort of defiant pride.

A warblade clearly of Sin’Dorei make hangs from her belt, along with a wicked black spike. The scent of sanguine hibiscus clings to her, and her sable hair is tousled. Ashantae is often accompanied by a female child who is clearly half Blood Elf. The girl has big blue eyes and the ears and eyebrows of a Sin'Dorei. She is a chubby little thing with large horn nubs. She is about a year old.

Personality


Ashantae is a proud woman who speaks in a voice that is usually soft, yet frighteningly intense. It is a window into her personality as a whole. While she can certainly be quite garrulous and ebullient amongst those she trusts the most, recent trials have transformed her into a crazed mystic and counselor, plagued by visions and bearing the pain of a number of others who are in desperate need of surcease. She is more than willing to drive herself far past her breaking point, a trait that is both advantageous to those she leads and terribly costly to her personally.

She is a person of great faith and will speak about Elune and Her ideals to anyone who asks. It is that faith that seems to carry her through. She has a deep and abiding belief in the strength that comes from tragedy, an ideal she tries to express through the Order as much as is possible. She sees the trauma of her Order members as the cord that binds them, and the force that can make them unbreakable, if they but let it.

Ashantae is very matter of fact about herself, though she is very careful with the secrets of others. Some have found this trait off putting. From the girl who was willing to fight her way onto the Exodar to the woman who refuses to gloss over the details of what was done to her in the Blood Knight sanctum, Ashantae is often aggressive and opinionated. The upside however is that she is more than willing to bend her will on others for the good of those she cares about.

Ashantae has poor control over her rage from time to time. She is ultimately a savage at heart, born of feral stock and forged in the many battles her people had with the Legion as they fled, trying to find a new home. Those cracks in her psyche are still present, and enough stress causes them to give way, though since she is now tasked with leadership she has been watching herself that much more closely.

She is a savage warrior with fire in her eyes, a priestess with the touch of Elune clearly on her, and a leader soldiering on in the face of great adversity. But more than that, she is just out of childhood and trying to dealing with problems far beyond her level of experience. She can feel those she cares about most slipping away and feels powerless to stop it. While she is oft-times irrepressible and strong, underneath she is a girl who misses her parents and yearns for the kind of guidance only they could have given her.

Background
Ashantae Bitingrock was born to Marilinda and Astrados Bitingrock as they fled the Legion along with the rest of the Draenei. Ashantae grew up surrounded by battle, but her bubbly, positive nature helped buoy her through these dark times. She was a Daddy’s girl through and through, and it was no surprise when she expressed a wish to take up the blade like her father. Unlike her father, however, she did not want to be a paladin. While the young Ashantae held great respect for the path, she felt as though it was not her place to speak for the Light, preferring a more humble vocation. While she was blessed by the Naaru like all Draenei, the Light never came to her in the way it did with the paladins of her people.

Astrados, a large but gentle man, was happy to train his only child in the ways of the warrior. Ashantae loved both her parents, but worshipped her father. He was the man who could do no wrong and who would never fall to any foe. Many a morning he and his daughter practiced with wooden blades, though the training worried her priestess mother Marilinda, who quietly wished that her child had chosen a more sedate life. Still, as Ashantae aged it became obvious that she was very physically talented, and destined to grow in to an uncommonly large and fit body.

It was quite some time before the Draenei finally came to rest on Draenor, and an uncommon peace was now theirs to enjoy. Ashantae’s tribe, the Bitingrocks, lived in the shadow of Karabor and drew strength from its presence. They were a matriarchal tribe of Draenei who tended to exhibit more feral, eredar-like traits. Ash is a good example of this, retaining fangs and a spade tail.

Frequently the members of their village went there to pray and offer homage to Velen, who had delivered them from evil. Ashantae vividly remembers the Temple as it was, a holy site and a font of beauty and faith. The Bitingrocks were largely composed of spiritualists, and their Orc neighbors were interesting company, teaching the Draenei shamanism and occasionally trading goods and services.

The peace of their village was shattered the day the sky turned black. The orcs, driven mad by the blood of Mannoroth, rolled across Draenor in the grips of a horrific fury, crushing all before them. While the Bitingrock tribe had never given up the ways of war, they were ill-prepared for such a nasty surprise. Overnight, their neighbors had become the Draenei’s worst enemy. Ashantae, now a young woman, fought with her fellows to protect the non-combatants.

Her father was grievously wounded defending Karabor and its clerics, and he came stumbling into the village, weak and sick both from the blade that had been planted in his guts and from the fel energy that had empowered the steel. The survivors of the tribe fled along with him as the Orcs eventually overpowered the defenders, unwilling to leave him behind. It was only luck that Marilinda had not been at the temple that day; most of her fellows met their deaths at the hands of Gorefiend and his men.

Marilinda did all she could for Astrados, keeping him alive with every ounce of energy she could muster. Ashantae’s mother wept nightly with worry and fatigue, unable to be comforted. Ultimately the family knew that Marilinda’s efforts were futile, despite her status as an accomplished practioner of the holy arts. Still, her magics bought Astrados a few extra days, and the ability to say goodbye to those he loved. All too soon, however, the fel energy swept through his body. The remaining Bitingrock did what they could to give him a proper burial, but it was nowhere near the ceremony he would have received during peace time. A grave scraped from the earth by determined hands and a few stolen flowers were all the broken tribe could muster.

The survivors fled through the wilds of Draenor, the scenery becoming more and more corrupt as dark warlock powers warped what had once been sacred. More and more of the tribe died, picked off by orcs or demons, the young and infirm succumbing all too readily to disease and deprivation. By the time Ashantae found her way to Honor Hold, only she and Marilinda remained.

It was there that Ashantae met a human paladin by the name of Bradford Starfollower. He was a genuine and honest man, a paladin who retained a bright outlook, though it was tempered by experience. He was a particularly skilled demon killer. Ashantae found his red hair and grey eyes, eyes that were often bright with humor, quite attractive. Never having much use for the men of her own people, Ashantae found herself romantically entangled with the young human. They were married and quickly had a daughter, a half-breed girl named Venkha.

Bradford, however, was at his heart a knight, and couldn't stay away from the battle when so many innocents were suffering. It was a grim reality of their relationship that either of them, both employed in front line positions, could spend their lives on the battle field at any time. It was Bradford, however, who didn't come home, leaving Ashantae with young Venkha. Her daughter, however, comforted her; Bradford would not be forgotten as long as his blood walked the earth. Her mother, too, helped see her through, caring for the girl and drying Ashantae's tears.

Then, the promise of the Exodar, a craft that would take the perpetual exiles to yet another borrowed home. Ashantae and Marilinda, and Venkha managed to secure a place on the ship; Ashantae shoved others aside, towing her mother, daughter's hand gripped tightly, to get onboard.

The time aboard the ship was a welcome respite for Ashantae, who had grown from a little girl with a toy sword to a warrior with blood on her hands.

Ashantae and the other survivors did their best to build lives aboard the Exodar, to retain their spirit and faith. She was dimly aware of her mother meeting other men, but she did her best to put it out of her mind. Marilinda hid her liaisons from her daughter as much as possible, though Ashantae didn’t truly begrudge her. She knew how lonely her mother must be, but the loss of her father still stung.

The crash took what remained of the Bitingrock tribe. Marilinda, by then pregnant with Ashantae’s half-sister, disappeared. Ashantae, upon crawling from the wreckage and doing what she could for the other survivors, was forced to conclude that her mother and unborn sibling had most likely been slaughtered by Blood Elves or incinerated in the crash. Venkha, by some miracle, had survived. As the last of her tribe she and Venkha ventured into Azeroth, all the more determined to make a hero of herself in homage to those that had died.

Gameplay


The following occurred during in game rp and spans several years.

Goals and Motivations
Ashantae's current goal is to lead her Order well. She has much to prove as she is very young (by Draenei standards) to hold such a position. Recently her Order has come under attack and she strives to hold her people together in the face of horror and tragedy.

She strives to be the warrior she once was, training in fist weapons despite the personal cost in pain and time away from her daughters.

Idiosyncrasies
Difficulty understanding numbers based questions

Tendency to forget details, like names and directions

Loves to make strange items with her engineering knowledge. A watch that announces the time through a chicken face popping out and bokking the time is perhaps the most notable. One must poke it in the eye to get it to stop

Despite being, uh, less than ladylike, Ashantae doesn't mind being wooed as though she is one

Public Knowledge and Rumors
It is relatively common knowledge that Ashantae was captured by Blood Knights. She was rescued by her Order several weeks later, but was not without scars. Her healing process has been long and painful, and she is almost always in Darnassus, being tended to by the Night Elven priesthood. The child she bore as a result can be nothing but a product of this time; it is clearly half Sin'Dorei. Mutterings among the Draenei indicate that she was touched by the captive Naaru in Silvermoon City in some way; whether this is a good thing or not is a point of contention among her fellows.

Ashantae's friend, the half-elf known as Liuceijya Silverblade, was put on trial for crimes committed while in the Scarlet Crusade. Ashantae met with Liuceijya face to face sometime ago, and demanded to know whether the allegations were true. Upon hearing from the very mouth of the accused that they were, Ashantae vowed to see Liuceijya punished by death. To that end she recently testified against her friend. It is said her testimony was devastating to Liuceijya's defense.

There have been several confrontations between Ashantae and Liadrin, leader of the redeemed Blood Knights. Some gossips in the Lower City whisper that Liadrin's Knights bowed their heads to Ashantae in the end, and that some sort of potion changed hands. Harsh words were also heard. The content of their second meeting is unknown, but also involved Tibylt, a Gnome mage, and an unknown Sin'Dorei.

Ashantae has an older daughter by the name of Venkha, and the observant may notice that she looks a touch odd for a Draenei.

She, along with several of her Order members, has been the subject of slanderous articles in a Gnomish tabloid.

Ashantae is the sole leader of the Azure Order.

Quotes
Raelindra: "Isn't that the one who tried to rip Liadrin's face off?"