User:Zaraek Starstriker

Zaraek doesn't talk much about his past to strangers. There is sometimes a little hesitation in his shadow-constricted voice when he mentions his "wife."

This relatively young blood elf male, 148 years old (HE 33) came from a family of artisans, the Starstrikers, who lived in a little bohemian village near the Andillien estate in what is now the Ghostlands. He was a skilled artist and sculptor himself, and many of the statues seen around Tranquillen and Silvermoon are his creations. Although he is not of noble birth, he learned the manners and tastes of nobility in order to be comfortable with his wealthy patrons, the Andilliens, and to mingle at their parties. Once the life of the party, the pride of his patrons who would boast that they had his hire, he still loves to teach an appreciation of culture and beauty and fears the descent of the elven culture into vengeance-obsessed savagery or hopeless addiction to mana.

He has a twin brother, Keyain. Both young elf males went off to war to fight the Lich King, full of pride and sure in the righteousness of the fight and its outcome. Zaraek and his brother trained intensively as Paladins of the Light, a little known sect that worked through the Light directly, without tearing it from the dranei or the Naa'ru. Zaraek excelled in his training and was soon recognized as Anaronae'kon, a highly honored title in the Paladins of the Light.

With this connection to the Light, his small squadron had the foresight to make a strike against the Lich King before his forces moved against their homeland. The mission failed, and the Lich King's revenge was swift and ruthless.

Both he and his brother are now Death Knights.

Arthas struck straight to the heart. Zaraek's undefended village was completely destroyed. There was only one left alive when the Lich King was done.

Zaraek still is never certain whether he is the true possessor of his mind, because he was the victim of a cruel trick by the Lich King where he was led to believe he had broken away, only to be ruthlessly taken over and used again in the most horrific manner. Now he uses ancient mind/body control breathing techniques, learned from a plainly dressed traveling healer, to calm himself and scan for any intrusion by the Lich King. He is slow to anger, but when his blood boils, it boils with white-hot blinding fury. When frustrated, he will go off in a roaring rage and kill everything in sight, then stand in silent exhaustion and remorse, and whisper a prayer under his breath for the spirits of the dead. Sometimes he seems to hear someone singing, someone no one else can hear.

Zaraek Starstriker lives now by his blade, supplemented with skinning and mining skills, and though he has no enmity in his heart against any living being, he kills dispassionately and will take any work to support the woman he loves. He reserves his wrath for the Lich King and the demonic powers that destroyed his life.