Server:Moon Guard US/Tibylt

Character Stats
Name: Tibylt Frostglitter Sprocketsnap

Title: She Who Asplodes Various Things

Age: 48

Hair Color: Carrot red

Eye Color: Bright green

Skin Color: Pale

Height: 2'11"

Marital Status: Single

Mother: Mercuria Highwind; deceased

Father: Yorek Highwind; MIA (last seen in Gnomeregan)

Siblings: None

Appearance
A freckle-faced and frizzy-haired young Gnome who carries an interesting assortment of both arcane and engineering accouterments; she is quite often liberally dusted with blasting powder or picking little bits and pieces of demon or undead off of her. She does clean up rather nicely, though, and heavily favors blues and purples in her rather impressive wardrobe.

Personality
Tibylt is as subtle and tactful as a brick to the face, about as outwardly friendly as a seasick crocolisk and twice as temperamental. All in all she presents an extremely abrasive exterior, is quite blunt and opinionated, and is rather prone to bigotry, particularly against Orcs and Blood Elves. She has also been known to deliver impassioned screeds against warlocks. Yet for all of her bluntness, impatience and volatility she really is quite a sensitive soul, and definitely wears her heart on her sleeve. She is also an extremely loyal friend and will bend over backwards to help those she cares about-- even if she's a bit clueless sometimes as to how to go about it. Make no mistake, though: she may be a serious sort as far as Gnomes go, but she has every bit as much appreciation for mischief and oddball humor as the rest of her kind.

Background
Tibylt Sprocketsnap is the only child of Mekgineer Yorek Highwind and Gyropilot Mercuria Highwind; unfortunately, most records concerning them were lost with the destruction of Gnomeregan, and Tibylt herself rarely volunteers that information. Both were quite good at their respective jobs, however, with Mercuria known to have earned several medals of valor for her service to the Grand Alliance. Tibylt, like many young Gnomes, grew up helping around the workshop and came away with t he mechanical acumen that her race is known for.

The First War left Gnomeregan relatively untouched; however, in the Second War Mercuria and Yorek were tapped to help the Grand Alliance's forces; Yorek as a mechanic and Mercuria as a pilot. Tibylt, still not quite an adult by Gnomish standards, stayed with relatives and neighbors when Yorek had to be gone; both father and daughter, however, fretted endlessly over Mercuria's increasingly long and dangerous missions against the Orcs.

One day, she didn't return. Tibylt idolized her mother-- a self-described 'brazen hussy' who smoked, drank and brawled as much as any Dwarf (no wonder she got along with her fellow pilots-- most of whom WERE Dwarves) and was widely considered twice as crazy. The audacious woman seemed invincible to her adoring daughter, and the news that she had been shot down over the heart of Stormreaver territory came as a terrible blow to young Tibylt. That was bad enough, but the worst news was yet to come. Although Yorek tried to shield her from it, the solemn flight officers at the door made it crystal clear: Mercuria was never coming home again. Although she had survived the landing, she'd been captured and tortured to the brink of insanity by the Stormreaver warlocks. Her would-be rescuers were forced to shoot her instead, as she was beyond the help of even the most skilled healers. Throughout the ordeal she had never yielded one bit, though, and was honored for it after her death.

Tibylt was understandably distraught, though, and all the heroism in the world was not enough to console her. Yorek took it even harder, and once the war ended he seemed to withdraw deeply inyo his own shell. It wasn't long before he fell in with Sicco Thermaplugg and his radical ideals. Tibylt, for her part, began to nurse what would become a rabid hatred of Orcs, Warlocks and anything associated with them-- exposure to stark horrors at a young age started her metamorphosis into a Gnome of rigid, unbending principle.

Yorek came out of his depression long enough to see that his daughter had some talents that he had previously been unaware of. Heeding Mercuria's last wishes he contacted an old friend of hers, Magus Teatha Leymantle, a Leywalker living in Dalaran. Tibylt remembered her, regarding her as an aunt, and was more than willing to listen when the elder Gnome proposed bringing her to Dalaran to study magic. Yorek enthusiastically encouraged this, in part because it was about time for Tibylt to make a name for herself anyway, and in part because he felt rather overwhelmed trying to raise a child on his own. Thus the young Gnome went, joining a bevy of other Gnomes Teatha was fostering within the Violet Citadel.

A large part of Tibylt's willingness to pick up and leave stemmed from the fact that she had immediately latched onto Teatha as a surrogate mother. This alarmed the Leywalker somewhat, in part out of fear that it would hinder Tibylt's ability to make a new life for herself; indeed, the young Gnome's emptional disturbances made her quite difficult to deal with at times, and her extreme intelligence (even relative to other Gnomes) exacerbated this more often than mitigated it. She had finally begun to settle down and come into her own when two of her fellow students-- Terpenn and Iyona-- vanished without a trace. Shortly thereafter the Scourge arose, and with that the Third War began. It later came out that Terpenn and Iyona, lured by promises of power, had joined the Cult of the Damned. They had helped to unleash the plague on an unsuspecting Lordaeron. Stuck in besieged Dalaran, Tibylt tried to lay low. She was further troubled by the lack of communication from Gnomeregan-- except for the few in Dalaran, the Gnomes were curiously unaccounted for. However, Tibylt had no time to think about that-- soon enough, Dalaran's turn came as the traitor Prince attacked. Faced with probable death, and with the city collapsing all around them, Tibylt and her fellow apprentices had no choice but to follow Teatha's lead. The desperate Magus ripped open a portal in the nick of time, and the bedraggled Gnomes found themselves in Ironforge.

A shocking sight greeted them. A mass of haunted, staring Gnomes crammed the city: Gnomeregan had fallen to Troggs, resulting in many, many deaths, and Yorek was nowhere to be found among them. Thermaplugg had turned traitor-- given her father's infatuation with his ideas, it was safe to assume that he'd either died or (worse yet) become a leper gnome. Needless to say, Tibylt was quite disturbed at the plight of her fellow Gnomes and, her studies forgotten for the moment, she set about to helping them as much as she possibly could.

Teatha had unfinished business in Lordaeron-- involving the Silverblade family, no doubt; Tibylt clearly remembered the High Elven mage Raietha Bloodthorn, her human husband Malkai Silverblade and their four half-breed children-- and it was with the greatest of reluctance that Tibylt accepted that fact. She was in good hands, though, at least: a pair of Dwarven tailors, more friends of Mercuria, took her in and gave her a home. Tibylt proved to be surprisingly good at learning their craft, as she sought some form of distraction and she'd lost all of her engineering tools she'd painstakingly collected. Eventually she did manage to settle down somewhat in her new home, and resumed studies. When next she saw Teatha, the elder Gnome had undergone a disturbing transformation: the former Magus Leymantle was now a Warlock.Tibylt, incensed, would hear none of here excuses. How COULD she? Why, Mercuria would have kicked Teatha's ass for even THINKING of it! Dejected, Teatha accepted her former student's censure and left Ironforge to pursue her own path.

(In game-- Silver Hand)

It was at about this point that Tibylt decided to get out of Ironforge and into the world. In her travels she encountered a group called the Knights of the Flag, staunch defenders of the Alliance. This appealed to Tibylt's rigid principles; unfortunately, other matters got in the way and by the time Tibylt had resolved them, the Knights had disbanded. Many of them went on to form its spiritual successor, Alahni lo Andu-- the Purpose of Dawn-- and it was this group that Tibylt ended up aligning with. She was followed shortly thereafter by a blast from the past-- Liuceijya Silverblade, whom she'd previously known as a teenager via Teatha's friendship with Raietha. This was a reminder she didn't need; the fact that Liuceijya had until recently been a Scarlet Crusader only made Tibylt even more wary of her. This marked the beginning of her ideological conflict with the Purpose-- this and the fact that she had to work with Warlocks began to wear severely on her nerves.

The opening of the Dark Portal and the admission of a Draenei woman named Ashantae Bitingrock to the Purpose only reinforced this. Tibylt immediately took to her (as did Liuceijya, to the young Gnome's chagrin) but as time wore on, they both grew increasingly restless with the inconsistencies they saw around them. This culminated in a heated argument between Tibylt, Ashantae and several members of the Purpose concerning Warlocks, after which Tibylt stormed out, renouncing her membership, and began to search for something more in line with her values. Not long after, so did Ashantae.

Finding little of worth, Ashantae, Tibylt, a human warrior named Culgrim Darkstorm and a Night Elven druid named Aerdeth Blackpaw-- among others who would form the core of the nascent Azure Order-- decided to make their own way. Liuceijya aided them, having remained friends with Ashantae in spite of having stayed with the Purpose, but the going was rocky. This became painfully apparent after Ashantae was abducted by Blood Knights as payback for something her lover had done, bringing about fierce divisions as to how to go about rescuing her. Once more, Liuceijya took part; Tibylt, on the other hand, was quite inexperienced in the ways of combat and infiltration, but had determined that a successful rescue would require a functional communications system. Using plans jointly developed by her and Ashantae, Tibylt was able to bring the SKWERL system online and deploy it in time for the rescue operation.

Seeing what the Blood Knights had done to Ashantae merely reignited Tibylt's hatred of the turncoat Sin'dorei, and the Horde in general: Liuceijya, being half-Elven, was far from immune to this. Her arrest shortly after the rescue only made Tibylt's already low opinion of her even worse-- not least for the effect on Ashantae, who, in addition from having to recuperate from her ordeal, also had to come to grips with the fact that her best friend had committed crimes every bit as heinous as those of the Blood Knights.

Ultimately, both Tibylt and Ashantae testified against Liuceijya at her trial-- and, to Tibylt's surprise, so did Teatha. Embittered and disillusioned, the older Gnome had come to realize that her sacrifice was for naught and renounced the Fel, picking up a sword instead. The arcane was just too risky. Even as Liuceijya went to her death, Tibylt had finally come to understand her former mentor. Forgiveness and trust would be difficult for Teatha to earn back, but at least the two Gnomes were on speaking terms again. Luckily, Ashantae had also taken a liking to Teatha, having heard good things about her from Aerdeth, but due to lingering concerns the ex-Warlock demurred when asked if she planned on joining the Order.

(In game-- Moon Guard)

With the nightmare of Liuceijya's trial finally over, Tibylt had less cause to worry about Teatha and Ashantae and threw herself into her studies with a vengeance. She quickly became involved with the various missions of the Alliance and began a meteoric rise in power that alarmed some of her teachers. New members of the Order came and went-- some staying, others not-- and Ashantae gave birth, but other than that and Culgrim's sudden abdication of his position as the Order's leader, things stayed relatively quiet.

That all changed when Tibylt was called into the Cathedral and asked to investigate a string of murders. Certain people within the Cathedral had remembered her testimony at Liuceijya's trial and figured that the little Gnome might be able to get places a lot of other people couldn't. This roughly coincided with the deployment of Alliance forces to Northrend and a sudden influz of Death Knights seeking readmission after breaking free of the Lich King. The latter became inportant because the trial had brought the Order into contact with Ashrinn Pinecroft, Liuceijya's father-in-law and another longtime friend of Teatha's. As it turned out, he and Malkai had been having an affair... and Malkai, long presumed dead at Mount Hyjal, was back as a Death Knight.

Thus, it was time for the Order to decide what to do about Death Knights. Tibylt was staunchly against admitting them; however, others had different ideas. One of them in particular-- Raelindra Hopewell, a young Paladin from Honor Hold-- argued quite strongly in favor; Tibylt would have expected the opposite. Ultimately the Order decided to allow them on a very limited basis. Tibylt, as the resident hardliner, was tasked with interviewing Death Knight applicants-- if they could pass her rigorous standards, then chances were they might do well with the Order. These terms, she accepted: although certainly strict, her standards were far from impossible.

Hearing of this, Malkai and Ashrinn both decided to join. Tibylt held Ashrinn in high regard, his recent excommunication notwithstanding, and by sheer happenstance she'd wound up getting to know Malkai by working with him on her case-- which was getting uglier and uglier by the second. Yes, he'd done some terrible things himself as the Winterborn, but at the end of the day pragmatism won out: Malkai and Ashrinn both had knowledge that would be extremely valuable to the Order, and, being lovers, they came as a package deal. With a degree of evenhandedness that surprised the rest of the Order, Tibylt endorsed their acceptance.

Shortly thereafter Teatha found out about this, decided she had no excuses left and also applied, finally recognizing that she could no longer walk alone. This probably saved her life: after Aerdeth's murder at the hands of one of the very same Blood Knights who had tortured Ashantae and, more recently, attacked Raelindra, Teatha was very nearly lost to the Fel all over again. Ashantae's intervention was instrumental in averting tragedy.

Now with one Order member dead, Culgrim nowhere to be found, Raelindra off on a vision quest in Northrend accompanied only by a Death Knight berserker, Malkai and Ashrinn working through some major issues, and-- the root of it all-- a murderous Warlock/Blood Knight duo running loose and taking souls for some dread purpose, Tibylt is well aware of just how high the stakes really are. The investigation has taken a severe toll on her, and so has the Blue Dragonflight and its meddling with Azeroth's ley lines-- she seems to have aged well beyond her years in a very short time. Time will tell if she survives with her sanity intact.

Goals and Motivations
Tibylt's primary goal is to fight the good fight like any self-respecting member of the Azure Order; to this end she has focused a great deal on her magic. However, one of her lifelong goals has been to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a gyrocopter pilot. The latter, she is very close to accomplishing: her gyrocopter nears completion, and she plans on flying it from Valiance Keep to Valgarde for its maiden flight. More recently, though, her life has become consumed with putting an end to the scumbags gunning for her Order-- she is extremely protective of them.

Relationships
Teatha: Hated her for several years due to the elder Gnome's foray into the Fel Arts; however, circumstances arising from the trial and execution of Teatha's goddaughter, the former Scarlet and war criminal Liuceijya Silverblade, led Tibylt to reconsider her feelings. It was to Tibylt's great relief that Teatha renounced the Fel, and Tibylt has pledged to aid her in her quest for redemption.

Ashantae: Tibylt initially met Ashantae under the banner of their previous affiliation; she considers the Draenei woman one of her closest friends. She has seen the effect that recent affairs have had on Ashantae, and worried about her constantly.

Idiosyncrasies
Mild spork obsession; Tibylt has a rather large collection of them, many of which she has somehow manufactured herself.

Equally skilled att engineering and tailoring, but was too embarrassed to admit to the latter until very recently.

In spite of her oftentimes ribald humor, Tibylt claims to be completely asexual and have no desire for any sort of relationship. Her fellow Order members call bogus on this.

As of the Northrend offensive, Tibylt has been known to lose memory of entire days...

Public Knowledge and Rumors
Really, REALLY doesn't like Warlocks; she has only recently begun to forgive Teatha for it.

Has been looking extremely haggard lately, even showing a grey hair or two.