User:Arielune

= Basic Information = Name: Arielune Sylenigh Hartigan

Nicknames: Ari, Arie, Ariel

Current Titles: Earthwarden, Forsaken Oracle

Current Occupation: Head of the Sept of the Eternal Hunt

Race: Kaldorei?

Age: Unknown

Class: Druid of the Antler

Sex: Female

Skin: Waxy and leaf-like / Egg-shell white with occassional hues of pale green

Hair: Matted with missing chunks / Hues of sea-green, alabastor, and fern green

Height: Approximately 6 foot 2 inches

"...Something just doesn't seem quite right..."

"Her frame is tall and deathly thin, much like that of the frame of a Kaldorei. Heavy robes droop about her sunken form and layers of cloth and leather hide away her face.  As much of her body as she can manage is kept carefully concealed behind cloth or leather layers, hiding her full appearance away from the rest of the world.

''Her demeanor is a withdrawn one, opting to merely observe the world around herself from a distance. Her attention tends to wander from one thing to another, or turning inwards towards herself.''

''Her eyes are like faded silver marbles, seemily hardened orbs that lack pupils and the natural moisture that should be present. They appear more like the glass eyes of a doll rather than anything real.''

''Her skin looks waxy in texture with the shade of egg-shell white. With a careful eye, a complex system of pale green vines can be seen moving beneath where musculature should be.''

Her once long ears are jagged stubs, whose long tips have been cut off close to the skull."

= History =

Pre WoW
Lady Arielune Sylenigh Hartigan, a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. Her tale begins on the shores of the old kingdom of Lordaeron during the time of the human Exodus from Stormwind. Her father, Sir Wilhelm Hartigan, was a brave knight loyal til the end to the King of Stormwind. Her mother, Lady Ariella Sylenigh, was a mysterious Kaldorei priestess whose wanderings will forever be a mystery. The meeting of the two seemed to be an act of the gods themselves, and their love for one another blossomed just as miraculously. But this is not their story, but the tale of their child. Little Arielune was born upon the same shore where her parents met, merely a year before, and she was loved dearly by both of them.

But the world would not gift the child with a life of joy.

The humans of Lordaeron looked upon the strange lovers and their mixed child with reproach. As much as any man would dream of having such an exotic beauty as Lady Ariella, to take her as a wife and have a family with the strange woman was beyond them. And their distaste for such an unheard of thing was not a quite one. Little Arielune grew on those shores without a playmate and without a friend beyond her own parents.

To be the object of ridicule and stares would not be the child's only strife, but just the beginning of her journey.

Still in the tender ages of a toddler, her father was pulled from her life never to be seen or heard from again. Sir Hartigan was called away to the still churning war, and valiantly he marched with his brethren and his commander through the Dark Portal to be lost forever, loyal to his noble duty to the end. The loss of her lover to the war tore at Arielune's mother and drove her into a deep mourning, that not even the presence of her small child could bring her out of.

Again, in what seemed a sheer act of the divine, Arielune's tiny world changed.

It is unknown whether Lady Ariella Sylenigh had any living relatives or even from what Kaldorei line she hailed, but as she sat in her little home on the shores of Lordaeron and wasted away in her sorrow, it was the Kaldorei that came to her. One night, that seemed just like any other, three Kaldorei men came knocking on the door of their little home. They were the first Kaldorei Arielune had ever set eyes upon besides her mother, and their cold unapproving stares terrified her. For some reason or another they had come to bring back their lost priestess to the dark forests of Kalimdor, and on that night Arielune and her mother left the shores of Lordaeron.

Humans may have been unpleasant to the presence of a half breed like Arielune, but the Kaldorei were down right cruel.

Little Arielune and her mourning mother were whisked away to the sanctuary in Moonglade, where the few druids that were not sleeping desperately tried to pull the Lady Ariella from her maddening sadness. Arielune was cast away from her mother's side, and left to fend for herself in the small forest village. The Kaldorei would not even look at her much less talk to the child that was marred by tainted blood. These long nights were the first nights that Arielune truly knew sorrow. She was in a strange land and separated from everything that she knew, and it was terrifying.

Within a few short weeks, her mother finally passed on. Perhaps it is true that a broken heart is more potent than any poison.

There was debate on what was to be done with the child, Arielune, but in the end the Kaldorei wanted nothing to do with a child of mixed heritage. Finding her presence in the world a blasphemy to their proud race. Instead it was from the most unexpected place that kindness for the child did blossom. An old Tauren druid took pity on the small child and took her into his care to raise her and teach her as if she were his own.

And for a short few years, Arielune found a home learning and growing at the side of her mentor and Guardian, SpiritHorn Runetotem.

Through broken words, demonstrations and patience young Arielune learned the ways of the druids from her Tauren teacher. She grew strong and surprisingly adept at their ways, always eager to learn all that she could. He taught her of the Earth Mother and how she was the creator of all things and a very part of the world that they lived in. He also taught her of Malorne and his great wisdom and power and how he should be revered. At SpiritHorn's side Arielune became a part of a small and mostly unknown druidic order that strove to become like their venerated totem, Malorne, in every way.

But just as a baby bird is eager to fly from their parents' nest, Arielune was eager to make her own way into the world as a blossoming young woman.

She desired to see if her father had truly died in battle years ago, or if he was still alive out in the world somewhere waiting for her to return to him. And thus she left the side of her mentor to travel out into the world and make her way back across the seas to the Eastern Kingdoms.

Traveling across the seas is not without its dangers, and perhaps the Great Earth Mother had another trial in store for Arielune.

A voyage across the vast seas that should have only taken a month at most, took Arielune three long years.

Such voyages were not yet common, and only the goblin kind were crazy enough to try it constantly. There little rickety boats were always floating treasure troves of goods that they past from one settlement to the other. Little floating treasures that were occasionally never seen again, be it from foul storms or gold hungry pirates.

It was pirates that took out the vessel that Arielune was traveling upon. They were a blood-thirsty bunch, slaughtering the tiny goblin crewmen and pillaging the valuables to leave only a flaming shell of the vessel behind.

Young Arielune's tale would have finished that day, had the pirate Captain not had a vile obsession with exotic women. When his eyes set upon the girl, he was immediately enticed by her unique attributes and swept her up to be his own treasure upon his wandering vessel.

As the pirate's captive, Arielune learned first hand of cruelty, greed, lust, violence and death. She worked along side her captors each day, and each night she would scurry away from the grasp of the vile captain to hide within the confines of the packed belly of their boat.

Fate would not let slip between the fingers of the Captain forever, and as any conflict, theirs finally came to a head.

As with many other nights, the Captain perused young Arielune, drunk from both his recent conquests and ale. He lusted after the girl in the worst ways, and though she proved to always find a way to hide from him, he was especially frustrated and determined this night. The Captain instead took Arielune by surprise, cornering her before she had the chance to slip away. The girl, in terror, struggled against her captor. But he would have none of it, save what he desired to do to her.

Cornered and terrified, Arielune underwent her first change. She had learned how the druids would call upon animal aspects to change their flesh, but she had never mastered the ability. On this night, the ability finally came to her.

Quivering in fear, she began to change haphazardly into a feral feline, and she swung true, claws connecting with the Captain's flesh. She never finished shifting completely, because once struck, the Captain gave up his lustful folly and returned a blow in kind. He drove a dagger straight through the girl's skull, pinning her to the splintery wall behind her, furious that she had the gaul to strike him. Arielune slumped, the strike to quick and unexpected for her to even cry out.

The child was later wrapped in bandages and tucked away in a small cot within the bowels of the vessel. It is unknown why she was never discarded of, but one can suppose it may have been the Captain's refusal to lose such a unique prize. For months, Arielune would lay there, slowly wasting away as she drifted in and out of fevered dreams, and the pain whisking her into a delirium.

To this day, she still has never spoken of what she dreamt of in those months as she lay dying with the wound in the head festering.