User:Joshmaul/Amendera Kynes

"'Like me, she has often chosen to remain in human form in places like this, out of consideration for those of the populace who may not be quite used to us. But in battle, she gives into the Curse just as willingly as even the most scholarly of us. She worries me, however...I am hoping that she is not giving into the madness of the Curse, even though she underwent the same ceremony at Tal'doren as the rest of us. Cleese is a good man, but he has been walled up for too long, if you catch my meaning...I hope that perhaps your experience, as a decorated combat veteran, will help her temper her bloodlust - and show her how to fight with her head as well as her blade.'"
 * - Packleader Zherron Shadowhowl, to Field Marshal Oren Tanis

Amendera Kynes was a young warrior-in-training when Gilneas fell to the worgen. Transformed by the Curse and fighting alongside a druid who called himself Zherron Shadowhowl, the young woman quickly became his lieutenant when he gathered others like him - not entirely ready to trust Greymane, but not fighting for Crowley after his cowardly surrender - into the Shadowhowl pack.

Biography
Born after the Second War - and thus too young to remember life before the Greymane Wall - Amendera was the only child of Ian Kynes, a sea captain who made merchant runs from Gilneas to Kul Tiras; her mother, Alicia, died of a fever when Amendera was four. She was named for Ian's mother, who had been a lady in waiting for Queen Mia. When King Genn Greymane had sealed off his lands and ordered all merchant traffic ended, Ian took that opportunity to retire to his home in the village of Stormglen.

Early on, Amendera showed a combative attitude, displaying what her teachers described as "highly unladylike" behavior. Amused, but realizing that his child needed an outlet, Ian turned to Sergeant Cleese, a member of the Gilnean Royal Guard, and offered his daughter to him for training. Cleese held nothing back, treating her as he did her male counterparts. But Amendera refused to give up, wishing to prove that she had what it took to be a warrior, earning her the respect of her teacher and her fellow students.

She had no time to learn much beyond the basics, however, as the worgen curse had begun and anyone who could wield a sword was pressed into service. Amendera was inducted into the militia, and fought alongside groups of both Royal Guards and former Northgate rebels. It was here that she met Eidan Zherron, a former warrior and rebel who had turned to the old ways - Gilnean druidism - in his service to Gilneas. Amendera would stand at his side, along with many others who would become worgen of the Shadowhowl, when they were overrun by the ferals in Light's Dawn Cathedral and turned into worgen themselves.

Captured with Zherron and several others, Amendera underwent the same treatment as they did, with Krennan Aranas' powerful serum administered to try and give them free will. Bonding with Zherron and a few others, Amendera fought with extraordinary ferocity, but not much finesse. Zherron, a little over twenty years her senior and an experienced combat veteran of the Second War, knew that she would require greater training, but with Cleese swamped with so many needing his services, he was not sure she would get it while still in Gilneas.

After the flight to Darnassus, Zherron ventured to Stormwind and assisted the Gilneans' allies in far-away Stormwind. Amendera remained in Kalimdor, however, and offered her blade to the assistance of the night elves, travelling to the mainland to fight for the Sentinels of Lor'danel. She became Zherron's eyes and ears in Kalimdor, keeping him appraised of what went on in the night elf lands while he went east to fight in Azeroth, and later in the Plaguelands of Lordaeron.

Months later, Zherron - now a powerful druid involved in the ongoing war with the Twilight's Hammer - heard reports of her conduct from the front lines and realized that while her ferocity remained, she fought with very little skill. Eventually, he would turn to an old friend, Oren Tanis; a decade before, Tanis' father Vorian had fought alongside Zherron's father Daril when they were both killed by the Scourge in Andorhal. Tanis, though only eight years older than Amendera, was a decorated hero of the war against the Lich King, having earned for himself the rank of Field Marshal. Zherron suggested that Tanis take Amendera under his wing and train her in the finer arts of warrior combat, things that Cleese had not been able to teach her in the time he'd had. Though wary of the apparent unpredictability of his soon-to-be pupil, Tanis agreed.