Server:Steamwheedle Cartel US/Khelbyn Alowishus Whitestaff

Overview
Name: Khelbyn Alowishus Whitestaff

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Professions: Blacksmith [Hammersmith Specialization]

Current Home: Ironforge

Place of Birth: Moonbrook

Age: 55

Appearance:

As far as humans go, Khelbyn stands taller than most at six feet, three inches. (Though, he never fails to feel slightly small when amongst Draenei and Night Elves.) While he meticulously trims his beard, he does let it grow to a moderate length. The color of which matches the same argent coloration of his long hair, which is, as a rule, tied back neatly in a crisp pony-tail. While deep wrinkles around his eyes and brow belie his fifty-five years, his eyes remain a crystal clear, and strikingly, icy blue. His form matches that of a well-trained soldier… a bit bulky in muscle, yet lithe and fluid in motion.

Personality:

Khelbyn’s voice is a soft, smooth baritone and is rarely, if ever, prone to outburst. (This has been proven to not be completely true on several occasions of late). Any tendency toward emotional variances has been tempered through both age and the experience of having served in the three major wars. Though as calm and collected as he may (sometimes) act, his eyes betray a constant and consuming sorrow. He has a vice that becomes blatantly obvious at times… drinking. Whether this is purely enjoyment or self-medication has yet to be revealed, though it is never allowed to interfere with his duty to those within the Order and is usually done alone.

Note: An acute intolerance toward insolence has had the opportunity to present itself. Furthermore, a disrespect toward those in his charge (officer or not) has been met with severe impatience, even if said disrespect comes from the hand of another guild-mate.

Goals & Motivators:

Khelbyn’s desires are what, in his opinion, those of any bearers of the Light should be: give aid to those who need it and wage war on the true forces of darkness, such as the Scourge and the Burning Legion. Said aid should and must be blind to race, and furthermore, both Horde and Alliance would do well to realize they battle the same enemies.

Having served in all three of the major wars, and having committed unsavory acts in the name of duty, Khelbyn has no longer has any desire to aid either side in battling the other.

Biography
While there was no particular shortage of notable events during Khelbyn’s childhood, the first event that thrust him upon the path of paladin, would come when he was twenty-six years of age. By the start of this First War, Khelbyn had, quite naturally, followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He had already spent much of the past decade practicing and preaching the tenets of the Light as one of the Northshire Clerics. He had reached a attained a state of blissful piety performing the role that it seemed he had been born to fulfill. A simple, but rewarding life it was then. Perhaps one day he would become Archbishop… but even if he did not achieve such a lofty goal, he could go to the Light having died a very happy and complacent man.

That was, until the war broke out and altered the course of his life, forever.

When Gul`dan’s forces pushed through the Dark Portal, and the humans rallied their defenses, Khelbyn’s younger brother, Halastyr, then only nineteen, enlisted in Stormwind’s army. Against familial counsel, Kheblyn immediately enlisted as well, in effort to keep watch over his younger sibling. Though, having no aptitude in the melee arts, he was not entirely sure how he planned on doing just that. Once trained, however, he was serviceable enough. By the end of the war, Khelbyn and Halastyr, left relatively unscathed and found themselves among the remaining soldiers that fled north to Lordaeron following the fall of Stormwind Keep.

With barely enough time to catch their collective breath, the brothers took up arms a second time against the Horde onslaught. This time, however, Khelbyn could not keep such a watchful eye upon his brother as the natural skill with which he wielded the Light had coupled with well his moderate combat prowess. The elder brother had been pulled within the ranks of the newly formed Knights of the Silver Hand. While Halastyr fought in the infantry to retake Stormwind Keep, Khelbyn’s struggle took place hundreds of miles away at the battle before the Dark Portal.

Both brothers survived. However, at this point, Halastyr had suffered enough lasting injuries to render him relatively infirm. Still, he remained well enough to sling both crates of cargo and barrels of oil. Thus, he retired from service and moved north to work the docks at Stratholme. Khelbyn remained with the Knights, and spent much of the next decade serving the Alliance as needed. However, during this time, his once steadfast devotion to the Silver Hand (and the Alliance as a whole) had been dealt several fatal blows. Most notable among them were the atrocities committed in the Alliance’s name at internment camps such as Lordamere, and the questionable trial, and subsequent excommunication, of former Knight of the Silver Hand, Tirion Fordring.

During what would become the opening moments of the Third War, Khelbyn made an arduous and damning choice. Before the gates of Stratholme, Prince Arthas Menethil charged Uther the Lightbringer, lord and commander of the Silver Hand, with treason. Uther had refused to move into the city at Arthas’s command, to “cleanse” it of those who had been infected by the undead plague. At that precise moment the Silver Hand was disbanded and torn into two distinct groups: those who left with the Lightbringer and those who stayed to rain iniquitous justice upon Stratholme’s inhabitants. Khelbyn chose the latter, rationalizing that he must, at any cost, gain entry into the plagued city to search for Halastyr.

The details of Khelbyn’s actions within the plagued city’s walls remains unclear*, though it is known that Khelbyn made his way out of Stratholme, along with a handful of survivors, and followed Jaina Proodmoore west to Kalimdor. There he served a brief period, as a soldier once more, within the Kul Tiras. However, he quickly grew disillusioned by the petty hatred that fueled the elder Proudmoore. Weary of the Admiral’s campaign, Khelbyn left Theramore just days before Daelin fell to the Horde Champion Rexxar.

Having been left to wander alone and without direction for several years, Khelbyn sought to restore the honor to the Alliance. However, he soon realized that the institution had long since become too corrupt for any possibility of salvation. Regardless of the fact that his youth had managed to escape him, Khelbyn was bound to seek personal atonement for him the acts of atrocity commited in the name of “honor” and “duty”. Thus, based loosely upon the tenets he learned from his tenure as a Knight of the Silver Hand, he sought to form a new order… one both blind to the differences that mark the Horde, and set upon the greater enemies to all that inhabit Azeroth.