Server:Feathermoon US/Lumia

Every race has its clichés, and every cliché has its exceptions, but few individuals are as deviant as the Draenei girl Lumia Elloree DeNoira. Born a scant seven decades before her people were forced from their transitive home, Draenor, Lumia is still young, barely more than a child to her people, but her age belies surprising depth and intellect. A skilled artificer and paladin, Lumia is deviant in those regards as well, choosing peculiar company, peculiar ethics and peculiar tracts of study in both fields.

Lumia the child
An outcast of her people, a title oftentimes self-afflicted, Lumia spent much of her childhood alone. She was a scant seven years old when her parents, Duvin and Ashai DeNoira, both skilled field researchers and scientists, failed to return from what was to be a routine assignment in the nearby wastes. Both were presumed dead and those inclined to be forgiving of the transgressions of this troublesome youth often blame Lumia’s rebellious nature on her lack of parental figures during her formative years. Lumia was left to be raised by her older sister, Iluvia, who, for many years, blamed herself for Lumia’s questionable behavior.

Lumia and Iluvia’s clashes were legendary and, even those who did not know the two by name would often dawn recognition if someone referred to the “fighting siblings.” While many siblings have squabbles (especially same-sex siblings), Lumia and Iluvia were so different and so often at odds that many doubted they were in fact from the same genetic material (or even the same species at times). The duo became so disruptive to life in their home, a small draenei settlement in Nagrand, that they eventually had to be separated. It wasn’t difficult to find an excuse to split the two up, however, when Iluvia opted to begin the training to become a paladin, a fate their parents had wished for the younger Lumia, who was spoiled rotten as a young child.

What contact young Lumia had with others of her kind was minimal at best, especially after being separated from her sister. Bouncing from place to place, the elders finally decided, for everyone’s benefit, to give Lumia small quarters of her own (no bigger than a broom closet, really), which suited Lumia, who had little as little patience for the strict rules imposed by her elders as they had for her rebellious shenanigans.

Most of the time, Lumia sought to be alone (besides the occasional prank), to hone what she considered to be her craft. Since she could walk, Lumia had an insatiable curiosity for the mechanics of the Naaru fortresses and, even when she became old enough to venture into the dangerous landscape of Draeneor, she very infrequently did so, opting to stay behind and try and figure out how things worked. She was not very old when she began to accumulate what many considered to be junk but, to her, were great treasures. Her quarters became a health hazard to anyone but the nimble-footed Draenei, who became adept at hopping through the cluttered floor, avoiding stepping on the discarded treasures found throughout the Keep. Oftentimes, Lumia would fashion something from the garbage, though very rarely did she make anything that actually worked. Still, her inquisitive nature piqued the interest of the other artificers, who began watching her from afar.

What little contact Lumia chose to have with others of her kind left many baffled and confused. Her brilliance was palpable, but the impetuous girl was nigh uncontrollable. Artificers centuries older than her who attempted to reign in the young Draenei to help her hone her skills could not control Lumia, who had none of the respect or reverence so common to her people. She was often heard, even at a young age, railing against what she called the “Naaru propaganda.” She had an open dislike, even hatred for the paladins, whose regimented schedule and training, and penchant for “teaching” their zealous ideals to everyone (even to the unwilling) rubbed her the wrong way. But her dislike for authority extended beyond just paladins, and it seemed anyone older than her was worthy of her disdain.

Lumia the artificer
The young Draenei girl took to calling herself an artificer around her fifth decade, when her aptitude for tinkering seemed to peak. Suddenly, the little garbage-toys she crafted began to take on the appearance of actual machines, and oftentimes they actually did what they were intended to do. After a time, however, Lumia turned from such mechanics and robotics to a field of study that would become a sort of defining characteristic for her: explosives.

Though she never earned the title of artificer officially, few disputed her use of it, and certainly not her worthiness of the title, especially when it came to crafting explosives. From small flares and fireworks to larger (and extremely dangerous) devices, Lumia made them all, and often used them in various rebellious pranks. By this point in her life, many of her own age group had already shunned her, and few even attempted to break through what they considered to be a shell of lunacy and madness to attempt to know the lonely young girl beneath the surface.

While Lumia did not appear as such on the outside, she began to desperately crave friendship and, denied that, simply attention. This only fed her love of explosives—flashy, loud and attention-grabbing, they were the perfect way to be noticed. All the while, her outward attitude continued to deviate from her inner self-esteem. Outwardly, Lumia was boisterous and loud and, most of all, self-confident. Inwardly, however, the awkward youth began to realize there was, in fact, something wrong with her. In typical teenage fashion, she needed vindication and did not receive it from her peers. Was she too smart, or did her social ineptitude actually stem from a mental deficiency of some sort? Was she actually insane? Maybe the other Draenei didn’t like her because she wasn’t pretty enough? Questions plagued her mind each and every day, but always, outwardly, was she cocky and arrogant, usually infuriatingly so. She even affected a vain sort of manner about her, though her self image was the rockiest part of her psyche. She never dressed in the typical fashions of her people, and certainly never in dresses, which she thought accented her biggest faults, for Lumia was not overly glamorous or even what one would consider beautiful by her peoples’ standards. As the young Draenei grew into puberty, she began to develop awkwardly long, lanky limbs and little curves to speak of, as well as being possessed of deeply ebony skin, which further set her apart from her fair-skinned peers.

Through her uncomfortable puberty, however, one bit of curiosity (outside of explosives) dominated the curious Draenei’s mind and served to adequately distract her from her inner turmoil and destructive tendencies. She was interested, no, obsessed, with mechanisms of the Naaru-made structures.

The dimensional-hopping ship constantly consumed her attention, seemed to demand it even, but despite spending many sleepless nights plumbing its mysteries (many times in secret, for the elder artificers had to draw the line at this destructive youth toying with their home and salvation), she came no closer to understanding the intricacies of interdimensional travel than any of the other Draenei who studied the field. This was a further source of self-loathing on Lumia’s part who, though she always touted her own merits, became increasingly agitated at her inability to understand the complicated mechanics of the Keep. After all, if the only thing she had was her brilliant (at least, to her) tinkering, what did it mean when she found an area in which it was deficient?

Her more academic studies left little time for anything else, and Lumia was neither the strongest nor the swiftest Draenei in the Keep. With the exception of her nimble fingers which were put to good use in her tinkering, Lumia was rather clumsy and seemed to have a difficult time controlling her limbs, which constantly seemed to be too long. Lumia was constantly overpowered by her sister, who had, by this point, began studying to be a paladin.

Lumia the sister
Through her childhood, puberty and young adult years, Lumia’s sister, Iluvia, was a central figure in the day-to-day life of Lumia, though the two were rarely together due to their inherent inability to get along. This was a source of great tension for the young Lumia, who had no family besides her sister and desperately sought some sort of acceptance. She constantly sought approval from her only family, and Iluvia constantly sought to provide the support Lumia needed, but, as the siblings constantly put it, “things always seemed to go wrong.” It seemed the two were not meant to be in the same room with one another, for though things began amiably enough, it always seemed to degenerate into screaming, after which one of them (usually Lumia) would storm away furiously (usually with some sort of insult about Iluvia’s hair being ugly). In fact, when asked why the duo didn’t get along, neither had an answer. Lumia would usually make something up, saying that Iluvia must obviously be jealous of her talent, genius and good looks, while Iluvia (who refused to say anything bad about her sister) would either remain silent or change the subject.

Things might have gone on like this as nauseum, but for the blood elf attack. Lumia, separate from her peers and others who could protect her, found herself in a dangerous situation, hiding as well as she could from the invaders. She was discovered, however, and certainly would have been killed, but for the appearance of Iluvia, who traversed the length of the Keep to find her sister to insure her safety. Iluvia battled off half a dozen blood elf attackers, but the injuries sustained in the battle would prove to be fatal, even for her own healing powers. Lumia, uncertain of what she could do help, simply held her sister in her arms and watched her die.

The truth of what happened next is lost to Lumia. By her accounts, she lost consciousness there, her last thoughts of dying with her sister, but witnesses, Draenei who gave their lives to make sure others could reach the escape pods safely, would talk of a brilliantly-white skinned Draenei that looked suspiciously like “that troublemaker Lumia” walking through the Keep at an almost casual pace, as if in a dream. One witness would tell of being attacked by a blood elf assassin, only to be saved by this alabaster-skinned wraith, who simply touched the elf and seemed to burn his skin with a painfully bright light. For the rest of his days, he would only remember this radiant savior by her warm, calm smile and empty eyes.

Lumia would awaken days later, naked and alone on Azuremyst Island where she was found and rescued by a search party. She was surprised to find that her jet black skin had become an almost painful white.

Over the following days, she began to realize the weight of the situation she found herself in. She lived, but only thanks to the sacrifice of Iluvia. Not only that, but somehow, her sister’s essence, her very being, was transferred into her body along with the weight of her power. Lumia continued life very much the same on Azeroth as she had back home and found that, eventually, she was more welcomed by the other races of the Alliance than she ever had been by her own people…once the initial shock of their appearance and relation to the insidious Eredar had worn off.

Lumia the possessed
For months, Lumia denied the power given to her by her sister. She attempted to pass the days studying the peculiar work of the gnomes and goblins and augmenting their engineering practices with her own artificer studies. She was no less alone, however. Being an outcast from her own people and considered not much better than a demon by all else, she found Azeroth to be even more awkward and uncomfortable than back in Outland.

Without the benefit of being supported by her own kind (for she refused to live in the Exodar any longer), Lumia became a transient and something of a vagabond before settling into Stormwind where she peddled her wares to those willing to buy the odd trinkets and toys she purchased. Still, most of what she earned, which was never much (for few wanted to buy the wares of a demon) was spent on booze, for Lumia began to suffer from splitting migraines that seemed to be only curable by drink. This led to many an uncomfortable night on the streets of Stormwind, as well as several nights in the Stockades for her rather rowdy drunken behavior.

Soon after arriving in Stormwind, she found herself no longer welcome there due to her drunken escapades (and the general intolerance her kind met with at the beginning), and set out to travel the world. Over time, she found that she had peculiar abilities that she never knew she had. She was able to focus a warm, inner light to provide healing to those in need…as well as to burn those who had evil in their hearts. At first, she used her abilities selfishly, attempting to cure her growing headaches, but the plight of the war-torn world she found herself on touched even Lumia, who had always been selfish by nature, and she began to use her power to heal others, mostly children in Elwynn Forest, or the Redridge Mountains, where she spent many weeks. Oddly, she found that using her abilities in this fashion seemed to lessen her headaches, which had begun to feel more and more like a nagging, incessant voice in the back of her skull.

It didn’t take Lumia long to realize that the headaches were in fact a voice…her sister’s voice. Somehow, her sister had transferred her consciousness into Lumia’s mind, and whenever Lumia did things that her zealous sister did not approve of (which was a good deal of things), Iluvia’s spirit grew disgruntled. The angrier the spirit became, the worse Lumia’s headaches became.

In the end it was more an effort to alleviate the pain her sister’s spirit was causing her than any desire to help those in need that drove Lumia to don the armaments of a paladin, but the means justified the ends, and the odd jobs that Lumia began to work, assuming the mantle of a paladin despite her distaste of their ways, began to have a lasting effect on the communities she visited. Lumia actually found herself growing fond of the accolades and praise she received for being a “hero” and her oft-unorthodox methods made it possible for her to accomplish tasks that others before her had failed to perform. Despite her aptitude for channeling light into a weapon, she made the most use out of her various explosive devices, which she crafted from metals purchased from a retired night elf soldier by the name of Caelwyn Vengewarden, once the Blood Dancer of the Azure Glade.

Lumia the paladin
Though she would never admit it, Lumia began to enjoy her time as a paladin. She saw a great deal of the world and grew addicted to the excitement, like a drug. Still, at night when she tried to rest, she found the headaches returning, and would still often drink herself to sleep. Despite her quasi-heroic stature, however, Lumia still found herself distanced from others. While she had casual acquaintances, generally forged from common tasks, she made very few friends. In a way, it was Lumia’s own psyche, the nagging voice in the back of her head that told her no one wanted to be near her, that kept her alone.

It wasn’t until a trip to Desolace that the blossoming youth finally broke out of her shell and made what one would consider a true friend, though their rocky relationship caused Lumia to question the necessity of such friendship on numerous occasions. While performing tasks for the inhabitants of Nigel’s Point, Lumia found herself raiding the Thunder Axe Fortress, wherein she saved a young Draenei named Shaliel Lumious. Once a prominent priestess, Shaliel had since taken up the shamanistic ways only recently reintroduced to their people, and was still young in her career. Seeing another young Draenei in danger, Lumia rushed, half-cocked, into battle. Her enthusiasm made a difficult situation nearly fatal for the both of them, but they pulled through and discovered a kinship, the depth of which did not truly become known for many weeks.

Lumia and Shaliel parted on good terms after rescuing a captured night elf from the Burning Blade emissaries in Thunder Axe Fortress. It wasn’t until weeks later that they met again on the streets of Stormwind, and the duo built a stronger foundation on their friendship that continued to grow the more they saw each other.

It was during this budding friendship with the young shaman that Lumia discovered a “cure” for the problems she was experiencing with her sister, Iluvia. Shaliel, who had discovered the invading spirit, brought Iluvia out and spoke with her, telling her the pain she was causing Lumia. Iluvia, as surprised at the situation as Lumia was (and more surprised that Lumia had taken to the life of a paladin at all), agreed that her spirit should be set to rest, which Shaliel gladly did.

Unfortunately, when Lumia awoke, she discovered that, with Iluvia gone, she could no longer channel her paladin abilities. For a time, the dismissed responsibility was a weight off of Lumia’s shoulders, but in time she began to miss the thrill and excitement. Worse yet, Lumia began to see the suffering of Azeroth…suffering that she, surprisingly, felt inclined to help cure. She realized then that the life she had become accustomed to, the life of a paladin, was what she truly wanted, and sought help from the Naaru to return her powers.

The Naaru aboard the Exodar would not acquiesce to Lumia’s request, unfortunately, though she spent the better part of a night attempting to commune with the alien entity. It was, in fact, her friend Shaliel that solved the matter by bringing Lumia back to Draenor and escorting her to Shattrath City. It was there that Lumia beseeched the Naaru A’dal for his help. Adal did help Lumia, but not in the fashion which she expected. The entity returned her powers, even greater than before, but was less than impressed with how Lumia had used them up until that point. A’dal decided that Lumia needed a teacher, but instead of sending her to seek one out, he brought one to her. The Naaru once again bound the spirit of Lumia’s dead sister, Iluvia, to Lumia’s form, saying that the two would remain one until the young Draenei finished her training.

Things seemed back to normal, though Iluvia’s voice was more guiding now and less painful to Lumia. It also seemed that Iluvia could possess Lumia’s body for a time, though she did so very infrequently, when Lumia was weak or tired. In truth, Lumia has commented that, lately, Iluvia speaks to her less and less. She knows her sister is there, but she offers less advice, less criticism, than she did in the past.

Lumia’s friendship with Shaliel endured some difficulty when the older woman confessed her love for Lumia, who had little concept of the word. In the end, Lumia realized that she could not return the feeling in the same manner which Shaliel felt it. Lumia loved Shaliel like the sister she had lost, but Shaliel wanted more of the relationship.

After some difficulty between the two of them, Shaliel accepted Lumia’s feelings and the duo became friends once more, though their relationship has been somewhat strained ever since, especially after Lumia’s return to Draenor, now called Outland, in which she commented that she did not feel the shattered world was her home any longer. Disgusted and disappointed in the young Draenei’s lack of tradition and racial pride, Shaliel and Lumia experienced their second falling out, which blew over in time but left them somewhat more distant still. Still, to this day, there are few that Lumia would call upon for help, or call friend, above Shaliel Lumious.

Lumia the hero
After “taming” Iluvia’s spirit into a teacher and mentor, Lumia continued her training, spending much of her time in the blighted lands called the Plaguelands, before returning home to Draenor. When Lumia returned home, she experienced a heartbreaking loss when she saw the world it had become. Expecting a warm welcome with open arms, she was attacked by demons and fel orcs and scorched by burning rain. It was extremely disappointing for the young Draenei, who lashed out (primarily verbally) against the land they had once called home. She has since come to accept the world it has become and accept her responsibility to help clean it up and drive the Burning Legion out, but still to this day prefers Azeroth, which she had seen more of by that point than she had of Draenor, having lived a very sheltered and shut-in lifestyle in her home on Nagrand. Lumia especially enjoys spending time in Winterspring, seeming to be able to tolerate the cold better than most.

Through her travels, Lumia met her second true friend, Varley Brown, a boisterous storyteller, swordsman and self-appointed “hero.” The duo met in one of Lumia’s favorite hangouts, the Pig and Whistle (which Lumia still frequented even after “taming” her sister’s spirit. Lumia often comments on the fact that booze still drown out the voice of her self-righteous sister, and sometimes chooses to drink rather than listen to her nagging sibling) and seemed to hit it off from the start. Varley, an adventurer by trade, had an (unhealthy) obsession with explosives, an obsession that the eager Lumia was happy to feed. She soon became Varley’s “official fireworks manufacturer” and the two became fast friends.

Over time, Lumia began to realize that the strong feelings she felt for this goofy, energetic human were, in fact, greater than those she felt for anyone else. Even her feelings for Shaliel, whom she felt strongly for, were pale in comparison. She came to realize that these feelings must be love and, at first, embraced them in secret, at once elated to be feeling the way she did as well as being frightened to ruin one of the few friendships she had.

Varley’s stories engrossed Lumia, who began to work hard to become a “hero” herself, though Varley’s idea of a hero oftentimes involved monetary compensation (or large statues in his likeness) of some sort, and the two began to accompany one another on adventures both mundane and epic. It was Varley who accompanied Lumia on her first, ill-fated trip back to Draenor and has saved her life on numerous occasions.

At some point in their relationship, it became apparent to Lumia that Varley might have felt the same way for her, but her own self-consciousness became an issue and she began to remind herself that the two were completely different species and such a relationship could never work. She became mopey around Varley, who seemed to notice her dour moods and attempt to drag her from them. The more he tried, however, the sadder Lumia became as she wished she could become someone different, a human, even an elf, so they could be together happily.

The matter was compounded when Varley’s sister, a scholar, further shattered Lumia’s confidence by telling her to stay away from Varley. Jexen, who had ulterior motives not entirely clear to Lumia, told Lumia that such a relationship could only end in heartbreak for the two, and, for their own good, they should stay away from one another. Making the matter even more difficult for Lumia was the fact that Jexen, despite the harshness of her message, was genuinely likeable to the trouble Draenei girl, and she began to doubt truly whether she and Varley could ever be happy together.

In the end, it was Varley who made the decision for the lot of them with one of his patented “zany schemes.” The goofy romantic had told Lumia before that he made a promise to himself, after a previous failed relationship, that he would never confess his feelings outside of the heroic idiom again: i.e. unless he was dying in their arms. In order to stay true to his word, but still desiring to tell Lumia how he felt, Varley invited Lumia to his home and talked his sister into stabbing him in the back, knowing Lumia would be there, not only to hold him while he “died” but also to save him from the brink of death. Jexen, who reluctantly (to put it lightly) agreed to the scheme, told Lumia only to not let Varley down, and seemed to grudgingly accept to their relationship. Granted, Varley realized that speaking while dying was more difficult than he originally expected, but the message got through: he loved Lumia too.

Lumia was furious when she realized the scheme (after saving Varley’s life, naturally), but her fury was tempered by the (bizarre) romance of the situation, and their strange relationship only blossomed from there. Varley is zanier still than Lumia, even, and she often feels regretful that she must reign the goofy and energetic human in from time to time. She’s even said it makes her feel like her “stick-in-the-mud sister.” Iluvia has remained in strained silence about the relationship, only once speaking to Varley and telling him that she feels the two are perfect for one another.

Lumia still regrets, from time to time, the difference in species between her and Varley, and has recently become concerned with their drastically different lifespans. Varley is still young, however, and Lumia tries to remind herself that there is still a good deal of time left between the two of them. At one point, Varley (though it is unclear whether he understands Lumia’s distress or not) brought Lumia to the Caverns of Time and Old Hillsbrad, where the strange magics of the Dragonflight Flight turned her human for a time.

Lumia the woman
While still a child by her race’s standard, Lumia has grown into her own more now than any could have expected seeing the rebellious, maddening youth in Nagrand. While she still retains a childish, almost irritating air about her most of the time, she is capable of great insight and maturity when the situation calls for it, oftentimes surprising those around her, even her sister, who needs to guide her impetuous younger sibling less and less as time goes on. Lumia has taken on some of the stranger personality aspects of Varley and oftentimes frets about whether she is “heroic” enough, but seems to understand the concept of selfless heroics better than him, and often tries to explain what it truly means to be a hero.

Lumia remains somewhat selfish and vain to this day, but she is more confident in herself inwardly than in her youth, especially after making a number of friends, as well as tentatively joining the ranks of the guild Pesmerga (which eventually collapsed in on itself due to in-fighting of its founding members).

The title of paladin still doesn’t sit well with Lumia, who continues to foster a rebellious streak, and, if only to satiate the nagging remains of the rebellious youth inside of her, calls herself a “Neo-Paladin,” a testament to her own peculiar idiom. Indeed, her attitude has little in common with the cliché image of a gleaming paladin atop a shimmering steed…but then again, while every cliché has its exception, few individuals are as deviant as the Draenei girl Lumia Elloree DeNoira.