Messages

Was listening to Dragonheart soundtrack while working on Atsenkha's bio. The Old Code has always been a defining inspiration whenever I play lawful good characters.

There's a reason I wrote, "and many others!" Senkh is good too.

[Name:]

Name: Atsenkha
Alias: Atsa, among many others
Rank: New Blood

Age: Old, somewhere in the late 50s or 60s
Gender: Female
Race: Orc
Clan: Clanless
Class: Warrior
Alignment: Lawful Good

Family: Dead
Known Friends: Gasharg Whitesteel (deceased), former members of the Kor'kron Guard, Blackfuse Company, Srelok Grimtide (tutor)
Known Enemies: Warlocks

Appearance:
Though age has begun to sap at her strength, Atsenkha remains well-fit. She trades the sheer bulk of other warriors for technique and discipline. A keen intellect lies behind her violet eyes, and she is always watching her surroundings.

Atsenkha's confidence is apparent immediately: she stands with a strong posture and moves with an assured stride, and she always meets the eyes of those she speaks to. Whatever internal doubts she may have are buried well, implied only by her hard gaze and the creased lines of her weathered face. Her years can be counted in her graying mane, which she leaves long and loose.

Personality:
Atsenkha is an orc of few words, though she shares them often. While she is opinionated and speaks her mind, her comments are honest and to the point. She holds no punches in conversation, though most of her quips are light-hearted. Rare is it that she becomes truly upset, as she maintains a controlled demeanor in most interactions.

Atsenkha is devoted to progress and developing the Horde into a powerful and civilized nation. This has made her highly educated for an orc. She committed herself to research and study after arriving on Azeroth and seeing the technological and magical prowess of its native peoples. The addition of the blood elves and goblins into the Horde--and the brief neutality of Dalaran--gave Atsenkha the opportunity to explore a wide range of local knowledge. She is well-read in Azerothian engineering, architecture, history, and strategy, and she even understands basic magic. She speaks fluent Common and is able to read Thalassian, Goblin, and even some Gnomish. While she lacks the sheer vocabulary of individuals like Sadok Sharptongue, Atsenkha (usually) understands what he is saying.

Honor is of paramount importance to Atsenkha. It was her source of strength in a time where her clan was destroyed and the Horde broken by infighting and later defeat. As the core of her resolve, her definition of honor is strict and she often chides other orcs for failure to adhere to it. She is especially vocal about the difference between honor and glory. Atsenkha's honor lead her to support Garrosh Hellscream in spite of her opposition to many of his actions, and that honor has as well demanded her loyalty to Vol'jin, who Atsenkha considers an oathbreaker.

Atsenkha's honor has lead her to become very cynical about the direction of the Horde. She has fought for five warchiefs and considers none of them worthy of the title. She supported a Horde that massacred innocents as slaves to demons, a Horde that broke from infighting against the walls of humanity, and a Horde that abandoned all sense, duty, and dignity in the pursuit of glory. She sees a Horde plagued by betrayal from its inception, whether by those seeking to do evil or those seeking to do good. Personal desires were always placed above duty. Never in her mind has the Horde been able to temper strength with dignity, power with mercy, and glory with honor. It is Atsenkha's great regret that she will go to her grave having served a Horde she could never be proud of.

History:
Though Atsenkha today calls herself clanless, she was born and raised a Whiteclaw. The Whiteclaw Clan was an old and proud clan, devoted to traditional values and customs. Atsenkha, the child of a clan elder, struggled under Whiteclaw tutelage. She was brash and headstrong, and felt that her mind and talents were wasted in a society that resisted change. In her youth Atsenkha lacked wisdom, and she became caught up in the orcish nationalism that was promoted by new Horde. In the Horde she saw a future for a stagnant people, and she willingly fought against the draenei and drank the blood of Mannorth.

Though the Whiteclaws participated in the war and drank the blood, they disagreed with the changes made to orcish society and withdrew from Horde politics as the years went on. Atsenkha clashed with her clanmates and eventually separated entirely from the Whiteclaws. She would come to fight against her own clan in the years to come, as demon blood exaggerated her hostility and hatred towards her former kin. The Whiteclaw Clan was eventually destroyed by the Horde.

The Horde eventually crossed to Azeroth, and Atsenkha fought in the armies of Blackhand and later Doomhammer. She was imprisoned in an Alliance internment camp after the Horde defeat at Blackrock Mountain, where she came under the effects of the lethargy. Under the lethargy Atsenkha came to consider all that the Horde had done in the previous decades, from the massacre of draenei innocents to the destruction of her own clan. This realization shattered her spirit.

Atsenkha constructed a new world view in the years to follow. She became a companion of the blademaster Gasharg Whitesteel and together the two formulated a system of beliefs on the fundamentals of a right-minded life. Above all was the importance of duty, a necessity for coming to terms with their actions in the Horde. These beliefs would eventually morph into a dedicated honor code, influenced both by the conventions of the human paladins that guarded their camp and the musings of other blademasters, many of whom had also needed to build rigid new belief systems to deal with the horrors of their demon-fueled pasts.

Atsenkha and Gasharg would eventually be freed by Thrall and join him in the journey to Kalimdor and the building of Orgrimmar. In addition to their discussions on life and honor, Gasharg passed on to Atsenkha the techniques of the blademaster. Atsenkha would take that training with her and join the new Kor'kron Guard, where she served as a bodyguard and enforcer of Thrall's will. She also began reading Azerothian literature, learning to speak Common and broadening her knowledge on a variety of topics.

Atsenkha continued her service as a Kor'kron under Garrosh Hellscream's reign. She was initially highly supportive of the new warchief, as she had lost faith in Thrall's leadership. Though Thrall had built the new Horde, Atsenkha disapproved of his backwards-thinking mindset. She desired a progressive warchief that would evolve the Horde into a strong, modern nation, one that could exist on a technological, magical, and economic parity with the Alliance without compromising the noble values they had recovered after breaking free of the blood curse. Though Garrosh did work to modernize the Horde, Atsenkha's support was shaken by his belligerant methods. Atsenkha watched in disgust as Garrosh dropped the Kor'kron Guard's recruitment standards to turn it into the warchief's personal army and engaged in tyranny and consorting with dark powers reminiscent of Gul'dan's Horde. Atsenkha's honor code forbade her from abandoning her duty, but she did what she could to minimize the damage from her position as a Kor'kron commander.

Atsenkha survived the siege of Orgrimmar and was imprisoned by the Darkspear Rebellion in the aftermath, but she was eventually pardoned after swearing a new oath of service to Vol'jin. The Kor'kron Guard however was disbanded, and she was left unemployed. She has since gone on to find a new life, and has chosen to seek it alongside the Red Blade tribe.

Things you may know about this character:
- Atsenkha is a former Kor'kron commander. In the later years of her service she became an administrator for Orgrimmar's infrastructure and worked closely with Blackfuse Company.
- Atsenkha is trained as a blademaster.
- Atsenkha had a red protodrake during her time as a Kor'kron commander, but the beast was slain in the siege of Orgrimmar.
- Atsenkha is learned in many skills, including bladework, (goblin) engineering, architecture, and first aid. She knows some magic as well, which is used to supplement her swordsmanship.
- Atsenkha is strongly opposed to fel magic and warlocks. While she has accepted the reality of their presence in the Horde, she does not like it and keeps a close eye on them no matter how proven they may be.

Things you may not know about this character:
- Atsenkha identifies as clanless. She only rarely mentions her clan of origin and thus few know of it.
- Atsenkha was the daughter of a Whiteclaw clan elder. She was raised to succeed the elder as one of the clan's spiritual guides, but she rejected the role.
- Atsenkha has no second name due to her separation from and the later destruction of the Whiteclaw Clan, as no clan elders remain to give her one.
- Atsenkha undermined Garrosh's rule in the final year of his reign. While she refused to engage in open rebellion and considers Vol'jin and his supporters oathbreakers, she provided aid and comfort to prisoners and diverted resources away from projects involving sha-based or excessively destructive weaponry. She was as well a criticizer of many of Garrosh's actions, which resulted in her being placed under watch by Malkorok.

Other information:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFettered
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KnightInSourArmor

Voted for forums. I like wiki's, but I find that most people don't. It tends to go unused, and many of the articles written go unread.

Forums have more visibility. They require less clicks and are more noticeable. And the style of bio posted in the template above lends itself to being quicker and easier, making more people want to do it and more people want to read it.

Wiki has far superior customization and visualization capability. It can do more fonts, formatting, images, and tables. But these only really are useful for those who are willing to take the time to learn them, which means that few do.

So yeah, voted for forum.

I'm very curious as to how you're making these. They're extremely well done, and quickly.

These are really nice!

And Sadok, if you can't get photoshop, consider torrenting it! <.<

That, or GIMP.

I'll think about it! Some of them need some updating before reposting though.

Hmm i see.

http://imgur.com/qXVVAnu

Likewise.

[Name:]

Name: Atsenkha
Class: Warrior
Level: 100

Tell us something about your (role)playing experience:
I am a veteran roleplayer, with approximately 15 years of experience in both forum and MMO RP. I've spent seven years in World of WarCraft as Alliance, on characters Drustai, Areyah, and Saphra. In that capacity I've had previous interactions with OotRB, both IC and OOC.

I am quite new to Horde however, it's something I've avoided for essentially all of my time on WoW. Since resubbing though I've decided to finally give it a try, and I can think of no better place for doing that than OotRB.

I feel it should be noted however that I don't know how often I will be able to be on, as I have two other characters that take priority.

And finally, please write a short story and/or IC introduction about your character:

Oathbreakers. Atsenkha spat and walked away from the garrison's huddled mass of Iron Horde prisoners. She would not disparage those of native birth, but she carried no sympathy for the green-skinned traitors that squatted among them. Some spoke offending remarks, calling of her dishonor and making accusations of being Vol'jin's dog, but their words carried no more weight than that of the peons that built their cages. They had betrayed their Horde.

Atsenkha had been in their place only a few months ago, after the fall of Orgrimmar. Defeated, what Kor'kron that survived were rounded up and imprisoned. Though some still rotted there, refusing to accept the reality of their defeat, Vol'jin had freed those that swore the oath to him as their new warchief. The Horde was broken now and needed its warriors more than ever, though Atsenkha wondered how much loyalty the troll could truly expect from his bondsmen when he had displayed none towards his own warchief.

Atsenkha stopped outside the garrison walls, her boots sinking into the snow with a crunch. A breeze rolled past her, carrying along a few flakes of snow that tickled her face with their frigid touch. She blinked a few times to clear her eyes from the cold, and then set her gaze over the tundra of Frostfire. This was the home of the Frostwolf Clan, the spiritual predecessors to Thrall's Horde. It was perhaps no coincidence that the Horde of today, a Horde broken so many times by betrayal, was founded upon the principles of a clan that had also betrayed their warchief. That disloyalty saved the Horde from the machinations of dae'mons, but it carried a poison all its own.

Atsenkha pulled her sword from its sheath and held it before her. Even polished, the aged weapon offered no reflection. What would it show if it had? Atsenkha had carried her sword into many battles, and her features were as chipped and scarred as it was. Though true death had yet to claim either of them, they had shared many defeats. They had won battles, but lost wars. What becomes the warrior who lives when her clan dies?

Atsenkha turned and looked at the rocky walls of Frostwall. It rose high, topped with jagged spikes and black smoke from the hearths warming the warriors inside. Red banners bearing the mark of the Horde flapped violently in the wind, but they held firm to their posts. Though Garrosh had been defeated and robbed of an honorable death by those that would rather put him on display as a trophy of their victory, and his horde was dead, the Horde still lived.

Atsenkha returned the sword to its place at her hip. As long as the Horde lived, she would fight to defend it. The traitors had forgotten what it meant to be Kor'kron. Though the Guard was gone and their name no longer carried the pride and honor it once did, Atsenkha did not forget its principles. If Vol'jin was to be warchief now, then he would have Atsenkha's loyalty.

"I give my flesh and blood freely to the Warchief," she said as she turned, reciting the blood oath of the Horde to the wind. "I am the instrument of my Warchief's desire. I am a weapon of my Warchief's command. From this moment until the end of days I live and die for the Horde."

I contemplated a few other character ideas, but figured this one would work best.