Atsenkha

[Atsenkha]

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

[Sadok]

Very interesting read, especially since it revealed a lot about Atsenkha (Atsa, is that the new official nickname?) that I didn't know up to this point!

[Srelok]

Still trying to coin Senkh.

[Atsenkha]

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

[Sadok]

I still prefer Atsa.

"When her fist hits your eye like a big pizza pie, Atsa More!"