Aleithia

For stories about Aleithia, see Blood on the Flower.

Name
Aleithia Zoi Stormshadow

Physical Traits
Aleithia looks, and seems, very young. Although almost fully-grown, she is clearly a child by the reckoning of Night Elves. Her skin has been badly burned and is covered with scars and blotches, leaving her face quite disfigured, although she might have been pretty once. Despite her obvious youth, she bears herself proudly; she wears the facial tattoos of an adult, and her gear is notched and scratched with the marks of many battles. When speaking Darnassian, she has a pronounced and very colloquial Darkshore accent, but she speaks Common like an upper-class resident of Stormwind.

Race and Class
Night Elf Druid.

Guild
The Cenarion Guardians

Occupation
Scout for the Cenarion Guardians, adventurer and freebooter; also practices leatherworking. She has a talent for music, and a pleasant voice; she received some musical training at the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus.

Family
Mother: Karidia Stormshadow, Auberdine Sentinel, traveller, adventurer; frequently served the Sisterhood of Elune as a bodyguard. Eventually joined the Cenarion Guardians. Died at the Battle of Mount Hyjal.

Father: Reme'en Thorngrasp, Druid of the Claw. Served the Cenarion Guardians for most of his life, meeting Karidia when she joined the order. Died at the Battle of Mount Hyjal.

Brother: Isxiros Stormshadow, Priest of Elune. Currently studying comparative theology, travelling between Stormwind, Darnassus and the Exodar.

Background
Aleithia grew up in Auberdine with her mother, Karidia Stormshadow, who was first a Sentinel, then later a Cenarion Guardian. Her father was a Druid of the Claw, and also a Guardian; she frequently visited him in Nighthaven from an early age.

Karidia was an explorer, and often took Aleithia along on her journeys. Karidia served as a bodyguard in one of the first Kaldorei delegations to Stormwind, and Aleithia was permitted to accompany her. The human nobility were enchanted by "this delightful elven girl", and she retains an affection for Stormwind to this day. At the time of the Third War, she was sent away to safety while her parents went to fight, and die, at Mount Hyjal.

In the chaos after the Third War, with most of her friends and much of the community in Auberdine dead, the Sentinels took charge of her. Recognising her talents, they decided to send her to the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus, for training as a priestess. Aleithia enjoyed learning healing magic, and had a quick mind for ancient literature and the wisdom of Elune, but she hated the rigidity and iron discipline of the Temple, and resented her teachers' assumption that as a mere child she could have no ideas of any value. Over time she also became aware of the "wrongness" of Teldrassil, and became increasingly disturbed by the atmosphere of Darnassus. She twice applied for permission to leave the Temple and return to Nighthaven, but was refused, both by the Sisters of Elune and by Fandral Staghelm, whom she still resents as a consequence. Finally, after almost two years in Darnassus, she fled, becoming one of the few people to have survived climbing down the side of Teldrassil, and with the help of her childhood friend "Uncle" Revenanto, she escaped to Nighthaven.

In Nighthaven she was fostered by her father's friend, Loganaar, and in his home she quickly picked up the fundamentals of the Druidic craft. When he took her to meet Keeper Remulos, the ancient one showed an interest in her, asking "who is this hot little flame?", and remarking to Loganaar, "this one burns brightly." Aleithia typically recounts this conversation as "Shan'do Remulos said I was hot."

Aleithia was impertinent enough to directly ask Remulos' permission to begin training as a Druid; to the astonishment of all present, he assented, and Aleithia became one of the youngest novice Druids in history. Loganaar continued to take responsibility for her upbringing, and within remarkably few years, she mastered the essentials of Druidic magic. Seeing that she was capable of taking care of herself, Loganaar reluctantly agreed to her fervent wish to travel and see the world.

After living for a few months in Stormwind, Aleithia travelled around Azeroth before returning to Kalimdor and exploring the continent for several months more. Confident in her rapidly-developing abilities, she joined the Cenarion Guardians at an exceptionally early age, and served as a Scout for several months more. She fought well enough in her role, but was far too young to be fully accepted by her superiors. Eventually, she sacrificed herself in the course of a mission. She is now thought to be in the clutches of an Old God - so her former comrades fervently hope that she is dead.

Personal Notes
Aleithia really is very young, and has to tolerate most other Kaldorei treating her as a child, which of course, by their standards, she is. For people of other races she may actually be the youngest Night Elf they have ever seen, and is often regarded as something of a curiosity. Her youth often leads other Kaldorei to underestimate her; some of what she lacks in training and experience is offset by her raw talent and intelligence.

She has an irreverent, sometimes raucous sense of humour, which many of her elders find shocking. She has little respect for those who (in her opinion) take themselves too seriously, and although she secretly regards some elder Druids with an awe approaching hero-worship, she covers this up by being even more cocky with them. Luckily, she is charming enough that she usually gets away with it. She is deeply devoted to her kin, but often impatient with comrades, including her elders and superiors.

She experiences the world she has inherited as profoundly, desperately wrong, and as such, she goes to great lengths to avoid thinking deeply about it. She is endlessly creative in finding ways to keep her able mind occupied - with her missions, with the Dream, with her training and druidic crafts - this accentuates her gifts, but also the impression of a flighty youngster who refuses to take anything seriously. When all else fails, and the abyss of reality yawns before her, she hits the bottle very hard.

Aleithia was deeply affected by the loss of her parents in a battle she was too young to participate in; in fact she suffers from a form of survivor guilt, and while anxious to help and protect others, has a tendency to disregard her own safety. Her deepest fear is of being useless and helpless; her drive to train as a Druid, join the Guardians and fight is a response to her fear of being unable to defend those she loves.

Druidic Powers
For Aleithia, Druidic "magic" brings aspects of the Emerald Dream into existence in the waking world. The Druid, unlike other beings, has a foot in both worlds, and forms a channel through which the Dream can be experienced by waking creatures. When Aleithia Dreams, the natural world seems real, permanent and unassailably potent, and the intelligent races mere spirits that flit across it, taking a multitude of forms, or no form at all. In Aleithia's Dream, thinking creatures take any and all of the forms they believe themselves to have, and are wisp-like, unable to touch or affect the "real" denizens of the Dream: the Green Dragonflight, and the natural world of the Dream. Elder Druids might have the power to "walk the Dream" and take action in that realm, perhaps with consequences in the waking world, but this is far beyond Aleithia's still undeveloped powers.

Healing: Aleithia's healing depends on the recipient's memory of a healthy, unharmed form - she finds that form in the Dream, and makes it manifest in the real world. With a willing or unaware subject, this can be very effective in the short term - injuries, poisons and curses can simply vanish in a matter of moments. Ancient beings (including older Kaldorei) or others who have a strong sense of their own reality may be more resistant to her powers. In any case, the healing effect lasts only as long as Aleithia is present to maintain the connection with the Dream - and natural healing must still take place. A powerful elder Druid might be able to walk the Dream and heal the injury there, leading to a faster full recovery, but it will be centuries before Aleithia can develop this power.

''((We normally interpret loss of HP as "a battering" and in-game death as an injury; as such, Aleithia's in-game healing is basically superficial healing, invigorating and fortifying, and her in-game resurrection is an actual healing spell. In RP encounters, characters resurrected by Aleithia will need to seek further healing with more powerful healers after the event.))''

Shapeshifting: Aleithia is an enthusiastic shapeshifter, taking great pleasure in flitting from one form to another, and back again, almost instantaneously. In the Dream, her form is utterly malleable, and she has learned to bend that form to her will, making her presence in the Dream a kind of dance of different forms. In the waking world, some of her archetypal Dream-forms can be manifested through a simple channelling, allowing her to shapeshift effortlessly. Her tree form facilitates her healing magic, but in feral forms she is ineffective in combat. She uses her cat form mainly for stealth and heightened senses, and her bear form, less often, to intimidate.

Natural effects: In the Dream, there are few indigenous animals and no indigenous intelligent races (unless the Green Dragonflight can be considered indigenous), but plants and inanimate natural objects have a kind of "enhanced" reality, and may move and act with a volition of their own. In the Dream, the light of the Moon or Stars can burn, or blind, or light up a chosen path; plants can move and grasp passing creatures; animals are stronger and swifter - but sometimes quiescent, and sometimes deeply asleep. Aleithia can manifest all of these effects in the waking world - but briefly, for a limited time, and less potently than some other Druids. Unlike her healing powers, most of these effects do not depend on the willingness of the target, as they do not directly alter the target itself, but rather the natural world around it.

Travel: Aleithia enthusiastically practices the difficult and dangerous skill of using the Dream to travel quickly from place to place. Travelling to the "beacon" of Moonglade is easy enough; she attempts other journeys, but frequently finds herself transported halfway across Azeroth in the wrong direction. With great difficulty she might be able to take others with her, but this would be highly unreliable; normal transport is more practical in most cases.

Current Status
Missing in action, and apparently now in the clutches of Yogg-Saron, so her former comrades fervently hope that she is dead.