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[seesbosscrotch]

Player Information
Name: Dragon
Age: Way way way over 18
Contact: dragonoflife
Current characters: N/A (apped Roy Greenhilt though)

Character Information
Name: Maridian Gladespring
Series: World of Warcraft
Appearance: Maridian is a male blood elf, six feet two inches, and noticeably more slender and wiry than a human. He possesses common elven features of very long ears and glowing green eyes. His hair is black and worn in a long pontail, along with a goatee. Maridian invariably wears plate armor and carries a shield, mace, and two-handed sword, but beneath all this he is remarkably wiry and fit.
Age: 123.
Canon Point: Post Warlords of Draenor.
Canon History:
Context links:
Azeroth, central world of WoW
History of the blood elves
History of the Blood Knights
The Warcraft universe. There's... a lot...

Maridian Gladespring was born in what is now known as the Ghostlands, before the beginning of the First War. The Gladespring family was affluent but held little renown; its members typically served as chamberlain, advisers, or other subservient roles for other houses, Windrunner being the most notable. In this latter capacity, some even joined the Rangers, but as the youngest child of the family, Mar had no expectations placed upon him. Given his choice, he preferred to study and learn, valuing knowledge for his own sake -- and as those could lead to perfectly respectable positions in keeping with the family's values, he was given free reign to study as he pleased.

A ravenous student, Maridian was not insensitive to the outside world, particularly as he grew into late adolescence and the aftermath of the Second War led to trolls burning the edges of the Eversong Woods and the high elves' withdrawal from the Alliance of Lordaeron. Though he had been sheltered during the conflict, his elder sister Rimethiel had begun training for the Rangers in its aftermath, and curiosity about what was out there led him to chase a depth of education in history and culture much greater than usual for the average high elf.

But everything changed when the fire undead nation attacked.

Arthas's marched through Silvermoon slaughtered everyone he had ever known. 90% of the high elven population died that day -- his friends, his teachers, his fellow students, his parents, his siblings. Maridian only survived by raw luck, having been trapped in a basement by collapsing rubble that the Scourge didn't have the time to dig through before Arthas yoked them forward on their march to the Sunwell.

The next seven years went very poorly for Maridian. The solidarity of the reforged Sin'dorei kept him alive and prevented him from falling through the cracks alone, but ravaged by survivor's guilt and arcane withdrawal, he found himself taken by an almost suicidal mania. If he had been an adult and thus eligible, he would have taken up arms and charged into the battle against the Amani trolls and the Scourge, almost certainly to his own death, or signed up with Kael'thas Sunstrider's expeditions against the Scourge and then later to Outland. But he could do none of that. All he could do was stay back in the remnants of Silvermoon, scrape together what martial training he could from whoever would offer, and watch the suffering of his fellow blood elves, and their determination to succeed despite it.

Somewhere along the line, as he slipped just a little bit out of tune with reality, that suicidal mania and his desperate drive to stop his people's suffering crystallized into something just as fervent, and possibly more wholesome: the desire to protect, at any cost.

“Any” cost, in this case, was tapping into the powers stolen from the naaru M’uru.

After countless efforts to present himself as a candidate, to make himself known to the wizards and ex-priests who had begun this undertaking, to serve his people, it became clear his drive and dedication were neither to be denied, nor wasted. The Blood Knights did not have so many volunteers -- the Sin'dorei did not have so many PEOPLE -- that they could turn away one with the desire to serve.

Thusly empowered, Maridian stormed across Azeroth in a fury – slaying the traitor Dar’Khan Drathir's forces to cement the Sin’dorei’s ties to the Horde; laying waste to foes across all of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, and then arriving – somewhat late – to the invasion of Outland and the war against the Burning Legion. Not terribly long after his arrival, the elven prince Kael’thas Sunstrider stole the naaru from Silvermoon in order to summon the demon lord Kil’jaeden to Azeroth. The Blood Knights pledged their allegiance to the army dedicated to his destruction, and Maridian took a minor role in reclaiming the Isle of Quel’denas and the Sunwell for his people.

Soon thereafter, the undead Scourge struck against all the people of Azeroth, baiting the Alliance and the Horde to come to Northrend. Maridian was one of the first off the boat. Eager to act, he forged a group of like-minded heroes into an elite fighting force that, alongside other heroes, carved their way through the necropolis Naxxramas, slaughtered the corrupt Aspect Malygos before he could banish all magic from Azeroth, defeated the undead Nerubian king Anub’arak to become champions of the Horde and the Argent Crusade, then stormed Icecrown Citadel itself. After countless grueling battles, Maridian found himself face to face, blade to blade, with the Scourge’s leader, one of the most fearsome foes known to all Azeroth: the Lich King.

He fell at Maridian’s hands, and those of his friends.

(Or at least, if you ask Maridian, that's what he'll tell you, but he's also perfectly aware that other heroes have claimed his accomplishments as their own. Considering that the bronze dragonflight are both blatant temporal meddlers and total idiots -- seriously, when you look for the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight and someone you didn't expect appears in your spell as the answer, you don't just shrug and say the attempt must have failed! -- he figures it's quite likely that everyone is entirely right. Hell, he found THREE hilts of the legendary blade Quel'delar in the Pit of Saron that one time, it's fairly obvious to him that reality doesn't quite fit together properly on Azeroth after all the damage it's taken.)

A bittersweet moment marred this series of victories, however. As death knights broke free of the Lich King's chains and made their way out of the Plaguelands to rejoin the old alliances they had once fought for before their deaths, Maridian found that though everyone he once knew had died, they were not all lost to him. Among the exhumed legions now welcomed to Orgrimmar, he found his elder sister, Rimethiel -- the Ranger of their generation, who had fallen years ago in the razing of Silvermoon. Refusing to accept that death now lay between them, he invited her to join his allies, and she accepted... wondering all the while how her scholarly brother had become so fanatically eager to get hit in the head with extremely large weapons.

Maridian returned to the Horde capital of Orgrimmar after his victories, though peace was not to be had for long. The immense dragon Deathwing arose from his retreat, shattering the world and sending the elements into chaos. The time apart had sapped the resolve of his allies, however, and the team that had put paid to the Lich King could not reforge itself. Their efforts to stop the Twilight's Hammer had achieved little next to the successes of others. Slowly, his friends drifted apart to other tasks and duties, and Maridian found himself returning to Silvermoon, confused and sorely heartbroken. What good was it to take blows, if you had no one to take them for?

A Master among the Blood Knights, he took on a squire, Liuzia Summersdawn, an eager young paladin with more of a romantic interest in him than he would ever voluntarily acknowledge, and with some of his acquired wealth purchased a small estate on the edge of the Ghostlands, where his sister could slake her undead battlelust on the Scourge and he could perhaps have a home again. But the situation in the wider world quickly deteriorated to the point that even the mightiest of heroes were called upon to travel through time itself in order to save the world... and many, many members of the Horde cried out for a shield to protect them and a sword to guide them. Emerging from his semi-retirement, Maridian entered these temporal pockets, becoming one of the many heroes to slay Murozond, the corrupted future self of Nozdormu; to help Illidan slay Mannoroth; and to bring Thrall to Wyrmrest Temple, and there aiding him in destroying Deathwing.

(Three aspects by his blade, he might have a habit.)

Thanks to his constant achievements despite his personality, Maridian was among the first to be called to the battlefront of Pandaria. Refreshed by his return to the battlefield and not at all particularly concerned about the Horde war efforts, Maridian set off on a journey of exploration and discovery across Pandaria -- along with heroism and valor, as he aided the Pandaren in protecting their homes and fields from the mantid and the yaungol. As before, an alliance of like-minded warriors struck the first blows against the darkest foes they faced -- the Titan engine known as the Will of the Emperor, Queen Shek'zeer of the Mantid Empire, and the Sha of Fear itself. As they battled against the emperor Lei Shen, Maridian became more and more convinced, as did everyone else ever, that the rule of Garrosh Hellscream was leading the Horde to ruin. Seeing the ruin of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, and unwittingly helping the Horde leader recover the remnants of an Elder God, began to build a rage in him such as he hadn't felt since the days after Silvermoon's fall. Garrosh would end his people, he believed. But now he could fight it.

Maridian prepared to take up arms against Hellscream himself -- but to his surprise, found that while his help was welcome, it wasn't nearly as necessary as he believed it to be. While he fought on the outskirts of Orgrimmar, word came, to his surprise, that the Warchief had fallen. Without him ever getting close to his lieutenants or war machines! It was very confusing, and yet very heartening, for the paladin, to feel like perhaps he had been an example. Perhaps Azeroth itself had at last raised so many heroes that hope was within their grasp.

But he had no time to reflect on this, for Garrosh Hellscream escaped his imprisonment and fled into the past to the world of Draenor, ancient home of the orc. There, he tampered with history, preventing the fel corruption of the orcs and instead uniting them into an Iron Horde that dared to make war on Azeroth. By special request, Maridian was one of numerous warriors and heroes whose service to the Horde merited the title of General, and alongside this substantial crowd he traveled to Draenor-that-was and founded an outpost there to battle the menace of the Iron Horde.

Here, he learned what the true nature of Azerothian heroes was. He offered his sword and shield to others, but found to his horror that these heroes had no heart or stomach for the true challenges of war. While Mar and his friends had struck time and time again at their foes, pressing on the slimmest chances and taking the greatest risks to strike at weaknesses in the hopes that this time they would at last strike down their enemies, this new generation of heroes emulated his swagger without his dedication. Their confidence didn't match their determination, and when they splatted on the defenses of their enemies like water on rocks, they melted away, slinging insults at others rather than girding their strength to make another attempt. The experience shook Mar deeply, and as he returned to his garrison... intent on resigning his commission, and cutting ties with the Horde at last.

The Horde would not let him go so easily, and offered him a different path: to take up the training of young paladins. Not just blood elves, but Tauren Sunwalkers as well, should they wish. Mar jumped at the chance with both hands, feeling this could offer him a measure of redemption, a chance to train new blood so they wouldn't make the mistake of this current generation of heroes. He and Rimethiel returned once more to their house on the edge of the Ghostlands, and to both continue their family name and again perhaps provide some measure of redemption for both of them, adopted a pair of children orphaned by the war.

Canon Personality: Nutty? Insane? Cracked? These words can all be used to describe Maridian. A once-normal elven child endured loss, hardship, and the strict training of the Blood Knights to become a man who demands the most powerful and dangerous forces in the universe hit him in the Titans-damned face, because he can take it. Maridian is a tank at heart, fiercely devoted to his family, his friends, and his principles. No one will suffer so long as he can stand between them and a foe; no one will come to harm as long as he has the strength left to lift his shield and take the blow for them.

But whether it’s his history, the number of times he’s been grievously injured with gushing wounds or a cracked skull, or simply the things he’s had to endure in the course of his tanking, somewhere along the line something seems to have slipped in his head. Maridian is alarmingly genre-savvy and entirely blasé about the fact, cheerfully pointing out the foibles and quirks in his world without any real mental filter than an adult ought to have. For example, he's well-aware that for some reason, they used to only ever fight the fiercest of foes in groups of ten or 25, after which said foes obligingly drop better weapons and armor than what he has. He merrily boasts that Alexstraza once sent him a red drake in the mail, and he's occasionally jumped off of Dalaran just to bubble before he hits the ground. This isn't fourth-wall, mind, just a bit meta at best; he's of the opinion that Azeroth had just had its spacial-temporal stability slapped to hell and back too many times, and accepts that certain quirks come with that.

Underneath this, though – or perhaps because of it – he’s a friendly, cheerful guy who wants the best for everyone. Despite the fact that the Horde and Alliance are at war, a conflict only increasing of late, Maridian will cheerfully befriend anyone willing to approach him with an open mind. Sure, he’ll mow through the Alliance with berserker glee in Eye of the Storm or Warsong Gulch, but as he points out to anyone who asks, he only does that because glory on the field of battle gets him rewards, and the Spirit Healers ensure that the point is to achieve the Horde's goals, not slaughter their enemies. He’ll just as willingly side with the Alliance in joint ventures like the Shattered Sun Offensive. Similarly, he is entirely happy to work alongside other races up till the very last moment -- he was quite fond of the Klaxxi, after all, who were stand-up enough to tell him directly that they would be enemies one day, and were perfectly willing to play ball till that point. Foes like the Scourge, the Twilight cultists, and the Burning Legion are his true enemies. He has immense respect for the draenei in particular, thanks to their efforts in restoring the Sunwell despite the enmity that is supposed to exist between their people.

A shameless flirt, Mar nevertheless avoids serious entanglements -- half from lack of opportunity, half from a sad, private self-aware sense that no one deserves to be stuck long-term with a lunatic elf likely doomed to an early grave. Though his affections, friendly, familial, or romatic, manifest in bizarre and whimsical ways, in his heart he cares deeply for his friends and family. At the end of the day, when he stalks in front of a foe and raises his shield, though he may say he’s after a weapon drop, the truth is simply that he will fight – and tank – to make the world a better place for everyone he holds close. On that note, the base betrayals of Garrosh Hellscream infuriated him like nothing had since the Third War. He saw the next Lich King, or at least its moral equivalent, in Hellscream and would have nothing of it. Similarly, the corruption and decay he discovered in the Horde's forces on Draenor pushed him to the point where he believes he can no longer protect his people or help Azeroth by serving with them.

He has a bit of an ego, but after all his accomplishments, who can blame him?

Mar has two non-adventuring loves. The first is culture and history. From his youth, when he thought he would someday be a tutor, Mar loved to learn about Azeroth, its people, its places, its history. That love has lingered on the present day, actually fueled all the more by the things he sees, does, and learns in the course of adventuring. In his downtime, Mar has done all he can to study and absorb any knowledge he can, making him surprisingly well-learned for a meathead tank.

The second is cooking, which had always been a somewhat serious hobby for him before he came to Pandaria and discovered the Ways of Cooking practiced by the Pandaran people. Something about it struck a chord deep within his soul -- the devotion they put into it, the easy-going, Zen approach to learning, the incredible results. Mar studied under the master chefs who were willing to teach the off-continent visitors, ultimately mastering the six Ways of Cooking.

The one sour note in all of this is that most recent development -- his sudden realization that either his suicidal risk-taking is a model that is threatening countless heroes and producing even more unsuited to the demands of it, or that the Horde legions are rife with incompetence and foolishness entirely on their own after Hellscream's downfall. Either he is at fault, or nothing he can do can help. Neither conclusion is one he can bear. That conviction has seethed within him for some time now, bitterly at odds with his desire to help and stand up in battle, and though family and his training duties have helped soothe that wound, it has not healed.

Personality Shifts: N/A

Abilities: Maridian is a Blood Knight, who trades between the shield and sword (Protection) and two-handed weapons (Retribution). In Protection spec, his abilities rely on harming the enemy, protecting himself, and some minor healing. In Retribution spec, he packs a host of offensive abilities backed up by some ability to heal himself.

This power comes from the Sunwell, which explicitly transmits it across time, space, and probability (through no real explanation), so lack of direct access to the Sunwell is never a problem for using these powers.

Retribution abilities all focus on attacks that build up Holy Power (Crusader Strike, Exorcism, Judgment, Hammer of Wrath), and attacks that expend it (Templar's Verdict, Divine Storm), plus some that are simply additional (Light's Hammer). A list can be found here. Protection abilities focus on much the same, except the damage output is less and Mar gains massively increased ability to endure punishment in exchange. Check here for a list of specific abilities.

Beyond these combat abilities, Mar is capable of summoning numerous mounts, both flying and ground -- and perhaps more dramatically, he has imbibed a potent alchemical concoction that gives him the power to transform into a Sandstone Drake, though this is literally only useful to carry someone else as a mount; the transformation fails in any strenuous task like combat or spellcasting. For the purposes of the game, his flying mounts will be thoroughly unable to fly, which is a time-honored WoW tradition anyway. He might possibly unlock that later.

Like all blood elves, Maridian can draw ambient magical energy into himself, silencing nearby enemies and gaining a small measure of holy power in turn.

Maridian is a highly skilled miner and jewelcrafter, masterful at first aid, a skilled fisherman, and an unbelievably good cook.

Inventory: Armor, two-handed sword, shield, mace, backpack and bags, hearthstone (useless), numerous uncut gemstones, a lot of food and bandages that will be destroyed by the waterlogging, a gnomish army knife (the battery of which will be quite dead), and a fishing pole.

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