APPLICATION

NAME: Dragon

CONTACT: dragonslj@gmail.com, dragonoflife

PERSONAL JOURNAL: dragonoflife

OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A.


CHARACTER NAME: Maridian Gladespring

CHARACTER SERIES: World of Warcraft, original character

SPECIES: Blood elf

AGE: 120

CANON POINT: Just before the Siege of Orgrimmar

CLASS/ABILITIES:

Maridian is a Blood Knight, who trades between the shield and sword (Protection) and two-handed weapons (Retribution). To that extent, he has paladin abilities, unsurprisingly!

Crusader Strike: Strikes a foe powerfully, weakening their blows while granting the paladin a charge of Holy Power
Judgment: Unleashes the power of a Seal, doing holy damage to a foe. This grants Holy Power to the paladin, and if he is focused on protection, also renders the foe more vulnerable to attack.
Hammer of Justice: Stuns a foe for six seconds.
Word of Glory: Expends up to three Holy Power, for more healing per charge expended.
Righteous Fury: Every action the paladin takes which an enemy would deem threatening seems massively more so while this ability is active.
Redemption: Restores a 'dead' ally to life (obviously, subject to game rules changes).
Flash of Light: A quick-to-cast heal that takes a relatively hefty portion of the paladin's mana.
Reckoning: Forces a target to attack the paladin, if the target can be affected.
Lay On Hands: Heals a target for as much health as the paladin himself can possibly have.
Divine Shield: The paladin becomes immune to all but the most powerful abilities for 8 seconds, though he only deals half normal damage during that time.
Cleanse: Heals poison and disease.
Seal of Truth: The paladin's melee attacks deal extra holy damage, and also cause the target to suffer further holy damage for several seconds afterwards.
Seal of Insight: Increases the paladin's casting speed and the strength of his heals, and gives melee attacks a chance to heal the paladin for a small amount.
Supplication: After striking down a foe, the next Flash of Light a paladin casts will heal him for twice as much.
Rebuke: Interrupts a foe's spellcasting and prevents him from casting spells of that school for a few seconds.
Hammer of Wrath: A magical hammer strikes a greatly-injured for for immense damage.
Seal of Righteousness: The paladin's melee attacks damage all nearby foes slightly.
Heart of the Crusader: A mounted paladin moves faster than average.
Turn Evil: Compels a demon, aberration, or undead to flee.
Hand of Protection: Shields the paladin or an ally who shares a common cause with him, protecting them from all physical attacks for ten seconds but stopping their attacks in turn.
Hand of Freedom: Prevents the target from being slowed or snared for six seconds.
Sanctity of Battle: Effects that hasten the paladin's blows also affect how often he can use several skills.
Devotion Aura: Shields the paladin and all who share a common cause with him nearby, safeguarding their spellcasting and decreasing magic damage for six seconds.
Hand of Salvation: The target, who must be the paladin or one who shares a common cause with him, becomes completely nonthreatening to foes.
Avenging Wrath: Great golden wings blossom out of the paladin's back as his ability to mend or inflict wounds increases for 20 seconds.
Hand of Sacrifice: The paladin takes on some of the wounds inflicted to the ally he places this on, suffering a portion of his damage instead.
Blessing of Might: Blesses the paladin's party with far greater skill at one of the abilities of their class.
Boundless Conviction: The paladin can store 5 Holy Power charges.
Blinding Light: The paladin shines brilliantly, blinding and disorienting nearby foes.
Guardian of Ancient Kings: A holy figure appears, fighting by the retribution paladin's side or warding harm away from the protection paladin.
Hammer of the Righteous: A resounding blow causes a wave of light to harm all nearby foes.
Divine Protection: The paladin suffers less from magical attacks for ten seconds.

Protection Abilities

Avenger's Shield: The paladin's hurled shield strikes and silences up to three nearby foes, then returns to his hand.
Guarded by the Light: The paladin focused on protection gains an increased ability to endure it or block it with his shield, is less likely to be struck a critical blow, may cast Word of Glory freely with but a moment's effort and no lapse to his concentration, gains magical might in proportion to his strength and power, and swiftly regains his mana.
Vengeance: As the paladin suffers damage, his power grows in proportion to the harm.
Holy Wrath: Holy power erupts in all directions, striking foes and stunning demons and the undead.
Consecration: Consecrates the land, causing the ground nearby to deal harm to foes from the holy energy within it.
Shield of the Righteous: The paladin slams his shield into a foe, dealing damage along with protecting himself for a few seconds afterwards, as well as increasing the power of his Word of Glory.
Grand Crusader: A paladin who avoids a foe's strike may sometimes find himself ready to hurl his shield once again, gaining Holy Power in the process.
Sanctuary: Armor protects the paladin better, wounds are less grievous, and his chances of avoiding a blow increase.
Ardent Defender: Lessens the wounds a paladin would take, and if a wound will kill him, it restores his health instead.
Divine Bulwark: The greater a paladin's mastery of his arts, the better his chances of blocking a blow, the stronger his strikes with his shield, and the greater effect his empowered Word of Glory will have.


Retribution Abilities

Sword of Light: The paladin focused on striking blows increases all the damage he does while bearing a two-handed weapon, gains magical might in proportion to his strength and power, regains a measure of mana as time passes, and casts more powerful heals.
Templar's Verdict: The paladin expends Holy Power to deliver a massive blow.
Divine Storm: The paladin expends Holy Power to deal damage to all nearby foes.
Exorcism: Unleased a massive blast of holy energy, granting Holy Power as it deals terrible wounds.
The Art of War: Striking a foe in melee may make Exorcism available to cast again.
Emancipate: Frees the paladin from something impairing his movement.
Seal of Justice: Strikes deal extra Holy damage to a foe while slowing their steps.
Inquisition: The paladin expends Holy Power to deal greater holy damage and become more like to deal grievous blows.
Hand of Light: The paladin's key attacks strike harder, infused with holy energy.

Talents

Pursuit of Justice: The paladin runs faster than most, and stored Holy Power increases his speed even further.
Fist of Justice: Hammer of Justice gains a great reach.
Sacred Shield: A holy shield absorbs a small amount of damage every few seconds.
Unbreakable Spirit: The paladin can use Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands twice as often.
Divine Purpose: Expending Holy Power may sometimes allow a skill that uses Holy Power to function at its greatest strength while using none.
Light's Hammer: A hurled hammer slows and harms all foes and heals all allies nearby.

Racial Abilities

Maridian has a very slight resistance to arcane damage, and may draw ambient energies into himself periodically to restore his mana and silence nearby foes.


HISTORY: 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 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 expiditions 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 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 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 meddles and total idiots -- seriously, when you look for the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight and Nozdormu appears, 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 the three hilts of 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, and 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 an interest in him than he would 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 dove into the future to slay Murozond, the corrupted future self of Nozdormu; into the past, to help Illidan slay Mannoroth, and into the present, bringing 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.


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 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 cheerfully 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.

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 cheerfully points out, he only does that because glory on the field of battle gets him better gear, 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 them in joint ventures like the Shattered Sun Offensive. Foes like the Scourge, the Twilight cultists, and the Burning Legion are his true foes. 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 have infuriated him like nothing had since the Third War. He sees the next Lich King, or at least its moral equivalent, in Hellscream and will have nothing of it.

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


FIRST PERSON SAMPLE:

[As he's approached and activated so many mysterious orbs, artifacts, or objects in the past, Maridian appears in the orb with one hand boldly outthrust, a heroic pose that is mostly ruined because he's in the middle of turning in place while holding that posture. Once it finally comes on, he faces it properly, dropping his hand.]

I admit I don't understand the purpose of these things... I mean, what are the odds that I'll actually manage to reach the person I want? But in this case, I don't particularly care. There's a Burning Legion scouting party stomping around just outside of old Suramar and there's an Infernal there the size of a Titan creation! If we can take it down, aside from a possibility at a new shield or sword, we might even able to convince some of the other territories that the whole kill-us-on-sight policy is hurting them more than it's helping them.

I don't care what Dragonflight you are, so long as you're willing to show up with good intentions. None of this 'suddenly turn on the healers' or 'get the Infernal's attention while I'm still putting my pants on' nonsense. That thing is our enemy, whoever we are!

Spread the word, then meet me to the east of Suramar and we'll form ranks! For the Aspects!

[Maridian pumps a fist high as he breaks his connection with the orb.]




THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:

B. The Orphan

Without hesitation, Maridian scooped up the egg from the ground. He unpinned his cloak, then carefully wrapped it around the egg, before tucking the bundle into his backpack. How many eggs had he carried over his years, he wondered. Some things never changed.

Cursing the lack of his charger -- he'd burned down a church to get that horse, for the Sunwell's sake! -- he shrugged his backpack back on and turned back towards the shrine. He'd seen enough to bring a fairly unhappy report back; staying out here longer would only make him a target.

Maridian had only trudged a mile before the great sweeping wingbeats of a dragon thudded heavily in his ears, as one plunged through the sky above him down towards the earth. He stopped, shielding his eyes from the backdraft, as the massive wyrm landed in front of him, its long neck snaking around to face him.

"What have you hidden away in your backpack, Dragonsworn?"

The dragon knew. The question was perfunctory, a test. Maridian lifted his head, standing with the full pride and glory of a Blood Knight. "Whatever bond the flight may have on me, it does not own me so deeply that I'll smash an egg. I do not make war on children."

"You will see another foe hatched," the dragon growled, a hint of magical fury in its breath. "If it pains your morals so deeply to see an egg cracked, then surrender it. Its end will not be on your ends."

"Put it to death or surrender it to death, it's the same to me. It deserves a chance at life. If it ends up flapping around a swamp attacking travelers for no good reason whatsoever, then I'll strike it down the second it snaps at me! I've certainly done that enough in my time..." he muttered, mostly to himself. "Even if it doesn't always stick, and I'm looking at you, Onyxia. But by the same token, a black dragon saved from an egg grew to be an ally in the battle against the Mogu Empire, the Sha, and several other foes you don't actually know and that probably don't exist chronologically yet, but nevertheless!"

The dragon growled again, its claws digging furrows in the ground. "Will you become foresworn, then? Do you think you can survive here, with no allies and no hope?"

"I've had worse," Maridian said, casually flicking a mailed hand dismissively. "First and always, I won't foreswear myself."