User:Joshmaul/Zhangren Puretide

"'Lorewalker Cho often says every good story needs a hero. But I find that every hero needs a good story, too.'"
 * - Lorewalker Zhangren Puretide

Zhangren Puretide is a Lorewalker of Pandaria and a monk trained in the art of the Mistweaver. Attempting to remain one of the few "unaligned" figures in a world rapidly dividing into factions, Zhangren traveled the world and witnessed his share of battle; he feels it his duty, under his training, to maintain a level of detachment from both the Alliance and the Horde, and to offer his services - both as a historian and as an adept of the Jade Serpent - to whomever needs it. However, due to a violent disagreement with the Horde, he now tends to remain solely within Alliance territory whenever outside of Pandaria.

Biography
Zhangren is the younger son of Shado-Pan Blackguard Zhenren Puretide and his wife Zia, both from families native to Binan Village in Kun-Lai. The Puretide line have been members of the Shado-Pan since its founding by the Emperor Shaohao ten thousand years ago; though trained in the monk's arts, Zhangren elected to become a Lorewalker, knowing that his elder brother Zhaoren would follow their father into the Shado-Pan. Zhenren believed that the path he had chosen was no less honorable than his own. "We Shado-Pan fight to protect our future," he said when Zhangren was accepted as an apprentice Lorewalker. "You Lorewalkers fight to protect our past. If we cannot remember the past, we cannot protect the future."

Recognizing that his father would go to aid Alliance forces in the upcoming war against the Legion, Zhangren elected to "balance the tale" by working among the races of the Horde. However, following his father's death from injuries sustained on Argus, he has attempted to maintain his neutrality, even as the world has become polarized between the Alliance and the Horde. That would change during the start of the campaign in Kul Tiras and Zandalar, when zealots loyal to Sylvanas attempted to assassinate him as an "Alliance spy", and he was forced to kill them in self-defense. The authorities in Orgrimmar, hoping to keep the neutral denizens of Pandaria from turning against them, chose to banish him from the Horde's lands on pain of death - with an ominous warning that the Horde's lands would expand soon enough.

Thus, he travelled to Stormwind to alongside his student, Ord'taeril Ketiron, a former blood elf paladin who was corrupted by the Void and chose to take up the fighting arts of the monk. Together, they would participate in the campaigns to protect Kul Tiras from a variety of threats - House Ashvane, the corrupted House Stormsong, and the witches of Drustvar. When it came to outright combat against the Horde, however, Zhangren remained in Boralus, preferring to wait out the storm; he did not depart again until the truce between the Alliance and Saurfang's revolutionaries to depose Sylvanas, travelling to Durotar to see the endgame. He was relieved that the conflict ended without further bloodshed among the rank-and-file, but feared what the future would hold after Sylvanas escaped.

With an armistice in effect, Zhangren went home to Pandaria, having heard from his fellow Lorewalkers that the work to heal the Vale of Eternal Blossoms was nearly done. But the coming of the Black Empire changed all that, damaging the Vale once more. Worse, rumors began to spread that the Knights of the Ebon Blade were "recruiting", raising fallen heroes to serve in their ranks. Much to Zhangren's horror, one of those raised had been his elder brother, Zhaoren, who was killed by the Legion when they destroyed the monastery at the Peak of Serenity. He was adamant that the man running around in Zhaoren's flesh was not his brother. His feelings would change, however, when the truth of the "recruiting drive" came out... and the skies over Icecrown shattered. Learning that the rift opened into the Shadowlands, Zhangren sought out his brother, hoping to stand with him against the darkness again - just like they had before...