User:Joshmaul/Yatiri Stormwatcher

"'This war for Pandaria would not have begun were it not for this bloodbath you have fought against one another for more than thirty years, Lord Ketiron. Pandaria needs those who are willing to protect it not only from the Sha, the mantid and the Mogu, but also from you and your kind as well, should you make us your enemy. I pray, for the sake of the comradeship we have begun to develop, that this is not the case. But as long as you and your Horde, and Saavedro and his Alliance, remain dedicated to this lunacy, then I will not stand with either of you.'"
 * - Yatiri Stormwatcher, to Taeril'hane Ketiron

Yatiri Stormwatcher was a pandaren monk from the Wandering Isle who presently serves as a Lorewalker and Blackguard of the Shado-Pan, the elite guardians of Pandaria. Living on the Isle his entire life with his younger sister Lazhna, Yatiri trained in the ways of Tushui, the path of careful decision-making, and was dismayed when he and his sister split during their encounters with the Alliance and the Horde. During his time with the Alliance, after following Tushui master Aysa Cloudsinger to Stormwind, Yatiri acted as something of a mentor in "lore and war", as he put it, to the human paladin Saavedro of Stratholme, well-known for his love of exploration and archaeology.

Troubled by the emphasis on the war with the Horde, Yatiri joined with the Lorewalkers to catalogue and preserve the knowledge of Pandaria. But as well as being a historian, he is also a trained fighter who has faced the Mogu, the Sha, the mantid, and other dangers of the Pandarian frontier. Following the disappearance of Saavedro and the death of the paladin's corrupted mentor, the Forsaken shadow priest Sekhesmet of Stratholme, Yatiri dedicated himself to the defense of Pandaria and trained further with the Shado-Pan, honing his fighting skills to lethal efficiency. Sadly, he would never have a chance to truly prove himself, as he was killed by a resurrected Sekhesmet not long afterward.

Biography
Yatiri was born in the Dai-Lo settlement on the Wandering Isle a little over four decades before they encountered the outside world, the son of a farmer; Lazhna was born around two years later. Yatiri was born with the darker colors of his father, while Lazhna sported the brownish red fur of their mother. They eventually grew up to follow vastly different paths; Lazhna, fiery as her fur-color, preferred the thrill of the hunt, while Yatiri often spent time sitting in the grass, meditating. Despite their differences of mindset, Yatiri cared deeply for his younger sibling. As they each grew to their teens, Yatiri and Lazhna were both sent to Master Shang Xi, the venerable elder who trained several generations of Shen-zin Su's defenders in defensive and offensive arts alike.

Yatiri would spend much of the next twenty years under the tutelage of Shang Xi and the monks of the Temple of Five Dawns, often spent in meditation to achieve balance of mind, his every action carefully contemplated before it was carried out - a trait of the followers of Tushui. This led to long-running joking banter between Yatiri and Lazhna, the latter of whom favored the Huojin path of direct (often reckless) action. Two students of Master Shang arose in those years as champions of those philosophies - Aysa Cloudsinger as a follower of Tushui, and Ji Firepaw as a practitioner of Huojin. Yatiri trained extensively with Aysa for several years to better attune himself to the philosophy he had (in a way) upheld since he was a child.

Like all pandaren on the Wandering Isle - or Shen-zin Su, as the turtle was called - Yatiri had grown up with tales of Pandaria and the great Empire they had left behind, tales of how the Emperor Shaohao had shrouded Pandaria in mist after the Sundering, and how those who were motivated by wanderlust had journeyed with Liu Lang and Shen-zin Su to explore the world beyond. What happened to Pandaria, or who survived in the world beyond, no one knew - until one fateful day...

The Outsiders
While undergoing their training, the siblings were told of a "thorn" in the side of Shen-zin Su. A hot air balloon quickly transported them from their home in Morning Breeze to the site, where they found the "thorn" - a crashed vessel of some sort. Unbeknownst to them, it was the Alliance airship Skyseeker, which had been transporting prisoners from the Jade Forest in Pandaria and lost its way in the shrouding mists, crashing into the side of the Wandering Isle before they realized it was there. The crash caused great pain to Shen-zin Su, causing him to start drifting - in the direction of the Maelstrom. If the thorn was not removed and the wound healed, the great turtle would be sucked into the abyss.

Aysa and Ji had already been sent by the elders of the Temple of Five Dawns. It was there that Yatiri met his first outsiders - green-skinned soldiers, bull-men, short, slim, paleskinned people, shorter greenskins, and two kinds of people with pointed ears - orcs, tauren, humans, goblins, and night and blood elves, in that order. He saw that the greenskins and the paleskins seemed at odds, and guessed that these two groups were mortal enemies. One of the bull-men said he belonged to some kind of Horde, while the paleskins were members of an Alliance. Aysa and Ji learned more about these separate factions, with Aysa seeing this Alliance as being compatable with the beliefs of Tushui (especially this "Holy Light" some people mentioned), while Ji's belief in Huojin seemed more compatable with the Horde. After the removal of the Skyseeker wreckage and the healing of the wound in Shen-zin Su, the decision had come - to join Aysa and the strongman Jojo Ironbrow in the voyage to the city of Stormwind, home to the humans, or follow Ji to the orcs' city of Orgrimmar. Deciding to stay with the one who represented his beliefs, Yatiri left with Aysa and Jojo, setting out for Elwynn Forest.

In the Service of Knowledge
While accompanying Aysa and Jojo along with several others as part of a delegation, Yatiri encountered Saavedro of Stratholme at Stormwind Harbor. Yatiri was particularly drawn to the palpable feeling of anger, guilt and grief that surrounded the paladin, and believed he would end up in a bad end unless he had help. Saavedro left to join the Alliance forces in Pandaria; shortly thereafter, Yatiri would meet Genevra Stoneheardt, the High Priestess of the Cathedral of Light. Attending one of her sermons, Yatiri learned more about the Light and its virtues, and the similarities and differences in their philosophies. Upon learning that Genevra also led a group of scholars and other knowledge-seekers, Yatiri offered his own services to her cause.

Yatiri became particularly drawn to the ruined lands of Lordaeron, once he learned more about the city of Stratholme that Saavedro always added as part of his name whenever he spoke to people. The pandaren made several visits to Aerie Peak as well, where allies of Saavedro were known to reside. Later in his explorations of Lordaeron, he discovered a journal belonging to Saavedro's father, Ezekyle, magistrate of Corin's Crossing, in the ruined home of the magistrate near the town hall; upon delivering it to Genevra and learning from new friends in Aerie Peak of Saavedro's growing madness, he warned the priestess that "he is dangerous, and he is in danger".

There are some in Saavedro's inner circle - Battlelord Velenkayn and Packleader Zherron Shadowhowl chief among them - who believe that Yatiri is the "warrior of Shadow and Light" from the prophecy relating to the war between Saavedro and his mentor-turned-nemesis, the High Priest Sekhesmet, a demented Forsaken shadowcaster who had embraced the power of the Sha. To aid Saavedro in his battle, Yatiri secretly allied with the sin'dorei nobleman Taeril'hane Ketiron, a comrade of Saavedro from the war against the Lich King several years earlier. Yatiri trained Saavedro in the fighting arts of his calling, as well as to focus his mind as well as his body. Ketiron underwent similar instruction upon the revelation of his continued survival to his masters in Silvermoon. This effort, Yatiri explained, was to ensure that their minds would be strong enough to resist - and ultimately triumph over - the Sha-corrupted Sekhesmet's powers.

The War for Pandaria
As Yatiri finally arrived in Pandaria, he found it in the dark grip of the Sha; due to his efforts to aid both Saavedro and Ketiron, he would end up in Sekhesmet's crosshairs. It culminated in a brief meeting on the summit of Mount Neverest in Kun-Lai shortly after Yatiri earned his Mastery at the Peak of Serenity. There, Sekhesmet boasted that he could not be challenged while he could still tap the Sha energies burned deep into Pandaria - and that, for all the "balance" in the pandaren soul, they were not above the power of the Sha. To emphasize his point, Sekhesmet revealed, to Yatiri's horror, the presence of his younger sister Lazhna, who was under the Sha-corrupted High Priest's thrall. Sekhesmet did not attack the pandaren, nor harm him in any way, but did something far more insidious: He stoked the embers of Yatiri's doubt, hoping to break him away from Saavedro, Ketiron and Genevra, and perhaps become a Lorewalker, hiding away in the library.

After a brief altercation with Sir Roedran Valorfist - a paladin trapped in his battered armor as a disembodied spirit - at Northshire Abbey during a history discussion, Yatiri ended up doing just that, forsaking his ties to the Alliance and pledging himself to the service of Pandaria. But he took it one step further: Continuing to recognize that Sekhesmet was evil, Yatiri also considered putting his fighting skill to use as a member of the Shado-Pan. While at the Loremaster's library, the Seat of Knowledge, in the upper levels of Mogu'shan Palace, Yatiri met with Ketiron, who was concerned at the sudden change of heart and wondered if Sekhesmet had influenced him. Yatiri admitted that Sekhesmet had tried to put a spell on him, but his decision was his own and had been made - as was the Tushui way - after long and careful thought. He reminded Ketiron of Shado-Pan leader Taran Zhu's disgusted condemnation of the Alliance-Horde conflict as little more than a genocidal blood feud, and stated that fighting a senseless war was not why he left Shen-zin Su. As long as the Alliance and the Horde were hell-bent on killing one another even when faced with other enemies, he wanted little to do with them.

Yatiri, goaded by Sekhesmet's apocalyptic predictions, confronted Genevra and Valorfist at a quiet retreat in the hills outside Stormwind, demanding that Genevra recall anyone who she had sent to hunt for Sekhesmet, declaring that the Shado-Pan would succeed where the Alliance had failed. He condemned the Alliance - the humans particularly - for their part in the corruption of Pandaria, and became incensed when Valorfist mentioned that it was the work of Shaohao to purge the negativity from the pandaren people's soul that had created (or rather, empowered) the Sha. As the confrontation became more heated, the three were interrupted by Ketiron, who had been watching using an arcane eye gifted to him by his grandfather-in-law, Lord Kel'theris. Ketiron scolded the pandaren for blinding himself with anger, and told him to return to the Peak of Serenity to meditate, to calm himself. Ketiron then met with Genevra and Valorfist in person (a terrible risk, for a blood elf lord to travel into Alliance lands) to inform them what Yatiri had told him at the Seat of Knowledge.

Ketiron, infuriated at Sekhesmet's cowardice in kidnapping someone not involved in the battle, joined with his ally Kitrik the Assassin and ambushed Sekhesmet on the shores of Zouchin Province in northern Kun-Lai, and freed Lazhna from his grip. Realizing that she would no longer be safe in the Horde, Ketiron took her first into Quel'Thalas, where he trained her to better defend against a future ambush, and then - an even greater risk, given Hellscream's increasing paranoia - sent her to Stormwind to pledge herself to Genevra and reaffirm Yatiri's faith in his allies. That did not last, however; Lazhna disappeared not long afterwards, and has not been seen since.

Wanderer, Lorewalker, Shado-Pan: The Path Chosen
After Lazhna disappeared, Yatiri decided to finally do something about the continuous anger, doubt and grief he was left to feel - to master his feelings, rather than be mastered by them. To that end, he travelled to the monastery of the Shado-Pan high in the mountains of Kun-Lai, and submitted himself to their service. It was around this period that word reached him of Sekhesmet's defeat at the hands of Saavedro, and the paladin's subsequent disappearance. Contented with his decision, Yatiri was allowed to follow the Shado-Pan in his capacity as a Lorewalker, and regularly travelled beyond the wall into the Townlong Steppes, the front lines of the Shado-Pan's battle against its traditional enemies - the mantid, the yaungol, and the Mogu.

Though originally there simply as a chronicler, Yatiri soon became something more as the battles went on, finding himself in battle against these foes more than he was chronicling the battles of others. The Shado-Pan - particularly Master Wan Snowdrift, head of the Blackguards - took notice, and had him return to the monastery. Despite being considerably older than the usual Shado-Pan initiates, as well as having undergone training in his path for most of his life, Yatiri upheld tradition and underwent the standard Shado-Pan trials - branding his hand with a white-hot coin in the Trial of Resolve, and facing "the death that steals, the death that hides, and the death that saves" in the Trial of Strength.

For his Trial of Spirit, he was questioned by Hawkmaster Nurong, leader of the Wu Kao - under whose jurisdiction the third trial fell - as to his motivation, wondering why he had chosen to abandon his identity as a Tushui pandaren in the service of the Alliance and dedicating himself fully to the Shado-Pan. Yatiri, silently considering the question, replied after a long moment that while he formally remained a member of the Alliance, and continued to associate himself with those he had left the Wandering Isle with, he chose to serve the Shado-Pan out of a desire to defend his ancestral homeland - "a land of immense beauty and rich history, both to us and to the world beyond", as he stated it. He believed that he would do all of his people, from Pandaria and the Wandering Isle, Tushui and Huojin alike, a far greater service in that capacity than he would serving in Varian's armies; the Alliance had enough soldiers, and he felt ill at the prospect of participating in a war that was steeped in hatred and pride on both sides. Nurong was satisfied with that answer, as were the other masters, and he was formally inducted into the Shado-Pan.

Surprisingly, rather than take up the Omnia discipline and stand with the scholars and historians, Yatiri chose to train as a Blackguard under the instruction of Master Snowdrift; while history and knowledge remained important to him, he believed that he had spent more time training in the fighting arts than he had in the ways of the Lorewalker. However, though his training focused on the martial arts, he also remained a member of the Lorewalkers.

Shankolin's Warning
Becoming increasingly embittered towards most members of the Alliance (with the exception of the draenei, who he believed knew the loss he felt over the devastation in Pandaria, as it was also caused by orcish corruption), Yatiri finally came to the conclusion that it would be best that he no longer associate openly with the Alliance or be seen in its territory. After a bitter argument in the Blue Recluse tavern in Stormwind, he prepared to take the portal opened by the Tushui adepts to Paw'don Village, the pandaren village aligned with the Alliance in the Jade Forest, and simply ride off to the Shado-Pan monastery and not look back. It was near the Tushui shrine that he encountered the human priest known as Father Shankolin, who had been making rounds over the previous days. At first dismissing him as another "officious" human seeking to influence him, Yatiri was surprised to discover that it was in fact Saavedro of Stratholme, who had slain his corrupt former master, Sekhesmet, and taken his powers in order to prevent them from being used for evil.

Shankolin warned Yatiri that the peace gained by defeating Garrosh Hellscream in Orgrimmar would be fleeting; Yatiri dismissed such talk as not being his concern and stated that he did not wish to be part of "the world beyond" because of outsiders' involvement in the devastation of Pandaria, to which Shankolin bluntly reminded him that he had suffered the same loss as the monk had when his homeland of Lordaeron was destroyed by the Scourge. While it was his decision to turn his back on the Alliance, Shankolin pointed out that any future threats to Azeroth would also include Pandaria, and that "good people" like Yatiri would be needed to defend it; no matter what he chose, the priest said in closing, the monk would always be welcome with his people in the Alliance. Yatiri returned through the portal to Pandaria, but remained for a time at the village of One Keg - east of the monastery - considering all that Shankolin had said.

Downfall
Yatiri would soon find himself in the clutches of the mad gnome warlock Rakeri Sputterspark, who carried on a campaign of revenge against his nemesis Saavedro. Using dark sorcery combined with a magical amulet that allowed him to see what the monk saw, Rakeri kept Yatiri as an enforcer and bodyguard as he travelled to Northrend, to an altar where he would destroy Saavedro and resurrect Sekhesmet as his ultimate weapon against all who opposed him. At the Falls of Ymiron in the Howling Fjord, Rakeri's sister Marennia ambushed them, and knocked Yatiri off the battlements of the vrykul dam into the icy waters of Daggercap Bay below. Yatiri remembered little afterward; he would rejoin Rakeri at the "altar" - the great tree stump of Vordrassil, now the furbolg city of Grizzlemaw - before being sent back to the southlands, where he found himself drawn to the tomb of Uther the Lightbringer in the Western Plaguelands.

In the cemetery at Sorrow Hill that surrounded the tomb, Yatiri was met by a robed human, who recognized him as working for Rakeri (by that point, he had been arrested by the Stormwind City Watch and was being held in the Stockade). Destroying Rakeri's enchanted amulet and breaking the spell, the human revealed himself to be Sekhesmet reborn, reminding the pandaren that he had witnessed his resurrection - and the death of Saavedro. Enraged and aggrieved, Yatiri attacked the Dark Father, who proved to be more than a match for him physically...but his restored shadow powers would prove to be his victory, as he disabled Yatiri and flayed his mind with shadow magic, before slashing his throat with a jeweled tol'vir khopesh he carried at his belt.

As Yatiri's lifeblood drained out, a Forsaken in monk's attire approached him, speaking calmly and saying that she would not consume his corpse. When he asked her name, she answered simply Euphrati. Unbeknownst to him, his death was witnessed by the daughter of the very man who had killed him. Taking the clawed gauntlets that Yatiri had worn, Euphrati ensured that the pandaren's body was sent back to his family on the Wandering Isle.