Liu Lang

Liu Lang was a prominent pandaren scholar and explorer, the first of his people to leave Pandaria in the years following the Sundering.

His legacy is celebrated by the pandaren in both the Wanderer's Festival and Spirit Festival.

Biography
Liu Lang was born and raised in a ranch in the village of Stoneplow, near the Serpent's Spine in the Valley of the Four Winds around 800 years before the First War (9,200 years after the Great Sundering).

Filled with a sense of wanderlust, he sought to find a way to travel beyond the mists and still be able to return. He realized that sea turtles always returned to the shore where they were born, and thus he traveled to Turtle Beach in the Krasarang Wilds on Pandaria's southern coast, where he befriended the sea turtle that he named Shen-zin Su after the merchant Shen-Zin. The turtle carried Liu Lang beyond the mists to the world he knew waited beyond. The common thought of the time was that only Pandaria had not been destroyed in the Sundering, and so Liu Lang was considered to be "damaged" in the head for thinking otherwise. This was proven to be incorrect when Liu Lang returned on Shen-zin Su five years later, bringing with him tales of mysterious lands.

Liu Lang would spend the rest of his life traveling with his sea turtle, making return trips to his homeland every five years, each time bringing with him stories of the wondrous things and races he'd seen, such as trolls and tauren. Liu always asked others to accompany him, but no one responded. After one visit, as he set out from Pandaria, a single boat followed the turtle. It was a lone, brave soul named Shinizi, who became Liu's wife. During another visit, he requested seven priests for having elements in the back of the turtle. The priests indeed gathered and joined the pair. And so, the brave pandaren joined Liu on his journeys. Shen-zin Su would prove time and again to have grown even larger from the last visit, until his shell had enough space to support an entire colony.

Those afflicted with wanderlust would often stare out to sea during those five year trips, waiting for Liu Lang's return. This would give rise to the expression "waiting for the turtle", asked to someone who is caught gazing off to the horizon for whatever reason.

As it is with all pandaren Liu Lang eventually passed on. On his final voyage from Pandaria at the age of 122, weary and old, he placed his bamboo umbrella in what would later be called the Wood of Staves and rested in its shade. It is said that his spirit has merged with the lands on Shen-zin Su's back and that the umbrella grew into a giant tree.

His followers' descendants, whom Shen-zin Su would dub the "grandchildren" of Liu Lang, still travel on the great turtle's shell to see the world. The turtle has continued to grow since Liu Lang's time to a truly massive size, supporting several villages, forest, and small mountain ranges. The settlers would appropriately call the sea turtle's shell "the Wandering Isle".

Statues of Liu Lang are always sitting on a matching one of Shen-zin Su, with a lantern to light up the darkness, and an umbrella - just as he did long ago - to protect himself from the weather.

Quotes

 * "Noble is he who always asks questions."
 * "We should all be like children, for the world is our elder, and has many things to teach us."
 * "Never mourn a life well-lived."
 * ''"Every horizon is a treasure chest; every blank map, a story waiting to be told."
 * "Goodnight, Shen-zin Su. Do not mourn, old friend. I sleep, and when I awaken, my next great journey begins." - last words

Notes and trivia

 * The Ultimate Visual Guides stated that Liu Lang set out of Pandaria thousands years ago. Chronicle changed it to 800 years BDP.
 * Liulang (流浪, "liú làng") is Chinese for "wandering".