User:Joshmaul/Taelinkayn

"'I am no vindicator or priest, and my father was raised in death by abominable powers... but the Light stood with us then, it stands with us now, and it will stand with us forever!'"
 * - Archmage Taelinkayn, during her trial in the Forge of Aeons

Taelinkayn is the daughter of Battlelord Velenkayn, born on Draenor not long after the draenei arrived. She developed magical talents as she grew into adulthood, and used her powers in defense of her people upon their arrival on Azeroth. During the final battle against the Burning Legion, she became an archmage of the Kirin Tor and later encountered the Army of the Light on Argus, electing to join them after the final victory.

Biography
Taelinkayn was born in the city of Telmor, hidden in the depths of Terokkar Forest on Draenor - the "real" Draenor, now known as Outland. Her name is a combination of her parents' names - Taelina, a healer, and Velenkayn, a vindicator in the city guard. Taelinkayn showed signs of magical talents at a young age, and was taught by the city's sorcerers in their craft.

When the orcish Horde began massacring their people, Taelina was pregnant with her second daughter, Aerinkayn, who was born in Shattrath after Telmor fell. Taelina was afflicted by the red pox and became a Broken during the fall of Shattrath, while Velenkayn reluctantly abandoned her to her fate as he took his daughters into the Zangarmarsh, hiding out in the fungus-top city of Telredor. There they would remain for decades, even as Draenor was torn apart by the madness of the orcish leader Ner'zhul.

In time, they would follow the Prophet in seizing the Exodar and fleeing to Azeroth. They awoke in Ammen Vale after the Exodar crashed on the Azuremyst Isles; Aerinkayn took the location as an omen and renamed herself "Ammenkayn", electing to follow the ways of the shamans as taught by the Broken farseer Nobundo. While Velenkayn was adamantly against the idea, considering shamanism to be "vile orc sorcery", Taelinkayn supported her sister's decision, even as she continued her magical training in this strange new world. Joining the Alliance, father and daughters would return to Outland to fight against the Legion. When Velenkayn was killed and raised by the Scourge, Taelinkayn accepted his change and stood by him, just as she had done with Ammenkayn, who would fall to the evil orc warlock Urgan the Corruptor on the frozen steppes of Icecrown, just as the final battle against the Lich King drew nearer.

With Ammenkayn dead, Taelinkayn elected to remain on the home front in Azuremyst while her father, now revered as "Battlelord Velenkayn", fought on the front lines during the Cataclysm and in Pandaria. Much to her anguish, Velenkayn would fall for the final time during the war with the Iron Horde on the time-altered Draenor, and was interred in that world's version of Auchindoun. His broken warhammer somehow made its way back to Azeroth, and Taelinkayn resolved to honor his memory by making it into her staff.

Taelinkayn would join the Kirin Tor during the war against the Legion in the Broken Isles, and from there made her way aboard the Vindicaar to Argus, the ancestral homeworld of the ancient eredar. It was there that she met the Lightforged, fighting alongside them against the Legion forces. When the war was won and the Legion defeated, she was inspired to undertake the trials of the Lightforged herself. Within the Forge of Aeons, she witnessed sights she had never seen before - the alternate Draenor where her father had fallen, and where another version of her had existed... and had become one of the Sargerei, sworn to Socrethar. Taelinkayn was horrified, but held her ground before the horrific vision, knowing that the Light - and her father's example - had guided her to her current path, and knew that it did not abandon its own, even corrupted in death as Velenkayn had been.

Taelinkayn emerged from her trial shaken but unbowed, and was accepted into the ranks of the Army of the Light.