User:Joshmaul/Sir Eran Heskin

"'There is a reason we are called 'Stormwind'. You're about to learn it.'"
 * - Sir Eran Heskin

Sir Eran Heskin is a veteran knight who has served in Stormwind's wars for more than forty years. He has become a devotee of the Titans since the war against the Lich King, a notion reinforced by the time he spent in Skyhold during the Legion invasion. His preference for lightning steel weapons, made by his own hand in the forges of the Thunder King, has led to some calling him "the Knight of Storms", a fearsome reputation he brings to the renewed conflict with the Horde as a warrior of the elite 7th Legion.

Biography
Born the son of a blacksmith in the town of Grand Hamlet in the Brightwood, south of Stormwind (now known as Darkshire in the Duskwood), Eran Heskin has served in Stormwind's wars for more than four decades, ever since he was a squire serving the knights of King Barathen the Adamant. He was present during the Gurubashi siege of Stormwind where Barathen fell in battle, and was a newly-knighted warrior in the service of the Adamant's son, King Llane, during the First War.

When Stormwind fell, Heskin gathered his wife Katerina and their young son Taran and fled across the Great Sea to Lordaeron with Regent Lord Anduin Lothar, who would become supreme commander of the Alliance. During the Second War, Heskin was nearly killed during the siege of Blackrock Spire, a wound that prevented him from being called up to join the Sons of Lothar in the invasion of Draenor, which he regrets to this day. After recovering under the ministrations of the paladins of the Silver Hand, Heskin returned home to Stormwind. In the constant wars that followed the Battle of Mount Hyjal, Heskin has served in the midst of each one on countless battlefields - the Plaguelands of Lordaeron, the sands of Silithus, across lands shattered by the Cataclysm, the frozen fields and peaks of Northrend, the mysterious plains of Pandaria, and beyond the Dark Portal on both Outland and the time-altered Draenor.

Heskin developed an interest in the works of the Titans during the Northrend campaign, particularly upon learning of humanity's descent from the ancient vrykul there. Upon the "clearing" of Ulduar, he studied both the craftsmanship of the armor and weapons found in its vaults, as well as the engineering behind its strange mechanisms. That interest was sparked further (pun slightly intended) during the war for Pandaria, where he learned to work lightning steel in the forges outside of Lei Shen's palace on the Isle of Thunder. His skill in working (and wielding) lightning steel weapons earned him the nickname "the Knight of Storms".

His interest in vrykul and Titan lore would eventually lead him to the Valarjar during the Legion invasion in the Broken Isles. The warriors of Azeroth - human knights, orc grunts, tauren braves, and others - all joined together in Odyn's Halls of Valor to fight against the Legion. From his understanding of vrykul myths, Heskin knew that the Halls of Valor were the halls of the honored dead - and he wondered if his friends and comrades from Stormwind would find a place in Odyn's halls. But he was under no illusions that the Horde would have much to answer for, even those who had been with the Valarjar.

When war broke out again in Kul Tiras and Zandalar, Heskin was recruited by the elite 7th Legion, veterans of the war against the Lich King. It was during this conflict that, despite his desire to keep his family out of the war, he was convinced to take on his ten-year-old grandson, Donal, as a squire. During the conflict, he learned that Sir Galen Tavener, an old comrade from Lordaeron during the Second War, had been raised first by the Forsaken, then again by the Ebon Blade... and was involved in the brewing revolution against Sylvanas in the Horde. Despite his distrust - he had seen the very same thing with Garrosh during the Pandaria campaign - Heskin ultimately sided with the combined armies to depose her during the second siege of Orgrimmar.

When the war ended, Heskin remained in Kul Tiras, ultimately opting to "slow down a bit" rather than charge in against the Black Empire in Pandaria and Uldum... because he knew Sylvanas was still out there, and she would eventually have to be dealt with.