User:Joshmaul/Tekolin Wintershade

"'Demons, satyrs, orcs, and undead have fallen beneath my claws. The banshee's new 'friends' will be no different.'"
 * - Tekolin Wintershade, Archdruid of the Claw

Tekolin Wintershade is a veteran of the War of the Ancients and an elder druid of the Cenarion Circle.

Biography
Born in Kel'Theril in what is now Winterspring, Tekolin Wintershade's father was a warrior, and his mother was a priestess of Elune... but he answered an entirely different calling when he grew to adulthood, feeling the spirits of nature around him. He thus became a follower of Malfurion Stormrage, the first of the kaldorei druids. After surviving the War of the Ancients, Tekolin wed a priestess of Elune, Lenera, and had a daughter, Aryn. Aryn would also become a priestess, as would her daughter, Amallyn, both of whom would keep the Wintershade name to carry on the line. Both his wife and daughter would ultimately die in violent conflicts while he slept away the millennia in his barrow den; Lenera would fall to the qiraji in the War of the Shifting Sands nearly a thousand years before the opening of the Dark Portal, and Aryn was cut apart by fel-corrupted "red orcs" in Ashenvale during the Third War.

Since being awakened from his barrow, however, Tekolin has remained active - for the world he returned to has changed dramatically. The Battle of Mount Hyjal was the first of many conflicts he would participate in upon his awakening, and even as Archimonde was obliterated by Nordrassil's power, he knew that it would not be the last. He went on to fight in Northrend against the Scourge, losing an eye to a corrupted furbolg in the Grizzly Hills (which he admitted was his own fault, believing he could somehow help the maddened creature); he explored Pandaria, helping fight off the corruption of the Sha; and he joined with the druids of the Dreamgrove against the Legion in the Broken Isles.

Following the burning of Teldrassil, Tekolin was disturbed by what he saw as a blind hatred developing among many of his people, including his granddaughter. His concerns were amplified when Tyrande embraced the power of the Night Warrior, said to be the embodiment of Elune's vengeance. Even more disturbing was the fact that many night elves, including his granddaughter, embraced the power willingly, their eyes darkening much like Tyrande's. He was aware that most who embodied the Night Warrior did not survive it, and considered it to be an act of sacrilege; the moon was meant to shine brightly as a beacon, not be shrouded in hateful darkness.