User:Joshmaul/Arrenhae Leafrunner

"'Our eyes mirror the oblivion that awaits the enemies of the kaldorei. An oblivion the banshee should have been sent to long ago.'"
 * - Arrenhae Leafrunner

Arrenhae Leafrunner is a kaldorei rogue aligned with the Army of the Black Moon, the survivors of Teldrassil and Darkshore who became altered by Tyrande Whisperwind's transformation into the Night Warrior - the mortal instrument of Elune's wrath. Having lost her husband to the Cataclysm and her daughter first to the Scourge, and then again to the Forsaken, Arrenhae is motivated purely by vengeance and a desire to remove the stain of Sylvanas and her Horde from the face of Azeroth, as she believes should have been done long ago.

Biography
Born in Auberdine to a family with druidic ties - a number of whom served in the "Emerald Circle", working to cleanse the Felwood - Arrenhae Leafrunner is descended from the family of Eredane Leafrunner, a warrior killed during the War of the Ancients. Eredane's elder brother, Desolane, became a demon hunter in the years that followed the Sundering.

Arrenhae was more inclined to the art of the blade than to her mother's chosen path in the priesthood of Elune, and joined the ranks of the Sentinels as a scout. Some six centuries before the Battle of Mount Hyjal, Arrenhae married Archdruid Astarane Leafrunner, a distant cousin, and gave birth to a daughter, Arrhae. Like her mother, Arrhae decided against the priesthood, preferring her father's path as a druid...before the Scourge decided her path for her.

At first, Arrenhae had refused to associate with her death knight daughter, believing her to be an abomination wearing her only child's skin. Necessity, however, led her to change her tune - the events of the Cataclysm leading her to believe that even the damned could still defend nature in some small way. Part of her motivation also stemmed from tragedy; her home village of Auberdine was wiped out by the Cataclysm, and her beloved husband was among the dead, leading her to cling onto Arrhae - undead though she was - as the last of her immediate family. It was also during the events of the Cataclysm that she befriended a Gilnean refugee named Lucia Zherron, who had been afflicted by the curse of the worgen.

Arrenhae made it a point to keep her distance from her many-times-great-granduncle, Desolane, who resurfaced along with his Illidari brethren during the war for the Broken Isles. Although he claimed he was an ally, Arrenhae - like many night elves - could not bring herself to trust him or the man he chose to emulate. Not even the victory on Argus, and Illidan's apparent sacrifice, could change her mind...and Desolane's cause was not helped by the fact that there were also sin'dorei demon hunters, and they had all gone with the Horde - which proceeded to despoil Ashenvale and Darkshore and burn Teldrassil to the ground. During the siege of the Undercity that followed, Arrhae did not return, and all present believed her slain. During the effort to retake Darkshore led by Tyrande Whisperwind, however, Arrenhae - accompanying Admiral Eliphas Aximand, a 7th Legion privateer who'd elected to aid the night elves - discovered the truth: her body had been raised yet again, but by the Forsaken. Overcome with rage, Arrenhae cut apart the walking corpse of her only child.

With nothing left to her now save vengeance, Arrenhae embraced the path that Tyrande had begun to tread - the path of the Night Warrior, the embodiment of Elune's righteous fury.