User:Joshmaul/Embervina Doomlight

"'Whom do ye serve, and whom do ye trust?'"
 * - Embervina Doomlight

Embervina Doomlight is a paladin of the Dark Iron clan, devoted to the protection of her people. She believes in Queen-Regent Moira Thaurissan's leadership in the reunification of the dwarven clans, which she feels is essential in maintaining their independence from the shackles of Ragnaros.

Biography
Born in Shadowforge City some two centuries prior to the current conflict, Embervina comes from two long family lines of priests - slaves of Ragnaros still managing to find Light and hope in the depths of hell. Embervina decided to combine this natural inclination towards the Light with skill in combat, similarly to the paladins of the Silver Hand; she also worked the forges both as a crafter of weapons and armor and as an engineer to build, maintain, and repair the mole machines the clan used to travel long distances.

Like her parents - her father, Aongus, in particular - Embervina hoped for the day when the Dark Iron clan would be free of the Firelord's domination, and hung onto that hope even when things "couldn't get much worse". The first sign that change was in the offing was the day that Moira Bronzebeard, the heiress to the throne of Ironforge, arrived in Shadowforge City as a hostage of Emperor Dagran Thaurissan. Shortly thereafter - through means that Moira's father, King Magni, believed to be sorcerous - the Emperor married her, and conceived a child who would be heir not only to his throne, but to Ironforge as well. Before that child was born, however, the Emperor was killed by agents of the Alliance sent to "liberate" Moira and return her to Ironforge. Ironically, this had the effect of not only freeing Moira from the Emperor's supposed sorcery, but it set the stage for freeing the Dark Iron clan from Ragnaros' domination once and for all, starting with his banishment back to the Firelands after his defeat within the Molten Core.

Though her mother had perished during the conflict, both Embervina and her father believed wholeheartedly that Moira and her child - whom she named Dagran after his father - would be the means to reunite the clans, a notion put to the test in the leadup to the Cataclysm. Moira, who had assumed dictatorial control in Ironforge after the apparent death of her father, was forced to accept a compromise imposed by High King Varian Wrynn that named a council of the three dwarven clans as the joint regency of Ironforge during the young King-Emperor's minority. Moira would lead the Dark Iron clan, Magni's brother Muradin would lead the Bronzebeard clan, and High Thane Falstad would lead the Wildhammer clan. Members of the Dark Iron clan began to slowly but surely appear in the halls of Ironforge, sworn to follow their Queen-Regent and her heir. Embervina and Aongus did so enthusiastically, eager to help make their mark in the world beyond Blackrock Mountain. Their faith that all would change for the better was rewarded during the Cataclysm War, when the Cenarion Circle - supported by heroes of the Alliance and the Horde - vanquished Ragnaros within the Firelands, ensuring that he would never return again.

Though distrust still ran high among the Council of Three Hammers, it would be the Dark Irons' defense of Dun Morogh from a troll invasion - with Moira taking the field alongside King Varian - that eventually convinced the other clans of Moira's sincerity. Dark Irons began appearing with more frequency alongside Alliance forces after that.

Nightmares About... Plants?
While Aongus remained in Shadowforge City, Embervina joined a battalion of Dark Iron dwarves - both from the clan and from the neutral Thorium Brotherhood - that ventured through the Dark Portal to an alternate Draenor, one ruled by an "Iron Horde" created by former Warchief Garrosh Hellscream tampering with timelines. For Embervina, it would be her first foray into the field as a soldier of the Alliance, and she offered both her own weapons and her ability to create more to the cause. It was during this initial battle that she reclaimed a massive Blackrock warhammer, its head burning with an eternal flame, which she learned to wield both as weapon and as a smithing hammer. She has wielded the weapon ever since.

After the escape from Tanaan, Embervina was deployed along with the Dark Irons' master craftsman, Thaelin Darkanvil, to Gorgrond. She assisted in the construction of the great bunker known as "Moira's Bastion", before being forced to evacuate due to goren tunnelling into the bunker from beneath. She had made an effort at one point to see how high and how far a goren could fly when she hit them with her hammer, and was surprised to find them incredibly durable and heavy for their size. As she ventured further into the harsh landscape, Embervina was surprised to see a great forest - the Everbloom Wilds - growing in such a place, and was sickened when she came across a number of both fellow Dark Irons and orcs alike being consumed by the "creepily energetic plantlife", as she put it. The bodies were essentially being turned into mulch to feed the living forest, as well as the plant-based creatures - such as the botani, the mandragora, the podlings, and the genesaur - that lived within it. Embervina was shaken at seeing comrades being used as plant food, and was glad to turn the furnace in her warhammer to full to burn the creatures out in combat. It left her with a distaste for heavily forested areas, as she would always be wary that creatures masquerading as trees (or that were trees) would come out and attack, or that the roots would try to pull her into the earth.

Horrifying as she found Gorgrond, Embervina found later that it could not hold a candle to Val'sharah. As the Burning Legion - demonic enemy of all that lived - made its return in force to Azeroth after the Draenor campaign, Embervina was inducted into the reborn Order of the Silver Hand to fight in the conflict, and travelled to the great forest on the Broken Isles. Much of the northern reaches of the forest, particularly around the World Tree Shaladrassil, was corrupted by the power of the Nightmare, a dark power of the Old Gods that had subtly been corrupting the Emerald Dream for millennia. The pulsing red roots and twisted vines instilled an even greater phobia of plantlife into Embervina, especially since - unlike with the Everbloom in Gorgrond - it did not seem to be deterred by fire. Only the blessings of the Light allowed her to keep the Nightmare out of her mind. Once she was redeployed elsewhere in the Broken Isles, Embervina breathed a sigh of relief, glad to never have to go near the place again...