User:Jolstraer/Jolstraer Taborwynn
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Basic Information
Name: Jolstraer Taborwynn, Oathbreaker
Nickname(s): Jol, Jolly
Birthplace: Grand Hamlet, Azeroth
Age: 48
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 240 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Build: Thick bodied, with broad, squared shoulders.
Race: Human
Class: Paladin
Realm: Feathermoon
Other Notes: Jol is missing his right eye.
Hobbies: When not seeking out a way to aid others, Jol usually spends his personal time in the forge, creating simple tools or small items of beauty.
Current Residence: Jol keeps a small residence in Stormwind with his wife, Miahala, but is usually found enduring the harsh conditions of Outland. He also owns a small plot of farmland just outside of Darkshire, though it has fallen into disuse over the years.
Personal Philosophy
There are worse things than death. Honor and loyalty to family, friends and comrades above all else. Defend everything you hold dear until the last, and remain standing when all is said and done. Live with peace in the Light, and find peace within yourself. Draw strength in your stubbornness, for a stubborn will to live will outlast any onslaught.
Personality
Jolly has dealt with a whirlwind of emotion in recent history, from grief and regret to pride and triumph. His past has worn on him as the years have gone by, most notably for actions undertaken in Stratholme during the war against the Scourge and the fall of Lordaeron. He is normally quieter than most, and his southern Azeroth heritage has given him an accent that is sometimes difficult to decipher.
With the new war against the Burning Legion erupting against the forces of the Alliance and the Horde, Jol has rediscovered his 'center', settling into the stalwart defender he strived to prove himself as. He is implacable once he sets his mind to a goal, and stubbornly refuses to fall at the hands of his enemies.
Early Life
((Note on Timelines: All character history is based on the timeline found in the World of Warcraft Official Strategy Guide))
Jolstraer Taborwynn was born to Jak and Kayla Taborwynn in the small farming village of Grand Hamlet in the year 560, approximately twenty-three years before the First War. His father was a blacksmith in the sprawling little village, and his mother a renowned seamstress. His childhood was not uncommon for the time, filled with ancient stories of epic battles with the forest trolls of the north and the honor and chivalry of generations of Stormwind and Lordaeron knights.
The times began to turn bleak, with the land growing sick and hollowed from its former glory, though none could understand why. At the age of eighteen, he left his little village to serve as a soldier in the army of Stormwind, eager to serve like many of the young men his age. In the coming years, it would be this choice to serve in the face of danger that would prolong his life.
In the year 583, the Orcs came. Tearing through the southern lands of Azeroth, they crashed against the gates of Stormwind itself. Jolstraer Taborwynn, barely old enough to think for himself and having trained his way up to the prestigious status of Knight, learned of the taste of battle hammer for blade with the mighty Orcish Horde. He was forced to watch as his home of Grand Hamlet was razed to the ground at the hands of the Horde.
The Great Exodus and the Second War
Jol proved to be a hardened fighter when pitted against the Orcs, outliving many friends and comrades he had earned during his service. He was amongst the many beleaguered soldiers of Stormwind who guarded the refugees of the now-shattered Azeroth as they made their Exodus across the seas to the north, under the leadership of Lord Lothar. It was during this grueling retreat that Jolstraer cared for others of his home village, namely a young woman named Adranna.
Adranna Laeris was a bright young woman with an iron will, unwilling to admit that Azeroth had been defeated and willing to lend her aid wherever it was needed amongst the sick and wounded peoples of her homeland. She had begun to bloom into the beautiful woman she would become, despite the harsh surroundings, but it was her inner strength that found Jol caring for her and her ailing father, as well as the family of Adranna's younger friend, Miahala.
Jol grew very close to Adranna as they refugees of Azeroth arrived on the shores of Lordaeron and the Alliance was forged between the human nations. As armies marshalled and trained together for the coming fight, Jol was discovered to have an affinity for wielding the Light. He was recruited amongst many other knights and clerics to form the Knights of the Silver Hand, led by the righteous Uther Lightbringer. Anointed as a Paladin, he was trained in the healing ways as well as the further tactics of war.
Despite it all, Adranna was a constant presence to him, whether in thought or in person. She proudly stood in attendance when he was anointed, and he in turn attneded as she was undertaken as an apprentice to the mages of Dalaran. But it was not long before the movements of the Horde would become known to all of the Alliance, as the gargantuan flotilla of warships and transports appeared on the far horizon. With an oath to return to her, Jol took up the shield and hammer once more to serve with the might of the Alliance, forces in beating back the Orcish onslaught.
When the Tide of Darkness turned with the sudden retreat of the Orcish forces, Jol was privileged to serve amongst the vanguard of Alliance forces that struck back against the Horde, hammering them back into the Black Morass, and to the Dark Portal itself. Once victory was certain, Jol fulfilled the oath he had made, returning to Lordaeron to take up Adranna and be married to the woman he had fallen in love with during the greatest strife their people had endured.
The Rebuilding
With the Horde defeated and Azeroth reclaimed by its people, Jolstraer attained leave of his duties as a knight of the Silver Hand and as a soldier of Stormwind. With his new wife Adranna, they settled in the rebuilt town of Darkshire. It is here the loving pair made their life together, giving birth to their only daughter, Tristessa.
With prosperity settling in upon the human lands, Jol took up his hammer in peace for the first time, building a forge and continuing the art of Blacksmithing that his father had been so proud to maintain in his youth. Here the young family prospered, living quietly amongst the dense thickets and cherishing the happiness that they shared together. Tristessa grew into a fine young girl, stout of heart and mind and eager to follow in her father's footsteps as a Knight of the Silver Hand.
But as the years passed on, a gloom slowly settled into the forests of Duskwood. As the first word of disturbances in Lordaeron reached the ears of Azeroth, Jol was called upon by the Silver Hand to return to his place in the army, training the discipline of war and battle into raw recruits. He attained the rank of Master Sergeant and placed in the Fifth Armored Horse Regiment of [Azeroth - comprised mostly of citizens of Darkshire and the surrounding farms.
Feeling only slightly distraught at being away from his wife and daughter, Jol dismissed the sketchy reports coming from Lordaeron on the strange occurrences so far away. That was until the Fifth Armored Horse was mustered and sent north.
The Third War: Oathbreaker
Jol's regiment arrived in Lordaeron during the outbreak of the plague in Brill, and was attached to the main force of Prince Arthas Menethil of Lordaeron. Though not directly under the Prince's command, the Fifth Armored Horse maintained some of the scouting reports for the Prince's contingent, helping to track the trail of the mysterious plague of undeath that ravaged the countryside.
Jol, determined to do what was right in the Light in saving the land and its people, obeyed his orders to the letter, determined to fight back this so-called Scourge and free the people from its grasp. To the real truth he was somewhat blind; that the ends did not justify the means. It would not fully impact on him until the events of the Purge of Stratholme.
It was there that this Paladin in essence broke his oaths to the Silver Hand, defying the teachings of Uther and obeying the orders of Prince Arthas in purging the city's population of the possible plague threat. His actions on that day would haunt his memories for the years to come.
Following the Purge of Stratholme, the Fifth Armored Horse was given leave to return home before their next dispatch would come. The surviving members of that regiment remained scarred by the deeds they had done, remaining somewhat distant to their families and friends. Jol was no exception, keeping his thoughts to himself and growing painfully apart from his wife and daughter. Despite it all, Adranna was there for him, to provide quiet comfort and compassion if he but asked.
The notice of the regiment's next assignment came all too soon; Prince Arthas demanded an expedition be mounted to the frozen north. With heavy hearts, the Fifth Armored Horse mustered and left Darkshire, bound for Northrend. It would be the last Jolstraer Taborwynn would ever see of his dear family.
Northrend
After a long, hard month of travel aboard ship, the Northrend Expedition arrived in Daggercap Bay. The bitter cold and ominous presence of the Icecrown Glacier weighted on all of the soldiers under Arthas' command, but with reassurances that what they did served to save all of Lordaeron and Azeroth, they pressed on. They soon encountered the dwarven expedition led by Muradin Bronzebeard and fought hard against the hostile forces they encountered, following the Prince to the Light only knew where.
As rumors of the Prince's sudden whimsical search for a mythic blade began to filteramongst the troops, Jol began serously questioning his own unyielding loyalty to crown and banner. When a messenger from Lordaeron arrived via zeppelin with orders from both Uther and King Terenas for Arthas and his men to return home, Jol was amognst the first to begin sounding orders for the troops to break camp and beginning making their way back to the ships.
The sight of burning ships in the harbor was backbreaking for the morale of some of the troops, but to Jol it opened a well of fear; the look on the Prince's face as he informed the troops that the Ogres and Trolls not far behind him had destroyed their ships told Jol more than perhaps the Prince had intended. Something about the man's fervor solidified the determination in Jol's gut to return home - and soon.
Quietly, Jol told only those that he trusted of his plan - to slip away in the depths of the frozen night, and find a way to return to their homeland. How did not matter, so long as it happened then. Packing only what provisions they could carry, Jol and a band of seven other soldiers slipped off in the night, scouring southward for anything that they could find to make the perilous journey south.
Rescue by the Scarlet Crusade
For four years, against an inhospitable climatte and monstrous inhabitants, Jol and his companions fought for their very survival, using the skills of survival taught to them by long years of experience in war. But slowly, so achingly slowly, it seemed as though the land itself was destroying them, piece by piece. Slowly, one would lose hope, giving up the will to live and succumbing to the darkness that flowed beneath Northrend. It was not until two were left that hope would spring again. Along the coast, in the distant horizon, white sails drew closer. Could it be the might of Lordaeron had finally come to find its lost sons? The flame fluttering on banners above some of the ships was unfamiliar to Jol and his companion, but one was easily recognizable - the Symbol of Light, emblazoned in scarlet on the great sails themselves.
When the ships landed, disgorging wave after wave of human warriors in armor of red and white, Jol and his companion carefully made their way to them, giving thanks to the Light and blessings upon the first person they saw...until they were beaten and shackled by the people they had thought to be saviors. Despite protestations to the contrary, Jol and his companion were deemed unclean, and sentenced to be purged of any taint that might be present.
As this Scarlet Crusade carried on with their battle towards the massive Icecrown Glacier, Jol's companion died from the torture that made up the Crusade's 'purging'. Jol proved hardier, withstanding the Crusades gruesome attempts at garnering his 'confession' while losing his right eye to their methods. It was an inquisitor by the name of Thellan Magrand whom took the greatest interest in drawing out Jol's secrets, and he seemed more and more disappointed to find that the paladin had none.
As the Crusade fought harder and harder towards the massive Icecrown Citadel that had loomed over Jol and his now-dead companions for the years of their strife, Jol's determination to escape grew. Thellan's superiors were displeased with his inability to crack the stalwart paladin, and the rogue's methods became more desperate. It was in a moment of sheer pain that Jol triumphed - breaking the will of his captor with the pain he had endured. Thellan, fearing for his life, secretly agreed to set the paladin free in exchange for escaping with him. Jol rebelled against this idea before it had completely passed the Scarlet Inquisitor's lips, but was begrudgingly accepted once the rogue saved his head from the executioner's axe. Malevolent allies, the pair made their escape as the Scarlet Crusade began their assault on the Icecrown Glacier.
Back through the frozen landscape they trod, backtracking the march of the Crusade all the way back to their ships. Thellan garnered safe passage home aboard a small vessel by bluffing his way through, and the pair set sail for Azeroth.
Bittersweet Homecoming
Jol's homecoming would not be without its own upheavals. The ship, which was bound for Southshore, struck a tempestuous storm off the coast of Gilneas. Ravaging seas blew the ship southward, sending nearly half the crew overboard. Once clear of the storm, the ship drifted in calm sees for weeks, exhausting most of their supplies before the winds picked up again. Spun about and unable to navigate against the winds, the ship struck rocks off the coast of Westfall in the dead of night, sending the ship sinking fast. Jol was among the few who made it off the ship before she plummeted to the depths.
Memories of that night on the sea escape him, for the next thing he was aware of was lying on the sandy shore, being awakened by the sound of Murlocs feasting. As he carefully pulled himself from the flotsam that had washed up on shore, he discovered the fate of the few survivors from the ship's loss at sea. With a mixture of fear for his life and the joy of finally reaching home, Jolstraer Taborwynn ran for the heart of Azeroth and the Cathedral of Light.
It was there, reporting in to Lord Grayson Shadowbreaker, that Jols learned of the fate of the world. Lost in the frozen north, he had no knowledge of the events that had transpired: of the Betrayal, and the breaking of the Silver Hand; of the flight to Kalimdor, and the Battle of Mount Hyjal. All of these things were a mountain to take in, but none of it hit him like the hammer blow of returning home to Darkshire.
It was there that he discovered his beloved Adranna gone. None knew where she or her daughter had disappeared to, but all knew for certain that the beautiful woman and her fearless daughter had perished in the dangerous times that had befallen his homeland while he was battling for survival in the north.
Consumed by grief, he was found by his and Adranna's childhood friend, Miahala. The shy young girl that he had protected on the long Exodus what felt like lifetimes before had grown into a fair beauty in her own right, studying the arcane just like his wife had. She took it upon herself to care for him in his disheveled state, providing what little home and comfort she and her own daughter could manage. Through her help, Jols found his focus again, vowing to retrain himself and serve the Light as he had never before.
Putting himself back through the hard physical tasks required of a soldier of Stormwind, Jol committed himself to finishing out the term of his commission, this time with the Alliance Armed Forces. His duties took him across the length and breadth of Azeroth and Kalimdor, serving to learn about all that he had missed in his frozen exile. Once his term with the Alliance Armed Forces was completed, Jol fell into step with an Order determiend to restore the lost knowledge of their past - the Order of the White Tower. It was there he made comradeship with many, including the Black Knight Solmandar, the young priestess Aurelie, the shadow-wielding Savriel. Jol also became fast friends with Andiraia Jhenvie, daughter of Ivhrain, whom Jol had trained and served under during the wars.
It was there Jol discovered comradeship with others who had endured loss in the troubling times surrounding the Betrayal and the Fall of Lordaeron, and he was comforted by this. Through it all, Miahala remained by his side, a gentle reminder that not all things were gone. Joining the Order, Jol excelled through their ranks until attaining the privilege of Knight. It was during these trials that Jol and Miahala grew to love each other, and Jol accepted an olden ritual to bond himself to her - a magical bond that allowed the pair to feel and know where the other is throughout the world, and to sense when danger was upon each other. This bond strengthened them both, and the two were wed shortly thereafter in a quite ceremony.
Darrowshire
It was Jol's travels through what is now known as the Plaguelands that the plight of losing his wife and daughter. Traveling through the twisted landscape, he could not help but feel sorrow consume him. While at the Tomb of Uther, paying his respects, he was assaulted by a vision - the sad spirits of Adranna and Tristessa. As he reached out for them, he was attacked by one of the mindless undead, a powerful skeleton. As Jol tried to call upon the Light to exorcise this minion of the Scourge, his power faltered, and he narrowly survived by using the brute strength of his hammer.
The faltering of the Light greatly concerned the Paladin, and he fell into a brooding state, roaming the Plaguelands with grwoing doubt in his own abilities. Memories of the atrocities at Stratholme plagued his dreams, and he sought redemption. As he sought guidance from Brother Harlow in the Cathedral of Light, Jol was approached by the Scarlet Emissary adn taunted with the possibility of Adranna and Tristessa, alive, and safe in the arms of the Crusade. Jol fought off such hopes, his bitter contempt of the Crusade making him doubt the man's claims. With curt words and continued roamings, he resolved to find his redemption on his own.
One small form of it would come to him in reliving the battle for Darrowshire, in which Jol was rallied by his comrades in the Order and helped to turn the corrupted soul of Redpath, freeing some of the souls locked in eternal combat there. As the battle ended, and some of the grief was lifted from his heart, Jol found the graves of his wife and daughter, being carefully tended to by the Forsaken of Brill. As a manner of protecting his family, he consecrated the very ground of their graves, so that they might rest in peace, and never be forced to rise again as the tainted shadows of their former selves.
Part of his heart was healed. But a deeper taint went on uncleansed, forgotten behind the relief of the moment.
House Taborwynn
During a trip to Theramore, Jol received a missive from the Captain Vimes of Theramore, who had somehow been contacted by a citizen of Pyrewood, a stalwart town in the southwestern remnants of Lordaeron. Captain Vimes' missive asked for Jol's assistance in the matter of the threats in the area near what is now called Shadowfang Keep. The strange message referred to Jol as the Lrod of Taborwynn, which puzzled the aging Paladin.
Seeking to understand these curious circumstances, Jol sought the guidance of Brother Harlow, who was able to research ancient texts and discover that generations before, House Taborwynn was a minor noble house of Lordaeron. Confronted with the truth, Jol was torubled by the idea of being an heir to nobility - he had long since wanted absolutely nothing to do with nobles or the political workings of any kingdom.
Brother Harlow outlined the choices before him simply: to follow the path as a Brother of the Light and work to free Azeroth from evil, or to seek personal wealth and lands that would burn with the rest of the world.
Jol's anger of anything so selfish made his mind for him; he stayed to his path in the Light, reluctantly accepting the title descended to him in name only. With it came some relief in status, affording he and Miahala slightly better living arrangements for their apartment in Stormwind.
This minor acceptance of something he felt was not right would only worsen the darkness that haunted him.
The Shield in the Storm
After departing the Order of the White Tower with some sadness, Jol began to roam the fallow field of Lordaeron once more. Perhaps by the grace of the Light, or even conspiring comrades, Jol was forcibly pulled away, called on to assist in bringing down the great Fire lord, Ragnaros. Alongside members of the Wildfire Riders and their allies, Jol earned many more comrades-at-arms and served to keep watcho over their lives as they all burrowed deeper into the heart of Blackrock mountain, to its very core.
But even as they attained victory, the regrets of Jol's past finally bore outwards from the dark recesses they had been hiding in, plaguing his every waking thought. In sudden despair, he made an agreement with Miahala to absolve their marriage. Despite the hurt and anger she felt at his selfishness, she acquiesced, and Jol was allowed to burrow further into himself.
The grief that plagued him resonated from the still-burning city of Stratholme. The innocent blood he had spilt there, the Oath of the Silver Hand that he had brken, had finally grown to be too heavy to bear. He roamed the lands of Azeroth alone, brooding. Comrades, concerned, worked towards bringing him out of this state, consoling him that the deeds he had done were not beyond forgiveness. Jol listened to none of it; it was a journey he had to discover on his own.
The iron, stubborn will that had seen him survive this long made him endure the physical effects of his memories. Returning to his home in Darkshire, which had been untouched since Adranna's fate had taken her, he was surrounding by the memories of his life there. The memories stayed with him, reminding him of allt he good in his life, as he began one final trek northward to the remains of Stratholme. As he traveled, more recent memories of his life with Miahala took over, filling him with strength, though he did not realize it. With this strength he fought off mental attempts by a corrupted warlock to shatter his soul.
Returning to the streets of Stratholme, he came face to face with the deeds he had done. Droppign to his knees for forgiveness, he was soothed by a calm and comforting presence. There, the spirit of Adranna came to him, and showed him that the lives he had ended that day so many years ago did indeed forgive him, for he had spared them of a tormented life. Witnessing the spirits of a mother and her child whom he had killed, they thanked him for letting them die as human beings, and not a malevolent host of the Scourge.
There, his heart healed, and the iron will that had seen him outlast so many enemies became harder. Fighting his way out of Stratholme, he resolved to be the Shield against the coming Storm for any who might so need its protection.
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