Furtive Father Winter: The Perfect Present

I returned home yesterday after a couple of internet-less days to discover this awaiting me in my inbox.

 

I’ll admit I was a bit stuck when I got your name. Which of your many toons was I going to draw?!  In the end I decided to try and make a night elf harpy holding Benedition since I remember reading somewhere that it was one of your favorite items. I hope you like it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll keep this brief. A massive thanks to Tyledres from Frost and Claws for this amazing Furtive Father Winter gift. You basically nailed it as I love it to bits.

Home Sweet Home

Many moons ago, a Night Elf Priestess walked away from everything she valued, leaving broken friendships and the fragments of her faith behind. Tired from years of conflict, of campaigning against Old Gods and men warped by their desire for revenge, of seeing nothing but blood with only the background changing, blood against molten rock, blood against sand, blood against ice. That Tournament in Icecrown had been the final straw, jousting for position whilst Arthas carried on, his tyranny ignored. Slipping away had been easy, her mostly Human commanders trusted that like her sisters, she would be faithful until the end, her soothing magic blanketing them from danger and her whispered prayers bringing good fortune to the brave. It was easy too, to establish a routine which saw her needing to leave the safety of the camp at night, no one wanted to demonstrate their ignorance and question why Elune needed her Priestesses to climb mountains in the dark to pray.

Years passed and then, stopping one morning at market, she heard word of Theramore. Guilt and anger rose in equal measure, twisting around her heart. Memories of the walled city, fell jumbled and fragmented though her mind. That Human warrior’s fumbling attempts at kissing her in the Inn at Winter Veil, his mouth eager and tasting of hot spiced cider. Where had he been when his city burned? The nervous excitement in the days before the Onxyia campaign and the long nights she’d spent in the Mage Tower, talking to Pained about home. Those  lazy hours lounging on the docks, throwing sticks for Spot. Had the tall Night Elf with her wicked smile and the dog survived or were they nothing but dust on the marsh now?

Those twin blades of guilt and anger sliced through the last strands of her faith, leaving her an empty husk, wandering in self imposed darkness. Pandaria and it’s riches held no interest for her, instead her path took her to the marsh and the boneyard which was all that remained of Theramore. Laying flowers for the dead brought little succor to her soul but whilst shadowmelding to hide from soldiers come to pay their respects, she overheard talk of taking the war to Orgrimmar. Of a campaign to hunt down and drag Garrosh from his lair like the beast he was and the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Coming back wouldn’t be easy, she knew that as she paid a passing Mage for a portal to Stormwind but then, one Priestess of Elune looks a lot like another to the untrained eye and should she be caught out, some prices even if extracted in blood and pain were well worth paying.

Yep, Erinys is back on the Alliance side! I’ve wanted it happen for a while now but couldn’t decide whether I was being sentimental or not. Unfortunately she’s not called Erinys any more but even so it’s good to be a Night Elf again.

Solstice Challenge: Moonlight

I left work early today, tired out by petty squabbles and general whines and whilst sipping my hazelnut latte, I discovered Matty’s Solstice Challenge.

Twenty-One Days, starting today, December 1, of things in Azeroth of Light Screenshots, from now until December 21. This works for both sides of the equator, seeing how we’re getting darker days in the North, the South is getting lighter. The only hitch I will add is you have to add a caption or haiku to your screenshot.

The topic/theme is light, and all its incarnations.

Day 1

Staring at the statue, for a brief moment the Priestess was back to being barely more than a child seated in the old Temple Gardens. “The shrouds of Shadows are velvet soft to the touch, warm and fill the caster’s mind with whispers of false comfort”, their instructor had intoned, “On the other hand, the Light makes no promises, takes no prisoners. Wield her with honesty in your heart or she will burn the darkness from your soul”.

Yep, Erinys in her real Night Elf incarnation is coming back!

Day 2

Even ghostly witches love the moonlight and when the harvest moon rises full and fat, look to the skies.

The Druid inside Me

Hi my name is Erinys and I’m addicted to playing Druids. I didn’t realise quite how bad my problem was until I started taking screenshots for this post but it seems that Druids are one of my go to alt classes. Therefore in chronological order, I’d like to introduce you to my furry, feathered and often squawking friends.

Briarrose senior was my third character to end game and she was born out of guild drama and general stress. I wanted to spend time away from guild chat and what better way to do that than to level a character who wasn’t guilded. Mr Harpy already had two Druids at level 60 by this point (his first two characters) so I had a good understanding of the class and I loved being able to mix it up in pvp. In fact my greatest moment in a battleground was probably the game in which when facing a same server Horde Premade, my little Druid held the Blacksmith against around seven decently geared and decently played Horde through abuse of feral charge, bear healing and sprinting off to heal up out of line of sight and bouncing back moonfiring.

Briarrose the younger was my first ever Tauren and again dates back to “vanilla”. I have to admit I actually miss the original Tauren cat form (because I’m weird like that) and spent ages when they brought in the new colours trying to find a catform I found acceptable for her. Briarrose has been Feral for ever and will probably stay that way even though I’m not hugely taken with any of their catform alternatives.

Tabby only reached level 10 and has spent the rest of her existence on a pretty much dead server. I don’t however have the heart to delete her.

Tansy is a Moonkin and a ganker. Her hayday was in Wrath when she could bring squawk and awe justice from the skies to evil Horde. I think Cataclysm and then MoP pretty much broke her heart because it’s become impossible to slaughter someone as you fall past them with your parachute cloak up. She was also rather fond of Wintergrasp even though the imbalanced population on her server made it “interesting”.

My Troll Druid was made because everyone needs a Troll in their lives. She’s another Boomkin because moonfiring stuff, especially Gnomes and Goblins never gets old.

Teasel is Resto through and through. That’s the way she leveled and whilst she does have dual spec, the second one is also Resto. I have to admit though, had Treeform still existed as a permanent form, she might well have been another Moonkin. I leveled her towards the end of Cataclysm and primarily through PvP and it’s definitely been fun comparing her to my original Druid Briarrose. I miss feral charge as Resto for sure and also I don’t think the damage in cat/bear form scaled at all from where it was back then. Originally you could use cat/bear to kill in PvP saving your mana for healing, even against DPS classes if you did it right. I’d be very surprised if that was possible now.

Finally my baby Worgen Druid, my Harvest Witch, Mentzelia. My plan for her (once she escapes Gilneas which she needs to do before Hallows End) is to level as Feral just because I haven’t done that for so long.

My goals for this week then are to make that final push to free Mentzelia and are to find a proper transmogrification for my little Tauren Briarrose.