Judeann Auroran

Judeann "Jude" Aminestria Auroran is a noble daughter of Lordaeron and Dalaran, a Magister-at-large of the Kirin Tor and has been the Chancellor of the Retribution of Arathor for the past eighteen months. She is the second child and oldest daughter of Earl Samuel Auroran of Lordaeron and the daughter of Marquis Greymantle, the Lady Mina. In the year of the re-opening of the Dark Portal, she married Garmir Mjolnir, a Khymerian warrior from the North.
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=Physical Description=
*Garments/Armor: Jude prefers sturdy boots and well-made but practical clothing. Much of her armor is custom-made or altered. She always wears a simple diamond and truesilver engagement ring and a knotwork truesilver wedding band on her left ring finger. On her left thumb she wears a flattened, stylized signet of the Kirin Tor, on her right ring finger she wears a signet ring bearing the seal of House Auroran, on her right pinkie she wears a signet of Theramore Isle.
*Other: Jude has a nose piercing which mars an otherwise classically aristocratic appearance. Her ears are slightly pointed, her loose red hair only occassionally obscuring the view of them. Her movements are graceful, but economical--she carries herself as both noblewoman and soldier all at once.
=Personality=
To those who know her little or not at all, Jude often appears formal and aloof, stern and commanding. While these are aspects of her personality, they are far from her true face--indeed, this is the mask of steel she wears to hide the warmth within. She is a passionate, willful creature, with a cold temper. Her hand is gentle to those who need comfort but like iron to those who cross her. She often appears to be quite serious, her laughter often buried by duty and responsibility.
=History=
==Birth and early life==
Jude's older brother, Tanitharil, was nearly five when his younger sister was born in the waning months of winter at the Auroran family holdings on the shores of the Lordamere. She displayed some of the traits passed down from her Quel'dorei grandmother, though perhaps most strongly her ability to work magic, though this wouldn't become apparent right away. She was a healthy, happy child who adored her big brother and enjoyed the company of extended family whenever she would visit Dalaran, where her mother, a Magister of the Kirin Tor, kept a home.
Her talent for magecraft was identified when she was about four years old and accidentally froze a houseplant to a wall, preventing it from falling on her older brother. Her training as a mage began the next year, though mostly at the knee of her mother in those early years.
==Friends for life==
When Jude was seven, an apprentice of her mother's came to live and travel with the Auroran family. The girl was from a merchant-class family in the capital, trade contacts of Samuel, who recognized the young girl's talent and brought her to the attention of his mother-in-law. The girl was Quin Adama, and it was her destiny to be one of Jude's closest and dearest friends. They would train together under Mina Greymantle Auroran until Jude's fifteenth year.
Growing up together, along with Tanitharil and later the youngest Auroran child, Karinlyyn, Jude and Quin fell in with a cadre of other children around their own age. Some, such as Joshua Merovingae, were of noble birth and viewed as potential marriage partners for the young Jude, who was, of course, oblivious to this until she was much older. Others, such as Xaqriel McCullouch and Mallory Adare, were boon companions of less auspicious birth.
Jude took the departure of her brother for Northshire Abbey when she was eight years old hard--he would be gone for four long years, almost a lifetime for a young girl close to her brother. The substitute of their playmates--especially Joshua, who was training to be a soldier, a knight, in Lordaeron--helped her get through her brother's absence. By the time of Tanith's return from Northshire, Joshua and Jude had been promised to each other. She was twelve years old at the time. Their marriage would take place when she reached seventeen and he, twenty.
==Dark clouds over Lordaeron==
Whispers and rumors reached the Auroran family regarding the strange plague afflicting men and women in the north of Lordaeron shortly before they reached the ears of King Terenas Menethil II himself. By this time, Jude was already preparing to be apprenticed to another mage of the Kirin Tor, Magister Edward Finucane, an elder, seasoned battlemagus whose skills were more a match for Jude's own burgeoning abilities. As rumors grew darker, more ominous, the elder Aurorans began to make preparations to send their offspring to the supposed safety of Dalaran.
Jude and her new mentor did not linger long in Dalaran, however, even as matters grew more dire in Lordaeron. They headed south, to the outpost at Nethergarde Keep, where Jude would hone her combat skills against the things that infested the Blasted Lands and the remnant of the Black Morass to the north. She would not see her family again until they were safely settled at Theramore Isle in the wake of the Third War. She would spend a year with them there after the near-death of Tanitharil at the Battle of Mount Hyjal before returning to Nethergarde and her training.
==Nethergarde==
Jude acquitted herself well while serving at Nethergarde Keep, her skill growing quickly. When not practicing, reading, or studying, she stole moments with her fiancee, Joshua, as the date of their marriage rapidly approached. The pair grew closer and closer during her time at Nethergarde and his time leading patrols along the caravan trails between Nethergarde and the more civilized areas to the northwest.
Their happiness, however, was not to last. One autumn afternoon, a caravan Joshua was protecting was fallen upon by raiders within sight of Nethergarde's walls. Jude and a number of the soldiers and mages stationed at the Keep rushed to the caravan's aid, but it was too late to save most of the members of the caravan. Joshua was amongst the dead. Jude herself oversaw his dressing and burial in the red earth of the Blasted Lands. She never dreamed that Joshua's sister, Xaral, would blame her for his death.
Shortly after her fiancee's death, Jude was walking the walls one night to see a ragged figure stumbling from the direction of the sealed Dark Portal. It was a kaldorei female, one who collapsed just before the gate. The young mage raised the alarm and the elf was brought into the Keep. Three days later, the woman disappeared after a sighting of a green dragon with red markings on its flanks and wings. Jude never learned the woman's name, but she would never forget the first time she saw a dragon in the flesh.
Three weeks later, she left Nethergarde. She wouldn't return for nearly a year.
==Magus and Marriage==
Jude traveled to Stormwind to seek a way to escape the painful memory of her fiancee's death. She found purpose within a few scant weeks of arrival, joining a knightly order known as the Crusaders of Peace as an initiate. Her work with the Crusaders would distract her from her pain for long enough that it slowly began to fade. It was as a part of the Crusaders that she met a rugged, barbaric warrior from the North, Garmir Mjolnir. Her protective older brother, who likewise joined the Crusaders--mostly to keep an eye on her--took an instant dislike to him, though he was quickly distracted. Xaral Merovingae had decided the time for her vengeance upon Jude Auroran was at hand.
Jude would never quite know how much Xaral hated her, blamed her for Joshua's death. The hatred and the ire would eventually fade as Xaral unintentionally fell in love with Tanitharil, whom she had seduced and married in an effort to get closer to Jude.
Even as Xaral plotted against Jude, Jude was falling in love with Garmir. They married several months after the Dark Portal opened again. Several months later, they left the Crusaders together. Shortly therafter, Jude was named a Magister-at-large of the Kirin Tor, a great honor, given her youth at the time.
Jude and Garmir traveled Outland for a time before Jude finally returned to Theramore and her family--if only to answer a summons from Alliance Command. Tales of her skill as a battlemagus, namely her ability with both blade and spell, had brought her to the attention of the Alliance, which sought to place her as one of their agents within an organization known as the Retribution of Arathor. It would be a fateful assignment.
==Early days with the Retribution==
Jude was, in part, assigned to the Retribution to keep an eye on several mages in the order and in part to keep an eye on the organization as a whole. Her role as watcher, however, quickly eroded as she came to care deeply for many of the men and women she served with.
When the Retribution was placed under ban by a cadre of nobles from Stormwind, Jude hastily made arrangements for members of the organization to take refuge in Theramore, at her family's home at the outpost, for as long as the ban lasted. This was no small risk for her to take, not only for herself, but for her family, which had grown to include her newborn daughter and nephew. The ban, mercifully, did not last long, but it took its toll on the organization and especially the leader at the time, Shirath Steelweaver. The Kaldorei made the decision to resign, naming her successor: Maradis Rosetree, a paladin--to whom Jude had become a trusted friend and confidant.
==Leading the Retribution==
Maradis recruited Jude to be her second-in-command of the Retribution almost immediately, but circumstances led to Jude acting as the commander of the Retribution very soon afterwards. The paladin was wrapped up in intrigues and an unexpected pregnancy and after less than six months stepped down from her post in favor of her magely second. Those few months, however, were long enough to spark a dangerous animousity between Jude and another of Maradis' advisors, Rhune Astherion. Jude had watched as Astherion worked hard to undermine Maradis during her tenure as Chancellor and prior to taking command of the Retribuion, she made it clear that she would not stand for such things under her command. Astherion, in turn, stepped down with Maradis.
Jude was in command of the Retribution in all but name during the modified plague crisis a few months before the concerted push toward Northrend's shores. She helped coordinate the forces that struggled to hold the gates of Stormwind against the influx of unexpected rogue undead and worked to gather enough samples of the plague and the blood of those seemingly immune to it so the Retribution's alchemists, Mourne Brackenglade spearheading the effort, could manufacture a vaccine.
She led the Retribution to Northrend when the ships began to sail northward, setting up her headquarters first at Valiance Keep and later in Icecrown itself. She oversaw the rechartering of the organization, freeing it further from the commands of the difficult Varian Wrynn, who had sought in the past to command the Retribution through pressure exerted by various agents within the organization. The past year has been difficult for the chancellor of the Retribution, who has watched countless friends and comrades fall in the months since the assault began on Icecrown Citadel in earnest. She was called upon to lead the burn brigades beneath the Citadel--those men and women, volunteers all, who see to the safe disposal of the dead, burning them to consecrated ashes so none arise to join the Lich King's army of undead Scourge--this in addition to her regular duties as commander of the Retribution.
Currently, she is assisting with the oversight of the withdrawl of Alliance and Argent Crusade forces from Icecrown.
=Personal life=
Jude is very happily married to Garmir Mjolnir. The pair have one child, a daughter, Riana. They keep a home in Darnassus and rooms at her family's holding in Theramore, though Jude spends little time these days at either place, often camping with the Retribution, staying at a pavilion errected for her at the tournament grounds in Icecrown, or staying at her family's apartments in Dalaran.
Within the past eighteen months, Jude has been reunited with several of her close friends from her childhood, including her closest friend and surrogate older sister, Quin. She has also suffered losses, however, including the death of her sister-in-law, Xaral, and her mentor, Finucane.
She has come to regard the Retribution as her extended family and takes their lives and safety quite seriously.
Category:Human
Category:Retribution of Arathor
Category:Kirin Tor
Category:Mage
Category:Alliance