Isleen

Category:Alliance
Category:Human
Category:Mage
Category:Herbalist (A)
Category:Tailor (A)
Image:izzy.JPG
Isleen Marcus
==Core Statistics==
Name: Isleen "Izzy" Marcus.
Race: Human.
Class: Mage
Professions: Tailoring and Herbalism
Age: 20 
Affiliations: Sunpath Riders
==Physical Appearance==
Isleen is a woman tempered by long years in orphanages and refugee camps, and has developed an air of utility and quiet confidence as a result. Her light brown hair is cropped short to avoid distraction, and she carries an athletic build. Being relatively short – she stands only five feet and three inches – and easy on the eyes she has often found herself saddled with unwanted attention. As such, she has developed a sharp, acidic tongue and a cool, relaxed demeanor. Her dark eyes are the only outward sign of a woman whose playful and impish behavior is becoming legend amongst her friends. Her most notably feature her accent. Though muddied by time and association away from the snows of her homeland her voice carries the distinct cadence of her Alterac roots.
==Personality==
Impish and crude; friendly and prone to jealousy; rash and passionate; Isleen is a woman whose emotions are governed by extremes. Outwardly, she maintains a jovial warm demeanor even in the worst of times. Quick with a joke and even quicker with a laugh she strives to be everyone’s friend. A generous amount of charisma and her easy smile have allowed her to avoid the close associations that would reveal the emotional turmoil that plagues her life. Though her years as an orphan, and both her desire for intimacy and her innate fear of it, have touched her deeply it is the abuse she suffered at the hands of the Syndicate that have marred Isleen’s personality. She is both prone to seemingly impossible highs and the darkest lows, and yet, for now, she keeps such feelings carefully under wraps.
==Background==
Isleen Marcus was born twenty years ago during the darkest days of the Second War. Her father, Edward Marcus, had joined the Alliance military during the opening days of the conflict and had gone missing upon the battlefields of Khaz Modan. His young wife, Olivia Marcus, did the best she could in managing their bakery in Alterac City and caring for Isleen and her older brother, Timothy. Then the Alliance came. With Lord Aiden Perenolde’s betrayal the forces of Lordaeron ruthlessly sacked the city, slaughtering the populace and burning the every building to the ground. Olivia carried her young children from the ruin and fell in with the stream of refugees fleeing west away from the advancing Horde. In only a few months the young woman, burdened by unsanitary conditions and the constant flight, succumbed to cholera and passed away. Isleen, still an infant, became a ward of the state along with her six year old brother.
She and Timothy were shuffled from orphanage to orphanage before finally landing in a small home just outside of Lordaeron six months after the war finally ended. For the next fifteen years of her life this was home. As a child she was burdened by her parentage and the accent she picked up from learning to speak by listening to her brother. Cries of “traitor” and “filthy Horde lover” were always on the lips of other children. Consequently, she remained extremely close with Timothy, and for much of her young life they were inseparable. The day Timothy came of age and was discharged from the orphanage proved to be the saddest of her life. The young man vowed he would soon return and rescue her, and they would return home. Isleen waited for three years, and then, at fifteen, left to find him herself.
Unskilled, underaged, and unaccustomed to life outside of her small world Isleen turned to begging and petty theft simply to stay alive. Still, slowly, over the course of a few weeks she worked her way back towards Alterac. There she found only the snowy ruins of a life she had never known… and what remained of her people. The Syndicate picked her up only a few days after she left the ruins of the city, and despite her pleas for help in locating her brother locked her in a small room in Strahnbrad. There, over the course of a few weeks, they ravaged the girl repeatedly and nearly beat her to death. In what was the darkest hours of her life another young slave in the next room reached out to her. Derry Radcliff had been taken on the road between Southshore and Hillsbrad when the Syndicate had attack and killed her family, and like Isleen had become nothing more than a plaything to be tormented by their captives. The two spoke only in hushed whispers through a small slit between two of the planks that made up the wall. For the first time in her life Isleen shared everything. The passing along of tales of her life in the orphanage, retelling the stories her brother had told her about their parents, and sharing her hopes for the future gave her hope and fed her will to survive, if only to see Derry in person. And then, that day came. One of her captors foolishly left a knife by Isleen’s side when he turned to dress. Without hesitation she took up the blade and plunged it into his back. From that moment she remembers only the rush of adrenaline and Derry’s hand in hers as they fled south through the woods away from the baying of the hounds the Syndicate set after them. For days they ran until they were exhausted, sleeping only for short stretches, and saying almost nothing. Through it all, Isleen never let go of Derry’s hand.
Eventually, and much to their surprise, they joined with the throng of refugees fleeing westward. The scourging of Lordaeron had begun, and ashes of humanity had begun to trickle towards the relative safety of Khaz Modan and the Arathi Highlands. The two girls blended with the refugees, and eventually landed in a camp in the shadow of Stromgarde. For Isleen, the weeks in that camp proved to be bittersweet. The ache of the previous weeks and the harsh conditions of life in the refugee camp made life difficult, but her relationship with Derry quickly blossomed towards romance. And then it ended. Amongst the refugees were Derry’s aunt and uncle, and they took both of the girls south into the untainted lands of Stormwind, settling eventually in the city proper. Though Isleen would remain with the family for several months the passion between the two girls was never rekindled despite their years of closeness. In the end, Derry’s relatives sponsored Isleen’s entrance into the ranks of Stormwind’s mages, and since completing her training she has taken to the road.