Ursala (Archive)

Ursala is an orc shaman. She the young Chieftain of Dagger and Totem. She specialises as a medic and makes sure not to rely on her magic - bandages and potions are just as likely to be used on a casualty as Earth and Water. She is classed as a shaman nontheless.
She lives in a coastal cave in Durotar, although she regularly spends time in the Sun Rock Retreat inn or Clan Watch in Nagrand. She lives with her son Garmak, her mate Gulgrim, her two wolves and her wyvern.
== Name ==
Ursala Earthwielder.
She regularly introduces herself as either "Earthwielder" or "Chieftain Earthwielder". She considers her first name, Ursala, a name that should be used by her friends only. This is because she was called "Ursala" by her mother in irony - the name means "Bear" in Shattered Hand dialect, whereas Ursala was skinny and sickly when she was young.
Her deed name, Earthwielder, was granted to her by Harg Mountainborn and confirmed by Gremkarc of Orgrimmar on the 29th of December 2009. She considers it a surname that she ought to grow with and into, as opposed to one granted in respect or rememberance of any particular deed.
Her name has not changed as a result of her union with Gulgrim.
== Physical Traits ==
===Evident===
For extended version, see here.
Ursala is runtish, although she has also obviously been training to combat this. Enough to let her pass as normal at first glance, even - but if you know what you're looking for, you can still see it. Her face is still narrow and gaunt, her chest still flat, and her hips still slight. Her armour is purposefully fitted and weight-reduced for her use - it would have cost money to buy and more money to upkeep properly.
The dark hair on her head is cut short, but messy and, in places, braided through with dried grass or stone beads. Her nose looks like it's been broken at least twice, possibly more times. Her eyes are usually mistaken for dark brown. Her tusks are short, but sharp, as are the rest of her teeth - those that aren't missing, of course.
She wears a leather sash over her left shoulder at all times; it has many pockets along its length, as well as several phials of varying substances. It also supports a totem-relic and a shining red medal with the symbol of Dagger and Totem on it. On her belt are larger pouches full of things, as well as her sheathed weapon (usually a well-cared-for axe that looks too large for her, but a normal size to any other orc).
There is a deep scar down her left cheek, and another down the right side of her forehead. Similar gashes mark her right leg and left arm, and there is a deep welt taken out of her left forearm. Less prominently, in places on her neck and chin, her skin is discoloured by burn-scars that might form shapes if one were to squint. There are other scars as well, but they are hidden by clothes or, more often, armour. Her five piercings are each engraved, but with what is unclear.
Despite her skin being a greenish-yellow, she speaks with a Garadar accent, which varies in strength. This accent is similar to, and could be mistaken for, a Frostwolf one.
She smells of compost; her hair smells strongly of woodsmoke. When she speaks, her voice is quiet and sandy, but deliberate and determined. When she raises her voice, it takes on a tone like granite.
===Non-evident===
See here.
== Race and Class ==
Highly proficient Orc Shaman. The majority of her expertise lies in healing and restoration, although she has a good amount of training as a skirmisher. She is proficient with the use of twin axes, but prefers to use an axe and a shield.
Cerk'an Stormreaver was her formal mentor. Gremkarc of Orgrimmar used to tutor her as well.
Harg Mountainborn also played a part in teaching her, although perhaps not voluntarily or consciously. The Clan she is in was good for her learning, as there were many there who could teach her when Cerk and Harg were not available - including Gulgrim and Dishka.
Tutored Rinraja for a time, before his expertise outgrew her ability to teach.
Ryzarhn taught her to use weapons. Takan continued her training. Hrishna is teaching her use of two-handed axes.
Initially finished her training in August 2010. Took it up again in December 2010 and still has ongoing training in weapon skills.
===Fighting style===
Ursala is a medic; there is no doubting this. However, she can defend herself for long enough to somebody else to come to her aid.
She's a good healer, but only once the heat and urgency of combat is gone. During combat, she will panic and ask for Water - she is able to call riptides and rainstorms, the Element doing most of her job for her once incited. She is vastly more skilled at healing via first-aid once the combat is over. Earth is her favoured element to heal with then - slow but careful, painful but effective. She also carries sufficient supplies of potions of all kinds, bandages and splints, as well as a non-serrated knife for cauterisation and a stitching kit for particularly large rends.
A typical broken lower leg, for example - clean break, bone not breaking the skin - will be anaesthetised (or the patient gagged if they so prefer), set by hand, healed with Earth, splinted and bandaged, then the patient administered a healing potion (for immediate effect) and a rejuvination potion (for slower healing over several hours).
Her offensive abilities primarily involve putting her axes into the enemy's face as many times as she can in the shortest amount of time possible, whilst dodging or redirecting their attacks. Surprisingly, it is Air who most helps her to stay safe during combat, aiding her in redirecting others' attacks - she rarely meets an offence head-on, preferring to deflect attacks off her shield, duck and roll under them, or simply redirect their force away from herself. However, she does use all four Elements to aid her - Earth lends strength to her blows, while Water patches over any injuries she may receive and Fire supplies her with energy to fight with that she might not otherwise be able to find.
Ursala has been known to summon Earth elementals in times of great need, and has unleashed a controlled bloodlust within her allies before (multiple times during the Elemental Invasions of Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff).
Her armour is designed for a shaman and made to fit her. She tries to be mobile on the battlefield, taking the form of a wolf where wanted, and making an astral shift into the plane of invisibility if needed. However, she can't run for long when not in her ghost wolf form. She has been known to collapse from exhaustion during or shortly after combat.
She is proficient with one-handed axes, staves, and shields (of which one-handed axe and shield is her favoured, and most used, combination - followed closely by twin axes). She can use maces and daggers with some competence. She can sometimes get a hit with a fist weapon - it helps if the Elements are guiding the strike. Gaining any skill whatsoever with two-handed axes eternally eludes her, although she is trying.
== Guild ==
Dagger and Totem.
Ursala has remained loyal to the Clan after the Shattering. She has always seen it as home, and her clanmates as her family; when Gremkarc had his pup and subsequently abandoned the Clan, Ursala was chosen by clanmates as its leader. She does her best to serve her Clan, although she faces some challenges - as well as her runtish birthstate affording her little respect outside of Dagger and Totem itself, her youth sometimes counts against her, as she can be hot-headed and reckless during diplomatic meetings with other organisations of the Horde.
She is, however, aware of her shortcomings; she has chosen a team of advisors to help her lead the Clan despite them. This officer team consists of Sabik and Julian Delanor, and Elder Harg Mountainborn. Between them, they make up for her relative naïveté and youth compared to other Chieftains and organisation leaders.
She considered herself as owing a life-debt to Oshu Kazil after they rescued her from Dustwallow Marsh immediately after the Shattering - this debt was repayed when she lead a rescue mission to save their leader, Ryzarhn, from execution at the hands of the Alliance.
She also considers herself as having an alleigance to Takan's clan, the Wolf Tooth Scar clan, as she knows half her blood - the half which did not formally disown her - comes from there.
Formerly of Euthanatoi.
== Occupation ==
Currently works two part-time, shift-based jobs. One is as an infirmary medic in the Orgrimmar infirmary, where she typically works seven shifts a week; the other is as a part-time Orgrimmar grunt, where she typically works five shifts a week. She will sometimes take extra shifts in order to gain more money; over half of her income ends up in the Dagger and Totem vaults, with the rest going to her own ends.
She also works on Dagger and Totem's missions - the Clan works alongside such organisations as the Earthen Ring, the Cenarion Circle and the Argent Dawn to rid the world of evil. Although that is its own reward for the likes of the Clan, some cash to help pay for expenses always helps; they have deals with all three organisations that mean Dagger and Totem can earn quite a lot of money for itself if it regularly takes on missions from them. Ursala receives a small portion of this as wages.
When she finds herself otherwise unable to gain money, she trades potions and remedies for meat and drink. Occasionally finds that her own less pacifistic goals coincide with those of others. As a microcosm of how Dagger and Totem earns money as a whole, she is not above accepting rewards that they might offer.
Receives a small but steady income from the sale of Dreamless Sleep Potions. She is reknowned among the alchemists of Orgrimmar for specialising in the creation of sedatives such as those.
Used to receive a reasonably lucrative income from performing transmutes - or, as she put it, "making shiny rocks a little more shiny". She found herself to be somewhat clueless on the reason for the greater values of gems such as, for example, King's Amber over gems such as Autumn's Glow, but did not question the numbers that people were willing to pay for such.
She eventually converted a significant amount of the profit from this gem trade into a custom-fitted suit of armour from the armoursmiths in Dalaran. Luckily, this meant that not too much money of hers was lost in the destruction of Orgrimmar in late 2010.
== Family ==
Ursala finds a mate in Gulgrim. Their union was officially blessed by their then-Chieftain on the 5th June 2010. The two of them do not currently plan for pregnancy, but they have an adoptive son.
Ruharg adopted Ursala as his granddaughter after the death of his son, Hakoro, during the Wolfbrother Defensive.
Before the internment began, Ursala's mother was a Shattered Hand agent and her father was a warrior of some description. The mother was pregnant when she was captured. Ursala was born into internment. Perhaps as a result, she was never very close to her parents. Other carers could provide the attentions that the growing orc needed. The family unit of three was kept together nontheless until the child (that is, Ursala) turned five - the father was subsequently moved to a different camp.
The mother had the blades removed from her hand whilst she was captured, leaving her dexterity significantly crippled. She stayed with Ursala until the orcs were released from internment, when the two of them were separated in the confusion; Ursala was subsequently grouped together with the other orphans, regardless of the fact that she technically wasn't one. There were more important things to focus on.
Ursala was never strongly attatched to either parent. Her memories of them are, therefore, sporadic at best (especially of her father, given all her memories of him are from when she was so young). It is debatable as to whether she would recognise them, were she to meet one or both of them again; assuming, of course, that they are still alive.
Ursala came to know Elder Gralg Stoneweaver as her grandfather. Ursala's father was Stoneweaver's son. Stoneweaver also had a daughter - Takan's mother - making Takan Ursala's cousin.
As a result of her speaking with Stoneweaver after his death, she has now found her mother. She knows her name, but not her whereabouts. She has opted not to search for her father.
Ursala is not aware of whether she has siblings, either alive or dead. She uses the terms "brother" and "sister" as terms of endearment for clanmates.
==Companions==
===Dogtooth===
Ursala's brown wolf mount is named Dogtooth. He is partial to plainstrider meat, and sees himself as an equal to Ursala. This can lead to his occasional disobedience - although this occurs less now that Watrus helped to train him further. Dogtooth is skittish around battle, but good for long-distance running.
He is a relatively young wolf, only a year old or so when Ursala first obtained him in the spring of 2010. His youth contributes both to his cowardice and energy; when not travelling, he can grow quickly restless. This means that Ursala will occasionally ask her mate Gulgrim to take him for a run as a favour; sometimes, Garmak can come with him as a treat.
===Fangsong===
Ursala acquired a new wolf by the name of Fangsong during the elemental invasions of Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff. Fangsong's previous owner was killed during the battles for Orgrimmar, and Fangsong was taken on by Ursala so as to avoid the otherwise necessary nastiness of exposing Dogtooth to the dangerous battles.
Fangsong's overall stamina isn't great, but she's nigh-impossible to spook and she's very fast over short distances. She likes to eat pork and is quite a dominant wolf, although she understands her place with relation to the Orcs. She's a year or so older than Dogtooth. When not in battle, she enjoys sleeping and will often laze about in the shade on particularly warm days.
===Lunch===
Ursala takes care of a wyvern named Lunch. He hatched on 31st May 2010. He is named such as the egg was taken from its nest by Gulgrim with his intent to eat it for his lunch; when it hatched, the name stuck. Watrus and Kruss helped advise her on his upbringing.
Lunch was captured by the Twilight's Hammer along with the rest of Dagger and Totem's wyverns, but was rescued along with them, as well.
Like most wyverns trained as windriders, Lunch can understand most Orcish words. He can now carry Ursala in flight; although both she and he have a lot to learn about flying, he now has little trouble carrying an armoured rider whilst also wearing protective armour of his own. He can even take two riders at once, although this slows his speed significantly.
== Background ==
* Born on the 6th of August into internment.
* Separated from her father at 5 winters.
* Separated from her mother at the Horde's exodus to Kalimdor.
* Recognised as having shamanic potential.
* Came of age.
* Served in Durotar Valley as a medic.
* Joined Euthanatoi.
* Left Euthanatoi.
* Joined Dagger and Totem.
* Served in the Barrens as a mercenary.
* Served in the Stonetalon Mountains as a shaman.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Winterspring as a medic.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Azshara as a medic. Earned her surname (Earthwielder).
* Served under Dagger and Totem to create cures for Isiliosis.
* Journeyed alone to the Wetlands.
* Served under Dagger and Totem on the Orgrimmar streets as a guard and medic.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Silverpine Forest as a shaman.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Dragonblight as a medic.
* Had her union with Gulgrim blessed.
* Journeyed alone to Winterspring.
* Joined the Rolling Hills Coalition under Dagger and Totem.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Azshara as a medic.
* Served in Nagrand as a shaman.
* Received jungle combat training under the Rolling Hills coalition in Stranglethorn Vale.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Azshara as a medic. Sustained trauma and was sent home.
* Returned to Azshara under Dagger and Totem. Helped defeat a Naga Siren.
* Assisted in the capture of Ishild.
* Joined the Council of the Storm.
* Ended training.
* Assisted in diplomatic negotiations between Dagger and Totem and Agrammar.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Silithus.
* Involved as a medic in an incident in Azshara, involving Infestia, that left Ryzarhn paralysed.
* Captured by Twilight's Hammer cultists. As a consequence, left the Council of the Storm.
* Word is spread among Dagger and Totem that she is now a cultist.
* Successfully escaped the Twilight's Hammer cult.
* Fled to Garadar, Nagrand. Escorted by Gulgrim and Watrus. Was attacked once by Twilights on her way.
* Remained in Garadar. Helped to train Lunch as well as volunteering to the Earthen Ring and the local community.
* Escorted Harg Mountainborn to Netherstorm for a personal errand. Returned to Garadar intermittently.
* Returned to Azeroth to help defend Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff during the elemental invasions. In the process, rumours that she was a Cultist were dispelled.
* Disappeared after an attack by Night Elves on the Barrens.
* Returned from her disappearance in Dustwallow Marsh with the help of Oshu Kazil.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in Thousand Needles.
* Served under the Earthen Ring in Deepholm.
* Served in Garadar as a shaman.
* Began a search for her mother.
* Returned to Nagrand. Began staying in Clan Watch.
* Missed the Thunder Axe War due to injury.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in the Siege of Tranquillien. Resurrected Gremkarc of Orgrimmar after he was shot in the head.
* Served in the Arathi Advance as a general medic.
* Served under Dagger and Totem in the Wolfbrother Defensive as an infirmary medic.
* Became Chieftain of Dagger and Totem, by election.
* Challenged Throk Sourheart to a mak'gora under Thrall's rules. This was to stop him from continually calling her a runt. As he killed her, he forfeitted, meaning she technically won - but the result remained controvertial.
* Was adopted by Ruharg as his granddaughter.
* Adopted Garmak as her son.
For a more in-depth version of Ursala's background, including a timescale, see Ursala Earthwielder: Background.
== Criminal Record ==
Once accidentally gave a blood elf some bloodthistle. Nobody held it against her, though - it was an honest mistake, although the blood elf did have to go into mana detox for a couple of days.
Although not officially listed, she has been reprimanded a few times for refusing to follow orders as given, or at all.
Records of her being captured by Twilights were erased with the burning of Orgrimmar.
Defected from the Horde along with her Clan in the run-up to the discovery of Pandaria; in the process, had the records of her Clan erased from Grommash Hold. However if theirn defection were to be discovered, theys would be considered traitors.
== Personal Notes ==
Played by P-3a, who also plays Kall.
===Links===
For trivia, extended information on personality and attributes, TV Tropes and quiz scores (including alignment), visit Ursala Earthwielder: Trivia.
For background pre-in game creation, visit Ursala: Interesting Times.
For background post-in game creation, visit Ursala Earthwielder: Background.
A list of stories involving Ursala is as follows:
* Ursala: Interesting Times
* Ursala's Notes
* Ursala Earthwielder: Background
* Ursala's Fiction
* Yemoya and the Earthwielder
* Earthwielder: The Wetlands
* Letter to Chieftain - 8th Jan '10
* The Orc and the Swamp (continued)
* Letters from the Wetlands
* Earthwielder: Time to Run
* Earthwielder: Nagrand
* Letters from Duskbreaker
* Earthwielder: Nightfall
* Stalemate
* Shattering the Sunset
* Earthwielder: Dustwallow
* Earthwielder: Heritage
* Letter to Gremkarc - 31st Jan '11
* Letter to Gulgrim - 2nd Feb '11