Ryudo Pridebreaker

<Work in progress, friiiiiends. Done by a noob at the wiki thang, tis why it be a mess. Drop me pointers if somethin's messed up, would ya kindly?>
<Lore, too. Seriously, nerds. If something's not right, STAB ME. Please. I wanna be legit with this stuff, and I haven't read 100% of all WoWlore. I probably missed something important.>
< I'll elaborate on the story later. TL:DR is a placeholder until I get something better down. >
<Adding a picture later, or three.>
==The Hat, and the Bearcat that wore it==
From birth, Ryudo displayed an affinity for nature. Casual steps across the plains of Mulgore, recently reclaimed with help of the new Orcish allies, were spent learning the properties of peacebloom and silverleaf by trial and error. As a child he had a fascination with growing produce and generally farming said food, while most of his brethren were off hunting rabbits and prairie dogs. On a soft patch of soil behind his living quarters, a garden was maintained for winters and summers at a time, somehow enduring natural damage to spout such outlandish things as okra and wild carrots. Notice of this perked his mother’s interest. It became obvious that her son had her druidic blood in him.
On the twelfth birthday, Ryudo found himself amongst the elves of Moonglade. Long hours of healing damaged critters began, healing carcasses littered about the glade by other druids that had slain the helpless to assist the new blood. As rabbits, fawns, and eventually fully-grown bears sprung back to life at his fingertips, a silent satisfaction for the job crossed the tauren’s muzzle. He found his calling as a healer.
Eventually he met his future mate during this training process, flinging wrath bolts at target dummies with graceful craftsmanship. The heart tends to sing when a perfect match is made, and as such it did for the two cows without much question. Meals shared, company closely kept, the two were acting mated long before the ritual was even thought about. When that day finally came, they’d both earned their bear forms together… but that’s an embarrassing story for another time.
Leaving the sanctuary of Moonglade and Mulgore after turning seventeen and eighteen, the call went out for useful bodies to fight the Burning Legion beyond the newly opened Dark Portal. Ryudo volunteered, the front lines needing healers, and with a heavy heart asked his mate to stay behind in Azeroth, to heal the wounds of Felwood. Such was safer. He promised to return by the month to check up on her and talk of raising a family.
Over the next year, Ryudo was forced to adapt to the high climate of Hellfire Peninsula. His spells booned with precision as better made materials were found beyond the void, and quickly he became one of the stronger healers on the Horde side of the conflict. Days and nights of raids on forge camps built him up by force, Hako noticing her life-partner’s muscle mass growing every visit, and thusly swooning over it as a proper girl should.
On one fateful trip to the fortresses held by fel orcs in the Shadowmoon Valley, Ryudo made a friend. Her name was Natalya, a green colored netherdrake, imprisoned by the savage felblood, but soon released by the healing druid. With care, he learned to fly upon the dragon’s back, instead of adopting the form of a brown bird with horns, and thusly he made a rank in the Shattari Skyguard, to quell the black dragonflight of the Blade’s Edge Mountains. Airborne assaults in packs began to drive them back.
Another assignment presented itself, however. Ryudo was tasked to clean out the tower of Mediev, as well as a full platoon of Horde and Alliance soldiers. Taking the title of Violet-Assist, he left Natalya in the care of the Skyguard, venturing into the tower of magic for a two-week campaign.
This is where the hat was found. A purple-colored thing that somehow struck him as perfect in size, shape, and comfort. He wore the tacky thing into battle at every push, yet somehow managed to stay durable. The leather-bound item of clothing had powerful magic in it, some of it untapped to this day.
At the end of the investigation, however, bad news reached the tauren. His companion in Outland had been lost, carelessly stolen by a rookie rider that wanted to prove himself. Scouring the mountains for days, he finally found his dragon, a hand held to the Netherdrake’s helm as life began to pass away. This was something, oddly, Ryudo had never dealt with before. A silent rage overtook him. Every healing spell in the book was fired into the corpse of his drake, trees manifesting from pure rock at the magical backlash. Eyes began to bleed, fingers shook, until mana was totally drained, but somehow he maintained his focus. Drawing from his very soul he capped the dragon’s health and fell in a lifeless pile, unable to comprehend the death of his best friend, and why he couldn’t do anything about it.
But she hadn’t died at all.
Scraping up the cow in her talons, Natalya returned him to Moonglade, and stayed a month or two to see his tattered body show signs of life once more. Badly injured and scarred, however, Ryudo maintained a dreamstate. One year would be spent in a coma, resting in a silent secret corner of Moonglade, while the armies of Azeroth began to knock on Illidan’s doorstep.
His dragon returned to Outland, quietly retiring until the tauren returned.
---
A year later, the male awoke with a start. His healing ability had been scarred so badly by the incident that simple incantations gave chest pains and headaches. Plus, his hat was missing.
So began Ryudo’s re-training, this time as a feral, after finding a temporary hat replacement. Size and shape was the same, but the color... it worked for now, at least. With a skinning knife in one hand he began to study the anatomy of all things, pulling apart his fresh kills to discover how living creatures were built, where to strike, what was vital. He kept himself a secret as long as possible from his mate, knowing her reaction to hearing what had happened to him would be of worry and fear.
And so began the second life of Ryudo Pridebreaker.
Updates:
Hakoge and Ryudo met after a solid two years. The injury was played off as less severe than actually incurred, but obviously the male was still recovering, despite claiming to be out of service so long ago. It is a story that Ryudo refuses to tell anyone. Perhaps Natalya, once found, will shed some light.
TL:DR
Ryudo has "leveled to seventy" twice.
The first time was as a caster/healer sort. Owltree? Something like that. His netherdrake Natalya was injured in a rather extreme air encounter with black dragonflight. In order to heal her, he had to push himself a -bit- too hard, sending him into a dreamstate/coma for about a year. When he snapped out of it, he woke up to see "lol Arthas is attacking Orgrimmar" written in the papers, so to speak... and thusly he began to work out the kinks, get back in shape, this time specializing as a feral. Just for a change of pace. Hopefully in time to get some fight in in Northrend, before all the undead were gone and dead. Well, moreso. Considering.
The hat's just a piece of equipment he can't seem to replace. It looks too good on him. The model is based upon the http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25680, the ultimate druid tanking helm of BC.
==Pridebreaker Family History==
<Backstory yadda-blah>
TL:DR Ryudo's daddy was awesome and beat up this snot-nosed centaur thing that was a jerk to everyone. The orcs thought it was awesome, gave him the name Pridebreaker, which he adopted over his clan title of "GRIMTOTEM" because the Grimtotems are shifty as heck and racist dirtbags, and didn't really like Ryudo's daddy anyway. Thus was born the Pridebreaker Clan, but it's more like a family due to the very small number of members. As of now, the membership is a tad exclusive, the son, the dad, the wife, and the mom, but it's possible that the clan might expand in the future... if Ryudo's mun gets the Guild Leader bug. Horde Mafia? Maybe. Stay tuned. 8D
Category:Horde
Category:Horde Druid
Category:Tauren