Varen Rhyder

> "I don't want to be another priestess or mother. I want to be the mountains, strong, breathtaking and majestic. I want to live my life far from these Highlands, and see the very heartlands of the Dwarves and the deserts of the Orcs. And I want everyone to remember my name when I have left them. I want to be somebody."
>
> --Varen Rhyder speaking to her father

## Varen Rhyder

### Relatives

Sylas Rhyder(Father, Deceased)Ragina Rhyder(Mother, Deceased)

Kylie Rhyder(Sister, Deceased)

### Affiliation

The Valorcall Company, The Defias Brotherhood(Formerly), The Redridge Runners(Formerly)

## Physical description

### Eye color

Red-Brown

**Varen Rhyder** is a Human Female from the Kingdom of Stromgarde in the Arathi Highlands. A skilled warrior, and a cunning tactician, she is an ambitious woman with eyes set to history books, dreaming one day to be placed inside of one as a legend.

Known formerly as a prominent bandit raid leader for some time, she was an enforcer for the Defias Brotherhood for nearly five years and a small-time gang known as the Redridge Runners for two. Terrorizing Elwynn Forest she was known among bandits for her uncanny ability to lead ambushes, fleeting would describe them, swiftly began and swiftly ended. She was also known to issue duel challenges to survivors in exchange for their life, those that accepted the challenge were allowed acceptance into the gang or allowed to leave with their life. Many a cup of ale has been toasted in her honor, many a sword has been raised at her call, all in the name of greed and envy.

However, if the rumors are true, Varen Rhyder has since attempted to leave that life behind. None within either the Defias Brotherhood or the Redridge Runners has seen her in nearly two years.

## History

### Farmlands

Mid-day, the hot sun beating down on a man stood in the middle of his field in the Arathi Highlands, with a hoe firmly in his hand did he toil in a tired dedication. Weeds had taken to his farmland and he was determined to remove them. He stood and stretched his back, his hands placed upon its lower half. Screams could be heard from the barn, Sylas in a sudden rush of energy raced towards a woman's labored cries. In the barn did he find his wife resting against hay, her stomach bulged and swollen with pregnancy. Rushing to her side, he knew she had gone into labor. He went for his horse and immediately rode out for the church, the priestesses capable. In his absence did she give birth to their firstborn, Varen Rhyder, and in his presence would she grow on their farm.

Spending the majority of her young life a farmhand, capable and strong was the young Varen, fiery and passionate her father kept a strong hand to her emotions and rebellious tendencies. Time spent in the dirt, and raising crops, she shared her closest moments with her father after days work. She built the farm with him and spent fifteen years ensuring its success. Rewarded with a horse on her fourteenth birthday, her father moved away from food farming to horse farming and began to breed Highland Stallions.

Growing resentful of her father, Varen's rebellious nature only worsened as she grew older, she desired to explore and see the world. She wished to flee their farm and live out the rest of her life as an adventurer. On her seventeenth birthday, she abandoned the farmlands and made her way to Stromgarde to enlist in the military with nothing but her clothes, some food and her horse.

### Gallantry of Soldiers

Arriving in Stromgarde, Varen enlisted as soon as she could. Accepted, and carted off to training, Varen was placed under the command of Kyle Derk, a veteran Captain. She was torn down, built back up, and trained. From fumbling with her blade to performing a capable strike, she made for a mediocre warrior among the trained soldiers of Stromgarde. Three years had flashed before her eyes, the training field, the barracks and a ragged cot were but the few things she knew of. Times oft passed her mind thinking of her father and their farm, feelings of regret stolen away by the Captain's yelling in training, feelings of inhibition cut through during regular sparring matches, and an intense desire for home inescapable.

Twenty years of age was she recognized as a true soldier of Stromgarde, and deployed to the Highlands with her regiment.

## Characteristics

> "We had lined up the prisoners, mostly women and children. She ordered the women and children away, and told the men to stand. They were farmers and merchants, but she offered them each a sword. She told them to pick it up and to face her in combat, those that did were allowed to live. Those that didn't, she executed them herself."
>
> --Bandit Gossiper

Brutal, courageous and idealistic, Varen Rhyder was a bandit raider with a firm moral code that she wielded with utmost pride. While bandits lusted for women and gold, she cared only for the renown and the battles that it brought, her men buried themselves in coin and mead while she delved herself into the combat of each raid. She desired war and battle, and admired the people that it attracted, she stands for the idea that a man or woman can not truly be seen until they have been faced with an imposing challenge of life or death. Any she accepted into her bandit fold were seen as true men and women who understood that to truly live and breath on Azeroth was to be at war. To fight, and struggle, and bleed for what one desired.

When raiding in Dun Morogh the dwarves of Ironforge enlisted a Mountaineer veteran Kreg'len Winterhorn, he knew the mountains, he knew the trails and the winds themselves of his ancient homelands. Varen Rhyder had three close calls facing the elder dwarf, many leading her to certain death and narrow escapes. A bitter rival to her very last days in Dun Morogh, Kreg'len Winterhorn slaughtered more than half of her raiding party, and left Varen Rhyder to die alone in the cold mountains. She survived only by the grace of scavengers coming across the battlefield and that changed her for all time.

> "No one eats for free. Hard work and dedication will get you farther than throwing another farmhand at your problem. Get yourself out there and get it done. In this world you're either a wolf or a sheep, and them sheep pretending to be wolves better think twice before coming over that there fence."
>
> --Sylas Rhyder speaking to Varen Rhyder

Instilled with the teachings of her Father, Varen believes in a world of Wolves and Sheep, but has been forced the harsh lessons of the Shepards that live among the sheep. Varen sees herself as wolf, and respects only those willing to fight and take what they have the power to. Azeroth has spent millennia at war, Orcs and Humans, Elves and Trolls, Dwarves and Troggs, she sees it as the Azeroth's natural order. For Azeroth knows no peace and has experienced no respite, the only way to live upon its wartorn earth is to prey upon the sheep that think it otherwise. Beholden to the Shepard of the sheep Kreg'len Winterhorn who tore her stomach open with an axe and strength, Varen now sees a third entity in her ideology, a Wolf whom does not take or destroy, but heals and defends. Her internal struggle with her identity and her past scares her, and she now feels fear for her future for the first time in a long time.
At a crossroads both in her age and her morality, she stares down the edge of a blade, but the weight of her atrocities and crimes could prove too much.