Druna

## Description

### Relatives

Shurakh (Mother, Deceased), Galmir (Father, Deceased), Zurgan (Brother, Deceased)

### Affiliation

New Horde (Loosely), Old Horde (Formerly)

## Appearances

### Portrayed by

Iristlypie

An Orcess with a daunting stature of sinew and light muscles, Druna is not one to be taken lightly. Although she does not hold nearly the strength of an orc trained in Warrior arts, this doesn't mean that Druna was not once a Warrior herself, albeit softened through years of study as opposed to refining her body. She can still heft an axe well and her swing is enough to cut deep into muscle, but she prefers the power of her magic these days over the (albeit still) satisfying feeling of an axe through flesh.

She bears an almost lurid green skin - a mark of her forced aging, as well as proximity to the rest of the Old Horde. During her time in the Old Horde, she had gained a smattering of tattoos, darkening her skin in stripes not unlike those of a Stranglethorn tiger. Her eyes are forever changed, a strange red - another permanent remnant of her undesired fel taint. Her hair is just beginning to turn fully grey, which to some may seem odd, but to Druna she sees as further signs of the damage exposure to fel has done to her body.

She's pierced her nose and ears multiple times, many golden rings adorning her face. She also keeps wrapped around her neck a long leather cord occasionally dotted with yet more golden rings. Sometimes, when she's busy reading for long periods of time, she might even be wearing eyeglasses, looking rather elvish in make.

The rest of her body is kept shrouded in a light split robe, of a mix of white and blue fabrics and adorned lightly with bronze trims. She keeps her robe together with a tightly tied sash. This is to allow her freedom of movement if she needs to escape in a hurry without her outfit getting in her way. Finally, she keeps her feet safe with sandals, with the rest of her feet wrapped with bandages to keep the grime off them.

## Personality

Druna is a mistrustful character - Her barrage of experiences of betrayal and a crisis of belief led her to trust few things that she did not orchestrate herself. While she doesn't shy away from social conduct or working together with others, ultimately she is a rather selfish individual, usually seeing little worth in others beyond what they can give her.

She believes most of all in personal strength above all else. Honor and tradition mean little to her, as to her, the Old Horde were quick to throw it away when rallied up and pointed at a foe and that it may only take a sufficient incentive for them to bend the rules again. This also means little belief in what she sees as 'Borrowed Power', so she tends to put little stock in those of a faithful disposition. Most notably, she holds Shamans in an intense level of derision, because of what she believes as a reliance and worship of fickle beings. She's capable of holding her views to herself, but of course has no qualms about defending herself if questioned. Her goals derive from this lack of faith as well as her past experiences - wanting to prove that one doesn't need to rely on 'kowtowing' to the Elements in order to achieve what they can do.

If someone were, by rare chance, to make true friends with Druna, either by proving loyalty or following views similar to her own, they would find steadfast loyalty in return. However, she does not give this out easily, and is quick to throw aside those she believes are not worth of sharing in her strength and intelligence. Even outside of trust, Druna, when she speaks, is often of dry wit and scathing commentary. She sees no point in holding back if someone's being an idiot nor is willing to baby someone.

If there is one thing that gets to Druna, it is being touched, especially in a forceful manner. Her experiences being forcefully aged by the hands of Warlocks years ago left a permanent mark on her psyche that is hard to shake. The experience took away her formative years, meaning that social contact beyond friendly talk is intensely unfamiliar and uncomfortable to her. While she doesn't entirely revile Warlock magics because of the experience, she refuses to partake despite knowing the power she could wield because of it, seeking to try and fend off the taint she would have gained from both the forced aging as well as her proximity to the Old Horde.

She has little care for species beyond caring about their tendency towards their nature - goblins tend to be annoying, night elves too uptight. The only people she has trouble getting along with is her own, mostly because of her tumultuous past. She feels she doesn't belong in the current Horde because of their return to tradition, not wanting to get tied down in what she believes are fickle ideals.

## History

### Early Childhood

Druna was born roughly 12 years BDP, to the Shamaness Shurakh and Hunter Galmir within the cold plains of the Frostfire Ridge. Her birth so close to the autumn Khosharg was seen as a blessing, a sign of her inevitably shamanic heritage to the elders of the Whiteclaw Clan. Life passed relatively well for Druna in her childhood, making friends with a fellow whelp in Getrask, often play-fighting and annoying the other orcs during their business, much to their parent's chagrin.

However, the peaceful nature of the Whiteclaw Clan would not last forever. Soon, word of gatherings, of weapons and of fighting would pass around the Clan by whispers and ill omen. Zagrel, the Chieftain of the Clan, would dismiss these concerns to the Clan, decrying the idea of slaughtering Draenei as barbaric and dishonorable. Instead they stayed isolated, and Druna would begin her cultural studies to become a shaman. Until one fateful night.

The Clan was thrown into disarray when one crisp morning, they awoke to find Zagrel's throat slit in the night, left to bleed out within his tent. This sudden upheaval threw the Clan into chaos. Her older brother, Zurgan, who had always had fire in his blood, tried to fight in favour of the side of the Clan that wished to join with the forming Horde. Despite his interests winning out the day, he was slain in the inevitable conflict between peace and glory. With that, the Whiteclaws reluctantly joined the Horde, although many members of the Clan secretly desired nothing to do with it.

Not long after, Warlocks visited the Clan, dragging Druna and the other adolescents into a circle. Despite her mother's protests, she was held back as the Warlocks circled the children, holding them down, and beginning their work. It was there that Druna was subject to mind-shattering pain as the Warlocks sucked their life dry, aging the Clan's children artificially into adults, grinning and feasting off of their life energy in the meanwhile. Forever then was Druna's formative years stolen away from her by the Warlocks of the Shadow Council, something that would forever mark her and affect her future interactions.

The Whiteclaws continued to reluctantly serve the Horde, culminating eventually with the sheer bloodbath at Shattrath. Druna, having been trained to wield an axe, felt nothing but simmering resentment as she cut down these strange people. While these people fought against them, she had no personal stake in the conflict, fighting in a body that did not feel like her own, alongside people that employed techniques and a fervor that was... not honorable. It jaded her.

After Shattrath was painted with the blood of the Draenei, an uneasy peace settled over Frostfire Ridge. An uneasy peace, because the Thunderlords would harry their hunting parties, stealing their hunts and killing those they captured. Her own father died this way, never returning when he left one day. Even with the raids, one night, Druna had left on a hunt with some clan members (A hunt that was unsuccessful, as the wildlife had steadily grew scant) only to return to a bloodbath of her own - her own clan slaughtered by a raid that had telltale signs of the Thunderlords. Her mother and childhood friend lay dead in the smoldering remains of her village, leaving her and her hunting party as the only ones left. Despondent, they remained in the charred husk of the village, until one fateful day when the Frostwolves, who were making their way to this 'Dark Portal', passed through and took them in. Krol'mar, an old, grizzled Frostwolf Orc, took her under his wing. With that, they had become Frostwolves in all but name. However, Druna was wary still, feeling like they may turn on her at any moment, just like others did.

### Into Azeroth

Following the Frostwolves through the Dark Portal, Druna emerged into a wholly unfamiliar world. In time, she'd learn that this world was called Azeroth. Quickly, the Frostwolves were driven from Horde lands and forced to go north, using their newly re-acquired shamanistic abilities to pass by undetected. Krol'mar, who once was a shaman himself, took up this mantle also, and would sense Druna's burgeoning shamanic abilities, yet untapped into.

She could still faintly sense the elements because of her heritage and supposed destiny to become a shaman, but her trauma led to distrust - Just like the rest of the orcs, the elements had seemingly turned their back on her and her Clan, and thus weren't to be relied upon. She resisted his teachings despite his insistence, only relenting when he said she had the potential of a great destiny ahead of her because of her heritage. Krol'mar tried to have her go on a spiritual journey, but the elements of Azeroth, who were not nearly as forgiving as those on Draenor, sensed this distrust, and ultimately rejected her heritage.

Furious and ashamed, she abandoned the Frostwolves entirely, using the knowledge they taught her during her time with them to strike out on her own, instead slipping into the ranks of the Old Horde, seeking opportunity and feeling spite over her fate. She cosied up to the Warlocks of the Horde, especially the Ogre Magi - She still remembered the way the Warlocks cackled as her bones twisted and grew, causing her unimaginable pain, so she was reluctant to go near them even now. Eventually, one of the Ogre Magi, Kra'kol, trusted her enough to share his teachings with her, showing her old tomes of unfamiliar Gorian Magic as well as pilfered tomes of draenei make. The knowledge would be utterly alien to her, but he'd slowly teach her the Gorian script, seeing in her a loyal apprentice. This exchange would continue for a scant few years, Druna serving the Horde's interests until, inevitably, she thought, they would burn out like they did on Draenor.

### Independence

When the Horde began to splinter after the Second War, she saw her chance, slitting Kra'kol's throats in the night and stealing away with his tomes. Druna fled away into the mountains of the Arathi Highlands, where she spent ten long years studying the tomes, learning their magic, as well as trying to purify herself of the fel taint she'd gained by proximity to warlock magics. It was enough only to stave off the lethargy, while she developed her burgeoning divination skills to observe the orcs that were captured in internment camps, watching to see if they'd die there or manage to break free. It was an observation more out of curiosity than any actual desire to save them.

When the camp she was observing had been broken free by Thrall and his growing Horde, she grew curious to the new figure, and with her curiosity she elected to follow this New Horde. Her estrangement to her peers and her odd magics lead her to remain firmly on the outside of social interaction, something she didn't mind as she still held the belief that her own people could turn again at any moment.

She would stay on the sidelines, watching the Orcs regain their shamanic heritage outright with derision. In her eyes, she could not trust any source of power that could be taken away from her through no fault of her own, and would often come to blows with Shaman over this. This would only serve to increase her estrangement, but yet she continued to serve and watch, as if in some way she had a vain hope that the Orcs would truly learn from their past.

She followed the Horde to Hyjal, battling demons, undead and any other foes in her way. She'd aid here and there beyond that, but generally she had no investment in Horde conflicts with the Alliance seeing it mostly as a waste of time and resources, instead devoting her time and studies into combatting the Burning Legion. Every time the Horde would try to tie her down with a Blood Oath, she'd find a way to worm out of it. Those that would remember her would eternally distrust her for this, but she cared not for that, seeking instead to server her own purposes, however enigmatic or strange they may be. She now spends her time seeking out esoteric knowledge to expand her skills in Arcane Magic.

## Abilities

### Arcane Magic

#### Divination - Expert

Druna's desires to see the unseen without the aid of the elements lead her, early on in her studies, to delve into divination. She got good practice observing the various internment camps from afar, as well as using the ability to detect the foul fel magic within her so that she could snuff it out as best she could. Thus, her divination skills excel above her others.

#### Evocation - Expert

In order to prove her strength and keep her place in the Old Horde, Druna also focused on Evocation magics so that she could slaughter her enemies. She kept a balance between studying Fire and Ice, often enjoying mixing the two and manipulating the temperature of her surroundings in order to get her way. Whilst Frostfire is incredibly taxing for her to maintain at present, she is capable of calling upon it in a pinch.

#### Transmutation - Adept

Along with manipulation of temperature and the forces around her, Druna had to study somewhat into the realm of Transmutation. While her studies in this have not progressed as far as she would have liked, she ended up being capable enough to use it to work on slowing the effects of fel exposure through her body, albeit not preventing it entirely.

#### Abjuration - Adept

Druna's need to shed her armor for lighter robes in order to more effectively cast her magic meant she had to put some of her focus into abjuration magic. It doesn't interest her nearly as much as Divination or Evocation but she sees the need for it regardless, and sees some use of it in potentially helping any more fel corruption taking root in the future, if she needs to.