Characters / Horde Champion

Anevay Darkflare-Windrunner

Famed Champion of the Horde. Her prowess in combat and her reputation for slaying impossible monsters has earned her the status of a legend. However, while she's milked for morale, her wellbeing is often not considered by the leaders of the Horde. This has led to her becoming disillusioned and sticking by her friends more than any loyalty to her faction.

• 100% Heroism Rating: Among the Horde's citizens, the peons, the grunts, and the other working class. Anevay is beloved not only for keeping the Horde safe, but also for being unfailingly kind and humble toward them and openly challenging leadership on their behalf.
• Arranged Marriage: Anevay was arranged to marry a Silvermoon noble when she was young, but upon discovering she was gay and wanted a life of more than sitting around palaces, she joined the military to escape from it as the Ranger-General at the time (Sylvanas) refused to allow her Farstriders to be tied up in nobility politics.
• Broken Bird: A rather egregious example for a living character. Anevay lost everyone she loved in the Fall of Silvermoon and spent the next ten years completely and totally alone. Her sisters in the Forsaken refused to reconnect with her, and her own fame became a handicap to forming new connections. Throughout the story her worsening mental health is ignored or disregarded by most of the Horde's leaders, with only the Forsaken and later Lor'themar caring about her well-being. This is only exacerbated after her capture and subsequent rape by Anduin, leaving her a timid and traumatized mess.
• Butt-Monkey: Anevay was born to parents who only saw her as a commodity to be sold. When she escaped, her newfound Family of Choice was slaughtered and raised into Undeath and wanted nothing to do with her out of a distrust of the living. She would later become the Champion to a Horde that didn't truly respect or care about her to the point of being sent on suicide missions on the regular. Her treatment by others gets so bad at times that Anevay's only source of compassion or companionship comes from the only other person on Azeroth to suffer more than she has.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Anevay has little regard for her status as Azeroth's greatest champion (except as a bargaining chip/extortion tool) because of the fact that fame has only amplified her loneliness and hasn't done anything to curb the disrespect and disregard she gets from most of the Horde leaders.
• Characterization Marches On: Anevay has grown to despise much of the Horde leadership due to the fact that she is often tasked with cleaning up their messes with no gratitude.
• Driven to Suicide: After destroying the Lich King, Anevay was met with the reality that she was well and truly alone. Her family didn't want to see her as they abhorred the living, her fiance wanted nothing to do with her, and Silvermoon had more interested in celebrating her as an idealized hero than they did actually knowing her. Stuck in her grief and loneliness and unable to move on from it, Anevay tried to hang herself. She was interrupted before she could go through with it by a summons from Sylvanas.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being the Horde's greatest champion, it isn't until Sylvanas comes to power that Anevay's skill, loyalty, and success are actually rewarded. She remains at the bottom rung of the Horde's military for most of her career, and despite being lauded as a Champion, she is frequently dismissed the moment she goes off-script.
• Experienced Protagonist: Anevay is the Horde's greatest Champion, and it's commonly believed nobody can stand against her.
• Expy: Of the player character. Particularly a Loyalist Blood Elf Warrior.
• Friend Versus Lover: Is stuck between her friendship to Silysa and her love to Sylvanas when the War of the Thorns comes around. She chooses Sylvanas.
• Girl Meets Ghoul: The characters that Anevay has shown a romantic or sexual interest in at any point are all Forsaken.
• Humble Goal: Anevay's ultimate goal in life is to settle down with a wife and have children of her own.
• Humble Hero: Despite her scathing tongue with the Horde's leaders and her myriad of achievements, Anevay is unfailingly kind and generous to the Horde's citizens and ordinary people.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Anevay is extremely lonely, having lost most of her friends and family when Silvermoon fell, and Silvermoon being more interested in the mythic idea of her as a hero than who she actually is. One of the reasons she is so loyal to Sylvanas is because she is the only one from those days who will still give her the time of day.
• Immune to Mind Control: While she can be mind-controlled by the Void, Anevay is either completely impervious or resistant to Domination magic. This gives her an edge over Arthas when she uses Frostmourne against him. It's currently unknown exactly where this immunity comes from, and some suspect it is her unfailing stubbornness.
• Interrupted Suicide: While being lauded as a hero for killing the Lich King in Silvermoon, Anevay was in her home not far away about to hang herself. She was stopped when Nathanos interrupted her, telling her that Sylvanas wanted to see her. That was when Anevay began serving as a champion to Sylvanas up to the Fourth War.
• Jack of All Trades: Anevay started her career as a Ranger under the direct tutelage of Sylvanas. She apparently became an excellent archer through this, even advancing to Ranger-Captain. When she switched to martial weapons, she became proficient in every style of combat available in the Horde and a master of many different weapons.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Anevay's loyalty is to Sylvanas above all else. She will mouth off to every single Horde leader, including Warchiefs, but she is always respectful and cordial toward Sylvanas. It eventually becomes clear that Anevay has lost her respect for nearly everybody else in the Horde.
• Necromantic: Anevay has been in love with Sylvanas for more than half of her life.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Anevay was actually a Ranger like Sylvanas and Alina before the fall of Silvermoon. Due to unknown circusmtances she switched to being primarily a martial fighter. As time has gone one, she's learned from so many different people that she is considered the greatest warrior in Azeroth.
  • Presumably Anevay can still fire a bow quite well.
• One-Woman Army: Being a proxy representation of the player, Anevay is extremely fearsome. She remarks on having killed the Lich King, Deathwing, Old Gods and a Titan as recent as the Argus campaign.
• Rape as Backstory: On her first mission as a farstrider Anevay was captured by a group of Amani trolls and repeatedly raped over the course of a week. She managed to recover due to Sylvanas' insistence that she rest and recover.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: From the Fall of Silvermoon to the Fourth War, Anevay has seen near-constant war and been sent to the deadliest of fronts. Though she frequently emerges victorious, it's not without it's injuries and peril. She's shown to be severely affected by the horrors she's often thrown against, and is rarely given time to rest or recover by the Horde. The only Horde leader to have ever granted her medical leave is Sylvanas.
  • None of this is helped by the fact that Anevay has had an extremely sad and lonely life outside of war. In fact, she can only name one time in her life where she was actually happy: Her service in the Farstriders before the Fall.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Anevay's increasing fatigue with war and the way it never seems to end leads her to using more and more morally questionable tactics to end it quickly. The Forsaken Blight eventually becomes her favorite weapon despite the Horde's ban of its use, which she flagrantly disobeys.
• Survivor Guilt: Anevay has this due to being the only person in her circle of friends and family to survive the Fall of Silvermoon. This isn't helped by many of her undead friends and fiance wanting nothing to do with her for most of the following decade.
• Undying Loyalty: To Sylvanas.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Nathanos. Though the two argue and give each other grief, they do in fact trust each other, and Nathanos is the one to spearhead her rescue from Stormwind.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Anevay feels this way about Quel'Thalas after Arthas' invasion. As all of her friends and family were killed and raised into undeath, Anevay feels she has nothing left for her in Quel'Thalas. This is the reason she has drifted her loyalties more and more to the Forsaken.

Taldrea Cinderveil

The new champion of Silvermoon, Taldrea Cinderveil was born in Quel’thalas after the Second War to an elven mother and a human father. Both her parents were killed when Lordearon and Quel’thalas fell to the Scourge, and nine years later, Cinderveil joined the Quel’thalas military as a swordswoman, and later transitioned to the Horde military at large. She was made champion shortly after Anevay was rescued from Stormwind.

• Badass Adorable: She's a greenling warrior at only 21 years old, has a completely obvious crush on Liadrin, and is specifically designed to be cute. She's also capable of taking down ogres and necro-dragons, and overwhelms every enemy she's met so far with speed and power.
• Everyone Can See It: Her crush on Liadrin. Whenever she mentions the woman she turns into a stuttering blushing mess.
• Lightning Bruiser: Her preferred form of combat, overwhelming her enemies with speed and sheer power. Both Anevay and Liadrin are trying to train this out of her, as an experienced warrior needs endurance and defensive capabilities on the battlefield, but so far the lessons aren't sticking.
• Skilled, but Naive: Tally is an extremely capable warrior, but she still has a lot of youth and innocence in her.

Silysa Bladewing

Silysa Bladewing was a Night Elf warrior who became noteworthy as one of Azeroth’s greatest champions. By the end of the Legion’s third invasion, both factions only had one major champion each to speak of, with Silysa representing the Alliance. While she is powerful, she isn't on the same level as Anevay.

• Always Second Best: Silysa is the most powerful champion... of the Alliance. She is soon outstripped by Anevay, and is unable to compete with her directly.
• Character Witness: To Anevay, when the Horde Champion is accused by Greymane of being complicit in Varian's death. She reiterates that they were being overwhelmed and that Sylvanas would never leave her lover behind willingly.
• Everyone Has Standards: She's furious with Anevay for taking part in the War of the Thorns, but is disgusted with Anduin's molestation and later rape of the Champion, even threatening him at multiple points for what he was doing to Anevay while allowing Alliance troops to die. When Sylvanas came to rescue her wife, Silysa put aside her hatred of the Warchief and allowed her to take Anevay to safety.
• Friendly Enemy: To Anevay, whenever the Horde and the Alliance are fighting. This mostly evaporates after the War of the Thorns.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Anevay after the War of the Thorns. While she can't abide Anduin's abuse of Anevay and works to help free her, it's clear that the two can never have the friendship they once did after Anevay's actions.

Skash'ka

Anevay's beloved wolf steed.

• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Skash'ka seemingly understands speech, knows when her master has been emotionally hurt by someone, and is emotionally intelligent enough to let Sylvanas know that Anevay is both trustworthy and
• Big Friendly Dog: Wolf, technically, but Skash'ka adores her master and is loyal only to her. Anevay raised her with gentleness and love from a pup, and Skash'ka responds to that alone. She also enjoys getting pets from little children.
• Canine Companion: Skash'ka serves as Anevay's steed and friend.
• Canis Major: A warg- a much bigger wolf bred to fight alongside warriors. Skash'ka, for her part, is mostly a companion, but she is capable of getting her paws dirty if need be.
• Dogs Love Being Praised: Anevay raised Skash'ka with tenderness and love, and this is the only thing that she responds to.
• Jealous Pet: Does not take kindly to Sylvanas after the woman makes Anevay break down in tears. She presumably calms down once the two make up.
• Noble Wolf: Fiercely loyal to Anevay, affectionate with children, and highly protective of what she loves.

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