[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Tirion Fordring
FANDOM: Warcraft [video game~]
CHRONOLOGY: After destroying Arthas' frozen heart, prior to WTFever goes on in Icecrown Citadel because my guild doesn't raid, sobbb See history for further clarification.
CLASS: Hero forever and ever, definitely >>
SUPERHERO NAME: Highlord
ALTER EGO: n/a~ he's not really the secret identity type, anymore.


BACKGROUND:

Though not of noble birth, Tirion Fordring rose to become one of the heroes of the Second War between the orcs of Draenor and the human alliance of Azeroth, and was among the first handful of warriors chosen by the archbishop Alonsus Faol to be a paladin of the Silver Hand. His valor won him the title of Lord Paladin of Hearthglen, a small but thriving settlement in the northern part of Lordaeron, where he lived peacefully with his young wife, Karandra, and their son Taelan. While out hunting one morning he came across orcish tracks in his forest, and followed them, intending to investigate and eliminate any threat to his keep. To Tirion's surprise, he found only one old orc, a deserter of the horde named Eitrigg. Still scarred by the wars, prejudiced to believe all orcs were mindless and bloodthirsty beasts, Tirion engaged Eitrigg in combat; to his surprise, his opponent fought with honor and skill that matched his own, in sharp contrast to the orcs he'd met in battle before.
Their match came to an abrupt end when the decrepit tower Eitrigg had sheltered in collapsed, a chunk of masonry falling on Tirion and leaving him injured and unconscious. He awoke several days later in his own bed, and learned he'd been found wandering, near dead and tied to the saddle of his horse. Realizing the orc must have saved his life, Tirion returned to find his opponent and seek an explanation. Conversing with Eitrigg, Tirion learned that the bloodthirsty horde he'd fought was not the natural state of the orcish people, but the result of fel influences upon a formerly shamanic race-- the very reason Eitrigg had left to live in solitude. Impressed, Tirion swore on his honor as a man and as a paladin that no harm would come to the orc as long as he was able to prevent it.
However, Tirion's absence did not go unnoticed, and it wasn't long before an official party from the capital came to investigate claims of an orcish presence on Tirion's lands. At first, in spite of his misgivings Tirion assisted them in tracking Eitrigg; however, once the orc was captured, Tirion could not bear the thought of breaking his oath, and he attacked his own allies, trying to free him. For this he was arrested and charged with treason, taken along with Eitrigg to the city of Stratholme to be tried.
At his trial, Tirion plead guilty, explaining his encounter to a disbelieving audience of his peers. For his treason, Tirion was excommunicated, stripped of his Light-given powers, and sentenced to exile. Karandra, learning of the sentence, chose to remain in Hearthglen, refusing to let his fanatical devotion to honor ruin her life or their son's; she told her son that Tirion was dead, even taking him to a false grave to prove the point.
Having lost everything, Tirion's honor was still not satisfied; and he returned to Stratholme to try and prevent Eitrigg's execution. He was successful, in part because an orcish war party attacked the city just as they tried to escape. Though they made it out of the city, Eitrigg was grievously wounded. Tirion managed to call upon the Light to heal the old orc, in spite of his formal excommunication; proving that the divine power had not forsaken him in spite of his crimes. Eitrigg survived and left with the orcish raiders-- members of the New Horde, led by the Warchief Thrall, who sought a return to the orcs' shamanistic roots-- and Tirion went into the exile he'd been sentenced to, living as a hermit not far from the lands he once owned.

Ultimately, it was the Third War and the invasion of the undead Scourge that drew him out of retirement. A plague of demonic origin which not only slew the infected, but reanimated their corpses as mindless, unholy fighters in the control of the Lich King Ner'zhul. Trying to keep the infection from spreading, prince Arthas decided to turn upon his own subjects, slaying them before the plague could. When the remaining Knights of the Silver Hand objected, Arthas disbanded the order on the spot. A number of other Paladin orders sprung up in its wake; most importantly, the Argent Dawn and the Scarlet Crusade. The former opened its ranks to the Horde as well as the Alliance, perceiving the Scourge as a greater threat than the Horde could ever pose. The latter became xenophobic in its zealotry, believing anyone outside their order to be tainted by the Scourge.

Tirion had always believed his son would follow in his footsteps, becoming a paladin, taking over the Lordship of Mardenholde keep. Taelan was appointed to the Order; Tirion attended the ceremony in disguise, proud but unable to congratulate the boy. When the Silver Hand was disbanded, Taelan joined the Crusade; he became lord of Mardenholde, and Hearthglen became one of the strongest bastions of the Scarlet Crusade. Tirion was intent upon redeeming his son; and nearly succeeded, sending the boy reminders of who he had once been, the honor he'd valued as highly as his father had before him. Tragically, though, in attempting to leave Hearthglen, Taelan was killed. Rather than sinking into despair, Tirion vowed to revive the ideals of the Silver Hand, taking up arms once more and eventually joining forces with the Argent Dawn.

When Mograine's Deathknights broke free of the Lich King's control, Tirion became the bearer of the Ashbringer; and with it, headed to the frozen continent of Northrend, the Lich King's home ground. In Northrend Tirion became the leader of the Argent Crusade, consistently battling Arthas' forces, winning what ground he could in the name of the Light. Ultimately, he struck a great blow against the Lich King, running his blade through Arthas' frozen heart-- realizing there was no hope for the former prince's redemption. Injured in the ensuing battle, he was rescued by Mograine's deathknights, and began preparations for a final confrontation with the Lich King, on his home ground of Icecrown Citadel.

PERSONALITY:
To understand Tirion, you really only need to know one thing: honor outweighs everything. Always. He was loyal to his King and country, loyal to the order of the Silver Hand and its ideals, but in the end chose to defy them and be branded a traitor for the sake of his honor, to stay true to an oath made to Eitrigg. Tirion lost everything for the sake of his honor-- his title, his hold, even his family-- and he does not regret it. Today, as the leader of the Argent Crusade, Tirion is no less honor-bound; in fact he is criticized for his staunch refusal to compromise his ideals in the battle with the Lich King:

The Ebon Watcher: Look upon the field, Highlord. The Lich King has halted your advance completely and won the upper hand! The breach you created was sealed with Nerubian webbing almost as quickly as it was opened. Your soldiers are being used as living shields to stave off artillery fire in the Valley of Echoes, allowing the forces of the Lich King to assault your base without impediment. The Lich King knows your boundaries, Highlord. He knows that you will not fire on your own men. Do you not understand? He has no boundaries. No rules to abide.
Highlord Tirion Fordring: We will do this with honor, Darion. We will not sink to the levels of the Scourge to be victorious. To do so would make us no better than the monster that we fight to destroy!
The Ebon Watcher: Then you have lost, Highlord.

Morally, Tirion adheres to the Silver Hand’s code of conduct: to act with honor, remaining truthful and forthright in all dealings as well as in battle; to protect the innocent and help those in need; and to punish those who would cause harm to others. He does respect authority as long as it is legitimate, but will not obey an order that violates his principles, under any circumstances.

The war between the Horde and Alliance holds little meaning for Tirion; his experience with Eitrigg taught him that honor is not dictated by race. As such he is one of the most tolerant heroes of the Alliance, willing to look past another’s race or allegiance and judge them based on their actions.

While he does bear a great burden of sorrow, having lost so many people in his life, rather than be crushed he has turned wholly to his duty to cope with it. The Crusade and its battle against the Lich King essentially is Tirion’s life, at this point; as such he is rather solemn in demeanor.

POWER:

[Seal of the Crusader] He's just a bit tougher than your average 60-year-old warrior. Aside from being a physically fit and well-trained individual, being blessed by the Light augments physical strength and gives a certain degree of resilience; Tirion is immune to most diseases and able to withstand more exertion and energy than an average human being could.

[Holy Light] Tirion is capable of cleansing diseases and healing injuries. Though the Light allows him to do so, the attempt is not without its drain on the paladin; as such, serious illnesses and injuries can be as dangerous to the healer as they are to the patient.

[Ashbringer] technically not quite an ability, but... Tirion is the current wielder of The Ashbringer, a legendary blade forged with a crystal that is the pure embodiment of the Light. Aside from conveying a certain amount of strength and fortitude to the one who uses it, the Ashbringer is extremely effective against the undead Scourge-- able to reduce them to a pile of dust. In gameplay terms this is likely to be relatively useless, barring another mass zombie invasion, and of course I am willing to tone it down, particularly when dealing with other PCs who may be of the undead persuasion.
Interestingly, the blade's power seems to be affected by the intent of the wielder; when used for a corrupt purpose (the murder of its rightful owner by the man's own son,) the Ashbringer became corrupt and was the blade of a Deathknight Highlord for many years. The blade was cleansed of its taint when Tirion took it in hand. Again, from a gameplay perspective this is unlikely to come up, but I thought I would mention it because I could see that making for fun plotty times, potentially, if anyone else ever got hold of it.

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:

[Cue the inevitable sounds of someone poking at an unfamiliar communicator. There's a muffled sound, something between a rustle and a ringing, the heavy noise of armor brushing against itself as its wearer moves, muttering. Tirion has no idea how to work this.]

--hmph. Gnomish, maybe? I can never get the hang of these things--

[He sighs, sounding weary, weighed down by each and every one of his years.]

Be a hero.

I might almost think you were mocking me.

LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
It's a rare moment of rest, a lull in hostilities. The latest barriers they've shored against the undead have yet to break. Tirion is waiting, watching; he knows he ought to take advantage of the quiet and snatch a few moments of sleep, but being tired is a luxury he's accustomed to denying himself.
Icecrown spreads out before him, a frozen waste crawling with the dead. His fingers tighten on the hilt of the Ashbringer; its weight has become comforting, familiar; though he's always been more at home with a hammer in his hands than a blade. The Scourge never rests; nor, he supposes, does the Lich King, in the heart of his cold fortress. Arthas is waiting, readying himself for battle. Tirion knows he needs to do the same, if there's any chance of saving Azeroth from the former prince's domination.
Besides, he has rested enough for one lifetime; years spent in exile, silent and insignificant, just beyond the borders of a land he used to rule. He has lived off carrion and the kindness of strangers, certain that two things would save him: the first his honor, untarnished in spite of the charges against him, because his promise to Eitrigg had not been broken. The second was his son; Tirion knew that Taelan would be a hero, and redeem the Fordring name.
He sometimes thinks he would have lived out the rest of his days on the banks of the Thondoril if Taelan hadn't fallen from grace, content to let his duties as a paladin pass to the boy. He should be here now, or at some other outpost of the Argent Crusade—an Order that is in some way more Taelan’s legacy than Tirion’s, a grander redemption than he could offer his poor boy. Something that might have saved his son if he’d rallied sooner, bringing so much of the Scarlet Crusade back to reason.
But hindsight is a luxury as well. He needs to look forward now, to the clash that awaits him; because if they fail, if they fall, here, all the sacrifices he has ever made for what is right will come to nothing.
He turns to the tower they’ve built upon the Crusader’s Pinnacle, refusing to let his shoulders sag with exhaustion, lest his men think him discouraged. There’s a long way to go, yet; he ought to rest while he can.


FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Err not much? Just, if you feel the scaling I've suggested isn't appropriate/sufficient for c&c's setting I am totally open to discussion. Thanks for your consideration!


SUPPLEMENTAL: REVISED FIRST-PERSON SAMPLE:

In times of crisis we learn what ought to be a simple truth: that we cannot let petty bickering distract us from the real evils that oppose us. We cannot become judgmental and inflexible. To do so is to blind ourselves to greater threats on the horizon, and to the possibility of gaining allies we sorely need.

The Light cares not for the judgments of men. Men would do well to consider why that is; to grasp the grander goals and principles that govern an intelligence greater and purer than our own, and to strive to better their own aims. Some battles are about more than survival; it is not enough to win, if you do not win well. Power gained though evil acts can only bring further evil, and to defeat our foes by abandoning our ideals is to become what we would oppose. It is a mistake too many have made; out of fear, or buckling beneath the temptation of power.

I have been called foolish; and if the merit in such a judgment depends only upon the number of individuals who make it, then perhaps I am a fool. I have certainly been rash, at times. But an oath made in a moment of ardor, without an eye to the consequences, is no less binding upon a man's honor than any. If I had not been willing to defend my promise to Eitrigg-- no matter the cost-- no word of mine would hold any value.