Year of the King 635

06 / 4

I've just arrived at the Emberhearth Enclave. It's somewhat surreal to be surrounded by peoples of the Horde, but not as much as I might have imagined. Whatever the political history, these are just people trying to live their lives. That said, given my history, I'm not sure it should be that simple to dismiss the "political history". I've lost two precious homes to Horde, or rather the Forsaken, but I doubt anyone here was responsible for that. Even among the Forsaken, how many could be said to be responsible for Gilneas and Teldrassil? A handful? A hundred?

Esslar seems to be staying with the Academy, or perhaps returning to his "retirement". He hasn't responded to Falthoryx's invitation in any case. I wasn't sure what Wayne intended but Aki was already here when I arrived so I'm sure he's around. Falthoryx already had a lodging prepared for us, naturally. He seems eager for me to make use of the largest space as some variety of public library or museum. It's an interesting idea, an institution open to the public, and one I've rarely seen in practice. I'll spend tomorrow moving the materials but that's certainly worth careful consideration.

10 / 4

The move is mostly complete. Everything is portalled in and ready for unpacking once it has a place to go. If the archive will be open for public viewing it warrants reconsidering the accession indexing. I had planned to use the Arathian standard, as that is what I'm most accustomed to, but it's not very accessible for the public. I learned the Lyozie standard in Valdrakken and that could be a better option. It's less specific but doesn't rely on the patron being intimately familiar with a two thousand year old categorization index.

In the meantime, I fashioned a new slip binding for Falthoryx's journal. He'd nearly run out of empty pages and mentioned how he wasn't sure where he'd find another codex with it's weather proof binding. The slip binding will allow him to interchange the blocks, and it's relatively simple matter to sew them into a more conventional cover once they're full. It doesn't seem like the dragons had developed anything like that and Falthoryx seems quite taken with the idea.

14 / 4

Something phenomenal has happened. Falthoryx has given me something he's calling the "Sense Defense Hood" and I can use it dampen sound, light, or smells. I can control it with a small, detachable fob and it'll dim the space in front of my eyes, soften the sound around my ears, or, if I pull up the face mask, nullify odors in front of my nose. I can vary the strength of the effect and activate each one independently. I don't think Falthoryx realizes what a gift this is. For the first time I have *some* control over sensations that doesn't somehow separate me from the world. I won't have to take forms that can't speak to get relief from one sense while heightening others. If I'd had this hood decades ago, I can only imagine how things could have gone differently.

Mist doesn't seem to appreciate it as much as I do. She keeps gnawing and pawing it. I think its in her way, but as a human she's able to wrap around my neck inside the hood and she doesn't seem to mind that. Whatever lets her bite my ear I suppose.

18 / 4

The furniture for the library is in place and I'm well into the accession of the collection. I still haven't met anyone else from Emberheart so I can't ascertain what, if anything, would be suitable from the community. I've been told they already have an archive and various personal libraries anyway so it's likely I have little to offer. At Falthoryx's request I've ordered basic materials covering a variety of topics, predominately history and fabrication.

Having this hood has made it even easier to lose track of time. Wayne hasn't said anything directly, but he keeps bringing me little snacks well before I notice I've missed a meal.

Falthoryx has been spending time in Quel'thalas dealing with the incursion there. He's been charged with hunting down a dominaar and has requested Wayne and I assist him with the hunt. It's been a long time since I've worked with a group like this and it's bringing up thoughts and anxieties I'd rather stayed buried. In either case, it's work worth doing. I haven't heard Wayne say if he's going, but I'll be surprised if he doesn't show up on his own.

28 / 4

I can certainly see why dominaar are feared, but I did not expect Wayne to be so intimidating. He becomes an enormous bear, perhaps a third again my size, and he retains his antlers and that weathered old hat. By all rights, it should look silly (or at least odd), but when he roared at the dominaar I froze for the second it took to remember we were in the same pack.

Falthoryx was impressive as well. His trap was effective and the redundancies well planned. At first he was firing bolts from somewhere I couldn't see, they kept coming from different directions. Then things got chaotic and he was in the middle of us throwing fire and spellfrost.

I'm not sure how much help I was between the two, but I did what I could to protect the pack as a proper wolf. It is... disconcerting biting dominaar. Like most extradimensional beings, they don't bleed and there's flesh within them but somehow there's still a taste... a sort of tart bitterness. It's an unpleasant sensation, but the job is done.

We've returned home and I've completely lost my place on the library. It's going to take some time to get back on track. I understand there will be a gathering of the Emberheart in a few days to hear one of their elders share some stories. I plan to attend and make some records.

02 / 5

The gathering was thought provoking though my own reactions are perhaps not as salient as the others who were present:

Elder Bazrokh Firestep (Presenter) : Male orc, veteran of the Horde
Ravenwing: Ranger-Captain (Farstriders), female elf, appears undead
Lord Slade: Ranger-Captain (Farstriders, presuming this is the same Slade Falthoryx mentioned), appears to be tension with Ranger-Captain Ravenwing
Journa: Dracthyr, appearance and comments suggest affiliation with the Infinite sect so probable this was the Journa that Falthoryx mentioned, prone to idle pontification, professes expertise on the Invasion of the Burning Legion period
Trorick: Male vulpera, tan coloring, prosthetic left arm, close with Kiri,
Kiri: Female, red fur, large ears and tail, active participant in Emberheart's war*
Pair of unknown female pandaren

* This was the first occasion I've heard of it so the circumstances of the conflict are unknown. Opponent described by Elder Bazrokh as "the mogu witch Vaer Ming".

In summary, the bulk of the discussion was Elder Bazrokh recounting a sequence of events proximate to the Cataclysm (n.b. Silverwing Massacre, Ghost of Ashenvale (621)). The Horde was invading Ashenvale and Bazrokh's brother, Ogarth, was part of a squad assigned to collect lumber from the forest. According to Bazrokh, Ogarth was killed by the Kaldorei and in response he assembled a team that proceeded to execute a vendetta of terrorism on the Kaldorei culminating in the execution and mutilation of the forces at Silverwing Post.

The response from the other attendees might be described as sympathetic to the Elder, though it's hard to be certain when I'm not familiar with them. Certainly nobody mentioned how suspect the inciting incident was (if Ogarth had been a dwarf stealing ore from Mulgore would they see justification for a similar vendetta against the Horde?) or how the Elder's actions would perpetuate and exaggerate the very cycle that had caused him such anguish. The Elder was explicit that he no longer thinks his actions then were just... I'm not sure if all of the attendees would agree.

Journa asserted that the deaths of so many Sentinels (and unspecified Alliance troops) might have ultimately been beneficial, but I have a hard time crediting that assertion. This very narrative showed how one death could spiral into undesired, if predictable, outcomes. The Elder didn't provide any numbers but if we presume hundreds of Sentinels were slain then could be reasonable to assume that thousands were directly impacted. The loss of family and friends, the societal disruption of an invasion, the impacts of economic shocks; the trauma of living beings that ripples outward with each of these atrocities. I don't get the sense from this discussion that this group would find the state of a people affiliated with the Alliance to be a prominent concern, but how many Horde died as a consequence of this campaign? What if Bazrokh himself had died? Or if it started the Fourth War four years earlier? What if the Kaldorei hadn't participated in resisting the Burning Legion? The hypotheticals are endless, but it seems fairly safe to assume that there are noticeably fewer beneficial outcomes than harmful ones.

11 / 5

We've been talking it over for the last several days and we've come to the conclusion to leave Emberheart. We each had our reasons but it mostly came down to not feeling engaged. We've been members for 4-6 weeks or so but we've hardly seen or heard from any others. Falthoryx is particularly conflicted. He'd joined expecting to work together with a group towards a common goal and now he feels, at a guess, neglected. For myself, I can't say discovering the group is at war so long after joining was a pleasant surprise. There was no sign of it before it was casually mentioned last week.

We're not sure where we'll go next but we've decided to stick together. Wayne seems content to just follow the rest of us. Falthoryx wants to continue seeking a weyrn. I'm... well it's hardly new to find I don't fit in somewhere. It will probably be awhile before I consider joining another group, but I'll have to see what the others do.