(Wanted to write a bit of something for the end of the Draenei Heritage quests for Nira. Kind of exists in a bubble in ways due to going along with the quest and making Nira the Tishanaat.)
“I don’t know why I was chosen for this role,” Nirahsa stated softly as she adjusted her goggles and fidgeted with the attire she was wearing. Earthy tones mixed with purple of the Tishataan garb. It wasn’t uncomfortable in the sense of being poorly made, but the significance of the clothing made Nira uncomfortable like a spotlight had been put upon her.
“Velen has his reasons for asking you do to this, though he may have heard from a few notable Draenei about how it would suit you,” Dacianna stated giving Nira a small wink before she leaned over, delivering a brief kiss upon the tinkerer’s lips.
Nirahsa blushed lightly, “I’ll do my best even if I don’t understand, yes yes.”
“I know you will my bundle of sparks!” Daci smiled before she turned to rejoin the other Eredar at the Tishamaat and partake in the festivities.
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“I’m the memory bearer,” Nirahsa thought to herself before glancing at the ceremonial bowl she’d been given to hold the stones that other Eredar would etch the burden of a memory upon that they wanted to be relieved of. “It’s…ironic that one who had once lost all their memories is now to be the bearer of the burdens others wish to move past.”
“It’s not like you don’t remember now,” A familiar if far to edgy voice remarked in Nirahsa’s head as Asharin mused.
“And I still at times wish I didn’t remember.”
“Heh” Nirahsa could see the smirk that would have been on Asharin’s face from the sound of her low chortle, “That overgrown hot chocolate bearing teddy bear would probably say, ‘Friend Nirahsa! That is what the Tishamaat is all about! Leaving our troublesome memories in the past and moving towards a brighter dawn!’” The tone of Asharin was very much a caricature of Vasily.
Nirahsa moved through the ceremonial room of the Exodar, slipping past a few people before approaching one group and trying to smile brightly at them. The actual look was a tad more awkward as Nirahsa always felt a bit out of place in large crowds. “May I take your memory stones, yes yes?”
There were several thunks as the stones were placed in tishataan bowl she held up for them, giving a small bow. The goggled Draenei then moved on to get more stones from other eredar that were attending the celebration.
She tilted her head, musing in her head, “You don’t dislike Vasily nearly as much as you put on.”
“He is extremely irritating with how joyful he is all the time,” Asharin intoned with annoyance.
“And yet you at times feel rather giddy before our sessions with him.” Nirahsa couldn’t help but smile lightly even as she felt Asharin fume a little.
“I do not feel, ‘giddy’ no no!”
“You can’t hide that Asharin, I’m in your head as much as you’re in mine! Yes yes!”
Asharin scoffed, “Maybe….but if you ever tell the Teddy Bear that I’ll kill you!”
The tinkerer chuckled a little to herself, she probably looked a tad odd to some Draenei. As while she wasn’t verbally talking to herself, she was still inclining her head like one would in response to listening to someone. Varying enough that one could potentially wonder if she was having a conversation with herself in her own head, though most wouldn’t realize how literal that really was.
Nirahsa spoke to more Eredar and collected several more memory stones, her gaze glancing at the etchings upon their surface. Giving insight as to some of the burdens others wish to move beyond. Many were things she’d never have expected to be burdening them to begin with.
As she walked while doing her duty as Tishataan, Nirahsa began to reflect on what she should put on her own stone. It was odd, while she’d regained her memory eventually, remembering some of the terrible things she’d helped do on Draenor. Those events felt like a different lifetime, a different person entirely. It wasn’t who she was now at all even though it still troubled her at times.
For while those events felt like a different person did them, she knew it wasn’t so, they were done by her. A her that was filled with sadness and grief at the loss of her niece Shari in the Orc attack on Shattrath. While Shari hadn't been her own daughter, she had still been a reminder and a promise to Nirahsa’s Sister who’d passed several years previously due to an illness. The loss of the young girl had shattered her, leading to her eventually aiding humans that became stranded on Draenor years later. Giving them tools and explosives to use to attack Orc Villages indiscriminately with. Instead of lessening the wound in her soul, helping such indiscriminate killing just made it worse.
“That was more me than you,” Asharin’s thoughts slipped in solemnly.
“No, it was both of us, since we were one and the same at the time,” Nirahsa returned with a sigh. She must have been frowning sadly as it prompted several people nearby to ask her if everything was alright.
“I’m fine, just…recalling my own burdens,” She stated trying to smile soflty as she moved on.
Eventually the time came as Nirahsa reached Grand Anchorite Almonen and he handed her a Memory Stone, instructing her as to how it was to be etched for the ceremony. Before all the stones were to be cast into the blue fire before the Anchorite.
“What are you going to put?” Asharin asked in her head.
Nirahsa thought for a moment before she began to etch.
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Artificer Nirahsa & Asharin
We are at times still weighed down by what the Orcs did. We hated them for the pain they caused, we lashed back causing pain to them in retribution. They were manipulated, and it isn’t fair to hate all of them because of it. Giving pain never grants more than a brief reprieve for your own. We want to move past our pain that causes such inherent distrust.
-------
Nirahsa set the stone in the bowl atop the others, waiting a few seconds as if she expected to hear Asharin deliver a retort about Nirahsa lumping her in with her. Instead there was just silence.
The Draenei drew in a breath before she then cast all of the stones into the fire, to burn away the burdens of all the Eredar at the Tishamaat.
“Thank you, Nirahsa,” Asharin’s voice in her head was unusually soft and muted, her normal edginess gone for the moment. Nirahsa just smiled to herself while watching the fire continue to burn.
🎞- A memory that never fails to come back to their mind, good or bad
((This evolved into something else entirely, and I may have to consider transferring it to Ao3…))
She was fairly certain it was not her memory. Yet it felt so…close. A dream she kept returning to, again and again and again.
She had seen other memories of Carteneau; the Alliance leaders, Cid Garlond’s; this recurring vision was…different.
The perspective was not that of Cid or the leaders, overseeing the battlefield. This perspective was on the ground, as the armies clashed. Blood and ceruleum smoke filled her nostrils. Her ears rang from explosions both mechanical and magical, the shouts of soldiers still fighting, the screams of the wounded. Sweat rolled down her face, down her back under her armor; she was covered in dirt, cut and bruised, muscles burning as her weapon swung and clashed with yet another Garlean gunblade.
The light on the field was a sickly red as Dalamud loomed, ever nearer.
We fought, we did everything we were supposed to, and still it came to this!
The thought was not her own, the voice was familiar and yet…
The moon cracked, raining fire and giant shards of metal onto the battlefield and malms beyond. The primal’s roar set her bones to vibrating and her insides felt like watery jelly.
Soldiers of both sides broke and ran as burning metal continued to fall, along with the aetheric fire of the dragon’s rage. She remembered the despair, and the frustration, the resignation–they had failed, and now there was nowhere left to run, as Death itself loomed over the realm.
A light gleamed behind her, shielding her and her friends–people she had known for months and years, knew better than she knew herself, and yet in these dreams she could never see their faces, couldn’t remember–from the monster’s blows. Louisoix looked small from this distance, but his determined stance stirred a sort of hope in her chest.
Alongside the rest of the world, she watched as the Archon attempted to rebind the Elder Primal–and alongside the rest of the world, she cried out when he failed.
An outstretched hand. An unheard spell. The symbol of Althyk…
The world whited out, fading to nothingness, and she was back to those early, familiar visions of Hydaelyn, the Calamity a distant memory and new threats on the horizon…
************
Aeryn awoke in her bed in the Pendants. The sky was blue and pink while the sun rose over Lakeland, a lavender haze hanging low over the woods as night gave way to morning.
“Are you all right?” Ardbert asked, shifting from one foot to another nearby; she wasn’t sure if he had been there all night, or had returned when he sensed her distress. “You were moaning in your sleep, and sweating buckets besides.”
“…What did you just say?”
“Huh? It just seemed like you were having some really bad nightmares–”
“No, you–nevermind,” she sat up the rest of the way and swung her feet to the floor. “Was a nightmare I haven’t had for awhile. Almost a relief, considering the newer ones.”
Like Tesleen. Like the Lightwardens already fought. Like Vauthry’s sin eaters attacking Lakeland. Like Y’shtola’s warnings.
Aeryn looked up at her ghostly roommate. It was still so striking, how much Ardbert reminded her of her brother–the Source’s first Warrior of Light, who had faced Nael van Darnus and tried to stop the Calamity, but vanished in its fires.
And so Hydaelyn had made Aeryn his replacement.
Would he have been strong enough to hold all this Light?
“What time is it?” She asked as she stood and began her morning stretches.
“Uh…” Ardbert looked toward the chronometer. “Not quite six yet. You’ve got time before meeting the others.” He started to head for the door, as he often did when she was getting ready.
“…Hey. Wanna stay? Least until I’m needing to wash up.”
He paused, glancing back, then shrugged. “If you’d like. Wanting to chit chat while you work out?”
“Something like that. Tell me more about some of your adventures with your friends.”
Ardbert nodded and crossed to the window to look out over Lakeland. “You know, I remember the first time we came here–long before the Crystarium, of course. It had been raining when we got to Laxan Loft that night, but in the morning the sky was clear like this and the view of the forest and lake was breathtaking…”
He soon fell into the easy tone of reminiscence, and Aeryn listened as she prepared for the day.
Ardbert’s memories of his companions were easier to deal with than her brother’s memories of the Calamity.
16. Is there a character of yours who’s a real struggle to write/draw? Why do you think that is?
I’ve alluded to it before, but Alphonse became a whipping boy for my self loathing and cyclical depression, and I couldn’t get out of it. It was easy to write for him, but deeply unsatisfying and tended to feed off my own intrinsic thoughts.
He was a great character, maybe i’ll salvage him someday.
4. Any minor characters that have either taken over or branched off into their own stories?
Hlin was conceptualized as a bright eyed, naive adventurer ready to experience the world.
Now she’s on her own and half the time I play her I feel like I’m not the one typing in her dialogue. It’s a good thing her incorrigible belligerence and stupidity are endearing or I’d be in real trouble.
∇ - TOMBSTONE - who they are versus who they appear to be
Teii: Looks and acts like the badass, quiet, (and at least to Erick) frightning crafter. She’s desperately lonely, though, and trying -so hard- to break through this communication barrier she has
What do they want out of life that they are certain they’ll never have? For Both.
Leon:
He yearns to feel proud of his accomplishments again, and not immediately question whether he should be or if it’s okay to have pride at all. Despite working with @darbiebot on his issues, it’s something he still doesn’t expect anytime soon, if ever.
Terry:
Terry has hopes for the future, but he tries not to think too far ahead just in case the now goes too much awry to make it manageable. If you asked him to his face if there’s anything he thinks he’ll never have, he wouldn’t be able to give you an answer, because he tries not to think in absolutes like “never” these days.
That said, he harbors serious doubts about ever having a life, as opposed to living in the moments between work on the field. He still feels a bit like he’s homeless and living off other people’s generosities, and he doesn’t know how to get out of that cycle. Having a home that feels like home, having a family, having a legacy? He can’t see it happening.
The skies above the Isle of Dorn had been relatively quiet ever since the fall of Dalaran. Xal’atath’s goal having been achieved. The remains of Dalaran smoldered upon the shores with dwindling arcane energy, but other than that the day seemed as serene as any other.
Until a disturbance began to flicker hundreds of feet in the air, a crackling orb of lightning coalesced before a crack resounded like manmade thunder. Before a ship burst forth into existence, lightning crackling upon the hull briefly.
It looked to be about the size of an Alliance destroyer if not a little bit smaller, violet sails shimmering iridescently against the light. Including two wide flat sails extending out from the hull in a position that would normally render them under water if not for the ship being held aloft by some magical or technological means.
The backend of the underside of the hull was equipped with engines and technology that would make one wonder if the ship was watertight at all.
A variety of other gadgets ran across the vessel including what appeared to be multiple turrets for defense as well as ports for broadside weaponry. However, the overall size of the ship suggested it wasn’t primarily designed as a warship at all even though it was probably quite formidable due to its engineering wizardry.
At the wheel of the ship was a blue skinned Draenei sporting goggles that hid her eyes, Nirahsa was the captain of this vessel, built in collaborations with Drogar and Finkswitch the Vespira was a one-of-a-kind ship.
Nirahsa swung the wheel to portside, causing the rear engines to flare as the ship banked and began a long turn towards the left as it moved inland, slowly heading towards the city Dornogal in the distance.
A dwarf called out gruffly from the deck, “Teleportation jump successful Captain, this be Khaz Algar!”
“Very good Noldric, yes yes!” Nirahsa stated in excitement, this had been the first time the ship had done a completely blind jump with the teleportation generator. In that no one onboard had been to where they were going, relying entirely on provided cooridinates. “Let’s take inventory of our cargo!”
“Aye Aye Ma’am,” Noldric turn and headed off to carry out the instructions. The Vespira only had a small crew, relying greatly on technology to do a lot of the heavy lifting that people would normally have to do on a regular seabound ship. Though there were still lots of things that needed people to be done. Not to mention maintaining the machinery!
After Jaina had returned to Stormwind and warned the Alliance of the threat posed by Xal’atath, Nirahsa had gotten the Vespira ready to depart as quick as possible. Loading her up with anything that might be helpful for the survivors as well as a small contingent of Alliance Soldiers to help render aid and provide some additional protection. The Alliance Taskforce was still underway but due to the Vespira’s ability to jump it was able to arrive much more quickly.
Nirahsa had also been motivated to move more quickly because Dacianna had been in Dalaran when Xal’atath attacked. And while she was certain the Daci was perfectly fine, she still couldn’t help but be worried about her. Which had caused Nira to really depart as soon as possible, even though she’d have tried to leave quickly to bring some additional aid either way.
A horn could be heard sounding within Dornogal in the distance, which indicated they had been spotted. Though Nirahsa didn’t know if they would shoot first or not, she still decided to not spook them more incase no one was around to let them know the Vespira wasn’t hostile.
“Reduce speed Merzi, we’ll land close but outside the city all slow like, so we don’t spook anyone, yes yes!”
The draenei Merzi gave a nod before she adjusted the main engine output, bringing the levels down and having the Vespira slow to a crawl as Nira began to have the airship slowly descend via reducing power flowing through the billowing sails.
While she didn’t know what to fully expect from the Earthen that built this city, Nirahsa knew that things were going to be rather interesting either way.
(So given the passage of time that has happened, decided on a few different bits of development for Nirahsa.)
Nirahsa's hands crackled with energy before a resounding boom was heard, lightning lancing out at a large grinning orc. The horde warrior juked to the side rolling out of the way and avoiding the arc of current by a hair, the energy causing the hair on his arm to stand on end.
"You're not really making this interesting Shaman!' He shouted out at Nirahsa, his tone rather jovial for one that had just had a bolt of lightning thrown at them.
"But a fight is suppose to be efficient, yes... knock opponent down, win, move on yes yes!" She replied with a nod.
The orc let out a bellow of a laugh as he hefted a rather large training axe over his shoulder, "Doesn't mean you can't enjoy the fight! And besides its not like this is a fight to the death, we're practicing, learning, might as well have fun with it as well!"
She frowned a moment as she pondered this, the orc took advantage of her distraction by charging with a hearty roar. Snapping Nirahsa out of her thoughts with barely enough time to raise her shield up as the orc slammed into her. Sending the lithe draenei flying backwards tumbling end over end a few times before coming to a stop.
The orc chuckled, "Like right there, big learning moment, don't get distracted in a fight!"
"But are we having fun?" Nirahsa asked looking a tad confused.
He shrugged back at her with a smirk, "Are we?"
Nirahsa suddenly felt a familiar presence mingling with her own thoughts, (Let me show you how to have fun with this oaf.)
The draenei frowned briefly, (Asharin be nice!)
(Ofcourse, I know how to be nice, sometimes!)
Nirahsa closed her eyes, (Alright)
The draenei's eyes snapped back open and a rather wide grin slowly grew upon her face as she stood back up, "Well if we aren't having fun, then we're about to have lots of it Tothall, yes yes."
Asharin slung her shield over her back and gripped two blunted sparring axes that hung against her hips. Hefting them up she struck a fighting stance before the shaman charged forward, electricity arcing over her body. Tothall shifted his own stance, as Asharin struck at him with several fast blows which he used his axe to block and parry. Even as each strike let out a crackle of current.
The two continued to trade blows back and forth, Tothall chuckling heartily every so often, "Aye, this is more like it! Strike hard and fast, don't let up!"
