Pack Leader

Daph

<The Valiant>

(US) Silver Hand

Human Beast Mastery Hunter

Pack Leader

Daph "Ironbane" Aydens

Daph was born just 1 year after the second war in Lordaeron.

His mother, a beautiful redhead named Arsela Firewinsl, of Stormwind, had fallen in love with a strapping blonde Kul Tiran sailor, Ayden Owens. This led to the birth of Daph's older sister, Jasmine, and the couples' subsequent marriage just before the opening of the Dark Portal. The couple and their little girl fled to Lordaeron with the other survivors of the assault.

Ayden fought with the alliance during the Second War, and on his return, and subsequent peace, first worked as a guard in an Orc internment camp, but tired of this and decided to take up farming.

The couple established a farm in the Hillsbrad Foothills. And there they raised a family, Daph was their second child followed by twin boys, Michal and Declan, 5 years later.

There Daph learned to farm, hunt, fish, though he was always fascinated with the tales of distant lands and adventures his father shared in the evening.

Jasmine was married at 18 to her childhood sweetheart, Jared Vincetius, and went on to start her own family, starting by working on the family farm for Ayden and Arsela.

Daph was 13 when the third war began. His sister, brother in law, and their 1 year old child were horrifically taken by the plague. Mom, Dad, and Daph and the twins fled with Jaina Proudmoore to Kalimdor.

Rather than work in the swamps, Ayden supported his family by working on a fishing boat out of Theramore. Daph helped by using his hunting and extensive knowledge of rare plants to bring in hides and herbs to sell in town. His mother did her best to continue to educate her children in the evening. Daph did not enjoy reading or studies, except when it had a practical application. One area he found fascinating was that of alchemy, and he spent hours making various potions and salves from what he personally gathered from the lush areas around Theramore.

Daph could never get the images of the horrors led on his sister’s family out of his mind and his dreams. He frequently had nightmares related to what he saw happen to them, and was prone to fits of anger for which he found hunting, sometimes with only a knife, a more comfortable place to be than in town or with his family, though he loved them dearly

His ventures into the dockside markets of Theramore led to contact with people from all walks of life. Stories of lives of adventure and wealth, piracy and women, filled his ears and fired his adolescent imagination.

At 17, Daph decided to start a life of adventure. He worked even harder at his hunting, herb gathering, and potion making, and within 6 months, he saved enough to pay for passage to Booty Bay,

In the Booty Bay, he sought out the spots for drinking, fighting, adventuring he had fantasized so much about. He'd drink, gamble, tell tales, whore and fight at night and then sleep in the day. When he fell short of gold or long in gambling debts, he'd spend a few weeks out in the woods, getting pelts and skins as well as herbs that he could sell to then resume his nighttime habits. When he became bored of this, he began to work at raising and training the young of some of the tigers in the area to assist him in his hunts, and help keep watch in the woods. Eventually, he became skilled enough in his training that he could even bring the beasts into town with him, another source of entertainment and delight to the people and visitors to Booty Bay. The animals also became quite good pit fighters, another source of gold.

He loved fighting, both solo and with his trained animals, and developed a solid reputation in these ventures. He suffered few defeats or injuries, though lost his eye one night to a goblin that had hidden a dagger in what was supposed to be an unarmed battle for cash.

During this time, events in the world outside of the Bay mattered very little to him, though he loved hearing the tales from adventurers spending the night in town. He would occasionally write a letter to his Mom and Dad and the twins, but kept details to a minimum, though he always heard back, and they would always ask him when he would come back to visit. Eventually, he made a habit of seeing the family once per year for a week for his parent’s anniversary.

This pattern continued for almost 6 years. For Daph, fun, adventure, fighting, and family were all that mattered.

When Daph was 23, he took a hunting trip to get enough pelts to sell to fund for passage to see his family in Theramore for his annual visit. The ship he bought passage on, though small and old, made the trip quickly as the weather was beautiful and the wind was at their back much of the voyage. His heart rose as he saw land on a beautiful sunny morning. However, he noticed that what he thought had a been a beautiful cloud on the horizon was not a cloud but smoke. "Was there a fire in Theramore?" he thought. As he grew closer, it became evident it was much worse. There was nothing left of Theramore but ash and a crater. The ship laid anchor off the coast, and Daph ashore to investigate. The horror was even worse than it looked from the ship. The bomb had left only shadows of the outline of buildings on the ash.

Wandering for what felt like days, but may have only been a couple of hours through the ash, he spotted some alliance soldiers at the edge of what had been the settlement. As Daph was covered with ash, they assumed he was a survivor of the blast After a short drink and some rest, he told them of his Theramore family and his knowledge of the area. Daph offered to get some meat and herbs for dinner in exchange for the warmth and safety of the soldier's camp. Over a campfire , he found inspiration for a means to make his desire for revenge a reality. The soldiers told him of the great battle for Theramore and it's outcome. Though the citizenry had been evacuated in most part, a few stayed behind to support the Alliance troops in the battles. Daph's family had been amongst those few civilians that perished alongside some of the Alliance's best.

Daph could think of nothing but revenge. Personally killing Garrosh, and making every Horde pay for this cowardly use of magic and technology to kill innocents became his new purpose.

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