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SiteHouse Al’shar
So, things have been a bit hectic meat-side lately. I returned to work Tuesday, fully intending to catch up on the work that I had missed the prior week, but my supervisor didn’t think that I look fine and the nurse at the infirmary definitely thought that I didn’t look fine — she sent me home like some recalcitrant, delinquent child from school, wagging her finger and telling me not to return until my doctor gave the okay. Since that’s yet to happen, I’m stuck in the house, unable to drive, and bored out of my mind.
At least I’ve managed to erect some sort of makeship dam to keep the drool from being splashed all over the keyboard.
In the days that have followed, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time on the Scarlet Crusade US roleplaying server, where a number of my friends and fellow raiders sought refuge after the server appeared to be down week after week after week. In truth, it’s been better lately, but the downtime always seems to coincide with my perky priestess’s scheduled raid times, which made pushing forward in progression a little difficult to accomplish. I am not pleased.
Scarlet Crusade has been a bit of an experiment. We all rolled sin’dorei, intending to have enough warm bodies to be able to run instances together straight up to the current level cap. Unfortunately, that wasn’t as successful as we had hoped; there are perhaps three or four of us who are really interested in pursuing the leveling push and we tend to gather together in the evenings to run instances, have fun, and plot the success of our fledgling guild.
Tanzy, a good friend of mine and healing compadre, has been very involved in coming up with a lore-based history of our guild. This surprised me, because he was never one of the active roleplayers of our raid.1 However, he’s really taken interest in the guild, trying to weave canon information with the idea we adopted for our guild. You see, we had all rolled sin’dorei, mainly because it allowed us all to start in the same place and not have to go gallivanting across the globe. This gave us a shared trait and allowed us to try to come up with something that we could all hopefully adopt. And, fortunately, it’s worked.
What follows is a working history of House Al’shar.
House Al’shar
House Al’shar is an ancient and noble family with a history that spans the millennia. Its origins can be traced back nearly three thousand years, to the period of time prior to The Troll Wars. Facing possible extinction at the hands of the Amani trolls, the high elves turned to the humans of the nearby land of Arathor for assistance. The two nations formed an alliance after a bargain was struck: in exchange for their aid, the quel’dorei would begin instruction in the arcane arts for one hundred humans. The house’s progenitor, an aspiring young diplomat by the name of Lúthien Al’shar, participated in these discussions; though he played a very minor role, he was generously rewarded for his efforts.
Following the conclusion of The Troll Wars, House Al’shar extended its influence and holdings. The family gained prominence, often having key family members in positions within the government and trade. While not a member of the Convocation of Silvermoon, which was the ruling body of high quel’dorei realm of Quel’Thalas alongside the Sunstrider Dynasty, the family’s clout helped ensure that family’s interests were maintained. Due to their initial role in the alliance with the Arathi kingdom, the family was able to secure early trade routes and managed to amass a sizeable sum of gold within the years that followed. Within only two or three generations, the Al’shars had managed to secure an initially intermittent grasp on the Arathor trade routes that would last for centuries. Under family matriarch Seremela Al’shar, the Al’shars first acquired the land upon which would later be erected the Belore Serrar2, House Al’Shar’s homestead in Silvermoon City and one of the most enduring symbols of the dynasty.
After the attack on and subsequent destruction of Silvermoon during the Third War and the erradication of The Council, House Al’shar rallied behind Kael’thas Sunstrider, who was away at Dalaran during the attack. The patriach of the time, Curufin Al’shar, anticipated that the decision would help bring further favor upon the family — a decision that seemed reinforced when Kael’thas returned to the devasted elven lands and chose to become the sole ruler of the sin’dorei.
Shortly thereafter, however, leadership of the family fell to Mablung Al’shar, brother of Curufin Al’shar, who passed away tragically while choking on a fishbone. The young Al’shar, who had never expected to assume leadership of the house, was ill-prepared for the unexpected role, but blindly decided to continue with his elder brother’s earlier plans in a unseeming fit of nationalistic pride. Unfortunately, this decision ultimately decimated the family; already suffering from the loss of their holdings and investments in the destruction of Silvermoon, House Al’shar further lost standing when the sin’dorei learned of Kael’thas’s betrayal.
House Al’shar is currently struggling to claw its way to the family’s earlier prominent role within Thalassian society; this seems highly unlikely under the leadership of patriarch Mablung Al’shar, a doddering fool with more enthusiasm than business and politcal savvy. In the current politcal vacuum, numerous individuals within the family are vying for positions of power.
Notable Personages
Mablung Al’shar: Current patriarch of House Al’shar. An elderly man who assumed leadership of the family following the unexpected death of his elder brother. A widower following the attack on Silvermoon City, Mablung occupies his time doting on his brood of daughters, attempting to wrangle control of the family, and raising boars in his spare time.
Piroska Al’shar:3 Eldest daughter of Mablung Al’shar and next in line for control of House Al’shar. A scheming young woman who has big plans for the family — assuming that she manages to gain control of it before her father completely ruins it. With her dark complexion, she favors her father in appearance.
Tallaa Al’shar:4 Youngest daughter of Mablung Al’shar. Bubbly, bright, and equally as ruthless as her sister. Favors her mother in appearance.
Future of House Al’shar
At the moment, we’re not quite sure where we’re going with the guild. It’s been a retreat from Feathermoon at a time when our raid days may be further expanding and the next installment of the World of Warcraft is looming overhead. Tanzy and I in particular have been having a lot of fun mucking about with our sin’dorei; we tend to group together for instances and the not-quite-friendly banter between the two daughters of House Al’shar has left both of us laughing helplessly on Vent — and it hasn’t helped that the banter goes beyond in-game, with both of us flinging venomous comments at the other on Vent, in the middle of a raid, and the next step will be when I take the little war to text messages.
The next time he references my wrinkles, however, is when I stop playing nice.
Eventually, we’d like to snag some more people from Feathermoon to join us. The political side of the guild has intrigued some people, though they haven’t quite gone to the dark side as of yet. For the time being, though, the relationship between Piroska and her youngest sister Tallaa is keeping me more than just a bit occupied.
