Raleigh Sternbridge

Bound by his duties as a Paladin and his Engineering-born embrace of practical, cost-cutting, time-saving efficiency, Raleigh Sternbridge is a man of devotion. Born in the Chillwind River Valley and sent to Stormwind with his brothers by their father to prevent them from foolishly running off to join the military in the event of an apparent outbreak of war, Raleigh has spent most of his adult life in service to Stormwind. The recent surge of Alteraci restoration has spurred him to leave behind the mantle of blue to raise the banner of orange. He currently is a member of the Weisserose faction wtihin the Dominion of Alterac, serving as a Retainer & Oathsworn to Lord Reynalden Weisserose.

Appearance & Personality
As a male human with a life spent as a Paladin on the frontlines & his spare time spent mining the riches from the rocky faces of Azeroth, Raleigh stands at 6'4" with thick arms & a thicker chest. The bluntness of his life has not dissuaded him from engaging in the often meticulous tasks that are presented to one who is trained in the arts of the Engineer. When the goggles, oil, and soot are removed from his face, you'll find a pair of green eyes, a nose that's been broken more than a few times, an expression of general disinterest & apathy, and a thick, brown goatee on his chin to complement his flowing ponytail, wrapped neatly in a bundle of an Alliance patriot. Despite the dour expression, he stands tall, never slouching and never with his head held low outside of bowing his head in prayer. His goggles are often wrapped around his neck if not wrapped around his head (he rarely, if ever, pulls them up around his forehead, the image of which is the common stereotype for engineers).

Faith has been an important part of his life since childhood, faith in the blood of one's family and faith in the Light. He has, however, balanced this faithful side with the reason & practicality that came with his delving into the engineering arts. The failings of orders devoted to zealous faith are not lost on him either and serve as a reminder that even the Light's faithful can & do falter. He once held great admirations for the large & expansive orders of the Light, but the falters & failures of so many led to a personal questioning of the necessity of these orders. He regards the Light as one that teaches self-improvement that shall lead to bettering of one's community & in turn bettering of the world, so as the failings of orders diminished his faith in broad, all-encompassing groups dedicated to the Light it simultaneously strengthened his faith in the Light's place as a personal journey as one of self-improvement. It certainly has not meant he feels every large group of the Light is corrupted or unable to bring good to the Alliance peoples. Although he feels that one day such groups will not be needed & will all but cease to exist, he knows how deeply entrenched they are in various aspects of life currently & just how difficult it would be to remove them now.

Early Life & Family
Raleigh was born in the Chillwind River Valley, a territory disputed between the Kingdoms of Lordaeron & Alterac over ownership. Citizens of both nations lived & thrived here for generations. As the area was a prime spot for illegal distillation and 'moonshiners' in the early years of human expansion across Lordaeron, Raleigh's family can trace their origins back to some of these backwoods bootleggers. The oldest of five children, Raleigh took it on himself to watch out for them, especially his sisters (his siblings affectionately called him 'Stern' for his disposition & because of the family name). When they were not engaged in chores or taking turns on the road with their father while he traveled for his mercantile efforts, Stern would watch his family like a hawk. Whether it was swimming, playing on the troll ruins in the region, or hiking in the mountains, he developed a keen ear to listen on what his siblings were saying so he could stop them before they ran off. As his mother died giving birth to his twin sisters, he did his best to be 'softer' with them than he was with his brothers, although the influences of the brothers seemed to overwhelm this attempted gentle attitude & made them just as rowdy as their brothers. The family also spent some years living in the Hinterlands following a great flood that overwhelmed their home. The generosity of the Wildhammer & the peculiar but friendly High Elves had an impact on his perception of these two allies of humanity, one that would follow & drive certain actions in the years to come.

In The Waves of Fate
When Stern was 16, word of the plague, rumor of the growing New Horde, & impending civil unrest spurred his father to send himself and his brothers south to their relatives living in Elwynn Forest, within the protection of Stormwind. As the brothers were nearing conscription age, his father did not want his sons to lie about their age & join the military to fight in a coming war. On a cart bound for Hearthglen was the last time he saw his father & his sisters, having not seen or heard from them since. Crossing half a continent & an ocean, the three brothers arrived in the Port of Stormwind & went by horseback to Elwynn Forest, to live in the care of their Aunt & Uncle. The Third War came and went & word of Lordaeron's fall only brought on mental despair & sleepless nights, thinking only of the horrors that rumors spoke of. The confirmation of Lord Uther's fall was the boiling point. Stern enlisted to be trained in Northshire immediately.

The Defias had become a problem in Elwynn Forest, ravaging farms & assailing citizens to reclaim a debt they believed were owed. It was in battle against them that Stern found his path; the Light shone onto his strikes against the thieves & among the vines the masked bandits fell against his attacks. He had held faith in the Light since youth, but in that vinyard he felt for the first time the touch of its warmth. His battles with the Defias would have a lasting impact on Stern. In the Deadmines he found his true love, one that has continued to serve him to this day. Littered among the broken pickaxes, shovels, looted treasures, and bandit corpses were devices. Fascinated by these little trinkets & machines, he sought to further his knowledge in hopes of helping him better combat more powerful adversaries. His early days as an Engineer were trial & error, but mostly error. He sought a teacher in the arts of explosives & word of mouth urged him to head south, through the maw of a shark and into a city of plunder; Booty Bay was calling his name.

Goblins: All The Friends You Need
Well beyond the banners of blue & gold, Booty Bay was a place of vice & a place without need of a men of virtue. However, Stern had come for training as a man of technology, not a man of faith. Against pirates, trolls, even some sea giants, Stern harnessed a greater hold on his technological prowess, impressing the Steamwheedle Cartel enough that they felt he should be sent to Gadgetzan for further training. On a pirate ship with thugs & brawlers, he felt like a fish out of water. His voyage gave him a good gauge on sea fishing, another passion he would pursue at a later point. Across barren savannah and salt flats he traveled, reaching a sandy, desert oasis with even less bearing on a moral compass than Booty Bay. Here, combat was encouraged, if solely in the ring. But the familiar comfort of assaulting trolls on orders from Goblins helped put these thoughts aside. His stint as a soldier of the Steamwheedle sharpened his skills & soon Stern was sent north, to the distant slopes of Winterspring and the Goblin town of Everlook.

It was in Everlook the call to arms he had hoped for came; war against the Lich King. His arrival in the wintry valley coincided with the Scourge assaults on the capital cities of the world. Informed by Argent agents working in Everlook, he took it upon himself to head for Stormwind as soon as he could. The confusion of the conflict, the attack on Light's Hope, and his distant location rendered his employment with the Argent Dawn a short one. Ultimately one of the few regrets he would have came from this era, the lack of acquiring a tabard of the Argent Dawn to drape over his armor.

War in Northrend: Revelations & The Silver Covenant
Bound by a duty to destroy all that is unholy, Stern planned to return to Stormwind and join with the Alliance forces gathering there. Ultimately his ship from Kalimdor was blown off course. A battle with a group calling themselves the North Sea Pirates forced the ship to land in Menethil, several days after the Alliance forces in Stormwind had left. One of the Alliance's new icebreakers was trailing behind and docked in Menethil, allowing for him to get to Northrend, although he landed on the opposite side of the continent in the Howling Fjord, engulfed in battle with the vrykul. As many who fought there would learn, the vrykul were revealed to not only be servants to the Lich King but were also humanity's ancient ancestors. This was a personally conflicting notion initially for Stern but it was a truth he could not deny. Continued conflict with the vrykul and later with the local Forsaken forces who had arrived in the Fjord eventually resulted in his employment with the Silver Covenant. The faction of High Elves, having come to Northrend with the Kirin Tor, had taken to recruiting Alliance soldiers across the battlefronts. Eager to assist a people who he viewed with admiration and respect, he joined with them and fought under their banner for the duration of the War as a Shock Trooper and later (after the culmination of the Nexus War & the recruitment of a blue drake named Zure) as a Dragon Rider. In the later stages of the campaign when the war moved into Icecrown, he often engaged in solo attacks on Sunreaver shipping vessels in the sea north of Icecrown. He made it a point to burn the bodies so they could not be raised as Scourge minions.

A Broken World
((WIP))

Into the Mists
((WIP))

War for Alterac campaign
Week 1-The March on Alterac: The call was sent and the men were assembled. Donning a uniform look under a single banner, the Retainers & soldiers of House Weisserose filed into the ranks of the Dominion of Alterac. At a manor in the mountains, Alterac's finest assembled. Among them, Stern stood quiet and indifferent as the Lords & commanders finalized their preparations. Under the command of Lord-Commander Hendrik Westfield, the soldiers of the Dominion were brought together before the March. A compelling speech was shouted. With a shout in unison, they marched off. The forces of the Vestige of the Phoenix made their way to another point, well away from their intended front. In his Gyro, Stern remained grounded along with the other pilots, moving low to the ground with the rest of the battalion. The fierce winds would prevent competent flying manuevers in any event that evening, however the artillery his Gyro was hauling would prove useful. Meeting at Strahnbrad, the Dominion forces met with House Ravenshield before forming a line just west of the town.

In a slew of assault waves, the Ogres surrounding the tower of Gallow's Corner fell. Dominion forces rallied together and threw back their attacks. Stern, providing artillery fire, was able to cut down the ogre's right flank to allow Ravenshield fighters a chance to cross the road to the base of the tower. At the base of the tower, Stern dismounted so fighting could continue into the tower. Pulling off a crate of Landsharks & the Gyro's Dragon Mark II, the Dominion forces slew the final Ogre wave under the fire of cannons. The battle in the tower itself ended with swift victory against an Ogre warlock, his head place on the tower's broken ramparts by the Lord-Commander. Stolen supplies were airlifted back to Strahnbrad in the Dominion's Gyros, including cratefuls of looted Arathorian bars (likely stolen from a skirmish some time back). The day was won, but the Alterac Air Force had yet to prove their worth. The Engineering feats of the men who fought, however, were proven deadly efficient.

Interim: Following the remarkably quick and successful operation, a gathering took place in the Duchy of Winterbreak, Lord-Commander Hendrek Westfield's domain. It was here that several awards were given to combatants, including Stern's Lord. Stern himself was knighted by Commander Westfield for his dedication & valor in the previous eve's battle. Although he swore to almost every oath asked by Westfield, he could not swear to the oath to forgive those who wronged him. Rather than lie & take an oath he could not realistically foresee himself holding to, he replied that he could not swear to this oath. Westfield complimented him on his honesty and unwillingness to commit to something he could not do.

Week 2-Assault on Growless Cave: The following week moved quickly and soon the forces gathered once more at an estaste in the eastern mountains of Alterac. Unlike the previous week, Stern was ordered to serve under the command of his Lord, Reynalden Weisserose. Again his fellows were the House of Ravenshield but along with them were two knights of the Dark Templari. Putting is personal feelings aside for the undead & the Lord of Ravenshield's personal affiliations, he rode with the assembled force to Strahnbrad, meeting with Aerithine Moonleaf (a personal friend of Reynalden's & the leader of a group of Highborne who had pledged their service to Alterac) along the trail there. With full supplies and ammunition, the Reynaldi Strike Force marched to the Growless Cave. The battle itself began when the group came upon some ogres camped by a fire & the Templari made the first attack. Stern launched some landshark heat-seeking missiles at a seated Ogre, killing it instantly when the sharks hit the Ogre's spin, the first opening a wound & the other two flying through the wound & exploding inside, killing it instantly.

The Ravenshields almost lost one of their members, the sole woman who had accompanied this force. As the Ogres began retreating into the cave, the veteran commander of the Ravenshield's force jumped to aid her & Stern jumped to provide some cover for them to get her off the field. The ogre-magi within the cave appeared and began firing blasts of magic in all directions. Stern took a direct hit, blocking an fiery blast meant for the Ravenshield commander & the fallen soldier. His tabard, chestplate, and even his shirt were burned all the way through, leading to him fighting shirtless for the remainder of the battle. The woman's lover, a tall & lean soldier in Dark Iron-crafted armor, jumped into the air & cut down the Ogre-magi. The few remaining Ogres outside the cave were slain or retreated into the cave. With the battle ended, wounds were treated & assessed. Stern applied a healing liquid to a gnomish injector to heal his relatively minor injuries. Heading to the woman & her companions, he learned she had some broken ribs & offered some seditives to numb her pain. After injecting the seditive into her bloodstream, he gave the injector & two vials of the seditive to the Ravenshield commander before returning to his Lord's side.

Although the battle was won, the Dark Templari commander, known as Lord Bloodscythe, warned that his troops were not guard dogs & that they should take the city tonight. Reynalden allowed the Dark Templari forces to slay any Ogres they find outside the city but to not enter the city, no matter what, and that all heads from the ogres should be placed on pikes outside the city's main gate. Obliging, the Templars rode off into the increasingly snowy evening. Turning to his Lord, Stern noted that the Ogres would retake the area if they held onto the cave. Pulling out a single but rather large, red-colored grenade, he waited for Reynalden to give the signal. With his Lord's command, he threw the grenade at the cave's entrance, the force from the explosion collapsing the entrance & sealing the surviving Ogres within. The Battle for Growless Cave was a relative victory.

Interim: The following evening, troops and citizens arrived in Strahnbrad for preparation for next week's assault and rebuilding of the town. The increased Templari patrols in the region had proven effective after just one night. The majority of the Ogres outside the city were dead or in hiding under the vigorous eye of the Templari's sky riders. The Alterac forces in Strahnbrad were given duties to be carried out. Stern, having arrived in his XDFTD-8000 series Shredder with a showy performance, was given the task most suited to shredders: lumber gathering. Heading into the Uplands, he found some suitable trees and cut them down promptly. The Shredder (whom he affectionately calls 'Uncle Fester') cut & shaped the wood from the three trees into 58 identical length planks plus a crateful of smaller, unidentical pieces. Returning to the town, he was sent off again on sky patrol. Spotting an ogre & some gathering forces south of Strahnbrad, he continued down the five fingers of Hillsbrad before getting an urgent recall to Strahnbrad. A Syndicate attack had left the military there blindsided & outnumbered. He roared down from the sky on Uncle Fester & began fighting the Syndicate with the shredder. Although he missed a few swings, he bit the Shredder's 'IN CASE OF EMERGENCY' big red button. Engaging in its THOR (Total Hipower Overload Release) Mode, the shredder began spinning its blades and moving far quicker than before. Charging through the waves in a bloody, gorey mess, the shredder was crucial in repelling the Syndicate assault. Stern yelled during the gore show "I like my Syndicate like my cat likes her food: SHREDDED INTO MEATY BITS!", although Stern hadn't owned a cat since his Frostsaber some four years prior. The battle was won through technological superiority. General Rhalitra Haddinkov had used a repeating rifle and the shredder had distracted & held back the tide, leading to a decisive Alterac victory through modern machines & weaponry devised by Engineering minds.

Week 3- The Final Siege: ((WIP))

Weapons
Raleigh has owned a plethora of weapons in his life, some lasting longer than others, some found in the heat of a battle, some crafted by the Alliance's grandest & most able smiths. As a Paladin, he is bound to not use the weapons of rangers & hunters, but these would be useless in his hands anyway. His aim with bows, guns, and crossbows has always been poor, a fact he's tried to remedy several times. This hasn't seemed to affect his abilities with cannons & grenades, however. Currently, he owns four weapons along with a 'Dragon Gun'.
 * A stone hammer: A simple, inelegant warhammer with a granite head. Warhammers being the favored weapons of Paladins, Raleigh has take them on as his personal favorite as well for their practical uses as well as their deadly efficiency. The head is carved from the same material used to craft the Stormwind Cathedral, Alterac Granite. The particular piece of granite used for the head was pulled from an abandoned quarry not far from his childhood home. It has the names of his immediate family engraved onto the hilt.
 * Weisserose Rapier: A sword found in common use among the servants & soldiers of the House of Weisserose. A faded golden color, a thick, sharp blade, and a royal purple or orange colored wrapping for the hilt. This blade was gifted to him by Lord Reynalden of Weisserose shortly after becoming a Retainer for the House.
 * Elven Twinblade/'Selama'Serrar': A Blood Elven blade with twin, intertwining blades bound together through magic enchantment. Inscribed on it is 'Selama', Thalassian for justice. It was taken by him after a brief sword duel with a Blood Elf that was interrupted by a Scourge attack in the Dragonblight. Ral and the Elf fought together & defeated the Scourge wave but the Elf was mortally wounded. He was gifted with it by the Elf. Originally he planned to return the blade to the Blood Elves but following the incident at the Wrathgate & the discovery that the Forsaken (with the Horde's assistance) had been manufacturing a plague of their own, he felt he should keep the blade. It was also this very blade that he used when Vereesa Windrunner & Jaina Proudmoore called to arms to purge the Sunreavers from Dalaran.
 * Yaungol Spear: A spear made by the Yaungol. Was gifted to him by a Shaman who had found it (or more likely had stolen it).
 * 'The Dragon': A Dragon Cannon Mk.II built by Raleigh while in Pandaria. Along with the standard firing capability, it has been modified to serve as a longer-ranged mortar for improvised artillery action. It has seen use throughout the War of Alterac Campaign.
 * The Satchel: A simple burlap satchel with a braided leather strap. Although not a weapon itself, it is a useful tool filled with a variety of parts, tools, and devices, both of practical & explosive varieties. How it is able to have a seemingly endless capacity to hold rather large items & plentiful amounts of needed supplies is unknown.

Companions
In time in Everlook brought him two companions. One is a Frostsaber who served him valiantly throughout the entirety of his tenure in Northrend. His name was Whelest, the only cub of a mother who died after giving birth. Whelest ultimately died young, his wounds too severe to heal from an attack of Scourge riders in Icecrown. Rather than have his own friend turned against him, Stern engulfed Whelest's body in holy fire, the bones being left as ash in the harsh winds atop the glacier.

His second companion is a blue dragon whelpling, a female who he named Aquamaria as her real name (Astramagosa) was too difficult for him to remember, sounding too harsh. Aqua was found and nursed back to health by Stern & has remained with him for many years. She often will perch on his shoulder while in a whelp form. As a blue dragon, her flight has an innate connection with magics & she has often used it for playful tricks and quick getaways from him. Stern does not know if she is capable of transforming yet & has often wondered what kind of form she will take when she does. Stern is well aware of dragon aging processes and does his best not to think of her as a child, as she may very well likely be older than he is.

A third companion is another blue dragon, a gruff male drake who calls himself Zure, whom he found during the Nexus War. Bound by a personal code of honor, Zure has pledged his service to Stern so long as he is alive (which he wagers will not be for long due to his penchant for carrying & manufacturing volatile explosives). He will often threaten to eat the little whelpling Aqua when she tries her tricks on him.

Political Affiliations & Other Notes

 * Is a strong proponent of the restoration of Alterac, being a Chillwind River Valley native. He believes the people have suffered greatly at the hands of corrupt nobility, especially the vile Syndicate. He has pledged himself to the House of Weisserose, believing the White Rose of Alterac will be able to bloom new life into the fallen nation, both defending & uplifting the people.
 * A champion of the cause of the High Elves. While intitially a supporter of Blood Elven reconciliation, recent events have pushed him into an anti-Blood Elven stance. His tenure as a recruit for the Silver Covenant & these actions have strengthened his support for Vereesa Windrunner & other High Elven organizations working within the Alliance. This has reinforced a belief of anti-human/high elf couplings for the sake of preserving the remainder of the High Elf race.
 * Has a fascination with Night Elven & Highborne artifacts, architecture, & products, owning a small collection of Kaldorei items that he keeps within his workshop in Ironforge. The Highborne faction, the Sovereign Remnants, lending support to the Alterac Coalition cemented his support of their greater inclusion within the Alliance.
 * Feels Dark Iron engineering & jewelry is shoddy. However, he feels their smithing techniques are superior to anything humanity or the dwarves of Ironforge generally craft.
 * Has a distant bloodline connection to House Amberstorm that dates back almost 300 years.
 * His life was once spared by the Undercity Nexus. For what reason they chose to spare him is unknown.
 * Owns a Golem that he has nicknamed 'Uncle Fester'. His Gyro Chopper flying machine does not have a nickname, although that's not because of his lack of trying. Every mission he has gone on with a new nickname for his Gyro had a malfunction of some sort, leading him to simply stop giving the Gyro nicknames. While he has a practical nature, his superstitious side has gotten the better of him in this case.
 * Has a habit of dating things by the King's Calender, rather than the Lotharian Calender or any of the Calenders found in common use in the northern kingdoms. His principal tutor in the ways of the Paladin is directly responsible for this.
 * Firmly believes the idea espoused by Draenei about an 'Army of the Light' is foolish nonsense that will only result in continued bloodshed & loss for the Alliance, just as every attempt to align with the Horde has been since the War against the Scourge. This ties into his discontent with the prolonged existence & continued (and/or lack of) actions of the Argent Crusade. Relating to the Argent Crusade, he often wonders why so many Paladins revere an exile who saved an Orc war criminal and supporting a faction so keen on letting Horde races settle in former Lordaeron lands as well as avoiding conflict with the Forsaken despite them using the same forces & tactics the Scourge used.
 * Has expressed desire to steal young Quilboar & raise thousands of them within Alliance lands, training them, teaching them Alliance values, then engaging in a grand conquest & colonization of the Barrens to create a Quilboar nation-state with Alliance loyalties.
 * Has a fondness & romanticized ideal of the ocean, often wishing when he was younger to simply run away & join a merchant shipping crew and fight pirates. As such, he has great respect for the Alliance Naval forces & will often lend his aid to Alliance merchant ships with his skills. His time working with the Steamwheedle simply confirmed his impression of pirates as scum worthy only of the gallows.