Saphelii (Alternate Universe)

Tactician Saphelii (Born August 10th, 6625 B.W) is the Commander of the Iron Reavers, and Captain of the Sha'tari Defense Force. Once nothing more than a humble military woman she rose to prominence during the War against the Iron Horde when she formed the Iron Reavers, a mercenary company which specialized in fighting the heavily armored Blackrock Clan. After the war against the Iron Horde came to an end, she and her mercenary company traveled to Azeroth for the first time, and have taken to fighting against the Burning Legion with great effectiveness, especially against the more heavily armored demons and constructs.

Appearance
A Draenei with over 6000 years of life under her belt, Saphelii is more or less the average Draenei. Curved yet muscular, she is a warrior at heart, and it shows in the way she presents herself both on and off the field.

Saphelii is almost always seen in a set of plate armor, especially when she is anywhere near potential conflict. Her life as a mercenary has ensured that she remains on edge unless in the company of those she trusts, and with that awareness that danger could strike at any time, she is rarely unprepared for a fight. The most common set of armor she wears is the armor that was issued to her by the Sha'tari Defense Force, although she refuses to wear the bulky helmet and instead favors a simple blue and gold steel headband.

When she is not in her armor, she often resorts to wearing fine silks and leathers, giving her the appearance of a sailor.

Her weapons of choice are quite few and varied in purpose and design. When in the thick of combat she prefers to use two large identical axes which she wields with surprising accuracy and speed, however due to their size, they are not always the best weapons to attack or defend with at which point she falls back to a cutlass and a custom pistol which bears the makers mark of Carrington Arms.

Personality
Saphelii is patient, and surprisingly peaceful for a mercenary captain and is not known for taking rash actions unless she is severely pressed, angered or faced with the potential harm of a family member. A tactician with years of experience, she is often seen planning and considering every possible outcome before taking a single action herself. Off the battlefield, she is rather social, often willing to drink and love openly, which has at times left her in some embarrassing situations, but she takes such things in stride and never allows another person to bring her down.

Faith
Saphelii, like most Draenei, is a follower of the Holy Light and its tenants, although she lacks the fervor and zeal of some of her brethren. Having grown up among the Naaru while on board the Genedar, she has seen the Naaru and the light fail her people in times of great need and as such considers the Light to be a powerful force, but not one that is worthy of absolute reverence. Now that she has arrived in Azeroth, she has begun looking for another faith to take the place of the Holy Light but has yet to find something suitable to replace it.

Early Years and Education
Saphelii was born on the Genedar 6625 years before the First War to Marsaan, an artificer, and aspiring artist, and Kaluusa, a former soldier of the Argus Military. From a young age, Saphelii learned how to survive and the importance of escaping conflict, as the Burning Legion was constantly chasing the Genedar and it was imperative that she learn to be able to drop everything to escape should the Legion assault their homes. She was a middle child, with two older sisters, and two more younger siblings which would be born many years later. This place in the middle of her family gave her a protective yet admirable stance toward the rest of her family. On the one hand, she wished to protect her younger siblings, as an older sister should, but on the other, she respected and looked up to the sisters who were older than her, learning from them to the best of her ability. She was given a modest education in her early years which focused on the practical side of all things, rather than the philosophical, as life skills were what mattered given their constant state of peril.

It was when she reached the age of adulthood, that her mother Kaluusa began to instruct her in the art of the combat, as she instructed all young Draenei. As a former soldier of Argus, Kaluusa was well versed in tactics and combat techniques as she was expected to defend her people against any threat, even from ones that came from within. It was this training and a few private lessons here and there which were passed on to Saphelii. Every day she would rise early after no more than six hours sleep and begin a strict regiment of endurance, strength and weapons training, at first learning how to swing a practice blade made from wood but soon she learned how to wield the real thing, as well as shoot a bow and crossbow, weapons which the Draenei considered invaluable for both hunting and defense.

Early Military Life
By the time the Genedar crashed on Draenor, Saphelii was very proficient in the use of the blade and the bow, enough so that she could teach the generation below her, including her younger siblings and her skill with said training, attracted the attention of the leaders of the Draenic military who asked her to serve in the defense of their people. Saphelii proudly accepted, and became a part of the Draenei Military from that day forward, although her exact role in the hierarchy had not yet been determined.

That role would be finalized shortly after the city of Shattrath was constructed. Built on the edge of a large body of water which led out into the open seas, Saphelii was placed in command of a Draenic ship which she dubbed 'Marsaan's Vision' in honor of her father who had perished when the Genedar crashed on the planet. Having never been on a ship before in her life, she was forced to learn by ear, about sailing, rigging, charting and naval command. She was given a group of soldiers to serve as her crew, all women, something that Saphelii insisted on shortly after she was told of the appointment. In the years that followed her ship and crew sailed the waters of Draenor, warding off the occasional Orc and Ogre vessels which sailed too close to Draenic territory but never facing any considerable threats. The primitive nature of the Orcs meant that their vessels were incapable of serving as a credible threat to the Draenei and the Ogres, after having been hammered during their attack on Shattrath City, had stayed clear of the Draenei from that point on. That, however, would change with the arrival of Garrosh Hellscream

The War against the Iron Horde Begins
With the arrival of Garrosh Hellscream, the Orcs began to organize into a force that Saphelii and the rest of the Draenei were not at all familiar with. The once primitive clans soon became a force to be reckoned with, and they began to create war machines and advanced ships using technology the likes of which the Draenei had never seen before. The war against what became known as the Iron Horde began shortly afterward. Heavily armored Orcs stormed into Draenei settlements slaughtering soldiers and innocents alike, technology was broken, art and philosophical texts were burned, it was a war which had one purpose, the extinction of the Draenei as a race.

Saphelii and her crew learned about the attacks when they saw smoke rising from one of the coastal settlements that the Draenei had established during their early years on Draenor. They quickly sailed back to Shattrath to warn the rest of the Draenei but that warning had come too late, the Draenei were already at war and had lost countless fridge settlements to this new, organized enemy. Ordered to defend the harbor from any aggression from the sea, Saphelii and her crew took up positions with other naval captains to defend the harbor, in case the Orcs attempted an assault on the capital by sea. Unfortunately for Saphelii and the crew of the Marsaan's Vision, the assault by sea came sooner than expected, massive orc vessels encased in spikes and black iron sailed into the harbor, they smashed ships to pieces as they sailed straight through them with little effort, and what few they missed with their ships on their approach they destroyed with explosive projectiles. Knowing that her ship and its weapons stood no chance against the might of the Iron Horde, Saphelii ordered her crew to abandon the vessel and swim to shore, an order which came just in time, for the Iron Horde captains destroyed the Marsaan's Vision shortly afterward with concentrated cannon fire, which would have killed Saphelii and her crew if they had remained on board. Regrouping with surviving sailors, they pressed toward the capital, killing any Orcs they encountered but by the time they arrived, it was too late, Shattrath City had already fallen.

Forming the Iron Reavers
Without a ship and without a capital, Saphelii and her crew were forced to fall back to secure territory within Shadowmoon Valley. Taking refuge within Embaari Village, Saphelii and her crew knew that they had to do something to answer the threat of the Iron Horde and after several days of deliberation, they informed the Draenei high command that they would be handing in their official commissions and would transform themselves into a specialized company designed to dismantle the Iron Horde starting with their primary source of weaponry and armor, the Blackrock Clan. Naming themselves the Iron Reavers, they pushed into the wilds of Gorgrond and took the fight to the Iron Horde there, using weapons designed to punch through heavy plate armor, and explosives and acid compounds to render the machinery the Blackrock Clan wielded completely useless. It was during this time that the Alliance and the Horde arrived on Draenor, unknown to Saphelii and her company, and as such, when she encountered Horde soldiers within the wilds of Gorgrond, she considered them to be allies of the Iron Horde and assaulted their positions as well. It was not until she saw the Horde fighting against the Blackrock Clan that she realized her mistake, and so she pulled back to Draenei lands to find out who these new arrivals were, and what their plans for the region were.

The End of the War
When Saphelii and the Iron Reavers returned to Shadowmoon Valley, they had their first encounter with the strange 'Alliance' filled with races that they had never seen before. They also encountered other Draenei who were part of this group and who had arrived here from another world. This naturally confused Saphelii and the Reavers who did not yet understand that this Alliance had arrived from an alternate universe and that the Draenei who were part of this Alliance had already suffered through a war similar to this one, but with much more devastating results. With the advisory of Draenei High Command she accepted the Alliance as allies, but could not fully understand the languages that the Alliance employed, an issue that was soon fixed by some of the new arrivals who fashioned a translation crystal, which would instantly turn anything that was spoken in any language around her into the Draenic tongue.

Despite her curiosity about this new Alliance, however, there was a much larger war to be fought against the Iron Horde and so she and the Reavers returned to the front lines, supporting the Alliance wherever they were able. This new momentum and the reinforcements provided by this Alliance turned the tides of the war in their favor. Shattrath City was reclaimed from the Iron Horde, and several of the clan leaders who had posed such a great threat were killed by mercenary companies much like her own. Eventually, the battle was focused on one region, the Tanaan Jungle, where Grommash Hellscream and the remainder of his forces had established a fortress that would take considerable strength to break into. The Draenei and Alliance forces, bolstered by the Horde and the native Frostwolf and Laughing Skull Clans besieged the gates leading into the Tanaan Jungle, but what they found on the other side, was something that they did not expect. The Burning Legion had returned en-masse, with the warlock Gul'dan having captured Grommash and taken command of the remainder of the Iron Horde. Demons and fel-imbued orcs fought side by side against the assembled forces, and many Draenei, including some of the Iron Reavers, were lost in the multiple conflicts that raged within the heated jungles.

Ultimately, however, while the Iron Horde had claimed the Burning Legion as allies and gained renewed vigor on the battlefield their new strength was not enough to claim victory against the forces assembled against them. The Iron Horde was cast down, the Burning Legion's leaders destroyed and what few Orcs remained pure after the conflict, along with Grommash Hellscream who turned into an unlikely ally in the final hour, were allowed to return to their homes without fear of retribution. The War against the Iron Horde had come to a close.

Going to Azeroth
Following the end of the war against the Iron Horde, Saphelii and the Iron Reavers took some well-deserved rest, after seeing to the remains of their fallen. The Alliance and the Horde returned to their home, their leader, an Archmage by the name of Khadgar, did not believe that the threat of Gul'dan and the Burning Legion was at an end. Saphelii too agreed with this idea. She had been running from the Legion for thousands of years, and never in her wildest dreams had she considered that the Legion could be defeated after they had infested a region and yet they had been. This Alliance had done what her people could not, and they had saved so many of their lives when in truth, they were not even obligated to save one. This was a cause she and the Iron Reavers could fight behind and so they left Draenor behind them, stepping through the portals which would take them to the world of Azeroth, the home of this Alliance. If the Burning Legion was to be defeated, it would happen there, and Saphelii and her Reavers would be ready.