Rilennia Rimeshard

Rilennia "Riley" Rimeshard (Rye-len-knee-ah Rhyme-shard)  was your quintessential high elven orphan turned world-class battlemage and persistently nagging, well-meaning personal assistant.

Murdered during the Siege of Tirisfal by Ivan Sibelius Felsorrow and risen into service by the Head Apothecary of the Hand of Vengeance, the necromancer Seleste Felsorrow, Rilennia is now tasked with surviving and serving under the banner of the Grand Alliance, as an unpleasant reminder of what the Forsaken are capable of performing if left unchecked. After a sequested stay in Acherus, Riley has returned to service, performing a dual role in both her pledge to the Silver Covenant and her pact with the Ebon Blade. She has served the Alliance with honor and distinction, having been awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross and the Cross of Vanndar - earning her the formal post-nominals CSC and CV, respectively.

"Ama noral'arkhana."
As far as traditional schools of magic go, Rilennia favored an offensive style of abjuration, clever slight of hand portal-ripping and, most importantly, a burgeoning specialty in divination and runeweaving. Rilennia mostly practiced alectryomancy with her pet chicken, aptly enough named Alectryo - having had performed a strange ritual known only to her of what appears to be a cross between a tarot reading, arcane scrying and literal chicken scratch observation. That particular chicken, oddly enough, is claimed to have been covertly instrumental in the defeat of the Burning Legion's operations on the Broken Shore; what was seemingly a common barnyard fowl served as a divination tool that could go uncorrupted by the Legion while scrying on its commanders, due to its pea-sized brain and comical attention deficit. Appointed as Chief Chicken Caretaker, and after a series of escalating events and unbelievable circumstances in which the beloved chicken finally exploded in the sewers of Dalaran, Rilennia acquired her own personal 'divination chicken' - named Alectryo II, but designated Alectryo for convenience's sake - when her prior mentor artificially aged up an arcane-imbued egg with the powers of the Nightwell, in the same fashion as a Nightborne would casually age a bottle of arcwine. Post-resurrection Riley has forgotten about the events that transpired regarding the first chicken's exploding - involving a polymorphed archmage and a stolen hat - and refers to Alectryo as the first of his breed, and the one that truly assisted against the Legion. Only three people know the truth behind the real Alectryo; one is now undead, and the other two have vanished into nothingness.

Rilennia has seen the most combat during the course of the Burning Legion's third invasion of Azeroth - having served a tenure as a drafted Kirin Tor Peacekeeper, she assisted the Thalassian-based Highguard in their station of the elven city of Suramar against both allies of the Burning Legion and Horde forces alike, attempting to secure the city for the Silver Covenant against the Horde-aligned Sunreavers. She was previously stationed at the Broken Shore as an Invoker, putting out fel fires with her cryomancy - and talent for seemingly unending blueberry-flavored slush summoning.

Upon her release from the service of the Highguard, following the Suramar insurgency and rebellion in which all Alliance forces were pushed from the city, Rilennia had been assigned to work in the region of the Alterac Mountains, alongside the members of the Citrine Eagle. Assigned to the mountainous region through the mageocratic city's attempts to keep an eye on a resurgance of void energies and Ren'dorei immigrants to Talongrab, near the conflict grounds between the Stormpikes and Frostwolves, Riley quickly fell in step with the Eagles and, most notably, their matriarch Zaria Blackmoore and their newly appointed runesmith Tyrvarryn Shadowmist. While her attitude was, at first, more uppity and holier-than-thou than the hardworking salt of the earth people of Alterac, Riley found herself wavering on ideals of maintaining a brusque, businesslike mentality towards the denizens of Talongrab after continued interactions with establishing allies and romance alike. This conflict of interest extended to burgeoning tensions and outright participation in the war over azerite, before the elf was re-re-assigned back to Dalaran to reinforce and maintain her neutrality - and a growing concern by the Magus Senate's upper echelons that she was not embodying the staunch morals and desire to maintain peace that the organization had taken upon the Legion's defeat in the Archmage's leave of absence. This Alliance-leaning support of the Silver Covenant still burned brightly within the Quel'dorei's blood, and this was to be her undoing. Upon hearing of the news of the Matriarch's capture by Horde combatants, Riley willingly snuck into the prison camp in which Zaria was held, disguising herself with an illusion of the camp's overseer. This illusion was broken, and, while fulfilling her mission of rescue, Riley was dispatched as though she were a member of the Alliance's own, with little regard to the Kirin Tor's involvement in the escalating battles.

After her violent murder and subsequent forced resurrection, Rilennia had been mostly sequestered away in Acherus for training and "re-education" following her admittance to the ranks of the Ebon Blade under a granted amnesty as an undead without a host. She spent scant allocated time not assisting the Deathlord's machinations furthering her Mantid amber studies to better equip herself, as to not fall again to the dreaded Last - or even True - Death, and to empower her banshee's wail through the reverberations of kyparite. Occasionally, she traversed to her lord Tyrvarryn Shadowmist's lands lending what support she could in his ongoing attempts to provide deserted Kaldorei with rebuilding their lives following the loss of the world tree, Teldrassil.

Time spent in Stormwind demonstrating the entertaining powers of her beloved chicken entranced the members of the Runaway Theater Troupe, most notably Dartan Roe, their ringmaster. It took heavy internal debate, but the elf was eventually allowed into their company. Riley uses their colorful performances and misdirecting stagework as cover for keeping watchful eyes out for threats to Azeroth, by order of her Acherus superiors.

Soon after, a chance meet-up facilitated by the direction of Alectryo led Riley to meeting with Lyraeni Sorrowsong, the appointed Ranger-Lady for the elven-based collective designated the Silverguard. Being a former storied member of the Highguard, and a fellow undead Quel'dorei, the two quickly set to talking, and Riley was allocated respite among her kin. She now serves the Silver Covenant once again, as she did in life.

Behaviors & Personality
While breathing, Riley was a bundle of rule-adhering nerves; anxious and bound by blinders to a fault, her chief concern was that all structure established by any order above her be followed to a T. This extended from her mentor's guidelines, to the iron-clad fist of the Lady Dawnsorrow for the 812th Farstriders, to the Council of Six's assorted mageocratic standings - even trickling down to orders that were not her business, such as the Citrine Eagle; treating the word of the Matriarch as law, begrudged as Riley was to follow it.

Following the events of the Highguard's Suramar campaign, the quel'dorei had become a lot less 'Riley' and a lot more 'Rilennia' since joining up with the Kirin Tor guard, mostly in a manner to impress her then-mentor; lovestruck, Riley followed Taldarick's every move as to nearly become the Lordaeronian's shadow and 'seeing-eye elf'; he had blinded himself and relied on her trusted guidance for everyday tasks to which simple arcane divination did not lend. Riley forced herself to grow up quickly - no longer joyful or bombastic in an effort to impress others, she spoke more in Thalassian among her fellow elves, and appeared more reserved than she had before the war on Argus. The majority of her youthful mirth had been lost, the scar on her face usually hindering expressions - when she did smile, the attempt hardly ever reached her eyes.

Her headstrong and aggrandizing personality is what led to her early death. If Riley had simply acquiesced to the Kirin Tor's distant attitudes towards the war and adhered to their neutrality, she would still be alive, without question; a drive to attempt a rescue of those dear to her - namely the aforementioned Alteraci Matriarch - drove Riley to her accidental-suicide mission. Riley's brashness, overestimation of her abilities and the drive to protect what little she had close to her all lead to the same end. This has since, in the year following her reanimation, tempered to an icy distaste for herself and her own body - viewing it as a hampering weight instead of a temple to be protected, Riley has no qualms about dealing physical damage to the point of losing limbs or shattering bones in the heat of combat, knowing that the tireless reanimators of Acherus will just patch her back up again.

With the advent of her return to the Silver Covenant, the protection of Thalassian interests of all sides - elven culture, whether sin'dorei, Ren'dorei or, most of all, the Quel'dorei - remains her chief concern, at least on the surface; below aches a barely contained white-hot anger to avenge her own death from either - or both - of the Felsorrows who defiled her. Riley attends forward-moving Alliance campaigns with a steeled eye despite claimed relative neutrality, both for the interests of the Blade and her small personal business, but in truth, she is always looking for a way to deal as much damage to the Hand of Vengeance as possible, personally, to remind Seleste and Ivan that she is still here and very much intends to be a threat. She will take any path possible, follow any given direction or track down rumors that may be whispered in the dark as to a weakness in the Hand of Vengeance's staunch protection of their beloved Head Apothecary. Her progress so far is minimal, which only enrages her further.

During times of inaction, this paroxysm is managed and coped with as a determined detachment into a third-person approach to how she views herself; usually referring in public to herself as "this one" and "they/their/theirs" in an attempt to display that, yes, while what appears to be Rilennia Rimeshard is standing in front of you, she is instead what she views as a lost soul, no longer truly here; crammed into a husk of a body as a banshee, piloting a meat sack made of stitched corpse parts, with a single-minded mission only to fully obliterate her fellow undead. This behavior extends to cold indifference when working with customers, either of the fortune reading variety or those simply out to buy misappropriated Death Knight armor polish that has fallen off the back of a corpse wagon. Only very, very few are allowed to see the inner workings of what remains of Riley's mind, designated in a tonal shift by her adoption once again of singular "I/me/mine" pronouns and adoption of her former excitable mannerisms.

On the surface, Riley attempts to keep moods around her unassuming with the barter, trade and acquisition of backalley Acherus goods, the majority of which are promised to be "only relatively curse-free". She also takes enjoyment in interacting with her beloved divination chicken Alectryo; the last living tether, other than her half-elven adopted daughter Nicolette, to her former love and mentor. Sadly, it is truly hard to tell which she loves more, the indifferent chicken or the teenager; an unhealthy fixation on trying to remember what the Lordaeronian man even looks like leads to Riley's brief loss of brevity when someone unrelated even remotely suggests taking the chicken from her - even for his own good, like to stay with her daughter during a combat scenario, or to roam freely at her lord's estate for exercise.

Eternally split between Blackrock-lava-hot self-loathing to initiate self-destruction, and a desire to see the married necromancers who did her in find their True Death at her hands, alongside witnessing the success of her partner and her daughter, Riley does all she can to keep her psyche together enough to not simply scream her body - and those around her - into oblivion.

Appearance and Chronologically Acquired Injuries
Rilennia sports a dirty platinum-blonde mane, slashed short to hang around her elongated ears. She has a slim, slender frame, with petite measurements; often clad in either a composite of trillium and ghost iron armaments, bedecked in Mantid amber slivers, or complicated layers of robes, strategically picked to hide any of her lasting disfigurements. Her waist is slim, and her bust is unremarkable; while fully clothed and under the indemnity of her trillium or kyparite-infused alloys, any femininity is long removed from Riley's overall appearance. Anyone with a modicum of physical strength can - and has - picked her up over their shoulder with little to no effort while she is unarmored.

Her visage is set with piercing blue, almond-shaped eyes, gently glowing with the lich-blue remnants of being risen into undeath. An oft-wrinkled nose with a thin bridge accompanied Riley's high, sharply gaunt cheekbones, devoid of any appealing button taper. Riley's lips are cracked and chapped, a product of her own strained voice and lack of hydration. Her face is generally found sparse of feminine applications; in life Rilennia didn't value physical vanity as much as an elf of a higher station than herself, simply not finding the time or willpower to devote to prettying herself. That's since been marred - she'd acquired herself a nasty felfire scar; a misshapen, irregular blotch, running the length of her right cheekbone, back to her curved right ear. Healing treatments gradually lessened its impact on her countenance, but it still remains as a prideful trophy of sorts in her people's war against the Legion; even with her newfound talents in flesh-shaping hemolurgy, Rilennia appears content to leave the mark as it was in life. Due to her disfigurations, Riley often hides her face and neck with drooping hoods of varying forms and colors, unwilling to expose her full appearance to the living and thusly fulfill the stereotype of the uglified, undignified undead.

Rilennia has undergone inopportune trials by fire in her early training with the Highguard and her mentor by way of combat against the invading Burning Legion, and had suffered irrecoverable injury due to it - falling dozens of feet from a crumbling rampart and landed hard on her left side. She still shuffles with a pronounced limp when out of bracing armor, most of the weight centered on her right side; her left leg having been shattered in several places and made to set incorrectly at the time of healing. Before the painful process of re-setting the broken bones, Riley was simply blessed with a numbing prayer by a well-meaning acolyte, and the bones never healed properly. Because of this result, Rilennia held a distrust of mere 'splash you with some Light' healing, and tended to be wary of too-faithful paladins and priests - even more so now that she is a shambling corpse with a physical aversion to the Light's most devoted.

Trailing down the nape of her neck to both of her shoulder blades in lashes are the remnants of an infernal's self-destruction by explosion - long, thin burn scars in uneven stripes that gash her back into a chessboard of badly-healed burnt skin. It's clear the burns weren't given proper medical treatment after they were acquired. Having been risen has since negated the pain inflicted upon her overexertion in reaching too high up or to her sides.

Past events transpiring regarding rescuing a rather unorthodox comrade-in-arms have left Rilennia with a faded, but still near death-looking ragged scar across her midsection and a deep trench of cresent-moon sliced flesh removed from her left thigh.

With thanks to the skilled artisans at the LC 37 Tournament of Ages, Riley had obtained two decorative tattoos; a traditional anchor on her right thigh, and a blue-inked crest of Lordaeron encompassing her left wrist. These have both been what could have only been painfully slashed out by blade, scarring up the embedded ink nearly beyond recognition to remove them from her body. Yet another skilled tattoo artist at the following year's celebrations was able to cover up the remnants of the crest's scratch-job with a design based on one of her lord Tyrvarryn Shadowmist's acceleration runes, Atrid. Were Riley able to draw upon the arcane, she could imbue the rune as one would a weapon; however, her command over such magic has waned to nothingness since her death, and the rune serves only as decoration.

Rilennia, as a corpse, also has the scattered, seared buckshot entry points from where she was fired upon at close range in her midsection, peppering her left side with gaping lotus pod-like holes. Scars from the shattered pieces of her Kirin Tor shardwood pauldron to her left line her shoulder and neck. Finally, her chest cavity and the entirety of her midsection have been ravaged in haphazard patterns by a triangular scalpel blade, leaving jaggedly ripped holes and scarring points at random intervals throughout her torso. Her entire midsection has been, by this point, shredded into an amalgam of reconstituted flesh; for these appearances, a self-conscious Riley keeps herself fully clothed, surrounded by protective armor, robes and tabard alike, and will only in the rarest of circumstances bare her midriff.

Armaments
Rilennia was, prior to her death, outfitted in a specialized Kirin Tor-issued set of armor, the bulk of which was localized entirely within the arcane-resonated pauldrons borne upon her shoulders. These special cups housed the energy needed to manifest and maintain her silkweave armor composite; created from Crystalsong Forest shardwood, one could easily imagine them appearing when summoned as the arch-typical magical girl style of armor in the way that they would erupt from the depths and ensconce her body once called upon. It was rare to see the quel'dorei out of her armor, as past events rendered her constantly on a heightened guard - unable to relinquish control over the protective armaments, constantly believing she needed them both as a physical barrier and visible social status symbol.

It was one of these specialized cups that ultimately assisted in ending the elf's life; Arthalden Lightshard, during the Siege of Tirisfal, swung his spiked ranseur towards Riley's midsection, but missed due to her abjuration being shattered by a warhammer and sending her falling forwards. The weapon instead connected with the fragile wood arcing over the arcane-housing cups, driving the splintered shards into her collarbone and neck. The sprawling wound remains on her person, hidden by layers of cloth or plate.

Rilennia now bears armaments befitting that of an Ebon Blade grunt; not fully graduated to wearing Saronite just yet, the elf instead shoulders the burden of a heavy ghost iron and trillium composite, inlaid with crystals of Mantid kyparite - a material shown through the Paragons and their followers to enhance the resonance of sonic-based attacks. This crystalline material comes in especially handy for both harnessing and relinquishing terrifying control of the pseudo-banshee wail that continually wracks Riley's form; were she to lose full control of herself while not bearing the armor, the results would be ear-shattering for anyone in range.

Ancient History
Rilennia mostly keeps to herself, and doesn't speak often of the time before she signed on to become Arcanist Reynolds' apprentice. She refuses to comment on any of her education at the Academy, instead citing the importance of hands-on learning through apprenticeship. Those elves that think they might have heard of the 'Rimeshard' line in Quel'thalas could be mistaking them for the 'Sunshard' line, a modest, yet storied family of Spellbreakers, ice sculptors and banquet decorators that unfailingly served the House Sunstrider -- and those with a more nautical background might recognize the Rimeshard and Sunshard names as - something else entirely, related to one of the few first 'liberated' ships of the Thalassian fleet...

For a good portion of her adulthood, Rilennia hid behind layers of falsified identities and appearance-altering glamours for varying reasons, until a chance meeting with her uncle Mel'oran Rimeshard, a murderous pirate ship captain, opened her eyes to her unknown lineage. Riley - then known as Raegil - then acknowledged her less than fortuitous past and has since decided that the time for hiding was over, filing to have her name legally changed back to Rilennia from Raegil. Out of spite to her venomous uncle, she kept the name Rimeshard, declaring the Sunshards dead and buried beneath Quel'thalas.

Embracing her family's heritage as elven privateers, Raegil legally filed to have her name reverted back to Rilennia, and the rest is history in progress. Since promoted to a fully-fledged mage in the Kirin Tor hierarchy thanks to an impromptu elective course at a ski resort slash snow bunny academy, she generally tried to make it day-by-day being one of the lower rungs on the blue-and-gold ladder. Sometimes that included rescuing eldritch-abomination-Gnomish allies, falling through infinitely tessellating portals to the Great Beyond, fighting off the Legion and Horde in foreign Elven capitals, digging up ancient cursed troll relics, or simply people-watching in one of Stormwind's many vantage points.

You know, the usual.

Siege of Tirisfal
Rilennia met her untimely demise on the eve of the fourth day of conflict during the Siege of Tirisfal, whereupon she had attempted - without superior orders, disregarding the Kirin Tor as a whole's refusal to participate in the conflict, and due to her remaining loyalties to the Matriarch of the Citrine Eagle, Zaria R. Blackmoore - to sneak her way into a Horde prison camp in order to free as many captured Grand Alliance prisoners as possible while under an illusionary guise of the director, one Seleste Felsorrow. Unfortunately, due to the untimely intervention of her doting husband, Ivan Sibelius Felsorrow, Riley was found out - illusions never being her forte - and her attempt was seen through almost immediately.

Before her ruse was completely dispelled, through time purchased through the confusion of the Horde jailers, Riley diverted her remaining innate arcane energies towards encapsulating the unshackled captives in shimmering pink shields; ripping portals open beneath them to deliver their payloads to the awaiting Alliance army stationed at the nearby Scarlet Monastery. All told, Zaria Blackmoore, Illithyl Harkon, Janewell Broadbent, Alyserah Helstrom, and Cedric Elengarde were sent to safety - five lives soon to be in exchange for her own.

Riley was then savagely dispatched by the surrounding members of the Horde guard; Rekfar Axefury's warhammer first shattering her weakened abjuration, its energy spent towards the protection of the captives; her remaining shield removed, Riley was then shot at point-blank with buckshot by one Jimlok Thunderroar; followed by having her own sharpened Kirin Tor pauldron driven into her collarbone by the sin'dorei traitor Arthalden Lightshard - who had previously served alongside her with the Eagles - severely weakening her and rendering any hope of escape impossible. She was finally and meticulously stabbed to death by the irate Ivan with a favored scalpel for insulting his wife's countenance with her poorly crafted illusion. Her mission completed, Riley peacefully passed away, despite the murderous rage the Forsaken carried out through the workings of his blade.

That was hardly the end of Rilennia's suffering. She was quickly made an example of in front of the remaining prisoners, risen into undeath with her soul dragged back to her body by the real vengeful Seleste, interring the elf as a weakened banshee. Riley's wracked wail echoed through the prison chamber, nearly deafening those still locked within. The forced occupation of Riley's soul back into her malformed corpse immediately caused a minor schism between the members of the Horde present; some disagreed with the forced raising, claiming it was not the Forsaken's way, and others encouraged Seleste, saying that the high elf had it coming.

Left to her devices with the remaining prisoners, Rilennia, after much trepidation, gradually opened herself to the merits of amateur hemolurgy - a twisted irony that her lover Tyrvarryn Shadowmist employed the darkened power with great skill; relying on the blood of her own corpse and those of the willing injured to maintain sanity and control of her body.

It was during this adaption period that Rilennia attempted to attack the remaining guard Arthalden with her new talents for hemolurgy for physically lashing the bishop Kimberly Sweete. This was very untimely as a rogue Forsaken agent by the name of Josandus Hartchorde, looking to defect, had falsified release documents and arranged for yet another illegal prison break. With help from an unexpected change of heart by Arthalden, who also ensured that the elf's chicken Alectryo was safely returned, Rilennia escaped with the others and ended up back at the re-appropriated Monastery, where she met with Wey and had her wounds stitched by a strange man claiming to be a doctor.

The following morning, Rilennia was addressed by the Forsaken defector Josandus and the Master Sergeant Soreka Blackblood; along with the timely arrival of her mate, Tyrvarryn, Riley was given the option of being indoctrinated into the Ebon Blade for the protection of herself and the citizens of the Alliance both, instead of being slaughtered for her resurrection by a Forsaken. The hold on the quel'dorei by Seleste was brought to light, with no real plan in place to free Riley from any residual control; discussions were made to bring Riley to Acherus for safekeeping, to bring her out of the range of the necromancer. So far this option seems to have succeeded, as there have been no known attempts to control her by the nefarious necromancer or her faithful husband.

Rilennia was taken to Acherus by her mate and a small escort of Ebon members overnight, whereupon she was given the armor of an initiate - not full saronite, but cheapened ghost iron armor, inlaid with kyparite to assist in the sonic resonance of her banshee-like shrieks; the amber material having been proven during the events of the Pandaria campaign to be used in Mantid technology - assisting with the reverberations and direction of such sonic-based warfare. The following night, the elf assisted the remainder of the Alliance forces stationed at the Scarlet Monastery. She and her compatriots survived the grueling battle on the ramparts, aiding the siege engines astride the Undercity's walls.

Riley was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross and the Cross of Vanndar - the highest Alteraci award possible, bestowed by Zaria R. Blackmoore - on September 1st, 39 LC for her deeds and actions.

Ebon Blade Interactions
It is necessary to point out that while Riley designates herself as and follows the code of the Knights of the Ebon Blade, she does not fall within their typical confines and infallible restrictions; "infallible" here meaning a lawful death knight on either faction that has not forcibly broken away from the will of the Lich King for their own nefarious or selfish means. In lore, rogue death knights are hunted down by elite members of the Blade and exterminated  as to not pose a threat to the tenuous peace the order has with the Horde and the Alliance - a general "that guy's not with us" mentality that is swiftly enforced.

Riley does not need to inflict pain to stave off insanity, having not been resurrected during Arthas' swath of destruction and burdened with the lust for death to facilitate the forward movement of his campaign, or cursed with a facsimile by Seleste Felsorrow upon her reanimation - however, Riley does need a steady supply of blood to keep her body functional and her mind her own. This is often acquired by delegated supply at Acherus, or by hunting wild game in Elwynn or the outskirts of Quel'thalas.

Riley's former weapon of choice, her Kirin Tor warstaff, was warped into a runeweapon on her rebirth; scratchings resembling runic markings bind her hemolurgic talents into the twinblade. In this manner she is much like a second-generation Death Knight; however, her soul is not bound. The staff only allows her the abilities to harvest and utilize blood to rejuvinate her body.

'''Riley has also retained her free will against the direct will of the Deathlord and the Lich King. '''Having been raised by a powerful Forsaken necromancer without the aid of a runeblade or any Ebon implements, Riley is not directly impacted by these two all-encompassing voices, unless directly affected by undead control spells or an imposing of a powerful lich's dominant command.

With no direct mental connection to the Lich King, she cannot hear his voice or that of the Deathlord and must be relayed orders by her brothers and sisters in death. A potential flaw for Riley is that she will follow orders from Knights above her station without question, trusting that they convey the Deathlord's absolute will.

Her fellowship with the Knights' order - internally seen as means to continue ekeing out an existence - as a whole is one of respect and fealty, and is not one willingly broken. Her only other option is that they cast her out as a rogue Forsaken against the full might of the Alliance, or that they put her down themselves.

Riley is also gaining a reputation for becoming a fence for Acherus' less-wanted, conveniently-gone-missing-from-the-necropolis goods. She offers these for sale to the living with little consideration of the power or necromantic energy they hold, with the mindset that "if they didn't want them sold, they shouldn't leave them in a back room to get dusty in the first place". Fellow Brothers or Sisters may feel free to begrudgingly accost her when she is selling goods at a local marketplace.

Taldarick Reynolds
Rilennia was trained in the ways of magic by the Kirin Tor arcanist Taldarick Reynolds, and served under him in their tenure in the Highguard. He instructed her in the seven schools, fostering in her a love and appreciation for all things arcane - being one of the sole teachers responsible for furthering her education to a point of graduation from the Academy.

Riley had heard of the arcanist while studying to pass exit exams, and resolved herself to have him take her on as an apprentice. She set up a chance meeting with Taldarick in the parks of Stormwind, allowing him to pontificate on the importance of magic, before revealing very little of her acumen; the Quel'dorei couldn't even open a portal without his extensive training, a long-struggling feat that she, with his help, eventually mastered.

She quickly developed on-and-off reciprocated romantic feelings for him that had fallen by the wayside since his return from an expedition to one of worlds opened by the many demonic invasion portals torn open through the appearance of Argus. The magus returned from a strange world not quite himself, and chose a life of burying himself wholly in his extensively dangerous chronomancy research above the life that he, Riley and their adopted daughter Nicolette had attempted to carve out for themselves - leaving Riley alone in Dalaran for months at a time before she finally moved on.

The pair often icily acknowledged each other in passing in the Hall of the Guardian, where the former has a longstanding desk; however, once Riley  was promoted to Guardianship, to where she no longer needed to serve beneath him, contact was lost. Vanishing entirely from her life a second time, either by portal or unexpected death, Taldarick has not been seen or heard of by any of their shared acquaintances since.

With Rilennia's absence from the Hall entirely in her undead state, unable to access it with a lack of arcane in her body, it has been nigh on a year since she's seen Taldarick. It is unknown if he has lost himself in the very work he struggled to master, or has went missing on yet another expedition to a foreign world. True to her deeply buried and confused feelings, Riley makes a point to ask after his well-being through every newly met Kirin Tor operative of any rank; none so far have even heard of the wily arcanist.

Alectryo II
Rilennia's beloved pet and the only officially Kirin Tor-sanctioned divination chicken; the quel'dorei used and abused him for simple matters as finding out the weather forecast and larger scale tasks such as tracking down Burning Legion holdouts and the location of higher-ranking lieutenant demons. The chicken is gifted with a supernatural cognizance, having been exposed to high levels of the Suramar Nightwell's magics while within the egg, and accompanies Riley's fortune telling as an essential accessory; many are in awe over his powers, and rightfully so, while the Quel'dorei is regulated to a translating handler.

Alectryo has, since the events of the Siege of Tirisfal, taken a considerable amount of time to re-accustom himself to his would-be master; however, with retraining, placating and plenty of snowberries, he has allowed Riley to resume her alectryomancy to the delight of enraptured crowds across Azeroth.

Wey-Chung Brokenarrow
She nearly burnt his farm down, once. He's never forgiven her. They're pretty much bloodbound, with him bestowing upon her the nickname Fridget due to her acclimation to frost magics and her inability to stop fidgeting during their first few months of knowing each other. Riley grew out of it, giving up a focus on frost to favor abjuration; to her chagrin, the nickname stuck.

Wey served as a balance and a tether to Riley's otherwise unstable lifestyle; previously a ballast to her alcoholic tendencies and inability to control her unrequited lovesickness, Wey now acts in a reverse capacity - keeping the undead Quel'dorei above the ground, assisting in finding decency in her unlife. Despite their traded barbs, it's obvious there's a familial bond between the two, forged from an unspoken experience; one that stretches beyond mere acquaintanceship.

Riley is indignant that he was awarded a higher-ranked medal for his bravery than she did while retaining a pulse.

Nicolette Rimeshard
Rilennia's adopted daughter with Taldarick and half-elven former orphan turned skilled protégé. 'Nico' is a child prodigy, a wunderkind of magic and mischief alike; she draws out a motherly side of the quel'dorei rarely seen - not that it matters, given Nico's penchant for disregarding with extreme prejudice anything Riley has to say.

Nico was adopted in a spur-of-the-moment decision prompted by Taldarick in one of his indiscernable, irascible moods - always wavering to and away from Riley in terms of romantic reciprocation, the Lordaeronian decided to give both Nico and Riley a better home by sharing his Dalaranian apartment and giving Nico the means to an education.

While the two may bicker, a softer side of Riley had been turned towards the teenager in an effort to better associate with her; since the siege of Antorus, Rilennia made more of an effort to reach out to those she cares for, Nico being chiefly among them. The half-elf child spends most of her time at the Academy, where she has been nearly thrown out twice since her enrollment; inadvertently following in the steps of her unorthodox minn'da.

Since the events of the Burning of Teldrassil, and her mother's death, Nicolette has taken it upon herself to swiftly advance through the ranks of the Academy - far surpassing anything that her mother or father could have taught themselves. Nicolette and Riley had a very rocky meeting after nearly a year of separation; the half-elf resenting Riley's unnecessary sacrifice and abandonment. They are currently working through reestablishing a familial relationship - especially since Riley's name is still on the Dalaranian apartment Nico inhabits.

Tyrvarryn Shadowmist
Riley's runic alar'amithore, and formerly the Eagles' resident runesmith, skilled in the blacksmith trade and second only to Sir Shindo Malphur with the forge and hammer.

Rilennia had taken a fondness to him for his willingness to both tutor her in the "Old ways" - impressing upon her further runic knowledge, passed down from his own Vrykul-taught mastery - and to speak up on her behalf to the rest of the Citrine Eagle; introducing her to his makeshift 'family'.

An ensuing mutual respect turned to affection leading up to and during a Horde-sanctioned air raid on Talongrab, the Eagles' base of operations, whereupon the Worgen's mastery of osteolurgy and hemolurgy repaired Riley's shattered shoulder blade in the aftermath. This action cemented a reciprocated bond between the two. Despite their starkly different backgrounds - his service in undeath aside, not to mention his nobility to her common background - the pair fostered a mutual attraction that has blossomed into phases of a romantic relationship.

With Riley's conscripted service into undeath, she has again taken on the role of student beneath her beloved alar'amithore; this time as a hemolurgist and soldier of the Ebon Blade.

Music
'''Main Theme: Woodgrain - The Queenstons - [//youtu.be/rNP1NCvWTc4 https://youtu.be/rNP1NCvWTc4]'''

[ Recollection ( ... for Memories ) ] : In Space - Royksopp - [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLnFpjHArwQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLnFpjHArwQ]

'''[ MAGIC FIGHT!! ( ... for Magic Sparring ) ] :''' Xenon (Beatmania Ver.) - Mr. T - [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mKDujQnP3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mKDujQnP3A] [ Meat Trees & Blue Jays ( ... for Taldarick's Machine ) ] : Dawn Chorus - Boards of Canada - [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRJ_uZClz4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRJ_uZClz4Y]

[ Give Unto Me ( ... for the Maid ) ] : Scarlet - Silent Hill: Homecoming OST - [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ktKG-w35kk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ktKG-w35kk]

[ You're Fond of Me ( ... for Romance ) ] : aso. - Kyoto - [//youtu.be/WJlxHoAR4Vs https://youtu.be/WJlxHoAR4Vs]

[ Arkana'anore ( ... for Furious Battle ) ] : Rchetype - Causality - [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSzmyRmK8hg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSzmyRmK8hg]

[ Time is a Flat Circle ( ... for Synchronicity ) ] : RQ - CROSSING 166 - [//youtu.be/o0_yc90FAnY https://youtu.be/o0_yc90FAnY]

[ 'Cause It Ain't For Me ( ... for Nicolette ) ] : 

Ochre - Infotain Me

- [//youtu.be/59mh3Bs1Msc https://youtu.be/59mh3Bs1Msc]