Rease Stoneheart

History

Early Life and Education

Rease Stoneheart was born in the city of Stormwind several years at the conclusion of the Second War to Stonemason Andrew Dylan Stoneheart, and his wife Lynn Ann Stoneheart in the Old Town District of the city. Born as an only child to the couple, he was raised with the hope of carrying on the family name, and to follow the familiar trade for which his family had earned their surname from generations before.

Childhood for young Rease was much the same as any child of the era and area however. He was raised with neighbors who looked out for one another and helped raised children in a communal setting, and who poverty and hardwork was a way of life. Though despite the hardships that his family faced due to a lack of resources due to their laborer caste within society, the Stoneheart family didn't go without in terms of food and love, and because of a normal childhood being allowed to do childish things it gave him a grounding in the sense of community and of what it means to live as a people together who needed to band together to survive.

Education of course was limited compared to those of higher income families. While he received a basic education in Writing, Reading, Penmanship, and basic history, his true education didn't start until he was around the age of 11 where he was quickly apprenticed under his Father to continue on the family tradition of Stonemasoning. For the next 6 years he worked beneath his Father as an apprentice earning a wage for his family's household. Rising up as the sun came up, and coming home as the sun went down. Sore, tired, but a few coins richer for a wonderful meal.

However. Circumstances within his life soon changed, which set him on a different course from what his Father origionally intended for him.

Death In the Family.

Three years after being apprenticed to his Father, his Mother fell gravely ill from a sudden, fast acting infection. With little money for proper medical care, and from an inability to move her due to the Illness that raved poor Lynn Ann's body, she succumbed to her illness in less than several days, dying in the family home in Old Town while young Rease was out training, leaving his Father alone to take care of her.

This had been the first major death in the young boys life, negatively affecting him from then on as someone without a Mother. His Father, of course, never recovered from the loss of his Wife, opting to never remarry or even date from then on. Instead, focusing all of his time and attention on his young son.

While this led the Stoneheart men to grow closer to one another, having only themselves as family to one another, the loss of Lynn Ann never left the young boy saddened and depressed.

Though it wasn't the end of tragedy that ended up shaping his life into the person he is now.

Taking a Different Path

What set him to join the Military instead of remaining a laborer was one of the first defining moments of young Rease's life. Working down at the docks, setting in the tilework for several of the new docks that were being installed, the Lich King started his assault of the city itself. The Wrath of the Lich King had fully started, and the city itself was unprepared for the assault from the Fallen Prince of Lordearon.

Caught off guard, Rease nad his Father, Andrew, quickly retreated from the Docks back up the walls to the apartments above that lined the cities walkway, and were used as cheap housing at the time for Laborers for the massive Project.While others were being cut down from the swarm of zombies and abominations that were quickly swarming over the Docks, with defenses being raised quickly, Young Rease and his Father managed to fall back to their apartment and barricade the door, weilding nothing but hammers nad chisels as their only line of defense from the monsters outside.

For the first time however, something had changed within Rease as he saw his Father. Since his Mothers death, he had always looked up to his Father as someone who was stronger than him, stronger than any Knight, any soldier, any creature. Someone who always had a plan, an idea, and who would take him of him no matter what. Even at the age of 17, he had a Hero worship of his Father.

But here, for the first time he saw his Father not as the Hero he thought of him as, but instead as what he was; A person. A person who was as scared as he was, as horrified as he was of what he saw. Of someone who didn't always have the answers to everything. In a lot of ways, it was eyeopening for Rease as he saw the man not as a hero, but someone who was shorter than him, frailer than him, older than him, and someone he needed to protect. He loved thhis Father still, there was no doubt about that, but now he realized he needed to be the one to protect him instead of the other way around.

Eventually though, the hordes of undead were defeated and pushed back. And young Rease left the safety of the apartment to venture out with everyone. The cleanup, and rebuilding process was beginning again, and Rease had a lot to think about in the coming weeks.

Joining the Military

Several weeks after the Battle in Stormwind against the Lich King's forces, and the Alliance Military mobilized for War in Northrend, Rease approached his father stating his intent to join the Military.

Angered at the prospect that his only child would be sent off to fight and die in some unknown land, and that he was willing to give up years of apprenticeship and training for something he figured the Boy didn't need to be involved in, the elder Stoneheart refused. However, after several weeks of arguing, he eventually relented. Realizing that Rease was turning into a man, and he couldn't make the decision when he turned 18 anyways. He relented, and allowed the boy to join the military. Both Stonehearts reconciled with each other. Rease promising to remain with his Father since he believed he needed someone to be with him. And that they were family and needed each other.

And so on the cusp of his 18th birthday, Rease went from boy to Man as he signed the papers, and entered the Alliance Military as a recruit.

Loss of Family.

Things thankfully for the most part went well for Rease Stoneheart at this point in his life. His trianing concluded nearly 9 months later, but the war against the Lich King was drawing to a close, meaning he wasn't going to see action in Northrend. So instead, he specialized in becoming a Guardsman, who was tasked with protecting the city on nightly Patrols.

It set well with his Father, who enjoyed the idea of his son being in a relatively known location, and being someone who kept the streets safe. Enjoying the fact that his Son was home at the same hours that he was for each to share in a mela, and tlak about their day.

For all intent and purposes, it seemed that things wer egoing to be simple for Rease. However, things unfortunately changed sometime before the Cataclysm.

What started as a routine day of patroling his section of the Trade District ended in tragedy as he received grim news from a courier; His Father collapsed while working. An apparent and sudden heart attack struck him, and he fell to his knee's, passed out into a coma, and died suddelny. All within the span of 15 minutes.

It was heart breaking for the man. He had no other family, his Mother gone almost a decade before, and now his Father, the one person he wanted to change the course of his destiny over, was dead. It severely affected him, making him inconsolable for nearly several weeks before he regained enough of himself to resume his job as a Guardsman. Though, it wasn't long before another calling came to him.