Roux Medren

Appearance
Roux is usually donned in a rough, homemade dark red and green dress with an apron, with a white undershirt. Her feet are often bare, but should she require shoes, simple brown cloth covers her feet. A shifting cloak of myriad bird feathers dons her back as a spiritual charm. For more "official" Harvest Witch proceedings (if such things exist in the rural faith) she possesses a simple twilight-gray robe, and midnight feathered shoulder pieces. Her weapons consist of a heavy halberd for actual battle, and a simple hawthorn staff for ceremonial work.

Her skin is naturally pale due to her Gilnean heritage, and a life in the dark woods of her homeland. Her entry into the larger world has given it a rural tan. She inherited a natural thickness from her mother which foretells her future as a hardy, happy matron of a Harvest Witch when she is in her later decades.

As a worgen, like many, she gains a few feet. Skin turns to gray-tan fur, and red hair pales to white, ears elongate to tufted bat-like instruments. Somehow, her eyes remain green.

Items & Equipment

 * A basic halberd
 * A cloak of green dragonkin skin
 * A cloak of myriad feathers from bird species native to Gilneas
 * A torc of an unknown metal, its color a green-hued bronze
 * A magically sealed book, its cover etched with organic designs
 * A book titled A Historical Compilation of Titan Mythology and Archaeology: Theories, Facts, and Speculation. Written by Professor Olraeyn Harrowcrag

Personality
Roux is a very hard worker. She loves the feeling of achievement from a clean home, and a kitchen that smells of spices and stews. She is undecided as to what her “true” nature is as yet—worgen, or human at her core. She is developing past her fear of the fanged and clawed form, however and spends equal parts of her days in either. Related, she previously possessed a fear of learning new druidic forms. The tales of savagekin rang loudly in her ears, and she is hesitant to lose herself anymore than she has already with the curse. Her fear of deep sleep also hinders her development.

Her views on druidism and natural magic are on the darker side, though they do not make her any less jovial in her view of life in its entirety. Roux's talents lie in enforcing the balance of death so that new life might bloom. She has a penchant for calling on flesh-devouring insects, inducing or staving off natural rot via molds or fungus. Should she end a foe with her roots, they would devour the unfortunate victim, reducing their flesh to soil. Her motto is “The tree of life's roots feed on death's soil”.

As for the Horde, she only really despises Forsaken, as it was they who tried to overtake her home. Her lessons in druidism have also instilled a distaste for deathly magics; the undead hold back nature, and are little more than stagnation. She has grown beyond an initial dislike of orcs, and has come to grudgingly appreciate the greenskins' tribal culture, shamanism and association with Lo'gosh. Granted, she'd never say this out loud. A similar view is held for Tauren and Trolls, though she has yet to grasp whatever Loa are.

As for the Light and Shadow, she preferred the latter for sometime. While the Light is the force of creation, her and her people's experiences with the Church has left a bitter taste on her tongue. As well, she identifies more with the hard-hitting, sharp lessons of the Shadow. To her, both are facets of nature. That aside, she has spent her last few years outside the Wall in the company of paladins, and the man she most recently married has opened her eyes to the balance of the Light.

She doesn't like mages much.

History
Roux was born after the closing of the Second War and after the erection of the wall that had brought the famine to the stormy peninsula of Gilneas. The family that received her were simple farmers that had nestled themselves between Stormglen and the Blackwald for a moderate number of generations on her mother's side. The family was fairly average, matriarchal Harvest Witch traditions aside. While the men-folk of the family weren't entirely kept out, they left the majority of the Harvest Magicks to the women. So Roux grew amidst a climate of a love for nature, and a general distaste for the higher echelons of society. At such a young age, she did not much consider the wall or the dangers beyond it. All were distant mists and legend to her mind.

As the economy grew more and more stagnant in Gilneas' isolation, and farming more difficult on the rough coast, Roux hesitantly took a job as a house maid for a decaying noble house lead by one Lord Willelm. Her knowledge of the pulse of nature was a boon to the estate's graying gardens, and she learned that perhaps not all nobles were complete wastrels. Ignorant, short-sighted, but not bad people. It was here she would gain a hint of her true calling in nature's cycle. As Roux was wandering the grounds during some hour off, she found an errant rose bush in a forgotten corner. The blossoms were a dark sanguine, classic Gilnean petals. The poignant aspect about the scene were that the bush's vines had grown around the stark bones of a dead deer. Life had fed on death, and though she could not put the words to it at the time, the image would remain in her mind and heart.

After some years passed, the famine she was born into would be ended. She aided her mother and the other Old Ways followers as she could. While they actively grew the harvest, she aided in support. Rotting the dead and dry things to add structure to the soil.

Time would pass fairly uneventfully. The income from work as a maid would supplement her family's needs well enough. They never sought to be rich, and the extra coin kept them from the deeper pangs of hunger. There had been rumors and dark news of strange, vicious murders under the starlight. Whoever had committed them did so with the savagery of a beast. Howls echoed in the Blackwald, more chilling than any wolf. As well, the outside world and its strife was beginning to slip its fingers past Gilneas' great wall.

The first of such would be a strange mental sickness that swept across the country. People began to fall asleep and not wake up. If they moved at all, it would be to sleep walk and assault anyone around them as they lived their nightmares. Unbeknownst to the nation, Gilneas was reeling with the rest of Azeroth as the Nightmare waged war in the Emerald Dream. Roux, to her family's sorrow, would end up a victim—her young mind and spirit were little match to the shock waves from the spiritual war.

She would dream unlike she ever had before. One of these dreams touched on the mark on her spirit left by the rose-tangled bones. She stood in a glade, gray and desolate. In the middle stood a favorite tree of hers—the hawthorn. Though it too was gray and gnarled. She saw the tree, every part of it once. All its inner workings, the pathways where life would flow if such touched the glade. Around her, the glade turned to ash, the flakes drifting to the tree on an unfelt wind. As they settled on the great tree's roots, they were absorbed. Missing pieces in the tree were filled in, and the whole was strengthened. A small brook she had not noticed gave the tree drink, and soon (if time meant anything in dreams) it bloomed. Though she would barely remember this scene, she took two lessons from it; sacrifice and pain were necessary for strong, vibrant life.

The majority of her dreams during this time were like those of many others. True nightmares, ones that had her clawing at her family in terror. She would carry a fear of very deep sleep ever since.

This trial would pass as others, and make way for a new one: the infection of the worgen curse.

Roux's small home was assaulted by a group of five of the beast-men. Her father would fall in the defense of his family, despite his skill with the rifle—something he carried from his life in the city. He had never spoken much of it, and it seemed Roux never would learn much. His sacrifice gave Roux and her mother a chance to flee, though it did not last long. One of the five caught up with them and tore into them enough to infect them, leaving them before they were rent enough to die to answer a howl of one of his pack mates. Mother and daughter would turn together, then run together, then be caught together sometime later for the alchemical cure.

This trial passed as well for yet another; the assault of the Forsaken on her home. With it would come aid; the ships of the kal'dorei and their knowledge of the worgen curse.

Hope seemed bright for Roux and her mother, though it would be cut in half as the dagger of a Forsaken rogue would slice the family in two. Her mother, still strong in fury from the new curse was able to end the errant undead, though neither her or Roux's natural healing gifts were enough to save her. Roux buried her mother, and made her way to Tal'doren alone, with little time for tears. She was thankful for two things; her mother was safe from the curse of undeath, and she had faith enough she would see her again when she met her ancestors.

Roux found balance amidst the grief via the ritual at Tal'doren and found her human form again. From here, she would set off for Darnassus with the other refugees with little but the clothing on her back and her mother's staff.

In the pale elven city Roux learned of the curse's deeper druidic nature. Many of her Old Ways kin delved into the deep sleep required to learn further. She did not. The fear of such sleep remained from the nightmares brought on by the war in the Emerald Dream. She also still possessed a fear of her worgen form. She did not want to lose her humanity and mind further.

Soon enough she would find a convenient distraction; Lord Willelm, the same lord she had served under as a maid. He had little interest in druidism or the curse, being a typical Gilnean business man. He was ready to set out into the world and get his foot in the door of the open world's riches. He had bought a matchmaking business off a strange creature called a draenei. Roux would accompany and aid him for a time, but her anger over the Forsaken's assault would prove too strong to let her aid a neutral group such as this—it served both Alliance and Horde.

After a time, she left and set off on her own and found Stormwind. New friends, and new trials would soon beset her. She would fall in love twice: the first time being with a simple Old Ways woodsman named Hadrian wood who would die at sea. The second would be a priest of the Light named Paulton Cooper, who she would marry for a time.

She found an odd group to settle in with--the Order of Virtue. A fairly humble order of Light believers, though they accepted others if their morals aligned. She tagged along on their doings, a key point being Westfall against the Defias. A low point for Roux, she would let her rage at a certain Defias' betrayal of Cristovao, the order's leader, influence her use of her druidic gifts towards cruelty and malice.

She also began to overcome her fear of the Emerald Dream enough to learn her avian form; a massive carrion bird that looked, essentially, like a black mix of a lammergeier and a crow. This would be her favored form ever since.

The biggest of her trials would be the battle for Hyjal against the forces of Ragnaros and the Twilight Hammer. She joined the Cenarion Circle here under a Keeper of the Grove named Buhayos. This was also her first real exposure to members of the Horde; she never became close with any of them, though opinions did shift to a degree. She developed as a druid and as a person. Paulton would leave her here, ending their marriage due to the sever melancholy brought on by the battles; he was not made for war.

TBC

Skills and Abilities

 * Faerie Fire - Roux's faerie fire spell takes the form of a bioluminescent fungus that grows on the target. It's effects are the same as any other druid's.


 * Sun Scorched Fields - Her sun-focused spells (Wrath, Solar Beam, and so on) take on a harsher bent, though they are no more powerful than any other druid's. Should an enemy be struck they would experience severe solar radiation burns or experience an illness that renders them unable to cast.


 * Don't Breathe - She is adept at assaulting with fungus, mushrooms, and spores. They take on various effects such as soothing, putting a foe to sleep, or rendering them unable to attack via hallucinations.


 * The Swarm - She is skilled in calling small insect swarms to her. More specifically carrion insects such as flies, beetles, or worms. She usually uses these to recycle a corpse to feed the soil. Or, if in danger, they provide a fair distraction.


 * Feed the Earth - Her roots are usually a finishing move of sorts. When called, she bids them to bind, crush, or otherwise rip a foe and drag them beneath the earth when slain.


 * Balance - She is not the best healer, and if she restores any plant matter she has to do at the cost of something else. She also is not skilled in changing forms; bear, cat, and sea lion are very foreign in form and function to her. She is currently learning to take on the aspects of a crow, and beyond that, her final form will be a moonkin.


 * Nature's Janitor – Roux is not skilled at healing flesh wounds. What she has found she's good at is cleansing corruption, though she isn't on the same level as a specialized and practiced Plagueshifter.

Other
She speaks with a very thick rural Gilnean accent. Her name is a reference to her red hair, and a joke by her mother to reference the cooking ingredient.