[Periodically, a post will profile one of the blog’s many supporting players. (See the first profile for more details.) Feel free to chime in with recommendations for other characters you’d like to see more about!]

Name: Eitrigg

Occupation: Advisor to the Warchief, former training overseer for new Horde recruits, former Honor Guard to the Warchief

Race: Orc

Class: Warrior

Age: 60

Group affiliations: Horde (citizen), Argent Crusade (member), Blackrock Clan (member by birth, later abandoned)

Known relatives: Ariok (son), two unnamed sons (deceased) (That is, two sons whose names have not been established, not two sons whom Eitrigg didn’t name. Because that would be not just weird, but actually more than a little cruel.), six unnamed siblings (deceased)

First appearance: “LOK’TAR OGAR!” (first mention), “By my right as Warchief” (first full transcript appearance)

Key posts and plot points:

• Although he didn’t make many major blog appearances early on — he was typically a background character who was often mentioned but rarely actively involved in events — Eitrigg has been influential since the very beginning of the blog. In Garrosh’s first post, he noted that it was Eitrigg’s suggestion that he start the blog as an outlet for his thoughts and reactions. So, you see, you have Eitrigg to thank/blame for the existence of the Warchief’s Command Board in the first place!

• Eitrigg has been an aide to the Warchief since shortly after Thrall established the new Horde. Early on, he has served in a number of capacities, including an advisor and a member of the Warchief’s Honor Guard. Interestingly, in the quest The New Horde, Eitrigg indicates that Thrall had charged him with overseeing the training of new Horde recruits; it’s worth noting that, in contrast, within the events of the blog, Eitrigg appears to be completely uninvolved in the military trainee program that Garrosh initiated.

• One of Eitrigg’s notable appearances came in “Anger management,” in which he accompanied Tirion Fordring to Ben-Lin Cloudstrider’s group counseling session as a sponsor. Evidently, Highlord Paragraph gets a little irritable when he dips into the booze, a habit that his friend Eitrigg tries to curtail with mixed success.

• When Garrosh left Orgrimmar to travel to Pandaria, he left Eitrigg in charge in his
  absence. As a result, Eitrigg was left to deal with Mokvar’s odd behavior in the early stages of the We All Have Our Demons arc. After Mokvar fled from Orgrimmar following a rash of suspicious behavior, Eitrigg issued the order that, despite their long association as advisors to the Warchief, Mokvar was banished from the Horde.

• Garrosh eventually lifted Mokvar’s banishment and grew less confident in Eitrigg’s ability to mind the shop effectively. As a result, Garrosh installed Kor’kron overseers, particularly Overseer Elaglo and Overlord Runthak, to supervise and “advise” the senior orc. Eitrigg has, as a result, found his position in Grommash Hold even more marginalized than it already was, a detail that wasn’t entirely lost on his son, Ariok.

In his own words:

Describe your relationship with your mother or your father. Was it good? Bad? Were you spoiled rotten, ignored? Do you still get along now, or no?

My parents were stern but honorable. While they took the responsibilities of parenthood seriously, they were not particularly warm or sentimental. As they were parents to seven children in the oft-hostile environs of Gorgrond, I imagine they viewed niceties as luxuries they could rarely afford. I was the second youngest of the seven, and while my mother and father gave what care I required, they had no wealth of available time that would allow them to lavish attention on any one of us, least of all me. We all survived (the same could not be said of all my contemporaries or their siblings), so by the standards they set for themselves, they were successful.

Name one scar you have, and tell us where it came from. If you don’t have any, is there a reason?

None that can be seen.

How vain are you? Do you find yourself attractive?

I consider myself quite unremarkable. I have always viewed myself so, I suppose, though in recent years when I have looked back at old etchings of my likeness from my youth, it has occurred to me that I was perhaps too hard on myself. I suspect we do not appreciate the attractiveness of our youth until it is long past. Either that, or the sketch artist was overly generous in his depiction of me, perhaps in an act of kindness born of sympathy. I would not rule it out.

Who do you trust?

Thrall, Varok, Vol’jin. I do not yet know Baine so well as I might like, but in our every dealing he has impressed me as the very likeness of his father. Above all others, I trust Tirion, who threw away the comfort and station of his family line on the hope that a member of a race he had known only for its barbarism might nevertheless have honor within him.

Can you define a turning point in your life? Multiples are acceptable.

If anything, my life has been an endless string of turns. While rarely easy, my youth in Gorgrond was probably the most stable time in my life. After that, life for me has taken the form of a zigzag rather than a line. The coming of the Legion and the pact with Mannoroth. The invasion of Azeroth and loss of our own world. The death of two of my three sons at the hands of supposed Blackrock kin, which led me to abandon the clan of my birth and forsake my own kind for the wilds of Lordaeron. A chance encounter in that alien land with a human paladin, which would open the door to the unlikeliest of new kinships. Thrall’s restoration of the Horde and his invitation for me to return to it at his side.

Through it all, I persevered as best I could with, I hope, what honor and dignity circumstance would allow me. Perhaps now, in my final years, fate will choose to grant me the stability I haven’t known since my earliest. Either that, or fate is merely lulling me into a false sense of security before throwing me once again into another sudden turn.

Is there an animal you equate to yourself?

A kodo. It is a beast neither glamorous nor frivolous, belligerent nor fawning. It has its tasks to perform, whether for its kin or its upright-walking masters, and it performs those tasks without complaint or ceremony.

How are you with technology? Super savvy, or way behind the times? Letters or e-mail?

I cannot say that I have much affection for technology beyond the sorts of devices whose workings I can readily observe and apprehend. The catapult, the wagon, various tools of craftsmanship and agriculture. I do not fully trust machines that perform their tasks invisibly as if by magic. (Perhaps it is the warrior’s mindset in me; perhaps had I been raised a shaman I would feel differently.)

I have, nevertheless, tried to keep myself aware of newer technologies. I still do not trust them, but there are many things in life not to be trusted; to take that as an excuse for ignoring them only courts trouble. I am familiar, therefore, with the workings of the online and make regular use of the email. I suspect I am one of the more proficient computer users of my contemporaries, so I suppose I am not so bad with technology. Either that, or my peers are simply terrible with it. I would not rule out the latter.

At the very least, I knew enough about the internet to suggest to Garrosh that he might start a blog. I was rather surprised when he took my suggestion. (He is not generally in the habit of doing so.) In any case, I suppose you might consider me at least partially responsible for the Warchief’s blog. I have looked in on it, rather inconsistently, from time to time. I feel I might owe several people an apology.

How do you react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold?

I am not bothered by cold. I recall several of Tirion’s colleagues in Northrend complaining about the temperature in Zul’Drak. I could not imagine why they found it so unbearable. For me, the opposite was true. There is a reason why hell is hot.

Sadly, I am not in a position to dictate the temperature of my workplace. Garrosh evidently prefers to keep a warm hearth, uncomfortably so in my estimation. I have, over the years, attempted to point out the needless expense he incurs by refusing to turn down the heat, but as is usually the case, he rarely listens. You would think he would at least have the front door to Grommash Hold sealed. But, oh no, much better for us to heat the whole Valley of Strength.

Are you an early morning bird or a night owl?

An early morning bird. I get up at sunrise, perhaps earlier in the winter months. I do not know, at my age, how much more time I have remaining, and I prefer not to waste more of it sleeping than need be. I will have plenty of time to sleep after I am dead. Or after 9:00 PM.

Are there any blood relatives that you are particularly close with, besides the immediate ones? Cousins, uncles, grandfathers, aunts, etc. Are there any others that you practically consider a blood relative?

All of my blood relations, save for my son Ariok, are dead — many, like Ariok’s two brothers, gone far before their time. I consider Tirion my brother; though his blood is not orcish, that blood — and mine — nevertheless bind us in honor. I just wish he would lay off the ale.

If you could time travel, where would you go?

The future, many years hence. I would like to see how all this ends, and I cannot imagine I will still be alive when the many questions of our age are finally settled.

Previous Profiles:

1. Spazzle Fizzletrinket
2. Ben-Lin Cloudstrider
3. Dontrag and Utvoch
4. Taktani
5. Korrina
6. Mylune
7. Mokvar
8. Ruekie
9. Tirion Fordring
10. Lady Liadrin