[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: Lady Liadrin

Occupation: Blood Knight Matriarch, paladin trainer, scholar of the Light

Race: Blood elf

Class: Paladin, priest (formerly), warrior (formerly)

Age: 209

Group affiliations: Horde (citizen), Kingdom of Quel’Thalas (citizen), Blood Knight Order (supreme leader), Shattered Sun Offensive (now disbanded; former member and officer)

Known relatives: Salandria (adopted daughter), High Priest Vandellor (surrogate father)

First appearance: “Well who woulda thought”

Key posts and plot points:

• Even though Lady Liadrin has more lore behind her than most people realize, you probably wouldn’t wouldn’t know it from her in-game appearances, which consist of a few events (albeit important ones) in The Burning Crusade and a cameo in Wrath of the Lich King, before she returned to the stage in Warlords of Draenor. Those of you who are interested in learning more about the canonical Liadrin should visit her Wowpedia page; for blog purposes, a recap of a few quick details might prove useful.

• Liadrin was the first of the Blood Knights — blood elf paladins — and remains the matriarch of the order to this day. Originally, the Blood Knights attained their command of the Light by siphoning power from the captured naaru M’uru, whom they held captive in Silvermoon (in the same cellar, notably, in which Rommath’s magisters attempted to open a sha container in  this quest and this blog tie-in to said quest). After the events of Sunwell Plateau, Liadrin realized the depths of her error and repented; she went on to reform the Blood Knights and periodically address blood elf pilgrims at the Sunwell about the path that had led herself and her people to where they are today.

• Garrosh was first introduced to Liadrin during the Anti-Plague of Southshore storyline. When Garrosh uncovered a likely link between the anti-necrotic effect killing the Forsaken, the creation of the Ashbringer, and possibly the naaru, Lor’themar Theron recommended Liadrin to the Warchief as an expert on all things Light-related. She eventually joined Garrosh, Mokvar, Faranell, and (spirits help us) Utvoch in traveling back in time to old Hillsbrad to find the anti-plague’s source.

• In the aftermath of the Southshore mission, Liadrin played a major role in the subsequent Timequake arc, in which our characters discovered that Faranell had inadvertently disrupted history to catastrophic effect. In the resulting alternate timeline, Liadrin was leader of the Argent Crusade and bearer of the Ashbringer (replacing a fallen Tirion Fordring) (Once again, Blizzard, WCB got there first!). With the proper timeline restored, Liadrin remains one of the only people (along with Garrosh, Mokvar, Faranell, and Utvoch) who remember the events of the alternate universe.

• After the purge of Dalaran (“Spazzle Speaks: Someone Must Have Kicked You Around Some”), Liadrin was charged by Lor’themar with helping coordinate the influx of Horde refugees into Silvermoon. While doing so, she found a half-draenei, half-orcish girl among the refugees. Weeks later, with the Warchief temporarily back in Orgrimmar, Liadrin introduced Garrosh to his daughter, Shayari.

• Liadrin has taken it upon herself to help provide a support system for Shay, and has generally become a mentor of sorts for her.

• A few years ago, during the Outland campaign, Liadrin adopted blood elf orphan Salandria, whom many players will remember as the orphan they escorted around Outland during Children’s Week. (Please try not to hold the agony of the battleground achievement against the poor girl.)

• Liadrin appears fairly adept at handling the more…difficult members of the supporting cast (I won’t name names, but smart money says the letters D and U feature prominently).  Maybe it’s her background as a paladin trainer. Or experience raising a small child.

• During the time-traveling mission to Southshore, Liadrin helped cover for Mokvar on a few occasions when he wasn’t free to record transcripts, making her, albeit briefly, Garrosh’s first subtitute/alternate scribe. (Sorry, Gurtash and Tak, she beat you to it!)

• Liadrin rides a horse named Redemption. She is (in blog continuity) the current wielder of Quel’Delar.

• A quick peek behind the curtain: Long, long ago, in the early days of the blog, I’d intended to draw the supporting cast (other than Spazzle, who was around from the start) from actual lore characters. (So much for that idea, huh? Gurtash, Taktani, and Shayari say hi.) While people like Garona and Saurfang appeared (and will continue to do so), I tried to draw more heavily from less prominent, peripheral characters — questgivers and other NPCs who are in the game, but were unlikely to factor significantly into Blizzard’s plans going forward. Hence we got people like Mokvar, Faranell, and, of course, Dontrag and Utvoch. Liadrin likewise fell into this group — while she had a significant place in lore, and she was a character I was rather fond of myself, she also hadn’t really been heard from since TBC, and she seemed like a character I could use for my own purposes without having to worry much about Blizzard doing something with her. And so, of course, in a move akin to a certain someone’s surprise promotion to Treasurer mini-boss, guess who Blizz decided to dust off for Warlords of Draenor? (Don’t worry, though. It’s going to end up working for me.) (In the end, they will all serve me. BWAHAHAHAAA!) (Ahem.)

In her 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 killed by Amani trolls while I was still young; in their place, High Priest Vandellor took it upon himself to raise me. He was the closest thing to a father I would ever know. It was under his guidance that I first began my study of the Light, at the time as an acolyte priestess. Vandellor died many years later, during the Scourge invasion of Quel’Thalas. My grief over the loss of Vandellor and the devastation that had been dealt to my people drove me to forsake the Light and take up the blade of a warrior. Eventually, Grand Magister Rommath would suggest an alternate path to the Light, one far less supplicating. My judgment, at the time, was…erroneous.

How vain are you? Do you find yourself attractive?

Go ahead, make the obvious blood elf jokes over that one.

That said, I like to think I’m at least as pretty as Lor’themar. Which, I suppose, is still saying something.

Is there one event or happening you would like to erase from your past? Why?

There have been losses and pains, both personal and massive in scale, that I might wish had never happened. I don’t believe that makes me very different from most who’ve lived through – or during – these past several decades. As for erasing them altogether? I’ve already seen the ripples that can follow even a tiny change in the past. What has happened has happened. It has made me who I am now, and the world what it is. Better for me to live with both.

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

The fall of Silvermoon was one, for certain. It drove me to what I believed was my darkest, lowest point, one of anger and grief and despair. Little did I know that I would still find a lower depth to crawl into, hidden away in a Silvermoon basement.

The turning point that I think of most, though, was the one that saved me (at least I hope): the rekindling of the Sunwell. The spark of M’uru – the Naaru we had once imprisoned and fed on to empower the Blood Knights – reawakened the energies of the Sunwell and began the salvation of the very people who had once been his captors. Who had pushed M’uru onto the slow fall into darkness…

It was the moment I fully understood the true magnitude of my sins, and the moment I was offered the strength by which I might yet find redemption.

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

While I would never call myself an expert, I try to keep myself current and adequately proficient in new technology. I will never understand the impulse exhibited by some to treat age as a justification — or, worse, a mandate — for willfully falling behind. There is hardly time more pointlessly wasted than that spent stubbornly fighting yesterday’s battles.

Are you an early morning bird or a night owl?

I prefer to rise with the sun. I hate to waste daylight.

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?

Vandellor was like a father to me – more family than my real parents, whom I had never known terribly well. Likewise, though I’ve never given birth, I can’t imagine I would feel much differently about my “own” children than I do about Salandria.

What does your desk/workspace look like? Are you neat or messy?

The popular truism about genius corresponding with messiness is, I’ve found, a misconception. An orderly space goes with an orderly mind.

Are you a good cook? What’s your favorite recipe?

Goodness no. I appreciate good cooking — Vandellor was quite good at it — but I’m thoroughly, hopelessly unskilled in the kitchen myself. Thank goodness Silvermoon suffers from no shortage of restaurants, and the matriarchy of the Blood Knights carries with it fairly generous compensation.

Do you have any irrational fears?

Speaking in front of groups makes me uneasy. As a matter of professional necessity, I’ve learned to manage the anxiety to the point that I can typically go about my business without dwelling on it, but it’s never fully gone away. (What’s the old saying? It’s the mark of a professional that she does good work even when she doesn’t feel like it.)

What would your cutie mark be?

I don’t know what that is. I suspect I would be embarrassed to know. If I were 120 years younger, I suspect, I would still be embarrassed to know.

If you could time travel, where would you go?

That’s an interesting question. I’ll have to give it further consideration. In the meantime…next?

What’s your favorite comfort food, favorite vice, favorite outfit, favorite hot drink, favorite time of year, and favorite holiday?

The Wayfarer’s Rest Tavern in Silvermoon serves a venison stew that I can’t get enough of on cold days. I can’t imagine why someone would have a favorite vice, although I’ll confess that, for personal reasons, I do feel a certain sympathy for hubris. I usually wear my Blood Knight armor, but in my down time, I’m not terribly picky; if I have an opportunity to be out of my armor for a bit, my main priority is simply comfort. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fond of swiftthistle tea with honey. There isn’t very much variation in the seasons in Eversong Woods, really, but for what little difference there is, I suppose I favor the winter — more excuses to indulge in that venison stew. The Harvest Festival, as it is observed within the Horde, resonates deeply with me: an annual reminder that, whatever our sins, the path to redemption is never beyond reach, however hard a road it may be to walk.

How do you smell? Do you wear perfume or cologne?

No perfume. It simply strikes me as…well, silly, I suppose. Though I do try to practice adequate hygiene so as not to give off any other odors. So…I smell clean, I suppose?

This was an odd note to end on. Who compiled these questions?

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