Which covenant did your character pick and why?

Wyrmrest Accord
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This thread will obviously include some spoilers, beware. I’m curious as to what your guys’ characters picked, if the IC choice differs from the one you picked in terms of game mechanics and why your character picked (or was chosen) what they did.

Mild spoilers within:

Summary

The reason why I ask is that according to the ending of the initial storyline before you pick your covenant, every mortal in the Shadowlands picks one of the four covenants. That being said, we can safely assume that Sylvannas loyalists and people that only go to Oribos for trade do not. Also, I’m generally just really curious about people’s characters and what they’re doing with e’m.

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Cef went Nightfae, and it actually really fits her after shuffling some of my character plans around. The back slot with the two moths will also flow with her mog.

At the end of Legion, I made a Velf version of my long-time Horde main on an Oceanic server. I had Belf Sef and Velf Sef. Recently, joining up with a great guild A-side, I snagged the name Cef for another rogue.

With the four covenants coming, I finally put some thought into a Sef I made on Ravenholdt. I have a lot of rogues on that server on another account.

Belves were introduced at around the same time I had some RL friends join WoW. From TBC onward, Belf Sef was my main. I played on PvP servers and was drawn to subfactions, especially the Argent and Cenarion factions.

Moving to WrA, Sef got more centred on Argents as a backstory. We made < Azeroth Archives > as a preservation society/museum both for RP and because by the time WotLK was coming to a close, we’d amassed a crazy collection of rare and removed items.

As such, WrA Sef will be Kyrian. Caelestraz Sef will be Necrolord due to a chaotic nature that thrives in war.

I initially intended Ravenholdt Sef to be a throwback; a version of Sef that has everything I wanted back in TBC. She was slotted for Nightfae.

Cef here is new, made at the end of BfA and parked until I could make her look more like a High Elf.

Due to this, I didn’t mind swapping her and baby Sef’s personas to suit her taking a BiS covenant. She’s my new main, after all… so it’s fitting that she’d be aligned with that preservationist vibe etc.

Where baby Sef will be more brutal and go Venthyr.

ALL THAT SAID, I don’t plan on levelling them any time soon. But when I do, that’s the plan.

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I admit I’m still undecided on whether or not it’ll be a strictly IC commitment… but because of the “mortals must choose a covenant” line, it probably will be. With that in mind…

Sarestha would’ve initially leant towards Bastion, funnily enough. Service, kindness and selflessness are all values she prizes very highly. She’s very committed to serving Lordaeron and sees Uther the Lightbringer as a personal hero.

That said, Sarestha is dead against the idea of repressing one’s identity. This is for two reasons:

First of all she feels as though one’s past defines them. An individual’s personal history shapes who they are and what they believe - mistakes and triumphs alike. She’s always wanted to own her past, not run away from it. She’s proud that she was once a Paladin of Lordaeron, she’s ashamed that she was in the Scarlet Crusade, but she’s happy that she learned things from it. In death she’s proud to be a Forsaken, but still aims to serve her people with every bit of compassion and zeal as a Paladin. Her past defined her future, even in death.

Second, a good friend of hers, Cadias Crane… was a priest of the Light in life. He woke as a Forsaken with no memory of who he was. As a blank slate, he was easily manipulated into becoming Gaspar Cursewalker, cruel and callous Apothecary. Cadias deeply regrets what he became. Resents it even. Sarestha sees his experience as a lesson. Forget who you are… and you’re a blank slate for someone else to rewrite. In the case of Cadias, the Banshee Queen.

So identity erasure, in Sarestha’s eyes, is utterly dangerous and she refuses to be a part of it.

With that in mind, the next closest thing was Maldraxxus, specifically the House of the Chosen. The Chosen appear to believe in fighting for honour. They believe in defending and protecting their realm - which fits Sarestha’s extreme loyalty to Lordaeron to a tee. If personal glory is achieved then so be it - just make sure you’re fighting for the right reasons. That’s Sarestha’s main opinion on that front.

Perhaps the thing that sealed the deal though? Alexandros -friggen- Mograine! The Ashbringer! The single most effective anti-Scourge Paladin in the history of Paladins, with the possible exception of Tirion Fordring. If the House of the Chosen is good enough for the Ashbringer, then it’s sure as hell good enough for Sarestha. So ultimately the Necrolords, specifically the House of the Chosen, win out over Bastion purely because of the fact that they value one’s past.

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Woops, double post because I forgot to throw mine into the hat.

My Blood Knight signed on with the Venthyr because she’s an old school “the Light serves me” type and the Venthyr are a rather hardcore and ruthless faction with a strong tradition and nobility bend with the same sort MO she’s accustomed to. It just sort of suits. Everything about them vibes well with her, from the siphoning anima to the managing of noble politics.

My hunter signed up with the obvious: Night Fae. I haven’t really ironed out precisely how she gets to the Shadowlands because she’s supposed to be somewhat out of commission right now. The laziest and easiest way I can think of is that she got involved because one of her spirit bonded animal partners died. She’s had the same worg for years and would be absolutely devastated if something happened to him or any other of her ‘pets’. They’re her only family.

My monk is the one that went the spooky Kyrian route. The whole brainwashing ordeal would not trouble her in the least.

My Dark Shaman was a big Hellscream loyalist that lived for the fight, so Necrolord suits best there. It’s also the BIS covenant for resto shamans so that helps. I haven’t RPed my shaman since Mists so I have a lot of wiggle room there. Could very well say she’s actually dead and not a mortal traveler at all and that she maintains her control over the elements via the void. Haven’t really decided yet.

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To explain Fal’s choice I need to explain a bit of backstory. Fal’therin has been a ranger of Quel’thalas for nearly three thousand years. It’s his life. He doesn’t know anything else. He’s an old, experienced soldier who’s dedicated his life to protecting the forests, and the Kingdom of Quel’thalas.

In recent years, that protection took on a darker aspect. Without the Sunwell, Fal’therin put tactics over ethics, if you will. Yes, fel was life draining - an antithesis to the life he protected. But it was necessary to PRESERVE life, and so he consumed it to feed his magic addiction, like most Blood Elves. Fearing that the Sunwell was vulnerable after the damage it caused after Arthas corrupted it, Fal’therin was always skeptical after its restoration. Fel, while more volatile and dangerous, was in a way less vulnerable. Destroy a fel crystal and you destroy one of many sources of magic - and the elves simply get a new one. Destroy the Sunwell and you doom an entire race. So Fal kept seeking for new powers that could not be easily destroyed, thus granting independence from the Sunwell, which led him down the road of becoming a void elf. Here we are today.

Fal delved into the Void because he felt it could be used to protect Quel’thalas. He felt that the Grand Magister would see it as useful, not something to be reviled, if he could truly see what it could do. Fel was once considered too dangerous to wield, after all, and it saved the Blood Elven race for a time.

Anyway, so here we are today and Fal’s kinda lost his life’s purpose. Delving into the void, he believed, was a strategic move. One that has its uses but largely failed miserably. He didn’t intend to be exiled from the home he spent millennia trying to protect… but here he is. Now he’s a bit lost.

The Night Fae, for him, are somewhat grounding in a way. It’s this pristine forest. All about life, renewal, rebirth. About spending an eternity in the forest, after a long and hard life, as an animal in the forest, wild and free. He’d become a Dragonhawk if he could. :stuck_out_tongue: But I can see Fal seeing this as his ideal afterlife. It’s not the forest he spent his life protecting… but it’s a beautiful one with a reason to fight for. In a way Fal’s fallen far from being the nature-protecting Ranger of the old days. Now he wields fel and void and fights more for politics than for the simple beauty of the forests, of life, that he once wanted to protect.

I think the Night Fae will remind him of what he’s missed. There’s an innocence in those forests, a peace, that he’s really been lacking. I think he sorely needs it. And so Fal’therin, my Void Elf Ranger, is going Night Fae.

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Also, forgot to ask: what brought your guys’ characters to the Shadowlands in the first place? The campaign, or more personal reasons?

Not gonna lie, I forgot that Ravenholdt is a server because no one plays there and thought that your rogue was a member of the Ravenholdt organization for a second… Interesting that you have a bunch of different versions of essentially the same character due to server transfers though: did you keep elements of other servers’ versions, meld them all together, or is each character totally independent?

Oh man, how much is she gonna nerd the hell out about that? Has she met him yet? What about her stance on the other two factions, yey or nay? Love the incorporation of Forsaken experience and being totally squicked out by Kyrians.

That’s a really lovely and very down to earth take that my own hunter (also a former Farstrider) really jives with. At this stage, she’s disillusioned with everything after spending a long stint performing various war crimes. There was a point when she believed in all of the things she did, serving the different warchiefs in a way that Nazgrim would have been brought of, but—

She’s spent lots of time in Pandaria with the monks, particularly those at Tian Monastery, and the ruthless cruelty that animated her started to wane as a result. Her focus now is just trying to push through the day and maintaining her flock of bird ‘pets’ after losing everything that mattered to her.

I’d love to do some cross faction RP between the two at some point! The crossRP addon + the elixir of tongues is a blessing.

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Yeah, that server is so dead! Even after recent merges. But the name, and being an RP server, it was a natural choice for a rogue collection. Have at least 1 of each race there :smiley:

I think the Sef variants started out very similar, though are now more individual. The covenants probably influenced that. In my head, I do consider baby Sef and Cef as almost alternate versions, though for WrA I definitely view them as two entirely separate characters.

The customisation options were also a great thing for all that!

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Venthyr, and mostly due to Valentine having an admittedly standard Rogue archetype (no parents, “I had no one to rely on but myself!”, drinks themselves to death in a dark corner) with some adventure, haunting spirits, and magical cursed treasures.

This small vixen has committed sins of nearly every caliber you can think of. Petty thievery, robbing the graves of the deceased, pleasures of the flesh, cold-blooded murder, cheating death, if you name a crime she has probably done it.

I like to imagine her joining the Venthyr as recognizing the phantoms of the past clawing at her heels, if not outright catching up to her, something she fears more than any monster or curse. Previously she just dismissed the ghosts she saw out of the corner of her eye, drowning her regrets and worries in copious amounts of Gravy’s Mulgore firewater, before blacking out into a nightmare-filled sleep.

Now? She has to face her crimes and renounce them, repent! And she will do so until the Shadowlands has no more need of her.

OOCly, I just wanted a vampire fennec and another grappling hook!

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Thaltere was one of the few who willingly sided with Arthas when he founded the Scourge in return for being allowed to retain some limited autonomy. When he was left to be bait with the Gen3 DKs of the Ebon Blade, he threw in with them because it was the only path forward he could see, but he still believed in Arthas’s desperate hope that the Scourge could protect Azeroth from the Legion if it was strong enough.

The Necrolords are the ancestors of the Scourge, only every soldier of undeath has the freedom to advance or fall on their own merits and choose how they wish to serve. He was not impressed with the Kyrian and their low-key brainwashing, and as a champion of undeath, he doesn’t feel comfortable around the Night Fae. The Venthyr appeal to him on some level, but the necromantic power of Maldraxxus is a perfect extension of his abilities as a Death Knight. It was a logical choice for him.

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I think I’m one of the six people who went Bastion. “Duty over self” is pretty standard in most of my characters - hence why they’re almost always seen in “uniform” armor - and I’d be lying if I said my inner min-maxxer didn’t obsessively read every guide to come to a power level conclusion for the content I intend to run.

Although I will say, Venthyr for all the sense of judgement and stripping away of sin was a close in character / power level second for Opherial. Ol’ Pearl has some personality traits she should probably have examined by professional goth elves.

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Solarion gave it careful thought before deciding the join the Kyrians in Bastion. His inner scholar was loathe to give up the chance to more thoroughly study all four covenants, but he knew the Kirin Tor would cooperate with the authorities of the Shadowlands, which meant choosing.

His introduction to Bastion more or less sold him on it. Watching Kyrians training through study and meditation made him feel more that he was at home among them. He’s aware they also learn to fight, but fighting is not their purpose, just a necessary fact of reality.

So far he’ll have spent most of his time going through the various scrolls and tomes of the Kyrians to better understand them. When he learned that memories of one’s life must be suppressed/removed, he wasn’t as keen on Bastion as he’d thought, but witnessing one poor soul that had been thoroughly traumatized in life practically from the moment of birth until death essentially being rid of all those burdens changed his mind on that. He’s considered what it would mean for himself, and the thought of losing the memories of so many of his students was not a pleasant one.

He did eventually come to terms with it though. He might forget them, but if he was any good as an instructor, they will never forget him, and that is more than enough if it means he can do something worthwhile.

That said he fully intends to avoid dying for as long as possible just to enjoy his time with those memories more.

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At first my character, Edna thought she’d partner up with Ardenweald to battle the drust, she found out that’s all she had in common with them.

In fact, she preferred to chop things down rather than helping the rebirth of life so she found out about the Necrolords and now proceeds to beat things up with her wood axe and trusty shovel.

She has her eyes set on the house of constructs, thinking that their techniques can be applied to making a wicker construct beefy enough to smash drust.

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Oh she’s going to be an utter fangirl. In fact she’s going to wonder at the possibility of returning him to Azeroth and seeing if he’ll join the Forsaken :stuck_out_tongue: Alexandros Mograine is a big personal hero of Sarestha’s, and she’ll be excited to meet him, or even just see him around the place.

She hasn’t met him yet though. Truth be told I haven’t RPed since launch - been focused on leveling and, now that I’m at 60, getting my endgame in order. So I’d like to RP actually entering Shadowlands with some of my guild at some stage, probably in a week or so. Then we’ll see about covenants! I guess I’m looking to the future a bit at the moment.

To be honest I don’t think Sarestha would give the other two much thought. She’d kind of dismiss the Night Fae as “This is some weird night elf stuff I don’t understand” and she’d be sympathetic towards the Venthyr rebellion but kinda weirded out at the notion of torturing bad people into not being bad anymore.

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Auhgag chose to remain on Azeroth with his family and help fend off the Scourge. My Forsaken, however, ended up joining the Necrolords. I’ve talked a bit about this in a couple other threads. He’s a Necromancer so the Necrolords were a obvious fit. Necromancy, constructs and plague brewing are all right up his alley. He’s big on the idea that Necromancy is death’s version of Druidism and the Necrolords confirm this idea to him. I’m keeping him in a low position though, he just studies with them and provides whatever services is needed. He’s pretty much a neophyte.

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