Roleplaying as an Auchenai

[Trassk]

The wonderful thing about draenei, is because of their long extended ages, if you want to rp as one from the alternative universe, you can do so, something almost no other race can do in terms of timeline.

The recent post over on blizzard watch about roleplaying a draenei and taking their age into account makes it an open door, and it got me thinking about how fun it would be to rp as a draenei from this alternative draenor.

I then got thinking about something that hasn't really had an answer fully, and gave me the opportunity to experiment with the idea. One of the overarching factors with the draenei has always been their whole connection to the light, that of all the races, they are considered the most pure or light worshipping. Even with some going rogue and returning to the eredar coming demons, the draenei in general are the most light worshipping race, putting the humans method of it to shame, given they have their physical gods of light around them.

This is when I began to think about the Auchenai. Now going back to early warcraft books, I believe it was beyond the dark portal, in this there is a section where the alliance forces meet the Auchenai in auchindoun, and we get a general idea of what they are, but its vague. Then we come to TBC, and as far as what we have to go on in this, after the destruction of auchindoun, the Auchenai lost it, went mad, and became a threat to anyone close to auchindoun.

What I've found interesting about the Auchenai, more so then a lot of other aspects of the draenei and their orders, is just what the order has to give itself over to. They kind of remind me of how the shado-pan work, much like with the pandaren, while with regular pandaren are all happy and bouncy and chipper, the shado-pan are grin, dark and fierce in their approach to what needed to be done to contain the sha.

The Auchenai make me think the same, while the regular draenei people go about their day worshipping the light and the narru, the Auchenai have to live doing a much more grim job. They have to speak with the dead spirits, they have to deal with the dead, bury them, do all the dark, morbid stuff the regular draenei don't do. In a way what happened when auchindoun was destroyed showed the kind of thing they had to deal with, and it wasn't like some dark legion bound sect, it was a sects within the draenei society, that just kept itself hidden away more.

This is why, then rping as one, I thought of playing a shadow priest as a draenei, but playing it up that the 'shadow' aspect is more the darker spiritual aspect of the realm of the dead that the Auchenai have to deal with, making this whole belief that draenei are completely white washed characters not the case as much as i use to think.

Edit: I also made it that he's completely mute, but does have some latent ability to speak though spiritual means if anyone can hear it.

[Deleted]

Well first of all, the Naaru are not gods of the Light, but are regarded as messengers. Not directly worshipped, but highly revered as beings of the Light.

The Auchenai are also not a secret sect, but includes a vast network that travels more than the average draenei as they must go to all settlements to "collect the dead" when such needs arise, they're not grim or dark either, most of them are rather cheerful if you take a look at them. The souls of Auchindoun may wander about as they wish, providing comfort and guidance to these people.

Exarch Maladaar, the leader of the Auchenai is also by far the most passionate of all the draenei leaders, as you can see. Going to incredible lengths to safeguard Auchindoun and the Auchenai, in the MU this resulted in a descent into madness and demon worship leaving most of the Auchenai to be the MU's version of the Sargerai (largely).

Of course draenei are as diverse as any race, and they wear their emotions on their sleeves, but you should regard them as what they are. One of many major groups that makes up the draenei, including, but not limited to: Sha'tar, Karabor Priesthood, Karabori, Rangari, Auchenai, Artificiers, Fey-Guardians, Aldor, Hand of Argus, Kurenai and so on.

The Auchenai Priesthood are still pretty much light-worshipers and they use the Light in almost every aspect, but the Auchenai includes ordinary fighters, vindicators, anchorites and Soulpriests. Soulpriests being completely unique to the Auchenai, they being the ones who enter the dead draenei into Auchindoun, and lays their spirits to rest.

Anyways, to bring my point to a closure, the Auchenai are not necessarily "grim", in fact you'll find the most "grim" group of the draenei to be the Rangari, the far-scouts, assassins and rangers of the Draenei. Still you have a very good handle on everything despite that, your character would easily mesh well with the Auchenai, a solemn and serious man, dedicated to his work, but a happy and chipper character who believes their work being to see to the final rest of his people, to let them become ONE with the Light would also fit in with the Auchenai.

[Caerule]

I've recently had some discussion of Auchindoun on my RP server. Basically, the Draenei are extremely long-lived, and have only been on Draenor for 200 years. So, why are there enough corpses in Auchindoun to create the Bone Wastes in TBC, and warrant the creation of such a huge and magnificent structure to house them.

Basically, it seems the dead in Achindoun aren't just the Draenei who died on Draenor, but all Draenei that have died, since the Draenei left their home of Argus, 25.000 years ago. The Draenei have travelled many worlds since their exile, but have always been forced to flee those worlds. Rather than leave their dead on those doomed worlds, to have their souls consumed by the invading Burning Legion, it seems the Draenei value their dead so much, they took them along with them. Only building something like Achindoun as a final resting place, on the world where they crashed their ship, where they settled in to make their final stand.

The importance of Achindoun and the Soul Priests becomes clear in that light. They are the keepers of 25.000 years of history, tending to the rest of everyone that ever called themselves Draenei. Certainly, it's quite a dedication to become an Auchenai, and it seems like it these dead speakers certainly don't put everyone at ease. Which isn't strange either, considering they are undertakers.

Still, as Bobthecrop says, they do guide people towards the Light and are basically dedicated to it. That said, dealing with both life and death, I can easily imagine these priests wielding both Light and Shadow in a balance. In fact, you see these priests use Shadow against their foes down in the Tomb of Lights. Still, you can worship the Light while preserving the balance. I don't think they would worship Shadow, merely use it from time to time. It's not like they are trained as healers.

As a final note, I'd take caution in making your character mute. You're already going to have a hard time as a RPer, finding ways to integrate a Soul Priest into regular RP. Adding a further challenge of being a mute might get you very little interaction. It would take you from "That dude that speaks with spirits" to "That creepy silent dude". Many characters may just wish to avoid you. That may be just the kind of challenge you are looking for in RP. I'm just urging a little caution. I've seen many people roll characters and then abandon them because the concept didn't turn out to be likeable enough in practice.