Honani

Character Biography

Physical Appearance

Honani is a bit on the short side for a male Tauren, somewhere between seven and eight feet. Though the past year has put experience in him, he still looks scarcely old enough to touch liquor, let alone work as any sort of real soldier. He's abandoned the dark hood that once concealed his face, no longer hesitant to let his keen cerulean eyes be seen. The Rainsong fangs - the stigma of a spirit pact made by an ancestor in bygone days - gleam sharp in his bovine mouth, no longer a point of shame for him. His coat is like rich ink, the occasionally troublesome gift of his Grimtotem father.

He is squat and muscular and deceptively fit in spite of his soft spots. A year of rigorous travel and study helped him work out where it counted most and given him a bearish appearance his robes and other vestments can never quite conceal. But, like many Rainsong, his weight is predisposed to be greater than average, and a moderate paunch stubbornly weighs on his belt even today. He seems to have quit trying to slim down, having finally ceased his obsession with unattainable perfection.

Honani's thickset figure tends to translate into his animal forms. His cat-shape is noticeably stocky, and his bear-shape (unsurprisingly one of his favored forms) is outright *fat*, with a great swaying cauldron of a belly.

History

The last two years have been decidedly unkind to the Rainsong clan.

Many strong young men and women of the clan answered the Warchief's battle call and departed for the Dark Portal - and came home primed for burial rites, if they came home at all. Many months later, the coming of the second great Plague of Undeath further thinned their numbers considerably, from deaths due to the Plague itself and the panic and unrest that resulted.

Young Honani was among those who caught the brunt of the clan's misfortune. The otherwise carefree, happy teenager was the first of his clan to contract the Plague... and the first to succumb to it. Like most victims, his desecrated flesh rose to prey on its still living kin, to be met with flame and club and stomping hoof. The clan's meager number of adept Shaman and Druids desperately struggled to resurrect the tattered remains of their fallen; only Honani was successfully brought back, but remained in an unresponsive catatonic state for weeks. His mother Juni lost all hope and eventually blamed the Chieftain for her son's ruinous condition and for the clan's desperate straits.

When Honani at last awoke, he had undergone a chilling transformation. No longer the cheerful, innocent young bull that originally fell, he quickly adopted a harsh and unforgiving attitude; a brutal persona that would persist for many months afterward. It only grew colder when Honani gradually discovered that his mother, who he awoke to find viciously lambasting the chieftain, had paradoxically neglected him in his invalid state. The sickly youth condemned her before the eyes of his clan, and cast her away to take her chances in the countryside.

The final straw came when it was discovered that the much beloved Rainsong ancestral home - their tiny valley of no strategic importance whatsoever - had been irrevocably polluted by the Plague. Crops had been ruined; the dead in the family burial grounds rose nightly. The decision to evacuate and set fire to the valley was not undertaken lightly; and only served to harden Honani's heart even further.

A year passed. Honani followed in his wandering father's path and trained tirelessly in Druidism. The desire to hone his body and mind into weapons became a consuming obsession, and in time he forcibly beat himself clean of all desire to be anything but a force of revenge. As he worked himself, he kept a chill distance from his clan; a clan that has adopted a more staunch isolationist policy. But doom seemed to be on the horizon; the Elders could sense the death of the clan soon to come. They watched, in sorrow, as one of their few strong young druids seemed to have gradually turned against them.

One year of tension, anguish, and forlorn wandering for Honani to finally resume a state of balance. It began with his first forays into Zul'Drak, where he enlisted with the Argent Dawn and was at long last able to vent his frustration on the very force that so viciously changed his life in the first place. He destroyed Scourge wherever they crept, and destroyed them in great numbers; in time he grew to favor the explosive magics of the Balance discipline rather than risk infection by fighting them fang and claw.

But while confronting his blackest hate brought a desperately needed catharsis and gradually cooled his rage, the ashes of depression followed in its wake when Honani realized that vengeance wasn't bringing him the peace he so desperately sought. For months he swam in anger and frustration, heedless of those he hurt and shunted aside in his blind quest for revenge, and the realization that his path had become a lonely one brought a desperate, gnawing sadness and doubt.

The final grim burst of insight came when, in a moment of angry pride, Honani tried to forcibly assume the form of the Tree of Life without understanding the depths of its discipline, and found himself with a right hand painfully transformed into jagged wood. [[WORK IN PROGRESS.]]

Homeplace

None

Birthplace

Southern Feralas

Personality

A year of hard work, contemplation, and a little pain have beaten Honani mostly clean of his demons. Where there had been a callous, harsh youth, there is now a patient, friendly fellow a far cry from what originally left the Rainsong village last winter. If anything he's reverted to who he was before the illness that ravaged him - a compassionate, warm individual, slow to anger and quick to smile.

That's not to suggest he doesn't still have a sharp tongue at times, but on the whole he's taken a laid back approach to the rest of his life. Many of those who encountered him a few months back likely wouldn't even recognize him now.

Basic Character Profile

Character's Full Name

Honani Ravenhoof-Rainsong

Faction

Horde

Race

Tauren

Class

Druid

Alt List

Karama, Kunocati, Malakota, Xansaza, Leyland, Coraad

History

Member for

43 weeks 3 days

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