User:Shizukera

=Physical Description= Shizu is tall and wiry, with the general appearance of one who has recently experienced a growth spurt and hasn't quite caught up with herself yet. With her flowerlike facial markings and ever-present smile, not to mention her tendency to purr at people, she has an aura of innocence and youth that belies the traumatic events of her recent past.

In terms of attire, she will most often be seen in either lightweight leather armor, or the kilt and simple leather chestpiece preferred by those who follow the path of the demon hunter.

=History= Shizukera Serreina Nightfury grew up on Hyjal with her parents, a priestess of Elune and a druid; and her brother, Faisaal, also a druid. Shizu herself had planned to follow in her mother's footsteps by becoming a priestess of Elune. Then came the Third War, and with it, her first encounter with the demons of the Burning Legion. Her father was killed in the battle at Mt Hyjal; her mother died several months later from injuries and an unpleasant fel-sickness she sustained in that same battle. In the meantime, her brother, having had a strong difference of opinion with his mother, had parted ways with the family and wouldn't return until several years later. Thus, Shizu found herself quite alone after her mother's death.

With no reason or desire to remain in this dangerous, demon-infested place, Shizu left Hyjal and spent the next few years wandering Kalimdor, teaching herself to hunt in order to survive. She eventually found herself at Teldrassil and semi-contentedly wandered the area between Dolanaar and Darnassus until she came across a night elf named Eiyah, who adopted her. She lived with Eiyah and her human husband, Corneil, first in Stormwind and then in Ironforge. It was while she was living in Ironforge that her brother, a little older and a lot wiser, came back into her life and they began to mend their relationship.

When the Dark Portal reopened, Shizu stepped up her training as a hunter, determined to aid somehow in the fight against the Burning Legion and its agents. This desire grew stronger when she became friends with Seizanna, one of the newly arrived draenei, who would eventually become Shizu's best friend as well as her sister-in-law. Frustrated at her inability to truly strike at the demons, and with nothing left for her people's most experienced hunters to teach her, Shizu has recently chosen to retrain her combat skills and to follow another path: that of the demon hunter.

While her exact reasons for choosing to walk the path of the demon hunter are not entirely clear, it is more than likely that her friendship with Seizanna - more specifically, her new perspective on the horrors wrought on others by the Burning Legion - heavily influenced that decision. Regardless of the reasons, she has sought training from two master demon hunters, one of them being Tharion Greyseer of the Netherbane school. Eager and determined to discover and maximize her potential, Shizu spends all her spare time training and studying, and she has already begun seeking out the demon whose soul will eventually be bound to her own - a fact that she is, for now, keeping entirely to herself.

=Personality= Being only a couple of centuries old at the time of the Third War, Shizu is very young by night elf standards, and wandering on her own through very dangerous areas for five years had its effect on her, setting her back a bit in terms of maturity. She has a very prominent silly side, with humor being her main defense against the horrors of the last few years, and she can be extremely stubborn, to the point of appearing obnoxious. She can be a bit flighty in spite of being quite intelligent.

She also retains the sharply defined sense of good and evil that children tend to have, with the darkness on one side and the light on the other, and has only recently begun to understand and appreciate the rather vast grey area that exists between the two extremes.

Because she experienced many losses in a short period of time, Shizu is extremely protective of those she considers her friends. If she perceives that someone she cares about is being threatened, she's known to go right out and attempt to deal with the threat in a cold but slightly berserk manner, without really thinking things through. This impulsiveness has gotten her in trouble several times, and has nearly got her killed on at least one occasion, but she has learned a lot about the importance of patience and preparation. She is less hotheaded these days, although she still has her moments, and is starting to recognize that she lacks a certain discipline. She has the strange habit of literally sitting on her hands when she thinks that her natural reaction to an uncomfortable situation would lead to trouble.

Shizu has a deep-seated hatred toward Illidan Stormrage. The reasons for this hatred are not entirely known, but her dislike of the one she refers to only as the Betrayer has only deepened since she took her first steps down the path of the demon hunter. She respects his power and recognizes his place in her people's history, but in her eyes, he willingly became exactly what she's working not to become, and her hatred toward him borders on fanatical.