Alleryn de Ladinne

=Physical Description= Alleryn is tall, middle-aged, with silver hair and light brown skin. She typically wears the crimson of an Alliance Field Marshal, a pendant with the Alliance's lion head, and three rings; a de Ladinne family signet, the Field Marshal's signet, and a mysterious stone the colour of flame.

=Personality= Alleryn is understandably unstable, as both a warlock and a survivor of at least a dozen major conflicts over the Three Wars period of human history including the First Battle of Stormwind, the Battle of the Thandol Span and the Massacre at the Dark Portal.

However, she is often calm, reserved and on guard--dealing with social interaction mainly through sarcasm and aloofness. However, prolonged exposure to stress and conflict tend to bring out her long history of soldiering on battlefields, reducing her linguistic tendency from nobleborn to muck-born peasant, and making her far more prone to violence.

=History= Born nineteen years before the First War, Alleryn de Ladinne was the fourth daughter of an out-of-the-way lordling with a small keep in the Hillsbrad region.

On her twelfth birthday, one of the Magocrats of Dalaran appeared at said keep and her father hosted him to a feast. He then explained that he had been drawn here by a minor twinge; the lordling's daughter would someday, if not already, be able to access the supernatural. Already being somewhat ashamed of his youngest daughter, who had shown no inclination to learn any song, nor recite poetry nor do anything useful in the court, was glad to entrust the mages with little Alleryn.

By fifteen, even those mages had noted her recalcitrance to follow Mageocracy rules and custom, her apparent fascination with crystal, and her incredible curiosity about spells revolving around plasma, flame. Tales had begun to circulate about students hearing her voice in the night. About how her competition for instructors' favours always seemed to suffer from sudden bad luck or mishap.

Finally when she was sixteen, she failed to appear at role call. Some trackers were dispatched, and finally located her at the village of Southshore where they were too late to interrupt her from signing her name to a Sergeant's enlistment papers. Upon attempting to take her by force, the Magocracy were stymied by the unveiling of a decree putting the secular authority before any past allegiances after enlistment.

With all the stories and reports from her instructors, the Magocracy understandably didn't try too hard to get her back after the unveiling of the decree, merely warning her squad sergeant that she was dangerous and needed to be watched. The squad sergeant reportedly chewed on his cigar for a moment, then responded, "If she wasn't dangerous, we'da sent her home."

Alleryn de Ladinne's first patrol, after orientation and several interviews with the magical hierarchy in the Lordaeron Military and being granted an immediate commission of corporal based on intelligence and power, was on the border between Arathor and the Foothills.

By the time the First War broke out, she had the honourary rank of Knight but had not been granted any lands, as was the custom with the advancement of squad mages.

She continued to serve in many of the hotspots during the subsequent Orcish Wars, including the First Battle of Stormwind, and was part of the exodus to Lordaeron.

During the period of re-organization and re-arming between the sacking of Stormwind and the assaults on Khaz Modan and Tol Barad, Alleryn was promoted again to the honourary rank of Knight-Captain and placed as advisor to a Field Marshall in command of one of the legions defending the Thandol Span. During that long pitched battle lasting most of the war, she distinguished herself several times for bravery and ruthlessness.

At the end of the battle, as resources and troops were brought to bear to contain and slowly push the orcs back into the Dark Portal, Alleryn was granted personal command of a legion herself. Her efforts, along with several dozen other commanders, made the slaughter at the Dark Portal and its subsequent closing possible.

Through the intervening years, she rose to pre-eminence, officially becoming a Marshall during a ceremony at the newly re-made Stormwind that also commemorated other veterans of the same battle.

As the Third War broke out, catching the newly founded Alliance completely by surprise, Marshall Alleryn and her Legion were deployed to the defense of Alterac and surrounding environs. They were mostly inneffective during this time period, as numbers poured over them.

At the conclusion of the Third War, with much of the Alliance still completely clueless about how and why the Legion had left the world until much later (save for Lady Proudmoore's Theramore Guard) the armed forces were re-purposed for rebuilding purposes.

Alleryn was attached to a Kirin Tor circle that entered the ruined city of Dalaran. While there, she recovered a grimoire from the corpse of a slain Dreadlord.

While perusing the volume, she discovered many of the rituals and spells she had learned during her formative years speaking with the night in Dalaran, along with many more, and far more advanced arcane secrets. Her love of power emerged, and she took her first steps down the path of shadow and flame in those otherwise unremarkable years.

Much later, when warlocks had become a recognized force in the world, Alleryn was again promoted during a long struggle in the Alterac peaks against a small orcish tribe engaged in a guerilla campaign against the established dwarves in that region known as the Frostwolf Clan.