Arator Windrunner

Art by Lost Eventide Studios

General

Species
Half Elf
Gender
Male
DoB
August 08, 613
Height
5'11"
Status
Alive

Affiliations Knights of the Silver Hand (Formerly)
Scarlet Crusade

Relatives Alleria Windrunner | Mother
Turalyon | Father

Lireesa Windrunner | Grandmother
Sylvos Windrunner (Uncle)
Sylvanas Windrunner (Aunt)

Vereesa Windrunner (Aunt)
Rhonin (Uncle)
Giramar Windrunner (Cousin)
Galadin Windrunner (Cousin)

Lirath Windrunner (Uncle)
Nirenn Windrunner (Aunt)
Gilveradin Windrunner (Cousin)
Velameestra Windrunner (Cousin)

Zendarin Windrunner (Cousin, Once Removed)

Arator Windrunner is the son of Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon. He has recently been knighted as an official member of the Silver Hand, and is very close to his fellow knight, Prince Uther, and his cousin, Gil. He wields the blade, Stalwart, which is the reforged blade that Arator's father, Turalyon, wielded before taking up the broken blade of Lothar.

Description

As is the case with most that have elven blood, Arator is an attractive young man. He possesses long blonde hair that he typically keeps pulled back into a ponytail, bright green eyes, and moves with the dexterity and grace of his elven parentage. His right hand was entirely severed by the undead troll king, Zalazane, though it had been preserved by his cousin, Velameestra and was able to be reattached by the healers of the Church of the Holy Light in Lordaeron City.

Arator inherited very little of his mother's personality. He is soft-spoken and kind. He rarely prioritizes his only safety over the safety of others. He loves listening to people talk about the things they are passionate about, and loves becoming a part of the things his friends care about (which is how he began playing Hearthstone).

As the only child of the emotionally and physically distant Alleria and the exceptionally-busy Turalyon, Arator craves affection from his family and friends - something his aunt Vereesa was very willing to grant in his youth before joining the Silver Hand. He is rather insecure because of the massive shoes he has to fill as the son of the greatest Farstrider in history and one of the first paladins of the Silver Hand. That aside, he always faces forward, hoping that he will stand tall enough to make them proud.

Biography

Coming soon.

Chapter One: Matters of Life and Death

After aiding in the attack on Last Crossing, Arator accompanied Prince Uther's party in the hopes of uncovering the source of the undead siege given that they seem to have been linked to trolls. While they investigated a small cemetery that had seemingly been exhumed by necromatic magics, he was attacked by a troll that had been waiting in ambush alongside several others. While he may have been able to fend off the troll on his own, he chose to intervene on the behalf of his cousin, Velameestra Windrunner, when she was also attacked.

He used divine magic to redirect the attack to himself, and fell unconscious from the injuries he sustained. As a result, the troll easily dragged him into an open grave and vanished in a brilliant flash of blue energy.

Zalazane used Arator as a tool to taunt the party, though any real updates on his well-being or whereabouts were nonexistent until Zalazane personally encountered the group in the village of the Darkspear Trolls. The troll-king had thrown Arator's ring finger at Velameestra's feet.

Zalazane had meant to use Arator's life force as one of the first steps in a ritual for summoning Hakkar, but his plan was impeded by the intrusion of his family and friends. Arator was fortunately rescued, and he ultimately had to spend some time in recovery due to the weeks of torture he sustained.

Chapter Two:

Chapter Three: The Scales Tip

Arator was part of the entourage that accompanied Uther to Last Crossing when it came time to discuss what was to be done when the Ban'dinoriel eventually dropped, letting the Horde free to attack the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms. He also set out with Uther to Light's Hope Chapel when Arthas's horse, Indomitable, arrived without a rider, in hopes of uncovering what happened to the missing king.

Chapter Five: Civil War

Unbeknownst to Arator, following her return to the Eastern Kingdoms he started getting visited in his dreams by his cousin, Velameestra Windrunner. However, due to the sensitive nature of their return and their need for secrecy, she masked herself in the dream, and at first interacted with him via a proxy of a snow white hawkstrider she manifested in the dreamscape, and later by utilizing her vampyric shapeshifting abilities to appear as a white raven.

When Uther Menethil underwent the Ritual of Balance during his time in Gilneas, a vision of Arator appeared briefly in his visions, taking the role of the voice of reason and responsibility he so often did in their past.

During Vel's visits to his dreams, Arator had come to believe that she was some sort of guardian nature spirit that, for some reason, had taken an interest in him. However, he was moved by her presence and the beautiful sights she shared with him, and overwhelmed when she croaked that he was "not alone," as the feeling of isolation and loneliness was one that had built within him for some time. During one of her visits, he requested that, if she saw any of his family on her travels, she look out for them as readily as she appeared to be looking out for him.

While his present timeline self was not aware of the manipulation of the timeways caused by Morchuron's attempts to create the "perfect timeline", and alternate timeline version of Arator appeared during the brief reset that occurred, where he was also present at Uther's knighting ceremony when he formally became a paladin of the Knights of the Silver Hand. He expressed concern for Vel when he saw her there, as she had been acting stressed and worried, but they hadn't had the time to actually speak before the timeline began to actually collapse. During the chaos that unfolded, his shifted into various versions of himself across multiple different timelines, including a knight that bore the colors of the newly emerging Scarlet Crusade. Velameestra recalled she had seen him in the colors of the organization, but she refused to acknowledge such a thing was possible.

Arator was again visited by Vel in her raven form when she returned to her own timeline, during which he admitted that he had started to call her "Snow" as he had no other name to call her by. Vel accepted the name, and proceeded to show him more wonderous places she had witnessed, but during a time of restful silence she observed the red, burned markings on his wrists—scriptures of very old tenets of the Light—and made an inquiry about them with a nudge of her beak. Arator deflected her curiosity and said they didn't hurt him and they simply served as a reminder to help him with the burdens and weight of what he had to do, and the people he had lost. While "Snow" asked if he wished to talk about it, he refrained from doing so, as he didn't want to mar the beauty of the place she had brought him. He added that he wasn't alone anymore, and he thanked "Snow" for being there with him before he ultimately fell asleep with his head loosely cupped in the raven's wing. However, it was clear the unspoken reason for his reluctance to talk was that he feared his new companion would no longer wish to visit him if she was exposed to the guilt on his heart.

Soon after, Arator, as the Ashbringer, arrived in Andorhal with a squad of Scarlet Crusaders where he broke up a conflict in the midst of the town square where several thugs had attacked Hedanis Poisonbloom and accused him of being a vampyr. However, Arator had sensed that Hedanis was more than he appeared even if he wasn't a vampyr, and restrained the elf. The altercation was interrupted by Sigilith Avernicious, who tackled one of the crusaders and caused chaos to break out in an attempt to give Hedanis the chance to flee, but in the process the light of Arator's sword revealed him to actually be a vampyr. Arator turned his focus on Sigilith, and he was restrained in preparation for execution as Arator recited a prayer of guidance and redemption.

The execution was interrupted by the arrival of Velameestra, Uther Menethil, and several of their companions, though they all wore disguises. Vel, who was disguised as a masked elven woman with maroon hair, unleashed a [Sleet Storm] to nonlethally break up the crusaders, and Arator ordered the attackers to stand down before he was forced to take lethal countermeasures. Vel pleaded for him to stop and even called out his real name, which no one had any reason to know, and it gave him a moment's pause before he steeled himself to attack.

The altercation was very short lived, with neither side dealing lethal blows, as the Scarlet Crusaders were ultimately scattered by enchantment magic from Remnii and then barricaded off from the square via an invisible wall of force to give Sigilith and Hedanis the chance to escape after the arrival of Darion Mograine and the Torchbearers. Arator attempted to interrupt Vel's concentration on her magic, but had been unsuccessful in his attempts to strike her, and he had a tense exchange with Darion, who did not know his true identity, before he ultimately called for the crusaders to retreat as the conflict had been lost.

However, the altercation with Vel continued to haunt him even as he returned back to his superiors. He returned to Andorhal several days later in the company of Grand Inquisitor Sally Mograine and much larger force of crusaders. It had been the intention to enter Andorhal and purge the darkness from the city, especially after word of undead rising within the walls reached the Crusade's ears, but they had been barred from entering. Much to their surprise, they were turned away by king Arthas Menethil, a man they had not expected to see at Andorhal, but one they could not publicly refuse. They were forced to retreat, and they waited on the outskirts of Andorhal for several more days, during which the white raven, Snow, continued to pay him period visits.

They never got past the walls of Andorhal, as none other than Annibeth Lansing eventually appeared despite rumors of her illness, and she proclaimed the Crusade was not welcome in her city and she opted to declare war on them if they returned. The Scarlet Crusade mobilized to return to their headquarters, but Arator couldn't help but have his attention drawn to another elven woman that had not stopped staring intently at him.

Several days later, after the fall of Naxxramas, Velameestra once again reached out to Arator via a dream while donning the white raven form he had called Snow. They once again spent some companionable time together, though the dawn began to peer over the horizon, Velameestra led him to a clearing where she had conjured a crate of grain that she used as an omen to reveal the connection that had been found between the Scarlet Crusade and the activities of the Cult of the Damned, including the plague that had been unleashed in the tainted grain. Arator was conflicted by the revelation and demanded to know how she had discovered such a connection, but realization suddenly as he acknowledged his growing suspicions that her true identity was the vampyr from Andorhal, and also the woman that had watched him on the wall when the Scarlet Crusade departed. Vel was unable to deny the accusation, as it was ultimately true, and what he was saying also undeniably confirmed he was the Ashbringer despite her own personal denials.

Arator ultimately declared that he wasn't going to allow himself to be deceived anymore, and if she wanted to tell him something, he wanted her to tell him in person. He informed her he was going to be in the capital city of Lordaeron for several days, and he gave her a location where she could meet him alone. He also specified he wanted to meet who she really was. Despite his insistence, it was evident he was still very conflicted, and was even more so when the only thing Vel could utter was a request for him to be safe. He told her that she would, and the dream ended.

Appeared In

Chapter One: Matters of Life and Death

Chapter Three: The Scales Tip

Chapter Five: Civil War

Trivia

Related Pages

Categories: Alive | Chapter Five | Chapter One | High Elves | Humans | Knights of the Silver Hand | Male Characters | NPCs | Paladins | Scarlet Crusade | Windrunners