Joceline Silverbough

Physical Description
Joceline isn't pretty — at least not by sin'dorei standards. She's a little too short, a little too muscular, her hands are too rough and her haircut isn't really doing her any favors. Couple that with her usually-windburnt cheeks and chapped lips, and it becomes rather obvious that the problem is that she's too common-looking for the aristocratic blood elves. She looks exactly like what she is: a farm girl.

Her eyes glow dim with felfire, and her tangled hair is a ruddy chestnut, often pulled back into a simple, utilitarian ponytail. Across most of her back — stretching from her waistline up to her shoulderblades — is the bold inkwork of an orcish tattoo, depicting a floral motif. It seems to be somewhat illustrative of the renewal of life. A discerning eye might note the subtle differences between the work to the left of her spine and that to the right, suggesting the work may have been done by different hands, though the changes are subtle.

When she speaks Orcish, she has something approaching a Lordaeron peasant's accent; she struggles somewhat with the language. She smells faintly of beeswax and resins, and also the thin, clean scent of machining oils.

Mounts
Omar: A barded quel'dorei steed dressed in Argent colors. Like many of the Argent Crusade's warhorses, Omar is from the Silverbough ranch's stock. Zarathud: A tawny wyvern Joss keeps stabled in Shattrath, for the inevitability of needing to travel on the wing in outland. Malaclypse: A tawny hippogryph in Argent barding. Currently stabled in Icecrown pending Joss' return to service. In days past, Joss rode and was practically inseperable from Aneris, an albino drake who also served as the girl's confidant.

Personality
Joss is bubbly and outgoing, to the point where it may border on annoyance for some. She seems to be at her best when she's around other people, and finds herself often in the role of peacemaker, soothing social frictions. She melds well with nearly any group, and while she's comfortable as the center of attention, it doesn't seem to be something she craves or pursues with any amount of ardor.

Amusingly, for a paladin, Joceline seems incredibly lenient in her attitudes toward the Ebon Blade — from them she will tolerate social gaffes and sullen behaviour that would put her off from associating with another who had made the same mistake. This can come off as almost patronizing at times, but she is genuine in her desire to befriend them. Joss often refers to herself as the Argent Crusade's "official unofficial liason" with the Ebon Blade, due to the amount of time she spent at the Shadow Vault in Icecrown and most of her peers' refusal to do so.

She's not terribly practical, though, and while Joss is more than willing to lend a listening ear to one who needs it, she's not great with advice. Too, she has a habit of indulging herself in life's frivolities, a habit made worse by her newfound riches — though Joss was never exactly poor, she finds herself with more money than she has a need for and an appreciation for the aesthetic, though perhaps not a discerning eye.

She's as likely as not to spend her money on someone else rather than on herself, though, and delights in the act of giving gifts moreso than receiving them.

Joceline shares the blood elven obsession with appearances and station, albeit in an unusual way. Though she is not overly concerned with her physical appearance, she spends much of her time while alone worrying over what her friends and peers think of her — without the reassurance of their presence, she can come to doubt herself. As far as station is concerned, Joss seems to shy away from those who can make a claim for nobility, and has no illusions as far as her status as a commoner is concerned. She will generally refer to others by their titles, if she knows them, as a sign of politeness or deference.

Joceline's enthusiastic friendliness toward others prevents her from making too many snap judgements, but if her trust is betrayed, she exhibits a stubborn and sometimes irrational dislike toward the one who crossed her.

Joceline finds her relaxation in fishing — occasionally alone, but more often at hotspots commonly visited by other anglers — and thoroughly enjoys cooking for others. It is often her first friendly gesture to offer to make a cup of tea for her new friend.

Despite her provincial nature, Joss also has a sharp mind where engineering is concerned, and often spends enthusiastic hours poring over new schemata.

Youth
Joceline is the product of a somewhat unusual family environment; she is the daughter of Arion Silverbough, owner of the small family ranch in southern Quel'thalas, and his second wife and mistress, Thais Silverbough. Despite having no biological relation to the child, Joss was also raised by her "Maman," Melain Silverbough. As is implied by the fact that they all share the same family name, her three parents considered themselves participants in a group marriage.

While Joss was an only child, she was often surrounded by the children of the ranch hands, and enjoyed many of the close friendships and playful rivalries that were traditionally the province of siblings. Because of Quel'thalas' isolationist stance with regard to Alliance politics, the Silverboughs lived out most of Joss' early years in relative peace, the girl rarely seeing the world beyond the Silverbough ranch and the nearby farms. She was tutored largely by Melain, who taught her daughter how to read and write in Thalassian and Common. Melain was the daughter of a priest, and passed her father's faith along to the young Joceline, along with a brief overview of Thalassian history. Arion allowed his daughter to accompany him about his daily work on the ranch from an early age; it was from her father that Joss learned all she knows about veterinary medicine and training horses. Thais was the more home-oriented among the girl's parents; she taught her daughter to cook, and also the rudiments of music. Her preferred instrument was the six-stringed guitar popular in Lordaeron, on which she taught Joss to play a few songs.

During the Second War, like most elves, the Silverboughs and their ranch hands retreated to Silvermoon for asylum while the orcs ran rampant in their forests. Though much of southern Quel'thalas was torched in an effort to rout the orcs from their land — these areas later being called the Ghostlands — the Silverbough ranch survived, mostly intact.

While the Silverboughs enjoyed another decade or so of peace after the close call of the Second War, that was soon to end with the rise of Arthas Menethil to infamy. At the disturbing news of the plague overtaking the kingdom of Lordaeron and the coup in Lordaeron City, Arion Silverbough and the majority of the male ranch hands chose to conscript themselves to a Thalassian militia in the interest of protecting their borders. Like everything else in the path of the Dead Scar, they were razed, some of them reanimated in the service of the Scourge on their path north to the Sunwell.

It took Joceline several long months to come to grips with her addiction to the arcane in the wake of the Sunwell's loss, and when news came back from Outland with promises of a cure for the lethargy that gripped them all, the young elf embraced it readily, tapping into one of the large crystals that were placed in sin'dorei townships all over Quel'thalas. With a new source of magic, the girl found her way to her feet again, working to restore their ranch and train their stock of horses for war. Melain and Thais proved themselves as capable as Arion had been in running the ranch; with a mostly-female core of workers they quickly got back to their business.

Introduction to the Argent Dawn
When Joss first heard the stories traveling from the ruined western reaches of Lordaeron of a core of knights carving out a foothold for a stand against the undead Scourge, she could hardly believe it. They were described to her as a strike force of paladins; men of the Silver Hand employing hit-and-run tactics against the undead legions.

They needed horses.

It made good business sense to supply them; the Silverbough matrons acquiesced, but when Joss announced her intentions of traveling with these men, calling themselves the Argent Dawn, her mothers tried to dissuade her from the apparently suicidal notion. Joss was nothing if not resolute, however, and went south with a trade caravan. Neither she nor the horses she brought with her returned home for a long time.

To say that the Argent Dawn welcomed her with open arms would be overly generous; the humans were as leery of the sin'dorei as she was of them, both regarding the other as the deserters after Kael'thas' defection from Garithos' command. It helped, of course, that she ingratiated herself by seeing to the well-being of their mounts and lending a hand to the camp cook. She earned their trust by sharing their fires and uncomfortable bedrolls; while most sin'dorei, like the quel'dorei before them, regarded themselves as above such things, Joceline endured all the menial trials and tribulations the Argent Dawn faced outside of combat. By the time they'd retaken Light's Hope Chapel, almost a year after she'd joined them, most of the growing force of Dawnsmen had at least a grudging appreciation for the slight elven woman.

Most of them, in point of fact, were passing fond of her, for her practical knowledge and tirelessly optimistic personality. While it was agreed that having too many noncombatants with them was a liability, it was Sir Althalos Manadar of Darrowshire, also known as Manadar the Healer, who took her under his wing. A former Knight of the Silver Hand, he had served Light and King up until the dissolution of the Silver Hand at Stratholme.

Though her mother had taught her the ways of the Light, it was under Manadar's guidance that she truly came to understand the faith and the ways it could aid her in protecting and nurturing those she cared about. After nearly a year and a half under his tutelage, Joceline Silverbough knelt before the gathered Argent forces — and her attendant parents — and accepted the mantle and hammer of a paladin of the Holy Light.

Manadar gifted her with his libram on this sacred occasion; since then, she has always carried it with her.

The Battle for Light's Hope and the Expedition to Northrend
Joceline's new status as a paladin meant a marked increase in the duties she was called upon to perform; she spent the next few years taking patrol with either Sir Manadar or with one of the Arbiters, paladins who had specialized in combat against the Scourge, seeing to the horses, aiding in the camp galleys, or learning how to read schemata from a dwarven rifleman who joined the Dawn a few weeks after the opening of the Gates of Silithus. Her days became a tightly-regimented and ordered system of duties and devotions; she went from the carefree daughter of a rancher to a disciplined soldier of the Light.

During the second resurgence of the plague, shortly after the disappearance of Naxxramas, Joceline was deployed to the Undercity of Lordaeron in an effort to tend to the ailing Horde soldiers. It was the first contact she had had with the Horde en-masse since the sin'dorei had sworn in under the orcish Warchief's banner.

Joss returned to the Argent encampment at Light's Hope shortly after the appearance of Acherus over the Plaguelands. Having traded one necropole for another, the Dawnsmen readied themselves for a new barrage of attacks as the Scarlet Enclave fell before this new, deadly force of death knights — most of whom wore the faces of old friends and comrades.

Few of them were prepared for the might of the Scourge, however, when the Ebon Blade brought their forces to bear against Light's Hope. It was in this battle that Manadar the Healer's life was extinguished. It was also in the aftermath of this engagement that Joss' outlook with regard to the Ebon Blade changed from fear toward hope. Since their redemption at the hands of Tirion Fordring, she has looked to them as paragons of potential, given a second chance by the Light itself.

Joceline went north with the newly-dubbed Argent Crusade, helping them to establish a foothold in Zul'Drak, where she remained, investigating Scourge activity at Zeramas for several months until she was transferred to the command of a draenei woman, Luuri, and charged with the training of the war mounts of the Crusade and the upkeep of the various mounts for the Argent Tournament.

Aldurthar and the Fall
Some time after the beginning of the Argent Tournament, Joss was charged with investigating the murder of Arienne "Dawnforge" Songblade, a Lieutenant in the ranks of the Argent Crusade. During this investigation, she made the acquaintance of both the Kiss of the Betrayer, the only Light-worshipping church in Forsaken Lordaeron, and Belaris Delenada, leader of the maverick Deathstalkers unit called the Shadarim. Delenada, the prime suspect in Arienne's murder, quickly became the most bitter rival Joss had ever faced. After the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a former Dawnsman at the hands of one of Delenada's men, distrust turned to hatred and disgust with regard to the aims of the Shadarim.

Delenada and Joss did not cross paths again until the Shadarim threatened the existence of the Kiss; quick action by Crusader Malagenia Breacadh granted the church asylum under the banner of the Argent Crusade, while Joss rallied the few Dawnsmen still at Light's Hope to the cause of the church, among them Major Nieodemus Lightwalker, a recent acquaintance. During their long separation, her hatred of the rogue had turned to a bitter, sharp thing that put the taste for Delenada's blood in the paladin's mouth. She had Nieodemus show her the rudiments of his trade as an Arbiter in the event that things between the Shadarim and the church should come to blows. Captain Shiranai Mel'Drune was also instrumental in her plans to ensnare the rogue and eliminate the threat to the church.

In a move that could only be described as "extraordinarily foolhardy," Belaris Delenada attempted to attack Kor'kron Ambassador Khaadgrim Roark within the walls of the Undercity. It was Captain Mel'Drune who repelled the rogue, killing him in the process. Joceline was bitterly angry with the Dawnsman at this, having thought to kill Delenada herself. In her singleminded rage, she closed herself off to the Light, resulting in a temporary loss of her paladin powers.

She entered penance thereafter, in the hopes of repairing her connection to the Light and being worthy of its gifts once more. Her penance was overseen by Shepherd Ishbaneer Schatten, and during her tenure as an ascetic, she also helped Khaadgrim with his investigation into Belaris' motivations by way of apology. She still feels the occasional pang of guilt at having been willing to sacrifice the orc's life in order to get her own chance at killing Delenada, but it is a subject neither of them have broached.

Joceline also took on a job for the Freelance Carriers during her leave and penance, helping Khaadgrim with the salvage from a wreck in the Storm Peaks which had been destined for the Bronzebeard expedition at Ulduar. Using the alert disk Khaadgrim had given her for that job, an agent of the Vorisswa lured her to the ramparts above a Cult of the Damned encampment at Aldurthar in Icecrown. Disguised as Khaadgrim, the agent told her about a suspected Cultist infiltration of the FCU's ranks, and gave her a potion that would ostensibly disguise her as one of the Cult of the Damned's members. Drinking his own potion, "Khaadgrim" seemed to take on a cultist's appearance. However, when Joss consumed the vial of blue liquid, she was treated to a series of terrifying visions, mostly of the Scourge and the Lich King, a long moment of agonizing pain, and the distinct sensation that the Light had fled her. The agent threw her from the ramparts to the cultists below, where the elven girl barely managed to hold her own against the swarms of cultists around her, fighting awkwardly with her lonsword and without the strength of the Light within her.

It was Khaadgrim himself who drove them back and pulled her from the scene on the back of his own netherdrake, explaining to her that he had seen the message on the alert disk and had come as quickly as he could. Not quickly enough, however — the potion she'd consumed was given to paladins who wished to swear themselves in under the Lich King, and there was no way to reverse its effects.

Joceline was a paladin no more.

Joss has spent the last few weeks in Quel'thalas, trying to cope with the loss of her powers and figure out her plans for the future. She has, recently, turned her gaze toward the Farstriders.

Relations
Reynault: Blood elven bard; often "Rey." While Joceline could have contented herself with being the bard's patron, the older sin'dorei man would not stop short of becoming her lover. The pair of them obviously adore one another, though they are often apart more than either of them should like. Nieodemus Lightwalker: Blood elf paladin; usually referred to as "Major," "Sir," or "Starcaller." Joceline's superior officer in the Argent Dawn. While Nieo and Joss had a friendly, playful relationship in times past, things seem to have cooled considerably between them since the incident at Aldurthar that sealed her powers away. Khaadgrim Roark: Orc warrior; referred to as "Ambassador." For every reason Joceline has to resent Khaadgrim, she can come up with at least two to admire him for. While he was indirectly responsible for the loss of her powers, he also saved her life and has offered her his ear both before and since. She likely thinks of him more dearly than he does her. Yulenia Deathsong: Dark ranger; usually "Cap'n." Given Joss' antagonistic relationship with Yulenia's predecessor, it stands to reason that these two don't exactly get along. Wrong! After the incident at Aldurthar, Joss approached Yulenia for a letter of recommendation for entry into the Farstriders. Yulenia declined, since her word no longer carried much weight with the rangers, but offered to take Joceline on as her own pupil.</li> Takado Wulf-face: Troll hunter; called "Taka" or simply "Takado." Joss has a playful friendship with the troll, and doesn't hesitate to lay her burdens before him.</li> Ishbaneer Schatten: Forsaken rogue; "Shepherd." Ish is the one man Joss can always trust for guidance where her faith is concerned: he oversaw her penances and thus probably understands much of what troubles her better than anyone else.</li> Cham Baergs: Human death knight/postman; "Mister Baergs," or, rarely, "Cham". As a recent third-party assistant to the FCU, Joss considers Cham her most recent employer. Charmed by the death knight's jocular nature, she still concerns herself overly with his opinion of her as her boss.</li> Ogrun Brokenhorn: Tauren druid; "Elder" or "Shan'do". Ogrun has been offering Joceline spiritual guidance since Aldurthar and teaching her the ways of the earthmother.</li> Erier Fireiris: Orc shaman; rarely "Farseer," but most often "Erier". In Erier, Joss sees an echo of herself. Despite their rough start during Joss' investigation of Arienne Songblade's death, Joss considers herself privileged to call Erier her friend.</li></ul>