Emelise Evenshade

Emelise is average in height and has a pleasantly curvy build. Though beautiful, like most sin'dorei women, the gentleness and softness of her features makes her approachable rather than intimidating -- the type of woman one might call "lovely" instead of "sexy" or "gorgeous." The expression on her face is almost always open and welcoming, even toward strangers. She is quick to smile, but a close observer might notice sadness lingering about her lips and eyes, and she often adopts a distant expression when she believes she isn't being watched. As is so very common with her devastated race, Emelise likely struggles with unresolved loss.

Emelise enjoys tasteful, elegant clothing and dresses fashionably whenever she can, and has even developed her skills in tailoring to this end, but she is ultimately a practical woman; when necessity calls, one will never catch her in expensive robes or uncomfortable shoes.

Talents and calling
Though her command of offensive Holy magic is sufficient enough for Emelise to defend herself against ordinary perils of the road while traveling, she is not a fighter and would be no match for a skilled combatant. Instead, the bulk of her magical talents lie in the healing arts, and she has dedicated her life to this calling. For the past several years she has gone from one place to another, arriving where her abilities are most needed, from Shattrath's Lower City to Argent Crusade outposts in Icecrown, and even, quite recently, the Molten Front in Mount Hyjal. She takes very little time off, but seems to enjoy keeping herself busy and her mind occupied.

Her favorite mount, an Argent warhorse named Atlas, was given to her by a crusader in appreciation for her service in Northrend.

Personality
As it is with some people, much of Emelise's personality is easy to guess just by looking at her. She is a kind, pleasant, sincere, unassuming woman, and though she still struggles at times with the implicit xenophobia ingrained into her sin'dorei heritage, she tries her best to be openhearted toward members of other races, even when they seem (to her) to be alarmingly brutish at first glance. The work she's done with many neutral organizations over the course of her career has certainly helped her in this regard.

Upon getting to know Emelise, she reveals a quiet, startlingly wry sense of humor and a steely degree of mental fortitude that belies her ethereal appearance. Very few things are capable of upsetting her or disrupting her calm, at least externally -- for certainly she feels those emotions, she's just adept at functioning despite them -- which is perhaps less surprising when one considers that her job requires her to be up to the elbows in blood and guts on a regular basis. One of the only things that causes her to slip is unexpectedly encountering Forsaken (the more gruesome-looking, the worse); to her shame she sometimes cannot suppress a fear response, even if brief, as the sight of undead reminds her of the fall of Quel'Thalas and all the terror and grief associated with it.

Injury and addiction
Few are aware that Emelise sustained a serious injury to her left arm during the fall of Quel'Thalas. She nearly always keeps the disfiguring scars -- which run from her shoulder to her mid-forearm -- covered beneath a sleeve. Though the wounds are long healed, the lingering nerve damage still often plagues her with painful tingling and numbness in her left hand. Additionally, the injury has given rise to a bloodthistle addiction which she is ashamed of and does her best to hide. She began taking bloodthistle during the events of the fall, when supplies were short and Emelise's skills were desperately needed, as a last-ditch measure to sustain herself from day to day through harrowing shifts and the pain of her own still-mending wounds. She doesn't regret doing it, as it allowed her to save many patients who would have died otherwise, but a habit that was meant to be temporary slowly but surely developed over the years into a full-blown dependency that she is beginning to have trouble concealing.

Her experiences have given her a sympathetic perspective toward other sin'dorei derisively dismissed as "thistleheads," and she will often go out of her way to care for them when others will not.

OOC Notes

 * Unless otherwise stated, all art on this page was drawn by me.
 * As you've almost certainly noticed if you've met Emelise in-game or looked her up in the armory, she is not a high enough level yet to validate her past experiences (in Wrath, Cata, etc). I'm leveling her quickly to make up for this -- in the meantime, bear with me! Atlas, her Argent warhorse mount, will be in her possession as soon as account-wide mounts go active.
 * I'm an old hand at written-format forum roleplaying, but WoW roleplaying is still a pretty new experience. Please be patient with me if I seem a little slow responding sometimes, and don't hesitate to let me know if you see something in Emelise's profile that could be improved upon. I'm not a lore expert by any means, and I always welcome advice!