There are two Lisan Carpenters in Azeroth.
One is old – she is an RPG heroine, the one who somehow is always in the middle of the story, the one killing the legendary big bads (well, some of the time). She didn’t strike the killing blow on the Lich King, but she was helping keep the person that did alive. She was face to face with Deathwing as the heroes of Azeroth brought him down. She co-owns a bear farm in Dun Morogh with Fizzy Stouthammer, where she spends her time when she’s not chasing her draenei girlfriend Raisa all across creation, keeping her safe.
Lisan has never been properly RP’d, though I have written stories about her and she has a story and a history, because she never existed on an RP server.
There is another Lisan Carpenter, who I’ll call Lisann because that’s how her name is spelled in-game, and she is very new. She has much the same story as the original flavor, but somewhat different, because I finally, FINALLY am playing her again, after having transferred her to my active server, Emerald Dream. And, since she’s now on an RP server, in an RP guild, with the intent of being RP’d, I had to change some things.
If you’re not particularly interested in how Lisan’s story has changed, or in my backstory for my character, feel free to move along, no hard feelings – I’m doing this post for myself as much as for any of my readers (tho I love you dearly).
So.
Lisann Carpenter was born in Lordaeron’s Capital City, to an unmarried young woman who’d hooked up with a Gilnean soldier and decided she wasn’t ready to marry or be a mother. Lis doesn’t know this about herself – all she knows is that she grew up in Capital City, in an orphanage. It wasn’t an awful childhood by any stretch, though she didn’t have much – and when she was 15 or so she finally got taken on as a trainee, of sorts, by a Paladin of the Silver Hand, because she wanted to be a paladin very badly.
She never had a particularly noteworthy faith, mind you, though she obviously worshiped and believed in the Light. It was more that the ideals and symbolism of being a paladin appealed to her. She wanted to be a light in dark places, to protect those who needed it (something she’d done among the children at the orphanage for years already), and, frankly, to be a hero.
When she was finally deemed ready and underwent the ceremony that imbued her with the Light, it was a bit of a rushed and sadly un-celebrated affair, because the Scourge had recently emerged and they needed every paladin they could get, and she was put into action basically immediately.
The Third War was very hard on her. She’d been idealistic and full of hope when it began – after the destruction of her homeland, the betrayal of her beloved prince, the death of everyone she cared about when Arthas took Capital City for the Scourge, and the loss of so many of her brothers- and sisters-in-arms (including her own mentor)… well, she kept her faith, but it was a near thing for a while there. She initially joined the Crusade in the Eastern Plaguelands, under Abbendis, and left with those members who went on to form the Argent Dawn. Lisann, however, had been jaded by the betrayal of Arthas and now the likely betrayal of the leadership of the Crusade, and while she wished her brothers and sisters well, she left the Plaguelands and traveled south, to Stormwind and beyond.
She wandered, for a while, helping people in need when she could and largely acting as a healer for isolated settlements and rural towns who had none. It wasn’t until the reopening of the Dark Portal that she finally roused herself into action, offering her services to serve alongside the Alliance troops traveling to Outland. She continued largely being a healer, supplementing the priests back at bases, and going out with patrols and strike forces to help keep them going. Unfortunately, at some point the gnomish technology they’d been relying on had an unexpected… hiccup, we’ll say, and began glitching, temporarily and then (unfortunately for Lisann) permanently altering the people passing through a certain teleporter. Lisann went from being a human to being a dwarf – at least physically – and though they assured her it would “most likely wear off in anywhere from an hour to a month!”, she has been the same ever since.
She didn’t take it well, initially, and ended up staying in Shattrath for the majority of the campaign against Kael’thas and Illidan. She befriended a fair number of draenei there, and came to accept that even if she didn’t particularly like it, she was still able to do what she cared about – helping people in need – as a dwarf.
By the time the campaign in Northrend against the Lich King’s forces began, she’d more or less settled into her new skin, and was ready to face down the forces she’d fought against for so long, that had destroyed everything she’d held dear. She hopped around from front to front, offering her services as a healer and knight where it was needed, sometimes carrying messages or helping find missing troops. She ended up helping Brann Bronzebeard and his people with their exploration of Ulduar, though again, she wasn’t part of the forward push, staying at the staging area and helping keep people on their feet as they slowly pushed though the Titan facility.
She briefly joined the Argent Crusade in Icecrown, for the chance to be part of the battle in the Citadel, but once Arthas was defeated, she left the Crusade, not being comfortable with the constant reminders of where she came from, and what she’d lost. Arthas’ death left her feeling sort of at loose ends, because it was the one thing she’d kept pushing on for. She took some time to recover from the months in the frozen north and returned to Stormwind, where she sought to find a new purpose for herself. Unfortunately, she sustained serious injuries when Deathwing razed the city, that left her on a long and difficult road to recovery.
She finally reached the point where she could handle the exertion and strain of taking up arms again only weeks before the Legion attacks, and found herself left in Stormwind when the Alliance’s elite troops went to the Broken Shore. She took the death of Varian as well in stride as she could, given the fact that he was her adopted monarch, but her time in Stormwind had brought her in contact with Prince Anduin a few times at the Cathedral, and she has every faith that he will be a strong and capable king.
So, her faith strengthened by the time she spent largely in the Cathedral during her recovery, and her body back in fighting form, she is more than ready to take her blade to the forces of the Legion, however she can do so. She has very little, in terms of close friends or adopted family, trying to protect herself from the pain of losing someone close to her again, but she is filled with determination.
So yeah, THAT IS LISANN. It’s kind of sad, because she doesn’t have (or has lost) friends and partners who have meant so much to the original version of her, but I am very very very looking forward to playing her off actual RPers.
Azeroth Apple 