backstory 🌌 WoW profile 🌌 Silver's Garden of Dreams

backstory

placeholder for now, but this unlisted and unindexed page will eventually contain Silver's full backstory.
therefore, this page will have large amounts of meta knowledge and will only be distributed to people i don't expect to RP with, or who i trust deeply in their ability to keep meta knowledge out of RP. in my vast experience, even RPing with friends, most people will simply take and use meta knowledge of a character without even asking how the character's player wanted that knowledge to be spread or used, or if the player even wanted that knowledge used at all. i personally find this very distressing, as many things about my characters are private or internal and not even meant to be known about until they appear in RP with that character. so please keep in mind i WILL hold people responsible for not ever using anything they read here until it appears in RP.

either way, since this page is unlisted i will be using it to build and actually remember all the past event things i had imagined for this character. information is subject to change and removal, and i make no promises everything will be 100% compliant to lore down to the last tiny detail. i follow the spirit and not the letter of lore, and frankly WoW's lore is already full of retcons, plot holes, and just terrible writing enough i don't care to follow every single rule on the lore playground. i play how i want!

page is also very much a wip.

intro

For all the rumors surrounding Silver and who they really are, Silver is indeed originally and first a night elf or kal'dorei, with the ability to become rather unconventional druid forms including more humanoid animal races. Some of their forms are more directly celestial in origin, which in turn gives them the ability to also become one of the elves that chose an affinity for the sun, known as high elves or blood elves – in contrast with the night elves' affinity for the moon and night. Silver's story doesn't start with Silver themself though, but with a pair of young night elves living in Suramar.

Silver's parents

Tens of thousands of years ago lived two young elves in the grand city of Suramar, though of vastly different upbringing... a young man from a poor family, and a young woman the only child of her minor noble house born to parents seeking to use her to elevate their family's social status. Both were only around the human equivalent of 14 when they met by complete chance with enough time to speak uninhibited, their personalities immediately resonating with one another strongly enough they vowed to meet again. The girl, known in her native tongue as Winter, cared not at all for the nobility or her parents' plans for her and continued meeting her interesting new friend in secret, though this quickly became more than friendship.
By the time both were around the equivalent age of 16 the two were inseperable best of friends and beloved partners, though disaster struck as upon returning home one evening from such a meeting her parents furiously confronted her on the lies she'd been telling them on where she was going and how she escaped the prying eyes of her escorts. They then trapped her in her home, and summoned her boyfriend to their door only to feed him a lie that Winter lost all interest in him now that the couple had been caught and she wanted nothing to do with him. Stricken with grief and publicly shamed by this encounter, he left immediately fighting back tears, his exit being watched in despair by Winter through a window and was the last she'd ever see of him.

This was not the last time the lovers' secret would be dealt with, however, as Winter prisoner in her own house lacked access to magic that would hide the growing signs of the couples' last night of intimacy. Her parents were again furious, and not wanting their family name to bear any more shame than it already had opted to take Winter on a "vacation" outside Suramar, where no secrets had to be kept in the city itself on what they were truly doing. They travelled far outside the city to a mountain town deep in the wilderness, known for its breathtaking views but still populated and civilized enough to have all the comforts of a life steeped in magic.
Winter knew this was her last chance to save herself and the child she desperately wanted and managed to successfully escape for the last time, fleeing into the chilling forest towards signs of an encampment far on the face of another mountain. This journey was of many more miles than it looked and Winter barely reached the encampment with both herself and her unborn child alive, though she was immediately taken in and cared for by the tauren of the hunting camp she'd found. They were greatly distressed by her poor condition, only more so when she shared her story with them and why she was here, and they honored her request to come with them as their camp was temporary.
Many more miles and much deeper into the mountains Winter traveled with these Highmountain tauren, and though they warned of the warring nature of their tribes she felt safer with them than she ever had with her people in Suramar. When the group reached their home Winter's presence was questioned by many of the tauren, though things were explained by the hunters and she was accepted as a refugee, the tribe members ultimately feeling how the elves apparently choose to treat their kin as tragic.

This was not the last tragedy Winter would suffer. She was small and her body not made to well handle the immense strain of late pregnancy and eventually childbirth, and despite the best efforts of the tribe who took her in she died of blood loss and other complications shortly after her child was born. The elder shaman Windspeaker who guided Winter's spirit to the afterlife commented her grief for Winter's short and troubled life, and that it was only merciful Winter never had to live through the terror of their tribe being raided by another. Winter did live long enough to name her child though, choosing the name Silver which the tauren honored.
Winter was buried in the tribal burial grounds with full rites, and her child cared for by all the tribe members in turn... at least, until the elves had a say in things.

childhood

Some time after these events, a small hunting party of a handful of elves – a husband and wife, and a few acquaintances – came upon the tauren village. This was not entirely by chance, as they'd had occasional contact with these tauren before about hunting areas and game, though this time things went quite differently. The group was horribly offended to see the tauren raising an elven infant among their own... an elven child! Raised in their barbaric, primitive ways! This cannot stand! The elves threatened and coerced the tauren into giving the child up to them to be raised in the ways of the elves, resorting to simply stealing the child on their journey home when the tauren staunchly refused to give Silver up willingly.
Silver was brought crying and writhing back to an elven town many miles west of the moutains on which the tauren lived, though still deep in the wilds, all the way the husband and wife commenting to each other on how they "rescued" this baby and would make it theirs, and how curious it was the tauren were calling the child by a name that was clearly from the elven tongue. They obviously stole the child first, the two nodded to each other in agreement. The children will love having a new baby sister, don't you think?

The town Silver was brought to was simply a town to most, but to elven hunters in particular it was a paradise, far from the condescention and belittlement elves from the cities felt for the arts of hunting, tracking and archery. The tearful story the couple fed to the others was gleefully eaten up by the other elves... all but one, the wife's sister Rose, who knew the pair well and was suspicious. Rose only needed to pressure her sister gently to get the real story and was mortified, though her sister brushed Rose's reaction off and reiterated that they "saved" this child and it belonged to her now, and there was nothing Rose could do about it. Rose was much less popular than her sister in this town and knew she was not likely to be believed, so simply resigned herself to quietly trying to prevent her awful sister and brother-in-law from damaging their children too much, as she always had.

Silver was raised by the couple among their biological children, though quickly it became clear to Rose Silver was not being treated the same as the other children. Silver was very shy and cried easily, and prone to doing "weird" things her adoptive parents and siblings found embarassing, and schoolmates ruthlessly mocked her for. Silver's parents eventually took to yelling at her for her odd mannerisms, or sometimes simply ignoring her, allowing her to run and hide in the woods in between schoolwork and being thankful they didn't have to "deal" with such a strange troublesome child anymore. Rose carefully searched for Silver when she knew the girl was hiding in the forest again, one day eventually managing to find her sitting on a rock and crying. Rose offered Silver her scarf which the child took, and told her she was welcome to come to her house instead if she ever wanted.
Though Silver only rarely took Rose up on this offer instead of simply hiding in the woods, they wore the scarf of plain grey wool from then on, even enduring added mocking for wearing such an "ugly" scarf that was too big for her and resisting attempts to get her to take it off even in warm weather.

Eventually, Silver's eternally disappointed parents chose to start her on the archery lessons the other children had been working on. Neither of them had high hopes, as Silver was already quite troublesome and only mediocre in all their schoolwork, and their other "real" children were already mediocre without being embarassing and strange. Both Silver's parents were renowned archers and hunters in the town, though, and expected all their children to at least know how to hold and use a bow, how to track animals and where to shoot them. However, they did not at all expect the result of giving their scorned child a bow.
Silver immediately became obsessed with every single facet of archery and proved to be shockingly adept, especially for a child. She breezed every lesson given and quickly advanced to lessons of high technical skill even for adults, becoming renowned through the entire village as something of an archery prodigy, this cascading into much wider reown as she was at around the equivalent age of 9 being entered by her parents into archery competitions for adults... and winning. Some of these were quite distant, and caused Silver to have to travel with her parents to the location of the competition. Most places Silver got to see this way were only of mild interest to her, but there was one that captivated her for the entire brief time she got the chance to really look at it... what she would learn was the Well of Eternity itself.
Silver noticed as she succeeded her parents even began to tolerate her, even praise her occasionally when there weren't other people around to see, though she was old enough to be acutely aware of how much of her acceptance to literally everyone balanced precariously on how skilled she was at archery, and even then didn't prevent sometimes still being mocked and ridiculed by others for her weird behaviors.

Though Silver loved and adored archery she was always deeply unhappy with and scared of how acceptable she was to others relying on her skill, and still took to hiding in the woods to cry out the unsettling feelings of not being truly liked by anyone for who she actually is. One afternoon after crying herself dry she stayed sitting at the base of a particularly old oak, contemplating everything in her life, when suddenly a flash of memory went through her head... something else that immediately caught her fascination. She got up and as she skillfully scaled the mountainside she'd just been facing thoughts raced through her head. Druids...
Druid lessons were said to be held in a particular part of the forest, not especially far from where she would hide, and forbidden excitement welled within her as she approached the gathering where it seemed this lesson was being held. The demigod Cenarius was said to be holding them himself, and across the clearing she took him in all his majesty... before being interrupted in her marveling that she was sadly not welcome and would have to leave. Druidic teachings, as the tall elven man informed her, were only for boys and men.
So Silver returned to the forest to cry all the tears she didn't have after crying them all out earlier. It was only later she would return here and another thought, an idea, would flash through her mind's eye.

Silver's archery lessons continued into mastery, and at the equivalent age of 13 she was being taught by the eldest hunters on finesse. Silver still vanished into the woods frequently, though even her family cared little as to where she went between archery contests and lessons. She served her purpose in making them well-known and bringing in much in the way of prize money, what more should they bother to care?
At the other end of the woods, the third year druid lessons were ongoing, which a cloaked young man attended – citing horrific burns he received in a fire he didn't want to be seen as his reason for needing his body covered. This young man was noted to be very quiet and shy, curiously adept at druidic arts, and particularly shapeshifting... though he did have to be reprimanded more than once for doing his homework in a way that resulted in him bringing animal transformations back to the lesson that were not part of the teachings. He was a bit odd but ended up earning the respect of his classmates with his skill, some of them coming to view him as a brother.
Silver was privately thrilled she was finally accepted, in some ways she would only understand much later in her life. The thrill of acceptance and learning a second interest which she had intense passion for was always cut by the mortifying fear of being discovered... and the unrequited crush she had on a particular young man she had become especially close to in her boy disguise. Her precarious position which prevented her from revealing herself pained her, and as well it should...

It was one deeply fateful day the securely fastened cloak was not so securely fastened, and came off in the middle of a lesson. The adult elves were furious, but it was Silver's classmates who truly turned on her, their screams of her being a horrible liar and awful person still ringing in her ears as the group pursued her into the woods. She had fled immediately before any kind of punishment could be enacted, knowing the woods well and managing to lose them on her way back to her house...
But word spread quickly, as not all involved chose a wild chase through the wilderness. She only returned home by evening, to her parents and a huge group of strangers confronting her about what happened and why she had lied and snuck into places she wasn't wanted, and why couldn't she have just been happy with what she had? Why was she such an awful, horrid troublemaker of a child that eventually always brought their family shame and embarassment? Her eyes wide with fear and tears she turned and fled again as the words left her mother's mouth, we should've left you in the woods to die, and again she was pursued. She took a winding trail to Rose's house, knocking loud and hard on the door as the sound of her pursuers greatened. Surely Rose would shelter her? If she was home? Where was she?? But there was no reply and the door never opened, and Silver's only shelter closed off to her forced her to leave again for the wilderness.
Chased with the aid of some of the greatest hunters in her village forced her to use every skill she had, combining archery and druidic knowledge to finally have left them behind, so far into the forest she no longer recognized where she was. As she turned back to look through the blackness of the trees in the dying light of that cursed day, she saw their torches far in the distance, and heard her father's voice distinctly above all else,

I don't know where you damned well are, but stay in these woods then! If you even try to come back you'll get an arrow through your damned skull, worthless brat!

adolescence

A few years later, the coming of horrific otherworldly invaders was noticed even by the malnourished, ragged young elf barely surviving the harsh wilderness alone. The bow she'd fled with had long since had to be discarded, another one stolen along with the mismatched torn clothing too big for her, and the ever present gray scarf still wrapped loosely around the lower half of her face. Since her casting out she had forsaken her people in their entirety, and watching from afar as the invaders struggled against swathes of her people she felt nothing but bitterness and resentment. Let them burn with the world, why should I care what happens to any of them. It was the plight of the forest, cruel as it was, that began to turn her heart as even the wild creatures struggled and died in vain against the evil things from another world. The valiant fight of a lone stag against what Silver would come to know as a fel lord was when she loosed the first arrow against the Burning Legion, instantly felling the horrible demonic beast with a thefted arrow right through the eye. The stag fled, his foe defeated, and it was then the Burning Legion in its first march through Azeroth would come to know her presence lurking in the forest, leaving even the deepest wilds unsafe.

The brave fight of the lone stag lived in Silver's heart as she stalked what were now her enemy each time their forces even approached her woods. Even creatures who don't know the true evils of the world would fight for their home, flawed as it is, and so would she. Every moment of learning, from the years of lessons to mimicking the steps of the great cats as they moved through the trees, every school lesson on the tactics of war and the combat archer's place, was culminating here. Every incursion by the enemy was punished with what seemed a volley of arrows from a terrifying unseen unit hidden in the forest, and certainly not a lone child with an interest in outnumbered war archer's tactics, each shot a masterful killing blow. Sometimes they had the numbers to pursue, and she led them through the valleys and between the cliffs to be picked off like fish in a barrel.
This diversion wasn't unnoticed by the armed forces of the night elves and tauren also at war with the demons.

(wow i don't like the way i wrote this last part at all!!! will probably be rewritten later. for now.... list format for a lot of things because i don't feel like creative writing but want to get this stuff written down in some sense.

gets her Secret Pocket Dimension for storing stuff in sometime before this point????? fuck i never decided how she gets it.... definitely as a secret accident; maybe the result of weird druid magic experiments ending up bending space in an unexpected but beneficial way... since space is part of the celestial cosmos stuff?? whatever i'll figure it out
survives the sundering
successfully helps drive the demons out of their local area; is discovered by the Ravencrest night elves for not being an unknown unit of combat archers but the singular child who was stealing supplies and fallen arrows from them. SILVER'S DAD IS ALSO ALIVE AND SHE MEETS HIM BRIEFLY AT THE RAVENCREST PLACE but neither of them know each other because Silver never knew who her father was and he isn't even aware he has a child...
still greatly fears and dislikes other night elves and in particular is afraid of being recognized and returned to her former home; manages to escape them capturing and reassimilating her into elven society
is successfully taken in by tauren tribe (also decide which tribe this is? probably an ancient tribe that gets decimated later or absorbed into one of the current highmountain tribes?)
hair is cut down to the scalp for being irreparably matted and tangled; Silver discovers she likes having short hair for Reasons
is introduced to gnc and varying genders by tauren who have always had them (real First Nations people have cultures that don't follow the garbage "gender binary" don't @ me); discovers they are actually allowed to be as genderless as they've always felt they are, and that there are also such things as being nonbinary and transmasculine (transmasc-adjacent? whatever you can be transmasc and also genderless because i am, don't fuckin @ me)
tauren tribe eventually is revealed to be the same one that sheltered Silver's mother (going with this idea until another one seems better: Winter is offhandedly mentioned to Silver at some point as another night elf they sheltered and her story is told... not sure if before or after Silver is shown her grave? Silver replies that sounds exactly like the story of their birth; all the pieces are put together that Silver is probably the elven baby that was stolen from them by the other elves. Later ancestral tauren spirits are called to confirm this and Windspeaker + some other deceased tauren who were alive to witness Silver's birth see and recognize Silver's soul and are like "yep it be that baby glad you're safe and back with us". also fuck i forgot to add in the earlier parts Silver would know the truth about everything before coming to the tauren because Rose would've told them at some point...)
officially inducted as a tribe member, as their mother was
finishes druid training under the tauren where they are allowed to actually use and keep their weird-ass druid forms

young adulthood

still feels like an outsider even in tauren tribe (because when you grow into teenagehood being treated as disposable by everyone and with affection being extremely conditional, genuine acceptance and affection become very scary!!); leaves to explore what are now the broken isles at around ~22 human age, secretly looking for some kind of purpose to their existence. leaves on good terms with their now family tribe with traveling supplies, a pack moose, and a white hunting fox. keeps supplies and creatures in their pocket dimension (which is more of an area inside now that animals can live in as well as for storing stuff) as they do most exploring from the sky in their now mastered dire wolfhawk form
become dissatisfied with only exploring the islands, not having found any reasons to keep existing and fly out into the vast ocean to see if anything survived the sundering

adulthood

thousands of years later!!!
(grumpily) inducted into the Cenarion Circle. elven Cenarion druids dislike them for their Mysterious and Very Unwarranted grudge they seem to have for other elf druids, and their friendliness with tauren druids.
Silver has learned how to use their shapeshifting to become a high elf / whatever those sun elves call themselves by aligning their night elf form with solar energy. or whatever. lingers around the outside of Silvermoon for very good reasons like finding the high elves super attractive.
meets Thurien but they're not really friends yet because he's a douchebag right now. also meets Vaesden who is not a douchebag and they do become friends.
aids the high elves in the defense of quel'thalas against shitbag arthas. lingers more to help rebuild Silvermoon until they're caught once shifting into their original night elf form and are chased out of Quel'thalas by the now blood elves as a liar and enemy. Vaesden secretly helps them escape being pursued successfully.
(wrath is an unimportant expansion and not featured here.... actually it will be i just haven't decided how those events go for Silver yet but they would be all up in that)
aids in saving Jarod Shadowsong from the Cult of the Damned and follows him through the assault on the Molten Front in the Firelands. greatly respects him as a person and his leadership, but feels he looks like somebody else they know or is just generally vaguely familiar, though they can't place why
PANDARIA HAPPENS!!! FUCK YEAH!!!! haven't decided if Silver learns their martial arts knowledge when the mists part... or if they happen upon some pandaren with monk training before all of that, either by flying over pandaria itself or being lucky enough to find the giant turtle during a flyover crossing the ocean. whether they meet the August Celestials during the events of MoP or before, they are in awe of and completely revere all the celestials and their teachings, but favor Niuzao.
Silver catches wind about the Divine Bell and ends up independently tracing the information back to dalaran... just in time to witness Jaina declare the Sunreavers all be imprisoned or killed for the crimes of a select few. Silver is horrified by this and loudly protest that this is unjust, but only briefly as they are immediately considered an enemy and are forced into stealth as a cat to prevent being captured. They end up staying in dalaran long enough to fend off kirin tor mages to allow some sunreavers and their sympathizers to escape, being pulled through by one of the mages they rescued in a portal to Silvermoon just before an overwhelming kirin tor guard force closed in on them in the sewers.
for the crime of being a night elf in Silvermoon Silver is immediately imprisoned, along with two mages they directly rescued who were the only of the many Silver protected to protest their imprisonment. The three are brought to court and only from the same two mages aggressively shaming the rest of the rescued group for refusing to stand up for the person who saved their lives do the rest admit they owe their lives and freedom to a night elf. Silver is (reluctantly by the court) declared innocent and allowed to leave only if they immediately leave quel'thalas entirely and never return, which they do but only after the grateful two mages express interest in talking to Silver more and being friends, and exchange ways to reach them.
meets Jarod Shadowsong... again during the events of legion. also alleria is here and oh god she is Too Hot some trashbags named Silver cannot handle how fine she is. Vaesden reveals he had to live his life under an alias and he is actually Thalerion; Silver is surprised but fine with this and they remain friends.

to be continued...!