Nikolas' Backstory, Part I

Two years before the Horde first appeared in the Black Morass and ravaged the lands of Azeroth, Nikolas Altus Tien was born on his father’s sheep farm near Northshire Valley. Altus Galor Tien was a priest of the Clerics of Northshire, a body of holy men who devoted themselves to study of the Light and its power. His wife, Naya, spun the sheep’s wool into threads and sold them to tailors in Northshire and Stormwind. Naya, daughter of a noble of Alterac, had been magically trained as a child in the wizard city of Dalaran. She met Altus when his mentor was assigned as an advisor to a diplomatic envoy from Stormwind to Dalaran. During the year-long assignment, they fell in love, and when it came time for Altus to leave, Naya- despite the disapproval of her nobility-obsessed parents, decided to leave her training and join him. They were married shortly after their return to Northshire. Altus built the sheep farm and tended to his flocks while continuing study at Northshire Abbey.

While Nikolas was still a child, Altus was called to fight with the armies of Stormwind against the invading Horde. Though trained in basic combat, Altus acted more in a supporting role, healing and caring for wounded soldiers. His family (which had increased with the birth of Nikolas’ sister eight months before the war) was kept safe in the confines of the Abbey, though they moved to Stormwind City when the Abbey was sacked.

In the waning days of the war, Altus returned home to his family, telling them they had to leave, for the Horde was on its way to Stormwind. Taking refuge in the mountains west of the great city, they linked up with many other refugees fleeing the cities destruction. When Anduin Lothar, champion of Azeroth, decided to flee to the far northern lands of Lordaeron, where they would seek shelter from their kindred human kingdoms, Altus took his family across the sea with the remnants of Azeroth’s once proud populace.

Upon arrival in Southshore, a major port of Lordaeron, Naya suggested they move up north to Alterac, where she would entreat her parents for shelter and aid. They arrived in Strahnbrad, where her father, Lord Caiberd Layette and his wife and daughter, Naya’s sister. But Caiberd, still bitter at what he saw as Naya’s spiteful decision to marry against her father’s will, cruelly turned his refugee daughter and her family away. As they left, Naya’s proud but gentler mother secretly gave Naya some money, saying it was a portion of her inheritance. But Naya’s jealous sister found out and told Caiberd, who had the Tiens brought back. Caiberd accused his daughter and her family of being thieves and beggars. He had Altus restrained, and proceeded to beat Naya in front of her family. Caiberd then cast the Tiens out, exiling them from the family’s lands and holdings, and essentially from Alterac as a whole.

The Tiens returned to Southshore, where Altus was sought out by Sammuel, a fellow cleric from Northshire, who said that a new order of soldiers was being formed. Archbishop Alonsus Faol, the leader of the Church of Light, had decided to train priests and clerics in martial skills, making a new order of holy warriors to fight with the newly formed Alliance of Lordaeron (the combined might of the seven human kingdoms, the elves of Quel’Thalas, and the dwarves of Aerie Peak and Khaz Modan) against the Horde threat. The order was to be called the Knights of the Silver Hand, and its members were to be called paladins. They would wield the power of the Light against the dark magic of the Horde’s warlocks, while retaining their devotion and piety to the Light and its teachings. Altus agreed to train as a paladin, a difficult decision which meant he would leave his family for war once again.

As the Alliance marched to counter the Horde’s advances, Naya took her children and sought refuge at the monastery in the northern glades of Tirisfal. Here she raised her children for the next eighteen months, teaching them the ways of the Light, as well as some of what she remembered of magic from her days at Dalaran. Katia showed more interest in the Light and its power, while Nikolas seemed to be more adept at magic.

The war ended, and Altus came to find his family at the Monastery. He was assigned to join the Silver Hand’s paladins at Andorhal. There he settled his family for what he hoped was the last time. Every year during the warm summer months, Altus and his family would travel south to the Hinterlands to Aerie Peak, where resided Altus’ friend Dobrin Wildhammer, a warrior and blacksmith he had met during the war. Altus and Dobrin had fought in many of the same battles and had become close friends; further, Dobrin felt indebted to Altus because the latter had saved his life three times in the campaign to retake Grim Batol. The dwarves welcomed the Tiens and taught them much about their ways, even about the mighty gryphons for which Aerie Peak was legendary. The children learned to groom and care for gryphons young and old, and even learned to ride them. Altus learned to ride the mighty creatures, too, but Naya’s fear of heights kept her firmly on the ground. The Tiens’ time at Aerie Peak would often stretch into the autumn months, when they would return north to Andorhal ahead of the harsh Hinterlands winters.

In their time in the Hinterlands, the Tiens also came to know many of the high elves who dwelt at the Quel’Danil hunting lodge east of Aerie Peak. Nikolas, in particular, was fascinated by the elves and their ways. While Katia was a devoted student of the Light and its ways throughout her adolescence, Nikolas spent many of his days learning to hunt and track and fish in the wild forests, skills for which Nikolas showed a natural affinity and aptitude (Altus always hoped Nikolas would become a paladin like him, but had great pride in his son’s talents; Katia would follow in her father’s footsteps in becoming a paladin). One elf in particular, a tracker named Myrokos Silentform, took a liking to Nikolas and became very close to the Tien family. With Altus’ and Naya’s approval, when Nikolas was sixteen, Myrokos took Nikolas as a kind of apprentice- he began living at Quel’Danil year round. He would see his family in the summers when they came to visit Aerie Peak.

The Hinterlands can be dangerous to those who are careless or untrained; thus it was at age 19 that Nikolas began honing his skills in real combat. The dwarves and elves had long been at odds with the three tribes found in the Hinterlands: the Witherbark, the Revantusk, and Vilebranch. All three had fought alongside the Horde in the Second War. After the Horde’s defeat, the Vilebranch and Witherbark tribes, bitter at the Horde’s failure, broke off and became independent again. Only the Revantusks remained loyal to the Horde; the Vilebranch and Witherbark tribes began hunting and fighting with the Revantusks, even sacrificing the Revantusks for their own dark purposes. But despite the inter-tribe quarrels, all three remained bitter enemies of the Wildhammer dwarves and the elves of Quel’Danil.

Nikolas, his youth notwithstanding, showed himself very capable of fighting trolls. He displayed a natural quickness and agility, made more effective by his opting to use smaller blades. His melee weapons of choice became two long knives, each about two feet long. With training, Nikolas also developed a keen marksman’s eye, shooting with accuracy to rival many of Quel’Danil’s best bowmen. In short, Myrokos’ training, coupled with Nikolas’ natural aptitude, enabled the lad to become one of the best hunters and trackers in the Hinterlands. It was this training and this development that would set Nikolas on the path which his life has followed.