#ylrith

See full second panel on bluesky

(Aeondra belongs to @raincharmed, and Ylrith to me <3)

Thank you so much for your ask! <3 I hope you knew to expect a wall of text when you sent it.

I call that version/timeline the “Black Rain timeline.” Also the name of a future fic, also Cathala and Tarinne’s ship name, because I like to make things confusing they’re my lens into it.

The answer to this will get longer and more detailed as I continue writing and spin more threads, and they don't really come into the limelight until after my current WIP, The Smoke Still Lingers, but they leave their little butterfly effect ripples before that too. I'll go over the big ones, post-Smoke, because you can line that up best with the prose part I wrote in my doc. Those are also the ones I've thought out the most.

First chronologically and the most relevant to my latest art post, is that they both become members of a fellowship(/hunting party) consisting of other various individuals who, each for their own reasons, want Sylvanas dead. Horde, Alliance, and neutral parties alike. From the Horde perspective, since that may not be as immediately obvious: She may not have intentionally burned Teldrassil but she still grossly overextended to get there, indirectly caused the deaths of many Horde soldiers by virtue of calling them into service, directly caused the deaths of others who’d been on Teldrassil when it happened, and generally (in the eyes of many) misused the Horde’s resources. Not to mention the entirety of the Fourth War. But granted, either she made the first move or the Alliance would.

Plenty of Horde citizens are content to just be thankful she’s gone, but there are some like Kolga (the orc in the middle ⬇️) for whom it’s more personal. Her daughter died in the War of Thorns and there wasn’t anything left to bury. For various reasons she sees Sylvanas as the one responsible, and wants to do something about it.

Anyway… this fellowship will slowly grow as its members happen upon each other on their own little vengeance quests, converging one by one on the same trails. They’ll eventually sail to Northrend and cross paths with Tyrande and Maiev, because realistically how could they not? And with that much more manpower, the whole squad will overcome challenges and learn things Tyrande and Maiev in the other timeline do not. I… don’t know what most of those things are yet lol, but there’s a big one I know for sure:

Tarinne has a condition called thor’drinn, or “wolf’s fury”. I linked my explanation post but in short(er): a very small percentage of kaldorei retain the ability to berserk from their troll ancestors, but due to limited understanding of this concept and general taboo around the whole thing, it’s believed to be a divine curse from Goldrinn. Might be a bit of both, honestly. Those with it, called “wolf-touched”, are exiles or Wardens’ prisoners at best, or outright killed at worst — if the physical and mental stress of their first berserking episode doesn’t kill them first. Trolls regenerate and can keep up with the damage they cause to their own body. Kaldorei don’t.

Tarinne got lucky. She survived her first (and her second, and her third, and her fourth), but that just means she has to live life always hiding this, hoping the next one happens somewhere out of sight, lest she slip up and it all comes to an abrupt end. Even Cathala doesn’t know this about her; that’s how deeply ingrained the shame and taboo are.

So of course it's

really fucking bad

when a battle in Northrend goes horribly awry and she loses it in front of not just Cathala but Maiev.

It is only because Tyrande’s also there that Maiev lets her live. What Tyrande said then is what actually leaves the ripples (paraphrasing because I haven’t written this scene yet lol): “She’s been an unwavering ally until now. Kaldorei through and through. The Goddess saw nothing to warn me about. It may be worth reconsidering some of our old ideas around her… around thor’drinn.”

Maiev’s not happy whatsoever but Tyrande outranks her, so that’s that. And after Tarinne fights in the final battle against Sylvanas and returns with (most) of the fellowship to Kalimdor as a hero (to most), well… her secret’s out. “Just” among those in the fellowship, but that’s still a wolf-touched kaldorei’s worst fear.

Society and especially elven society changes slowly, but a woman with thor’drinn being not just known but pardoned by the High Priestess herself (anonymously) was simply unimaginable before this whole debacle. It’s gonna change things. In a couple… centuries maybe there’ll be real changes which actually try to help those with it instead of just telling them to “repress it or die”. Better than nothing…?

Lastly, and completely unrelated, is Cathala and her weird backstory. Fewest words possible: un/lucky shipwreck survivor who got stuck on Pandaria for fifty years. After Mists, she’s stayed under the radar mostly, content with just being “kinda weird” and something of a mild curiosity to most of those around her. But after secession, and after a lot of real convenient trade routes were cut… suddenly this almost-nobody with an even more convenient tie to the difficult-to-infiltrate pandaren looks real enticing if you’re up at the top of the organized crime pecking order like Ylrith is. There’s a lot to be smuggled into and out of Pandaria, a lot of underworld connections to be made, all locked behind post-war isolationism and a language all but impermeable to even magical translation, if Lady Luck would just give her an in. And oh, would you look at that…

:3c

In all fairness, I don’t post about her that much. Mostly because I’m not currently working on any stories that directly involve her so she’s not in my brain as much. I LOVE her, I’m just more focused on the characters I work with more often lol

But basically: poly lesbian mob boss with a snake obsession

She’s the head honcho of a centuries-old crime syndicate called The Gray Order. Ylrith (il-rith) herself usually goes by “The Gray Matron”, but her enemies have given her a plethora of other, similarly sinister names. By now, the Order has connections all across Azeroth, in most any faction worth a damn. The opening up of Kalimdor to the rest of the world was one of the best things to happen to her.

The Order specializes in smuggling drugs, weapons, and other illicit items, but Ylrith will ferry war refugees to safer lands too, and other such things. All she wants is money and more people under her thumb — if you have the money, or are willing to do a favor for her, she’ll help you do what it is you want done. Her trademark phrase isn’t “A favor for a favor, darling” for nothing. Of course, she’s a master of wordcraft, and often gets people to promise more than they think. She’s also got informants everywhere — brothels in the big cities, innkeepers, compromised city guards, and so on — and thus is master of blackmail. You go to her to discuss a deal, you say something she doesn’t like, and she’ll drop a detail about your life you thought no one else knew.

She also has an EXTENSIVE snake collection of species from all over Azeroth and even beyond. If we’re being realistic a lot of the money she makes goes into caring for them lmao she just really loves snakes <3 In fact I was leaning so hard into the snake thing I decided to just say she’s (the elf equivalent of) autistic because no neurotypical person could possibly be that into snakes KSBXBJD Which makes her my second autistic night elf, the first being Cathala 💜 Yet another win for lesbians.

The third key thing about her is the upper crust of the Order are all in a sapphic polycule. They use their powers of polyamory for evil (affectionate). Ylrith is also kind of(?) a “lesbian femme fatale type”. One of her favorite activities is fucking with the royalty of patriarchal cultures like humans by seducing the wives of powerful men and then helping them kill their husbands, the end result being Ylrith now has control over that piece of land at best, and that rich woman’s loyalty at worst. It’s enrichment for her.

Now for more art. This first one is her and her spymaster/favorite assassin/girlfriend Delphine Kaltel, a.k.a. The Serpent’s Fang. Originally Delphine had actually been hired to kill Ylrith but it was an enemies-to-lovers thing <3

This one’s her and her blue dragon girlfriend Tyalagosa, who’s sort of her “court” mage, I suppose:

(She has more gfs/people in the Order’s upper crust, those are just the only two I’ve named, designed, and drawn. One I have yet to draw is Evelyn Torvannas, another Nightborne. She’s the head of a fairly powerful merchant family in Suramar.]

One showing off her other tattoo:

And her voice claim :) (Morrigan from Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Plus this dumb meme that sums her up perfectly imo:

(When POV tries to infiltrate the mob but they blew their cover and now they're getting taken out back to be stabbed in the neck 🥰)

2: Shuffle Your Playlist And Draw Whichever OC Fits What You Get!

I shuffled my driving playlist (which has the widest range of genres) and got Lone Digger by Caravan Palace. Conveniently, that’s already on Ylrith’s playlist so that was easy hehe

At this point I think I'm just gonna say Ylrith is autistic because there's no way in hell someone could be neurotypical and get this much pussy like snakes THIS much 💀

4: Send Me Music That YOU Think Fits My OC

They sent me Sick of the Silence by Mother Mother. Good beat btw I'll definitely be adding this to the aforementioned driving playlist :P

Here they are discussing, uh... work. (work of course being committing high-profile heists and smuggling illicit goods all over azeroth) (not that that matters because that's not actually what they're talking about at all) (love wins)

Ylrith is the picture of absolute dance perfection. Twirls and flourishes and idk other dance words. Everyone golf claps at the end.

Cedryn doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing but goddamn if he isn’t enjoying himself and really that’s all that matters.

Tarinne hip thrusts. Like a lot. Like it’s sort of uncomfortable. Are you sure she’s sober? She is? Oh boy.

Cathala dances like this: