Story of Konowa: Part 1

When I first got into World of Warcraft, it was because of my friend Adam. He played for a long time before me, and had many friends spread across many servers. He brought one friend over to play with me, I first knew her as ScarletDawn. Soon, however, I would know her as Calypsio. She and I played closely for months, waking up early, staying up late, having a great and wonderful time.

Eventually I followed her to one of her main servers to play with her there. I created a Death Knight so I wouldn't be so far behind her in levels, and we continued to play months more. The realm we were on was a role playing one. Most people on there had whole stories of their characters, I would be no different. 

ScarletDawn with her cat, DarkestHour

I liked the fact that I could make a character and actually live his life, to a point, every day I played. Though he didn't become my main, he was the first to have a whole story. His name was Konowa. A name I had used previously on a hunter, which I took from the fantastic series, The Iron Elves. I even started a guild where I wanted to role play my own version of the series. 

Konowa had a whole life, which was brought to an end against his will and then a new one was forced upon him. I wrote this thinking about how I might send it into a Blizzard writing contest, but I didn't. I kept it for myself and only let a few people read it. 

This was one of the biggest parts of my WoW experience. Being someone else for a short time, and escape to get my mind off the day and, for me, start fresh each day. Below I am going to share part of that story with you. Because of the size, I am going to split it up into two parts. I hope you enjoy the first part. Warning: It does contain a large amount of fighting.

The snow fell softly on the house as Konowa walked out and headed to the logging camp. He had a small home in the woods in the northern part of Winterspring where he lived with his wife. They had moved there just after getting married and they loved it. Konowa was a lumberjack by trade and worked for a logging company. His job was to cut the trees down so that other could cut them up and ship them out. He enjoyed the job, as he did not have to deal with the nonsense of the cities.

His wife was the most beautiful person he had known. Her hair was long and she kept it back in a loose braid when she worked around the house. She had her work cut out for her as she got the whole house ready for the birth of their baby.

The months flew by and the day came that Konowa met his son for the first time. He had run miles to get home just in time to hear his wife begin to cry as she held their newborn son. Smiling, he sat down on the bed and slid close to his wife. She was hot and sweat was dripping down her and she looked a bit like hell, but at that moment, she was gorgeous and glowing so brightly that he thought his heart might burst with happiness.

I simply love Winterspring. I find the whole zone so peaceful.

The years passed much to fast but soon his son was a boy. He began to get interested in his fathers work. Some days when mom was not looking he would sneak off and run to the logging camp to find his dad, who was always working hard to cut a tree down. The boy smiled as he watched his father work. Konowa had seen his son come into the camp but he had a deadline to meet and had to get this tree down. The boy walked closer to where Konowa was and began to talk about all the nonsense that children talk about. It warmed Konowa’s heart when the boy would say “Daddy, when I grow up I want to cut trees like you.”

Konowa would go home each day and have a dinner with his wife. When they finished, Konowa would tell stories of the ancient elves that fought great evil long ago. He would tell stories of brave warriors that would face the horde and keep the Night Elves safe.

Sometimes the boy would ask questions about the warriors. “Daddy, why don’t you fight the horde?”

“Because son,” Konowa said as he smiled down at his son. “Each of us has a roll to do in the greater war. Some men are called to fight while others are called to help. I have been called to help. Without the wood from these trees, we could not rebuild homes, build defenses around our towns, or make weapons to defend ourselves. With out the trees that we cut here, the horde would surely overrun us.”

Every night, Konowa would pick his son up, give him a tight hug, and place him into his bed. He would say prayers with his son and then tuck him into bed. As he stood up, he would kiss him on the forehead and rustle his hair. Then Konowa’s wife would come in, kiss him good night and blow out the candle near the bed. Konowa would hold his wife’s hand as they walked out of the room and closed the door. They never closed the door all the way, because at least once a night his wife would sneak by the door and peak in on her son.

One day when Konowa was hard at work on the far side of Winterspring, he heard some men talking softly while they looked west toward the town. Konowa turned to yell at them to get working when he noticed a slight darkness in the sky. He watched for a few minutes until he realized what it was. He threw his saw down and grabbed a pair of axes out of a stump. Then men looked at him and it took them a moment more to realize that haze was smoke. The village was on fire.

He jumped on the back of one of the carthorses, rode hard, and fast toward the village. As he got closer, he could hear the sounds of screaming and crying, sounds of steel against steal and the war cries of the horde. Konowa ran past the village proper and ran toward his home. Dismounting when he got close, he ran toward a group of orcs throwing burning torches onto his house.

With no form to his hacks, Konowa began to chop at the orcs as if they were trees. Konowa’s muscles were tuned for hard hits. In a single stroke, he cut arms off, severed legs and spilled the guts of his enemies. As he was fighting hard against the orcs, he heard his wife calling for help. Her screams were full of fear and she coughed hard from the smoke. Konowa dodged the best he could but the orcs were many. In a flurry of wild swings, he managed to clear a path to his house.

Konowa was covered in orc blood as he dropped the axes and ran into the fire. He first grabbed his son and pulled him out of the house. Making sure there were no orcs out here, he ran back in and pulled his wife from the flames. As he exited the house, he saw his son in the arms of a powerful looking warlord. Konowa gently set his wife down against a tipped over cart and grabbed his axes.

Konowa charged the horde general. The orc tossed his son to the side and laughed as his swings missed. The orc threw a kick that hit Konowa in the back and he stumbled but did not fall. He turned and began to hack at the orc. Each swing the orc sidestepped or dodged. The orc threw an armored fist and hit Konowa hard in the side of the head. He fell hard to the ground. His vision began to blur and he could feel the blood dripping down his neck from his ear.

Konowa tried to stand up but the orc threw a kick hard into his ribs. The orc laughed as Konowa was sent flying back. He tried to stand again as the orc shot an arrow into his arm and he fell to the ground again. The warlord walked over to Konowa and, with one hand, picked him up from the ground. He leaned in close and whispered something in Konowa’s ear.

Konowa tired to throw a punch but the orc was faster and hit Konowa hard in the face with his head. Konowa could feel his nose collapse and the blood flow freely. He could no longer focus on anything. The orc warlord laughed again and pulled Konowa close. He whispered in his ear again, this time in a very rough and accented common. As Konowa’s head began to dip, the orc smiled at Konowa and threw him hard several feet back. Konowa’s world went black.

Flying over Winterspring.

When Konowa woke up, he was on his knees tied to a pole. The ropes were tight around his wrists, which were tied behind his back. His arms were tied tight against him, and he was leaning forward with two ropes tied around his neck. One rope was tied to the pole to choke him if he leaned forward too much and the other was tied to the ground in front of him so he could not lean back.

He heard the orcs laughing and a child crying. As Konowa sight came into focus, he looked to see his son, badly beaten and crying in a small ball. He saw his wife weeping silently and lying still a few yards to his right. Her clothes were torn and she had blood covering her. Konowa’s heart broke when he saw his family.

The orc warlord walked over to Konowa accompanied by a troll dressed in war paint. The troll looked down at Konowa and said something to the orc. Konowa hated not knowing what they were saying. He looked over to his wife and a fire lit inside him. He began to struggle to break free of the bonds. The troll laughed and smacked Konowa hard. He then walked over to Konowa’s wife.

Konowa could feel his one eye swollen from the beatings, but when he looked at his wife, his sight was clear. The troll picked her up by the hair and tossed her to the ground closer to Konowa. The orc picked up Konowa’s son by the neck. The boy struggled and kicked but there was nothing he could do to make the orc let go. The orc looked at Konowa and said in his rough voice, “I will make you watch them die. I will take all that you know and burn it to the ground.”