Shinsen: The Lightning Blade Clan
10,000 years earlier
"The true story started at noon one day on Draenor. The honorable Lightning Blade Clan was a young clan, but confident in their abilities. They had won many battles against the neighboring warlords, not for combat with arms, but for their ability with the shamanic arts and endurance. The oldest living member of the Lightning Blade Clan, Shinsen, stood poised on a terra-cotta colored cliff, covered in mail armor. He touched his eyes, and a small line of light formed a circle on the ground below him. He gazed out across the red landscape of Draenor, eyes bathed in a golden shine. He turned to the soldier to his left, mounted on a wolf, and let a single phrase pass from his lips: "They're coming..." The blue soldier didn't even bother saying a word, but merely increased his grip on his mount as it sprinted southwest, as if crazed. The wolf knew what was happening, and under the silver plate armor that covered him, the wolf's heart pumped. The clanwolves were not ignorant; they were wiser than all orcs other than the Farseers. For the clanwolves, specific to the Lightning Blade Clan, were not really wolves at all, and under the same armor that protected them lay a dark secret... The soldier's wolf stopped at 500 yards a few seconds later to howl mournfully; then he sprinted towards the barren horizon.The howl did more than echo across the landscape. Twenty leagues away in a small encampment, three wolves perched on small plateaus howled the same song, and immediately the camp came alive. Dark-skinned orcs hurried to put on their armor, and in seconds the camp was filled with unsaddled wolves and men, along with three warriors on clanwolves... but only two were clearly orcish. One was different... a difference easily seen, but not easily named. Under the armor, the skin was blue, and directly below the helmet lay small tentacles. The rider, or Raider, was not orcish at all, but draenei. The second Raider, orcish, gently ran his dark green hands down his wolf's unprotected section of the neck. The first and highest-ranked made a haughty sound, and in the rough tone used only from upper-ranked to the lower-ranked, noticing every detail of the second's movement. "Pah! Roga'sh, you'll only spoil your wolf if you treat it in such a way! Show no affection! Affection is weakness, and I will not have weakness in my Raider platoon!" Roga'sh nodded his head, but his words did not show submission. "Gron, I understand. But I am a shaman, and you are a warrior; keep this in mind. I feel affection for this creature because it is more than a creature." "I will not have further disrespect. And a creature is a creature." "You will never understand."The third Raider, and one of the only two draenei in the clan, showed something rare: A sign of communication. Even the stoic Gron took a second away from his arguing to be shocked at the draenei's nod. Then he snapped back to his natural "Gron face," except even more red-faced than usual. This, in hindsight, could have been a sign of what was to come... but Grom interrupted the moment. "BAH! I guess DISCIPLINE isn't common action in the Draenei culture! I will not accept such GALL from a mere blueba--" Gron did not finish his sentence, because the draenei did something never before seen by any man other than Shinsen himself--he spoke. His words were flat and absolute, taking no apologies and making none. Through gritted teeth, his words were heard: "Don't call me that."So simple, but Gron was speechless. The platoon rode silently for the rest of the journey.At dusk, the platoon reached the rider whom was with Shinsen at noon. The soldier was silent, but dismounted and quickly began the casting of a spell. The Raiders were soon facing a hole in existance itself, and through this hole they could see Shinsen. They stepped through, all four. The others would catch up soon; first the unsaddled Ghost wolves, and then the warriors. As they stepped through the portal, the Raiders dismounted out of respect. The old, white-haired Shinsen greeted them by taking off his helmet, and grinning a slightly mischevious, slightly affectionate smile. "Greetings, Raiders. Look accross the horizon, and tell me what you see..." Roga'sh noticed the glow of the elder's eyes, and followed instructions. Over the dusty, rolling hills, the shaman could see nothing. He was not old enough for his Far sight to have the range of Shinsen's, but he still knew what was happening. "I can see naught but dust. My lord, you know I cannot see across leagues as you can... please, tell me why you torment me?"Shinsen laughed. "I mean nothing harmful by it, young one. But look closely... Even without Far Sight, these old eyes can see them."Roga'sh looked again. He gasped, an uncommon thing among orcs, especially shamans and warriors. Their numbers reminded him of the time a clan grunt platoon stumbled upon a shellback nest on a minor raid. An axe a soldier was brandishing without respect scraped accross the ground at the wrong time, and soon the shellback insects were everywhere. So bad was the incident that the shellbacks bit and stung the platoon for weeks, delaying the raid. He couldn't help but inwardly chuckle... the one who annoyed the shellbacks was him. The other soldiers pushed him for weeks. But look at him now... those soldiers were still the same rank, and with the power he had now, he could personally command the troops to walk into a shellback nest without question. Snapping him back from his memories was the shriek of a Black Wyvern, unique to the Blackrock clan. Shinsen's voice was strong as he yelled, "Get down!" (enforcing it upon the three raiders with his hands) and sent a lightning bolt up at the wyvern-riding bomber. The bomber was shot down before he could release his weapon--a bomb (obviously), crafted from steel and wyvern blood. By now, the other troops had arrived, and the enemy troops were halfway to Shinsen and the three raiders. The troops immediately rushed to battle, hammers and axes in hand, spearheaded by Gron, mounted once more. The two other raiders, still unmounted, stood on the cliff with Shinsen, who wore a weary smile on his face. Turning to both of his flanks and adressing the two, he spoke the last words before the battle. "Let's try to raise some hell out there, shall we?" Roga'sh nodded, a grin on his face, and began to cast a chain lightning spell, while his companion quickly went through the motions to create the necessary totems. Shinsen looked wearily across the battlefield before commencing to roar, an ear-splitting roar, and hurling lightning bolts.A few hours later, the battle was still going. Neither side was winning by a large amount of troops, but the enemy was gaining ground. Shinsen nodded his old head and said to his companions, "It's time." The raiders mounted, and Shinsen did the same on a much larger, older wolf. The three burst into enemy lines, smashing and hacking. Gron lay on the ground, slain... the draenei felt a tinge of sadness, but Roga'sh gazed upon the corpse in unbelief before roaring in a voice equal to Shinsen's, a voice that stopped both sides' fighting for a second to gaze upon Roga'sh. His face was that of an enraged orc, but his eyes were crying. Dismounting, he unsheathed his axe and rushed, head first, into the enemy lines. He took about twenty orcs of the Blackrock clan with him upon breaking the lines, and then the fighting commenced again. The Blackrock troops soon surrounded him, doing much damage to Roga'sh, but taking much more. He soon broke his way out of the lines, having diminished most of the enemy troops. But he had broken out of the fray for a different reason than survival... Shinsen lay on the ground, and the last living Raider of his platoon was standing in front of him, hammer raised. From the marks on Shinsen's flanks, Roga'sh could tell that his companion had hit Shinsen from behind with a Flame Shock, then Frost Shock, and then (using the ice from the frost shock as a conductor) smashed Shinsen with the most mana-charged lightning bolt he could muster... but before his traitorous companion could land his hammer and take the elder's life, Roga'sh's axes found their mark into the foul soldier. He took one last shocked look behind him to find out what had happened, before narrowing his eyes, falling to his knees, and roaring, roaring until his blue body fell dead.
Roga'sh ran with all the speed of a clanwolf to the almost unrecognizable form of Shinsen. To his relief, he was still alive, if wounded and oddly out of breath. Shinsen, saving the precious oxygen he had in his lungs, moved his hands to his chest, where Roga'sh could see two gaping blows--most likely done by a dagger the draenei had been hiding. The gaps were in a very vital place...Roga'sh gasped as he saw the cuts that had pierced Shinsen's lungs. Shinsen decided to use his last breath to speak to Roga'sh..."My son... the draenei is not to blame for this entirely... he is... altered..." Shinsen coughed out the words, gasping for breath, but finding no place to put it. "Look...above...y-you..." Roga'sh, through his tears, obeyed, and gazed, shocked, at the red inferno that was the once-blue sky of Draenor. Looking back to Shinsen, he heard the elder's final words: "My...son... this barren place is my deathbead, just as I..." Shinsen coughed, a dry, raspy cough, signaling death's approach. "...predicted. It is said that...a shaman can see...a...very important thing at the end of his life, and I see..." The cough grew more intense. Time was running out, an Shinsen rushed to finish his words. "...I see a warrior, no, a shaman, fifty generations from now... make it known in the clan that this orc is to be named Shinsen, also... but to do such, you must live! Flee! Flee this wretched place! Demons...! Demons are coming! Draenor is finished... you must live! Leave the battlefield now, and take my daughter with you! As far as I...know, the only way for your survival is to take my mount, and rush to the portal... surely Bardesh, our only mage, has betrayed us as well... hurry, before he closes it! Then, take my daughter and tell her to take you to Ra'shik... she will know what you are speaking of! With you together, the clan will have heirs, and one day they stow away on a Draenei ship to go to the New World... Now, go!" "But--" "GO!!"These were the last words of Shinsen the elder, and they were obeyed. What the Elder forced Roga'sh to flee from turned out to be the demons that enslaved the Orcish race, and thus, Roga'sh and the Elder's daughter stayed on Draenor. Even when it imploded, they stayed on the main part of it, now known as the Outland. Roga'sh the Mighty and Shinsen's daughter, Fenla, escaped to an underground chasm, presumably the 'Ra'shik' spoken of. The heirs to the clan eventually found their way to Earth. To this day, the traitor's name is unknown. Today, the one spoken of by the Elder is here today...dozing in class..." The young orc woke up immediately. "No I'm not!"