[A-RP] Darnassian Sentinels - We are sworn to avenge!

[Anirys-argent-dawn]

The Darnasian Sentinels’ purpose remains the same as it always have: defend the Night Elven forests at all costs from anyone who would dare to desecrate their sanctity. Having lost Teldrassil, they are no longer only a defensive force; they are a sub-organisation which offers protection, comfort, purpose and kinship to their own as they as well as terrible vengeance to their enemies.

This is a (re)new Kaldorei guild, continuing the Terror of Darkshore-cinematics. Dark eyed Kal’dorei prey upon those dare to defile their lands. This will be a RP heavy guild with a focus on (w)PvP.

“We are sworn to avenge!”

Guild Leader: Saerhyn Owlsong
Officers:
---- Saeriala Owlsong, Grand Huntress.
---- Vowiel, Grand Archer.
Affiliation: The Night Warrior, Darnassus.
Theatre of Operations: Northern Kalimdor
Races: Night-elf only.
Accepted Classes: All, if the story fits.

=================< Paths & Classes >=================

Grand Archer (Officer)
”Thanks to one Grand Archer, the true borders of the Kal’dorei extend an arrow’s flight beyond the wooded sanctity.”

The Grand Archer is a seasoned Sentinel trained specifically for ranged combat. She is a skilled tracker and huntswoman who employ her bow and arrows with deadly accuracy. She serves as the leader’s next in line in the night-to-night performance and maintenance of the Sentinels’ physique, skills and vigilance. While the Grand Archer is more experienced in ranged combat she is allowed to lead and teach Huntresses but her main focus remains teaching and guiding the regular Archers.

Archer
"One shot… One kill."

All Sentinels who primarily use a bow are considered Archers in all regards and are taught in the specific tactics which follows that position. Archers strike from cover, launching arrows expertly at their target’s weak points, before they vanish into the shadows once more, employing hit and run tactics. The Archers stay at the back, at the edge of range and vision’s field, ready to strike and vanish until the enemy is destroyed. They answer to the Grand Sentinels and the Priestess of the Moon.

Grand Huntress (Officer)
“As tireless as her mount, a Grand Huntress’s vigil is measured in centuries.”

The Grand Huntress is knowledgable and an experienced Huntress who rides a mighty Nightsaber into battle. She possesses the wisdom of training and tending to especially Nightsabers and is an expert in melee or semi-melee combat. The Grand Huntress pass on her skills honed by the experience of age on to the regular Huntresses and she serve, just as the Grand Archer, as the leader’s next in line, with a primary focus on Huntresses as the only differentiating factor.

Huntress
“Fear the night!”

All Sentinels who primarily use a weapon that requires her to get up close and personal with her quarrel is considered a Huntress for all points and purposes and if they do not know how to fight from a Saber’s back they will be taught to do so by the Grand Huntress. Huntresses use hit and run tactics to strike at enemies in ride-by attacks before vanishing into the forest again as the Archers then unleash a hail of arrows, only to repeat the process until the enemy is destroyed. They answer to the Grand Sentinels and the Priestess of the Moon.

Priestess
“Warriors of the Night, assemble!”

The Priestesses are revered by all as they also are in all other avenues of Night Elven society. They are the Priestess of the Moon’s responsibility in regards to carrying out their spiritual duties and spreading the light of Elune. The Priestesses’ duties are to provide healing to the injured, comfort to the needing and guidance to the despairing or the lost.

Elder Druid (Officer)
Nature rewards all who honour the forest by making them a living part of it."

The Elder Druids are the voices of the rest of the druids. They are the oldest and wisest of the druids and exist to both teach the more inexperienced druids and to voice the opinions of their brethren to the Priestess of the Moon.

There are spots for four Elder Druids as each druid wields a different totem and different teachings. Druids are far more specialised than Sentinels in regards to tutelage and it is limited what a Druid of the Claw can teach a Druid of the Antler and so forth. Thusly, the four Elder Druids are as follows: Druid of the Claw, Druid of the Talon, Druid of the Grove and Druid of the Antler.

Druid
“My path is clear.”

Tthe Druids’ purpose is the healing and nurturing of nature to restore balance where the balance of the world has been upset. All druids are capable of healing to some extent, but all also adhere to an animal totem. Druids of the Claw are often found on the front ranks in the thick of battle when no healing is required; fighting alongside the Huntresses. The Druids of the Talon serve as spies and scouts as they can move undetected in their Storm Crow forms, but they are also capable of assisting the Sentinels from a distance with the more violent shades of nature’s magic. Druids of the Antler and Druids of the Grove function primarily as healers, an art which they have perfected over countless ages. They are the most powerful healers of the druids but they are also capable of shifting into a stag or a treant, respectively.

[Saerhyn-argent-dawn]

That moment when the forums decide to post it under a different character.

[Footman-argent-dawn]

What…

You mean… non-peace loving elves?

Looking forward to this.

[Arindha-argent-dawn]

Finally.
The elves I was looking for.
The true Night Elves from Warcraft III.
I’m interested, I’ll think about it!

[Starstrike-argent-dawn (Starstrike)]

Ugh, if I had time for more than one character I’d be all over this like a shot!
Hope it goes well!

[Arborist-argent-dawn]

Normally I’d be extremely happy that a new Sentinel guild pops up, but I feel like in this case very little research and care has gone towards the given lore behind the Sentinel army, as well as a lack of motivation to depict such a unit and the roles within as accurately as possible.

My first point would be why the split of the Sentinels in the Archer and Huntress role, especially considering this will likely be the bulk of your members!

Huntresses in quests are usually depicted as the –elite- of the Sentinel Army, the officers, usually armed with glaive and shield and mounted. They are a quite specific soldier within the Army, hence I can’t really understand why you would dump all the “normal” and melee-heavy characters into that category. I’d rather suggest you make the Huntress rank an officer role and get rid of the odd <Grand> altogether as that rank doesn’t make sense in the grand scheme. Normal <Sentinels> are those melee combatants you describe as depicted in the Warfront and everywhere else in the game (though of course all of them can shoot a bow quite proficiently). That should likely be the rank for them.

Secondly, you’ve opened up a second rough role of <Archer>, which at first glance seems fine seeing as that role exists in the Warfront and they have lighter armor than the other forces. This would be great, provided you’d actually add the Sentinel rank as the melee-heavy soldiers and the Archers as the ranged-heavy. Again, the <Grand Archer> officer rank is a mystery to me. More fitting is once again the Huntress rank or a Sentinel Captain / Lieutenant rank as depicted in quests and novels for the officer role.

Thirdly, the onedimensional depiction of the priestess role. Ever since Warcraft 3 (and even during the pre-patch) they are depicted as the elite, leaders both in the field and in general within Kaldorei society (though temple priestesses and softer priestess of course exist and play a role). Here you limit them to a mere support role / healer and spiritual guide role, which simply doesn’t really do them justice. At least an officer role for one of the priestesses would be much more befitting.

Lastly, I’d reconsider Druid of the Grove and perhaps make the healer-heavy elder druid a Druid of the Branch instead. They’ve been established as the totem for “Restoration” druids throughout Legion and BfA, while we know very little about Druids of the Grove. Also not entirely sure why Druids of the Antler are mentioned in the same breath as them, but I suppose I can agree that they are capable of decent healing.

Cool that you intend to do world pvp / RP-PvP though, lacks from side of the nelf community.

Here a bunch of Wowpedia pages that could be of some help to you, too!

 wow.gamepedia.com/Sentinels 

 wow.gamepedia.com/Huntress´

 wow.gamepedia.com/Priestess_of_the_Moon

 wow.gamepedia.com/Priestess_of_the_Moon_(Warcraft_III)

 wow.gamepedia.com/Sisterhood_of_Elune 

 wow.gamepedia.com/Druid_of_the_Grove 

 wow.gamepedia.com/Druids_of_the_Branch 

[Kump-argent-dawn]

I really love all those Warcraft 3 references so much! Really cool and lovely, loved it so much.

Looking forward to interact!

I stand ready.

[Sawblaster-argent-dawn]

I think Its because the Warfront itself splits archers from the huntresses.

[Saerhyn-argent-dawn]

Thank you in taking your time to reply to this post. It’s appreciated.
We’ve taken a good time thinking over the structure and setting for the guild, as we felt it was missing currently on Argent Dawn.

I agree a lot of not yet known by this post, but these forums are not very facilitating in providing a clear overview of the guild without the use of, for example, images. We are working on a more appealing post for the ArgentArchives.

Consider this topic more of a teaser, creating awareness for its existance. If your kaldorei is tired of Alliance politics. Tired of Horde roaming freely.
Perhaps these Sentinels prove to be to your liking, embracing the darker side of the Moon.

[Mythundis-argent-dawn (Mythundis)]

I think it’s great to see more Sentinel guilds - there’s only one at the moment, and variety is the spice of life!

That said, I do have a little question.

@Anirys-argent-dawn

Races: Night-elf only.
Accepted Classes: All, if the story fits.

This kind of made me wonder; why do you not take Worgen? Worgen have been shown to be able to be Sentinels as Moonclaws, and we also see the Moonclaws in Darkshore (Adella, Silvia and Tambre to give three named examples). From your description, I guess you’re trying to go for something along the likes of the <Army of the Black Moon>.

Second, since you state you accept all classes, does this mean you’ll accept Death Knights and Demon Hunters if the story fits? We don’t see those two classes fight as Sentinels, so that’s a curious choice to make.

All in all, I think the concept needs a little more work and a little more research, but I hope it can a great addition to the Night Elf scene in the future! I’ve also added you to the Night Elf RP thread.

[Alyndaria-argent-dawn (Alyndaria)]

Haha yes - I was thinking when I saw the nightborne like. “Hmm Horde night elves…”

But I love the concept overall!

[Arborist-argent-dawn]

I agree a lot of not yet known by this post, but these forums are not very facilitating in providing a clear overview of the guild without the use of, for example, images. We are working on a more appealing post for the ArgentArchives.

I honestly don’t think images would do anything, after all my issue is more with the description of the roles / ranks / structure within the guild and the shallow depiction despite the existant rich lore behind them. I do hope you’re right, though.

We’ve taken a good time thinking over the structure and setting for the guild, as we felt it was missing currently on Argent Dawn.

This is true for the focus on RP-PvP, definitely. Moonlight Embrace seems to fill the wider niche of the Black Moon Army to some degree, albeit not entirely / completely accurate. Afaik that wasn’t their goal anyway, though.

I think Its because the Warfront itself splits archers from the huntresses.

I know, I mention that in my post. It also splits Sentinels from Archers and Huntresses, the first which are lacking entirely, despite fitting the melee-heavy combatant described in the OP’s post.

[Saleysea-argent-dawn (Saleysea)]

What-ho! Be that a new sentinel guild I spy?

This looks to be shaping up great!
If I were to come with anything more constructive I’d be parroting Arborist in that I think it might be worth reconsidering what sort of a role the Huntress rank will have in your guild.

While they’re not exclusively portrayed as officers in their own right (they also seem to be the closest thing the sentinels have to a cavalry unit) all sources implies some degree of authority and respect.

Perhaps the Grand Huntress would be more fitting in the leadership position than the Grand Sentinel? Or even a Priestess of the Moon, as they too have been portrayed as battle commanders of their own sentinel squads numerous times.

Those suggestions aside, I hope you’ll get up and running nicely, what with the renewed surge in Night Elf roleplay brought by the latest patch. Best of luck to you!

Tor ilisar’thera’nal!

As an afterthought, have you humoured the idea of including hippogryph riders in any way?

[Lyraldris-argent-dawn]

Hi there! Always nice to see a more vengeance focused Night Elf guild, and especially a Sentinel only guild! I’d echo some of the feedback provided already by Arborist and Saleysea, but would be more than happy to offer feedback and aid in-game. The Sentinel section of the Moonlight Embrace has grown quite a lot lately, and I am sure we could both stand to benefit from some potential co-operation in the future! I’ll try to catch you in-game sometime soon!

Best of luck

/Lyraldris Lunarsong.

[Nerathion-argent-dawn (Nerathion)]

I also echo pretty much most of what Arborist said, but I also have a few points of my own:

1. Currently I cannot really think of a Kaldorei guild that isn’t vengeful or anti-Horde etcetera, so the initial promise of the guild feels a bit weird, as if suggesting the current available guilds aren’t doing so? How else would you differ from other similar guilds currently present in the community?

2. As a Sentinel guild, do you not think it curious to include Druids, especially with what seems to be four Elder Druids? Also echoing that Druids of the Grove aren’t really known much about, in the past it was suggested as the Restoration path for Druids, but with Legion, Druids of the Branch have taken on that role (and can apparently shapeshift to treants as well). And what about Ashen/cat form Druids- are they included with the Claws?

3. I do not personally see a problem with the ‘Grand’ title for officers, it could be some small guild’s own headcanon for the leaders, but what’s the title for the Guild leader, or do the officers form a sort of a council? And, parroting Arborist - Huntresses already are sort of the elite/officers as well as the cavalry, so the guild leadership sounds a bit confusing.

Overall, more guilds are always welcome in the Night Elven community, so I hope this will be successful as well! Best of luck!

[Darianuth-argent-dawn (Darianuth)]

But according to Blizzard, you already got your revenge. :^)

I’m kidding, you seem very enthusiastic, and while people are raising points about various details, it’s pretty constructive and the core concept is a sound one that could easily be shaped into something that stands out even more. I wish you the best of luck with it!