Post your childhood/backround here!

[Cloudjumper]

My childhood is not one of strife, woe, fear, or hate as so many experience these days. I was born in a small tent on the plains, the very welcome addition to a strong and revered Tauren family. I grew up in a caring community, from a young age I was taught the ways of the hunt, and given the skills to use the skins of our prey to cloth myself and others.

When I was 12 a group of friends and I were had wandered too far away from the tents of our band while playing. A hungry wolf had caught our scent, and charge out from cover, trying to take down a young girl. She screamed, and I am not sure how but suddenly I felt the magic of the Earthmother flow through me. Strong grasping roots shot from the earth and bound the beast in it's tracks. We all managed to escape, and were properly disaplined on our return.

That night the Elders of our band had a closed meeting, it went long into the night I am told, but I had long since gone off to sleep. My dreams were strange, filled with images of a land that looked very familiar, yet was completely unknown to me all at the same time. I met many of my ancestors walking through this land, they were all very happy to see me.

I awoke from my dreaming refreshed and renewed, and with the knowledge I would be leaving my band. So I was not surprised when my parents came in to tell me I would be leaving this day and traveling to see my family in the great Tauren capital of Thunder Bluff. I packed my things and once they were safely stowed on a large kodo, I said good by to my family and friends.

There were 2 hunters given the task of taking me to Thunder Bluff. I was not used to riding kodos, having not been deemed big enough to not get hurt. And for some reason the uncommon motion of the kodo's brought on an illness in my stomach the like of which I have never felt. For the entire 5 day trip I was sick, couldn't eat, dreading each days ride greater than the last. The hunters found it amusing at first, then grew concerned as I stopped eating.

But I would not allow them to put me onto a travois, instead each day I would get on the beast and ride, feeling worse and worse with each step. But we made it to the city, and I vowed never again to ride a kodo!

It took me 3 days to get my appetite and strength back, but once it had my training began! I was schooled in the ways of the Earthmother by my maternal aunt Kym Wildmane, my studies progressed at a good rate and many of my teachers said they expected great things from me. I also found I had the rare ability to reach the Emerald Dream, the world between world watched over by the druids and green dragon flight.

During my 15th season other changes started taking place, I began to grow. While I had been behind many of the other youth in terms of my physical size, I soon caught up and surpassed many of them. No longer was I the one loosing in the various physical contests, instead I started winning. And my horns grew very wide and strong, a great symbol of my status and strength in the tribe. They also brought the attention of many fine ladies.

The summer of my 16th season I was sent to Red Cloud Mesa to continue my training on my own. From there I went on to many other places, and continue to this day to discover the Earthmothers teachings.

[Logros]

Hrmm. The story of Logros Dawnstrider is not one of flame and death, or tragedy and loss. My parents are alive and well, living quietly in Thunder Bluff. It is likely many Tribemates have spoken with my mother, though of course they'd have known it not. No conflagaration consumed my early life, and I am blessed by the Earthmother for my upbringing and the talents I have been blessed with.

I grew up in Mulgore, and the incredible plateaus and valleys of that land were the playgrounds of my childhood. I was 9 years old when the First War was fought in the Eastern kingdoms - I have now seen nearly forty summers. Like many other Shu'Halo children, I felt the pull of the Earthmother early in life, and embraced the path of the shaman. My father wished me to be a druid, to follow his father's path and embrace the Emerald Dream. As one of the few elder druids who followed the teachings of Cenarius in those days, my grandfather would have had much to teach me. Indeed, my brother Nwm, so named by my grandfather for reasons he would not discuss even with my parents, has followed such a path.

But it was not to be for me. While I have nothing but respect for the power of the druids, it is the more primal and savage that draws me to the Earthmother. When the orcs arrived at our lands, and we allied with them to fight the foul spawn of Theradras, I was among many of our people who desired to be at the front-lines of that conflict. I found I enjoyed the company of the orcs as much as I did my own people - the fire in their blood and sheer vitality of their living was a contrast to the more placid mindset of my people. When the centaur were defeated, and Thunder Bluff built, it seemed our people would be content to defend their lands, and little else. I felt more as the orcs did, and still do - against the tide of evil of the Scourge, the Burning Legion, the Naga, and all the other threats our world contains, defending ones borders cannot be enough to ensure your people's safety. Our foes are many - the treacherous Alliance would subjugate the orcs again if they could, and such a noble race should never again feel shackles. The Legion is a constant threat, and the centaurs shall grow in number if we do not continue to crush them beneath our totems. (( The tree-trunk weapons Tauren use are called totems. I'm not sure why we summon little tiny ones for buffs, heh ))

And thus, it is how it has been. I have walked with the orcs of Durotar, tracked foes with the trolls of Sen'jin, and breathed the befouled air of the Undercity. With the reopening of the portal to the shattered remains of Draenor, we find new battlegrounds and places we must defend against evil, and new lairs of darkness which must be assaulted, lest they grow too powerful to be defeated.

The Earthmother has given me all that I need to aid my people, and to aid my new Tribemates, the Ironsong. It is my will that the Earthmother's gift shall not be squandered. Woe to the foes of our peoples.