Lore/Sanity Check

Ello,

Can one of you Lore-gurus please sanity check the history and background of my rogue, Captain Reynard Ferrand please?

His post: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If anything in there is dodgy/wrong/laughable, please let me know ASAP!

Many thanks!

Spoiler:

I did give it a read and these are the things I found. Do bump up the thread again if you wish me to take another read.

Wow - thanks for taking so much time to read and comment on this.  

A few responses:

So in terms of the character Reynard Ferrand, he is a million times more fleshed out than I have put into that post.  Basically I have written two novels (am slowly writing the third) with him as a main character.  You can find my Amazon Page here:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-J.-Blake/e/B00FZJHRIE/

Reynard is extremely well developed and his background as posted on these forums is my effort to shoehorn his book background into Azeroth.  The books are set in a world of my own devising and so there is no direct fit into Azeroth so there are places I've had to compromise/change things about.

Regarding why Reynard likes to wear black - that has never been explained.  I've never really thought too deeply about that particular character trait - he just does.  

The whole background about growing up in Lordaeron is the place I'm not very familiar with.  I'll read what you have responded in more detail and rework it to fit in with the Lore.  This is exactly what I was after when I asked for feedback - so thanks so much on that area.

Regarding the being captured and made a slave on a ship, well I would like to keep that story (it is an important part of Reynard's story in the books).  I can see that saying the Javelin is out of Menethil isn't a good choice as they would not likely be slavers.

Now, in the books there is the Guild of Master Merchants and Sea Farers who (though it is illegal) keep slaves locked up in their galleys to row - simply as it is cheaper than hiring them.   So Reynard was captured by these slavers.   The books tell about how he and a few other slaves manage to escape from their bonds.  I could post details on his forum post here, but there is little point as I know all the details intimately if anyone ever bothers to ask in character. Or you can just read it in the books. I think you can download the first three chapters of Reynard's Fate for free on Kindle - and they cover Reynard's escape from the ship and him and his slave companions taking control.

For some more info on this, the ship in question was called the Hammerhead when he was captured.  But once him and a few fellow slaves had overcome their captors they took the Hammerhead to a shipyard which asks no questions (not sure where that might be in Azeroth - possibly Ratchet?) and got it renamed to the Javelin in order to help escape the attentions of the Guild.  In the books that did not work out so well for them.

So as you can see I'm trying to make this well defined background I have written for the character (through 2 novels) fit into Azeroth and make sense from a practical and lore point of view - something that I'm far less familiar with.

Would it be likely that there would be slaver ships running out of, say, Booty Bay?

Oh, regarding his name. The surname is 'Ferrand'. His family were also known as the Iron House, because they're famous for the iron nodes which dot the landscape around their ancestral home and for the smiths who they employ - some of the best in Lordaeron.

Thanks for your help on this, it will be great to get a character who fits with my stories and yet still works inside Azeroth. But if trying to match them too closely isn't going to work then I'll just scrap his complex background and leave him as "Captain Reynard Ferrand - Ship's Captain" and be done with it.

I see you have the background of your character already well fleshed out. The form you wrote it on the forums had merely lots of blank spots, which now are explained.

To be fair, your background is alright. Some strange wordings, maybe (such as boredom for dying hair), or not specifying the Iron House part, but those have already been clarified.

I would also suggest that you relocate your family's house to a more mountainous region in the Plaguelands area, since such an area is more likely to have good Iron Deposits rather than Andorhal, which was more of the center of Farming.

You could also say that The Javelin was of Kul Tiras rather than Menethil Harbor.

Over one thousand years ago, the city-state of Kul Tiras was founded upon a large island west of Khaz Modan and in between Stormwind and Lordaeron. Kul Tiras developed a thriving economy based on fishing and exports. Over the years mighty fleets of merchant vessels were built and they sailed throughout the seas in search of exotic goods to trade and sell.

As the maritime nation, I am sure Kul Tiras would have iffy seafarers and captains fit for your story.

Those are my suggestions as for now. Nothing bad in your background story. Merely polishing the details to made fit better to the Warcraft setting.

Thanks again.

Initial background post updated to take into account your excellent feedback. If you get a chance to comment on the fixed version it would be very much appreciated.

I found the time to read through it again. Looks good by most part. One minor detail nitpicking.

The plague of Lordaeron originally spread through the Plagued Grain, which was then made to bread, eaten, people got poisoned, died, got raised.

Did the wagon delivering the grain to the Ferrand estate slip on the mountain path and tumble into a deep ravine?

Does the people of the Iron House prefer to eat mushrooms instead of grain and bread?

Or is there other reason why the Grain, which was what was Plagued did never reach Ferrand before word of Plagued Grain did?

(Maybe their mill was broken?)

Just a minor detail though! Plenty of ways to explain that.

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Off-topic, I am mildly amused on how close "Feirand", my character family name is to "Ferrand". Alas, mine was from Gilneas and from a magic-heavy bloodline (that name was actually never specified).