Vareth Thornroot

Haranir / Druid

Submitted character story

Vareth Thornroot knows the sound a healthy root makes through stone. He learned it as a child in Deepbranch, a sheltered grove whose oldest trees grow toward light that never reaches the ground. He still rests his palm against doorframes before entering a house. Wood has usually noticed trouble before the people inside.

When part of Deepbranch began drying from the inside, the grove blamed a sickness. Vareth found clean cuts instead. Someone had taken a living seedheart from the roots and hidden the wound beneath new bark. His old trail partner, Serrik, had guided the strangers in. Vareth followed their tracks out into the wider world of Azeroth with his leaf armor still smelling of the grove.

He likes the surface more than he expected. Autumn trees are worth stopping for, and he will ask a traveler about a plant before asking where they came from. That makes people mistake him for easy company. He is, until they treat something living as a thing they can own without care.

The seedheart is being carried in a metal case that keeps it alive just long enough to sell. Vareth wants it back before the next root in Deepbranch falls silent. He also wants to hear Serrik explain himself in person, which is becoming the more dangerous part of the plan.