In the World
Illidan Stormrage is the demon hunter. He burned out his own eyes with Sargeras's fire, drank from the Skull of Gul'dan, and his brother put him in a barrow prison under Mount Hyjal for ten thousand years because of it.
He was released four years ago to fight Arthas, and he is now beyond the Dark Portal, having taken Outland from Magtheridon. Altruis and Varedis went with him. So did most of what remained of his order.
You are one of the ones who didn't.
1 · Released, and stayed behind (night elf)
You took the fire before The Sundering and the Wardens put you under with him. When the doors opened four years ago you walked out — and did not follow him a second time.
What this costs you. You went into the ground before the Sundering and came out after The Third War. Everything is wrong. Your people are mortal, Nordrassil has burned, Cenarius is dead, and there is an alliance with a species called humans that you have never heard of.
This is the same shock the awakened druids carry, except they are welcomed home and you are not.
2 · Never sealed (night elf — homebrew)
The Wardens came for Illidan's followers ten thousand years ago and you were not there — out hunting, or already hiding, or simply missed in a chaotic night. Maiev Shadowsong's records show your name on the list of the interred. The records are wrong.
You have spent ten thousand years alone, hunting demons nobody knew were there, staying ahead of an order that thinks you are already in a cell. You have no allies, no home, and no one who can confirm you exist.
What this costs you. Nothing about the world surprises you — you watched all of it happen. What you have instead is ten thousand years of solitude and the certainty that the moment a Warden gets a good look at you, the paperwork problem becomes your problem.
3 · Trained in Outland, and sent back (blood elf)
Kael'thas Sunstrider took the sin'dorei through the Dark Portal a year ago and threw in with Illidan. Illidan needed demon hunters and had a supply of desperate, fel-addicted elves who had already lost everything.
You are from the first blood elf intake, and you are barely trained. A year of Illidan's methods, which are not gentle and not long. Then you were sent back through the Portal for a reason you were told once and did not fully understand.
What this costs you. You are the newest demon hunter alive and it shows. You also came back to an Azeroth where your people are a rumour — the sin'dorei are offscreen, Quel'Thalas is a ruin, and the Alliance still thinks of your kind as high elves who went quiet.
At Level 1
Blindfolded, fel-scarred, and carrying something in you that is not you. You see demons other people cannot. You have never met another practitioner who was not also a prisoner.
Specializations
| WoW Spec | Subclass | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Havoc | Ranger — Demon Hunter (WoW book) | ✅ Direct | Movement-as-aggression. Fel Rush and Eye Beam need purpose-built features, which is why this subclass exists. |
| Vengeance | Ranger — Demon Hunter (WoW book), defensive picks | 🔄 Shared | Same subclass, defensive options. Demon Spikes is a named spell in the new book. |
Species Pairings
- Night elf — origins 1 and 2. Ten thousand years old, blind, fel-scarred, in a world that buried the people who put you under.
- Blood elf — origin 3. A year of training, a world you barely recognise, and a prince who sent you back without explaining why.
Playing One Here
Two questions to settle at session zero, and both are good:
Did you take the fire willingly? All of Illidan's followers were volunteers, in every generation. Whether you still think it was worth it is the character's spine.
Who is looking for you? The Wardens imprisoned your order and consider the release an escape rather than a pardon. Maiev Shadowsong is currently chasing Illidan through the Dark Portal; she has deputies, and they are less busy.
Why anyone volunteers for the fire
Every demon hunter in every generation was a volunteer. These are reasons to have been one, and none of them depend on which origin you took.
- You saw what a demon does to a place — and decided that fighting fair was a luxury somebody else could afford.
- The Legion took someone — and every lawful route to answering it was too slow, too institutional, or too likely to fail.
- You believed him — Illidan is persuasive, and his argument has never actually been refuted. Only punished.
- You were already dying — of a wound, of fel sickness, of withdrawal. The ritual was less a sacrifice than a use for what was left.
- You wanted to see — the sight is the real prize. Demons hide, possess, and wear faces, and you are the one person in the room who is never fooled.
- Nobody else would — somebody in your circle had to take the fire, and you were the one without a good reason to refuse. Loramus Thalipedes made the same arithmetic and has been alone on an island off Azshara ever since, forging weapons against a dreadlord nobody sent him after.
