Groki

Name: Groki
Race: Orc
Class: Warrior
Age: 79

Origins

Groki was born on a small farm in the Northern Barrens without much fanfare. His mother, Lairin, discovered she was pregnant three days after receiving news that her mate had died in battle. She lived on a farm and was raising six children, four of which were her own and two orphans from the night elf raids on the lumber mills. When Groki was born she named him after his dead father. By that time, she had already reacquired a new mate.

Groki had a typical childhood. He was chosen to be a warrior at a young age. Between duties required to keep the farm running and his combat training, the years flew by. Groki was a member of the many clans that Thrall united against the alliance. Groki supported Thrall in his quest for peace and fought as a grunt in many of his campaigns against the humans, elves, and dwarves in their quest to be respected and allowed to live on their own.

Thrall's Peace

Then the day came. Thrall declared peace with the alliance. Groki knew this day would come, was fighting for it. But what is a warrior to do with no wars left to fight? Groki got a plot of land not far from where his mother's farm had been when he was born. He still trained with other grizzled old warriors that also settled down. His farm was pitiful, just barely yielding enough crop to make it worth while planting next year. Groki never found a mate, he never looked. He didn't plan to now, he was waiting to die. His dream was complete, the orc race was in Azeroth and at peace... or so he thought.

When the elves would come into the Barrens and raze a farm, Groki wasn't bothered. He knew the ways of war. He knew a new peace is often hot when first founded. Groki saw the dark forms sneaking northward through his fields. He knew these were the orcs that approached him to raid the elves that had wronged them. This is the way of peace, to lead to war. The only way to keep the peace is to not retaliate.

The years went by, and the peace was not cooling. Thrall sat by and took no action as the border disputes continued. The situation was getting worse, not better and Thrall took no action to calm matters. Was it that he did not care, or did he know the alliance would not rein their people in? If Thrall pushed, the alliance would not bend... so in interest of peace, Thrall turned a blind eye. Is this the peace that Thrall wants? This wasn't the peace that Groki fought years for.

The Blacktooth Grin

Over the years of peace, Groki noticed a band of organized fighters that passed through his farm from time to time. They weren't the locals trying to get a little vengeance. These were trained soldiers with discipline. When Thrall's peace began to chafe too much, Groki began waiting out in his field a few nights looking for this band.

One such night, Groki found what he was looking for, just not the way he planned. The night had been quiet. Instead of hearing anything move through his fields, he felt a wire go around his neck and a dagger resting in his ribs. He heard a voice behind him speaking in common, "What do we have here, a green skin hiding in a field. Oh, and look at that axe. We are being naughty now aren't we?".

Groki attempted to turn to see who was speaking to him. The garrote tightened around his neck and he felt the dagger slide an deeper between two ribs. "Oh no no, don't move. Just stay right there while I decide what to do with you, orc".

His thoughts raced, who would be speaking common? Was this his band of fighters, but why would they be speaking a human tongue? Suddenly, he heard gurgling noise and the rope loosened, but the dagger slipped the rest of the way into his ribs. Groki turned around to face his attacker, but he saw a human with his throat slit and an undead corpse looking at him. As blackness surrounded his vision he heard him say in a raspy voice he said, "Not what you were expecting tonight farmer?"

Groki woke the next day with a bandage around his chest. He was in a crude camp in a cave in the barrens. Around him he saw orcs standing and talking side by side with forsaken and tauren. He'd campaigned before, but usually the races kept to themselves and did not eat and sleep intermixed. It felt unusual, but not wrong. One of the orcs saw him stirring and walked over to him. "I am called Gorfrunch, and you are called Groki. You are lucky that Bellmont doubled back looking for shadows. You are also lucky that Bellmont was in a good mood and killed the shadow before he was done carving up your ribs. We have seen you in your field off and on the last couple months and avoided you, were you looking for us?"

And just like that, the next chapter in Groki's life started. Introduced to Gorfrunch he became a grot and started fighting the alliance again. Not under Thrall's banner of peace, but under the Grin's demand for life and respect. Groki still believed peace was a noble goal and Thrall is a great leader, but since Thrall was unable to sanction war against elementals of the alliance that were disrupting the peace... Groki found someone who would.

Evil Gnomes

Groki was in Alterac Valley and deployed by Drek'Thar to defend a southern bunker. Because of the main force of the alliance had passed Groki's squad had thought this bunker defended. They left the bunker to attack the flanks of the alliance main force. Groki was told to hold this bunker by Drek'Thar and had no intention of abandoning it, the bloodlust no longer held Groki's mind.

Hearing a noise, Groki turned just in time to see two small shapes drop from the ceiling above with a net. While tangled in the net held by two gnomes, three other gnomes walked up the stairs toward him. They wore robes and began casting incantations. Groki kept turning form, from sheep to rat to pig to horse to turtle and everything in between. Groki was the only one in the bunker and they did not destroy it, they seemed to be performing tests on him. Since the building did not appear to be razzed, no one came to see what Groki was doing.

Hours upon hours passed. Finally one of the gnome mages said, "Enough, it cannot be done!"

"But, what shall we do with our volunteer?" another asked.

In a high pitched voice the third said, "Let us give him something to remember us by, shall we? He seems particularly malleable now. The orcs consort with the Blood Elves now do they, let us make him an ambassador! I wish I could be there to see them try to undo THIS!"

With that, a new transformation took place. This one felt different then the others, more permanent. During the polymorph spells before it was like his body was being asked to bend to another form, but Groki was still Groki. Now, it was like his body, his very being, was actually being transformed... permanently. The pain of this was intense and blackness overcame him.

When Groki came to, he was in the bunker by himself. But it was cold, they had stripped him bare and left him for the elements. He found his cloths and armor thrown around the floor. He picked it up and began to put it on, but it didn't fit. Why would they modify his armor, but not destroy it? And it looked and felt as it always had. Then, he noticed his forearm. Something was wrong, his skin was white not grey-green. He looked around and saw the crude mirror used for signaling the other bunkers. He flipped it down, and what he saw shocked him. He was no longer an orc, but in the form of a Blood Elf. To add insult, he was ... NO! Groki Shouted, but from his lips came not the low guttural growl of his normal orcish self, but the high pitched scream of a Blood Elf woman.

In the months to come the magi of the Blacktooth Grin tried to figure out what the gnomes did to Groki. They were able to turn him briefly back to orc form, but the Blood Elf imprint was somehow written into his very being. After a while, Groki could feel the change. When he was in orc form he could feel his body longing for the change to Blood Elf. If he tried to stay in orc form he became exhausted from stopping the change. Eventually he would pass out and revert to a Blood Elf.

The more he worked at it, the longer he could stay orc. But it was never forever. The mages of the grin eventually agreed. There was no cure, Groki was changed. Until the gnomes could be found and they find out exactly what happened, Groki was stuck like this... to his (her?) humiliation.

Peace is not a word Groki uses much now. When Groki sees a gnome, he captures it. Yes, it! For a race that could do something like this it no longer deserves common curtsey. They are a vermin that needs to be eradicated. When Groki crosses a gnome, he captures it and tries to gather information about who the gnomes were that did this to him. He is still searching, but he will find them some day. ... and they will pay dearly.