World of Warcraft
Playing
When I was raiding, I wrote here that the main aspect of WoW for me is social. It is like a chat with graphics. I also think I have learned a lot of English by playing and chatting and actually talking and listening (through Ventrilo) to other people, of various different nationalities and mother tongues. A Scottish person speaks English in quite a different way from an Italian. :)
I have to admit that since quiting raiding at the end of Pandaria, I have lost a lot of the social aspect also. The people I raided with were much closer than just random guildies, having played together in the toughest of content the game offers, made them friends. Since I no longer raid, I feel I have lost this. People change, their lives change, so there are a lot of people now in the guild I have never raided with, don't know anything about them.
Characters
All of my characters that I actively play are on an English language Role-Playing realm Moonglade. The big plus of an RP realm is that the average age of the players tends to be higher than on other realms. On the other hand there are fewer players. Raid progression isn't world class either, but I don't really mind that.
Nandei
Blood Elf Hunter and my main since the start of The Burning Crusade. She is basically me, loves cats and is a bit of a tree-hugger, more Farstrider type than your typical blood elf. Nandei is named after a cute little creature: African palm civet, Nandinia binotata.
Nandei has gone through all the specs over time, starting with Beast Mastery in TBC, switching to Survival near the very end during runs in Sunwell Plateau. She stayed SV through all of Wrath of the Lich King-expansion, despite BM ruling at the start and Marksmanship gaining near the end. Initially this was because the guild had no one else who could have brough the sorely needed Replenishment buff. But in the end it was because SV just felt the best. In Cataclysm Nandei was briefly MM near the end of Firelands patch. With patch 4.3 and buffs to SV, she is now back to the spec I enjoy the most.
As a hunter, Nandei has had a variety of pets, though the one she has had most often by her side is the cat Kiilu. Named after his glowing eyes, Kiilu changed colors halfway through TBC, from brown to red. x)
Nandei in Tempest Keep with Kiilu the cat in a box.
Nandei also has a rather rare pet: ghost wolf that is actually a wolf and not a spirit beast. It was briefly possible to tame one in TBC, but it required some special efforts, like getting a silly metagem that, when it procced, halved the cast time of spells, including tame beast.
Swiftwing
Tauren Druid. Swiftwing was the first alt I ever leveled up, though is now stuck at 85. She, along with Nandei, is my favorite, and like Nandei, a lot like the real me. As a druid she is obviously the tree-hugging type, and she always wanted to be a cat and to fly on her own wings. She had a different name growing up, but when she finally learned the epic flight form, she earned her current adult name. I quite like the dual meaning of "swift"; it can mean fast, quick, but is also a type of bird. Both meanings fit the ending "wing".
Swift has always been main specced feral, bear in TBC and cat from Wrath onwards. I have tried healing a few times in TBC and in Wrath, but I just did not like it. As a dps, feral cat has always been my way, never even tried balance.
Zerda
Troll Hunter. My first character on Moonglade, named after Fennec fox, Vulpes Zerda. Zerda was at level 28 when I rerolled. Later I wanted to be able to disenchant all the greens I was getting and it was far easier to level Zerda to 35 than to start from 1 with something else. With Wrath the level required for disenchanting the new greens was 50, so Zerda got leveled there. In Wrath hunters still required ammo and the best one was only available through Engineering profession, which made the prices stupidly high. I took up Engineering with Zerda and leveled her high enough to be able to make the ammo Nandei needed. In the last patch of the expansion, they introduced even better Engineering ammo, only available through the last raiding instance Icecrown Citadel. And so Zerda got leveled to max level and even saw a few runs in ICC. In Cataclysm several enchanting recipes were only available in Twilight Highlands zone after doing some quests. The zone is the last leveling zone in Cata, so once again Zerda was leveled to max level.
Diarda
Night Eld Druid. Named after Sunda clouded leopard, Neofelis diardi. Leveled in late Wrath, just because I wanted to see what feral leveling was like with the 4.0 changes and because I wanted to see the old Alliance leveling quests before they were changed in Cataclysm.
Nivaana
Blood Elf Death Knight. Named after Least weasel (lumikko), Mustela nivalis. When everyone and their mother made a death knight alt at the start of Wrath, so did I. Never really liked DKs, since they are dead and sinister (cannot play undeads either, or warlocks since they obviously dabble with dark magic). I've played Nivaana with all specs. Tanked in Frost and Blood and dpsed in Unholy during Wrath, in Cata tanked in Blood a bit, but mostly been dpsing in Frost spec. Her dps spec has always been chosen so that I can have the talent On a Pale Horse for faster mounts.
Viverra
Blood Elf Paladin. Named after the Fishing Cat, Prionailurus viverrinus. Professions inscription and tailoring. Should have actually picked up Blacksmithing with her. :)
Sciura
Blood Elf Rogue. Named after the red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris and originally my bank alt. Started leveling her to get the last profession I was missing, Blacksmithing.
Susiella
Susiella (from grey wolf, "susi" in Finnish) is another hunter, a Worgen. I rolled her because I wanted to try out the Worgen starting area and see what the Alliance leveling quests were after the Cataclysm changes. I do realize leveling 3 of the same class to 85 is somewhat silly, but I happen to like hunters, and enjoy playing them.
Others
I also have a few low level alts, couple of random night elf hunters, Fenea the Worgen Warrior (Fennec fox), current orc shaman banker Caraca (Caracal), draenei hunter Madoqua (Dik-dik) and a deleted goblin warrior Diazi (from Volcano rabbit, Romerolagus diazi). In Mists, I also rolled the mandatory pandaren monk, she is called Ailing (from red panda, Ailurus fulgens. Actually any panda, the family is Ailuridae, but she does have the colouring of a red panda). In Legion, the mandatory Demon Hunter is called Dilura, after Condylura cristata, Star-nosed mole, which is blind with weird tentacle nose.
Guild history
I started playing a bit before the release of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Culprits were two of my high school friends, with whom I had also played traditional pen and paper roleplaying games. My first character was a night elf hunter on a different realm (and in different faction) from my friends' main characters. I quickly got bored on my own and rerolled a troll hunter I named Zerda on Moonglade where my friends were.
I got to level 28 with Zerda when TBC came out. My friends rolled blood elf alts and I decided to join them. Since I liked the hunter class, my blood elf was naturally another hunter. x)
The belf hunter is called Nandei and she ended up being my main. I had awesome time leveling together with my friends' blood elf alts (a priest and a paladin). We did dungeons with just the 3 of us up to Maraudon or something. I also got invited to a guild called Downfall that my friends were founding with some people they knew.
Eventually I made it to level 70 and actually got to raiding, starting with Karazhan. I read a blog called Big Red Kitty and specced Beast Mastery with a cat named Kiilu by my side. Guess I wasn't bad, because I got invited to Gruul's Lair and eventually went to Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshrine Caverns, The Eye, Mount Hyjal and Black Temple with Downfall.
In Black Temple Downfall got into some serious trouble and in the end the guild was disbanded. Some of us ex-downfallers formed a guild called Synergy where I hanged around for a while. Leveled my first alt, the tauren druid now called Swiftwing, to max level during that time.
At the time hunters were a dime a dozen and not often sought for. So when I saw Praeter Sepulchrum was actually looking for a hunter to join them, I applied. I joined them for a run in Black Temple and apparently impressed the guild leader Foucault enough to be offered a spot right then and there.
I stayed in Praeter the end of TBC, finishing Black Temple and clearing Sunwell Plateau. With the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, PS continued as a 25man raiding guild, clearing all of Naxxramas, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel, as well as the smaller instances such as The Eye of Eternity and Onyxia's Lair. We also did all the hard modes in Ulduar, even earning the server first Algalon kill (though that was after the next tier was available). Only heroic mode we did not conquer was 25man Lich King himself.
At the end of Wrath, our raid and guild leader decided to quit raiding. This with the changes coming with Cataclysm eventually caused some of Praeter members to form a new 10man raiding guild, Cynn, which I was invited to join. We raided the first tier of raids, Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight and Throne of the Four Winds. Downed a few heroic modes in BWD and BoT, but our small roster started causing problems when people were getting bored and quit raiding. Eventually I had had enough of it too and with my announcement of quitting raiding, several others did the same and Cynn was no more.
With no one around to chat with in Cynn as the ones, who didn't quit completely, left, I joined Honorbound, a very old (existed about as long as Moonglade itself) raiding guild, as a social. I didn't raid through all of the summer, but the newest raid in Firelands started to feel quite tempting. Eventually I just asked to join the raids and was accepted and promoted to raider rank pretty soon.
I raided with Honorbound all through Mists of Pandaria, every single instance. Stopped raiding in Warlords of Draenor. Played as a casual at first, but eventually got bored and quit playing completely for over a year. Came back shortly before Legion. Still playing as casual only, so far enjoyed myself more than in Warlords, seems there is more to do and the things are more varied.
Naming
As may be seen from the names mentioned here, I tend to name my characters after (cute) animals. All hunter pets (and I have many, probably between 40 and 50) have names in Finnish and I try to make them fit the pet in question. So no cats called Dog for me. :)
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