Roleplaying a Farstrider
Unseen, unheard, unnoticed masters of disguise...

As many of our guild members are highly enjoying roleplaying a Farstrider, we have come up with a display on Farstriders and the many opportunities roleplaying one offers.
In this display we are going to discuss the several aspect of Farstriders, focusing not only on their lore-side, but on what we aim to do with Farstriders as well, along with some juicy extra detail to hopefully put just that extra kick into the roleplay.

However, we’d like to stress, this is not a how-to guide. On the contrary, this work is solely written to be a work of reference for any Farstrider roleplayer, or a source of inspiration for new and seasoned roleplayers alike.
Hopefully, this will generate more interest in Farstrider roleplay, an often overlooked pearl of sin’dorei roleplay that deserves its attention.

In case this may blossom some interest for one of your characters (rogues or hunters), feel free to for an evening tag along with one of our patrols or aimed missions. We will be certain to make it a worthwhile evening for you.


What are Farstriders?
Shooting a flying bird through the eye with a single arrow that was but a sharp whisper through the air...

Farstriders are an elite group of blood elf rangers, working closely together with and fulfilling a major part within Quel’Thalas’ military machine.

The rangers can vary in style and focus, some even take up roguish pursuits, but they are primarily known as deadly foes with exquisit tracking abilities. True masters of stealthy combat.
Well trained and practiced, these bowmen excel at ranged and melee combat, making best use of their elven inheritance: swiftness, grace and subtlety. The key traits for rangers come naturally for the sin’dorei.

Able to move unnoticed, unheard and unseen through any area, the Farstriders use disguises to blend in with their surroundings, their knowledge of tracking making them excellent scouts for larger war parties.
Overly apt with bow and dagger, the stalking and guerilla techniques of the Farstriders have proven them able to quell any threat at the borders of the elven lands, but also capable to form surgical attack teams to operate undetected in unconquered land.

Working in close teams, the Farstriders have grown to know each others skills and signals so well, that in hazardous situations merely a gesture is needed to indicate a certain command.
Spending most of their time in the wild, they are trained to read the tracks unintentionally left behind by the enemy they are tracking down. The Farstriders hold close ties with, or perhaps even dominance over nature.

Hundreds of years of experience have given these rangers the ability to survive in most given situations, even if isolated and found in an area others would deem inhospitable or hostile, the Farstriders have the training to keep out of sight from their foes and swiftly assess their location, to begin mastering it.
Cognition of plant types, trails, the stance of the Sun or the moons, the presence or absence of a specific animal in an area; the smallest hint of nature can grant these elves the difference between returning to Silvermoon City triumphant or empty handed.


How it came to today
A broken bow in a pool of crimson, an arrow that never left the quiver...

The ranks of the Farstriders go back as far as the Troll Wars, when rangers hunted down the vile trolls and impaled them with their swift, handmade arrows. It was not until approximately five hundred years ago however, that the official group of Farstriders was named and formed.

The name chosen indicated that this group’s mandate was to protect Quel’Thalas and the high elf interests far beyond their nation’s borders. Scouting Farstriders traveled far abroad, all over Azeroth, yet this time is now long past.

During the second war, the Farstriders together with the rest of the high elves, joined the Alliance. Their foremost focus was to combat the Horde’s forest troll beserkers; while another part of their ranks served as border patrol and trained new rangers for their war effort.

As the lands they held close ties with fell in the third war despite their ready bows, the rangers lost their organization’s leader Ranger-General Sylvanas Windrunner. Many, in fact most of their ranks fell with her; a bitter addition to the losses the Farstriders suffered against the Horde in the second war.
Duty-bound and dedicated to their goals, the rangers remained loyal to their cause, and chose a new leader; Ranger-General Halduron Brightwing.

Today, the Farstriders are now operating much closer to home; still they vanquish any evil opposing the blood elves, yet now, as sin’dorei, their focus has shifted to their own lands. Dealing with the last Scourge remnants, healing the damage done to the forest, and ceasing the troll menace has been their main focus for the past years.
Now they see opportunity to slowly pursue the borders of the Plaguelands and slowly progress to reclaim the southernmost lands that once were untainted and proud lands of Quel’Thalas.