Hunter Appreciation Week - Thelandira

Thelandira was the third toon I created when I first started playing WoW back in 2006 and was my first Hunter. I was new to the MMORPG world with WoW being the first of it's kind I had ever played. I tried to be thoughtful in naming her, along with her pets.

I knew I wanted a female Night Elf Hunter but wasn't sure what to name her. I hit Google up for some help and found a site of Fantasy names right away. After browsing the site for probably some good 30 minutes or so I landed on the name 'Solonor Thelandira'.

This is the name of an elven god of hunting from the D&D campaign 'Forgotten Realms'. The full description is, "...is the elven god of hunting, archery, and survival in wild and harsh places. He teaches his followers the arts of hunting; including archery, moving unseen and hiding in the wild places. He watches over the borders of wilderness and farmed land and seeks to maintain the balance between them."

How perfect is that? Granted, Solonor Thelandira was a male god. But, that wouldn't be a problem. Solonor Thelandira was too long for WoW's naming rules so I would have to shorten it. Solonor was too masculine sounding, but Thelandira wasn't. So, Thelandira it was.

I used the same Fantasy names site for naming mostly all of Thela's pets along the way...starting with her trusted Ghost Saber, Obadhai. When Thela was but a wee pup of a Hunter I had seen another Hunter with a Ghost Saber pet and knew right away I had to obtain one when I could.

I quickly leveled Thela to around level 24 so I could nab a ghost kitty. Their level range is between 19-20, but I got her a few more levels to make her task a little easier. To get a ghost kitty was no easy feat. In the northwest portion of the zone Darkshore were some ruins heavily patrolled by Naga (and still are). Within these ruins were small figurines, Cat Figurine, you had to click on that had the chance of spawning a Ghost Saber for you to tame.

I was relatively lucky on Thela in that it took less than 20 figurines to click before the kitty spawned...some of my other hunters weren't so lucky. I think I remember that Sheeturself clicked some 45 or so before getting hers (which she no longer has). All the while, you had to constantly kill Naga so you could search the ruins for the figurines. They had random spawn points throughout the entire ruins. Obadhai was, and still mostly is, her main companion over the years.

The true name is supposed to be "Obad-Hai", but we can't use the - symbol in WoW names. His description is, " is the god of nature, wildlands, freedom, hunting, and wild beasts". Fitting for a ghost kitty I think.

Thela quickly became the main toon I played. She was my first level 70 (I started playing WoW about one month before 'The Burning Crusade' expansion was released) and was my main raiding toon throughout that expansion.

Over the years I have bounced around on many alts and Thela has pretty much been sidelined. I do get around to leveling her to max level with each expansion and do enjoy logging in on her from time to time to putter around Azeroth and reminisce. She holds a special place in my heart for she was the toon that made me fall in love with the hunter class.

Even though Thela hasn't been my main for many years, all of my guildies (and some long time WoW friends) still refer to me as Thela regardless of which toon I'm playing. I think of that name as a kind of "badge of honor". Not because I'm some uber leet Hunter, but because it links me with what is, in my opinion, the best class in the game.

Thela in her "play clothes" back before we had Transmog.