In many ways, the context surrounding Eimelia Whitney’s early life exemplified the Gilnean ideal: her parents, Roger and Eve Whitney, worked comfortably among the city's upper-middle class; her father had dealings with the bank, and her mother was a well-regarded hatter; neither showed much interest in intellectual pursuits. Life was swell.

When Eve gave birth to Eimelia, she left her shop’s management in the hands of a close friend, and spent most of her time for the next several years with her newborn daughter. Roger, the respectable man, focused his energies on his work. (Eimelia's earliest memories of her father mostly entail the mysterious exchanges he would have with dark, calculating men, quietly debating in the Whitneys' parlor.)

Time went on. Eimelia enrolled in school. Eve took up hat-making again, and Roger's involvement with his daughter gradually developed. He started to invite Eimelia into the parlor when bank representatives would visit, carefully introducing her to each visitor, explaining everyone's role in the system. Being quite young, she understood few of the things he said, and often fell asleep in his lap as the night went on. The men’s conversation would drift into the arcane and unintelligible, quickly losing Eimelia's attention.

Nevertheless, Roger persisted, insisting that his daughter be taught "the workings of the world." He hired tutors to supplement her school education, and employed a fencing instructor to give her lessons for sport.

Eimelia lived in such luxury for some time afterwards, taught in schools ranging from philosophy to etiquette, the Whitney house progressively growing with her parents' wealth.

This continued happily on. Few complaints arose. It is worth noting, however, that after several years, her mother began behaving peculiarly. She would give Roger distasteful looks, and ask Eimelia in suspicious length as to her thoughts on life. Eimelia would often respond with a plain, indeterminate response – essentially a reiteration of most adults’ comments: praise of the great privileges she lived with, and her luck in having so considerate a father. As many times as Eve asked, this never seemed to satisfy her. But, apparently exasperated, she eventually abandoned the topic entirely.

During Eimelia's adolescence, Roger invited one of his many associates to stay for dinner. This man, Deion Gully, held a lofty position as Admiral of the Gilneas Navy's Fleet. Conversation went on in much the usual, trite way that night, until Roger mentioned his daughter's extensive education, and his thoughts on her future. With a tease, he suggested she join the Navy. At that comment, Eve frowned, and gave Roger a sign of disapproval.

But Gully simply laughed, and shrugged. It was not impossible, he said. As a jest, the Admiral asked Eimelia a question on sailing technique. To his great surprise, she answered with relative ease; her tutor had lectured on the topic just days before. He seemed impressed, but did not fail to give Roger a searching glance.

Dinner ended soon afterwards. Eimelia and Eve cleared the table, working to dispose of leftover food, as Roger and the Admiral continued their discussion in the parlor. Eve said nothing while they cleaned, evidently conflicted on some point.

When Deion Gully left, he gave Eimelia's father a firm, trusting handshake, and bid him good luck. Roger stood smiling, nigh dumbstruck. He could only give a stuttering response.

After these events, Eimelia began to understand her mother’s concerns. On the following day, Roger ordered Eimelia’s tutors to lecture solely on the topics of seafaring, naval military history and maritime combat tactics. This sudden shift from a more liberal education incited suspicion in Eimelia’s mind. Roger wanted his daughter in the Navy’s ranks - but to what end, she could not tell.

Nevertheless, the idea excited her. A fantastical haze hung over the idea of journeys on the sea. As such, her father’s motives for the venture slowly faded from Eimelia’s mind, and she soon adopted Roger’s excitement.

During this period, Eimelia learned about Gilneas’s recent history. Within the past several years, the nation had closed its borders. The Navy was withdrawing from the outer boundaries of Gilneas territory, instead concentrating its maneuvers around the capital. Little news came from Lorderon or Stormwind. Her world was shrinking into Gilneas’s lonely peninsula.

She continued studying for several years, until the Admiral returned to visit. Eimelia was seventeen. Gully proposed that she join the crew of the Rising Crest, a minor barque of the Navy. She accepted, and, for the next several months, helped as a navigation assistant.

The Navy recommended daily excursions into the waters surrounding Gilneas for the sake of reconnaissance and field experience. Two vessels would be sent on patrol every three hours. The Rising Crest and its sister ship, the Wandering Eye, had been assigned the dusk shift, setting from the Gilneas harbor as the sun began to set, and returning at dark.

Eimelia’s time aboard the Rising Crest proved, at first, to be just as engaging as she expected. As the months went on, however, these nightly patrols wore on her. She was learning a new way of being, so close in contact with the rough seamen. Eimelia began to develop a more calloused air, given the remarks she suffered as a young woman among the Crest’s salty crew.

Still, the Navy harbored some amount of chivalry, and Eimelia was largely satisfied with her new way of life. Roger, however, urged that she pursue a higher rank. He invoked the organization’s dwindling size, apparently convinced that, if Eimelia did not ground herself in its core, she would be swept off the charter, dross to the Admiral and his associates.

Concerned about this possibility, Eimelia consulted with Brendan Southgate, then Captain of the Rising Crest. Southgate seemed concerned about the situation; to his knowledge, no such pruning would take place among his crew. He vowed to speak with Eimelia’s father in private.

A week passed until Southgate approached Eimelia with a promotion. She would be deemed Chief Navigator. The Captain did not explain his decision, and wordlessly recommended that she not ask.

These events rekindled Eimelia’s prior-existing suspicions about her father. Drawing upon the knowledge of her childhood, she came to the following conclusion: Roger was investing in her ascension through the military ranks to develop connections with wealthy, high-ranking officers; through these connections, he might expand his clientele to the most profitable margin. She suspected that he was relying on her gender and youth to bridge the gaps wealth could not.

Recalling Eve’s concerns when the episode first began, Eimelia decided to speak with her about the matter. To Eimelia’s great surprise, her mother reacted with shock and fury, scolding her for having such thoughts. Even if Eimelia’s suspicions were correct, Eve said, she had been given such great opportunities, a superb education, and a relatively painless life; she had no right to complain.

Eimelia took these words to heart, but nonetheless wished to prove that she amounted to more than her father’s wealth. She sent herself into a flurry of deeds aboard the Crest, cultivating, with much trial and effort, the stern persona of a military leader. She fostered a quick tongue, and a sharp wit, and all the while observed her young, studious self whittled into lithe stone.

When Southgate promoted her to first mate, she was twenty-five. Judging from her father’s surprise at this new position, Eimelia determined that she had surmounted the feat by her own hand.

Years past, and events occurred, all leading to Southgate’s death of disease. With this final motion, Eimelia Whitney, at 30 years of age, became Captain of the Rising Crest.

But, by this time, she was no longer the child working to prove herself. If anything, she now resented the strains of duty, though she would never say it in open public. The world she had created for herself began to fall apart in drifting motes.

The Curse came without warning. The Rising Crest was on patrol. It was dark. Thunderstorms seemed imminent.

A worgen came from below-deck, all the sounds of a night-terror. Chaos fell.

Someone cast the creature overboard, and quiet ensued.

The Crest had lost its bearings, flung into the waters of the Great Sea. The crew spent some time reorienting themselves, and eventually finding their way back to Gilneas’s shores. Eimelia felt almost in a trance during this time, and often had to sit for fear of falling in nausea.

Several hours’ distance from landfall, the Curse befell Eimelia and her crew.

No one found them until a month afterwards. Simultaneous to this happening, Gilneas fell to the worgen. When refugees discovered the cure, Admiral Gully assigned The Wandering Eye to report the Rising Crest’s fate. By the time the Eye discovered the Crest, its mariners were largely torn apart by the worgen rage. Only half remained. The survivors were too weak to avoid capture by the Gilneans.

They identified Eimelia Whitney by her uniform. She was found mangled and unconscious, with a broken arm and various scarring.

When apothecaries administered the cure to Eimelia, she only opened her eyes, weary. Everything was mute.

A friend she did not remember took her to the beach, where, in the sky above, hung a gray plane, stretching into the horizon, whitening as it met the fog and sun.

She cried.

Thereafter, Eimelia spent several days in recuperation. Her friend (Arden, she remembered) occasionally visited, bringing books for her to read. She thanked him, but, quietly, had no desire to read. She mostly lay down, thinking.

After a week of rest, Eimelia resolved to find her parents. She discovered Eve among other tailors, sewing new garments for the refugees, and refitting older vests and trousers for worgen frames. She worked in human form, but the new stitches along her dress informed Eimelia that even her mother, safe in her shop, did not escape the curse. They met with much relief, and embraced fondly.

Eimelia learned soon after of Roger’s fate; the rags of his clothing were found on one worgen’s corpse. Though Eimelia cared for her father, some ineffable distance kept her from tears. She expected what sorrow she quietly bore to surface later in her life.

After this reunion, Eimelia began searching for the Rising Crest’s surviving crew-members. Some she has found, but others still elude her. Now under the banner of the Alliance, she has plans to form a coalition of Gilneas refugees to rediscover what land once was a mystery, with hopes to gather like-minded travelers to retake her city of old.