After being carried through a horrific vision with a couple of friends, one of which had a blood elf demon hunter, I was struck with the urge to make another demon hunter. I already had three demon hunters, a male night elf at 120, a male blood elf at 112, and a female night elf at 103. I’d had a female blood elf when Legion first came out, but I’d deleted her somewhere along the way for whatever reason.
Needing a break from the endless purple of N’Zoth, I decided that what the heck, I’d make another demon hunter, this time a female blood elf. I deleted a few toons I know I won’t play to make room for the new demon hunter and possible new toons in Shadowlands. One of the toons I deleted was the female night elf because I knew I wouldn’t play her and unfortunately for her, it’s the second time I’ve eliminated her. She’s sacrificed everything more than once now.
When I made my new female blood elf demon hunter, I decided to keep with the Sri theme and name her Srilari. Aside from my main of Sriset, the only other toon I have with the Sri theme is Ripsris. I came up with the name Ripsris as a play on RIP Sriset because I’m clever like that. 😉 So Srilari is a mixture of Sriset and Illidari in my creative little mind. Sometimes there’s a method to my madness, but not usually.
Legion was really the first expansion that came out while I was actively playing. I started playing shortly after Wrath of the Lich King came out and when I came back from a hiatus, Mists of Pandaria, Cataclysm, and Warlords of Draenor had already been released. I was actively playing for all the stuff leading up to Legion’s release and I’ll always have fond memories of the Legion invasions on Azeroth and how both Horde and Alliance came together to fight demons in contested territory. I wish I’d had my addiction to screenshots back then because I have no visual record of the various battles I took part in.
Just like death knights, demon hunters will always have a special place in my heart. When I created Srilari and started playing her I immediately remembered how much fun being a demon hunter is! Plus, I felt more invested in Srilari because I view her as a different incarnation of my hunter Sriset. She’s what might’ve happened if Sriset had chosen to become a demon hunter. Playing Srilari has shown me that if that had happened, Sri would’ve become very chill as a demon hunter.
That might seem like an odd thing to say considering the whole, “I’ve sacrificed everything” speech that demon hunters are known for. However, the female blood elf demon hunter vocals are much more calm and matter of fact than the normal female blood elf vocals. Srilari just flatly states that she needs to get closer or find a target without the urgency I hear from Sriset. Srilari knows she’ll figure it out eventually, while Sriset isn’t sure she can figure anything out.
Much to my surprise, Srilari has helped me find my rather chill inner demon. She’s shown me that pulling too many murlocs and dying isn’t a thing to get anxious and upset over, it’s something I can go back and easily fix. She’s shown me that if something or someone is giving me a hard time, I can just transform into a huge she-demon and kick butt. She’s shown me that when where’s an obstacle in my way, I just jump up, sprout wings, and glide over it. Obviously, I can’t physically do all those things in real life, but they’re good metaphors and have given me a new perspective on things.
As I’ve said before, one of the things I love about World of Warcraft is that I’m never bored. If I get tired of doing one thing, I can just switch to another thing or another toon and keep things interesting. Creating demon hunter Sri has been a very good thing for me during this time of change in my life and I’m glad I took the leap and spread my demonic wings to glide into the future.
Srinity 