I'm an alt. There, I said it, regardless of how much I loathe the title. I'm not the one you cherish or lavish with your time and devotion. I wasn't your first alt, not even your first hunter or Horde, and I certainly wasn't the last one you've made. It breaks my heart every time I see another one come along to leave me sitting, alone and unloved.

I remember back when you were creating me, laughing with your Alliance friends about trying a Tauren. You said you wanted to try the most noble race in the Horde. I remember hearing her evil laughter when she told you to name me after a condiment, like I was nothing more than a quick meal. But I also remember the time you spent with her horrid idea and turning it into something beautiful, the name that resonated within you as something lovely and tribal. I thought that meant you'd be with me for a long, long time, that I was special to you.

Our first quests together were paradise! I was your only character that you saw for a time! Even your stupid Human Priest became jealous of how excited you were to be with me! That all changed, though, when your Alliance friends came to laugh at me for being so young, so small, so weak compared to that long-eared, tree-hugging hunter that you came from, and that's when I heard you say it. I heard you tell them that you only ever make female toons when you don't plan to keep them. I pushed myself through the pain that those words wrought. I forced myself to ignore it because you had to be joking. You had to be, right?

It wasn't much later that you stopped coming around. Was I not I capable enough? Was I not learning as quickly as I could? Did I shame you enough to make you go?

You finally came back to me last night. I wept tears of joy as you guided me though Orgrimmar and to the flight master. As we flew, I daydreamed of the quests that we would be doing, the creatures I would send to their Ancestors for you, and I grew excited as I landed in Thunder Bluff, anxious to see what was in store...

You led me to that same Alliance scum that laughed when you made me. You let them harm me in ways I don't know that I can ever truly forgive. My heart shattered last night as I fell again and again to that evil dwarf's weapon, powerless to even try to stop them. Then, you left again as if it were nothing. I cried myself back to sleep on the grasses of the mesa, no longer tears of joy but of betrayal. Yet even now I wait hopefully for your return because you promised me you would. You wouldn't break a promise. Would you?

Your Lady of the Horde, still awaiting your return
Aeohne

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I was at work yesterday perusing the World of Warcraft forums when I stumbled across this thread:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/t.....8613980?page=1

When I opened it, it was only six pages long. It's grown since to 10 pages, but it was filled with the lament of toons left forgotten. I can't lie, some of the stories brought a tear to my eye. Someone even posted an interestingly accurate statement, "This thread makes me so sad :'( its like one of those abandoned puppy commercials! :'(" There were also a lot of statements of, "This is making me miss my alts," or, "When I get on, I'm going to spend at least an hour on every one of my alts."

It got me thinking: If my lowest alt on my main server were to write a letter to this thread, what would it say? This is what came about, a letter from my Tauren Huntress Aeohne, pronounced ay-OH-neh. Enjoy! (Well, as much as you can)

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