Teera

Teera was the first matriarch (khanam) and one of the two founders of the Maruuk centaur. During the War of the Ancients, she and her husband, Maruuk, led the centaur to settle on the Ohn'ahran Plains of the Dragon Isles. Teera continued leading the centaur after Maruuk's death and famously forged a pact with Merithra of the green dragonflight. The Maruuk consider her to be their most sacred ancestor, and Clan Teerai claim direct descent from her. Her weapon was the bow Sarantuya the Ever-True.

During the War of the Ancients, when the Burning Legion invaded Azeroth, Teera's husband Maruuk earned a name for himself by slaughtering the invading demons. He returned to his clan to heal his wounds, but the other clans, who feared Maruuk's strength, spread rumors that his injuries made him too weak to lead and sent assassins to kill him in his sleep. Teera defended her partner by taking up her bow, Sarantuya, and killing both the assassins and the clan leaders who'd sent them the same night. At dawn, she exposed their treachery against Maruuk.

Her actions were considered just, but she subsequently rejected the clans. She and Maruuk set out across Kalimdor in search of a new home. Many centaur were inspired by their honor and followed them, forming a new clan. The Wild God Ohn'ahra guided the centaur through the wind until, after months of wandering, they arrived in what is now the Ohn'ahran Plains. There, Ohn'ahra revealed herself and let the centaur know that this would be their new home. Upon seeing this, Maruuk was at peace and died from his wounds. The grief-stricken Teera took up leadership of the clan and named them "Maruuk" in honor of their fallen hero.

Teera led the centaur to solidify themselves as a strong force in the plains and protected them by killing any creature that threatened their villages. This soon led to a large-scale confrontation with the green dragonflight, led by Ysera's daughter Merithra. Teera knocked Merithra out of the sky with a powerful blow and battled her across the plains, reshaping the landscape in the process, but they were both evenly matched and neither could defeat the other. When they were both exhausted, hostile proto-dragons took the opportunity to attack. Teera and Merithra realized that both of their peoples would be doomed if they continued to fight, so they allied against their common enemy and destroyed them. Teera and Merithra's friendship ended the enmity between dragons and centaur and proved that it would only be beneficial if they laid down arms against each other. They met upon the hill of Drusahl and made a pact of respect: the green flight and the Maruuk promised to stay out of each other's way but come to the aid of the other when their livelihoods were threatened. The Horn of Drusahl was created to serve as a symbol of their oath. Some claim that Teera herself built the Horn, while the spirit of Deritetsin the Carver claims that it was he who built it.

Upon her death, Teera was buried with her bow next to Maruuk in the largest of the Eternal Kurgans. The Maruuk faltered when Teera died, but her first daughter, Tsegzaya, stepped up to lead them. Clan Teerai claim unbroken descent from the matriarch and are sometimes called the "daughters and sons of Teera". The clan's Khanam Matras can all trace their bloodlines back to Teera. When a Khanam Matra dies, a successor is chosen from her daughters and granddaughters, ensuring the continuation of the bloodline and of Teera's legacy.

Millennia after Teera's death, the centaur and the green dragons—fresh from their victory over the Primalists—renewed the oath that had been made between Teera and Merithra. Khanam Matra Sarest offered drops of her own blood, proof of her direct descent from the matriarch, as a ceremonial gift. Merithra commented that she still remembered Teera well and that Sarest was very much like her.

Around the same time, necromancers of Clan Ukhel invaded the Eternal Kurgans, and Tombcaller Arban exhumed Teera and Maruuk's weapons from their graves so that their spirits could be raised into undeath. During the Nokhud Offensive, Gravelord Monkh summoned the two ancestors and tried to take control of them to make them fight on behalf of Clan Nokhud. The attempt failed, as Teera and Maruuk reacted with rage at the sight of necromancy in their sacred ground and killed Monkh. Adventurers then defeated the two centaur's spirits, returning them to their rest. The heroes retrieved their weapons, Sarantuya and Maruuk's spear Batubar, and laid them to rest in the kurgan in Teerakai, where they could be protected more easily. Teera's spirit briefly appeared, commented that she was pleased to see Clan Teerai still thriving, and thanked the heroes for saving her from having to fight against her own people.