Zelyn

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Information

Player: Evanmcgregor

Character Full Name: Zelyn Nightshadow

Character In-Game Name: Zelyn

Nickname(s): Zel

Association(s): Knights of The Ebon Blade (Little to no communication) Sin'Dorei (Less than friendly to others of her people who do not share her ideals)

Race: Sin'Dorei

Class: Death Knight

Skills and Abilities: General Death Knight skills with Runes and powers of their ilk. Boasts a large use of such power, finding that there is higher supremacy in the sheer idea of the powers found in her death. She also has a precise skill in the use of Two Handed Blades, as well as a slightly less proficiency in the use of one handed. She has a grace and agility that seems somewhat impractical for a death knight, but she certainly makes good use of this during combat.

Age: 134 (Was 132 at time of original death)

Sex: Female

Hair: Auburn, about two inches past shoulder length. Usually pulled back, but generally uncared for in terms of where it goes. It seems relatively straight, with few curls. The few curls in her hair are results from being caught under her shoulder-plates and curling with the armor.

Eyes: Glowing blue, a long scar spanning the skin above and below the right eye, going from the forehead to the edge of the lips

Weight: Without Armor- 121 Pounds/ With Armor- Varies with the nature of the armor

Height: 5' 10"

Appearance

Usual Garments/Armor: Generally keeps herself in armor, whether expecting violence or not.

Chain

During travels or social visits to places, or just generally not expecting any forms of combat, Zelyn wears gray chain mail armor that leaves little to the imagination, only guarding certain areas.

The hauberk offering little protection save for areas around the heart, being sleeveless and not stretching far down the stomach. The only true reason for this hauberk is to keep herself 'decent' and to avoid any potential strikes to her heart, as she has few, though rather improbable, doubts about the possibility of being slain if struck through that vital organ.

The leggings providing a usual amount of protection, however, the backs open around the shins, allowing for a wider possibility for footwear.

The chain greaves/boots offer standard protection, covering everything from the shins down.

Shoulder armor and gloves are quite rare while in this attire, and the only instance of gloves have been cloth, simply to give the appearance of necessity, due to her desire to blend in when she is not on active 'tour of combat' as she calls it.

Plate

Zelyn, when using her combat attire, wears a fully protective armor set. Her favorite by far has been a chain and plate hybrid that looks to be black and red, matching the blade she carries when preparing for active combat.

The hauberk features plate around the heart, directly protecting these areas, while areas around the stomach has chain, so as to maintain the grace and agility she uses during combat. The sleeves and shoulder areas also keep to a chain connection, again to maintain movement abilities during combat.

The leggings are generally chain, with a few instances of plate running along the outside of the legs. Again, the chain is to maintain ability to move well during active combat. These leggings stretch completely down to the ankles, where the hand looser than the rest of the armor so as to accommodate the bulk of her greaves.

The greaves are one of the very few instances of complete plate armor in this combat attire set, having no need to maintain mobility specifically with the feet. The greaves span from the ankles down to the very edge of the feet, covering every last inch.

The hand guards are completely chain, so as to maintain complete mobility for the hands and fingers, not worrying much about protection of the hands, and therefore cares little for having any plate on the hands.

The wrist guards however, are the only other instance of complete plate armoring, as with the boots. There is little need to maintain mobility in the forearm guards and such, save for around the elbow, and so she wears plate there for maximum protection from injuries, as minor as they may be in such an area.

The shoulders are another mixture of chain and plate, the only plate being on the very top, where a blade might slam into in an attempt to disarm her. The rest of the shoulder guards are chain, so as to accommodate the underlying hauberk, and to avoid any limitation to shoulder movement.

Zelyn is never seen in anything else, save if she was going to a diplomatic or negotiative meeting where she needed to appear presentable, to establish the power based supremacy she believes in.

Personality

Alignment: Neutral Evil, believes that there is a supremacy in power and skill, and wants desperately to enforce this will upon the people of Azeroth.

Zelyn has ideals and morals that can be set apart from the standard of society. She believes in a certain supremacy in power and skill, particularly from that found in the living dead. One who has faced death, and defied nature itself, returned to the living world instead of being burned by the Nether.

Tainted as one may become in death, Zelyn believes the experience to expand one's mind past the mortal limits, knowledge now rooted in the very existence of existence. She cares little for the circumstances of undeath, nor the former life of the 'Reborn' as she refers to the living dead. As such, she holds little regard to the Scourge past, or any other circumstances in which a "Reborn" was brought back to the world. Forsaken, Death Knight, brought by warlock or necromancer, she does not care. As long as their mind is free and their own, she believes that their ability exceeds the mortal bonds, with the ability to become as gods.

As such, she tries to convince the "Reborn" to tap into their full potential as the unliving. This ideal can easily be viewed as obsessive, and her attitude towards it can be viewed as nearly evil. Her peculiar ideas of hierarchy are set, and she hopes to spread this political ideal to all of the civilized world.

Her attitude towards the "Hopefuls" as she refers to the believrs of the Light is, for lack of a better word, unfriendly. She has a condescending approach to the "Hopefuls" and finds them to be inferior, physically, ethereally, and mentally. This attitude extends particularly toward priests and paladins. This same hostile demeanor also extends to any who oppose her ideals, morals, or honor code. She takes little heed in insults and the like, caring more for the integrity of her plans, her honor, and those who follow her morals. She is more than happy to bring a blade to the shoulder of anyone who crosses her or her brethren, and slide it easily through their waiting throat.

Zelyn has no qualms as to her violent nature, assuming it into that matter of supremacy she longs for so much. The death of anyone she knew bothers her little, unless it creates a hindrance to her goals. As such, she cares little for the lives of those whose lives she ended, telling them that they are to experience the ultimate power, the very thing that turns one to the ultimate power. The only difference, she says, is, that she and her brethren are able to utilize it and influence the world of the living. Those whom she ends, however, do not. They are not chosen to return, they are taken by nature's course, and removed from the world. She feels that those who do not return, were not destined to stay, that it was their fate to leave the world and be removed by the very people that had already experienced death by another's hand.

History

Zelyn, during her life, was a prominent caster in her family, the Duskweavers. Her immediate family was rather large by human standards. Her mother and father had sired four children, as well as each having several brothers and sisters themselves. The entire Duskweaver family were gifted and proficient in the arcane arts, using them freely and experimenting, the entire family finding solace in their work. Another, smaller, family nearby, the Spiritwalkers, also dappled in experimentation with Zelyn's family. However, very soon, the families intertwined, and became nearly as one. Zelyn's eldest brother, Aenior, had fallen in love. The Oldest of the newest Spiritwalker generation, Faenda and Aenior had become mates, and were entwined in a love so deep it almost seemed unreal, all to good to be true.

But such as it was, their love lasted until the day they both died. At the Spiritwalker residence, Aenior and Faenda were working with the patriarch of the Spiritwalker family, Threono on an experiment with which he had been working all his life. There was an unfortunate turn of events. Perhaps a mispronounced incantation, a bad reaction with herbs, or perhaps meddilng was the cause. But the Spiritwalker residence erupted in flames. An explosion had seared flesh, leaving molten slag and the scent of cooked flesh and meat. Faenda and Aenior were incinerated, reduced to nothing but a pile of ash and burned flesh. Zelyn was devastated, at both the loss of her brother and the loss of her extended family. The only one undiscovered was the youngest of the Spiritwalkers, Selviorn, whose status had been unconfirmed. The Duskweaver family was decimated, and the Spiritwalker family was completely destroyed.

It was many a year before the family returned to a semi-normal state. The family mourned their loss for ages, and could not lose the sight of the still burning mass that was their eldest son and his love's family. They slowed down, their grief causing them to lose faith in the arcane arts. Over time, Zelyn had become more and more detached, wishing only to escape from the life that she was now forced into. When her father fell ill, life became a living Hell. It seemed that Kronil had lost the will to live, having lost his first son. It was unsure as to what had befallen him, but he just became worse and worse, going from bedridden to semi-comatose state. He appeared conscious, but did nothing. He would eat and drink what was placed before him, but he just stayed in place for days on end. When at last his life force dwindled to an end, the mourning was somewhat lessened. Zelyn's family knew this was coming, and so they mourned the pained remainders of his life more than the bliss in his death.

The family, however, became no more joyous than they ever were. The family simlpy lived. No longer practicing the arcane arts for anything other than necessity. And perhaps this helped in the strengthening in what was to come shortly after. Arthas and his Scourge had targeted the Sunwell, and their Siege had begun. The already hardened family fought bravely with their brethren, not caring for their own lives or that of the others, simply releasing all the anger and sorrow they had been repressing on the armies of the undead. Zelyn's mother was the first of the family to fall to the armies of the unliving. A Geist had managed to sink its claws in, the hideous creature ripping her shoulders apart, starting from the neck out. The half split corpse fell to the floor, and Zelyn redoubled her efforts in the fight. One by one, her family fell, finally finding the solace and peace in the death that ended their struggle. When the elves were finally beaten back, the Sunwell destroyed, Zelyn was the last of her family. The final Duskweaver.

Unable to cope with the very idea of what was happening, coupled by the loss of the sunwell and the addictive nature of her former practice, Zelyn fell into a very dark state. She refused to satiate her hunger, believing that such was the cause of the horrid destruction of her family and friends. She wholeheartedly accepted the replacement, Fel. Anything that would dull the pain, anything that would remove the taint of the Arcane from her. Her eyes began to sink to that emerald green with the rest of the elves, now christened the Blood Elves. She began to question the very existence of the Light, nor any just being of a divine nature. To her, there are no just Gods. Only those who create to sit back and watch the show. She wanted nothing to do with her people, nor anything that could stir memories. She even went so far as to say that Arthas was not the antagonist of this, that her own people brought such a wretched fate amongst themselves. That maybe it was destined that those who practice such a harsh and non-tamable as the arcane magics were to be destroyed by some twist of their own practice. She began to wander, and over time, she lost track of how many years it ha been since her family died. Since she renounced the arcane and her people. It just so happened that she stumbled across a camp full of the Scourge, somewhere near the Eastern Plaguelands some time later. She had planned to ignore them, but her fury took her over as she saw the corpses slewn about the camp, the rotting flesh of the conquered creating a stench so rank that Zelyn could barely breath. This infuriated her to no bounds, finding the creatures vulgar and mindless, how their power was tainted by their own slavery to be a mark against the possibilities of power. Her mentality was changing quickly due to one simple event. That event was the death of her friends, the Spiritwalkers. And since then, little things have built up, preparing a chain reaction that would slowly turn her mind around. She knew now what she had to do. She had to destroy the vile, mindless beasts and become herself powerful.

Things did not go so well.

It was a fairly obvious choice to her, to either die honorably fighting such beasts, or to destroy them and bring glory back to the people who had abandoned her to her pained life. But another fairly obvious fact is that she would not survive. She did not see this in her own head, but objectively, she had no chance against a group of Arthas' Scourge. Only managing to bring a few down with her, a Geist tore into her chest, similar to how her mother had died. But this one did not tear her apart. No, she would have no such satisfaction. She was destined for something else, something she would come to find enlightening after she was freed. The Geist tore into her chest, pulling itself away as her blood leaked away, her heart narrowly missed. But nothing could stop the bleeding that the creature had created, and she slowly bled out, her life's essence seeping away with her blood.

Then she woke up. She felt... different. More powerful. As if something had changed. She thought maybe this was the Nether, where maybe... the general idea was wrong, and it was a haven of infinite power. But no, there was no such happiness for her. Soon, she felt that voice in her head, pounding at her brain and threatening to drive her mad. Arthas had enslaved her, made her part of the third generation of Death Knights. Her actions at the Scourge Camp branded her as a prime target, and so she was raised. She was trained as the others were trained, no more special than the others. This infuriated her to no end. If she had been marked a Scourge Champion, why then must she be damned to a wretched fate as the grunts of the Death Knight army, to receive no special training, abilities, or anything to set her apart. She believed herself better, and cared more for this cold awakening than the fact that she was enslaved. She had a deep longing to be powerful in life, and now the Lich King had bestowed the blessing of Undeath and Power upon her. Somewhere deep inside, she admired him for that, though she hated what he was doing. His actions were rash and oriented at greed, not honor or glory. In Zelyn's mind, he had succumbed to the hunger, and so lost his power, only using those whom he had given the Gift to as his workers. He was a slaver and nothing more. That small admiration quickly vanished as she did his work, hatred and boiling rage coursing through her frozen veins.

Soon, something changed about her. She was doing work near the Argent Dawn camps, awaiting the attack that Mograine and his most honored Death Knights were ordered to carry out. She was to take no place in the actual siege. Simply to create support, and bring down any runners. But then, something happened. She became almost blinded, her head pounding as the voice in her head rescinded slightly, but became more and more forceful. Something was happening at the attack. Arthas' control was diminishing, and she felt some freedom of action restored. As her mind blurred more and more at the loss of this guiding voice, she lost track of the goings on, now focusing on pushing out the last of the control, however booming it was. And when she finally restored herself, righting herself back to her former freedom, the siege of Acherus had begun. Mograine and the other Death Knights had begun a revolution, and the Knights of the Ebon Blade were reclaiming their home from Arthas' scourge monsters, the ones who remained mindless, for they had never been given the same gifts as the Death Knights. Some Death Knights remained loyal, others fought. Zelyn? She would have lead the siege had she the opportunity. Blade in hand, empowered by Mograine's might, she fought with the Ebon Blade, tirelessly aiding in the cutting down the unliving slaves, sneering as each one fell before her brothers and sisters in arms.

She did not care whether the kills belonged to her, or someone else, whether her blade sliced through the neck of the undead, or not. When the battle was over, and the reclamation was complete, Zelyn left the Ebon Hold, taking her gear and vowing to only return when vitally necessary. She was to restore her honor, become more powerful, and bring the world back to peace. The world had given her a second chance, allowed her to defy nature itself. She is not going to squander her undeath. She now refuses to acknowledge her family, going now by the alias Zelyn Nightshadow. She denies any ties to the Duskweavers, believing that they would be considered demeaning to someone of her power. Now she wanders, in search of the ability to rebuild the government of all peoples based on their power.