User:Joshmaul/Nyssha Swiftblade

"'I believe you are suitable to my needs, girl. You show enough skill with a blade and a strength of will to be useful as a bodyguard. If you are willing, I will take you under my wing and train you, to teach you the skills that the Lich King and his minions could not. Do not be lulled into a false sense of superiority because I cannot speak to you - my silence is as effective a weapon as my blade.'"
 * - General Varan Metheius, note to Nyssha Swiftblade

A former member of the Defias Brotherhood, Nyssha Swiftblade was the Chief Assassin of the Order of the Midnight Runners and the personal assassin, courier, and emissary to the paladin Saavedro of Stratholme. Killed by the Blood Knight Master Ordevaas Portalseeker during the war in Outland, Nyssha's putrified, decapitated body was stolen by agents of the Scourge from her resting place in Shattrath, late in the war against the Lich King. After the death of the Lich King, she was accepted into the Forsaken and trained by General Varan Metheius to be his personal bodyguard.

Origins
Born in the town of Moonbrook, Nyssha's parents joined the Defias Brotherhood, under the disgruntled Stonemason Edwin VanCleef, when she was eight years old. When her parents were killed by the Stormwind army, Nyssha was trained by VanCleef as an assassin. Nyssha fought against the invaders sent by the Westfall People's Militia into the ruins of Moonbrook for many years before VanCleef sent her on a mission - find the Defias Traitor in Sentinel Hill, and kill him. But she was not as stealthy as she had wished, and was quickly captured by the People's Militia. She was sent to the Stockade in Stormwind, along with the other Defias prisoners, awaiting her execution - when fate offered her a second chance.

Saavedro, then a file soldier in the Midnight Runners (when the dwarf Talluwin was master of the Order) and the night elf rogue Divadius Ripclaw, one of Talluwin's lieutenants, were combatting the Defias Brotherhood when word reached them of this misguided soul rotting in the Stockade. Saavedro offered Nyssha two choices: Die by the hangman's rope, or serve him in battle. Nyssha, ever opportunistic, chose the latter. She revealed her mission to kill the Defias Traitor, and offered protection to them in order to ensure that Saavedro and Ripclaw were able to find VanCleef's hideout. With permission from Talluwin, Saavedro and Ripclaw brought Nyssha into the Order of the Midnight Runners.

Betraying the Brotherhood
Saavedro and Ripclaw, aided by Nyssha, escorted the Defias Traitor to the entrance to the Deadmines. Battling through the waves of Defias miners, sorcerers and pirates, who were confused by this beautiful young Defias assassin aiding the Alliance, Saavedro and Ripclaw were able to attack VanCleef's ship, moored in a hidden lagoon in the Deadmines, and confront the Defias Kingpin. Ripclaw struck the killing blow, allowing Saavedro to take up the Kingpin's sword, and Nyssha his blackened leather armor. She still wore the blackened Defias armor and the red mask that was the primary trademark of the Brotherhood. In return for her loyalty, Saavedro handcrafted a pair of bronze knives for his new assassin. She saw the altruistic paladin as a father figure, and Saavedro saw her as the daughter he never had.

When the Order of the Midnight Runners slowly began to deteriorate, Nyssha became sidelined after a while. But she gained her chance at rising to power again when she was called on by SI:7, the intelligence service (and rogues guild) of Stormwind, to steal vital information from Klaven Mortwake - a mage living in a tower in southwestern Westfall, who supported the Defias Brotherhood. After scouting out the location with SI:7 Agent Kearnen, Nyssha stole the key from one of the undead guards that patrolled the area, snuck into the tower, and sapped Klaven long enough to pick the lock to his chest and steal the information. Upon returning to Stormwind, she was trained in the use of poisons - specifically, applying them to her daggers to make them far more formidable weapons. Her favored weapons were a prison shank - stolen from a prisoner in the Stormwind Stockade - and the tail spike of a pridewing wyvern matriarch from the Stonetalon Mountains of Kalimdor, given to her as a gift from the druid Arrhae Leafrunner, Saavedro's ally in the Cenarion Circle.

After recuperating from the battle against Mortwake, Nyssha travelled east to the Redridge Mountains, to do battle against the Blackrock orcs that had begun their incursion from the Burning Steppes. But before she could arrive, she was summoned by her master, Mathias Shaw, for an important mission - one she would not return from.

Death
Based on information gained with some urging from Saavedro, SI:7 came to the conclusion that the orcish warlock Joshmaul the Corruptor was becoming a very real threat to not only the Alliance, but possibly to all of Azeroth. The warlock's murder of the orc shaman Noggra, the son of the orc whose body Joshmaul possessed, and subsequent creation of the Avatar of Joshmaul from Noggra's corpse proved that drastic measures were needed. Because of the latter incident, SI:7 received vital aid from the Shattered Hand, Warchief Thrall's personal assassins and spies, and Master Shaw believed it was now time to strike. Agents were sent to track down Joshmaul and his monstrous undead ally, the death knight General Settra. Nyssha's mission was to assassinate Joshmaul's chief lieutenant, Ordevaas Portalseeker.

However, the Blood Knight Master got wind of Nyssha's mission from the corrupted draenei vindicator Velenkayn, formerly one of Saavedro's students, who was captured by Joshmaul and his allies shortly after Nyssha received her mission. Nyssha began her journey to Quel'Thalas to locate the Corruptor's lieutenant, but he located her first. Two Ghostland guardians ambushed her near the Quel'Lithien Lodge in the Eastern Plaguelands and took her before the Master, who waited at the gatehouse in the Thalassian Pass. Taking her wyvern tailspike from her belt, Ordevaas ran it into Nyssha's chest and left her lying on the ground, then watched and waited as the poison slowly killed her. He then had her decapitated, and the body dumped at Chillwind Camp. Her head was delivered to Saavedro as a package. Grief-stricken and enraged, Saavedro swore vengeance against Ordevaas, but was convinced (reluctantly) to forgive once it became clear that Ordevaas was a puppet of the Corruptor.

Saavedro had Nyssha buried outside Shattrath, a place where the Light would watch her rest. Ordevaas later repented for this crime by renouncing Joshmaul, though Saavedro never forgave him for Nyssha's murder, right up to his own death.

Resurrection
Late in the war against the Lich King, agents of the Cult of the Damned raided the cemetery outside Shattrath City. Nyssha's body had putrified by this point and was ridden with maggot holes, but it was suitable to their purposes. Raising her in undeath, Nyssha was only a Scourge warrior for a short time when the Lich King was slain, severing her and other semi-independent servants' connection to the Scourge. Without direction, Nyssha was captured by agents of the Forsaken near the town of Venomspite in the Dragonblight. They would have done away with her then and there, but for an unlikely ally, a victorious warrior of the Forsaken who'd fought for Garrosh Hellscream's Warsong Offensive - General Varan Metheius.

The silent General, who had succeeded Settra after his corruption and subsequent death in Icecrown Citadel, sized up the young woman and decided to take her under his wing, to give her the training she had not been able to receive fully from the Scourge. Metheius - relying on writing notes to communicate - explained everything that had happened since her death nearly two years before, including the success of the war in Outland, the invasion of Northrend, and the death of Saavedro. The General was pleased that she did not show emotion upon hearing of her adoptive father's demise, but did state that she wished to know who was responsible - and was not surprised to discover that it had been Joshmaul, who (at the time) was also dead. Accepting the offer of training, Nyssha swore allegiance to Metheius and to his Dark Lady, and became one of the Forsaken.

After the Shattering, General Metheius took Nyssha with him to Gilneas for the invasion, and she participated both in the campaigns against the Gilnean troops and the cleanup effort against the Gilnean Liberation Front. Afterwards, Metheius decided that she required more independence, and allowed her to freely serve where she was needed - provided that she return to his side when he required her blade. Nyssha agreed.