User:Joshmaul/Caro'thel Vendross

"'Even Malfurion would not dare deny our usefulness to his cause now. He and his kind have condemned us for ten thousand years...but no more. Now we will prove that not all of us were like his enemies of ages past. Now we will prove that magic is not inherently corrupt.'"
 * - Caro'thel Vendross, apprentice mage

Caro'thel Vendross is a Highborne mage serving in the army of Darnassus. Along with his brethren, he has been in hiding for many years before finally rejoining his people after the Shattering.

Biography
Relatively young for a Highborne, Vendross was born in the Highborne enclave of Eldre'Thalas a hundred and fifty years before the Battle of Mount Hyjal. Because of the long lifespans of his people - aided by the War of the Ancients and the creation of Nordrassil - Vendross is only fourth-generation. While he is a natural spellcaster, he only began learning his trade as his brethren began to return to night elf society in the wake of the Shattering.

Teleported to Teldrassil along with his mentor, Mordent Evenshade, and other mages and apprentices, Vendross journeyed to the Shadowglen, where he began his training in earnest. Like most of his people in the past, Vendross sneered at the other night elves, who had been content to leave the Highborne to rot in exile until they suddenly found their world collapsing around them, and desperately came to them for help...

Entering the Alliance's Service
Learning of the Battle of Mount Hyjal and the serious issues that had assailed the kaldorei in the last decade, including the growing of Teldrassil and the corruption that had plagued it from the start, Vendross' attitude changed somewhat, and he became much more willing to aid his reunited people in their struggle against the chaos caused by the Cataclysm. On leaving Teldrassil, Vendross was met by a powerful draenei shaman named Jaeden'laek. Having heard of Vendross from allies in Darnassus, Jaeden'laek offered the mage a place in the coalition of Alliance and Horde forces. But the Highborne declined, wishing to focus solely on aiding his people. In understanding, the shaman gave Vendross a skull-topped stave that would augment his powers - the Staff of Sekhesmet, wrested from the hand of the Forsaken shadow priest by Jaeden'laek himself.

The Exploration of the World


After aiding his people in Darkshore and securing Malfurion Stormrage's efforts to keep the region from cracking itself apart, Vendross journeyed the world, from the woods of Ashenvale, besieged by the Horde, to the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale and the great Nesingwary hunt, to the dark forests of Duskwood and the tale of one of its infamous enemies, to the garrison of Northwatch in the southern Barrens and the strange overgrowth nearby. Eventually, his journeys brought him to the Western Plaguelands in Lordaeron, which were recently beginning to recover following the defeat of the Lich King. In Hearthglen, the stronghold of the Argent Crusade, Vendross offered his services to Highlord Tirion Fordring, clearing out traitors in their ranks and defeating the necromancy-practicing gnolls of Redpine Dell.

where he was put on the front lines of an increasingly brutal conflict between the Forsaken and the Alliance. Though the Alliance troops fought valiantly, the Forsaken - aided by Sylvanas Windrunner's val'kyr allies - overwhelmed them, forcing the surviving Alliance militia to retreat. The Alliance commander, the death knight Thassarian, went west into Tirisfal to hunt down Sylvanas and locate his old comrade, Koltira Deathweaver, who had commanded the Forsaken forces. Fleeing north to a camp of paladins and druids, Vendross aided a young troll named Zen'Kiki in learning his powers, and working to carry on the restoration of the blighted land.



Journeying across the Thondroril to the Eastern Plaguelands, Vendross met a Gilnean trader named Fiona, who maintained a caravan running from the river to the Argent Crusade's outposts in the east. The Gilneans - many of whom had been transformed into fierce worgen - were recent allies of the night elves; several night elf commanders had aided King Genn Greymane and his people during the Horde invasion of Gilneas, and had offered them shelter in Darnassus. He was accompanied by the worgen druid Zherron, one of Jaeden'laek's allies, who believed that the efforts in Lordaeron would allow for an easier liberation of his homeland. The mage and the druid joined the caravan on its journey across the Plaguelands, learning more as time went on.

The Liberation of Tyr's Hand
Vendross was formally inducted into the Argent Crusade by Lord Maxwell Tyrosus during a caravan stopover at Light's Hope Chapel, and was dispatched to provide aid to its operations in the Eastern Plaguelands. One of those operations was led by Crusade Commander Eligor Dawnbringer, a veteran of the war against the Lich King. Dawnbringer was leading a force of the Brotherhood of the Light, an extremist sect of the Crusade (as it had been of the old Argent Dawn), against the city of Tyr's Hand. Prior to and during the war in Northrend, Tyr's Hand had been a major stronghold of the Scarlet Crusade which had managed to avoid destruction after the Crusade was annihilated by the Scourge. The survivors there, and in the garrison in Stratholme to the northwest, had been turned to undeath by their true master, the dreadlord Balnazzar - an ironic fate for those who persecuted undeath, Scourge or otherwise, to the fullest. These undead Scarlets became known as the "Risen".

Dawnbringer, Crusade Commander Korfax and Archmage Angela Dosantos tasked Vendross with slaying the undead Scarlets, retrieving holy relics (including the shroud of Uther the Lightbringer, the sigil of Gavinrad the Dire, and other artifacts) that the Scarlets, now undead, could no longer use. He opened portals for the Argent troops to take control of the abbey, and finished by marching into the Scarlet Basilica itself to slay the undead Scarlet commander, Crusader Lord Valdemar, which Vendross did - quickly and nearly without opposition. With Valdemar gone, Tyr's Hand was firmly in the hands of the Argent Crusade.

Appearance and Personality
Vendross' hair is white and tied back in a ponytail, slicked down into a neatly sculpted helmet on the rest of his head. Being relatively young, his face is unlined and has yet to feel the ravages of age. He is a taciturn, almost humorless figure, his usual expression oft-described as "haughty" or "aloof", like most Highborne. Despite this, he is staunchly loyal to the cause of all kaldorei, both the Darnassians and the Highborne, believing that their reunification was destined and that both would be stronger together than separate.

Despite his less-than-charming personality traits, Vendross is an accomplished spellcaster, who prefers the powers of the frost mage. He does dabble in the use of fire, especially when he journeyed to Winterspring, a place where cold spells would be largely ineffective.

The Staff of Sekhesmet
This stave was given to the High Priest Sekhesmet of Stratholme by Sylvanas herself shortly before he departed for Northrend. Believed to have been forged from the remnants of the Rod of Stratholme, carried by Sekhesmet (and later his apprentice Saavedro) as the high priest of that city, the staff head is crafted from the bones of slain Scarlet Crusaders, carved by master scrimshanders. Despite the rather dark nature of its construction, it is not an evil weapon; it can be wielded by any caster, Light, Arcane, Nature or Shadow.

During a confrontation in the Dragonblight, the Farseer Jaeden'laek wrested this staff from Sekhesmet's grip before being forced to flee, as Sekhesmet had called reinforcements from nearby Venomspite. Upon meeting Vendross, the Farseer - though disappointed that he chose not to join the Deathsworn in its struggle - gave the staff to the Highborne mage as a token of respect. The staff was reclaimed by Sekhesmet's ally, the hunter Declan Malkus, though Vendross works to reclaim it.