User:Joshmaul/Saavedro's Coalition

Saavedro's Coalition is an alliance of two forces - the Lordaeron Deathsworn and the House of Whitehair - formed shortly before the Battle of the Court of Bones, during the ongoing war against the Lich King. The coalition was named for its head, Saavedro of Stratholme, a priest-turned-paladin from northern Lordaeron who has earned himself the respect of many on both sides of the ongoing Alliance-Horde conflict, including the King of Stormwind, the Warchief of the Horde, and members of the Council of Silvermoon.

Following the death of Saavedro and the events that tore the world asunder, the draenei farseer and ambassador Jaeden'laek, the paladin's most trusted lieutenant, stepped to the forefront of the coalition and desperately tried to maintain the unity as both Alliance and Horde began to gear up for war. In the end, Jaeden'laek proved unable to carry on Saavedro's legacy alone, and so turned to two veterans of the Battle of Icecrown Citadel - Baron Artimus Devaneaux and Master Taeril'hane Ketiron - to lead the Coalition in his stead.

Formation
Saavedro formed the coalition in response to the renewed threat from the Scourge and of the continued deprevations of his nemesis, the warlock known as Joshmaul the Corruptor. His Lordaeron Deathsworn, which he had established as a movement to retake Lordaeron from the undead (Forsaken and Scourge alike) that controlled it, had fought alongside the House of Whitehair ever since the blood elf family broke away from Joshmaul upon discovering his duplicity during the battle against Kael'thas in Outland.

During the war in Northrend, Saavedro stepped down from the leadership and turned over the Deathsworn to his lieutenant, Stormwind General Oren Tanis. However, he decided that to best consolidate the friendship between the Deathsworn and the House of Whitehair, a coalition - uniting their forces and their leadership - was necessary. To that end, he and his old friend Master Ordevaas Portalseeker, the Whitehair patriarch, met in Dalaran to discuss a political union between the two sides. Ordevaas, knowing that in unity lies strength - the prime example of this being when his people allied with the Forsaken to reclaim the Ghostlands of southern Quel'Thalas from the Scourge - agreed readily to the coalition, as did General Tanis. To that end, Ordevaas named his guard captain, Taeril'hane Ketiron, as his Warmaster and the House of Whitehair's official representative in the coalition, second only to Ordevaas himself. Some say that this was tantamount to naming Ketiron his heir-apparent, as Ketiron was also betrothed to Ordevaas' daughter, Areinnye Scourgebane.

The Battle
The coalition's first taste of battle was against the Corruptor at the Court of Bones, at the foot of Icecrown Citadel itself; Saavedro had entered the Citadel and was preparing for the first battle against Lord Marrowgar, the guardian of the great Spire. Ordevaas took to the field alongside the military commanders against the might of Joshmaul's legions. Despite being outnumbered by Joshmaul's forces, Tanis and Ketiron's tactical brilliance proved to be a boon to the fight against the Corruptor, who unleashed a goblin-engineered gunship (stolen from the Isle of Conquest) against the combined armies. Ketiron, in particular, made use of the Whitehairs' goblin engineers, reasoning that because the vessel was their handywork, they would know how best to disable it. The Whitehairs' chief engineer, a goblin named Kellik, snuck aboard Joshmaul's ship and set explosives, first to disable it and then to completely destroy it. Despite severe losses, the coalition was victorious.

A Change in Leadership
But alas, all wars had sacrifices. Seriously wounded after vanquishing Joshmaul's chief general, Shankolin Blightpath, Ordevaas was taken back to Dalaran, where he died of a recurring lung ailment that had crippled him weeks before. On his deathbed, Ordevaas officiated at the wedding of his daughter Areinnye to Master Ketiron, and named Ketiron as his successor. His death officially ended the direct male-line descent of the House of Whitehair, which was reorganized into the Joint Houses of Ketiron and Whitehair under the leadership of the new patriarch and his wife.

Saavedro at last met his prophecied end against Joshmaul in the icy plains west of the Argent Tournament Grounds. As his most trusted advisor and chief lieutenant, Jaeden'laek stepped to the forefront of the coalition. But Jaeden'laek was ill-prepared for the burdens of leading this coalition, having been a background player for much of the war in Northrend. With the agreement of General Tanis, Jaeden'laek named Baron Devaneaux and Master Ketiron - both heroes of the war against the Lich King - as the joint leaders, given that they were fairly popular figures on both sides (surprisingly, given Artimus' acknowledged crimes against both his own people and those of the Horde). Despite the stirrings of war between the Alliance and the Horde in the wake of Deathwing's return, Artimus and Ketiron, and those who follow them, remain committed to the "bigger picture" - the battle against the Twilight's Hammer and other forces seeking to capitalize on the chaos caused by the Cataclysm.

The Pact at Sorrow Hill
With Saavedro at last being reburied in Lordaeron as he requested, his coffin was accompanied in its procession across Lordaeron by the four veterans of Icecrown Citadel - Ketiron, Devaneaux, Jaeden'laek and Tanis - and members of the Stormwind Royal Army and the Whitehair House Guard. Recognizing that the Alliance and the Horde were about to go to war, Ketiron led his comrades in a pact, swearing that though they would fight each other, they would conduct themselves with honor, rather than subscribe to the brash warmongering of their leaders, and - in order to save their world from the evils that now assailed it - they would prove that Alliance and Horde stood stronger united against evil than they did while fighting one another.