User:Joshmaul/Telek Eaglespear/Learning About Real War

With his mentor Taeril'hane Ketiron having retired to Silvermoon, Telek Eaglespear - with no real experience with war or killing - was left to carry his standard into battle in an Azeroth ripping itself to pieces.

End of the Defias: The Death of Vanessa VanCleef
Telek journeyed first to the Eastern Kingdoms, to the Deadmines beneath Westfall. Months earlier, Alliance forces had cleared out the Deadmines in the hunt for Vanessa VanCleef, the daughter of Edwin VanCleef, founder and leader of the Defias Brotherhood. With the elder VanCleef's death, the Defias had largely vanished, but after the Shattering, Vanessa had gathered enough allies to bring the Brotherhood back to life. Alliance troops were dispatched by King Varian to destroy everyone and everything in the Deadmines, and find VanCleef's daughter. Though they managed to succeed in slaying the murloc "Cookie", who appeared to be the head of the forces left behind, there was no sign of Vanessa.

Joining a force made up of allies of his mentor from both Alliance and Horde, Telek entered the Deadmines and fought through the replenished guard to reach the unfinished juggernaught, the great weapon whose construction had begun under Edwin VanCleef but was unfinished when he was killed. Finding the corpse of the murloc "captain", they heard Vanessa's voice from above - she had been in stealth, standing on the roof of the wheelhouse. In a quick move, she injected a powerful mind-fogging elixir into the entire force, and sent them on a trip to relive the nightmares of her chief lieutenants - Glubtok, the ogre foreman, who was so frightened when his mage powers manifested that he had burnt down his own ogre mound; Helix Gearbreaker, the goblin carpenter, with an intense fear of spiders; and James Harrington, aka Admiral Ripsnarl, the worgen pirate who had turned on his own family in his frenzied state. Finally, after the effects of the elixir wore off, the party returned to the deck and battled against the young poisoner.

Vanessa, though lacking in physical prowess (something she herself admitted), was prepared for the final confrontation, as she had explosive charges set along the deck, and hordes of murloc minions to swarm them. As the war party gained the upper hand, however, Vanessa chose to deny them their victory - she set off a charge strapped to her own chest, killing herself instantly. This was Telek's first taste of real battle, and his youthful naivete cracked for the first time. This was what Ketiron had charged him to do - to venture out to battle the evils of the shattered world. But the first shred of uncertainty had arisen. Having studied history to a small degree under Ketiron's tutelage, as well as his mentor's links to the Alliance, Telek had known of Vanessa and her quest for vengeance, but it still saddened him to see a life so full of promise thrown away.

Upon his return to the nearest Horde port of call - Grom'gol Base Camp - Telek contacted Ketiron in Silvermoon, using a Titan communications device that Ketiron had been given by Saavedro of Stratholme, who'd found it in Northrend. The Master listened to Telek's recounting of the events in the Deadmines, and understood the plight of the young tauren. He said that while Telek had done the right thing, for a reborn Defias Brotherhood with a vengeful leader would be a grave threat, he was right to feel pity for his opponent. "There are many foes you will face that you may sympathize with, and that is to be encouraged," Ketiron counselled him. "But remember that there are many others out there who are only deserving of your scorn, or of death at your hands. It is a fine line we travel, and you must take care lest you cross it without realizing."

The Siege of Baradin Hold
After taking counsel with his mentor, Telek was contacted by comrades of Ketiron's from the war against the Lich King, summoning him to take part in a battle within the halls of Baradin Hold, a massive prison fortress located on the island of Tol Barad, off the southwestern coast of Gilneas. The island had served as a fortress under the rule of Stromgarde until it was destroyed by the Horde in the Second War. Years later, it was reclaimed by Kul Tiras, who had constructed the prison used to house many powerful creatures, including enemy mages, demons, and undead. Its strategic location - in close proximity to Vashj'ir and the dwarven lands of Khaz Modan as well as Gilneas - made Tol Barad a warzone, with Hellscream's troops battling the Baradin wardens, backed up by Varian's army.

While the island was held by the Horde, a war party entered the dungeons beneath the Hold and defeated several arcane sentinels sent to guard a powerful creature in its depths - a pit lord known as Argaloth. Keeping out of the powerful felfire inferno as best they could, the war party held up against the massive creature's wrath and eventually defeated it. Unlike the battle in the Deadmines, this fight left the young Sunwalker feeling accomplished, as he had been taught that the paladins - whose powers were similar to those he wielded - were particularly empowered to fight the undead and the demonic, both of which had been used by the Horde during the Second War when the original paladins first appeared.

Into the Realm of Twilight
After securing Baradin Hold, Telek journeyed to the Twilight Highlands to finish what his mentor had begun - the battle against the Twilight's Hammer and the siege of the Twilight Citadel, the sanctum of the warped ogre-mage Cho'gall. Aided by the human death knight Artimus Devaneaux and a group of Alliance commandos, Telek was joined by the Gob Squad, a group of elite goblin commandos from the Bilgewater Cartel, to open the way to the Twilight stronghold in Grim Batol - sealed behind huge fortifications dating back to the orcish occupation of the city, when they imprisoned the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza in its depths.

All the while, the red dragonflight was providing support in the fight; Artimus and Telek would encounter the Dragonqueen herself at the gates of the city. Alexstrasza had a risky plan to lure Deathwing to the Vermillion Redoubt, where the red dragonflight had set up shop in the battle against the Twilight. Telek was awed by the huge form and massive power of the corrupted Earth-Warder, having never seen anything so massive in his entire life. Seeking to bring an end to the Blackwing Greatfather, Alexstrasza took her dragon form and charged into Deathwing, the battle taking them into the skies above Grim Batol. Mounting up on the backs of red drakes, the death knight and the Sunwalker battled it out against the twilight dragons that had come to their dark father's aid. As the battle carried on, Deathwing and Alexstrasza plummeted to the ground, and the Life-Binder believed that she had succeeded in slaying the corrupted Aspect. To their horror, Deathwing rose above them and prepared to finish the job, but the dragon Caelestrasz delayed him long enough for Telek and Artimus to escape with Alexstrasza.

Assault on the Twilight Citadel
After Deathwing's escape, Telek was called into service by Ketiron's old comrades in the mercenary group known as Vicejaw. They were planning an attack against the Bastion of Twilight, the inner-most halls of the Twilight Citadel in the hills southeast of Grim Batol; the citadel spire could be seen towering above the hills as far away as Loch Modan and the Wetlands to the west.

Within the elementium-lined corridors of the Bastion, Cho'gall's most powerful minions gathered to herald the coming of their dark master and the destruction of the world. Filled with a righteous fury, Telek joined his new comrades in ripping through the ranks of the Twilight zealots, making their way through the halls to the first major chamber, wherein resided a powerful ettin taskmaster known as Halfus Wyrmbreaker. Within his chambers were dragons of varying size and power - a nether drake, a volcanic drake, a bronze dragon, and green whelps. To gain the upper hand against Halfus, the raiding party had to wake some of these dragons from their painful slumber and then destroy them, unleashing their vengeance against the Wyrmbreaker. It took much work on their parts, but the party was able to destroy Halfus.

Telek then followed his comrades into a gauntlet through the Burning Corridor, into the Twilight Enclave, wherein resided a pair of twilight dragons, Valiona and Theralion. Valiona had briefly served as the "mount" of the courier Drahga Shadowburner before his death in Grim Batol. Valiona unleashed powerful shadow attacks while Theralion attacked from the air; then, when Theralion landed, Valiona would unleash shadowflame from the air, while Theralion attacked with shadowy meteorites. During a skirmish with Theralion, the dragon's claw snapped Telek's left horn completely off as it slashed into his chest, seriously wounding him. Despite this, he and his comrades perservered just long enough to destroy the dragons, their life-forces linked so as one fell, so did the other...

Derailing the Zandalari
Five years prior to the Cataclysm, Saavedro of Stratholme had joined a grand army of Alliance and Horde forces working for the Zandalar - the tribe of Rastakhan, king of all trolls - to destroy Hakkar the Soulflayer in the ruined city of Zul'Gurub, deep in the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale. After Hakkar was defeated, his essence was delivered to the Zandalari on Yojamba Isle off the coast of northern Stranglethorn. While fighting the chosen forces of the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel, Taeril'hane Ketiron (through a bit of illicit time travel) had gone back in time to the war in Outland, to join the joint army that had killed Zul'jin in the temple city of Zul'Aman, in the Ghostlands of southern Quel'Thalas. His blood was delivered to the camp followers outside to prove his demise.

These victories proved to be short-lived. The Zandalari began to rethink their priorities after the Cataclysm, and decided that the best way to preserve Azeroth was to unite all the troll tribes into a grand empire...one that would be powerful enough to destroy the Alliance, the Horde and the Twilight's Hammer, and return Azeroth to troll domination for the first time in sixteen thousand years. The remnants of the Drakkari rallied to King Rastakhan's command, as did Jin'do, the resurrected leader of Zul'Gurub, and Daakara, Zul'jin's successor as Warlord of the Amani. Only Vol'jin, the chieftain of the Darkspear tribe - the trolls of the Horde - refused, and swore to oppose the Zandalari's mad scheme for dominance.

Telek assisted in battling the crazed forces of the Gurubashi running rampant in the jungles of Stranglethorn - the serpents of the resurrected High Priest Venoxis, the corrupted panther Mauti, pet of Bethekk's new priestess Kilnara, and the zombie plague unleashed against Hardwrench Hideaway by the mad alchemist Zanzil. He eventually encountered Vol'jin in Booty Bay, attempting to convince Baron Revilgaz, the city's leader, to provide aid for his forces. Telek learned that Vol'jin had even sent emissaries to Stormwind to rally support from the Alliance, as the Zandalari conquest would not differentiate between Alliance and Horde.

Zul'Gurub: Legacy of the Soulflayer
After recovering enough from his wounds in the Bastion of Twilight, Telek joined a group of fellows to venture into Zul'Gurub, where crazed acolytes of the snake god Hethiss guarded strange cauldrons at strategic locations. These cauldrons were brewed by Zanzil to provide powerful protections - some protected against poison, others projected powerful frost attacks with certain abilities, and one - near Zanzil himself - projected fire to incinerate zombies.

The first to fall was Venoxis, despite his powerful poisons and invoking the blessing of Hethiss to shape his form into a snake. Next, in a grand arena with chained spirits, was the crazed Bloodlord Mandokir, also returned from death by Jin'do's sorcery. Mandokir rode a skeletal raptor that had been his old friend Ohgan, who attacked the chained spirits and denied the use of them in the event anyone in the party was killed by Mandokir's attacks (which several were, including Telek himself; only the spirits prevented his permanent death), but he too would fall. Next went Zanzil, despite projecting powerful poison clouds, resurrecting slain berserkers, and unleashing a tide of zombies. And finally Kilnara, sister of the fallen High Priestess Arlokk, would fall, her and all of her panthers - despite her grief-fuelled rage, the blessing of the panther, and powerful waves of agony.

Journeying to the Altar of Hakkar in the center of Zul'Gurub, Telek and his comrades would face Jin'do, now styled "the Godbreaker". Shackled by powerful enchanted chains was the spirit of Hakkar himself, his powers siphoned by the Gurubashi and their Zandalari masters. Hiding within "dead zones" from the shadow of Hakkar, the attackers eventually went into the spirit realm itself, where they brought the spirits of slain berserkers to smash down on the shields that protected the chains from attack. Once the chains were broken, Hakkar was freed once more, and Jin'do's fate was sealed. The furious Soulflayer destroyed the self-styled "Godbreaker", leaving only a mangled corpse behind. To his "rescuers", Hakkar granted a temporary reprieve...and then he was gone.

Telek recovered an ancient stone from Jin'do's body that would allow the goblins of Booty Bay to place a protective ward in their town. The protection also appeared to stretch as far as Grom'gol Base Camp in northern Stranglethorn and the rebel camp on the border between Stranglethorn and Duskwood, as the Gurubashi attackers in those settlements also fled after the stone was delivered to Baron Revilgaz.

Zul'Aman: Vengeance for Zul'jin...Denied
After the death of Jin'do, Telek journeyed across the sea to Lordaeron and hence to Silvermoon, where he met with Master Ketiron at his home in the Court of the Sun. Telek explained what had happened in Zul'Gurub and mentioned that Vol'jin was sending his forces into Zul'Aman to deal with the threat there. Ketiron brought his ward up to speed on happenings in Quel'Thalas, mentioning that his Regent was in a fury over Ranger-General Halduron Brightwing inviting Vereesa Windrunner - the commander of the Silver Covenant, a group of high elves allied with the Kirin Tor who had fought in Northrend - to aid them in the defense against the Amani. Vereesa, youngest of the Windrunner sisters and the only one of them not undead or missing, had been asked to come back to her homeland because much of Halduron's Farstrider forces had been deployed to fight the Twilight's Hammer in northern Khaz Modan and in Kalimdor. Lor'themar was furious, but he had no choice - there simply weren't enough troops.

Alliance and Horde once more marched on Zul'Aman, and Telek was in the vanguard. The new warlord, Daakara, had appointed new priests to take the form of the primal Loas of Zul'Aman - Nalorakk, Akil'zon, Jan'alai and Halazzi - and the Hex Lord Malacrass had been resurrected to guard the way to Daakara's platform. Much as Ketiron himself had done, Telek rode into the city, now crawling with Zandalari priests in addition to the Amani zealots. Aiding Vol'jin in banging the gong to open the main gate, the party ventured into the city, destroyed the incoming waves of Amani savages and their Zandalari masters, and faced the re-energized Amani Loas. First was Akil'zon, who unleashed electrical storms and huge eagles to lift foes into the air, away from the fight, then Nalorakk's massive bear claws and furious charges. Fighting through the ranks of the scouts, warriors, sorcerers and priests in their path, they came upon Jan'alai and weathered the storm of dragonhawk hatchlings and fire bombs. Lastly fell Halazzi with his totems and the separation of his troll and lynx spirits.

The Hex Lord awaited in the main chamber, and with him were an angry wraith and a brainwashed blood elf priestess. A tauren shaman who accompanied them hexed the priestess, and Telek and his comrades destroyed the wraith before turning on Malacrass and enduring his powerful spirit bolts and soul siphons, gaining the powers of the siphoned. He too fell, and as the doors opened a swarm of more Amani savages poured into Malacrass' chambers, all while Daakara - self-styled as "the Invincible" - laughed at them.

Much as Zul'jin had done, Daakara called upon the spirits of the four Loas freed from their physical forms after the deaths of their hosts. He assumed the form of the bear first and, as Nalorakk had done, charged his attackers and swiped at them with huge claws. Then he assumed the form of the eagle and unleashed powerful electrical storms - but in the end, it was not enough. The "invincible" Warlord fell dead, leaving Zul'Aman in the hands of Vol'jin.

Raiding the Blackwing Descent
After undergoing the first part of his vision quest into Icecrown Citadel, Ketiron sent him back to the war, this time directly opposing Deathwing and his minions. Years before, the great black drake Nefarian, son of Deathwing, had been defeated in his lair near the summit of Blackrock Mountain, his head delivered as proof of decease. When Deathwing emerged from Deepholm, he reclaimed the heads of his murdered children - most famously attacking Stormwind to claim the head of his daughter, Onyxia. After reanimating Nefarian, Deathwing charged him with continuing the work he had begun in the Blackwing Lair.

Flying up into the throne room of the Lord of Blackrock, high on the mountain's eastern face, Telek and his comrades entered Nefarian's new sanctum, the Blackwing Descent. There, Nefarian kept some of his more powerful "failures"; the first was the great magma worm Magmaw. After slaying the dragon guards, the party did battle with the massive creature. At one point, Telek even jumped onto the creature's head with one of his comrades, and chained the pincers of the creature to a massive spike on the ground, impaling its head and keeping it immobile long enough for those on the ground to inflict damage. All the while, the worm unleashed fiery parasites that were kept from the rest of the group by one of the heavier armored leaders of the raid, and soon the creature was dead.

Next, they battled against the Omnotron Defense System, a strange creation that utilized machine and magic to fight off intruders, in the form of four iron golems - Arcanotron, charged with arcane energy; Electron, bristling with electricity; Magmatron, with massive flamethrowers for hands; and Toxitron, which spewed corrosive poison. Their energies were linked together, so that if one fell, the entire system would shut down as a result. The battle was brutal, but in the end, the attackers were victorious. Continuing ahead into the main hall, the Vault of the Shadowflame, they next came upon the laboratory of the scientist Maloriak, a twisted abomination created from human and dragonspawn combined. It had been Maloriak that had aided Nefarian in his ventures, and created the creatures that the party had destroyed thus far. Maloriak was a brutal foe, using his powerful alchemy to unleash powerful flames, petrifying cold, or debilitating slime, all the while sending out his failed experiments to combat them. The slime made it easier for the party to kill the aberrations, but it also affected them. Toward the end, as the dragonman unleashed his "prime subjects", it became a race to destroy him before they were overwhelmed - a race they would eventually win...