User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme

"I first met Saavedro of Stratholme and became friends with him when he came to the Exodar one day, to learn more about the draenei and our connection to the Light. He learned a great deal about us, and I journeyed with him teaching him more about our people in Outland. As his most trusted ally, I accompanied him to Northrend to fight the Scourge. His courage and strength of will were an inspiration, even to one like me who lived many a year more than these humans...he would not hesitate to fight injustice or defend the innocent from evil. In short, he was a good, honorable man - and that is why his tale is one of the most tragic of this Light-forsaken war."
 * - Ambassador Jaeden'laek, personal journal, shortly after Saavedro's death

Once a simple priest and scholar, Saavedro of Stratholme later rose from his humble origins to become much more - a guide for a landless people; a leader of men in the ongoing struggle for supremacy with the Horde; a teacher of the Light and its principles, and of the enemy they all face; an explorer with an appreciation for the world he lived on, and the worlds beyond his own. As a Knight of the Silver Hand, Saavedro has risen in the decade since the Battle of Mount Hyjal to be a rallying beacon for the survivors of his destroyed homeland of Lordaeron, and trained with some of the most powerful paladins on Azeroth to prepare himself for the final battle against the Lich King. Throughout his service to the Grand Alliance, he has faced the perils of Blackrock Mountain, destroyed the children of Deathwing, faced the servants of the Old Gods, confronted the servitors of the Burning Legion, done battle with the forces of Illidan, and ended Malygos' genocidal Nexus War. But it was the Scourge and its dark master, a creature who had once been the noble Prince Arthas Menethil, who was Saavedro's sworn enemy - the one he most wished to confront and finally defeat, avenging the loss of his homeland once and for all.

With his destiny written, Saavedro confronted his mortal enemy, Joshmaul the Corruptor, in the frozen mountains of Icecrown shortly after the defeat of the Lich King, coming to the aid of his comrade, General Oren Tanis. Though he slew the Corruptor and smote his ruin upon the mountainside, Saavedro succumbed to his wounds in Dalaran four days later, surrounded by his comrades-in-arms in the battle against the Lich King.

Origins
Born in 572 (Stormwind reckoning) in the town of Corin's Crossing, southeast of Stratholme, Saavedro was the only child of the town magistrate Ezekyle and his wife Verity. The name Saavedro means "teacher" in an ancient human dialect.

Living with his parents for much of his childhood, Saavedro - or Saav to his friends - grew tired of living within the magistrate's estate; for all of his good intentions, his father was the typical ineffectual politician. When he reached his Age of Ascension in 585, at age 13, Saavedro encountered a messenger from the King of Lordaeron, headed for Stratholme, and accompanied the messenger to the High Priest Sekhesmet. The young man took his oath as a priest in the service of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, and trained for much of his life under the venerable High Priest. Despite not being born there, Saavedro considered Stratholme his home and became known as "Saavedro of Stratholme" for the rest of his life.

In 594, word reached Stratholme of the fall of Lordaeron's sister kingdom of Azeroth, at the hands of the orcish Horde. Not long after that news reached Lordaeron, the refugees from Stormwind - led by Lord Anduin Lothar, the Knight Champion of Stormwind, and the Dalaran mage Khadgar, apprentice to Medivh - arrived in the court of King Terenas Menethil II, the reigning monarch of Lordaeron. Saavedro, as an emissary of the Conclave of the Priesthood in Stratholme, was present as Lothar informed the King of the opening of the Dark Portal, the atrocities committed by the orcs and their allies, and the assassination of King Llane. Saavedro was particularly disturbed by the word of the destruction of the holy order of the Clerics of Northshire, but aided the aged Archbishop Alonsus Faol - who taught his master, Sekhesmet - and his apprentice, Uther the Lightbringer, in the creation of the Order of the Silver Hand - the paladins. At the tender age of twenty-three, Saavedro was inducted into Stratholme's Conclave of the Priesthood.

Sending the Expedition Off
As it prepared to depart, the Alliance Expedition to Draenor assembled on the flatlands outside of Nethergarde Keep to be sent off by the priesthood of the Alliance. Archbishop Faol and his student, the future Archbishop Benedictus, were joined by Sekhesmet, Saavedro and several members of the priesthood of Quel'Thalas to give the blessing of the Light to the expedition, led by Khadgar and General Turalyon, before they ventured across the Dark Portal. Saavedro remained in Nethergarde for the entire period the Portal was open, until he received word that the Dark Portal had been sealed, Draenor all but destroyed, and the Expedition cut off from their homeland. For twenty years after that fateful day, Saavedro waited and wondered...what had happened to them?

The Fall of Stratholme


After the Alliance expedition into Draenor sealed the Dark Portal, Saavedro's mentor, High Priest Sekhesmet, was sent to the capital as a member of the high council of Lordaeron's priesthood. Now in his early thirties and a full-fledged priest of Lordaeron, Saavedro focused on his duties as a priest to the city of Stratholme, becoming High Priest in 602. Then, in 604, he received orders from the high council informing him that he was being sent to the court of King Varian Wrynn, the new King of Stormwind. He lived in a small house in the Canal District, not far from the Cathedral of Light, and also in a large townhouse outside of Goldshire. He lived in Stormwind for ten years, but occasionally ferried between Stratholme and Stormwind as his duties permitted. On his last return trip to his beloved city, he encountered Lord Uther, who was on his way to the outskirts of Stratholme to meet with the Crown Prince, Arthas Menethil. Saavedro watched breathlessly as Arthas commanded Uther to purge Stratholme. When the Lightbringer refused, Arthas accused him of treason and ordered that the Knights of the Silver Hand be disbanded. Stunned, Saavedro - who had heard of, and investigated, the death cults in northern Lordaeron, but had no idea how far the plague had spread - realized that something was wrong, but made his way back to the southern part of the continent. He did not realize, however, how bad it really was.

By the time Saavedro returned to Stormwind, he had heard that both the Kingdom of Lordaeron and the elven Kingdom of Quel'Thalas had been destroyed by the Scourge. The noble King Terenas and the leader of the Silver Hand, Lord Uther, had been brutally murdered by Prince Arthas, now a death knight in the Scourge's service. Lordaeron had crumbled into ruin, and Stratholme was left to burn, a fire that has lasted for many years after the end of the "Third War", as the battle with the Scourge and the Burning Legion was called. From his home in Stormwind, Saavedro refused to believe what he was hearing - Lordaeron had weathered the orcish Horde, how could it fall?

But it soon became inevitable to him - his homeland had fallen into ruin, the ghosts of hundreds of thousands roaming the blighted landscape. He travelled to Lordaeron himself, careful to avoid detection by the Scourge. As he stepped into the empty throne room of Terenas' palace, he was stricken by a horrifying sight. His master, Sekhesmet, was lying dead on the floor, where he had choked out his last breaths. Judging from the state his body was in, Saavedro deduced that he had been dead for several months. Saavedro aided the survivors of Tirisfal Glades in burying his master in the family mausoleum, located in the graveyard of the town of Brill, and then returned to Stormwind.

Saavedro fell into a state of melancholy after returning from Lordaeron; he shirked his duties and began drinking heavily. In this state, he brooded for four years after the war before he realized he had a greater part to play. On the advice of the Archbishop Benedictus, Saavedro removed the robes of the priesthood and took up sword and shield as a paladin. Swearing to defend the helpless and fight both the Scourge and the Horde, he was inducted into the Order of the Silver Hand at Northshire Abbey, in the year 618 on the Stormwind calendar. He was forty-six years old.

The Regency of Lordaeron
Shortly before the reopening of the Dark Portal, Saavedro - as one of few people in current Alliance service hailing from Lordaeron - met with a group of senior officials from both the priesthood and survivors from the court of King Terenas. They believed that there must be a Regent to lead the people of Lordaeron - what remained of them, anyway - until the Scourge and Forsaken are driven from the Plaguelands, and an uncorrupted member of the Menethil Dynasty could be found. At present, only Princess Calia, Arthas' sister, is believed to have been uncorrupted, but her current location is unknown. It has also become apparent - Saavedro himself mentioned this - that the former Kingdom of Lordaeron had to deal with not only Kel'Thuzad, but with the remaining leadership of the Scarlet Crusade, including High General Abbendis in Tyr's Hand. Plus, though Quel'Thalas was now in the hands of the Horde - via the machinations of Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron - Saavedro believed that a re-examination, and potential repair, of the Alliance's relations with them was in order.

Saavedro, along with former Tirisfal Magistrate Artimus Devaneaux, were chosen as potential candidates for the title of Regent Lord of Lordaeron until the Menethil Dynasty's fate could be confirmed - with its only known surviving member, Calia, missing or dead, this situation remains unclear. By a narrow margin, Saavedro - who had more experience in open warfare, having fought the Horde on various battlefields for several years - was chosen to take this post.

Loremaster of the Alliance


When he is not fighting enemies of the Alliance or meditating in solitude, Saavedro can often be found in a library, studying anything that provided him information on the enemies he faced. He found many such sources in the Royal Library of Stormwind before the opening of Karazhan. He was ecstatic to finally reach the near-mythic Guardian's Library, discovering many forgotten tomes that had been hoarded by Medivh before his demise. During his service with the Eternal Order, its members began to jokingly call him "Loremaster". Little did he know that a simple joke would turn into his occupation.

After the war in Northrend began, Saavedro journeyed the frozen continent, battling many foes and learning much about the nature of the enemies he faced. This gave him a greater appreciation of his world, and he returned to the south and explored many places he had only given a passing glance. In the Eastern Kingdoms, he returned to the Plaguelands to find that his work there was far from done, and also wandered the jungles of Stranglethorn and the marshes of the Wetlands. In Kalimdor, he journeyed to the forests of Feralas and the ruins of Dire Maul, the Barrens and the Wailing Caverns where the druids of the fang lavished in their corruption, and the aptly-named Desolace and the centaur temple-city of Maraudon.

Upon his return to Northrend, Saavedro received a message from Tyrande Whisperwind in Darnassus, praising him for taking the time to learn more about their world and the evil that plagued it, and finding ways to stop it. On behalf of the Alliance, she formally bestowed upon him the title of Loremaster, and presented him with the colors of his station.

With the aid of Caedus Netherfist, who had put in a good word with the leadership of the restored Kirin Tor, Saavedro was granted access to Dalaran's vaunted library, undergoing reconstruction following the city's destruction at the hands of Archimonde nearly a decade earlier. His subjects tended towards both the interesting (history, cartography and engineering) and the practical (information on the various strengths and weaknesses of his myriad enemies, including dragonkin, iron dwarves and, of course, the Scourge).

The Strands of Fate
Saavedro has been the subject of many prophecies from shamans and other far-seers such as the Prophet Velen, but only one crystal-clear revelation came at the height of the war in Northrend, just after the completion of the Argent Coliseum. The draenei shaman Ammenkayn, daughter of Saavedro's former apprentice Velenkayn, was mortally wounded by the Corruptor and left for dead on the Broken Front in Icecrown. Found by Saavedro moments later, Ammenkayn revealed her final vision, indicating that after "the king is dethroned" (referring to the final defeat of the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel), Saavedro will meet his greatest enemy - Joshmaul - and "both of your times will end", indicating that Joshmaul will be destroyed by Saavedro at the cost of his own life.

After the fall of the Lich King and the celebrations that followed the end of the war with the Scourge, Saavedro - still weakened from his battle against Lady Deathwhisper, which nearly killed him - was residing in Westguard Keep in the Howling Fjord. Without a word to anyone, he flew away on the back of his loyal gryphon, Intrepid, and set out for Icecrown. The Corruptor had ambushed General Tanis outside the Argent Tournament Grounds, and held the young man at his mercy. Moving with unnatural speed, Saavedro arrived in the frozen wastes of Icecrown and confronted the Corruptor for the last time. Light met Shadow, holy hammer and shield met rune-engraved staff and black sorcery as the duel between them raged on. Finally, with his last ounce of energy, Saavedro lashed out with a burst of holy energy, burning a hole into the Corruptor's chest. The mortally-wounded warlock staggered, and then fell to his death, his body scattered on the cliffs below before it was consumed by the sea.

Saavedro collapsed in the bloody snow next to General Tanis, and both men were taken to Dalaran by the Argent Guards who had come to Tanis' aid and were left to watch the duel, unable and unwilling to come between these two incredibly powerful men. Saavedro never regained consciousness, and died four days later.

The Aftermath
Saavedro's death was mourned by the Argent Crusade, the Alliance, and certain elements of the Horde - including the House of Whitehair, now under the leadership of Taeril'hane Ketiron. His will stated that he was to be buried in Lordaeron once efforts at its restoration were made. For three years after his death, he rested in Dalaran, in the small cemetery near the Violet Citadel.

With the Lich King dead, the Cenarion Circle and the Earthen Ring have begun efforts to cleanse the Western Plaguelands; among the first areas to be restored was the cemetery at Sorrow Hill. Three years after the fall of the Lich King, shortly after the great Shattering, Saavedro's coffin was transported to Silvermoon, where a procession led by Lord and Lady Ketiron and accompanied by Baron Artimus Devaneaux, the Farseer Jaeden'laek and General Oren Tanis journeyed across Quel'Thalas and the Eastern Plaguelands to Sorrow Hill. After being left out of his homeland for the last decade, Saavedro of Stratholme had at last come home to stay.

Saavedro's Legacy
After Saavedro's death, Highlord Tirion Fordring became the major figurehead for the restoration of Lordaeron. The town of Hearthglen, long held by the Scarlet Crusade, was reclaimed by Fordring's Argent forces, returning from their victorious campaign against the Lich King, and today he rules his old city from the fortress of Mardenholde.

The dream that Saavedro worked for the last years of his life to achieve - the restoration of life in the Plaguelands - has at last come to fruition, as the Western Plaguelands have been largely restored to prominence, with only pockets of forces loyal to the long-dead Lich King remaining; their major bastion remains the Scholomance in the ruins of Caer Darrow, one of the few areas of the region that have not been restored. Reconstruction efforts have begun in Andorhal, but the Forsaken will likely provide resistance to any Alliance effort to rebuild the city. In the Eastern Plaguelands, near Saavedro's birthplace of Corin's Crossing and in his beloved Stratholme, the Argent Crusade has begun to try and restore the land, but work is slow; the greatest strides have been the reconstruction of the great guard towers and the reinforcement and restoration of Light's Hope Chapel, now a formidable bastion against what remains of the Scourge in Lordaeron.

After Saavedro was buried at Sorrow Hill, the four veterans of Icecrown Citadel who had led the procession - Master Ketiron, Baron Devaneaux, Farseer Jaeden'laek and General Tanis - made a pact with one another in Saavedro's honor. Recognizing that the Alliance and the Horde were now gearing for war under the vengeful King Varian and the brash Warchief Garrosh Hellscream, the four men swore that if they were to end up on opposite sides, they would conduct themselves with honor, and show that despite their differences, Alliance and Horde could fight side-by-side against the evils that assailed their world.

Links
List of all the in-game information prior to December 2009