User:Joshmaul/Sekhesmet of Stratholme/Sekhesmet's Tale



My name is Sekhesmet of Stratholme, and I was once a High Priest of Lordaeron. At the behest of King Terenas, I would bless the troops, tend to the ill, and handle other matters of spirituality. I even remember giving the blessing to the armies of the Alliance Expedition at Nethergarde before they departed through the Dark Portal, twenty years ago. Life was simple and prosperous.

Until the Plague arrived. Until Arthas destroyed us all.

I had travelled back to Stratholme to find it eerily empty, the city on fire. I heard the gory details from one of Uther's paladins - that Prince Arthas had executed the townsfolk because he believed they were infected by the Plague. I remained in the empty city for some time, the only sound being the flames consuming the town. Then I returned to Lordaeron, surprised to see rose petals scattered across the cobblestone road leading into Terenas' palace. The throne room was empty...then I realized that Arthas had been right, that Stratholme had indeed been infected by the Plague - and I realized that I had contracted the evil sickness myself. Falling to my knees, I began to have difficulty breathing. Finally, I slumped to the floor, and choked out my last breath on the symbol of Lordaeron.

For six years, I lay in a great mausoleum in the cemetery near the town of Brill, rotting away for all eternity. Or, so I had originally thought.

...but death, it seems, is not permanent....

I awoke rather unsteadily in Terenas' throne room - the place where I had died. Someone had taken my body from the grave and laid it on the cold floor. I looked around, rather puzzled. "What has happened here? The halls of Lordaeron are silent," I said, my words echoing through the empty chamber. But only silence greeted me. It seems that the Plague had not just destroyed the priesthood - it had wiped out the entire populace of the Capital City. I looked down at myself - and gasped in horror. My body was wasted, the skin of my joints rotted away, my ribs poking out through my chest and abdomen. I was hideous! Standing in front of Terenas' throne, I began sobbing for both the waste of my body, and the fate of my lost comrades. For a brief moment, my mind wandered to my apprentice, Saavedro, in far away Stormwind. Did the Plague get him too? Was Azeroth lifeless?

Anguished and filled with rage, I screamed a cry of vengeance that echoed through the empty throne room.

Stepping into the ruined courtyard, the stars shining in a green-tinted sky, I had only one thought (well, after I searched for some clothes): "Holy Light protect me...so much....death..." But part of me wanted to see my surroundings. Stepping through the main gates and into Tirisfal Glades, I saw a massive stone tower, with guards standing before it. The guards were rotted and hunched, like me. But on their armor, I saw a familiar insignia - anyone who had seen the atrocities of the Second War would have recognized it.

The Horde!

I recoiled in disgust and fear. Could it be? I was a faithful subject of the Alliance. Was I now a slave to the Horde? Disheartened, I ran back through Lordaeron's front gate. This could not be true...but I knew it was. Lordaeron was gone, overrun with undead - undead that serve the vile Horde...

Once back inside, I saw that the doors to behind the throne room were open. I saw a sarcophagus of some kind, and I felt a pain in what was left of my chest when I read the inscription:

''Here lies King Terenas Menethil II - Last True King of Lordaeron.  Great were his deeds - long was his reign - unthinkable was his death.  "May the Father lie blameless for the deeds of the son. May the bloodied crown stay lost and forgotten."''

So it was true...Terenas was dead. Arthas had betrayed us. And now I was a monster....

Looking up, I was surprised to see two gigantic abominations, guarding...an elevator of some sort. Curious, I entered the elevator and took it down into the depths - the royal tombs, the catacombs of the House of Menethil.

When I stepped from the elevator, I saw two odd creatures...some kind of bull-men. They appeared to be wearing the symbol of an orcish clan - a white wolf's head on a blue field. I stepped around the corner to see what else I could find.

What I saw amazed me.

It was a vast city - dredged from the Menethil catacombs! And it was thriving....I could see many people like me - walking corpses, some with varied degrees of decay. One with a spiky hairstyle and a leather harness of some kind crossing his face came up to me and said, "You must be new here. Welcome, fellow Forsaken, to the Undercity."

I was confused. "Forsaken? Undercity?"

"You and I, brother. We are the Forsaken. And this..." He raised his arms to encompass the room we were in. "This is our Undercity." He smiles a bit. "Perhaps our bankers might be able to help you some more," he told me, gesturing to the kiosk in front of me.

Walking up to the kiosk, I asked the banker - one of the Montagues - about the Forsaken and how we came here. He said that the Dark Lady - a former high elf named Sylvanas, who was killed by Arthas when he invaded Quel'Thalas - broke free of the control of an immortal called the Lich King, master of the undead Scourge responsible for the plague in the first place. He went on to tell me that the our major fights were against the Scarlet Crusade, a group of human zealots who lived in the old monastery northeast of the city. They were trying to reclaim what remained of Lordaeron. Our other fight was, of course, against the Scourge, led by a lieutenant of the Lich King, Kel'Thuzad. I wondered if this was the same Kel'Thuzad who used to be a member of the Kirin Tor when I was alive...

He then told me to go to the Royal Quarter. "How do I get there?" I asked him. "Just follow the signs," he told me.

On my way to the Apothecarium, where the Royal Quarter was located, I could not help but notice a trend - how skulls and death seemed to be a theme in the Undercity's decor. I would have shivered, if my nerves were intact...

After following the signs, I finally reached the entrance to the Royal Quarter. The guards were in imperial red and carrying shields with an odd crest - presumably the personal insignia of this Dark Lady. "Hmm, Royal Quarter, eh?" I said to myself.

I travelled down the hall, seeking the Hall of the Dark Lady. It was a long walk, I was not quite used to being alive after all this time. Finally reaching the end of the hall, I saw a large dais in the room's center. I saw what looked like a winged figure standing at the side...and a tall, regal person standing in the center. Intrigued, I walked forward. "This must be the place," I mused.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that the winged figure was a Nathrezim! A dreadlord, a servitor of the Legion of the Lower Planes! But what in the hells was he doing here, I wondered? Could it be that this Dark Lady had enslaved him, somehow? If so, she is far more powerful than I realized...

My legs feeling weak, I approached the dais, and stood before the Dark Lady. She looked at me and said, "Welcome, High Priest Sekhesmet. It has been a long time."

Then it clicked...a high elf named Sylvanas. Sylvanas Windrunner...the Ranger General of Silvermoon. And now...undead monarch? Flush with this new information, I did the only thing that what was left of my brain would process.

I knelt before her. "I am yours to command, my Queen."

She had wordlessly demanded fealty...and I gave it, unquestioningly.

"Serve me, and you will be rewarded," Sylvanas said next. "Defy me, and you will wish that you were one of the Lich King's thralls when I'm done with you."

"My Queen's will be done," I said, my voice shaking.

I stood and bowed before my new ruler, one I would serve for eternity. I couldn't say "to the death", seeing as I'm dead already....it's one of the perks of undeath. I am wretched now, but I am also functionally immortal.

Though one of the drawbacks is that I have to relearn all of the ways of the priesthood that I had possessed in life. No matter, though. I am learning more as a Forsaken than I ever did in my life. Even my student will dear my power now.

For I am Sekhesmet the Eternal....priest and apothecary of the Forsaken.

The shadows beckon...