User:Joshmaul/Kel'tanis Whitehair

"'The House of Whitehair is MINE, Ketiron! With my father unable to rule, and my brother dead, it falls to ME to rule our family, not you!'"
 * - Lord Kel'tanis Whitehair, to Taeril'hane Ketiron

Lord Kel'tanis Whitehair is the son of Kel'theris Decibelius and younger brother of Master Ordevaas Portalseeker, both patriarchs of the House of Whitehair in their day. Returning to the fore shortly after the Cataclysm, Kel'tanis contests Taeril'hane Ketiron's status as patriarch of the House.

Biography
Born at the Whitehairs' southern mansion in Tranquillien ninety years before the First War, Kel'tanis was named for his father and for Magister Lor'tanis Kethlir, a family friend. Unlike his elder brother Ordevaas, who trained to be a warrior and later a priest (and, after the reopening of the Dark Portal, managed to mix in both), Kel'tanis followed the arts arcane as his father did, training with some of the novice teachers of Silvermoon.

Disappearance
Thirty years before the Third War, seeking to escape the regimentation of his family and sickened by the blatant favoritism for his elder brother (as he was the heir to the Whitehair patriarchy), Kel'tanis left Silvermoon and settled in a quiet village in the southern part of what is now the Ghostlands. That unfortunate placement put him in the path of the Scourge during its invasion of Quel'Thalas, as that village was burned to the ground to make way for the Scourge fortress that is now Deatholme, marking the beginning of the Dead Scar from there to the Sunwell itself. Though Kel'tanis was not found among the dead, the traitor Dar'Khan Drathir taunted Lord Kel'theris with the belief that he was dead, and rangers loyal to Silvermoon found a body they identified as Kel'tanis, leaving the normally stoic patriarch to grieve.

Kel'tanis wandered alone in the forests of southern Quel'Thalas and northern Lordaeron, managing to avoid Scourge patrols, Amani warbands, and the corrupted wildlife of the Plaguelands. He was eventually found, near death - having been ambushed by the Wretched of the Quel'Lithien Lodge - in the Eastern Plaguelands by a Forsaken war party headed for Stratholme. The war party belonged to the 122nd Deathguard Battalion of General Varan Metheius. Upon discovering the aimless mage, they brought him to the 122nd's dark chaplain, the shadow priest and apothecary Sekhesmet. Recognizing the younger son of Kel'theris from the time he had spent in Silvermoon, Sekhesmet took the lad under his wing and nursed him back to health at Light's Hope Chapel, then bade the mageling accompany him to Brill where they could "talk in private".

Sekhesmet's Manipulation
Sekhesmet had become an opponent of the House of Whitehair in recent days, with the paranoia against the Forsaken taking root in the mind of the new patriarch, Taeril'hane Ketiron; the Blood Knight Master was incredibly pious and opposed to the unscrupulous tactics used by the Forsaken to proliferate, and had severed ties with all who followed Sylvanas - including Sekhesmet and his daughter Euphrati. The reappearance of Ordevaas' younger brother, long believed dead, would give him an opportunity. If he could turn Kel'tanis to his cause, Sekhesmet mused, he could use him to claim the patriarchy of the House of Whitehair, as he would have a stronger claim to it than Ketiron, and once again give the Forsaken - and by extension, himself - a willing ally in Quel'Thalas.

After hearing Kel'tanis' recollection of what he remembered, Sekhesmet explained what had happened in the years since his disappearance - the rise of the Forsaken and their alliance with the Horde, the blood elves allying with their former Ranger-General to find a new destiny, the treachery of Kael'thas and the restoration of the Sunwell, and the death of the Lich King. He also mentioned that Kel'theris had stepped down as patriarch in favor of Ordevaas, who had been killed in Northrend not long after. Ketiron had married Ordevaas' daughter Areinnye and both had taken charge of the House. Sekhesmet pointed out that Ketiron's claim was relatively weak, given that Areinnye was still quite young, and Ketiron had gained the patriarchy through marriage. As a full-blood son of Lord Kel'theris, Kel'tanis would have the stronger claim. Kel'tanis, eager to return to his people and prove his power, accepted the Forsaken priest's aid.

As part of the pact between them, Sekhesmet gave Kel'tanis his staff - an artifact he had reclaimed from a Highborne mage named Caro'thel Vendross with the aid of the 122nd, after having it taken from him by a draenei shaman in Northrend.