User:Toran Wildpaw of the Frenzyheart/Siegfrid Thaumen

"'Is keeping her around really such a good idea? She seems rather...off. And for worgen, that's not good. At all.'" "'She will learn to control herself, as have the rest of us, Death Knight. Considering your...area of expertise, perhaps you aren't in a position to speak.'"
 * -Siegfrid Thaumen and Zherron Shadowhowl

Siegfrid Thaumen is a worgen Death Knight with his eyes set on two goals: the liberation of Gilneas, his beloved homeland, and the destruction of the Forsaken besieging it, and to be specific, General Varan Metheius, Sylvanas' right-hand man.

He is both the first worgen Death Knight in general, and the the first worgen Death Knight to be accepted into the Lordaeron Deathsworn. Siegfrid is also known for his large distrust of his female comrade, Amendera Kynes, as well as Genn Greymane.

Biography
Siegfrid was born and raised in Gilneas City to a prominent merchant family. However, by the time he was fourteen, after his mother died, his father squandered their considerable wealth on wine and prostitutes, thus forcing Siegfrid to apprentice himself to an apothecary. Two years later, tiring of his father's reckless abuse, Siegfrid forsoke him and joined the local Pyrewood militia in Silverpine Forest, outside of the borders of Gilneas during the Second War. Despite going through several training drills preparing for a potential assault by the Orcish Horde, Siegfrid never participated in any battles.

Almost immediately after the end of the Second War, King Genn Greymane withdrew Gilneas from the Alliance and ordered the Greymane Wall built, in order to isolate it from the rest of the world. Although Siegfrid was a devoted Gilnean patriot and was unquestionably loyal to his homeland, he, like Darius Crowley and Eidan Zherron, was shocked and outraged by the king's decision, believing that it would have disatrous consequences for Gilneas. After Crowley was arrested for dissolution, Siegfrid was almost arrested himself. Seeing that he was no longer safe and no longer welcome in his beloved homeland, Siegfrid begrudgingly left once more for Pyrewood Village, as much as it tore him apart inside to seemingly forsake Gilneas forever.

Some years later, another Gilnean patriot forced from his home, a mage by the name of Arugal, summoned the fierce worgen to combat the coming undead forces of the Scourge. At first, the worgen did their job dilligently, fighting off the deathly hordes. However, with time, the worgen began to turn on their human masters, killing them or infecting them with the worgen curse. Siegfrid, who had become the leader of the Pyrewood militia, fought bravely against the hordes of ferocious wolf-creatures, but he, as well as the rest of Pyrewood Village, soon fell and become worgen themselves. Arugal went mad, and adopted the worgen as his children, before fleeing to Shadowfang Keep. For the next few years, Siegfrid would serve Arugal, beating off the countless assaults upon Shadowfang. However, eventually the adventurers would succeed...

Suffering the Curses of Beast and Death
Eventually, the adventurers would succeed in their quest to destroy Arugal and his worgen minions, entering Shadowfang Keep and killing everything in sight, Siegfrid included.

Some time later, at the behest of the dreaded Lich King of the Scourge, several darkfallen princes visited Shadowfang Keep and the surrounding area, resurrecting Arugal and taking several of the worgen corpses with them for experimentation purposes. Siegfrid would be resurrected as a Death Knight and stationed at Acherus: The Ebon Hold. He would never see battle, save the battle to take back Acherus from the Scourge when the Knights of the Ebon Blade rebelled.

Though he had gained his freedom, Siegfrid was still little more than a barely coherent and sane beast. Despite swearing his allegiance to the Ebon Blade (with some help from his fellow Death Knights, of course), Siegfrid felt only a single calling, even stronger than that of the Lich King's which had filled his head until recently: to return to Gilneas.

Passing through relatively undetected through Tirisfal and Silverpine, Siegfrid went through the Greymane Wall (most speculate that it was the very same way the other worgen had come through). Falling to his natural predatory instincts, he joined with the other worgen rampaging throughout Gilneas and pillaged and sacked all that he could. Eventually, he would be captured along with several other worgen, and within some time (however long was unknown to him - weeks, months, even years...), he, as well as the others, would be cured of their insanity.

After regaining himself, Siegfrid had nearly fallen to an insanity nearly as strong as that of the worgen curse itself: the realization of what he was. He had been cursed, not only by the beastial curse but also by undeath, and he had become a monster. Possibly the only thing that saved him from the brink of madness was his decision that he had a duty to redeem himself and to once again defend his homeland from unwanted invaders. Before, they were fighting orcs, and the war had never reached their soil: but now, their new enemies, the Forsaken, had driven the fight against the Alliance directly into the heart of Gilneas.

From that point on, he would fight against the Forsaken wherever and whenever, ultimately beating them back from Gilneas City where he aided Genn Greymane and Lord Godfrey's detatchment. This is when he would first encounter General Varan Metheius, one of Sylvanas Windrunner's right hand men, and his future nemesis.

Redemption: Beating Back the Invaders
After the other Gilneans had retreated to Darnassus, Siegfrid remained in Gilneas with the Gilneas Liberation Front, in order to continue the fight against the Forsaken. He became a top commander, and was responsible for organizing several of the traps, ambushes, and the like that would contribute heavily to distracting the Forsaken and limiting their progress. He would also lead several more raids against the Forsaken during the liberation of Gilneas, when they recieved aid from the 7th Legion and the Stormpike Clan.