Disclaimer! I don't own Wow. Blizz does, and your soul too.
***Kingdom of Lordaeron – Eastweald ***
I always knew Lordaeron was huge and was much bigger than Stormwind, but experiencing it was awe-inspiring. If Stormwind was my old homeland, America, then Lordaeron would be Canada in terms of land mass. However, unlike the Canadian north, the land was more densely populated. It was weird to think of it in those terms, but it made the most sense to me.
Currently, my journey to Quel'Thalas was entering its third week. Granted, we didn't ride hard, but we kept a good pace. With how long the council of kings was going to take to form, we had more than enough time to make the trip and come back before it started. I got to see and stay at some of the more iconic places along the way, Darrowshire being one of them.
Right now, I was in a pretty cool place, at least for me anyway. My party, Conjurer Nestle, Ex-Royal Knight, Haylea, Knight Emery, Knight Harold, Knight Arabella, and Knight Wilhelmina were less than impressed. After all, to them, it was just an old-looking building, but to me, it was an old friend. Many good memories from another life were made here.
"His holiness seems to have run into an issue," the Lordaeron delegate said apologetically.
"Quite alright," I told the man as I waved it off. I was enjoying our little detour to Light's Hope Chapel.
The man's name was Kristoff; he was an upper-tier diplomat, something he bragged about to me. He looked to be in his late thirties to early forties based on his slightly weathered face and the salt in his hair. He had an adjutant with him, who kept out of my way despite my efforts to include him in our conversation. However, the poorly hidden scandalized expression on the mentor and mentee's faces told me that maybe it wasn't 'proper'. That maybe there was a hierarchy to such things up north. The footmen that were their escorts weren't much better.
I was initially surprised they didn't send knights with us but eventually found out that the ranking system worked a bit differently up north. Here, a knight was an actual knight from Earth's medieval age. First, they had to own a piece of land–doesn't matter the size–and be knighted by a noble lord or an actual knight. Secondly, they have to perform a valorous deed witnessed by someone or spoken on their behalf. Third, after becoming a land owner, they were responsible for recruiting civilians to live on their land and pay taxes. From there, depending on their land's size, they would have a man-at-arms or another fellow knight serving them.
When I explained and compared our ranking system to the footmen, they had boggled expressions on their faces. For example, Emery didn't own anything, and Harold didn't manage his family lands at all. Heck, Haylea was an orphan who worked her way up the ranks. In Lordaeronian terms, my party would not be considered knights, but they erred on the side of caution and still showed deference to us. The footmen could be considered elite footmen, good on horseback and martially sound, but they did not own land. They were also missing a deed worthy of becoming knights.
My thoughts then went to the chapel a bit more and why we made the stop in the first place. Alonsus had said he needed to pick up mail for Stratholme. It was not too different from how priests doubled as mailmen back in the medieval ages. Eventually, I saw him, the bane of my existence for the past two weeks, exit the chapel and say goodbye to a man I did not recognize. With him were two priests in training holding several brown bags with various parcels and letters sticking out of them.
"My deepest apologies Callan," the archbishop addressed me familiarly when he got back to us. "It took longer than I thought, but Benedictus insisted that I stay and rest for a spell to catch up."
"No problem, Alonsus," I replied. The man had insisted we be on a first-name basis. Once more I saw the glances of awe shot my way by the Lordaeron delegation because of how close I was to the archbishop and winced. "Ready to head off?"
"I said I wasn't going to slow you down, Callan!" Alonsus chided me a bit as he got back onto his ride.
The Archbishop and his priests rode in a wagon pulled by six horses. Their wagon had a cover on it to act as a shade from the sun and doubled as a rest area if we camped at night. We didn't need to; Alonsus' familiarity with the land and its people helped us find the best villages to rest in every night. That was usually when the talking started and the questions–my god, the questions…
They were not alone, of course, as four more elite footmen traveled with his holiness to provide guard. Altogether, we made a pretty intimidating party for any bandits or troll warband to attack. What was surprising to find out was that Lordaeron had a bigger banditry problem than Stormwind. Actually, that wasn't fair; every other kingdom in the north also had a banditry problem as well. Less so in Gilneas and Stromgarde's case, Alonsus told me, because of their unwillingness to take prisoners.
Lordaeron, due to the heavy influence from the Church of Light, believed in redemption and second chances. That meant criminals, if caught, were pressed into hard labor to pay off their crimes. The bandit would have to have committed a very unforgivable crime for them to be executed or a bounty put on their head. So because of that, the banditry was not as violent in Lordaeron as compared to the other nations. Lordaeron's crimes mostly involved smash and grab while Gilneas bandits were known to kill any witnesses for fear of their lives. However, the main difference in how they dealt with the bandits in the north was that they left it to the local militias or hired mercenaries to solve the problem. That was another thing I gave much thought about: mercenaries.
Mercenaries, I found out, came about as a result of Lordaeron wanting to keep the expense in maintaining an army low. The freed-up money allowed them to develop and outpace other kingdoms economically. By the time the other kingdoms followed suit to scale down their army in order to spend it on infrastructure, Lordaeron had established themselves as an economic powerhouse. Since then, mercenary companies had become a staple in the northern kingdom, ironically, as a cost-saving measure.
Stormwind on the other hand handled the bandit problem directly. During my early days in the military, recruits were sent to root out bandit nests. The larger the bandit force, the bigger the force we sent to wipe them out. The only mercy that was shown was to their children. For those, I have no idea where they were sent, but probably somewhere to be rehabilitated. Back then, because of my modern-day sensibilities of Earth, I had felt sick at what I had done, but I understood that this was not Earth and those morals did not exist here. Eventually, I learned to live with it.
"We're ready," the footmen of the Archbishop notified us.
With everyone ready, we rode our mounts hard to get back onto the main road and make it to the villages outside of the Eastwall Tower just before nightfall.
The watchtowers of Eastweald were quite a sight. Contrary to how they were depicted in the game, the watchtowers were not just a single tower. It was a tall structure with a very sizable force attached. The people of the watchtowers kept the peace on the kings-road and provided an early warning system against attacks. Of course, it was not perfect as raids from trolls and bandits still happened, but it was better than nothing.
We were led to an inn lazily named the Eastwall Inn and gave our horses to the stable boys. Like a sore thumb, my party stood out the moment we walked inside the crowded room. After all, it was not every day you see people from Stormwind enter your tavern. Many of the off-duty soldiers of Eastwall had to do a double take upon seeing our blue-tinge armor and the golden lion head of Stormwind.
"Every time," Emery whispered under his breath as the stares multiplied.
"Smile," I said as discreetly as possible. "Smile."
Eventually, the Archbishop walked in and that caused a bigger commotion than even our presence.
"Y-Your holiness!" The innkeeper, who had left his desk to greet us, stopped upon seeing the man. "Y-you honor us with your presence!"
"None of that my child," Alonsus said in a disarming kind manner. "Now, me and my party here would need a hot meal, ale, and rooms for the night if you have them?"
"Aye, your holiness!" The innkeeper bowed his head before he turned. "Boy! Get our best rooms for his holiness and his party!"
A mousy-looking teenager dropped whatever he was doing and led us up to our quarter for the night. Eventually, we unpacked and got out of our armor before going downstairs to eat dinner. When I got down to the last step, I noticed the crowd had gotten bigger. I quickly spotted the source of the new commotion; it was a group of Lordaeron knights.
Right away, I noticed that their weapons weren't hammers like most of the knights I encountered, but double-sided axes instead. I sought out the leader and found him soon enough; he was a guy my age with short dark hair and a stern demeanor. He was leaning on his large two-handed axe, talking to the innkeeper when his eyes spotted me just as I spotted him. Without a word, he marched toward me.
"Are you him?" he asked me in an excited tone. His enthusiasm took me a bit aback. "Are you Lord Callan Lothar?"
I blinked but realized it had been several weeks. News of my being in Lordaeron probably traveled to most of the corners of the kingdom by now.
"My father's the Lord; you can address me as Sir Callan if you want to show respect, but just Callan is preferable," I told the excited guy.
The man looked wide-eyed at me before he turned around to the innkeeper. "I shall take care of their stay. I'll not have Thoradin's heir pay for room and board near my lands!"
I internally winced as the room turned dead silent.
"Th-he–" a man managed to choke out in a strangled tone. "Thoradin's heir?!"
Even the innkeeper was staring at me wide-eyed.
"Othmar," Alonsus cut in, attempting to divert attention off of me. "How fares your father?"
'Othmar?' I blinked and scrutinized the man in front of me. "Othmar Garithos?!"
The man whipped his head to me with wide disbelieving eyes. "Y-You heard of me, Sir Callan Lothar?"
'That's mother fucking Garithos?!' I wanted to scream in horror.
Depending on who was asked in my previous life, he was either the most evil racist asshole or humanity's greatest champion that shouldn't have made that deal with Sylvanas. For me, he had always been a lame excuse for Blizzard to cut the High Elves from the Alliance because they didn't want to be like Lord of the Rings or Warhammer. It never made sense to me and was clumsy at best with the way that they kept trying to make the Alliance look like incompetent bad guys.
"Callan, how do you know Othmar?" Alonsus also looked surprised.
I blinked and realized my outburst might have put me into deep shit. My mind worked furiously for a solution before something hit me.
"Well..." I said with all the confidence I could muster. "It was when we stopped at Light's Shield Tower. I was seeking out more information about the elves, and a few people talked about the Garithos family and how they were known as elf friends."
Alonsus and Garithos blinked at what I just said. It was the latter who spoke up first. "I-I beg pardon Sir Callan but did you say elf friends?"
"Yes," I continued my bullshit with a straight face. "They told me your family lived near the elves and by working together the people that live under your watch are safe from trolls and bandits attacks."
The man looked confused and unsure of what to make of the statement.
"I'm glad to see that noble families like yours are still able to work amicably with the elves," I said respectfully. From the confusion on his face and Alonsus' considering one, my bullshit was a success!
Due to my praise, Garithos' neck had red creeping up from embarrassment at my falsehood. His face however told a different story; he was enjoying the praises and looks of respect coming from the crowd. His honor was probably warring within himself to correct me. I saw him set his jaw and was about to do just that, but I decided to foil it.
"It takes a big, big man to see past racial differences and work together for the good of all." I finished laying down the last brick of flattery. "It'll be my honor if you join my party for dinner tonight."
With that, I extended my hand to Garithos. The man looked hesitant but decided to just go with it. He clumsily shook my hand in embarrassment, just before I threw my arm over his shoulder much to his surprise.
"Screw it. Ales on me everyone, to new friends!" I shouted and received a raucous cheer in reply.
With that, I took out some of my gold coins and handed them over to the innkeeper before I walked Garithos to our table. The man seemed out of his depth being surrounded by so many foreign knights. Time for me to break the ice.
"I see you're wearing a knight rank insignia," I began, pointing at the wielded emblem on his armor. "What valorous deed did you perform to earn it?"
The man ducked his head in embarrassment and took a quick gulp of the ale that was hurriedly placed before him. "Nothing that can be compared to you. Just killed a troll raiding party. It was only me against five of the tusky devils."
"That is indeed a worthy feat!" I clapped him on his shoulder and raised a mug of ale, which had been served to the rest of my table. "To Othmar Garithos for being fearless despite being outnumbered!"
Naturally, since I was paying for the ale, if I wanted them to toast to Garithos, they would fucking toast to Garithos.
"To Lord Garithos!" someone shouted as mugs of ale were held high into the air.
"You praise me too much," Garithos said in embarrassment, but from the smile under his growing mustache, he must have liked it.
We drank a few more cups together before a huge heaping of beef pot pie was served to me. I inhaled the tantalizing aroma and did not waste any more time before digging in.
'God damn!' I thought as I ate. The Lordaeronian really were expert cooks. Not to knock Stormwind, but they could stand to use more spice in their food. With my table served, we dug into our meal heartily while making small talk.
One of the things that came from those small talk were the so-called rumors of my deeds. I found out that most of the nobles of Lordaeron had been made aware of my country's plight thanks to Terenas sending messengers to all the noble houses. The queen must have been telling tales to Queen Lianne or someone had been talking since my stand at Redridge was spoken about in detail in the very same missives. The numbers were exaggerated by as much as double from what Garithos told me of the version that he heard. However, even if the number was less, he would still be impressed by it.
Surprisingly, we got along well. Garithos wasn't as racist or bigoted as he was portrayed–or maybe it was just too early in his life. Right now, he just didn't like how the elves were aloof and looked down on humans. Since he was by their borders, he got to experience that snobbery twenty-four-seven. Truth be told, if I encountered dicks like that on a daily basis, I wouldn't like those people either.
I was beginning to notice that memories of my old life were not as solid as they once had been. During my relatively peaceful childhood, I was able to recall Earth and my life there with better clarity. Perhaps due to war and my life being put in danger, I was finding that my earth life experience was being overshadowed. I still remembered the major milestones like my parents, my first kiss, my first girlfriend, college life, car accidents, earworm songs, and other things that left an impact on me. Thankfully, maybe it was a survival instinct on my part, but I was starting to remember obscure wow lore, even contradictory ones.
It took me some time, but eventually, I was able to recall the more obscure details about Garithos. The man only went full-in on his hatred of elves due to his town being razed since they sent all of their soldiers to defend Quel'Thalas. Perhaps, if things go well, maybe that fate won't happen to his family. No matter people's opinion of him, he did rally the Lordaeron forces when no one else could and kept them alive before his betrayal. During those scary and uncertain times, he offered stability and hope. One could even call him a beacon of light that offered safe harbor. For all intent and purpose, at that moment, he was their lord and savior.
"I promush you Callan!" a clearly inebriated Garithos said, declaring loud enough for all to hear. I had insisted we be on a first-name basis since we both held the same rank. "The Garithos famuhly will answsurh da kings call to arms! We st-sthand with Stormwind!"
And with that, the man slumped forward onto the table and passed out. Of course, his retainers did not drink as much and bowed respectfully to me as they removed their lord from his plate of food.
Even knowing his history and how he was portrayed in the game, his words were quite moving to me.
+++ Eastweald – The Northpass Road +++
The trip from Eastwall Tower to the Northpass Tower took about two days at our leisurely pace. Much to my surprise, Garithos had decided to join our group with his five knights due to our newfound friendship. Being lord of Blackwood which borders both Eastwall and the Northpass, he often floated between the two areas. He took great pride in talking about his hometown and Lordaeron, which I could understand. Unfortunately, his presence did not deter Alonsus from talking about the Light and discussing my understanding of it. Worse, Garithos joined in; I had forgotten that Lordaeron knights were highly devout.
Thankfully, we were at the last leg of our journey. We would split at the fork in the road known as the Northpass Road while Alonsus's group would continue to the Northpass tower to meet his escort there. Garithos volunteered to accompany him for the last leg of the journey. Right now, the two, alongside Haylea, were chewing on my final bullshit teaching.
"Mmm..." Alonsus's face was contemplative. He was stroking his beard, mulling over my last foreseeable lecture. Garithos and Haylea, on the other hand, looked lost. "To do the impossible but also somehow see the invisible?"
"How does one even touch the untouchable and break the unbreakable?" Garithos asked in a lost tone. "If it's untouchable, how could one touch it? How does one even break what's unbreakable?"
"Perhaps..." Haylea spoke up but quieted down shyly when the two men's eyes were on her.
"Speak your mind, milady." Garithos did not address her as a knight, but gave her a higher standing.
The ash-brown hair woman's eyes flitted over to me and then to the archbishop. "Perhaps...what Lord Callan meant was for us to not be so stringent in the church dogma?"
Garithos frowned while Alonsus looked intrigued. He must have seen that Haylea was afraid of offending him. "Please finish your thought, my child."
Haylea looked over at me as if gathering strength before turning back to the holy man. "The church taught us all life had value and was precious, right?"
Alonsus nodded while stroking his beard with a pleased smile. "Yes, that is the very core of our teachings."
"Yet, they absolve soldiers like myself and Sir Garithos," Haylea continued with more confidence now. "What if it is not wrong for our clergymen to set aside tomes and, instead, lift swords in defense against evil?"
The holy man merely nodded, as if confirming his thoughts. "That is a thought that is not unknown to me. I had always felt that we should do more to help. Oftentimes, we must wait for help to arrive to solve crises like bandits or monster attacks. If the church had fought, how many people could we have saved?"
"But you are holy men, your piety is known and respected because you do not debase yourself to fighting on our level." Garithos defended the Church teaching fervently.
"Are you debasing yourself, young Othmar? Your fellow knights?" Alonsus rebuked the younger man harshly. "The knights of Lordaeron's chivalry and devotion are known far and wide. You dare call those men debased for upholding justice for the weak?"
Garithos' eyes widened. "My apologies, your holiness, I did not mean it that way! I just meant–"
"I know what you meant." Alonsus's tone became softer. "But, I tell you now, in my experience, some knights' faith are purer than the most dedicated priests."
The Knights of Blackwood looked extremely proud at the Archbishop's admittance.
"Yes..." Alonsus mused. "If clergymen like High Cleric Victoria could take up arms...then why not the Priests of Lordaeron?"
"Because the people need their priests in towns, not on the battlefield," Garithos spoke up sincerely. "The priests give hope and succor to those in need. There are many, like myself, willing to take up arms on your behalf if you need warriors."
'There!' I thought as I swore I could see the light bulb turned on in the archbishop's mind. 'Thank you, Garithos!'
"That's what you mean, isn't it, Callan? When you told me to just break the rule and I'll see the truth?" Alonsus turned to the horizon in the west. "While we don't have to be defenseless, why force my priests to train in combat when there are people just as devout that are already martially inclined?"
'Whatever you think, man!' I thought with a wide grin. Time to push Alonsus on the right track.
"Archbishop," I began with his title so he knew I was being super serious. "In the long history of the church, could you ever say they never fought using the Light? Isn't there maybe some old text or tomes in Stratholme that could confirm it?"
"I'm aware of the tomes of Stratholme," Alonsus said dismissively. "The older the tomes, the more it becomes less about factual accounts and more about, legends, myths, an–no, it can't be..."
The Archbishop cupped his mouth with widened eyes before he shot a glance at me. He was about to say something when Emery rode up from the back line to the spot next to me and pointed wordlessly into the distance.
All of our attention turned to see whatever Emery was pointing at. It took a few moments for me to realize that, in the very far distance at a fork in the road, there was a battle of some sort going on with greenskin people that looked like tall orcs fighting an outnumbered group.
"Trolls?" I turned to Garithos who nodded in confirmation. Thanks to my recent experience, I was able to guess the troll and defender's numbers at a glance. "There seems to be a hundred of them against thirty defenders, maybe less now."
I turned to Emery.
"Knights of Stormwind, Conjurer Nestle, follow me!" I barked. I didn't need to know who the other groups were, just that they were being attacked by the trolls. "The rest of you, take the Archbishop and the delegates to Northpass Tower now!
I know I shouldn't be giving any orders–they are foreign soldiers after all–but they were standing around, unsure if they should help or not due to being as outnumbered as they were, so I decided to make the decision for them.
"I can help in the fight, Callan." Alonsus looked offended. "I am well versed in the healing arts!"
"You are an important figure in Lordaeron, and our escort force is severely outnumbered." I had no time to be polite. "If a stray hit were to take you, then Lordaeron's loss would be immeasurable. Now, go!"
The Archbishop looked indignant, but was interrupted once more before he could speak, though not by me.
"Sir Callan is right, your holiness," Garithos chimed in. Already in his hand was a shield with the stylized 'L' of Lordaeron on his left arm. "You are too important to Lordaeron. Head to the tower and get help. I shall be your arm and stay to fight at Callan's side."
Knowing he was outnumbered, the old holy man sat back down in his cart. "Fine. I shall do as you both say. May the Light protect you both."
We both grinned and looked at the battle in the distance. The number of defenders was dwindling fast. I turned to Garithos, but he already guessed my thoughts.
"I'll follow your lead, Callan," the dark-haired man said with a nod.
'Good, that makes this easier,' I thought, even as a battle plan was already forming in my head.
"Men, with me!" I shouted and spurred my horse to ride into the direction of the fight.
I quickly freed a shield off my mount's side and drew my arcanite sword. We didn't have bows or crossbows since those stayed with the archbishop and diplomats to protect them.
"We'll take the pressure off of the defenders and fight our way to them," I began. "Nestle, stay in our wake and do not fall behind. Once we link up, I want you to cast your strongest area of effect spell from the center. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" Nestle's answer was echoed by the others.
We were less than a hundred yards before we could make out the defenders. They were militiamen of some sort, probably from the local villages. All of them were dressed in dark green leather or mail and were wielding bows or swords.
"They're elves!" Garithos corrected my assumptions.
I gave the defenders a good look, but they were so covered up that they appeared like humans to me. Stand to reason that Garithos would be able to identify one easier than I could. I shook my head and filed that away for later.
"Knights, form a line on me!" I said as I held my sword up to be the invisible line they must not cross.
The knights spur their horses to either match my speed or slow down until we form a wide single line. Some of the trolls spotted us and were able to warn their people. I saw many arming themselves with throwing axes.
"Hold the line!" I shouted as I sensed the Lordaeron knights tense up at the sight of the troll axes. Silently, I cast fortitude to increase their stamina. "Stay with me!"
We were only seconds away when I finally got a good look at my first troll up close and personal. They were taller than orcs, that was for sure, though their body fell toward the more lean side compared to orcs. Their tusks were as exaggerated as they were depicted to be, and all of them had looks of hatred on their faces as they readied for our attack. The trolls, not engaged in combat with the elves, hurled curses at us in challenge before throwing their axes.
"Barrier!" I roared as I raised my hand and formed a golden dome around my group.
The Lordaeron knights, not expecting that, were startled, but the axes that had been thrown at us lost much of their momentum when they crossed the golden dome. In the end, it was like being pelted by rocks against steel plate armor. Unfortunately, the barrier spell was a stationary formation and did not follow us. However, that didn't matter as, once we rode past the barrier line, we found ourselves on top of the trolls.
"For Stormwind and Lordaeron!" I roared as the sword I held high slashed down at the first troll I saw. It was a clean cut and sent the troll axe thrower's head flying.
"For Stormwind and Lordaeron!" The group echoed as Stormwind greatswords and Lordaeron axes fell onto the hapless trolls.
We crashed hard into the trolls' back line and scored immediate kills from the surprise. Some of the knights made to engage the trolls, forcing me to remind them.
"Forward! Do not stop!" I roared as the trolls rallied after our attack and rushed us. A large troll with a wooden tiki mask and no body armor rushed me with a very large axe.
My mind idly compared a troll warrior's axe swing to that of an orc. The troll was faster, but when I blocked the axe strike with my shield, the impact was not as strong as I expected. I pushed the attack off, opening his guard before I stabbed my sword into my attacker's body at an upward angle. Then, I wrenched the blade out carelessly, causing more damage to his internal organs before pushing forward past him. The others behind me followed, trampling over the fallen troll and ensuring his death.
With my first troll down, a second one instantly took his place and slashed at me. They were tall enough to reach us on horseback while standing, which negated a lot of the advantages we had on horseback. I blocked the strike and swung my sword down, cutting his wrist. Reversing the blade, I cut upward, taking off his arm before bashing my shield hard into his face, breaking the tiki mask and caving his face in.
"To me, men! To me!" I shouted. Suddenly, the pressure on my knights lessened as the sound of arrows could be heard whistling past my ears. I took the time to throw out a couple of Divine Stars to shore up the wounds regardless of which race. The elves must have realized we were helping them and fought harder to link up to us.
"Ahhhh!" Nestle screamed in fright as a troll warrior had cut off his horse's head and was trying to drag him down. I couldn't reach him physically in time nor was anyone else around to defend him. So I held my hand out and surrounded him with holy energy before I yanked him toward me with the spell, Leap of Faith. "Huhaawwaah?!"
Not giving him time to think, I grabbed him by his collar and threw him over my horse in front of me. That way, I could protect him better, just in time as two trolls decided at that moment to tag team me. One was an axe thrower and the other was a warrior with a large serrated sword. I blocked the axe throw while parrying the warrior's crude blade.
Much to their frustration, I kept them from scoring any major hit on me. That must have frustrated them because the axe thrower made a stupid mistake. I heard the other troll shout something in their language with a warning tone. Too late, the axe thrower had stepped much closer to me than the warrior, so I nudged my horse to meet him halfway. Every warrior had a radius where they knew they could guarantee a kill, and the axe thrower had just stumbled into mine. Even with the tiki mask on his head, my downward chop still split his skull in half.
"Brudda!" the troll yelled in common. However, the smaller troll was dead on the ground. With hate in his eyes, he charged me while swinging his sword in a circle in the air. "Ya gunna die, mon!"
A trick I learned from the Brotherhood had me spur my horse so that the troll would be on my shield side. I tanked his heavy strike, grunting from the force of the heavy blow, but I pushed it off me and nudged my horse to turn so that the troll was at the rear.
"Yah!" I pushed down on the horse front, making it kick its hind legs into the warrior's chest and send him flying. I turned in time to see the warrior hit the ground and that we had finally linked up with the elves with some of them on giant ostrich mounts.
"Nestle, you know what to–" I began before feeling myself being yanked off my mount.
"Callan!" I heard Garithos roar in anger.
'When did a troll get inside my guard? How did he get inside my guard?' Even as I thought that, I had already rolled away from the follow-up strike by the sneaky troll.
I quickly got back to my feet just in time to parry a strike aimed right at my face. I tried to bash him with my shield, but he danced out of range. That allowed me to get a good look at my assailant. The troll wasn't big or brutish like the others nor was he wearing bone armor. Instead, he was wearing raggedly-looking clothing like the other axe throwers. Yet, somehow, he managed to sneak up on me with no one spotting him, not the knights around me nor the elves.
"Ya, humans be interfering at da wrong time, mon!" the troll said in broken common. "Ya be a dead mon for dat!"
"Take your best shot!" I shot back and sure enough, he did. I blocked his first few attacks with some difficulty. His strike against my shield wasn't very hard, but it was fast like a cobra strike. His fighting style reminded me of Garona after we exchanged a series of attacks, though there were differences. For one, he wasn't fluid like how the orc was, but on the other hand, he didn't waste any movement either.
Facing off against the troll like this, I was confident to hold my own. Unfortunately, this was a melee brawl; during one of the strikes aimed at my head, another troll jumped into the fray and forced me to turn around to defend. I bashed my shield into the troll warrior's jaw, breaking his tusk before I sliced off his axe arm and pushed him back into the fighting crowd.
"Ya left ya self open, fool!" the troll from earlier taunted behind me.
"Shield!" I shouted the word of power and felt my holy shield pop a moment later. I turned quickly to cut off the troll's head, but he backed away, though the tip of my blade was able to nick his scalp.
"Wat sorcery is dis?" The troll glared at me as he held up his axe and short sword. "Ya be a fighin wizard? Nev'r kill one o those before."
"Callan!" Garithos roared again from over the battlefield noise.
"Here!" I shouted before I turned to the troll. "And you're not gonna kill one now, 'mon'."
With that, I shot out a volley of penance orb attack at him. He was taken off guard by it and was tagged by three of the balls of light before he dodged the other two. There were wisps of smoke from where the shots landed on his body and cries of pain from the trolls hit by the stray shots.
"Ya be a light user?!" the troll yelled in disbelief before he faded from sight before my very eyes.
'What the fuck?' I thought as he faded away just like an alien from that 1980s movie, 'Predator'.
"Ya not da only one wit tricks, mon!" The troll taunted from behind me, making me swing my sword in that direction only to hit nothing but air. "Ya miss hahaha!"
"Fuck you!" I shouted as I began to spam holy nova, causing explosions of light that burned the trolls that were fighting around me, but also healing allies that were in the vicinity.
"Cheatah!" The troll sounded indignant.
"Says the fucker who went invisible!" I rebutted as a troll warrior in heavy bone armor attacked me with his large double-sided axe. I ducked under the strike and slashed at his stomach, but the troll backstepped in time, only receiving a shallow cut to his armor.
The troll warrior then tried a fast heavy overhanded strike that I knew I couldn't dodge in time so I tanked with my shield held over my head. Grunting from the impact, I lashed out with my sword and stabbed him in his unarmored thigh. He let out a grunt of pain but wanted me dead as he hammered down on me with his axe once more. I tanked it again and stabbed his other thigh, making sure to wiggle my sword to widen the cut and draw more blood.
Roaring from the pain, the troll backed away unsteadily before he made a fast horizontal slash. I met the attack with my shield and grunted from the force of the impact, but he was right where I wanted him. With an overhand strike, my sword chopped down at the unarmored part of his arm, the elbow. The troll roared in pain at the separation of his arm and reeled back. I followed up with an overpowered strike to the side of his head, but his bone helmet protected him from the worst of the strike, though it paid the price for it as it shattered off of his face.
Bleeding and holding up the stump of his hand, my opponent fell to his knees. The damage I did to his thighs earlier, coupled with the head strike, finally took its toll. We made eye contact from one warrior to another before I cut off his head and sent it rolling to the bloody ground.
"Surprise, mon," the familiar troll whispered intimately in my ear.
"Aegis," I said, just in time as I felt a powerful pressure from the back of my neck that rattled my body. Had I used the regular Power Word: Shield, the force of the blow would have punched through and into my neck. His earlier attack must have gauged how much force he needed to break through my protective barrier.
"Wat?!" I heard his incredulous cry.
Taking advantage of his surprise at my lack of death, I reversed-grip my sword and thrusted it blindly at whatever was behind me.
"Urgggh!" A pained cry sounded out, letting me know I struck true.
I pulled it out quickly and stabbed two more times before I hit air once again. I turned around to see the troll stumbling back, holding his bloody side and looking at me in shock. With a swing of my arm, I smited the troll with a lash of holy energy. I smited him several more times before he pulled his invisibility trick to escape from my offensive.
'Fuck that!' I thought as I unleashed a barrage of penance into the area. Unlike the single volley of holy orbs, seven volleys of seven orbs were unleashed blindly into the surroundings, killing some very surprised trolls in the process. Then as if in a follow-up to my attack, sharp ice rained down from the sky and struck the attacking trolls. Against the backdrop of the troll's miserable cries, the assassin troll's invisibility was broken, and he was sent crashing to the ground.
"Urgh!" the troll groaned, facing down into the mud as I approached him.
Despite the blizzard spell waning, I could feel the flow of battle changing, shifting into our favor. I took my sword and raised it, ready to stab the troll through the throat, only for him to turn around impossibly fast and lunge at me quicker than I would have been able to defend properly.
Luckily, my casting speed has always been faster than my physical speed. "Pain."
The troll flinched and staggered for a moment but still continued forward.
"Agony," I said again, harsher this time. "Insanity."
The troll's body suddenly seized up in agony as his veins bulged from the internal burning of the consecutive spells. However, credit to him, he still tried to follow through and stab me. However, with his movement slowed, I could defend with my swords or shield if I wanted to, but I didn't. Instead, I opted for a different attack. Lifting my arm, I opened my hand so that it was pointed at his chest as I locked eyes with his murderous ones.
"Solace." I shot a line of pure holy light at his body, eliciting a scream of pain as the light burned him. However, he still did not fall but staggered forward. Pulling more holy power into my hand, I unleashed one of the strongest Light spells in my arsenal. "Chastise!"
"ARGGHHHHHH!" he cried out in agony, finally falling to his knees while Light energy washed over and burned him. The veins on his body popped visibly and burst open, covering him in his own blood. His weapon dropped freely from his hand as his head tilted up to look at me. "W-what kind of demon are ya!?"
"My name is Callan Lothar, son of Anduin Lothar," I said as I held the tip of my sword to his throat. "Thoradin's heir."
I saw recognition, fear, and hatred all flash in his eyes just before my sword slid into his throat.
"Huhhh-aghh..." the troll gasped as he raised his hand to hold the blade before slumping forward deeper into the blade, dead. Pulling out my sword, the corpse fell forward onto the ground. The other trolls, already on the losing side of the battle, broke after I killed him. He must have been someone important. Knowing I was out of danger, I glanced down at the troll's corpse.
'It's getting easier...' I had read enough books, both fictional and of veteran soldiers' memoirs, that it only ever gets easier when you start losing your humanity. I didn't want that to happen to me, yet I could not find it in my heart to truly feel bad for killing the troll.
"Callan..." Garithos called to me, but his voice sounded uncertain. "I-I'm sorry..."
I turned around and surveyed the battlefield and noticed one of my knights was missing. I found them lying face down a short distance from me. It was Emery. Haylea was next to him. Her armor was punctured by a troll axe, but thankfully, not a fatal hit. She was doing her best to heal the injury, but I could clearly see the shaking of her hands. I turned my attention back to Emery who had a large spear punched through his body from behind. Walking over, I patted Haylea's shoulder to comfort her before I stepped up to Emery's corpse and pulled the spear out of the fallen knight.
A quick look showed me that Garithos knights didn't escape unscathed. Though none died, many had opened gashes in their armor with blood flowing freely. A glance at the elves showed that they were already removing any foreign objects from their dead and covering them up respectfully with green cloaks. I spotted an elven archer approaching me just as I finished my task of ensuring that Emery's body was clean.
The elf had sun-kissed hair, ethereal blue eyes, and a face that placed her between a woman in her late twenties or early thirties. I couldn't help but notice that she was extremely beautiful even by Azerothian standards.
"My thanks for helping us," the blonde elf said. "I am-"
"Hold that thought, my lady," I cut her off apologetically. "But there's something else that needs to be done first."
Having done it once, the second time I casted mass resurrection was easier. With my intention of raising only the fallen elves and my people, I gathered enough holy energy to saturate the immediate area. Like before, dense visible holy light pooled at my feet.
The elves, being magically sensitive, must have felt the power I was pulling as the archer took a few steps back. "What is–"
I let the Holy Light build up within me and filled it with my intention of healing all of the dead. Just like before, when I could no longer contain the overwhelming Light power in my body, I let go and unleashed it into the surrounding area. Once more, blinding golden light flashed in the area before a dozen golden pillars could be seen carrying the fallen. Like before, the wounds of the fallen reversed and were mended before the gathered people's eyes.
"By the Light..." Garithos whispered in abject awe.
The blonde elf for her part was muted but could only nod along.
Soon enough, those who were dead began to rise.
"What? Where am I? We were ambushed, weren't we?" an elf asked.
"Yes, and I saw you die!" Another elf pointed to the first elf.
"Lord Callan?" Emery asked as he shakily got to his feet. He did a double take when he saw the large hole in his breastplate. The bloody wound that was once there was gone. "Wh..what?"
"The miracle..." Haylea gasped in awe. Another knight came to Haylea's side and helped her stand. "Careful..."
Not done, I gathered more light to me, though not as dense. A moment later, a golden ring exploded forth from me and swept through the area, giving strength to the newly resurrected and healing any wounded in the area. Now done, I exhaled a bit tiredly.
After taking a few deep breaths, I turned to the elf. "Sorry for the rudeness, but time was of the essence when trying to bring the fallen back to life."
"No, that's–that is quite..." The elven woman looked at me in disbelief with a bit of awe but soon noticed something was wrong. "There–there are others in my party still dead, was it too late to bring them back?"
"A head blow or too much time had elapsed," I explained. "Those are the restrictions on bringing back the fallen."
The elf and I took a look at the still-dead elves and noticed that some had lost their heads or were too pale, showing that they had been dead for a while.
With that done, I stood up straight as I got my second wind. "Now, how should I address you, my lady?"
The elf woman blinked as if she had forgotten. "My apologies. I am Ranger General Lireesa Windrunner of Quel'Thalas and if I did not hear incorrectly, you are Lord Callan Lothar?"
"Yes..." I said, puzzled. Wasn't Sylvanas supposed to be the Ranger General? Was this another sister? Was I not in the canon timeline of WoW? Had this been an alternate timeline the entire time? Shaking my head, I answered the woman. "That's me...you were expecting me?"
"Yes." The pretty elf nodded softly. "We were sent to escort you to Silvermoon when we were beset by trolls. Had you not come to our aid..."
"So you were sent to meet my party?" I asked as my eyes swept through the elven party. Thirty as an escort honor guard? I guess Kael'thas' daddy placed some importance on me being of Thoradin's line after all.
"Yes, under the king's orders," Lireesa said with a nod. "I must confess I was not happy having to escort a human to Silvermoon, Thoradin's heir or not."
I blinked. "I-is that so?"
"However, forgive my foolishness." The unknown Windrunner sister inclined her head respectfully to me. "Without you and your noble knights, my party would have been killed. You had even brought back to life those I thought lost. If you would, please let me have the honor of hosting the blood of Thoradin at my home. Naturally, your party is also welcome."
My eyes widened slightly. 'I get to visit Windrunner Spire before it was destroyed? Hell yes!'
"It would be my honor if you'd have me," I replied, trying to contain my excitement. "However, I was not alone. While these knights are from Stormwind–"
I pointed to my party.
"–Knight Garithos is from Lordaeron and volunteered to come to your aid without my asking," I explained to her as I beckoned Garithos over to me.
"Milady." The Knight bowed in a courtly way to the mysterious Windrunner sister.
"Knight Garithos, are you one of the lords of Blackwood?" the Ranger General asked the man who looked surprised that she knew of his family. "My rangers spoke well of your family's stewardship over the land against bandits, trolls, and monsters."
Garithos was stunned by the woman's words. "Y-you know of us?"
"Yes." The Ranger General inclined her head. "We keep an eye on all our neighbors."
"To good neighbors then," I said with a smile as I clapped the confused Garithos on the shoulder.
The fourth Windrunner sister then turned to the troll I killed and then back to me. "If I may ask, Lord Lothar, do you have plans for the troll corpse?"
"Please, Sir Callan if you want to be formal, but I prefer just Callan," I said by rote at this point. "As for the troll corpse? Not really, though I think we should burn it before it rots and makes people sick."
"Then, would you mind letting me have the corpse? I would compensate you for it," Lireesa said eagerly.
'Okay…?' I thought. It was weird but I shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's yours if you want it."
"My thanks, Sir Callan," Lireesa said before she took out her leaf-like elven sword and hacked the troll's head off his body. As if that wasn't enough she also spat on the troll's body before sneering at the bloody severed head in her hand. "Though, you always eluded us Zul'jin, it is justice that you die at the hands of Thoradin's heir! Hahaha!"
My eyes almost bugged when I heard the name drop. "I-I'm sorry, Lady Lireesa, b-but what did you say the name of that troll was?"
"Zul'jin, a troll warlord who had been a thorn in Quel'Thalas' side for years."
I stared at the head.
'Hoooo-leeee sheeeet...I...I killed Zul'jin!' I thought in wonder before it hit me.
'Canon's really fucked now!'
TBC
AN: Once again thank you to Icura for helping to edit this! You da man!That' right, DA MAN!
Thank you for all the critique and reply and some what intense discussion on the interlude! I really appreciate it! However we now bring you back to our regularly schedule division protagonist.
I also read some comment that people think I am teleporting orcs and people around. I would like to take the time out to say that this is all happening in an elapsing time order. Which mean we are always going forward and never going backward for every narrative pov you see. I usually put a time scale of vague "weeks" whenever I go to a new location. Case in point I did it here. So in between Chapter 6 and 7, it was roughly a month since Callan been in Lordaeron. The Interlude happened within that month.
Other then that, I look forward to the reaction (if any) to this chapter Yes, I went where I did, I told you so its an Callan SI bullshitting! For good or bad. My body is ready!
Special thanks to my patrons who given me there support! It helps! Thank you very much. If you like to support us link in the sig below
And as always, C+C welcome as as are reviews!Last edited: Nov 21, 2023The Patreon