The Story of Rowenna

[Moggaro]

By reading on you'll be reading a tale, a tale of a fateful time in the lands of Azeroth. I must warn you dear readers... This is not a tale for the faint of heart, nor is it's ending completely happy. So read on at your own peril.

Once in the town of Brill, there lived a beautiful girl of the age of twenty. Although not rich she was still well off in the town, as her father had been the local blacksmith. But she wonted for not as she had everything a girl her age could want, long blonde hair, smooth elegant skin, and a radient smile that could stop anyone in thier tracks, as well as being highly intelligent and an extremely gifted magus, for her young age. As a young child, she was trained in Dalaran by none other then Adonias himself along with Lady Proudmoore and a few other young "prodgies". She returned home to Brill to aid her father after he had an accident in the smithie that caused him to not be able to work as much as he used to.

So,given all these things there was not wonder she was sought after by most of the men in Brill, and she knew she could have her pick of anyone of them. Which only made her play that up even more. She wonted for nothing in Brill and had all she could ever want or ask for.

She had a lively spirit and loved life. She would often take the local children for nature walks in the forest of Tirisfal Glades, as well as minding them while she worked in her father's shop, doing mundane chores. She would often sing for them, and tell them stories in the warm glow of the smithie while it would rain outside.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and so too did these times. As a mysterious threat grew to the north of Lorderon, the king put out a call for soldiers. Although far from being a soldier herself, she knew her strong magicks could help the king's army.

Life as she knew it was about to come to a dramatic turning point.

It was a dark cold and rainy night, heavy rain pounding. It was the night before she was to be dispatched with a contingent of Lorderon soldiers to investigate the troubling rumors in Northrend and Stratholme. For days now, the Brill graveyard had been filling with strangers from that land. Some coming in off Griffons, others staggering in hacking and coughing, and dying soon after.

She listened to the rain on the roof, and her father snoring in the next room. She heared the sound of a single horse thumping down the road at a quick gallop. Then another, then another, Soon.. the entire ground was shaking with horses hoofs and wagons and carts.

She looked out the window, and saw what appeared to be very bedraggled soldiers of the king, led by a man in black on a solid black charger. She mused under her breath.. "that must be the prince returning home!!!" For a brief moment, and only a moment, joy filled her. She would not have to go to war, the prince was returning victorious. But that moment of joy was brief.. It was in a flash of lightning she saw one of the closer soldier's face... and her moment of joy turned to sheer terror.

Her scream, reverberated through the inn awaking everyone. As her father came running to her side. "What? What is it child?" Her face, pale, her lovely body covered in sweat.. "Father.... it was terrible... there was... a dwarf outside...... but.... but..... he was dead..." he responded... "now now dear.. calm down.. you've heard all those terrible rumors.. certainly it was just a dream." "NO!! It was no dream, half his face was GONE!!!!" it was at this time a commotion had begun in the town square.

The alarm bell at the castle never actually rang that night, instead it just fell into the courtyard with a clanging "THUD".

The screams inside the castle could be heard by all. Even those outside the thick walls. Townspeople had come out in the rain.. "What's going on?" "What's all the rukus?" Those types of questions everyone asking everyone else were going on.

A young soldier came staggering through the gates, trying to make it out of the castle, and to Brill, it was with horror that the townspeople saw him being drug back inside by other soldiers. One man yells "What in the bloody hell is goin on?" Rowenna just whispered.. "They're here."

Suddenly, soldiers began pouring out of the castle. Rowenna yelled "Stay behind me!! ALL OF YOU!!" As she began to cast a flamestrike. "What are you doing?! Those are our soldiers!!" The same man yelled as he pushed her arm down. "You idiot, you broke my concentration. Everyone OUT!! Leave NOW!!! Get to Stormwind.. I'll hold them as long as I can!" She began to recast her flamestrike, and it was only then did the man see his grave error.. coming down the walk, was indeed a vast army.. But it was not the soldiers of the king. But rather those of the Lich King.

On that night, Rowenna fought bravely, wearing her Dalaran colors proudly. She would have made Adonias himself proud. The first wave fell to the ground in a fetid burning mass, which set the second rank on fire. She cast a fireball into a ghoul with a helmut on, sending him careening into an abomination, they exploded in a firey mass taking out a few others with them. She watched as her father picked up a blade from a fleeing townsperson, and beheaded a ghoul coming from the left. "Cast!! Cast!! I'll hold what I can!!" he yelled over the storm, and the sound of the shambling dead. Rowenna saw a few townspeople fleeing to the relative saftey of Tarren Mill and Southshore to the south. As she Cast a firebolt on a zombie that was headed for them.

A small group of townspeople came to join Rowenna and her father in the middle of town, as the groaning shambling mass approached, the fight began, but soon it was apperent that they would soon be overwhelmed. Rowenna watched in horror as the small group that had joined them was overwhelmed and set upon. The sound of thier screams, and the groaning of the masses of dead sickening her.. The sound of flesh being torn and the slurp of joints being pulled from sockets nearly made her vomit, as she frantically began casting every spell she could think of in an invein attempt to get the horrid mass off of the villagers who had fought so bravely.

The two kept fighting the fetid horde, Rowenna growing tired, her magical energies long spent, her potions gone, she grabbed a staff, and stood back to back with her father as the mass closed in.. Clawing, and gnashing.

She felt them pull her long beautiful hair out of it's bun, thier claws shredding her robe, and her soft skin underneith. She felt thier teeth sink into her left arm, as her staff fell to the floor. To the ground she was pinned by them as the ghouls bit her.. Chunks of her flesh were being torn away bit by bit. Then.. the creatures just stopped..

Her bloody body, broken and tired just lay there.. she managed to get out the word "Father?!" To her left, she saw him.. alive.. barely.. he looked over at her and said.. "we'll be dead soon.. pray... to the.... light"

*as a cold laugh came over them* "The light?! Nooooo.. I assure you.. that when I'm done.. there will be no more light. As you too shall serve!" The man in the dark armour strode down the path toward where Rowenna and her father were being held. Stepping into the glow of the town's streetlamp.

Rowenna's father began to moan, his left arm hanging by a few sinews, his right leg heavily chewed, his kneecap gone completely. The man in the black armor continued his speech to Rowenna. "Watch... what REAL power is.. I once was a knight of the light. You may have known me as Arthas.. That was until I learned what real power is. With a simple motion of his hand.. the ghouls bring her father and two of the villagers forward.. and dump them at Rowenna's feet.. in horror she watches as they writhe for what seems like forever, then shamble off into the masses all around her. Then, she hears Arthas's thought enter her mind.. like a whisper.. "Now it's your turn..." She watches as he draws an icy white blade from his belt.. he takes the blade and with a swift motion runs it through her heart.. finally she feels the icy chill of the blade taking what was left of her humanity from her.

For a long time, her thoughts were not her own. Not until one cold day. One a cold blustery day, she heard a female voice in her head.. "Childe... it is time to awaken." The voice was not kind, but rather cold and stern. "Dare you defy the Dark Lady?! Rise now, and head out of that crypt.. you are free... But your freedom comes at a price. You must serve me." Rowenna did not even need to verbally respond, her thought was able to anwser for her with a simple phrase. "Yesssss m'lady"

With that.. the beautiful young woman that had once been was totally broken. Replaced by a woman driven by hate and vengance. Both for the scourage, and the human alliance that had abandoned her and Brill in thier time of need. Now she endlessly travels the land, causing suffering whereever she travels.