The Shadow of the Past

[Exilius]

Name: Reaper
Class: Warlock
Level: 100
Tell us something about your (role)playing experience:

Hai, if there are any folks Horde or Alliance - I was better known as Exilius during the WotLK period, active in the community and both the RP and Realm forums at the time as well.

A decade of Undead, Forsaken and Scourge themed roleplay and storytelling has shaped me and been my niché.
I've been skulking about since the early days of the servers inception when the Embrace of Death and the Old Lordaeron rose as the representatives of the Forsaken community and the tenfold of guilds which have been reborn from their ashes. Cult fanaticism, Necromancy and Demonology with dark humour and Tim Burton esque whackiness, is where I make myself home at.
WoD tickled my sentimentality and the only true way to explore and experience it is through the outlook of an ORC, so here I am! 

And finally, please write a short story and/or IC introduction about your character:
Some tips for this; Who is your character, what does he/she want, what has he/she done, ect.

After the events of the Siege of Orgrimmar, in the Cleft of Shadow..

The stench of charred flesh and bone yet filled the air. And whilst the hung, impaled or burned remains of its denizens had been brought away and put to rest by the new Warchief's command, the looming shadow of death was nonetheless visible to all senses.
It was a slaughter; ruined huts, grimoires, scriptures and tomes were scattered across the streets, covered in the blood and ashes of their former authors and owners.
Yet not all was left entirely in devastation from the last stand of the orcish warlocks in their resistance against their executioners, nor was everyone put to the fire before Orgrimmar's liberation.

Thick,  heavy chains laid on the ground, the eerie light radiating from its runic inscriptions faintly lit up the hut beneath which they lay. Towering above them stood a large. elderly orc, haunched forward in a gnarled posture - he gazed decisively at the enormous, now-unbound chest which had been summoned forth from the endless spaces of the void.
Gor'thol rested his withered hands on its lid and drew a heavy breath before siezing and lifting the lid of the chest with a troubled snarl.
What most of the remaining elderly orcs would have kept safe and treasured were trophies, totems and sentimental objects reminding them of clan, family, youth, pride and of Draenor before it was a shattered world.
But Gor'thol saw no such things laid before him, no glory, no pride.
Only shame and shadows of the past.

Shadowmoon...

Ner'zhul..

Shaman..

Gul'dan..

Betrayal..

Necrolyte..

Stormreaver..

Power..

War..

Warlock..

War...

Betrayal..

Defeat..

Sargeras..

The sea..

Madness...

After years of lethargy when his fel sorcery had failed him he had in desperation attempted to commune with the elements which denied him their aid but gave faint answers nonetheless, the very spirits which had gone silent on his world left him confused until even more years had passed and he had found freedom under the young Warchief Thrall's new Horde.
In the end as time passed he had reconnected with the ways of the shaman under the guidance of those who had not forsaken its ways but it was a short lived period of peace for Gor'thel. He was amongst those who spoke out against Garrosh's new Dark Shaman and their ways of twisting and dominating the elements, a path a knew all too well.
It did not take long before the new Warchief's eyes and agents dug up his past and banished him to the Cleft of Shadows.
Once it was their sanctuary, where the Horde's sanctioned warlocks could practice and discuss their knowledge without affecting the new generations of orcs in Orgrimmar's surface.
Under Garrosh it became their prison and the site of their execution.
And in his final hours when his connection with the elements was severed once again due to the warped shamanistic practices which had taken place he in his desperation had resorted to the forbidden. Fel sorcery, together with his peers they had chosen to stand their ground and face death on their own terms, as free orcs. When the Doomlord they had summoned was set loose he thought it would be the end.
Instead the old warlock now stood beneath the roof of his hut, staring dark trinkets, black grimoires, demonic relics, a staff of power in the form of a cruel scythe power and his old Shadow Council garb and foul armour. There were vials and pouches as well, the contents as vile as the colour and stench which radiated from them.

Still buried in thought, Gor'thol ran a withered, clawed hand down the long, white streaks of hair which cascaded down his chin and neck until he snapped out of it, instead grasping hold of a purple crystal shard. Emanating from its center was a swirling light. He looked at it inspectively, almost with an obsessed hunger in his red, gazing eyes.
Something reawakened that day, a rage and insatiability he hadn't felt for decades. A monster that had been locked away and thought forgotten was now free and he had grown old and hungry.

'' Perhaps there is no escaping your past..'' Gor'thol muttered to himself as he looked at Soul Harvester the scythe shaped spellstaff with which he had participated in one atrocity after another in his grim lifetime.
His dry lips trembled as they shifted from a stern, disappointed frown into a fanged grin as he cast the dark soulstone into the ground, shattering it. A faint wail escaped as the unbound soul began to aimlessly drift away only to transform into a chilling shriek upon being pulled back and harvested by Gor'thol's reaping scythe.
Once he had used these soulshards and stones as bargaining currency with fel forces or to bait demons into his traps and service. Now these captured essences of the damned would sustain his own withered body. They would create a hunger and thirst unquenchable but he knew of no other way of rejuvenate that which time claims from all mortals, at least for now...





At the events of the re-opened Dark Portal..


'' Perhaps there is no escaping your past..'' Gor'thol muttered to himself as he looked out at the all too familiar Dark Portal.
'' But perhaps one must truly face.. and embrace it. ''

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWDjFKEYxuc

[Sadok]

Howdy there, Gor'thol! Sorry for the delay in answering this application -- and what a fine application it is! Pretty pictures and a very interesting story for an RP niche that isn't taken all that frequently with orcs as of late. We can always use more shady warlock-types!

Just a couple of minor pointers. Firstly, your in-game name (Reaper) differing from your character's name of Gor'thol isn't a big deal, given that it's not an OOC term or such (it may well even be a nickname, I suppose). While RP add-ons are recommended for most of our members, they aren't mandatory however, so if you end up committing to Gor'thol longer-term and have some spare change around, it may be an idea to consider a name-change -- but that's by no means required, and you're quite fine to retain your current name.

Secondly, as more a point of information than anything else: the Red Blade tribe's general culture and philosophy is essentially aligned with that of the Thrall-era New Horde, with warlocks tolerated and permitted to use their magicks in service of the tribe so long as they don't do anything too wacky or left-field. Soul-shards, fel-vampiricism and the like can be a taboo subject depending on the orc in question, with some forms of soul magic forbidden -- that's something to broach ICly, I reckon, but don't be surprised if Gor'thol gets a few disapproving looks or harsh words depending on how overt he is about his wicked ways. 

Either way, this is clearly an outstanding application, so consider it accepted without hesitation! Simply poke an officer in-game (these are Rargnasha, Kozgugore, Rhonya, Therak and myself) to arrange your in-character interview, so we can allow Gor'thol a chance to seek out and introduce himself to our band of misfits!

...For the Blood of the Tribe~!

[Rhonya]

Interviewed and let into the tribe by me!

~For the blood!