Posted: December 1, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Good news, everyone! A bad round of depression rendered me useless on the creative front for nearly three weeks, but now I can channel a certain death knight very effectively! So here’s a look at what I’ve been working on – the battle of Light’s Hope Chapel, through the eyes of Serreina Nightfury. The full piece will be up soon(tm).
I hope. =P
This is a rough draft and it’s only a small part of the full story, but comments and the like are, as always, both welcome and appreciated.
—
It is time.
New Avalon is a smoldering ruin, laid to waste at the command of the Lich King. The Scarlet Crusade is all but gone; the few who survived the siege have fled to Northrend. They are not important. They will be dealt with soon enough.
Our target now is Light’s Hope Chapel, the Argent Dawn’s tiny foothold in these plagued lands. Why they insist on staying, I do not know, but that too is irrelevant. They will not remain much longer. They are outnumbered. We are protected by the Lich King himself. They will be destroyed as completely as the Scarlet Crusade has been.
The chapel will fall. The Argent Dawn will fall.
Our king commands it.
—
I stood at the top of the rise with my fellow knights, my runeblade in one hand, my charger’s reins held loosely in the other. The chapel was easily visible from where I stood; in fact, I could see the enemy forces scurrying about, attempting to prepare for the assault.
There were ten thousand of us and only a few hundred of them. They would fight admirably, I was sure, but this would be a slaughter. And yet …
“Strange creatures, the living,” a familiar voice remarked. “Even in the face of certain defeat, they insist on fighting.”
“In fighting, they condemn themselves to the very fate they fought so hard to avoid.”
“And that, my sister, is what we call irony.”
I turned to the death knight beside me. With hair a shade of pink so vibrant it practically glowed in the dark and a slight smattering of freckles that even undeath and the scourging process couldn’t erase, Syliah often found herself standing before startled foes rather than frightened ones, but their surprise never worked in their favor. She killed them anyway.
“You call it irony, I call it justice.”
Syliah started to speak, but another, more powerful voice cut through the air:
“Soldiers of the Scourge, death knights of Acherus, minions of the darkness: hear the call of the highlord! Rise!”
I watched as an army of ghouls rose from the earth to join the forces already assembled, wondering idly what sort of oratory training Highlord Mograine might have received in life. Not that it really mattered – we, the death knights of Acherus, would have willingly followed these particular orders no matter who led us. We were the faithful soldiers of the Lich King; we did whatever he wished us to do. Still, if one were feeling bold, one might be tempted to say the Lich King lacked a certain spark, which Mograine happened to possess in large quantities. He did not simply command; he inspired. There was strength in his words.
“The skies turn red with the blood of the fallen! The Lich King watches over us, minions!” Mograine raised his sword, the infamous Ashbringer, and pointed it toward the chapel. “Onward! Leave only ashes and misery in your destructive wake!”
The army surged forward, and the battle was joined.
Posted: November 12, 2009 at 8:19 pm
According to this article on WoW.com, Blizz has decided to hold BlizzCon 2010 in Las Vegas.
In July.
BlizzCon in Vegas … in July.
AAAHHHHHHHHH 100+ DEGREES. What were you thinking, Blizzard?
And yet, I still may go. Maybe. After all, there are Twitterati to meet!
/pointlesspost off
Edit, 11.13.09: This appears to have been debunked. Whew! Don’t get me wrong, Vegas is pretty awesome, but not in July. 
Posted: November 11, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Caitrina (pronounced like Catrina) Edwards is an acquaintance of Serreina’s. She is a priestess, a member of the Argent Dawn and now the Argent Crusade, and she fought against the Scourge at Light’s Hope Chapel, which is where she and Serreina bumped into each other. I know little about her story pre-Light’s Hope. I also don’t know just how close she and Serreina are. My guess is “not very,” although I have the feeling Serreina has been in contact with her at least once since then. Yes, their bumping into each other is one of the many plotbunnies I need to write, as she said something that had quite an impact on Serreina.
She’s one of those very serious, quiet people who keep their thoughts and feelings very, very carefully hidden and who spend a lot of time observing everything around them. She also takes great care to look “socially acceptable” – she keeps her clothes as clean and cared for as one can when living and fighting in the Plaguelands, and she stands as straight as she can given the muscular and skeletal issues Forsaken tend to have. This isn’t vanity so much as a simple desire to look and feel as alive as she can given her circumstances (“Just because I’m a little decayed doesn’t mean my clothes have to be!”). Being Forsaken, there is definitely a dark, vicious side to her, but that is something she seems to save for the Scourge. While there’s no indication that she’s particularly close to any of her Argent comrades, I do believe she would go into kill mode instantly if any of them were threatened. Loyalty is very important to her.
I suspect she may have been involved in some major events in Serreina’s Scourge past as well, but that still needs to be figured out.
So yes, I finally have a Forsaken character, even if she is on NPC status at the moment. More info to come as I pry information out of said character. Go team Shizu!
Posted: November 1, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Jousting can be really frickin’ annoying. I’m not gonna lie. Oh, it gets fun when you get the hang of it, but for the *omitted* weeks it took me to learn it, I know I found it to be a HUGE pain in the butt. I used to lie in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, absentmindedly petting my cat so she wouldn’t poke me, and ask, “WTF, Tirion? WTF, Blizzard? What were you on when you came up with this idea, and can I have some?”
Okay, so it didn’t really keep me up at night. But it did make me not want to do the dailies, and that is sad, because those dailies are a nice source of gold, reputation, and achievement points. And heirlooms. And pets. And mounts. And hippogryphs. And titles. Plus, I get really annoyed when there’s something I can’t do in game, unless it’s pvp, which I gave up on sometime near the end of BC. So eventually, I took a deep breath, grabbed my lance, and figured out how to poke people into submission while riding a horse.
This is how Shizu jousts.
First, shields up! Put all three layers up, make sure your mount is fully healed, and then talk to your opponent. When the opponent runs away, hit them with a shield breaker as soon as they’re at range (yes, shield breaker range is shorter than charge range), then immediately follow them and get them back into melee range so they can’t charge you. Continue to spam thrust on them until they turn and run. Shield breaker as they’re running from you, run in immediately after you hit shield breaker, don’t get charged. Charge is bad, y’all.
If this sounds like a lot of thrust/shield breaker kiting – it is! It’s a little slow, I won’t lie, but as long as you keep your shields up and don’t let the guy charge you, you’ll totally win. Then you can heal your mount, reapply your shields, and go for the next guy.
“But Shizu,” you might say, “there’s this shiny ‘Charge’ button! And it does a lot of damage! It’s obviously an I WIN button. Shouldn’t I be using that?”
The answer, for a newbie jouster, is not yet. Why? Because if you’re like me – that is to say, not terribly great at vehicle combat, can’t quite remember which of those weird buttons is which skill, and have the reflexes of a snail until you’ve really learned an encounter – you’re going to have to look down and hunt for that button, and they’ll charge you and be poking you with their lance before you can find said button and hit it.
However, when you’ve gotten the hang of it and can beat the valiants/champions consistently with thrust/shield breaker kiting, then you can start experimenting with charge. All you have to do is strafe to the side a bit as the run off to give yourself that little bit of room, then hit that charge button. Bam! Off goes a layer of their shields. Do keep in mind that this works best if you’ve got them down to one layer – or, better yet, their shields are totally off. At full shields, you’ll only do about 800 damage, which isn’t much payoff for all that fancy fingerwork. Also, keep in mind that they’re likely to charge you at the same time that you’re charging them, because they like the shiny charge damage too. Use the thrust/shield breaker kiting until you’ve got them to one or two layers, then you can start thinking about charge.
So, in summary:
1. Shields up
2. Shield breaker as they trot out to the field
3. Run in and force a little thrust battle
4. Keep shields up
5. They run off in hopes of charging you
6. Shield breaker
7. Rinse and repeat
8. Win!
Believe me, you will rock the jousting once you’ve championed all five of your cities. Plus, there’s a whole new set of dailies that opens up when you hit exalted with the Silver Covenant, and still more open up when you earn Crusader. They’re more condensed and a lot less annoying than the Valiant quests, which you will be utterly sick of by the time you’ve championed all five cities.
Happy jousting!
*A full listing of the Argent Tournament quests can be found here.
Posted: October 25, 2009 at 9:36 pm
(Original Post Date: October 18, 2009)
WARNING: Large screenshots lie ahead! I resized them quite a lot, but I play on a 20″ 1600×900 monitor, so they may be like WHOOSH IN YOUR FACE if you play on a smaller one.
I’ve spent the last few weeks plugging away at a few of the items on my bucket list. I made a lot of progress. In fact, over the last week, I think I managed to knock off about half the things on it.
First, it was decreed that Serreina should reach 80. And lo, my first max-level alt came to be:
No, that’s not a glowy red ding – I missed the actual ding, having dinged on a mob kill. But I caught the achievement itself, and I was standing in my mage friend’s Flamestrike, which looks pretty darn cool if you ask me!
With that done, I plowed away at my remaining Alliance rep grind – Gnomeregan, possibly the most aggravating Alliance rep grind, which I’d saved for last since I wasn’t as far along in their rep as I was the others (I was not quite halfway through revered). After I finished the quest series, I bought a few commendation badges and voila! Ambassador title for me!
I stopped to laugh for a while, because if you’ve RP’d with Shizu you know how funny it would be for her, of all people, to actually be an ambassador. Many dignitaries would facepalm. Then I remembered something else, and I raced to Dun Morogh, where I completed another achievement I’ve been eyeballing for a while:
Yes, Shizu was 7 mounts away from the albino drake, and Gnomeregan happened to have 7 mounts available. Huzzah! And the albino drake is gorgeous, so here, have a gratuitous screenie:
With those achievements under my belt, I decided it was time to finish off my Silver Covenant and Argent Crusade reputations. Three days later, I hit exalted with the Silver Covenant. That left me about 4 days’ worth of dailies away from Argent Crusade exalted and the Crusader title, but I am impatient. So I took a deep breath, dove into /lookingforgroup (which, by the way, SUCKS if you’re dps), and waited patiently for someone to announce that they needed dps. One H-Utgarde Keep and one H-Violet Hold later:
Then I snickered at the very random, very silly thought of Shizu actually being knighted. “Highlord Fordring, sir, be careful with that blade. I have large ears…”
So, what’s next? The Silver Covenant hippogryph, of course. 85 seals and counting!
Posted: October 25, 2009 at 9:34 pm
(Original Post Date: October 15, 2009)
It’s a character profile! Serreina’s, to be precise. Pretty self-explanatory, but my posts feel incomplete without a little author note at the top … yeah, I know I’m a dork. :B
—-
BASICS
Name: Serreina Nightfury
Race: Night Elf
Class: Death Knight
Age: Several thousand years. She refuses to be more specific.
Faction Affiliation: Knights of the Ebon Blade
Home: Acherus, the Ebon Hold
Family: Faisaal, son; Shizukera, daughter; Taldarion Shatterbound, son-in-law
Other Significant People: Alaric Nightfury (deceased), Elorith, Faeroh Moonreign, Kharsus, Sedaara, Syliah Runesong
Distinguishing Features: Glowy death knight eyes. Large, sinister runeblade, which she named Sorrowblade. A massive scar on her chest and back where she was stabbed through the heart with a very large demonic weapon. Bits of ice and frost cling to her armor and her exposed skin.
Quirks: Dislikes fire. Mildly afraid of paladins and priests (but mostly paladins). Absolutely terrified of the purified Ashbringer, though she hides it well. Yes, Tirion Fordring does make her jittery. Quietly contemplates stealing Mograine’s hat.
Faith: She continues to believe that both the Light and Elune exist and that their power is real, but she is highly displeased with both – the Light because it causes intense pain when she comes in contact with it, and Elune because she feels her goddess abandoned her and allowed her to become what she is now.
Likes: Killing Scourge, eating Sedaara’s conjured cinnamon rolls.
Hates: The Lich King, with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.
Her Greatest Fear: That she’ll be killed in Northrend and be raised into the Lich King’s service yet again.
Personality: Cold, focused, snarky, and full of carefully concealed rage, Serreina at first seems to retain very little of the humor and gentleness she was known for in life. Initially driven by a single purpose – to destroy the Lich King – she now struggles to reintegrate herself into the living world and atone for the dark acts she committed not only as a member of the Scourge, but also in the insanity that followed her release from the Lich King’s control. She keeps herself encased in ice, both literally and figuratively, and there are very few whom she counts as friends; but those who gain her trust will find that they have an intensely loyal friend and protector.
Other Factoids
Serreina died at Mt. Hyjal, before the creation of Teldrassil and before her people joined the Alliance. Therefore, the lands her people now call home are as alien to her as Outland. Cut off from Hyjal, unable to adjust to the corrupted Teldrassil, and still feeling lost in the other territories of the Alliance, Serreina considers Acherus the closest thing she has to a home. When she is not in Northrend and needs to conduct business with people who are not death knights, she prefers to stay in Stormwind or Ironforge.
She has also started keeping a journal. It’s a simple leather book with the emblem of the Ebon Blade embossed on it, which she might allow one to read, if one asks very nicely.
Faction Relations
Alliance:
Serreina barely even recognizes herself as a night elf, let alone a citizen of the Alliance; she considers herself more a representative to the Alliance than a member of it. She’ll fight to the death to protect the living from the Scourge because she feels no one deserves such a terrible fate, but ultimately her loyalty lies with Highlord Darion Mograine and the Ebon Blade, not with the Alliance or any of its leaders.
Horde:
Serreina has no real issues with the Horde. She served alongside plenty of former Horde members when she was Scourge, and she maintains her relationships with many of those who were liberated. She does frown upon the presence of the Warsong in Ashenvale – yes, there’s still a nature-loving night elf under that saronite armor – but she’s got better things to do with her time than squabble over trees. Like kill Scourge.
For the record, yes, she thinks both Varian and Garrosh are being abysmally stupid with the Alliance/Horde war shenanigans.
She’s also highly sympathetic to the Forsaken (minus the subfaction of them that created the Wrath Gate plague, of course) due to their shared experience of being raised from death and subjugated by the Lich King.
History in a Nutshell
In life, Serreina Nightfury was a priestess of Elune. She lived quite happily with her mate, Alaric Nightfury, and her two young children, Faisaal and Shizukera, until the War of the Shifting Sands. Both she and her mate survived, but the horrors of the battle had a profound effect on her. She returned to Hyjal with her family and spent the next millennium immersed in her studies, making a name for herself as a gifted healer.
Then came the Third War and the return of the Burning Legion. Serreina went to the front lines to heal those who were wounded in battle. In the final days of the war, the demons overwhelmed the unit she was watching over, injuring her son and killing her mate. Unable to stand against the demonic onslaught, Serreina was killed as well.
Sometime after the battle – after Archimonde’s defeat, the sacrifice of Nordrassil, and the night elves’ move away from Hyjal – Serreina was raised into the Lich King’s service and taken to Naxxramas, where she was trained as a death knight. Guided by the Lich King and empowered by her runeblade, Sorrowblade, she performed her duties with deadly efficiency and was eventually sent to Acherus to assist in the culling of the Scarlet Enclave.
Like many other death knights, she was released from the Lich King’s control at the battle of Light’s Hope Chapel. Unlike most of them, she went quite insane and ended up making several attempts to kill both Shizukera and her mate, the demon hunter Taldarion Shatterbound.
Unfortunately for Serreina, Highlord Darion Mograine found out what she was doing. Concerned for both her mental health and the safety of those at whose sides she would fight, he ordered her to remain behind while the rest of the newly freed death knights moved into Northrend. Devastated and enraged, she returned to Stormwind and made one last attempt to fulfill what she saw as the only duty remaining to her. As she battled Taldarion, Shizukera, unwilling to lose either her mother or her fiancé, leaped into the fray and shattered Sorrowblade, freeing both her mother’s soul and that of another death knight, Kharsus.
With her soul and her will fully restored at last, Serreina seeks to rebuild the relationships she herself nearly destroyed, beginning with her son and daughter, her son-in-law, Kharsus, and the Ebon Blade. Whether she will ever fully realize that goal remains to be seen.
Posted: October 25, 2009 at 9:33 pm
(Original Post Date: September 22, 2009)
Here it is – part 4 of the continuing series, “From Beyond, She Comes.”
I took a very different approach to this particular piece, as I wanted to get directly into Serreina’s head and document what she was going through as she attempted this particular act of insanity. As such, it’s very stream-of-consciousness and I’ve done very little editing. All the same, I hope you enjoy it!
—
“Serreina Nightfury, you are relieved of duty until further notice. You will continue your training here and in Outland. You are not to enter Northrend under any circumstances until I clear you to do so. Have I made myself clear?”
“Sir – “
“There is only one acceptable answer, Serreina.”
I stood there for a solid minute, staring at Highlord Mograine, struggling to keep my emotions in check. He stared back, his expression stern, yet his eyes revealed just the slightest touch of – was that sadness? Regret? Pity?
Sadness was pointless. It would take more than regret to persuade the highlord to change the orders he had just given me. And I certainly did not need his pity. So I closed my eyes for a moment, struggling to keep my emotions in check. When I opened them, Mograine was staring calmly back at me. I drew myself up to my full height, looking down into the highlord’s eyes.
“Understood, sir.”
—
Even now, days later, I remember every word, every detail of that conversation. I remember that undefinable look in Mograine’s eyes as he ordered me to stay behind while the rest of the order continues the march toward Icecrown. I remember fighting back nearly uncontrollable rage, struggling to maintain my composure as I turned and walked away from the highlord. I remember how the other knights watched me as I approached the gryphon that would take me back to Stormwind. And the whispers. I remember those too.
There were a lot of whispers.
Once again, I feel the rage building inside me. Apparently it’s noticeable; the passersby and even the city guards take a slightly wider path around me as I march past them. My fingers curl into fists and a slight smile forms on my face as Sorrowblade’s consciousness stirs.
It is almost over, it whispers.
Yes. It is almost over.
Kill them.
For the first time in quite some time, I experience doubt. Uncertainty. My powers are much weaker than they were when I was under the Lich King’s control. I’m not sure I can kill them. I can barely touch them. Last time I tried, Shatterbound nearly tore my head off – literally.
They are making you weak.
They could also make me dead again.
They are making you sentimental and weakening your resolve. You are weak now. You will remain weak until you remove the source of the weakness. Remember the strength you once had. Remember their betrayal.
The fury builds again, growing into cold resolve. Yes, I will kill them. Or they will kill me. Either way, it will end. It has to end. I cannot bear this turmoil any longer …
Only now Kharsus is here. There’s only a bridge between my daughter and me, and here he is, trying to stop me as always. It makes no sense. I nearly decapitated him. He shouldn’t be here. Why won’t his soul stay inside Sorrowblade where it belongs? Why does he keep coming back to torment me? He is dead! He should stay dead!
We argue. That is what we do. I very much hate him, especially now. I do not wish to deal with him any longer. So I run him through with my blade – again – then push him off into the canal. Will he come back from that? I’m sure he will. If decapitation couldn’t kill him permanently, being run through and knocked into some water won’t do it. But it will buy me the time I need to end this.
I cross the bridge and find myself standing face to face with Shatterbound. Well, of course. I always knew I’d have to go through him to get to Shizukera. I don’t really expect to survive. But it will be over at last.
Sorrowblade’s whispers grow louder in my mind. Its hunger – my hunger, our hunger – increases, exquisite in its pain. I do the only thing I can do.
I attack.
—
“Serreina.”
Mograine was standing behind me. I wasn’t in the mood to continue the conversation from earlier, but I couldn’t exactly ignore the highlord. So I took a deep breath, attempted to work my face into a neutral expression, and turned to face him.
“You just banned me from an entire continent, sir.”
He cocked his head, scrutinizing me. I bit my lip and looked away.
“You want me to change your orders? Then prove me wrong.”
I blinked. “Sir?”
“Northrend will test you as you have never been tested before, death knight. You will face reminders of your past at every turn. It takes a certain presence of mind. You think you’re ready? You think you’re stable enough to fight at the Lich King’s doorstep? Prove it. Oh, and Serreina … “
I stared warily at him. “Yes, sir?”
“You have a family. You have a second chance to be a mother to your children. Take advantage of the opportunity and stop trying to kill them.”
—
I yell in rage and frustration as Shatterbound catches my blade neatly between his hands. Damn the demon hunter and his unnatural reflexes! I feel the blade’s agony as it is assaulted by felfire; I smile coldly as I unleash disease and the chill of death on the demon hunter. Then I hear a voice. Shizukera’s voice.
“I will end this!” she yells, and her fel-charged sword crashes down on Sorrowblade.
The runeblade shatters.
The pain is indescribable; I feel it in every part of my body as my runeblade and my soul are torn asunder. I fall to my knees as someone shrieks in agony, only vaguely aware that I am the one screaming. The pain subsides, and I realize that the whispers in my mind, the voices that haunted me even after my release from the Lich King’s service, have gone silent at last. The victims of the battle for Light’s Hope. The hundreds I slaughtered during the purging of the Scarlet Enclave. Countless others who died by my hand. They are all gone. Even Kharsus isn’t here to taunt me.
I am alone inside my own head. I am truly free at last. I am in pain, I have lost a piece of my soul … and I have never been so afraid.
Someone is standing next to me. Kharsus. He lifts me to my feet, his grip surprisingly gentle. He’s looking at my daughter, and he’s smiling. I’ve never seen him smile. Then again, I’ve never seen him free.
“The blade is broken,” he says.
My grip on the pieces of Sorrowblade tightens. “And with it, my soul.”
He looks at me appraisingly, then shakes his head. Of course he disagrees. He isn’t the one whose soul was torn apart. I watch in silence as he thanks Shizukera and Shatterbound and calls forth a death gate.
“Let’s go home.”
Posted: October 25, 2009 at 9:31 pm
(Original Post Date: September 15, 2009)
A bucket list is a list of stuff you want to do before you kick the bucket. For most folks, such a list would probably consist of trips they want to take, shenanigans they want to pull (climbing a huge mountain, skydiving even though they’re afraid of heights, etc), estranged family and friends they’d like to make amends with, and so forth.
We, however, are WoW players, and a huge chunk of our beloved Azeroth will be getting rocked. Inspired by a handful of posts around WoW.com and the WoW Ladies LJ community, I decided to make my very own pre-Cataclysm bucket list – things I want to do before Azeroth as we know it kicks the bucket.
Without further ado, here is Shizukéra’s bucket list, in no particular order:
1. Frostsaber mount! I’ve wanted one of these for a long time, partially because it matches my hunter’s pet and partially because I think it is the most beautiful land mount in all of WoW. Evil rep grind is evil, but that’s what friends are for! :grabs Taldarion:
2. Get my death knight (frost tank) to 80. She’s 74 already, plus I’ve got my own pocket dps in the form of my guildie’s mage, so that’s looking very doable. Also, Northrend elite mobs hit like little girls. I’m just sayin’.
3. Get my tree druid to 80? Considering I’d like to take a bit of a break from leveling after Serreina hits 80 to get her some gear and complete the Frostsaber grind, this is very likely to not happen. I’m sure I can get him to at least 70, though, especially since I have the best leveling buddy ever. :grabs Taldarion again:
4. Finish the World Explorer achievement. I know this will be easier in Cataclysm when we can fly in Azeroth, but I want to earn that achievement in the Azeroth Shizu grew up in.
5. Take screenshots. Lots and lots of screenshots. Ashenvale and Azshara especially. :makes ragey face at Blizzard: </3
6. Get this blog really going, with regular updates and whatnot. Seriously, Shizu, what the heck? :thwaps self:
7. Get a Silver Covenant hippogryph. Considering how diligently I don’t do those quests – seriously, jousting, wtf Tirion – this will take a while.
8. Get Ambassador and 50 mounts. I’m currently at 30 mounts, exalted with Stormwind and Darnassus and well into revered with the Exodar, Ironforge, and Gnomeregan. Those remaining mounts, plus a couple more gryphons or netherdrakes, should get me to 50.
9. Get Crusader title? That depends on how much I really want to work on Argent Crusade and Silver Covenant rep, I suppose. I’m revered with the Argent Crusade – how that happened, I have no idea; I didn’t think I did that many quests for them before the tournament came in – and Silver Covenant, I’m literally one quest away from revered. Of course, Crusader Shizukéra would be really cool … :grabs Argent Crusade tabard, eyes instances and weird jousty stuff:
10. Finish writing Serreina’s introductory story arc. Also write some stuff dealing with her service in the Scourge; I have ideas regarding both Acherus and pre-Acherus, at least one of which has the potential to be very creepy.
11. Integrate Faisaal, Khiraa, and Syliah into my main storyline a bit more tightly. They have an important place, I just suck at showing it. 
So, what’s on your bucket list?
Posted: October 25, 2009 at 9:29 pm
(Original Post Date: August 9, 2009)
This was my entry for the Midsummer Night’s RP writing contest sponsored by LoreCrafted, Too Many Annas, and WTT:RP. It references Where Kings Walk, the final quest in the death knight starting quest chain, and it is set just before the events you’ve read about in the series “From Beyond, She Comes.”
Since it didn’t accomplish what I hoped it would, I am humbly requesting feedback on this one. The good, the bad, and the ugly – bring it, yo. I’d like to know what needs to be improved so I can be more awesome in the future. And trust me, you don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings; I have a thick skin. 
Enjoy!
—-
Serreina Nightfury stood at the edge of the pier, gazing out across the sea. To the north, across the frozen sea, lay the harsh, unwelcoming continent of Northrend – the home of the Scourge.
The home of the Lich King.
Her jaw tightened; her hands curled into fists at her side. She thought about the letter from Fordring, the letter that had saved her life, such as it was. Its words were forever burned into her memory; bits of the text floated through her mind now.
The soul of a champion. Former hero of the Alliance. Knights of the Ebon Blade … turned against their former master. The end of the Scourge. Blood and honor.
A champion. A hero. Honor.
Serreina laughed. A champion? Oh, yes, some champion she was – raised into the service of the very enemy at whose hands she had died, proud servant to a master who had turned out to be treacherous to the core. A hero? She had died a fool’s death, having failed to pay attention to what approached from behind – she could still see her sisters fall, the enemy sword protruding from her chest, the expressions of horror on the faces of her own husband, son, and daughter as they watched her die. A fleeting glimpse of the demons bearing down on her beloved family as she fell into death.
And honor …
She knelt down and drew Sorrowblade from its sheath, her eyes fixed on the runes etched along its length. These were runes of death and pain and blood, designed to torture and maim and destroy the enemies of the Scourge and draw their souls into the very blade that had killed them. The runeblade had been and still was an extension of her own body and soul; even now it remained inextricably linked to her, constantly whispering, constantly hungering, constantly desiring the blood of its foes.
As a priestess of Elune, yes, she had been a woman of honor. As a death knight, she was the cruelest of killers – cold, heartless, merciless, unrepentant. There was no honor in this. Blood, yes. Honor, no.
Rising, Serreina turned her gaze once again toward Northrend. Was that her goal now? Was that her purpose? To destroy the Scouge and end the Lich King’s reign - that was the stated purpose of the Knights of the Ebon Blade, was it not? But if that was her purpose, then why did she feel so cold and empty? Had the Lich King’s control really changed her so much? Was she truly so damaged?
Serreina stared across the sea for a moment longer; then, with a sigh, she forced herself to turn away. A champion, a hero, a woman of honor … perhaps one day, she would be these things again.
But not yet. She would take care of personal business first, perhaps prove herself in other battlefields; then maybe – maybe – she would join the fight in Northrend.
She took a deep breath, slipped Sorrowblade back into its sheath, and began the walk back to Stormwind.
Posted: October 25, 2009 at 9:28 pm
(Original Post Date: July 27, 2009)
Here it is, the long-overdue third installment in the continuing story of Serreina Nightfury. Enjoy!
—-
Serreina stood at the edge of the dock with her runeblade in hand, gazing out across the sea. Her hood was pulled back, and her limp hair fluttered lightly in the breeze, but she barely noticed; her thoughts were back in Shattrath, her mind focused on what had occurred there.
She hadn’t been particularly smart, confronting them there. Trying to take them on at the same time hadn’t been all that wise either – in fact, that had been a patently terrible idea. She’d taken on far larger numbers and survived, of course, but she had never faced even one demon hunter, let alone two. She had underestimated the power Shizukera and Shatterbound wielded, and that lapse had nearly gotten her killed.
Decapitated, to be exact …
The death knight rubbed her throat, grimacing. That had been another mistake – she had watched him as he harnessed his power, growing larger and stronger and more powerful, and yet she had foolishly allowed him to get close enough to touch her. He had a hell of a grip, too; he had simply caught her chest armor in one hand and her neck in the other and pulled, while she had boiled his blood and afflicted him with diseases. If Shizukera and Kharsus hadn’t interfered, Serreina knew that both she and Shatterbound would be dead. As it was, she had wounded both of them, but she had also lost her voice. She fervently hoped this was temporary, because now when Kharsus spoke she had no choice but to listen. That was annoying and inconvenient, partially because the former Scarlet Crusader was an arse, but mainly because he said many things that caused her resolve to waver.
The thought caused her lips to curl back in a sneer. Oh yes, he said many things. That she was insane; that she couldn’t be trusted; that she was utterly dependent on her runeblade, to the point that it controlled her, rather than the other way around.
Untrue …
She tightened her grip on Sorrowblade, listening as the runeblade whispered to her. After several long moments she turned back toward Stormwind and whistled sharply. Her deathcharger appeared at once, seeming to materialize from darkness and shadow. She smiled.
I will defeat them still, she promised Sorrowblade silently. I was uninformed and unprepared before. Now I know better. Now I know how to fight them
And I will make sure she is alone.
Her smile widened as she spurred her deathcharger on, racing back toward the city as quickly as the undead beast could carry her. No, she wouldn’t be distracted. She wouldn’t be dissuaded.
And she would not fail again.
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