Gerhardt Albion

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Macheath "Claws" Dawes is a notorious Gilnean highwayman. He has exploited his skills as a druid in favor of personal gain, manipulated hundreds as a public figure, and escaped from prison no less than four times. He currently resides in Elwynn Forest, very likely plotting something unseemly.

Human Form
Macheath is slight of build and not terribly tall, although he has the face of a model, His skin is lightly tanned, and he wears his hair long, towards his shoulders. Upon closer examination, one might notice that his nose is slightly askew, and has several golden teeth, which he often displays in a wide, smarmy grin.

Macheath seems to have a great appreciation for the formal Gilnean attire, which he wears constantly. His outfit includes a top hat and shaded spectacles, which rest just below two cold, blue eyes. His gait is crooked and limping, however, he moves deceptively fast.

Worgen Form
As a worgen, Macheath has snow white fur, and menacing blue eyes. Dawes often wears fur pelts, although it is not uncommon for him to wear the eloquent attire of his homeland, coupled with a tophat.

Macheath often bears several golden teeth in a malevolent grin. He appears to walk in a strange, limping manner.

Possessions
Although his outfits may vary, Macheath keeps a staff embroidered with a human skull and rose on him at all times. It is a well known fact that Macheath also keeps a jackknife hidden out of site, should the need arise.

Abilties
Macheath is a shapeshifter, and a master of disguise. He can change into many different forms, due to the gifts granted to him as a druid, and these forms grant him respective abilities. In addition, he is a deadly with a knife, and has a great amount of skill in manipulating plantlife.

Early Life
Dawes was born in one of the poorer areas of Merchant square into a life of poverty. He was a sickley child, and his first years were rather rough. He had a second brother, Karis, who suffered from insanity. His parents both died when Macheath was young, and his brother was later locked away in an Asylum on Gilneas' western coast.

Without parents to support him, a young Macheath wandered into the Blackwald, searching for a job in lumber. What he found, however, were the Harvest Witches, a group of arboreal spellcasters dedicated to improving the crop yield in Gilneas. Over the coming years, these proto-druids took Macheath in and taught him their ways.

Life of Crime
By age 20, Macheath showed great promise as a Harvest witch, traveling the countryside and earning many friends along the way. His wit, dashing good looks, and charm made him popular among women. However, Macheath grew tired of his simple life, and looked to thievery to improve his standards of living.

Macheath's first attempts at theft were simple petty thievery, and his misplaced pride got the best of him when he pickpocketed a visiting mage of Dalaran and was frozen during his attempt at escape. The City Guard had Dawes imprisoned overnight on the top floor of a Stoneward Prison, pending further questioning, but Macheath escaped within three hours by breaking through the timber ceiling and lowering himself to the ground with a rope fashioned from bedclothes. Still wearing irons, the thief coolly joined the crowd that had been attracted by the sounds of him breaking out. He distracted their attention by pointing to the shadows on the roof and shouting that he could see the escapee, and then swiftly departed.

Shortly thereafter, he broke into a pawnbroker's shop in during the night, taking a black silk suits, a silver sword, rings, watches, a wig, and other items. He dressed himself as a dandy gentleman and used the proceeds to spend a day and the following evening on the tiles with two mistresses. He was arrested a second time time in the early morning, blind drunk. This time, he was imprisoned long enough to be tried, and was sentenced to several years in prison. Having loosened an iron bar in a window used when talking to visitors, he was visited by an accomplice, who distracted the guards while he removed the bar. His slight build enabled him to climb through the resulting gap in the grille,

and he was smuggled out of Stoneward in women's clothing that his visitors had brought him. He took a coach to Ambermill, a boat up to Frey island, where he had hidden his goods.

Highwayman career
Realizing how well guarded Gilneas city was, and that his dominion over nature could be used to his advantage, Macheath decided to put his skills to work as a highwayman. Dawes took to the roads, holding up wealthy merchants, nobles, and even soldiers. Using his powers as over the earth and its plants, Macheath was able to not only able to camouflage himself perfectly, but subdue any foes with entangling roots and sleeping spells. In the off occasion that he needed to fight, Macheath was an expert swashbuckler, and quickly did away with any assets, and could destroy any evidence with ease. He became known in the press as "The Hierophant Highwayman".

As Dawes' robberies added up, so did his notoriety. The Gilneas City Constabulary put a hefty price on his head, giving a hefty amount of gold to the man that turned him in. While fencing stolen goods through a particularly unsavory pirate, Dawes was betrayed and beset by multiple pirates. He was detained this time in a lighthouse off Gilneas' coast, locked in its uppermost tower with a female pirate. By low tide the next day, the two had filed through their manacles; they removed a bar from the window and used their knotted bed-clothes to descend to ground level. They then clambered over the rocky cliffside, waded through the water, and made their way to shore. This feat was widely publicized, and became a great embarrassment for Gilnean law officials.

Dawes, ever the contrarian, became a revolutionist rabble rouser, robbing only supporters of Greymane, and using his legendary status among the Gilnean working class to stir up dissent. For the Greymane, this was enough, and he sent one of his fiercest warriors, Sir Aemon Bayne, on a search and destroy mission, to end his reign over the countryside once and for all. After a few weeks hunt, Aemon caught up with Dawes and his posse, who were holed up in a farmstead. Desperate for their lives, Dawes and his companions opened fire on Aemon's men, killing and injuring a few. Aemon promptly killed the entire posse, as well as the farmers who took them in, and beat Macheath within an inch of his life.

The Worgen Crisis
Macheath's broken body was delivered to Stoneward, where he recovered in the deepest, darkest, most well guarded cell, awaiting his inevitable death sentence. However, things did not go as expected. The prison was eventually overrun by worgen, and Macheath wisely used this opportunity to escape once more, however he was attacked and bitten by one of the beasts in the chaos. Macheath disguised himself and his way among the cities' refugees, until his inevitable transformation.

Post Cataclysm
Thereafter, Dawes was captured, and freed of his bloodlust by the Night Elves at Tal'doren. He was greatful, and as a harvest witch he had a great respect for their advanced druidic magic. Macheath remained among the Cenarion Circle in Darnassus for several years, learning the art of shapeshifting and restoration. Unfortunately, the Elves eventually learned of his crime-ridden, murderous, hedonistic lifestyle and excommunicated him.

Macheath currently operates out of Goldshire, using his thieving and new druidic skills to support his excessive expenditures. His shapeshifting abilities have given him a new nickname by both his admirers and his enemies, "Claws" Dawes.