Shalarin The Hollow

Shalarin was a ferocious Wild God in the form of a massive black panther. Alongside her mother Ashamane, she was one of many Wild Gods to fight in the War of the Ancients and defend the world of Azeroth from the Burning Legion. Captured and corrupted, she resisted the demons to her final breath and had her soul trapped on a pocket void dimension. Twisted by the void, she became the Dark entity known as “Shalarin the Hollow”.

Shalarin is a recurrent antagonist to the Stormblade Clan. She first haunted only Nurzum Stormbreaker but later expanded her vengeance against the whole clan, being the mastermind on the events of [The siege of Sargeron]. She later became the main villain of a campaign of her own, “A Guardian for the Shrine”.

Her nemesis is Karthys Sorrowsong.

War of the Ancients
Shalarin fought valiantly against countless demons before the dread lord Tichondrius managed to capture her. He tried to corrupt her into being a dark ancient in service of the Legion, having her tortured in many ways. However, no fel corruption nor torture was enough to break Shalarin’s Will. In her final breath, she focused all her being into not falling in the demons hands, no matter what. Although her spirit managed to evade the demons, something unexpected happened.

She did not end up on the Emerald Dream. Instead, her soul was stuck into a void between dimensions. Alone in the void, she was twisted into a dark entity able to control it. Still, she was alone. Her only desire was to get back to Azeroth.

A haunting spirit
Her voice could barely reach Azeroth, but some druids were able to listen. They became the Druids of the Eye, which only goal was to bring her back into this world. An opportunity to do so appeared when the Burning Legion invaded for the third time, and her cult gathered in Val’sharah for the summoning ritual. However, their plans were foiled by Nurzum Stormbreaker, an orc who had since earned Shalarin’s hatred.

When Xul’ili Deathbringer brought him to the Shadowlands for the first time, Shalarin seized this opportunity to get her vengeance. A manifestation of herself ambushed the two orcs, and took all Nurzum had to defeat her. Still, Shalarin was not dead, and had her burning green eyes haunting Nurzum for months to come.

The siege of Sargeron
On Desolace, Shalarin managed to stablish her cult within the satyrs of Sargeron and the warlocks of Thunderaxe Fortress, uniting them against the Stormblade Clan. However, the elements warned Nurzum of this alliance, although they did not know who was leading them. The orc wanted to call for help, but the Fourth War kept the clan’s numbers thin. He then summoned a small party of orcs to help him uncover more about it. They invaded Thunderaxe Fortress at night and managed retrieve a black cat figurine from their altar, which summoned void tendrils to fight them.

With her identity revealed and the real threat exposed, the Stormblades gathered as much as they could and, with the aid of the druids of Karnum’s Glade, made a full assault on Sargeron both by ground and by air. They’ve identified her altar and fought her avatar on a battle which proved costly. Her avatar was eventually defeated and the land soured to prevent her to appear once again on those lands.

A Guardian for the Shrine
Shalarin was still lurking in the shadows, plotting her vendetta against the Stormblades. On a midsummer ceremony, she tried to use their shrine to manifest into the mortal plane. She failed due to the combined efforts of the living and the ancestors, but it was decided that she needed to be dealt with once and for all. For that, the clan had to complete The Stormblade by visiting old places of importance to the clan and earning the blessings of their ancestors.

Parallel to this, Karthys decided to erect a guardian of his own. He worked alongside Vrykul and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to make a big armor, which would become a golem through a vessel soul. She tried to interfere, but they managed to finish their ritual and banish the corrupted god’s presence once more.

Shalarin would be a constant treat on their journey, as the clan would discover she did not turned only the forces of Desolace to her side, but also the Red Dawn Sons (now known as “the Red Dusk”), which were hunting down Stormblade scouts and desecrating their murdered corpses. She would also constantly whisper in their minds, mocking Xul for her failures, threatening Karthys and even turning the dragon Detra against them for a moment.

At the end of their journey, she attacked with her followers’ full might after the clan had chosen a Guardian Spirit, and drained Detra’s dragon essence to finally manifest into Azeroth. With the help of both the guardian spirit and the golem, the Dark Panther was pushed back into her dimension cursed with enough runes to prevent her from reach out to Azeroth ever again.