Plagueheart

A necromancer of the Cult of the Damned, Plagueheart is chiefly known for his influential leadership of the sect of the Cult mostly situated outside of Stormwind. For brief periods of Stormwind's history, he was the most sought after and wanted criminal of his time.

Plagueheart played an instrumental role in the attacks on the Northshire Abbey and, later, on Sentinel Hill, Darkshire, and Lakeshire - which were assaulted by hordes of undead gathered from nearby graveyards.

He inspired many of his contemporaries to follow down his path of worship. And after his and his sect's fall, many splinter groups formed - each with varying amounts of influence from the doctrines of the Cult.

Appearance
Falling intermittently from Plagueheart’s ruined scalp, locks of filthy, grimy black hair hang, eventually sloping downward into his gaunt – even skeletal – visage, as his hollow eye sockets stare unblinkingly. Caught between them rests his partially rot-degenerated nose, bent as if smashed to the side. Just below, his mouth hangs crooked, open slightly.

And, then, there was change – it was instantaneous, easily missed. Greens eyes replaced the pair of cavities which had previously been present; the rotting flesh that had seemed on the verge of falling off was now full and healthy, ripe with color; his nose was no longer broken or afflicted with decomposition.

He still appeared of an old age, however, as evidenced by the crow’s-feet plaguing the corners of his eyes and the wrinkles lining his forehead. The gray facial hair now present on his features was consolidated to his chin, leaving the rest of his jawline free of stubble.

His back hunched itself, most likely due to the presence of a large and overstuffed backpack hanging from his right shoulder. The gait with which he used to get about was something of a shuffle, like that of a shambling, gibbering ghoul…

The hands which gripped his ever-present walking cane were emaciated and wasted – half of their nails were missing, and bone shown through the papery, corpselike skin at spots. Maggots infested the sporadic holes, laying their larva in continuation of the consumption of host body. But… no, his hands were just that of an old man’s: riddled with over-pronounced veins and with age-spots – not maggots and rot.

His Early Life
Plagueheart, once known as Epion, was born on a farm to two parents just outside Northdale, which lay in the northernmost reaches of Lordaeron. However, his father died shortly thereafter from an illness. His mother was devastated, but endured. She had to hire help, though, to continue the farm. When Epion grew up, he began to help out at the farm, and so knew the meaning of hard work: every morning, he would rise with the servants to tend the animals and grow the crops, from sunrise to sunset.

And when he neared his coming of age — and, with his father gone, would eventually have to choose someone else to apprentice underneath — hard times struck their little farm.

Prices on crops increased and, now, his mother needed him at home to help. Or else they would lose everything. But Epion’s continued presence on the farm did little to stop the inevitable – they lost the farm, unable to justify staying on it.

At first, they tried to not give up hope, even going as far as to move into another’s home in town, but even then his mother grew tired of the Crown’s lethargic apathy towards their plight, and became ever angry.

An oddly dressed preacher visited their town one day with an astounding proclamation of a new religion — one that offered an ideal society, away from the travail; but, most importantly, immortality. His mother was taken in by the preacher’s charisma and his astonishing promises, and — so — she willingly joined his congregation.

It wasn’t until Epion’s mother was entrenched in this preacher’s new religion that she realized that it wasn’t at all as it first appeared: they were planning terrible, terrible things. Treacherous things, even. They intended to hurt people to bring their vision to its realization.

His mother wanted out — she tried to escape, and so fled to the town hall, where she attempted to expose the preacher’s insidious plans to the mayor and the town council. But even they were under the sway of the preacher, Kel’thuzad.

In the dead of night, when his mother was packing to flee town… she was murdered by a close family friend, Diodor, whom had helped run the farm for some time. Their son, Epion, and his other siblings were asleep upstairs — unaware that their mother’s body was bleeding out onto the hearth, and that a friend had done it…

Awaking the youthful Epion at noon day, Diodor lamented of his mother’s assassination, explaining further that it was by the Crown’s hand that this had been done. Infuriated greatly by this, and being goaded still further by Diodor, Epion then willingly accepted the family friend’s offer and joined the Cult of the Damned. From then on, Epion — who would later be christened Plagueheart — followed the congregation that his mother once did.

His Years in Scholomance
Plagueheart spent the remaining years preceding the onset of the Third War within the bowels of Caer Darrow where he was taught concerning the doctrines of the Cult of the Damned, brought into its full sway, and learned the subtleties of the sacred art of necromancy. Too focused on pleasing and complying with his instructors and masters, Plagueheart quickly forgot about the home and siblings left behi nd in Northdale.

It was here under the watchful tutelages of the masters of the Cult of the Damned that Plagueheart realized his aptitude of the arcane -- he excelled in all of the fields of magic: illusionary, conjuration, necromancy, and so on. And while he had the ability to practice any form -- he could have very well been an accomplished mage of the Kirin Tor -- he learned his ability to wield it through the Cult of the Damned and within the context of satisfying the goals of the Scourge.

As he grew in experience and expertise concerning his ability to wield his new found skills, his loyalty to the Scourge was increasingly solidified. This was the first time he was good at something. He was not about to throw it away because of a disagreement with the end goal of the Scourge; misgivings concerning the intentions of his Masters were quickly banished, hidden within the deepest recesses of his mind, as he rapidly realized abandoning his new found skill simply wasn't an option.

Current Whereabouts
Plagueheart's current whereabouts are unknown; however he was last seen by the Argent Crusade in Eastern Plaguelands, leading a group of cultists and Undead Scourge from the Plaguewood.