Garabon

There isn't much to say about Garabon other than he doesn't come off as any ordinary sort of mage. His clothing is a bright color of red with some black thrown in here and there. Intricate designs of the zodiac are stitched on the hem of his robes as well as the cuffs of his sleeves. While no sign of rank or status adorn his features it can be safely assumed that he is no novice at what he does. He stands around 5' 10", and he has brown hair and muttonchops that match his hair. His eyes are also a shade of brown, and his expression is usually one of observance and contemplation.

Birth and the Second War
Garabon was born to merchant parents in the now destroyed kingdom of Alterac. There they lived rather peaceably until the second war. After Alterac's treason become public knowledge to the rest of the Alliance, Garabon's father smuggled his family out of the country and changed their names in order to avoid trouble. After the war ended, his father heard it mentioned that the lands retaken from the orcs in Azeroth needed settlers to rebuild and repopulate. Seeing an opportunity to start anew with their lives, a now nine-year old Garabon moved with his family to Brightvale (currently known as Duskwood) and helped resettle the town of Grand Hamlet (now known as Darkshire).

Darkshire
While not native to the area, it didn't take Garabon long to adapt to his new home, and pretty soon he was getting himself into trouble. Always the curious sort, and willing to take risks to get what he wanted, he would always be finding out things he shouldn't, or being places he wasn't allowed. This curiosity eventually led him to "investigating" people of interest around the town such as Blind Mary, Abercrombie, etc., and dragging his friends around with him. Among those "investigated" was Madame Eva, and while she wasn't nearly as interesting as some of his other exploits, the Madame caught his eye due to her claims that she could predict the future. Garabon therefore took it upon himself to find out just how she did it, and if it was even true.

One night after most eveyone was asleep, Garabon snuck out of his house and made his way towards the Madame's home. Climbing a nearby tree to peer into a lit window, Garabon saw Madame Eva sitting at a table with a bunch of odd cards arranged on top. She was nothing but your average fortune-teller. Disappointed after having got his hopes up for something a bit more...spectacular, Garabon starting making his way down from the tree. However, what he didn't know was that the branch he had been standing on for the past few minutes was starting to lose its strength and before he knew it he was plummeting to the ground head first.

He woke up inside, with Madame Eva adding a sling to his now dislocated shoulder. Apparantly she knew she was going to have an injured visitor, and was ready with bandages and other remedies. She berated Garabon for his foolishness, but eventually softened after he explained why he came in the first place. Her answers surprised Garabon, he hadn't expected her to be so open with him. As it turned out she wasn't just a fortune-teller, she also knew many things about the supernatural and ways to combat it via charms and wards. Now Garabon never had any experience with magic before save for stories he heard of great mages that fought against the orcs in the wars. While what Madame Eva described didn't sound like the magic in the stories, it nevertheless awoke a great intrest in the boy. He asked Madame Eva if she would teach him what she knew, and she agreed, provided that Garabon be responsible with what he was going to learn. He agreed, and so the lessons began.

A Fateful Encounter
The years went by rather uneventfully. In the north the orcs were being kept in camps, and those who weren't were nowhere to be found. As for Garabon his life seemed to be showing much promise. His friendship with Madame Eva struck many as strange, but if it kept the nosy lad out of trouble then it must be doing him some good. In addition to his instruction by Madame Eva, he also apprenticed himself to his father in order to learn some more practical skills.

While it was true that Garabon’s time was quickly being filled with his duties as an apprentice, there are certain tendencies that die hard. It was common knowledge among the people of the Alliance of the betrayal of Medivh, the Last Guardian, and how it was due to his efforts that the orcs came into Azeroth in the first place. It was also well known that the tower where he once resided was in Deadwind pass, not far from Darkshire, though nearly all sensible people avoided it. Garabon had been warned since he was young not to go near the haunted tower of “Mad Medivh”, lest he get spirited away by some long forgotten horror summoned when the magus was still alive. Garabon, undaunted by these tales, had also heard that Medivh possessed great stores of knowledge in his library that would make mages everywhere bend over backwards to obtain. He figured if he could get a hold of some tome or script from the tower, he could increase his own knowledge beyond what he was learning from Madame Eva, and even if he couldn’t he was sure somebody somewhere would be willing to pay a fortune for it. So it was, when Garabon was nineteen-years old, he convinced two of his closest friends, Devin and Gilithos, to accompany him to Karazhan.

About halfway to the tower Garabon had the feeling they were being followed. Looking around he spotted a small, dark shape lurking just off the road behind them. It turned out to be Devin’s little sister, a stubborn stick of a girl named Jamie. Garabon listened as Devin tried to tell his sister that she wasn’t allowed to come with them; that it was too dangerous, and if anything happened to her then he would be the one to get in trouble. Jamie, however, was dead set on coming, and threatened to expose their little adventure if they turned her away. Garabon could see there was no way to change her mind, so stepping in he convinced Devin to let her come. When the four of them reached the tower of Karazhan, they began to understand why everyone avoided it. The entire area looked abandoned, and yet Garabon couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was far from unoccupied. If there was one thing he had learned by working with Madame Eva it was that many, many things existed that were beyond one’s normal ability to see. A sense of unease began to tug at him as they approached the tower proper, and it became more forceful the closer they drew to it. Garabon, however, wasn’t the sort to turn back after they’d come all this way, but as they reached the front gate his heart sank. It was locked shut.

Garabon could not believe that he had come all this way for nothing. What more he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of the possibility that the front door would’ve been locked. No one there knew how to pick a lock, and something told him that trying to break the door down would be a very bad idea. He was in the act of turning to leave when he heard Gilithos utter, “What’s that?” He was pointing to a spot, just to the left of the gate, grown over by grass and weeds. Examining the area, Garabon noticed that the grass was hiding a small gap in the tower’s base. It was too small for any grown person to crawl through, but large enough for a child…or maybe, a thin teenager.

A minute later, he was in another argument with Devin. Jamie was the only person small enough who could fit through the crack, but Devin, ever protective of his little sister, wouldn't have it. Soon Gilithos joined in trying to talk sense into the two who were becoming ever more heated in their arguments. In fact, they were so busy arguing that none of them noticed that Jamie had gone missing until they heard the noise of the front door of the tower beginning to open, and there Jamie was, standing in the doorway, a look of smug triumph on her face. Garabon was ecstatic. He recklessly charged inside the tower; his excitement drowning out all thoughts of worry or caution. Looking around for anything that seemed valuable, Garabon found a ruined tome with practically half its pages falling out, but scrawled onto them were diagrams depicting spellwork. It was at this time that his friends caught up with him... ((Work in Progress.))