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 disappearance 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 replace the pair of cavities which had been 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 appears 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 is consolidated to his jaw.

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

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

His Early Life
Born on a farm to two parents in North Habor, Plagueheart knew grief early on – his father, a Second War veteran, died shortly thereafter from an unknown illness. His mother was devastated, but endured. She had to hire help, though, to continue the farm. When he 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.

But 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, then, his mother needed him at home to help, or else they would lose everything, but his continued presence on the farm did little to stop the inevitable. They lost the farm, taken from them by royal tax collectors.

Moving into another’s home in town, they tried to not give up hope. Despite those efforts, his mother grew tired of the Crown’s apathy and its even active attempts to deprive its citizenry of land and livelihood, and became ever angrier.

When those feelings of anger were at their highpoint, an oddly dressed preacher came from across the sea and visited their town one day with an astounding proclamation of a new religion – one that offered an ideal society, away from the travail where all were equal. 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 his 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. To her horror, even they were under the sway of the preacher, Kel'thuzad.

In the dead of night, when his mother packed to flee town, a close family friend who had helped run the farm for some time drove a dagger through her back. Their son 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 boy 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, he then willingly accepted the family friend’s offer and joined the Cult of the Damned. From then on, he followed the congregation of Kel'thuzad, unknowing that his mother had attempted to escape and that his mother was killed by the same people he now worshipped with.

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 behind in North Harbor.

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.

The Scourging of Lordaeron
Plagueheart took part of the initial spreading of the plague and the raising of the dead. To use his newfound skills of blightweaver and necromancy in the real world proved exhilarating to him. He felt so alive. Caught in the throes of passion for his work, he proved instrumental in the destruction of Corin's Crossing, Darrowshire, and many other smaller settlements in eastern Lordaeron.

When Arthas left to chase after the dreadlord Mal'ganis, Plagueheart stayed in Lordaeron, mastering his necromancy, as did the bulk of the Cult of the Damned. Periodically, he would return to Scholomance to continue his teachings.

Sacking of the Capital
When Arthas returned from Northrend, the Cult knew to expect him; Plagueheart—among many other cultists—travel westward, toward the capital; when they met resistance their Scourge couldn't defeat, they donned commoner's clothing and snuck into the still-standing capital. On the order of the Cult's new leaders, Kel'thuzad having died, Plagueheart and other cultists took advantage of the chaos of the death of the king and began slaughtering the citizens of the capital.

Siege of Fenris Keep
After Arthas left, marching the majority of the Scourge to Quel'thalas, Plagueheart was tasked with taking Fenris Keep—a vital position if the Scourge were to advance south into the forests of Silverpine. Plagueheart knew that this was his test, to prove himself an important part of the Scourge and the Cult; if he was successful in this, the leadership might consider him for higher rank.

At first he attempted to siege the keep, relying on accounts of old sieges in ancient times to guide him; he met stiff resistance though, and he neared admitting defeat. He remembered that this wasn't just an army and he wasn't just a soldier. He instructed what cultists he had under him to infiltrate the keep and destroy it from within. This strategy bore fruit; the keep fell within days, and Plagueheart gained his first successful command.

From then on, Plagueheart commanded Scourge forces in bulk.

Quel'thalas
After a few years of spreading the blight to the west, destroying several keeps (using the same method he used on Fenris Keep), and culling thousands in the Silverpine forest, he received orders from the recently raised Kel'thuzad to reinforce Quel'thalas.

On his way to Quel'thalas, via boat, Plagueheart garrisoned his troops at North Harbor, his hometown. It was there that Plagueheart, walking around his old village, that he discovered his mother's journal. It was in those pages, which detailed his mother's intentions to confront Diodor, that Plagueheart discovered that his mother was not killed by servanrs of the Crown, as Diodor had claimed all those years ago.

His loyalty to the Scourge, strong though it was, was sorely tested by the persisting knowledge that Diodor had killed his mother and that his mother had doubts about the Cult of the Damned. As he fought in the Ghostlands of Quel'thalas, another war waged in his mind as he attempted to reconcile his devotion to the Lich King and his growing hatred for Diodor.

Summertide Assault
Eventually Plagueheart received orders to reinforce a Scourge assault taking place on a monastery in Tirisfal. He marched his troops down; there, he realized Diodor led the attack against the monastery.

He did battle alongside his former mentor, destroying wave after wave of Scarlet Crusaders. However, just as the battle intensified, in the chaos of battle, he drove his dagger into the back of Diodor, killing him. The death of Diodor buckled the Scourge lines, as the lead necromancer had under his influence scores of undead.

As the Scourge were slaughtered all around him, Plagueheart dragged the corpse of his mother's killer off the battlefield and harvested the man's soul. He intended to torture him until insanity took over. He raise the soulless corpse of Diodor and walked back to the Scourge who were in disarray. Plagueheart, in ecstasy after killing Diodor, took control of the Scourge with a single spell and managed to stop the Scarlett's advance enough for the undead to initiate an orderly retreat.

Civil War in the Plaguelands
Plagueheart could feel the waning influence of the Lich King on his mind, but his devotion to him ran deeper than the potion he drank at his initiation. He stayed loyal. Receiving a missive from Kel'thuzad, whom had been given command of the Loyal Forces of the Scourge, Plagueheart marched his troops back down to Lordaeron to quash the Forsaken who were in open rebellion against the Scourge.

After the Events of the Third War
After the events of the Third War, Plagueheart...

During the Wrath of the Lich King
Just before and during the launch of the attacks of the Alliance and Horde on Northrend, a sect of the Cult of the Damned began its work within Stormwind under the oversight of Plagueheart.

They began a harsh campaign in Stormwind; with the threat of the joint assault of the Alliance and Horde on Northrend, where their Master lay, they took far more drastic and brutal tactics at first. They sought to weakened the campaign against their lord from within. They kidnapped high ranking officials, murdered random civilians to inspire terror and fear, and concocted countless plagues to poison the whole of Stormwind and its surrounding areas.

With the help of Count Vrenna, Plagueheart launched an attack on Sentinel Hill in Westfall. Count Vrenna's forces stormed the feeble guards, slaughtering them and providing bodies for Plagueheart's necromancers to raise. To further the carnage, Plagueheart's necromancers catapulted the men and women manning Sentinel Hill with cannisters of plague, befouling not only the defender's lungs but the grass and air.

Following that initial attack and its astounding success, attacks commenced on Darkshire and Lakeshire, though their forces were repelled then.

Their defeat in Darkshire and Lakeshire marked the decline of this sect. Its adherents melted back into the populace of Stormwind and attempted to blend in as well as they could, but the presence of Argent Crusade-affilianted organizations and the Scarlet Crusade's presence within the city complicated matters for the cultists. The Argent Crusade- and Scarlet Crusade-affiliated organizations launched brutal campaigns to discover, torture, and kill members of the sect.

This forced the sect to eventually relocate its operations: Apollyon fled with what cultists survived the onslaught and eventually made it to the Western Plaguelands.

After the Events of Northrend
Devastated by the killing of his God, Plagueheart experienced a crisis of faith while leading his sect in the Plaguelands. Defections and his sect's brief loss of control over the undead added to the already monumental crisis caused by the Lich King's demise, all leading Plagueheart to seek the answers concerning what to do next in Northrend.

In Northrend, Plagueheart wandered the desolate landscape, brought low by the decimated empire of the Lich King, the docile nature of the remaining Scourge, and the impressive war machine of the Alliance, Horde, and the Argent Crusade.

Brought to the near brink of death, rigid from the cold and delirious from elements battering him from all sides, he traveled to Icecrown where I believe the Lich King might still reside; eventually he ascended the staircase that led to the Frozen Throne. Comforted only by the knowledge that his teacher and leader, Kel'thuzad, made the same journey. There, atop the world, at its pinnacle, he saw the pretender, Bolvar, sitting atop his God's throne

Despite standing at the top of the world, Plagueheart could scarcely think of a time when he felt lower. He stumbled from the profaned throne and began to wander once more, more desperate, more confused.

It was in the snow, almost dead, that Plagueheart received a vision from an entity he claimed to be the Lich King. His God had spoken to him and to him alone. Banishing any misgiving that what he experienced might be hallucinations, Plagueheart grew to consider himself a prophet.