House of Zin-Shalla

The House of Shadowglory is an ancient Quel'dorei house, dating back thousands of years before the Sundering, though its ascension to the inner circles of the peerage was only a recent affair when the Highborne Empire fell. During the entirety of its reign, it was headed by Elos Astarion Zin-Shalla, a warlord who acquired the epithet "the Butcher" for his brutal treatment of his own people. Its few surviving scions only speak the name of this fallen house to inspire fear and loathing in their enemies, for there is no honor to be found in it.

History
The Zin-Shalla line emerged from the military caste of the Kaldorei, serving as battle-mages and knights in the service of the Highborne elite. The heads of this house were known to be charismatic and ruthless; this was particularly so for Elos Nuremor Zin-Shalla, a powerful eldritch knight formerly in service to the powerful Prince of Azsuna. Nuremor gathered around him an increasingly large and powerful warband, composed primarily of ambitious members of the military caste but with several lowborn followers as well, and began contracting himself out as a mercenary army to the local powers, namely the Mogu Empire. With the wealth he accumulated over the centuries, Nuremor was able to claw his way into the lowest echelon of the Highborne peerage, securing for himself a small estate at the southwesternmost reaches of the Empire. Once his new fiefdom was secure and well-funded, his two children proceeded to have Nuremor assassinated, removing the mercenary stain to their newly-elevated name and handing the lordship to Nuremor's firstborn son, Elos Astarion Zin-Shalla.

Astarion and his sister, Elar Sylvenasi, set about reforging the family name into one deserving not only of the wealth their father had acquired by the respect of Highborne society. Of course, without the influx of money from Nuremor's mercenary endeavours, this was easier said than done. Refusing to submit to the shame of returning to another lord's service - and certainly not mercenary service - Astarion instead gathered as many of his father's former retainers who would follow him and pledged their service directly to the Crown. They were quickly dispatched to the Empire's northern border, where raids by the Vrykul and northern troll tribes were becoming increasingly common.