Zor'gul Cursewhisper

Early Life

Zor'gul was born to the Shadowmoon Clan, son of Goz'rogon the Deranged and the dark witch Maggathra. Maggathra practiced spells forbidden by her people, among them the time-lost arts of Shadow Magic and Necromancy. She lived in exile among Arakkoa ruins, frequently trading secrets or artifacts with the banished cultists of the Raven God that slithered flightlessly beneath the canopies of Draenor. Goz'rogon, however, was a powerful and respected shaman and magician, obedient and loyal to the Shadowmoon elders. None now can say why he fell in with Maggathra, for when she was slain by vengeful Shadowmoon warriors for her countless dishonorable deeds, he descended into a deep madness.

Zor'gul was raised in turns by various Shadowmoon matrons and matriarchs. His father had become a hermit, like his murdered lover, living in the wilderness and feeding off of rotting carcasses and sheer hatred. Because of his isolation, tutored only by harsh and judgmental old women, he grew into a quiet and reserved young orc. Other students and acolytes his age disliked and mistrusted him, but were too afraid of his dark ancestry to mock him openly. He was merely left alone to his own devices, which suited him well enough.

As he grew older, he took to wandering, wishing to leave his fellow Shadowmoon behind him. But the other clans were even more supersticious, and their war-like natures made them unwelcoming toward strangers. And so Zor'gul became fascinated with the other denizens of his world. He studied them closely, fascinated by their methods of survival, by the differences between their culture and his own. But in particular he developed a deep fondness for and obsession with the cripples, underlings, exiles and creeping, wretched outcasts of Draenor, for much like them he had become an alien among his own people.

He attached himself to a small group of Arakkoa sorcerers, the Scions of Skrazawk, who lived in the mountains of Gorgrond, studying strange magicks there. He brought them food and protected them from violent beasts and renegade orcish marauders. The sorcerers had been banished into the desolate mountains for heresy by the worshipers of the Raven God, who were outcasts themselves, making them twice-exiled. This seemed to amuse Zor'gul, and he formed a close bond with them very quickly.

It was these very Scions who revealed to Zor'gul in time, through their sorcery and scrying arts, the location of his lunatic father. Unable to resist the temptation of meeting him, Zor'gul traveled to the Jungles of Tanaan, where he found Goz'rogon among the Bleeding Hollow Clan. A new chieftain had risen up to claim leadership of the Bleeding Hollow, young Kilrogg Deadeye, and he possessed aspirations of claiming the entire jungle for his clan. But Zor'gul was only interested in at last meeting his father.

Goz'goron knew immediately who it was who stood before him when Zor'gul approached him. Even after years of teetering on the edge of mindless insanity, his mind and spirit eaten away by anger and regret, the old orc held the memory of his son in his heart. Together, by the dim light of a campfire, the two talked long into the night. At last, Goz'goron led his son away into the dark, misty jungle to a strange alcove in a clearing shrouded by waterfalls and overhanging lips of stone. There, he saw a grisly sight: the bones of his mother, Maggathra, arranged into a macabre altar.

It was revealed to him that through ancient rituals taught to Goz'goron by his deceased mate, Maggathra could be brought back from the realm of the dead as a ghostly apparition to impart her dark knowledge unto her son. This was how Zor'gul first encountered his mother after twenty-nine long years: as a vengeful wraith, bound to a shrine of darkness in the depths of a vile, sweltering jungle. It marked his first steps toward a descent into shameless evil.

The Rise of the Horde

The years wore on and Zor'gul grew older, watched his father die a convulsive, bitter death and saw the rise and fall of many warlords and petty chiefs. He visited his mother's bones in Tanaan, and his friends among the Scions in Gorgrond, less and less as he grew confident in his own abilities. He no longer sought their advice. His jawline grew thick with the long, matted beard of an orcish shaman, and he dwelled among his Shadowmoon brethren more often. For though they feared and despised him, he knew they would have no choice but to respect his power and skill. And powerful he had become indeed; powerful enough to attract the attention of another rising son of Shadowmoon...

Gul'dan, the apprentice of the renowned Ner'zhul, was well-established in the area as a prominent figure of magic, and far more powerful than any of his colleagues. Some said that his knowledge had even come to eclipse Ner'zhul himself. Whispers began to spread like creeping tendrils through Shadowmoon Valley of a strange new power forming on Draenor: a mysterious benefactor, and untold glory and splendor to be had if one knew where to look for him. Gul'dan was at the heart of these rumors, and it was no secret that he had begun to recruit from among Ner'zhul's people to join a burgeoning new order. A clan, some said. A cult, said others.

Most folk now know the tale of the rise of the Horde, how Gul'dan formed the Shadow Council beneath the guise of the Stormreaver Clan; how he used his puppet Blackhand to rally almost every clan on Draenor beneath the Blackrock banner. How he and Medivh spoke in thoughts and dreams to one another from across the gulf of the Great Dark, conspiring to open a portal of fathomless power and spark the invasion of Azeroth. But few now can recall the name of the cowled sorcerer who attended each of Gul'dan's many secretive meetings in dark and craggy hollows with near-religious ferver. Few now can remember the piercing gaze that looked down without mercy upon those who met with the wrath of Zor'gul Cursewhisper.

For having joined the Stormreaver Clan without qualm or concern, Zor'gul embraced the warlock arts without a second thought, but never flouted his identity nor sought to boast or brag. He distinguished himself from his fellow members of the Shadow Council through the genius of his machinations and the effectiveness of his actions. He was unwaveringly loyal to his new master, idealizing and aggrandizing the power and authority as bequeathed to him by the mysterious and elusive Kil'jaeden. He knew there was no hope of defying Gul'dan, nor the Burning Legion. He knew that true power awaited him if he stayed true to the path of ascension paved by these fiery lords of the Twisting Nether. Under their tutelage, he would become a god.

He began to visit the bone-shrine in Tanaan more frequently after his final plunge into evil, but he became frustrated with Maggathra's counsel. She advocated his participation in the founding of the Horde, but was wary of the Legion's intentions, and of Gul'dan. She also criticized her son for allowing himself to be overshadowed by another, no matter how powerful. Furious, he ceased to communicate with her altogether from that point on, dedicating himself entirely to the Shadow Council's cause.

The Great War

The war which the Burning Legion had sought to unleash finally arrived in brutal force. First came the eradication of the unsuspecting Draenei, who even behind walls of crystal and stone, donned in their finest armaments, were no match for the sheer ferocity and vicious savagery of the teeming swarms of hide-clad orcish warriors. The servants of Gul'dan, as ever, participated from within the shadows, conjuring dark magic to lambaste the walls of their cities and temples and subvert the land with demonic taint. Zor'gul delighted in the ordeal, and when the time came to lay down the Path of Glory, he personally contributed seven bones he had collected as trophies.

When he first stepped through the Great Portal, contrived by a mixture of the twisted sorcery of his brethren and sheer back-breaking labor of his people, the settlements of Rockard and Stonard had already been erected. He conspired with his fellow members of the Shadow Council on many wicked plots at Gul'dan's behest, though more than once he schemed and acted of his own initiative; but never were his schemes turned against his master. In fact, he acquired something of a reputation as an inquisitor, gladly turning his own brothers in to suffer Gul'dan's judgment when they showed even an inkling of disloyalty.