Althea Brimcraft

Althea Charmine Brimcraft is the oldest daughter of House Brimcraft, and the heir to the Brimcraft Artillery Company. She is a cursed Gilnean shadowmage who currently serves in the Argent Onslaught, a unit of the Argent Crusade, under General Rease Stoneheart. She is also well-known as a magic instructor and an author of books regarding shadow magic and the safe use of demonic summoning.

Appearance
Althea is an average-looking Gilnean woman; hardly any feature catches one's eye save for her shorter stature at only five feet and two inches. She is incredibly average in build otherwise; her silhouette is reminiscent of the typical human woman, and she is hardly in shape. Her skin is slightly tanned with no freckles in sight, but it is clear that she is naturally quite pale. She makes up for her height with an imposing air about her, especially with the squareness of how she stands and her general demeanor.

She has dull green eyes that are almost always looking right ahead of her or at whomever she is addressing. Her hair is black and almost always pulled out of her face. Her face sports prominent features, particularly seen in her cheekbones, which give her a stark appearance.

Her voice is decievingly soft and mannered, her Gilnean accent far from overpowering. If anything, it is a bit more diminished than average. Even when confronted, she doesn't seem to stick out to anybody unless they were perceptive enough to notice the faint dark aura around her.

She generally dresses in darker robes, almost always sporting either the tabard of the Argent Onslaught or the dress of a Gilnean commoner. On occasion, she may also wear a shirt and pants, but it is always casual in nature. She also carries a crystal-tipped staff of metal either in her hand or strapped firmly to her back. This particular staff looks like it has been well-worn, and anyone could probably see specks of black and purple in the white crystal.

She is often found with a small knapsack slung around her shoulder, as well. It is fairly simple in design, a faint red bag with a black strap and silver clasp. In this bag, she carries a journal, a worn spellbook, a quill and ink, and a few magical reagents. Recently, she has brought along runic stones, as well.

She rarely enters her true form, but when she does, she looks wholly intimidating, if still somewhat short. Her pelt is dusty brown, and her mane is entirely untrimmed, strands flying in her face and two dreadlocks hanging off of her shoulders. Her eyes remain dull green, but bloodshot.

Childhood
Althea was born in Year 588 of the King's Calender, or 1110 on the Aderician Calender , in Brimcraft Manor, located on the outskirts of Gilneas City, to Edna and William Brimcraft. At the time, she was their only child, but her brother, Jacob, is born just one year later. When she was three years old, a Gilnean magister commented that the toddler Althea had great magical potential. Reacting to this news, her parents placed her in a school for mages and wizards. When the Greymane Wall was closed, separating Gilneas from the rest of the world, Althea became rather fond of venturing out to the wall with her brother to try to hear the sounds of things outside.

Adolescence
At the age of fourteen, Althea learned of shadow magic in her academy, but she was warned against it. The naturally-curious Althea didn't process that warning or its implications, and she went to the edge of the wall to practice it. She was adept at manipulating shadows. After school on most days, she would make this trip, and she became better at shadow magic than the arcane she had been taught in school.

The Gilnean Civil War
Althea's parents took the side of King Greymane, as expected of nobility, and sent financial aid to his army. Jacob was also sent in to fight, and he emerged alive. He had become a seasoned fighter, and Althea became increasingly worried of his choices as he became addicted to brawling. During the wartime, the Brimcraft Artillary Company skyrocketed, and Althea enjoyed more wealth with which she could purchase reagents to continue her secret studies. During this time, she also found and joined a coven.

Siege of Greymane City
When the capital of Gilneas was under siege, Althea and her brother both enlisted to aid in the war effort under King Greymane. Althea became proficient at shooting a gun, and she was one of the last to survive at the cathedral before the worgen completely overtook them. Althea was bitten, but managed to survive the worgen curse and simply became a worgen herself who, because of her noble background, was simply subjugated instead of killed. Jacob was bitten, but the curse overtook his body, and he was killed.



Invasion of Gilneas
Althea was not granted control over her worgen instincts until after the Forsaken had been, for the most part, driven out of the capital. Upon learning of her brother's death, she was devastated, and she vowed to devote her life to servitude. When she was, though, she became a leader among the militia for a few months. She secretly continued her shadow studies, soon realizing that she would not be happy unless she could serve and use the type of magic in which she excelled. She left Gilneas relatively-unnanounced, making her way to Stormwind to try to find work as a teacher.

Life in Stormwind
Althea lived in Stormwind for about two years. During this time, she became a prominent figure among warlocks and shadowmages in the Mage Quarter, and she wrote several pamphlets about shadow magic and its use effectively. She became a teacher to several pupils, but she still felt as if she were not spending her life effectively. Reacting to this, as she was taking a walk in the Cathedral District, she became aware of recruitment for the Argent Bulwark, and she joined the organization.

Argent Crusade
Althea followed General Rease Stoneheart to become a member of the Argent Onslaught a few weeks after she was enlisted. Since then, she has served the Onslaught faithfully, and she now resides in Hearthglen as a member. She has gained quite a few scars, but she has also become more proficient as a shadowmage. The wide variety of enemies faced by the near-suicidal Onslaught has sharpened her skills, and she continues to grow.

Personality
Althea's personality seems to change drastically in and out of combat.

When she is out of combat, Althea is somewhat skittish, introverted, and awkward. If she is approached by someone that she doesn't know very well, she will seem somewhat spaced-out and unresponsive, and she is awful at holding a conversation. Despite this, she always makes an effort to appear confident, and she always looks someone in the eye when speaking to them. She opens up considerably if she finds something with which to connect to the other person. She tends to make basic social errors when she is out of combat, as well, such as cursing in a church or blurting that something is "absolute rubbish." She doesn't seem to think that anything is wrong.

These traits are flipped when she is in a battle. She is rather direct and even suave. She becomes more adaptable to her teammates' styles, and she uses brazen force in her magic to take her enemies down. While she still employs dark humor, it is less awkward and much more appreciated, and she only does it when the time is right. Also, unlike her general self, she seems to enjoy watching enemies in pain, but she will never admit that.

Shadow Magic
Althea believes that shadow magic is just as viable and useful as the Holy Light, and both should be accepted and encouraged among humanity. She contrasts the use of shadow magic with that of the Light, arguing that the Light tends to "mend and purge" while shadow magic tends to "adapt and eliminate." She believes that shadow magic possesses few healing properties, unlike the Light, but it is more versatile in other uses. Additionally, while the Light tends to simply smite its foes, Althea will argue that shadow magic can be used to destroy, subjugate, and even incapacitate enemies in several ways.

The Church of the Holy Light
Althea is not a follower of the Church, but she does attend sermons with the other Argent Crusaders when she is called to do so. She respects the power of the Light, but she does not respect the religion around it because she believes that it unjustly targets heretics, members of other races, and (most notably) warlocks.

Fel Magic
Due to experiences with her students in Stormwind and her classmates in Gilneas becoming addicted to it, Althea detests fel magic and brands it as nothing but addictive power. She argues that shadow magic is just as powerful, and she says that shadowflame can perform the same tasks as fel magic. "I have yet to meet a warlock," she claims, "that has not set himself on the deadly path of fel or completely abstained. There is no in-between."

Her True Form
Prefering it for its ability to blend in, Althea generally stays in her human form unless she is in combat. However, when training or when faced with adversaries, Althea may transform into her true form because it gives her agility that she does not possess as a human. She is somewhat ashamed of her true form, as it is a sign of her failure and the failure of Gilneans, but she rarely lets this show when she shifts.

Skills
Althea claims that she is not a warlock, but a shadowmage. A shadowmage is an arcanist who specializes in manipulating shadow magic exclusively. She does not use fel magic, she only summons voidwalkers (and rather rarely due to her hatred of demons), and she does not have fel corruption. One could just as easily classify her as an uncorrupted warlock.

Instead of conjuring shadows to use, she prefers to manipulate shadow magic that exists around her and around others. She uses this magic in many ways, but most of her spells are meant to cause debilitating pain. She rarely uses curses, but she has the capacity to. She also likes using shadow magic as a sort of "life siphon," to drain foes of their energy. She has been hailed as one of the greatest users of soul magic in Stormwind. When provoked with enough reason to do so, Althea will use shadow magic to cause psychological effects on her enemies, forcing them into surrender or into servitude.

Relationship with Demons
Rarely, Althea will summon her subjugated voidwalker, Daximotos, to assist her. Daximotos is generally used as a bit of a meat shield, or Althea will use his body, made of shadow, to facilitate greater spellcasting on her part. However, Althea hates demons. She has been experimenting, more recently, with demonic runes to try to garner the same power as she has with the voidwalker without having to actually summon it. So far, she has made a few breakthroughs, but she has yet to replicate the exact same power.

Trivia

 * Althea has a remarkably-low alcohol tolerance.
 * The woman who enlisted her into the Argent Crusade was, ironically, an inquisitor.
 * Althea's favorite color is red.
 * She has no idea what she will do with the Brimcraft Artillery Company when she inherits it.