User:Joshmaul/Erdanel Vendross

"'Tragedy... we have seen much of it. I have seen much of it. It's led me to believe that our sorrow is our strength.'"
 * - Lord Erdanel Vendross, at his father's funeral

Lord Erdanel Vendross is an arcanist of Suramar and now head of House Vendross following the death of his father, Lord Randarel.

Biography
House Vendross is an ancient Highborne family that split into two branches during the War of the Ancients, based on the location of their estates - one in the library-city of Eldre'Thalas in the jungles of Feralas, and the other along the harbor in Suramar. Erdanel is the current head of the Suramar branch, now the only one remaining following the deaths of the brothers Tarathel and Caro'thel, the last of the Eldre'Thalas branch, during the Cataclysm. Born to Lord Randarel and Lady Elerina during Suramar's isolation from the world, Erdanel is the eldest of their two children, followed some years later by a younger sister, Telisa.

As the last remaining heirs to the House, Erdanel and Telisa were kept protected from nearly everything (and everyone) during that period, and especially after Grand Magistrix Elisande brought down the shield that had protected the city... and aligned with the very Legion they had hidden from in the first place. When Elerina was executed and Randarel banished to become Nightfallen for opposing the new order, his guard captain Valya Tiren arranged for the two of them to be hidden with loyal allies in Suramar. Neither he nor his sister expected to see their father alive again. However, Randarel survived, although withering into a Nightfallen and constantly hungering for mana.

Following Elisande's defeat, Captain Tiren brought Erdanel and Telisa to Shal'Aran, where they and their father partook of the fruit of the arcan'dor, freeing them from the grasp of the Nightwell forever. In gratitude for their support (and their much warmer acceptance of their society than Suramar's most famous scion, the notoriously magophobic Tyrande Whisperwind), Suramar aligned with the blood elves of Silvermoon and the Horde they served. Erdanel visited Silvermoon many times with his father, and was amazed to see how far their distant cousins had risen from their own near-destruction.

When war began in earnest between Alliance and Horde, Erdanel remained at the Nighthold while Randarel left for the front lines, though the conflict was brought to their own home soon enough as well - House Vendross was accused of treason by the Forsaken undead, the footsoldiers of the Horde's warchief, Sylvanas Windrunner. The psychotic shadow priest Shankolin Blightpath, in concert with Captain Tiren (who had been banished for disobeying Randarel's order to stay out of the conflict with the night elves in Darkshore), executed all of the house's guards and servants. It had been Erdanel who suggested recruiting blood elves to fill in the gaps, being particularly impressed by the Sunblade siblings, Nor'taeron and Nadiya.

Randarel's open disdain for warlock magic, necromancy, and the undead earned him his fair share of enemies, many of whom openly wished for his death. Elodie Noirceur, a Nightborne warlock known as the "Shadowreaper of Suramar", was the one who would end Randarel's life - although the quick thinking of Erdanel and the Sunblades kept her from taking his soul to fuel her dark magics, and forced the turncoat to retreat. Burying his father in Tel'anor next to his mother, Erdanel was forced to take Randarel's place as lord of House Vendross... well aware that he and Telisa were all that remained, and would likely be targeted next.