User:Joshmaul/Liam Branscombe

"'Talk's expensive. Death is free.'"
 * - Liam Branscombe

Liam Branscombe, reviled by both Gilneans and Forsaken alike as the Ghost of the Northgate, is a "reformed" serial killer who operates as a freelance assassin. While nominally a member of the Alliance, he has no true allegiance other than to himself and the thrill of the kill.

Biography
Born in Emberstone Village just before the Second War, Liam Branscombe was named for Prince Liam Greymane, heir to the throne of Gilneas. His mother died shortly after he was born, and he was raised by his father, a miner.

His past after that is relatively unknown, but it was around his sixteenth birthday that he developed his penchant for murder. Shortly after, a series of seemingly random slayings terrorized Emberstone and the Northgate. No one was able to catch a glimpse of the killer, leading to him being dubbed the "Ghost of the Northgate". The victims included Liam's father and elder brother, and were believed to number somewhere around thirty in the end. Branscombe went for nearly a decade without being caught.

When he was 24, Branscombe decided to join the Northgate rebellion to mask his urges, figuring that the rebels would probably be beheaded or hanged if they got caught anyway, what would it matter that he was there? He became part of ex-Royal Army officer Eidan Zherron's company, along with Jeremiah August and a few others from the Gilnean militia who had turned against the King. Branscombe later admitted he had not joined the rebellion out of any sense of patriotism, but because he simply wanted to kill people and the rebellion was his best means of doing so. However, late in the war, Branscombe was caught and sent to Stoneward Prison, along with Lord Darius Crowley, the resistance's leader, and some other rebellion members.

Like Crowley, Branscombe - who cheerfully confirmed his identity as "the Ghost" when Lord Vincent Godfrey asked him - was granted amnesty by King Greymane during the worgen attacks in Gilneas City, and was among those turned at Light's Dawn Cathedral. After being "cured" in Duskhaven, Branscombe grimly joked that he was a true "ghost" now, for his fur was "as white as the White Lady herself". His old moniker would be used just as much by the Forsaken as it had been by those of his own people he had preyed upon.

Zherron, now a Cenarion druid and head of the "Shadowhowl pack", put Branscombe's killing gifts to use against the Horde, particularly the Forsaken, in the years that followed, despite being sickened by his "past life" - a life that Branscombe never denied or expressed remorse for. Despite the tremendous differences between the two men, Branscombe grew to respect the soldier-turned-druid, and gladly acted as his enforcer - particularly because it allowed him to keep his killing edge against those who were even more reviled by his people than he was. He remained at Zherron's side throughout the campaigns on Draenor and the Broken Isles; during the latter campaign, he was inducted into the Uncrowned, an informal "club" for Azeroth's assassins, pirates, and mercenaries.

When Zherron was killed by Sekhesmet of Stratholme during the invasion of Tirisfal, Branscombe offered his services to the fallen druid's recently-resurfaced daughter, Lucia, and accompanied her to Kul Tiras. He and the survivors of the Shadowhowl pack remained at her side until the siege of Dazar'alor, when they chose to buy Lucia and her comrade, Admiral Eliphas Aximand, time to escape. Branscombe and the Shadowhowl worgen were believed to have all been slain by a powerful burst of void energy unleashed by the demented Forsaken shadow priest Shankolin Blightpath. But Branscombe survived, keeping hidden in the jungles of Zuldazar for months, living (as best he could) off the land and killing any Zandalari or Forsaken who crossed his path.

Despite being in his element, hunting down "troll filth", Branscombe found himself drawn back to Lucia, his instincts telling him that something awaited that would require him to be at her side...