User:Joshmaul/Vilaya

"'So, ya wanna test ya blades beyond da sands, young vulpera... ya soon be gettin' a chance. Soon Death be comin' ta find ya, and will be needin' ya services. It will be a great opportunity... take it.'"
 * - Valkia'jin, the Spiritseeker

Vilaya the Deathseeker is a vengeful vulpera shadow-blade who works as the personal assassin of the High Priest Zulimbasha the Collector, helping collect souls for Bwonsamdi, Lord of the Dead.

Biography
Vilaya came into the world as most vulpera do - in a caravan in the desert - and had a normal upbringing, living off whatever they could find in the harsh wastes of Vol'dun, trying to avoid the attention of the sethrak. Vilaya regularly watched friends and loved ones die to sethrak slaving raids, and she swore that she would not rest until the sethrak "were as dead as their god", Sethraliss. She found inspiration for combat in the fearsome snake-killer Nisha, and learned to master various blades and poisons, as well as stealth. She regularly prowled ahead of the caravan she had signed up with and slew any sethrak she could find, reveling in the adrenaline of the kill. It reached a point that her caravan leader, Eldex, made it a point to keep her away from the Sanctuary of the Devoted, where Vorrik and his loyalists resided, as he feared she would not see the difference between these friendly sethrak and the Faithless enemy.

The arrival of the Horde in Zandalar - and regular attacks by their arch-enemies, the Alliance - would change Vilaya's world forever. The Zandalari and their Horde allies fought to defend Vol'dun from the Alliance's 7th Legion, which had a tendency to massacre unprotected vulpera caravans. Vilaya's parents were among the dead, awakening in her a hatred for the Alliance as passionate as it had been for the sethrak. She heard from Horde champions about the great castles and mountain cities the Alliance lived in, and swore that she would live to "see their mountains crumble to dust".

During the uneasy armistice brought on by a rebellion within the Horde, Vilaya returned to the routine of hunting down sethrak slavers. On her return to the hideaway set up by Kiro, she saw two Zandalari meeting with Eldex - the shaman Valkia'jin, a former exile whom she had met before during travels in the desert... and a powerful-looking man wearing a skull mask, surrounded by soul energy. Valkia had told her that "Death would come callin' for ya", and so Vilaya wondered if he had come across from his swamp in Nazmir to take her soul. The skull-faced Zandalari, who removed his mask to let her see his face, replied that no, he was not "Death who lives in the swamp" - Bwonsamdi - but he did serve him. He explained that Valkia believed Vilaya could help him in his work in bringing souls to the "Other Side" for his patron Loa.

Vilaya was confused by this; she was not a priest, she said, just someone who killed sethrak and anyone else who harmed her people. How could she help him deliver souls to Bwonsamdi? The priest smiled and said that she could do it just as she was doing to the sethrak, and to the enemies of her people - at the end of a blade. The priest identified himself as Zulimbasha the Collector - and he asked Vilaya to act as his personal assassin, which would take her far beyond Vol'dun, far beyond even Zandalar. Vilaya asked if that meant she could kill Alliance. Zulimbasha, with no great love for them himself after their attacks against Zandalar, said only that the possibility existed; Alliance-Horde ceasefires never lasted for long. Eager to test her skills in the world beyond the desert, Vilaya agreed to serve him, and underwent the ritual that bound the souls of those she killed to Bwonsamdi. She then set out for Zuldazar, and from there used the portals provided by the Horde to arrive in their capital of Orgrimmar. With the armistice, Zulimbasha explained, there was work to be done in the world beyond Zandalar, as the last of the Old Gods began to rise from the depths...