User:Joshmaul/Lord Verulam

"'Kingdoms are temporary; the Nether endures.'"
 * - Lord Verulam

Lord Verulam is a dark sorcerer belonging to the Council of the Black Harvest. Though ostensibly part of the Horde by dint of being Forsaken, he sees all factional differences, even allegiance to Sylvanas, as being secondary to mastering the powers of the Twisting Nether.

Biography
Believed to have belonged to a minor house of Lordaeronian nobility, Verulam was born in the Capital City and became enamored of the dark arts fairly early on in his life. He is believed to have operated one of the largest covens in Lordaeron prior to the arrival of the Horde, his life and vitality extended through unnatural means. Just before the Scourge rampaged through Lordaeron, Verulam was discovered and executed, and buried without ceremony in a pauper's grave in the cemetery in Brill.

Verulam rose from the dead when the Scourge began its march across Lordaeron, and was found early enough by the Forsaken for them to turn him to their cause. It was during his early service to Sylvanas that he elected to take up an iron jaw to replace the one lost to the ravages of decay. He participated in the Forsaken's many campaigns to claim the rest of Lordaeron; as the wars continued, however, Verulam had an epiphany...

Though he stands with the Forsaken at present, Verulam believes that kingdoms and factions are matters for the "temporal world"; his real loyalty is to himself, and to his mastering the powers of the Twisting Nether. He believes the distinctions between Alliance and Horde are largely irrelevant, a creation of the factions involved out of a sense of (as he perceives it) misplaced pride. He believes it is this "delusional, self-imposed necessity" to choose sides that has caused so much damage to Azeroth, not the dark arts practiced by men such as himself. Thus, while he is careful to avoid outright stating he feels himself "beyond" loyalty to Sylvanas and the Forsaken, he has become increasingingly distant from them.

After largely sitting out the war in Pandaria, Verulam travelled Draenor, seeking to learn what new powers can be discovered in the time-altered "copy" of the world he only knew as Outland. It was during this period that he followed the path of the Black Harvest, in working from the translated Codex of Xerrath to master the power of the fel.