User:Joshmaul/Eldred Valmy

"'There's a whole wide Nether out there, and I want to learn all about it.'"
 * - Lord Eldred Valmy

The last of his house of the Gilnean nobility, Eldred Valmy was a member of one of the warlock covens of Gilneas City, and eventually became Magister of his sect. When the worgen came, all who were able and willing were called to serve, including the prisoners in Stoneward Prison...and the warlock guilds. After a misunderstanding led to a killing, Valmy fled into the wilds, where he became a worgen himself. Having lost none of his prior magical potency, Valmy has become a skilled adept of the dark arts, and is dedicated to using them against the enemies of Azeroth.

Biography
Born at the family estate in Gilneas City just prior to the First War, Eldred was the eldest child of Lord Bardin and Lady Estelle, the heads of House Valmy, a family with a pedigree that dated back to the Arathorian splintering. He was followed four years later by a younger sister, Eirena. It was during the First and Second Wars, with the tales of dark magic being used by the orcs, that the idea of "fighting fire with fire" began, and dark covens began to rise in the nations of the Alliance, including Gilneas - a land not usually known for its tolerance of magic users. Eldred maintained a public image as a playboy and a gambler, who regularly squandered the family fortune on games of chance - especially in the years when Gilneas was isolated from the rest of Lordaeron by the Greymane Wall. In private, however, he was a dedicated student of the dark arts; by the time the worgen began terrorizing the streets, he had risen to become Magister of his coven.

When the worgen threat became too wide-spread for the regular army to combat, King Genn Greymane turned to anyone willing to help, including former Northgate rebels, and even the warlock covens. Valmy was eager to prove his willingness to serve, but entered into an altercation with a guardsman in the royal army over the use of "heretical powers". Anger getting the better of him, Valmy killed the man with a burst of flame. Panicking - believing that he would be executed for this crime - Valmy fled Gilneas City and into the wilds...a mistake, as it turned out, as he was attacked and bitten by a worgen, becoming one himself.

Despite the feral instinct that took hold in him as a result, Valmy was nonetheless drawn to the powers awakened by the night elves at Tal'doren, the great tree in the Blackwald. The druids were able to conduct their ritual to restore his mind, thus regaining his free will even in his monstrous state. Restored to himself again, Valmy joined with his people, worgen and human alike, to combat the Forsaken and their Horde allies, defeating their invasion forces long enough to escape with the night elves to Darnassus. But Valmy would not remain with his people for long; as punishment for killing the soldier, Valmy was banished from the Howling Oak, the Gilnean enclave in Darnassus...and because of his use of demonic magic, the night elves followed suit by banishing him from Darnassus altogether.

Taking the ship to Stormwind, Valmy became connected with the city's warlock coven, operating out of the Slaughtered Lamb Tavern in the city's Mage Quarter. During the campaign on Draenor, he would take control of the garrison-fortress of Shadowgarde in Shadowmoon Valley after its previous tenants - the demented gnome warlock Rakeri Sputterspark, and the draenei death knight Battlelord Velenkayn - made ignominious ends. Following the defeat of the Iron Horde, he returned to Azeroth and joined the Council of the Black Harvest. After the campaign concluded on Argus, Eldred travelled to Suramar hoping to learn more of the Nightborne, only to find they had aligned with the Horde - and they killed him on the spot.

Much like the orc warlock known as "the Corruptor", Eldred's essence was trapped within a soulstone. The stone was kept hidden by a Dark Iron neophyte named Daeron Soulscorcher, whom Eldred had taken under his wing during the conflict. With Daeron's aid, he arranged for the "removal" of a troublemaking void elf warlock named Tavira Nightswan, believing that the release of power from her death would allow him to return to corporeal existence. The void elf's arrogant pride ultimately resulted in a wizard's duel to the death with the Nightborne arcanist Randarel Vendross; her death, combined with Daeron's incantations, restored Eldred to life - and now he has a lot of catching up to do...