User:Kroenenthuzad/Lord Charlton


 * "Indeed, I say"
 * —Lord Charlton

Lord Montgomery Charlton, 3rd Earl of Stormglen, is a Gilnean nobleman fiercely loyal to his King, Genn Greymane.

History
He is in his late forties. As many Gilneans, he is burly and gruff. The Earldom of Stormglen, which includes the land of Stormglen Village and The Blackwald, was given to his grandfather Winston Charlton by the king Archibald Greymane. After this, the Charlton family became a loyal adviser to the Greymane Dinasty.

Second War and the Greymane Wall
He was like twenty years old when the orcs launched an offensive against the Alliance of Lordaeron, thus starting the Second War. By the end of the war and the defeat of the Horde, he utterly supported the decision of King Greymane about leaving the Alliance and he received those news joyfully. Being extremely isolationist, he also supported the Greymane Wall's construction.

He soon learnt to hate Lord Darius Crowley and all those pro-Alliance mongrels. For him, they were merely traitors and secessionist. He became a close friend of King Greymane, Lord Hewell and the other two eastern lords, Lord Walden and Baron Ashbury, but he was in constant fight with Lord Vincent Godfrey, who he considered a selfish faker that held no true loyalty to their king. Because of that, Lord Charlton's only intentions were to cut off any political influence that both Crowley and Godfrey could hold, although unsuccessfully.

Civil War and Worgen Curse
With the start of the Northgate rebellion and the Gilneas civil war, Lord Charlton's worst fears came true. Shortly before the official beginning of the conflict, Lord Charlton, as earl of Stormglen, met with King Genn Greymane, Prince Liam Greymane, Gwen Armstead, and Lord Godfrey to discuss about the recent news of "rebellion" among the people in Northgate Woods. There, Gwen and Charlton swore allegiance to their king and promised to rule their respective holdings —Duskhaven and Stormglen Village, the two biggest settlements in Gilneas after Greymane City— in support of the monarchy and against the northgate rebels. And so they did. Lord Charlton was far more severe in his punishments than Armstead — soon Stormglen Village got free from traitors and criminals.

When Lord Darius Crowley and his underlings where captured and confined in Stoneward Prison, Lord Charlton received the news while he was in Stormglen. He prepared a carriage to leave to Gilneas City immediately, thinking the capital would be sunk in the feast and celebration — Sadly, it was not, for the Worgen invasion had begun. Riding through the misty roads of Gilneas, believing to be safe as the rebellion had ended, the carriage was suddenly attacked by a pack of feral worgen that came out of The Blackwald. Lord Charlton's escort was murdered by the beasts and he was bitten by one of those nightmarish creatures.

With their beloved lord lost without a trace, and thus without a true leadership except for some minor military, Stormglen Village soon fell against the worgen swarm that ravaged the town and spread the curse to all of its inhabitants. Those newly-turned worgen fled to the nearby Blackwald, running wild through the forest. There, a bloody worgen early known as Lord Charlton join them as one more of the pack.

The Cataclysm
After the Forsaken invasion and tremors of the Cataclysm, the surviving residents of Duskhaven —led by King Greymane and Mayor Armstead— fled to Stormglen Village, hoping to find safety in the arms of their friendly neighbors and to enjoy Lord Charlton's hospitality. They discovered that the residents of Stormglen disappeared without a trace, however, leaving the village abandoned.

Soon after, Gilnean adventurers find out the population of Stormglen living safety in The Blackwald, under a big tree known as Tal'doren, though they had been all turned to worgen. Apparently, night elven druids helped those mindless creatures to regain their sanity. Lord Crowley was one of these new sane worgen, and so was Lord Charlton too. Although the earl, believing to be a monster and flatly refusing to consider the villanous Crowley his "brother", had given up the command of the Stormglen villagers. Charlton sunk into a deep depression believing that his king would treat him as the beast he was, until King Genn Greymane himself came to Tal'doren to parley with Lord Crowley, and revealed to be afflicted by the worgen curse too. This cheered up Lord Charlton and, after he was given an explanation to about the situation, the fracture of the Greymane Wall and the Horde invasion, he retook the command of a small worgen militia and swore to defend Gilneas and its people from any harm until death if necessary.



Not so much later, Lord Godfrey, with the help of the eastern lords, Baron Ashbury and Lord Walden, kidnapped King Greymane and Lord Hewell, who had refused to help them betraying their king. Lord Godfrey had planned to turn Genn Greymane over to the Forsaken in exchange for an end to hostilities. Lord Charlton, furious with Godfrey and feeling betrayed by his old two friends, Ashbury and Walden, made peaces with Lord Crowley and lead a worgen party to ruin the eastern lords' scheme. Lord Charlton's allies triumphed as they saw how Godfrey threw himself over a cliff in Tempest's Reach, finding a certain death as he smashed against the sharp rocks below.

Lord Crowley founded the Gilneas Liberation Front to fight the Forsaken with the aid of the Alliance. Lord Charlton initially distrusted this organization and feared that this new Alliance was not legit, such as the previous one. However, he tried to get on well with Crowley and his night elven allies, and he joined the GLF along with his Stormglen militia, everything to preserve the safety in Gilnean lands. As long as Crowley fought selflessly to defend the people of Gilneas, Lord Charlton fought next to him, avoiding thinking of Crowley as a traitor. Together they pressed up the Forsaken through Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad Foothills, and it was okay until...

Crowley's daughter, Lorna, was kidnapped by an undead Godfrey and Sylvanas used her to her own ends — if Crowley continued battling the Forsaken, Lorna would die and become an undead such as Godfrey. But, if he stopped leading the GLF and gave up defending Gilneas, Lorna would be set free. Lord Charlton believed the safety of Gilnean people was more important than a sole life, no matters if that life was Crowley's daughter's. Charlton believed Crowley thought that way too, and that he would resist stoically the lost of Lorna if that protected Gilneas. So Charlton got shocked when Crowley immediatly gave up and surrendered to Sylvanas, and he suddenly remembered all the hatred he felt toward the traitorous and criminal Lord Crowley back to the Civil war. Lord Charlton left the scene howling in anger, and fled back to Gilneas to regroup his forces in Stormglen Village.

Post-Cataclysm
He stubbornly refused to leave Gilneas, and preferred to stay in Stormglen instead of reaching safety in Darnassus or Stormwind City, strange lands he hadn't ever been to. If he had to die, he would die in Gilneas, where he belongs. He currently still hates Lord Darius Crowley, and he despises him more and more each passing day, as Charlton sees the lands of the beautiful Gilneas uninhabited and unprotected, left behind like if it was something you can throw away. To see Duskhaven underwater is terribly painful for him, and he can't stand walking through the empty streets of Gilneas City since it is left as an abandoned battleground. He considers himself a fanatically loyal servitor of King Greymane, but in turn he doesn't obey his king when he asks Charlton to leave Gilneas and reach Alliance territories. Speaking of the devil, Lord Charlton has learnt to distrust the new Alliance as much as the original one, and he shows a xenophobic attitude towards any non-Gilnean that dares to enter the now ruined land of Greymane. Pretty much as during the Second War, he seems to think that a sole Gilnean army is able to stand against the Horde offensive, no matters if this has been proven to not to work. If he has to sacrifice his troops or his own life, he’ll do it to safeguard Gilneas.

He obviously thinks that fleeing to Alliance lands was an error that has to be fixed in order to retake their own territory, but King Greymane doesn’t seem to take seriously his old councilor’s advices. Lord Charlton hates the Horde and he utterly hates the Forsaken. What he really want is to see every undead exterminated and every orc slain, he wants to retake Gilneas and even the territories of Pyrewood Village, Ambermill and, if possible, the whole of Silverpine.

Some say Lord Charlton is an old megalomaniac man, insane of vengeance, that will lead himself and his troops to a certain suicide mission. But these troops, all of them from Stormglen and the Blackwald, follow their Lord with utter devotion, as they think they’re serving King Greymane by protecting the ruined lands of Gilneas.

Today, Lord Charlton is one of the really few individuals that continue to visit Prince Liam Greymane’s tomb in Aderic's Repose, as a proof of respect and loyalty to the House of Greymane.


 * -- Kroenen thuzad (talk &middot; contr)