User:Joshmaul/Tavira Nightswan

"'Let Silvermoon rot, for all I care. What good have they done us, aligning with the Horde? Better to be a 'tentacly freak' than a fresh corpse for that witch Sylvanas.'"
 * - Lady Tavira Nightswan

Lady Tavira Brightswan was a noble of Silvermoon and accomplished warlock who followed Magister Umbric to the Telogrus Rift in the waning days of the war against the Burning Legion, and was among those of his entourage altered by the release of potent Void magics. She took the name Nightswan to mark her transformation and called upon those of her household that remained in Silvermoon to join her. Without a second thought, all of them did; though they were as disturbed as she had been at the idea of becoming "monsters", they considered the idea of being fodder for Sylvanas Windrunner's war machine to be worse.

Biography
Born in Silvermoon, Tavira Brightswan belonged to a lower house of nobility that had been known for their sorcerers. Her father and two elder brothers, all mages in their own right, had been killed by the Horde when they invaded Quel'Thalas during the Second War. While she nursed a bitter hatred for the Horde that continues to this day, Tavira witnessed the power used by the warlocks and their various servants, such as the ogre-magi (many of whom were transformed by Gul'dan corrupting one of the Runestones into his "Altars of Storms") and the death knights, and decided that the "traditional" path was not the way forward. She began practicing dark magics in secret during the years that followed, something that soon became an obsession by the time the Scourge arrived. During the "interbellum" between the Second and Third Wars, she struck up a romantic relationship with Menarian Talashar, an up-and-coming Magister.

Tavira very nearly ended up becoming another corpse raised in the service of the Lich King, were it not for a spell-cast that - rather than attack her enemies - took her instead to safety. But it was not a mage teleportation spell, at least none that she knew of; she would learn much later that she had in fact opened a tear in reality itself - one that took her from Silvermoon to a clearing outside Tranquillien, in what was now the "Ghostlands". With the destruction of the Sunwell, her people - now christened "blood elves" - took to whatever magical sources they could find; Prince Kael'thas, who had left to fight first for the Alliance, and then again for Illidan Stormrage in Outland, had begun sending back fel crystals to act as power conduits for his people's magical thirst. Yet even with fel energy becoming prevalent in Silvermoon - so much so that the blue eyes of its people became green - Tavira was among those who turned to far darker sources of power. She thus found herself drawn to a radical magister named Umbric, who believed the power of the Void could be harnessed to protect Quel'Thalas. Tavira, however, was no longer so sure Quel'Thalas should be protected anymore, as it had gone down a path that even she was wary of. By the time Umbric began his researches, the sin'dorei had joined the Horde at the invitation of Sylvanas Windrunner, Silvermoon's former Ranger-General and now known as the "Banshee Queen" of the Forsaken - undead who had broken from the Scourge and been brought into the Horde to ensure their future. Tavira was outraged; remembering well the Second War, and those she had lost during it, she spoke publicly against her people's new allegiance, even saying that perhaps they should have just submitted completely to Arthas if they were in the business of bowing before their enemies. This soured her relationship with Talashar, who was not only committed to making the sin'dorei a proud and strong part of the Horde that had once slaughtered them, but had also become a pious believer of the Light - surprising for a mage - following the restoration of the Sunwell.

Umbric's researches eventually brought him and his followers into conflict with Grand Magister Rommath, the leader of Silvermoon's mages, who believed that the practice of Void magic in Quel'Thalas would endanger the Sunwell. The Grand Magister thus banished Umbric and all who followed him from Silvermoon. Tavira thought Rommath to be a hypocrite, given that Silvermoon was still adorned with fel crystals, which were just as anathemic to the Light as the Void. Nonetheless, she was glad to be free of the "false puritanism" of men like Rommath, and free to pursue her magical studies without interference. While the remainder of her House remained in Silvermoon, Tavira left to join Umbric in the wild, accompanied only by her bodyguard, Tiaru Moonracer.

Dancing in the Dark


As the years went on, Umbric and his followers uncovered the research of Dar'Khan Drathir, the traitor who had allowed Arthas and the Scourge into Quel'Thalas. Umbric had discovered that Dar'Khan had found a place called the Telogrus Rift, within which was an artifact of great Void energy that could be harnessed for the good of his people. Eventually, Umbric found the way to Telogrus and led his followers there. But the artifact they found inside - a magical cube containing potent dark energies - exploded with great force, saturating Umbric and his followers in the dark magic. The explosion allowed Nether-Prince Durzaan, a void ethereal who had become enslaved to the powers he wielded, to enter Telogrus, where he sought to enslave the void-tainted elves. They were saved by the arrival of Alleria Windrunner - herself empowered by the Void during the campaign on Argus - who had come to recruit Umbric and his acolytes into the Alliance for the upcoming conflict against the Horde; now she, along with her ethereal mentor Locus-Walker, would also teach them how to master the powers of the Void, rather than be mastered by them. The void elves, as they were now known, accepted her offer, and joined the Alliance. Embracing her new form, Tavira renamed herself "Nightswan".

Though knowing she would never return to Silvermoon, Tavira was not enthusiastic about being aligned with people even more puritanical than the blood elves had become, fearing that she and her fellows would be "burned like witches". However, she also recognized that the Alliance was not in the business of banishing or murdering people simply for being "different". She sent out word to her House's retainers in Silvermoon, knowing that while they were wary of the powers she now embodied, they would embrace such a path rather than be corpses to be defiled by Sylvanas, who was now the Warchief. Led by Magister Lianis, her former chief advisor, every single one of them left Silvermoon to the Telogrus Rift, where they willingly chose to embrace the darkness.

Her suspicions of the Horde, which she had voiced publicly and often even when she had technically been part of it, seemed justified when Sylvanas led her armies into Ashenvale and Darkshore, burning and despoiling as she went - and the blood elves followed her without hesitation. For Tavira, it was an eerie repeat of what Arthas had done to Quel'Thalas, and proof that her now-former people were now no better than those who had tried to destroy them. Tavira dispatched Tiaru to join the Alliance forces there as her eyes and ears, only to learn that she had been killed in the ruins of Auberdine by the mad Forsaken shadow priest Sekhesmet of Stratholme. The World Tree Teldrassil, home to the night elf capital of Darnassus, was burned shortly afterwards, leading the Alliance to swear revenge by besieging Sylvanas' own domain - the Undercity, built beneath the ruins of Lordaeron's capital city. Accompanied by Lianis and a squad of Riftblade assassins, Tavira was among the "second wave" who teleported in via a rift opened by Alleria, only to be drawn out of the fight by sensing powerful energies coming from outside the walls - and seeing a Stormwind knight she recognized, Sir Eran Heskin, riding out to investigate. Following Heskin into the ruins of Brill, she found a duel ongoing in the courtyard - the sin'dorei death knight Taeril'hane Ketiron, whose son Ord'taeril had become a void elf, and the orc warlock known as the Corruptor, with Sekhesmet stepping between them to slay Ketiron and end the combat; the priest's twisted mockery of life was ended by the Corruptor shortly thereafter.

The fall of the Undercity had left Tavira convinced that Silvermoon had at last gone beyond the point of no return. Though the blood elves condemned her and her fellow void elves as "traitors", Tavira felt that Sylvanas was a traitor to all elves and to all life, and that her former people were guilty by association. She began to wonder if perhaps it would be better if Quel'Thalas were utterly destroyed, and all blood elves put to death - leaving only the void elves, and those few who still called themselves "high elves", to carry on the legacy of the Highborne...

The Nightswan Manifesto
Sometime after the battle of Dazar'alor, Tavira issued a manifesto, unsigned but marked by her personal sigil - a dark swan against a crescent moon - around the city of Stormwind. In it, she emphasized the differences between the void elves and the blood elves, considering them to be two separate peoples. Most worryingly to some, however, was her call to "raise the black flag", meaning that the war should be fought until the Horde was not only defeated, but utterly destroyed, and that the Alliance should show no quarter to the enemy. This applied particularly to those who remained allegiant to Silvermoon, which she condemned as a "failed state".