User:Joshmaul/Emelie Danjou

"'You were expecting a pointed hat, a crooked nose, and a broomstick?'"
 * - Emelie Danjou, usual response to "are you really a witch?"

Emelie Danjou is a refugee from Lordaeron with a talent for dark magic. She was condemned to death as "the Witch of Hearthglen" by the Scarlet Crusade, but escaped and made her way to Stormwind to properly learn her powers. Residing in the Grizzly Hills of Northrend since the war with the Lich King, she has updated her title to "the Witch of the Grizzly Hills".

Biography
Emelie Danjou (pronounced "Dan-Joe", from an old dialect) comes from a family of "dabblers" - as they liked to call themselves - in the dark arts, living quiet public lives in northern Lordaeron, while privately indulging in forbidden knowledge. When she was 13, the plague spread through Lordaeron. Her parents were among the dead, infected and dying while visiting friends in Andorhal, leaving her in the care of a nanny back in their home city of Hearthglen, which was among the few cities to survive the Scourge - ironically thanks to the efforts of Prince Arthas, he who would eventually become the Lich King. After Lordaeron fell, Hearthglen was occupied by the Scarlet Crusade. Emelie's powers awakened when she was 16 - though she worked hard to keep it a secret from her guardian, Inquisitor Simeon Belleme, a priest with the increasingly fanatical Crusade. But it could not last forever. Two years later, Belleme found her out, accused her of witchcraft and heresy, and demanded a public execution. Before sentence could be carried out, however, she was rescued by agents of the Alliance on a mission for Stormwind, and taken to safety. Belleme did not forget her, however, and posted a bounty for the head of the "Witch of Hearthglen".

Fleeing south to Stormwind, Emelie was discovered by the warlock coven based out of the Slaughtered Lamb Inn, which offered to train her properly in the use of her powers, so that she would not end up destroying herself (or worse, everyone around her) because of her lack of experience. Although frightened at the idea of being targeted by another witch-hunt, Emelie saw that the warlocks were, if not accepted, at least tolerated in Stormwind's society - provided they did not flaunt their powers. Plus, she reasoned, it would allow her a chance to not only fight the Scourge that had devastated her homeland, but also hunt down and kill her erstwhile guardian - provided no one got to him first. With that in mind, she finally accepted.

In time, Emelie was well-acquainted with her powers, enough to offer her services for the voyage to Northrend, the domain of the Lich King. To her joy, not only would she have a chance to fight the Scourge, but also some of the remnants of the Scarlet Crusade, now rebranded as the "Scarlet Onslaught". Upon arriving at New Hearthglen in the Dragonblight, she encountered Inquisitor Belleme, who had become a "raven priest" in the new Onslaught. Emelie engaged in a duel with her former foster father, laughing at him and mocking him for his hypocrisy - condemning her for using dark magic, while using it himself. The power of the raven priests was still new and unfamiliar to Belleme, who found himself at a surprising disadvantage to the more confident Emelie. Maintaining the upper hand all throughout and forcing her foe to exhaust himself, Emelie finally slew Belleme, and scattered his soul to oblivion; "some people are not worthy to be fuel" was her judgment. She was working to help contain the corruption within the furbolgs of the Grizzly Hills when word came that the Lich King had been slain and the Scourge contained.

Following the Cataclysm, Emelie heard rumors of a "revival" of the Plaguelands, led by the Argent Crusade and the Cenarion Circle, and made her way back to Hearthglen for the first time in several years. However, she found herself feeling like a stranger in someone else's home... particularly because the Argents, in their own way, were just as zealous as the Scarlets had been (albeit not nearly as psychotic). She thus returned to Northrend and set up residence in the Amberpine Lodge, overlooking the Blackriver in the Grizzly Hills. During the wars that followed, she worked to expand both her powers and her discipline over them. Following the burning of Teldrassil, however, she made her way to the front lines of the Fourth War (though she made it a particular point to avoid Drustvar, given the rumors she'd heard of witch hunters, and not wanting to test whether her reputation would follow her).