User:Joshmaul/Sir Galen Tavener

"'Before Northrend, we had a purpose. We sought to protect our people and destroy Arthas. Then Fordring and his champions killed Arthas. Sylvanas began taking out her frustration on being denied the kill on the living, and not caring a whit if they carried a weapon or not. I may be a wretched monster, but I will never butcher children, no matter who orders it. Never.'"
 * - Sir Galen Tavener, Knight of the Ebon Blade

Sir Galen Tavener, better known as the Dragon Knight, was a Knight of the Ebon Blade. A former knight of Lordaeron, Galen was killed and raised by the Scourge during the Third War and later freed by Sylvanas as one of the first Forsaken, before being killed again and reanimated as a death knight during the Scourge invasion that heralded the beginning of the war for Northrend. Though devoted to protecting his fellow Forsaken, he began to question his loyalty to the Dark Lady in light of the indiscriminate slaughter of non-combatants as well as any who dare oppose her rule. When the time came for him to finally choose a side, he joined Saurfang's rebellion, which ended Sylvanas' reign.

With Sylvanas deposed and in hiding, Galen - like many of his people - felt adrift. The Forsaken had to redefine themselves without her, and while he was uncertain whether that new definition will be better or worse, he was certain that whatever future awaits his people, it would be one of their own choosing. Unfortunately, he was not able to live to see that future for himself...

Biography
Galen was born in Stratholme, second only to the capital in size and importance in the old Kingdom of Lordaeron. His family had been knights in the service of the House of Menethil for generations, and Galen, unsurprisingly, would become one himself in short order, beginning as a squire for his father, Sir Draigo Tavener, until he was knighted by King Terenas himself at the age of twenty-two. During the Second War, Draigo and Galen were both part of the Alliance garrison in Lordaeron's capital, protecting it from the Horde's attempt to take the city. When the Horde were routed by the return of the Alliance armies from Quel'Thalas, father and son joined the combined forces under Supreme Commander Anduin Lothar, and later his successor Turalyon, for the march on Blackrock Spire and the pursuit into the Black Morass. Draigo would accompany Turalyon and the Sons of Lothar beyond the Dark Portal, and is among the dead buried at Honor Hold in Outland's Hellfire Peninsula; Galen returned to Lordaeron, remaining in the service of the King for more than a decade.

After the end of the Second War, Galen was posted to Durnholde Keep in the Arathi Highlands, the headquarters of the internment camps that contained those orcs left behind after the sealing of the Dark Portal. Galen looked upon his commander, General Aedelas Blackmoore, with contempt and distrust, partly due to the treason of Blackmoore's father, but primarily due to his alcoholism, a vice that sickened the teetotal Galen. He was also suspicious of his "pet orc", Thrall, suspecting that Blackmoore had more in mind than simply making money off his fighting in the arena, another practice Galen loathed; he was not at all surprised that Thrall ended up escaping. He finally requested to be returned to the capital garrison; little more than a month later, Durnholde was sacked by the resurgent Horde, with Thrall now its Warchief. But the renewed rise of the Horde soon took a back seat to a far greater issue: The rumors of plague in the northern provinces, particularly around Andorhal. Galen, like many in the capital, believed the tales to be fearmongering on the part of the Kirin Tor. They would soon be proven wrong, as the Scourge came over Lordaeron like a black tide... with Terenas' son, Prince Arthas, leading the way. Galen was among the thousands butchered by Arthas and his undead legions in the capital, and was raised to serve the dark prince.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Mount Hyjal, however, Galen began to feel his free will returning, and realized that the Lich King's control was fading... and moreover, he was not alone in that. Like many "free dead" in Lordaeron, he gravitated to the banner of Sylvanas Windrunner, the former Ranger-General of Quel'Thalas, now feared as the "Dark Lady" and the "Banshee Queen". Sylvanas called her new followers the Forsaken, and they began to seize control of the Plaguelands from Arthas' minions, establishing their capital in the "Undercity" beneath the ruins of Lordaeron's capital. In their time of need, the Forsaken sought aid from their once-fellow humans, who rejected them as monsters and refused to help. But the tauren, newly inducted into Thrall's restored Horde, saw an opportunity for redemption in the Forsaken, and convinced the Warchief to accept them into the Horde. Galen was inducted into the Deathguard, the Forsaken military, and was once again posted to the defense of the capital. He served during two attacks by the Scourge - first heralding the arrival of Naxxramas in the skies above Stratholme, and again when Naxxramas departed for Northrend. Galen fell, his lower jaw ripped clean off by a massive abomination, during the second battle... but rather than be left on the field, his broken body was taken to Acherus, the Ebon Hold, which had been sent to replace Naxxramas as the Scourge command center in the Plaguelands. There, Galen was raised again, this time as a death knight. Despite the lack of a lower jaw, the Scourge magic that once again empowered his flesh (and granted him new powers of necromancy in the process) allowed him to speak clearly and eloquently regardless. He slaughtered Scarlet Crusaders with his brothers and sisters without hesitation, and when the Lich King's grip was again broken at Light's Hope Chapel, he brought his services back to his Dark Lady.

At the same time, however, Galen began to feel a brotherhood with his fellow death knights, now part of the Knights of the Ebon Blade - an order of many races from many lands. He was glad to set aside what he considered "petty conflicts" - the ongoing strife between Alliance and Horde - in favor of fighting against the Scourge and gaining their vengeance over the Lich King; it would be from his Ebon Blade comrades that he earned the nickname "the Dragon Knight", after he adopted draconic designs on his armor. It was after Arthas fell, however, that the first kernel of doubt began to take hold in his soul: What now? The whole purpose of both the Knights of the Ebon Blade and the Forsaken was revenge against the Lich King. Now that it was achieved... what would the future hold? During the Cataclysm, he elected to follow the Horde - as many other knights from the Forsaken and other Horde races did - in battle against the Twilight's Hammer and their Old God masters. At first, he had admired Warchief Garrosh Hellscream, who had boldly grasped the reins of power after Thrall had relinquished them, but in time, he saw Garrosh as little more than a petulant butcher more concerned with the "glory" of body counts than protecting his people or their land. He thus joined the ranks of Vol'jin's rebellion, and slaughtered dozens of Kor'kron loyalists during the siege of Orgrimmar. When Garrosh fled across space and time to forge an "Iron Horde" on an alternate version of Draenor, Galen fought in the Blasted Lands against the Ironmarch, but spent the remainder of the following campaign on the home front.

Destiny of the Forsaken
After the defeat of the Iron Horde and the start of a renewed conflict with the Burning Legion on the Broken Isles, Galen received a summons from Acherus, now stationed in view of the Tomb of Sargeras, to return to the ranks of the Ebon Blade. After Arthas had fallen at Icecrown, the Alliance hero Bolvar Fordragon had taken his place as the new Lich King, sworn to contain the Scourge in Northrend - and now called upon the Ebon Blade to fight in his name against the Burning Legion. Though wary of the idea of answering to the Lich King again, Galen nonetheless answered the Ebon Blade's call and served with distinction in the Broken Isles - particularly in Highmountain and Suramar, both of whom would align with the Horde afterward - and in the final conflict on Argus. Once again, he embraced the brotherhood of the Ebon Blade, and once again, he was hesitant to give it up... particularly as Sylvanas rose to become Warchief of the Horde and started a war with the Alliance even as both sides fought against the Legion.

After the fall of Argus, Galen joined the Horde army that marched into Ashenvale and Darkshore, and witnessed the burning of Teldrassil. Though well aware of his wretched state and the dark power he wielded, Galen was nevertheless sickened by the casual brutality and indiscriminate slaughter carried out by Sylvanas and her zealots; he did not participate in the slaughter, making clear that he would only slay those who wielded a blade or a spell against him. The doubt that had taken root in his soul after Northrend was now fully fledged; like others, he began to see civil war within the Horde, worse even than what had occurred under Garrosh, as all but inevitable. He was also well aware that his restraint would not be acknowledged, and that he would be targeted not only by the Alliance, but by the growing opposition to Sylvanas within the Horde itself. His disgust only grew upon learning of what had become of Derek Proudmoore, the former Crown Prince of Kul Tiras; when Baine Bloodhoof, the High Chieftain of Thunder Bluff, was arrested for helping Derek escape to the Alliance, Galen recognized clearly that a line had been drawn in the sand. When Baine was rescued, and the rebellion was reinforced by the Alliance, Galen turned against his Dark Lady, following High Overlord Saurfang to the gates of Orgrimmar. To symbolize his choice, Galen adopted blood-red armor and the tabard of the Honorbound, the Horde forces that had fought in Zandalar.

As it seemed that history would again repeat itself with a second siege of Orgrimmar, Saurfang challenged Sylvanas to mak'gora, a duel to the death for the leadership of the Horde. It was during that battle that Galen - and all the other Forsaken - saw the real Sylvanas... one who cared nothing for the Horde, or even for her own people. It was this sickening realization that forever severed any bonds of affection or loyalty that Galen had for his Dark Lady. Though she vanquished Saurfang, Sylvanas abandoned the field, leaving the Horde leaderless and the Forsaken without direction for the first time in their cursed existence.

Yet, even as despair seemed to dampen the way forward, Galen chose to be optimistic: No matter what lay ahead, it would be the Forsaken themselves, rather than a distant and unfeeling autocrat like Sylvanas or Arthas, who would decide their destiny.

The Lich King's New Order
Yet even Galen's hopes for the future were superseded by an allegiance he carried that was far darker than Sylvanas. He was recalled to Acherus by the tauren knight Ublaz Deathspear, who like him was one of the original death knights of Acherus, for a special purpose. Galen was horrified when he was told that the Ebon Blade had been on a "recruiting drive", raising fresh death knights at the Lich King's command - especially he saw that many of the new "recruits" were of races that had only recently entered (or returned) to the world stage: Zandalari, Highmountain, Kul Tirans, Dark Iron dwarves... even pandaren. He realized that there would be a reckoning when the other races realized that the Ebon Blade had been defiling their corpses, but Ublaz brusquely dismissed his concerns; much to his surprise, the tauren had embraced the idea of working for the Lich King again, and believed wholeheartedly in enforcing his will.

Disgusted, but unwilling to abandon his brothers and sisters (like others, such as Admiral Eliphas Aximand, had done during the Legion war), Galen nonetheless was adamant in his refusal to take part in raising new corpses. Ublaz assured him that it would not be necessary; he had not been recalled to raise the dead, but to train those who had already been resurrected, as his experience - as a knight of Lordaeron, a Forsaken deathguard, and one of the first knights of Acherus - would prove beneficial to them. As Ublaz spoke, one of the Zandalari "recruits", screaming prayers to Bwonsamdi in his native Zandali, ran across the Hall of Command and leapt from the balcony to his death in the rocks below, leaving Galen to observe that he would have his work cut out for him. As his first student, he chose a pandaren named Zhaoren, a former Shado-Pan Blackguard killed during the Legion attack on the Peak of Serenity in Pandaria.

His prior Shado-Pan training, combined with his stubborn sense of duty, made Zhaoren an exceptionally quick learner... and he was also a particularly keen observer of detail. He once asked his mentor about why he always seemed so grim, to which Galen admitted his misgivings about raising new knights, believing that no one should have to suffer the same fate he had. He saw his existence as a curse, even as the world had become used to the presence of his kind. Zhaoren, however, saw it differently: While the death knights, and the powers they wielded, were unnatural, not even death was enough to end one's duty. If they were called, they must answer. Galen was moved by this, knowing that Zhaoren had learned all he could from him. He officially ordained the pandaren as a Knight of the Ebon Blade and gifted to him the Runescythe of the Crimson King, which he believed the pandaren could put to better use, as Galen had always favored heavier weapons - swords, axes, and such - in life and in death. As it happened, during a visit to Pandaria to take part in the campaign against N'Zoth's forces, Galen found the former runeaxe of the late Baron Artimus Devaneaux - crafted for him by then-Captain Aximand years before - washed up on the shores of Kun-Lai, and found it appropriate that the weapon of the "faithless" admiral made its way home to someone who could properly use it.

The Feltouched Gambit
Working alongside Zhaoren in battle against the Black Empire, Galen became embroiled in a shadow conflict that erupted when the Lich King began to raise new knights. The first problems he encountered involved Zulimbasha the Collector, a powerful high priest of Bwonsamdi who was utterly against violating the "proper order" by denying spirits to the Shadowlands, and Zhaoren's younger brother, Zhangren, a Lorewalker of Pandaria, horrified at the "desecration" of Zhaoren's corpse. While Galen was inclined to agree with his standpoint on a personal level, he also knew he could do nothing to stop it... and elected to remain wary whenever he was in the field.

While battling forces of the Black Empire in the deserts of Uldum, Galen and Zhaoren came upon the scene of a massacre, with several dead. He was astonished to see one of them was Ublaz Deathspear, along with another tauren, a Sunwalker named Kegren Dawntotem. A Zandalari assassin and a Forsaken Deathstalker were also among the dead, and both Ublaz and the Forsaken had Zandalari daggers in their chests. At first suspecting Zulimbasha, Zhaoren pointed out that the scene had been staged specifically for them - meaning someone was stalking them. Sure enough, another Zandalari blade flew out, which Galen was able to easily deflect. Deciding not to risk Zhaoren falling to the same ambushers, Galen told him to flee back to Acherus, while he held the line. Although it appeared to be more Zandalari approaching, Galen instinctively noticed that they were moving with the shuffling gait of "shorter races"... gnomes, to be precise. When they dispelled the illusions, his suspicions were confirmed, as two of the attackers were not just gnomes, but mechagnomes: the mad warlock Professor Rakeri Sputterspark, a particularly reviled enemy of virtually anyone with sense, and his sister, Marennia. Accompanying them, much to his surprise, was a dark-eyed night elf assassin named Arrenhae Leafrunner, who had lost her daughter, Arrhae, first to the Scourge and then again to the Horde, and now acted as Rakeri's enforcer.

Realizing that all the discord he had been hearing about was a scheme concocted by Rakeri, Galen engaged in battle with the treacherous trio, and found himself literally cut off at the knees by Marennia before he could react. Rakeri himself removed Galen's soul into a shard, to preserve it as a "gift" for Zulimbasha and his patron, and left another Zandalari dagger impaled in his chest. The bodies were found by a patrol for the "Uldum Accord" two days later.