User:Joshmaul/House Vendross

A History of House Vendross, by Their Descendants

As recorded by Taeril'hane Ketiron, Patriarch of the Joint Houses of Ketiron and Whitehair and Master in the Blood Knight Order

With information gleaned from the Athenaeum of Eldre'Thalas and the recent reunification of our Highborne cousins with the night elves of Darnassus, I have compiled this history of our distant blood-relations of House Vendross, including one who has reached my attention due to activity in Lordaeron in service of the Argent Crusade - a rather snobbish mage named Caro'thel Vendross.

The Beginnings
The pedigree of House Vendross, like many Highborne families and their descendants, dates back to the period before the War of the Ancients when Kalimdor was a united continent and the kaldorei - the night elves - ruled an empire greater than even that of the Zandalari, Gurubashi and Amani empires of ages past. United under the rule of Azshara, the entrancingly beautiful and incredibly powerful monarch of ancient Kalimdor, the night elves and the Highborne noblity had a strange relationship. Though all night elves, quel'dorei and kaldorei alike, adored Azshara, the "common" folk of Kalimdor hated her Highborne attendants, believing them to be arrogant. Many descendants of the Highborne today believe that Azshara was deceived by her own advisors, but it is well known that the "Light of Lights" was incredibly vain, believing herself like unto a god; indeed, when the Dark Titan Sargeras was preparing for his entry into Azeroth, she believed herself his consort, to rule alongside him at the head of his Burning Legion.

When the War of the Ancients came, the Highborne were enthralled by the power wielded by Sargeras and his lieutenants, including the eredar sorcerer Archimonde and the pit lord king Mannoroth, both of whom would return to wreak havoc upon Azeroth millennia later until they were finally destroyed. As the war approached its close, however, some Highborne backed away from their corrupted Queen, and allied themselves with the Kaldorei Resistance that had begun under Lord Kur'talos Ravencrest, and was now led by Commander Jarod Shadowsong. The leader of those Highborne who turned on Azshara is one that is venerated in our homeland - Dath'remar Sunstrider, he who would become the first High King of Quel'Thalas. Other lords followed Dath'remar's lead, including two who had opposed the demon magics from the start, but had not dared - until then - to show it openly. They were blood cousins, who had often sparred on matters of state in the past, but were now united in a common cause - Kal'manis Whitehair and Tara'thel Vendross.

In the end, Azshara and the Legion were defeated, and the Well of Eternity collapsed, resulting in the Great Sundering that created the continents of Azeroth we know today - a powerful breaking of the world the likes of which would not be seen again for ten thousand years.

The Great Exile
The survivors of the Sundering united under the leadership of Tyrande Whisperwind, High Priestess of Elune and spiritual figurehead of the resistance that had defeated the Legion, and her mate Malfurion Stormrage, the chosen student of Cenarius and founder of the Cenarion Circle. The Highborne were banned from ever using magic again, Malfurion believing that arcane power in all its forms was responsible for the corruption of Azshara and her Highborne and the resultant Sundering. But Dath'remar and his people refused, and ended up unleashing unstable arcane storms across the continent of Kalimdor.

After the Highborne were defeated, Malfurion exiled them from the kaldorei lands. In what would become known in history as the "Great Exile", the Highborne became divided. Dath'remar took many with him and journeyed across the newly-formed Great Sea, where they would settle on the continent of Lordaeron - in the lands that would become Quel'Thalas. Kal'manis Whitehair and his family followed Dath'remar, as did many others, and thus were born the high elves. In time, our characteristics would change, making us uniquely distinct from our night elf brethren across the sea. It was assumed that we would never see them again, and for more than seven thousand years - until the Alliance and the Horde were called to Kalimdor by the "Oracle" a decade ago, destroying Archimonde at Mount Hyjal - we didn't.

However, some Highborne chose to remain in Kalimdor, taking refuge far from their magophobic brethren. They eventually settled with the Shen'dralar - the great arcanists and lorekeepers during Azshara's reign, led by Prince Tortheldrin - in their ruined sanctum-capital of Eldre'Thalas, in the jungles of northern Feralas. House Vendross, led by Lord Tara'thel, was among those who wiled away the millennia of the Great Exile in Eldre'Thalas.

A House Trapped in Madness
The Highborne of Eldre'Thalas eventually became lethargic and downtrodden, like the orcs suffering withdrawals from their Blood Curse, or those of our people who became blood elves after the fall of the Sunwell. Tortheldrin sought to give those under his care their own source of magic, and so ordered the erecting of powerful pylons throughout the Capital Gardens in the western part of the city. Within a great amphitheater in the courtyard of the Athenaeum, they summoned the demon called Immol'thar, keeping him prisoned with a great magical field and using his essence to empower the pylons, thus giving the Shen'dralar a source of magic. Lord Tara'thel protested this, believing that this action was no better than the fel magic used by the Highborne who had followed Azshara during the war.

Eventually, the power of the pylons began to fade, and Tortheldrin began to descend into madness in his hunger for more power. He eventually turned on his own people, killing many and absorbing their essences to empower himself. Among his victims was Lord Tara'thel, leaving behind his son Kal'teris and his grandson Tierna to lead their family. Kal'teris, realizing Tortheldrin was mad, hid in the Warpwood Quarter with his family and several others who managed to escape the Prince's mad thirst for magical power. Kal'teris would die naturally a thousand years before the Battle of Mount Hyjal, and his son Tierna would eventually have two heirs of his own, born four centuries apart. He named his eldest Tara'thel, after his grandfather. Then, less than two centuries before the Battle of Mount Hyjal, his youngest son would be born, the one who wanders the world with a sneer on his lips and questions on his mind - Caro'thel.

Evenshade's Ascendancy and the Reunification
Tierna would eventually die at the hands of King Gordok and his ogres, who settled in the northern commons of Eldre'Thalas - which is now known as Dire Maul. The Capital Gardens eventually became overrun with mana remnants and crazed treants, and even their hiding place in the Warpwood Quarter was no longer safe. The second Lord Tara'thel and his younger brother began to despair as the world began collapsing around them - literally - until one day, while the war with the Lich King raged on in Northrend, a savior stepped forward to guide those who still called themselves Highborne away from the abyss of madness. His name was Mordent Evenshade.

Evenshade saw the madness of Prince Tortheldrin, the encroachment of satyrs, ogres and undead, and now the impending elemental upheaval threatening extinction for his scattered and dying people. Gathering many Highborne from Eldre'Thalas and elsewhere in the gardens of the ruined city, Evenshade declared that he intended to end the Great Exile once and for all, and would make the journey to Darnassus to plead the case of his people before the High Priestess Tyrande. The brothers Vendross eagerly agreed to follow him, and became apprenticed to him - as many young Highborne did. Setting out across Kalimdor, Evenshade eventually arrived in Darnassus to a rather cold reception, as old perceptions of the Highborne as vampiric, selfish lunatics had not changed in the millennia since the Great Exile. He waited patiently within the Temple of the Moon for a formal audience with the High Priestess, and would eventually enter into negotiations to allow the Shen'dralar to return to their people and to train night elves who showed potential in their arcane arts.

The return of Deathwing, or Xaxas in the tongues of both the elves of Darnassus and Silvermoon alike, brought things to a head. During her meetings with the other Alliance leaders in Stormwind, Tyrande theorized that the earthquakes that had plagued Azeroth since the fall of the Lich King may have been the "changes on the wind" that Evenshade spoke of as he waited for his audience. Upon her return to Darnassus, Tyrande agreed to allow the Highborne back into society and to practice their arcane arts - and teach any who might be willing to learn it themselves. This outraged no small number of night elves, but the outcry was far greater here in Silvermoon. Many members of the reformed Council of Silvermoon condemned Tyrande's decision, damning her for her hypocrisy - as it was the initial ban of the use of arcane magics, under pain of death, that had resulted in the Great Exile, and thus the flight of our progenitors across the sea to settle in Quel'Thalas.

The Younger Brother
With the Great Exile at last over, Tara'thel the Younger and his brother Caro'thel journeyed to Teldrassil, where Caro'thel began his training in the magic arts. It seemed that the millennia of exile had not changed some Highborne's perceptions of their "lesser" kaldorei brethren, and House Vendross was no exception. While Lord Tara'thel tended to be more private with his opinions, Caro'thel has proven to be more open with them - believing both those of us who reside here in Quel'Thalas and those Highborne who marry "beneath their station" - in other words, to non-Highborne, or even to non-kaldorei entirely - to be traitors to the blood, and worthy of little more than scorn at best...and death, at worst. (On that note, the opinion here in Silvermoon is very similar, some even petitioning the Lord Regent to issue orders to kill all Highborne and their night elf students on sight, blood connections be damned.)

Caro'thel's antics have recently reached my attention through old Alliance comrades from Northrend, Baron Artimus Devaneaux and the Farseer Jaeden'laek, the latter of whom has tried to give his counsel to the young mage. (Artimus has joked that Caro'thel's egotism could make even the most vain among my people - and to be fair, we have our share of preening, self-indulgent bigots - cringe.) Despite his character flaws, he is described as a moderately powerful spellcaster, working towards mastery of not only the arcane magics of his calling, but also in the elemental ones. His one saving grace in terms of his attitude is that he absolutely abhors fel magic, necromancy and even the shadow magic used by certain priestly orders, such as that of the Forsaken.

Artimus has often spoken to me of this "Holy Guard" he is a member of, based out of the Argent stronghold of Hearthglen. Perhaps being made to serve in a chivalrous order such as they, and being made to start at the bottom of the proverbial food chain, would teach him some humility - even an elder race must know its place. Arthas showed us our folly, and I pray it does not take a similar disaster for this promising young sorcerer to see his own...