User:Joshmaul/Zhaoren Deathtide

"'Not even death releases us from our duty.'"
 * - Zhaoren Deathtide, Blackguard of the Ebon Blade

Zhaoren Puretide was a Blackguard of the Shado-Pan, descending from a long line of Blackguards who served on the wall, until he was killed in battle by the Burning Legion at the Peak of Serenity. Yet, as the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde seems to taper off, the Lich King has sent his agents, the Knights of the Ebon Blade, to raise new champions to fight in his name; Zhaoren has accepted this charge, and taken the name Deathtide to symbolize his dark rebirth.

Biography
Born in the village of Binan in the Kun-Lai steppes, Zhaoren Puretide belonged to a family line with a tradition of service in the Shado-Pan dating back to its founding by the Emperor Shaohao ten thousand years ago. His father, Zhenren, was a master Blackguard; his younger brother Zhangren became a Lorewalker, knowing that Zhaoren would uphold the family line as part of the Shado-Pan. Like his father and brother, Zhaoren trained in the fighting styles of the monks. He remained in Pandaria while his father traveled to Stormwind to learn about the Alliance, while his brother "upheld the balance" and visited Orgrimmar, capital of the Horde.

Zhaoren joined his father and brother when the Burning Legion laid siege to the Peak of Serenity, the home of the monks high in the Kun-Lai mountains, not far from the Shado-Pan Monastery. He took a blow from a massive wrathguard meant for his father, which killed him almost instantly. Zhaoren was buried in the small cemetery outside the Shado-Pan Monastery next to his mother, Zia, who was killed by a yaungol attack in their home village sometime before. Zhenren himself would join the spirits of the elders in the Wood of Staves on the Wandering Isle, after being mortally wounded by a psychotic Forsaken warlock during the campaign on Argus. Zhangren, the last surviving member of the family line, often visited the graves of his mother and brother in Kun-Lai, ensuring their memories were not forgotten.

Shortly after the Fourth War, however, two shadowy visitors arrived with something less benign in mind. They were death knights of the Ebon Blade, dispatched by the Lich King to find champions for a new conflict that he feared was coming. As a Shado-Pan, Zhaoren was seen as an ideal candidate. He was raised in death to join the cause, and brought before the Frozen Throne to swear fealty to the Lich King.

Sir Galen Tavener, a Forsaken knight who had been one of the original death knights of Acherus - the precursors of the Ebon Blade - was tasked by his superiors to train some of the new "recruits", and took Zhaoren under his wing. Unfazed by what he had become, Zhaoren accepted the charge that he had been given, believing that even now, he could still serve his people - and perhaps the world at large. He changed his name to "Deathtide" and took up his new charge as an agent of the Lich King... setting out into a changed world.

Following the fall of his mentor in battle in Uldum, Zhaoren would ultimately take his place in helping the new knights in adjusting to their new status, given how readily he took to it himself. Just before the shattering of the sky above Icecrown, Zhaoren was tasked to make a trip to bring in some "final recruits". He found two candidates close to hand: One in Tiragarde Sound, the other in Suramar. Both had been killed by acts of treachery, and the Lich King, before his ultimate "dethroning", decided they had work to do yet...