An Introduction to "Requiem of the Damned"
Greetings and salutations good reader,
I'd like to thank you for choosing to read my story or at the very least choosing to click on the link to it out of sheer curiosity or boredom. I write this introduction in hope that you will not be all together disappointed in the time it takes to find a good work of fiction or in this case fan fiction. But I am not one to disappoint (or at least try not too) in my endeavor to become a good writer of fiction as I take ample time to produce these stories (believe it or not this is my "hobby" in between my ever-demanding busy schedule).
To my credit, this is NOT (note the emphatic capitalization) my first fanfic that I have written for this site or others. This Warcraft fiction is actually a sequel to my first Warcraft fic, The Last Warrior of Lordaeron, and I'm using this story to make final resolution to it all and quite possibly prove that I can finish what I start.
For NEW READERS! I have some background information for you, in case you don't know what's going on entirely. By all means (and it's suggested but not required) you could search for my other Warcraft fic to catch up to this sequel but if you choose to not to you can read. However there are SPOILERS for the first story if you haven't read it yet.
Summary of Last Warrior of Lordaeron
Orias, the sole surviving paladin of the Capital City slaughter, had been charged to protect a band of refugees that fled from the war torn city.
Joined with a dwarven merchant group lead by the brothers Banquo Thunderhand and Menteith EagleEye (brothers by marital ties), the band of refugees flees to the mountains above and beyond Tirisfal Glades. There upon finding a mountain fortress they establish a small refugee town, surviving on supplies from Goblin Merchants bought with mined gold from the mountains.
Several months passed and the small town in the mountains prospered secretly. However, an attack by Gnoll raiders infect with undead blight causes the town to turn desperate action in fear of being discovered. The decision to seal themselves off from the outside world by destroying the only entering mountain passes. This decision was however delayed when a discovery of a sizeable squadron of soldiers from the Lordaeron Army that was previously under the command of the Grand Marshal Garithos, no under the command of Lieutenant Anteus Windrath, had sought the town for sanctuary. They were invited into the mountain refugee town with mixed emotions and reactions.
As the passes were about to be sealed, an undead legion of the Forsaken had followed the Lordaeron Army survivors into the mountains. Upon the Undead's discovery of the town and bypassing the sealed passes, unrelenting sieges were made at the town's two defending gates. The defenders had repelled three sieges successfully but at great cost.
Danaris, captain of the gate guards and Orias' childhood friend, was killed in a barrage of arrows. Orias blames himself for his death as Danaris held the Undead back while trying to save Orias when he was injured by two rogue arrows.
With disturbing visions, haunting revelations, and a desperate plea to fulfill his duty, Orias turns to a power of the past. Upon reading his father's journal given to him by his ailing mentor, Socrates, he discovers an armor of great power. He entreats a dying Socrates to show him where the armor is hidden. Socrates wary of Orias' past plight warns him of such a power but Orias succeeds in discovering the armor's location.
Donning this new armor, he succeeds in repelling an entire undead army by his own power. He however learns that such power had come at great cost, more than he ever realized.
He continues to uses the armor's powers to protect the refugees and the woman he had fallen in love with, a nobleman's renegade daughter who had joined Orias in his escape from the capital, Sara. He uses the armor's powers in hope that he could save all of them by sacrificing himself as the refugees fled from the mountain town through a series of uncharted caverns deep within the mountains. He is in however denied this act.
On the eve of the final siege, Orias is compelled to the mountain top by the ghost of his former mentor. He was tricked and spirited away to a hellish ethereal realm of an Old God. The powers of the armor originated from a testament of power of the Old God in the past to lure unsuspecting mortals to its ultimate cause, desolation of the world of Azeroth.
The Old God moved to break Orias' spirit by making him watch as all his loved ones perished in front of him during the Forsaken's final siege while he could do nothing but tear at himself in the ethereal prison.
In the end, the bulk of the refugees managed to escape but only through the price paid by their defenders. Banquo, Menteith, and Anteus fell to the Forsaken's hordes of undead. Sara was the last to fall but her death weighed heavily upon Orias. He immediately questions his principles and reels at his failure to fulfill the promise to protect what was most precious to him. The Old God moves to mock Orias and tells him he is only an instrument of fate and he will used well to compel the final apocalypse upon the world of Azeroth.
The Old God sends Orias back to reality. Orias returns to the town broken among the ruins. He finds Sara in the town square and spends of moment of deep regret and sorrow with her. Undead riders discovering Orias attempted to close in on him. Orias in turn uses the power of the armor to erupt into a terrible display of power. In a great inferno, the entire town was engulfed in flame and was left with but nothing ash.
But the question remains if ash was all that was produced from the site of destruction.
Unknowing to all…something emerged from the ashes of old…
It now wanders the forests of the unknown…