Selaphiel
From EFWiki
| Selaphiel | |
| |
| Title | Champion of the Frozen Wastes The Dawnslayer |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 10,873 |
| Race | Night Elf |
| Class | Death Knight (formerly Sentinel, formerly Moon Guard) |
| Specialization | Blood and Frost Magic, Rune Forging |
| Affiliation | The Seraphim, Knights of the Ebon Blade |
| Occupation | Assassin, Scout. |
| Relatives | Parents deceased, Nineveh (sister, Sentinel Army) |
Selaphiel is a female night elf death knight.
Contents |
Physical Appearance
Selaphiel is around average height for a Night Elven woman, slender and muscular. Her hair is worn in a very short, severe cut which matches the sharp angular face beneath it. Pale skin drawn tightly across high cheekbones, and a thin disapproving mouth complete the look of a very stern and serious woman who finds little in life to be of interest and less to be pleasant.
Selaphiel favours a very different style of garb to the average death knight, preferring to wear as little as possible while maximising protection and agility. One of her most notable habits is wearing a thick black velvet blindfold over her eyes, concealing their telltale glow from watchful prey, as well as bolstering her other senses. Supple black leather covers most of her body, with silvered steel plates cross the chest, thighs and hips. She also disregards the heavy gauntlets and boots favoured by her brethren, viewing them as unneccesarily restrictive. She relies above all on her incomparable combat skills and agility to keep her safe from harm.
Personality
Selaphiel is very much a proponent of the older, more insular Highborne views. She has little patience for the younger races, and none at all for the newer arrivals on Azeroth, the Orcs and Draenei, despising the former for the Warsong Clan's atrocities in Ashenvale and the latter for their association with Kil'jaeden and Archimonde. Selaphiel compares all she sees and all the people she meets with the cherished memories she holds of the glory of the height of Night Elven power, and finds them all lacking. The only respect she now feels is for those who can meet her blades in battle and hold their own against her. Even amongst death knights, she displays scant desire for company or camraderie, save with those few Night Elves who were taken in the manner and place she was.
Background
Selaphiel is one of the small number of living Night Elves who once called themselves the Highborne. Like many other members of the Moon Guard, Selaphiel became first concerned and later suspicious over the doings of the inner caste of Kaldorei society, ruled over by Queen Azshara herself. When the Legion invaded for the first time and Zin-Azshari turned into a battleground, Selaphiel and many of her kin who had been distancing themselves from the increasingly disturbing behaviour of the inner caste threw their lot in with the Kaldorei Resistance and fought against their erstwhile friends and relatives, and their terrifying demonic allies.
After Jarod Shadowsong led the resistance to victory, Selaphiel joined the newly founded Sentinel Army, and spent the next few millenia undertaking the Long Vigil with her sisters against any future demonic incursions, and rooting out such infestations as still remained in their lands. Selaphiel and her sisters followed Tyrande Whisperwind's leadership when the long awaited return of the Legion finally happened, even to the point of slaying Maeiv's wardens in Illidan's barrow prison when they refused to surrender him at Tyrande's command. At this point several dozen of the High Priestess' Sentinel companions were chosen by her to go with Illidan and help him battle the demons in Felwood, who were being led on an orgy of bloodletting and destruction by the powerful dreadlord, Tichondrius. Ostensibly they were to help Illidan bring an end to the dreadlord's reign of terror but they were also privately instructed by Tyrande to watch over Illidan and ensure he did not do anything questionable.
Illidan's well-fortified camp in southern Felwood was a day's march from where the dreadlord was reported to be. Illidan himself was in his command tent musing over strategy when an uninvited guest entered - Prince Arthas Menethil, now a death knight in the service of the Lich King. The two engaged in battle, but neither could gain any advantage. Arthas revealed the reason he had come: he needed Illidan to destroy the dreadlord who was also Ner'zhul's jailor. He informed Illidan of a demonic artifact being held nearby, the Skull of Guldan, which would enable Illdan to overmaster the dreadlord's protective magics and destroy him. Having sown the seeds of power lust into the night elf's head, Arthas left, but he did not leave alone. The Sentinels Tyrande had instructed to watch over Illidan and guard him from just this sort of influence left with Arthas. Every last one of them, including Selaphiel, had been possessed by the death knight's banshee retinue to allow his safe approach.
The Shadow Hand of Ner'zhul
The undead Scourge was vast in number, but their weaknesses were almost as numerous. The risen dead were by and large fragile, slow and clumsy. Vast numbers were needed to overcome any opponent, a deficiency noted by Ner'zhul during the War of the Spider, where small numbers of elite Nerubians could hold off a hundred times their number in the narrow passages of their subterranean kingdom. To counter this, a new type of warrior was needed, with the unswerving loyalty of the undead, and the battle prowess and knowledge of a veteran soldier. The new generation of living yet soul-less Death Knights were one result of this change in strategy. They made fearsome front line commanders and inspired terror in those who opposed them. Selaphiel and her sisters possessed by Arthas' banshees had the honour of becoming the second new elite group in the Scourge war machine - assassins. With thousands of years of battle skills retained in her memory, and a living agile body honed by as many years of training, a possessed Sentinel made for a Scourge assassin of unsurpassed deadliness and subtlety, able to infiltrate enemy encampments and even bypass wards against undead.
The Seraphim
After Light's Hope, the Lich King's former death knights united under Darion Mograine against him. The Ebon Blade as they were now called was mainly made up of dwarves, humans gnomes and high elves. Selaphiel and her night elf sisters had very little in common with such, yet they made cause with them to further the goal of ending the Scourge, yet as time went by they ended up forming a secretive sub-sect within the Ebon Blade calling themselves the "Seraphim", or "those who fell from grace" in the Night Elven tongue.
