Kaldorei RP: Origin Concepts
Bashal’Aran and Ameth’Aran
Having the touch of Azshara in their creation, the cities were built near the Well of Eternity* and home to the Queen’s favored servitors—the Highborne. Queen Azshara selected Athrikus Narassin to govern the twin cities but the responsibility would fall largely to his second-in-command, Asterion, when Athrikus retreated to the Tower of Athalaxx. After the Sundering, the cities were ruined and Ameth’Aran’s people, desperate or maddened, turned to Athrikus whom promised them safety.
In truth, the Sundering had stripped Athrikus of his magical items and imbued him with demonic energy, enabling the warlock to bind hundreds of Highborne souls to gems; even Asterion did not escape Athrikus, who used an ancient moonstone seal to imprison his former second in the ruins of Bashal’Aran. Through siphoning the energy stored in his collection of soulgems, Athrikus augmented and enhanced his own power.
Over the millennia, Athrikus founded and developed the Cult of the Dark Strand—an element of the powerful Shadow Council—that stretched into Ashenvale and attracted a variety of races to practice and master the dark powers it commanded. But with the depletion of each soulgem, their power would wane until the Shattering fractured Darkshore: Athrikus is now believed dead, his Cult has been scattered, and his tower overrun by scavenging forsaken.
*per the previous in-game lore---given Chronicle lore, this is unlikely to still be true.
RP Ideas
Perhaps a Highborne OC escaped Athrikus’ clutches but lost family or friends to his terrible power. Maybe finding their soulgem and releasing their spirits has become the OC’s mission.
A Kaldorei OC—a commoner or trader or crafter—could have been brushed aside due to their lack of magical aptitude…narrowly escaping with their lives...
Perhaps an OC was enslaved for a time to work for the Cult before escaping to live millennia with a hatred for that dark magic…but also a unique understanding of it.
Alternatively, maybe the OC is a Highborne or even Kaldorei that witnessed the events and were inspired by them! Inspired to do good and work to ensure the death or imprisonment of all dark magic wielders…or inspired to do evil, and follow the intoxicating path to power!
An OC might have assisted in the construction of the soulgems (unknowingly or knowingly), or is/was inspired to create similar items based on historical accounts of their use.
Maybe an OC has one of Athrikus’ magical items! They either know its power or maybe they don’t, and delving the depths of understanding the item leads the OC to crave the power of darker magics…
Or more directly, an OC might have been part of the Cult of the Dark Strand (or still is!) and left for personal gain (perhaps stealing some soulgems in the process) or because they found a better path (Elune called to them?) and left that dark, regrettable past behind….or try to, every day.
