Helmsly

Appearance
Tall and muscular, Helmsly was once an impressive warrior of the human race. His undeath has preserved his former posture, even though his skin has turned pale and rots slowly on various places. His hair has withered, but has remained in the same length that he kept whilst alive. His facial hair has also been preserved, even though he does not grow new one. Like all other death knights, his eyes emit a cold blue radiance.

Affiliation:
Knights of the Ebon Blade

The Scourge

The Scarlet Crusade

The Order of the Silver Hand

Background
Helmsly was born in the family of a Hearthglen blacksmith. He began his career as a member of the Silver Hand at a young age and survived the orc attacks of the Second War. He had already been dubbed a knight by the end of the war and he spent the following years in service to Lordaeron, maintaining the peace within its borders. He aided the Alliance in hunting down remaining free orcs and made sure they were either locked in an internment camp or put to the sword. He also hunted down bandits and beasts that would endanger any local village or settlement.

Helmsly also acted as an Ambassador within Lordaeron; being member of a neutral yet powerful order such as the Silver Hand, he had no obligations to any of the kingdoms of the Alliance. And even though his Order was most loyal to King Terenas, Helmsly had no problems with traveling from one place to another while carrying out an order or delivering an important message.His service led him to every single kingdom member of the Alliance of Lordaeron. He strived to avoid forming a personal opinion on these kingdoms, but he had no love for Dalaran. He, as taught by the paladins of his Order, saw mages as sinners, pawns of the demons that come from the same place as their arcane powers.

His very hate for the Kirin Tor led him to checking on Dalaran quite frequently, despite of the mages' disapproval of his presence. It was in one of his patrols in the outskirts of the magical city that he once found a group of young apprentices, practicing their spells in the open. His strictness compelled him to approach these youngsters and lecture them because of their spell-casting in the open with no elder mage to keep them in check. None of the mages dared to protest against the paladin, except for the teenage girl called Cynndia. While the other magi hung their heads and walked off, she argued with the paladin for hours, expressing her own dislike of their blind zealotry and arrogance. Outsmarted by the young sorceress, Helmsly left enraged and frustrated, only to confront her again and again in the following months. He unwittingly formed a sort of an affection for her and he began to woo the naive girl. She was easily subdued by the knight's charm. Reason, however, dominated the disciplined mind of the paladin, and he realised it was a mistake to be with her - both because of the great distance between their ages, and the fact that she was a mage. He left her heartbroken and devastated.

Helmsly retired from his service as a paladin at the age of 30, depressed and demoralised by the fall of Lordaeron. Misguided and deceived, he had previously sided with the Scarlet Crusade for a short time, inspired by their zealotry and intent on cleansing the land of the Scourge. He left disgusted and insulted by the crusade's hostility to potential allies. In the years that followed, he was a making a name for himself as a bounty hunter, among the peasantry of Goldshire in the far south.

Post-death Background
Helmsly was slain in the Eastern Plaguelands on a quest there, accompanied by what he called "The most annoying gnome on Azeroth" - the eccentric Sidquil sought to use the retired paladin as a subject in her alchemical and engineering experiments, so she followed him around like a loyal stalker. She became the reason for his death as she intervened in his mission.

The Scourge had no problem with turning the two companions by fate into undead. Helmsly, however, didn't come out right. The unholy magic affected his mind badly, and the paladin believed himself to be something else. In the seasons that followed, he was Baron Nihilgor Rotbringer, death knight of the Scourge. Nihilgor was in fact a death knight Helmsly had slain in the Plaguelands, one that had left a memory in the back of his mind; the memory had reflected back to him, turning him into his own enemy and messing up with his mind.

After the events at Light's Hope Chapel, when the Ebon Blade were released from the grasp of the Lich King, Helmsly was not himself. His mind was still devided between his own and that of Nihilgor, with the latter one dominating. In the following months it took over him in the shape of madness, giving him the desire to hunt down and slay Alrandath - a Lordaeron knight he had befriended during the defense of the Capital of Lordaeron in the Second War. The fight the two had brought him back to his senses, and he left, realising he is a threat.

Helmsly spent a few long months wandering the frozen wastes of Northrend, leading his own battles against the Scourge within and without. Having secured control over his mind again, he bagan to remember his life as a paladin. Undead tend to cling to one single feeling - love, hate, desire for murder or vengeance - and exaggerate on it. The feeling that overtook him was the old affection for Cynndia Snowfall. He returned to Kalimdor with the intention to find her. However, he would never approach her, ashamed of what he had become and afraid that he might scare her and cause her to respond with hatred.

Criminal Record
Assault on a group of marines and citizens of Theramore.

Current Status
After having committed a murder against one of Cynndia's friends, Helmsly withdrew from his agenda and mingled with the population of the Alliance. He joined the Northwind Free Company to continue the mercenary's life he led before his death.

Inspirations
Helmsly was originally made a Paladin, which never made it to a high level. I decided to kill him off when WotLK came out, and used the same character to create my Death Knight, thus giving him some minor background. My original intention was to base him on Van Hellsing - Walter van Helmsly, Worgen Slayer - but that idea never flourished, so I stuck to him being a retired paladin untill he died. Death Knight Helsmly I based a lot on Arthas, mainly his necromantic abilities and way of taking decisions. He is also mildly based on Angel from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series, namely the part where he watches Cynndia from a distance, having feelings for her but knowing it's impossible to have her, so he only wants to protect her instead.