Vilanda Marshall

=Name= Vilanda Marshall

=History=

The farms of Hillsbrad
She grew up in Hillsbrad, a peasant farm girl whose life revolved around family and the farm. Many years passed playing with other children in the field, and picking apples for her fathers business, until the scourge came and decimated Tarren Mill. It was a miracle the family survived, and they lost many friends to the plague. The incident cast the whole town into fear, and suddenly apple picking was not as important as blockading themselves in their houses.

Her mother was frequently away in Dalaran practising her magic, and often she would visit, her mother trying to teach her basic spells in the hopes she would grow up to be a powerful magister.

Dalaran
On one of these visits when she was a young teenager, she was innocently skipping across the stone paths when she blinded by a harsh bright light that knocked her backwards. Pushing herself up onto her elbows, she watched in horror as the buildings seemed to sway with excess magical energy and the fabric of the air seemed to tear apart before her eyes, and several demons stepped through. She was paralysed with fear and awe at these huge beasts.

She cried out, and was pulled away briskly by an unknown man. "Leave," he said, "You needn't concern yourself with this." She ran, and spotting her mother across the street, she ran and told her what she saw. Wizards began to exit the buildings and file into the streets, and her mother nodded solemnly. "Go back to the farm, stay with your father." She began to walk briskly towards the commotion, and almost as an afterthought, she turned back to her daughter and said "I love you, honey," before moving out of sight.

Screaming people all around her, she ran until her feet bled inside of her cheap cloth shoes, all the way back to Hillsbrad. Her father hugged her tight, covered her ears at the sound of magical explosions eminating from all the way over the hills. She did not have to ask, or wait for a messenger to confirm it, but she knew her mother's life was over.

Dark Secret
When the battle was over and Hillsbrad was cast into an eerie silence, the remains of her family took years to recover from the horrors of it all. She threw herself into her magical studies, eager to make her mother proud and honour her memory. She had secreted many magical tomes from Dalaran, and read them in secret as her father disapproved of her following the path that had killed her mother.

Reading one of these books, she came across a page that looked different from the others, having seen tucked inside. She unfolded it and read carefully: "Your skill is being unrewarded. Dalaran magi can only teach you so much. If you, like us, yearn for more, follow these directions."

The map led her to a remote area in the hills, to a tree surrounded by lions. She sneaked her way past them, examining the tree closely and ran her hands up a hollow in the trunk that looked handmade. She reached in and pulled out a book entitled "Demonology and you."

Demons... the large creatures she had seen in Dalaran. A quick flick through the book told her that with this she could learn to harness them to her will. Her mind was racing - imagine the power that she could wield with the help of these demons! She would become as mighty a force as her mother had hoped.

So she began to study again, this time with an even bigger secret. Her first ritual took place in the shadows of the trees behind the farm, and she summoned a lowly imp from the twisting nether. But it was a start, and she intended to continue, although the mischievous imp wreaked havoc around the farm.

One day, her father caught her reprimanding the demon, and was terribly disappointed. He insisted that if she continued with this line of magic, he would cast her out. She called his bluff and continued openly, and to her surprise and her father's dismay, she was forced out of the farm and told never to return. To her surprise again, she realised she didn't care.

The book had furnished her with a place in stormwind dedicated to demonology, and she travelled from Southshore by boat, hoping to continue to make herself more powerful, whatever the cost.