Akhryuusa

Akhryuusa
Character description:

Akhryuusa is a forsaken priest who has only recently been raised back from the dead after his demise at the hand of an assassin attempting to kill his once superior, Archmage Ataeric. He is still getting to grips with his new life as a forsaken, but is slowly coming to terms with the whirlwind of undeath that he has been sucked into. Through life and undeath, Akhryuusa holds a great interest in the conflict between the Shadow and the Light, knowing that they are opposite sides of the same coin, although his solid knowledge of such powers is very vague. Fiercely loyal and compassionate, two traits that seem to be diminishing in the forsaken, he is yet to align himself truly to a cause and to find a purpose, although he has found a home in the Church of Shadows as an initiate where he hopes that some light will be shed on the greater powers that he is so interested in.

Appearance
Akhryuusa stands at roughly 5ft6, although he is always hunched over in his stature and so looks even shorter. His skin is slowly rotting away, and his jaw has completely degraded to the point where it fell off, although this does not affect his speech. Saying this, Akhryuusa does have a prominent stutter that has been carried throughout his two lives, and is a key feature to distinguishing him from the other forsaken.

Background and history
“I know now I must choose a side in order to find the source of this p-p-p-power”

Akhryuusa was not always Akhryuusa. Once, he was known under the name Atlow, a spellcaster drafted into the Kirin Tor at a young age due to his thirst for knowledge and mental strength. Atlow, although being instructed to follow the path of the arcane, always harboured an interest in the ways of priests and paladins, although he knew he lacked the physical ability to become the latter. His superiors picked up on this and after a begrudged decision allowed him to follow the path of priesthood. Atlow studied in Dalaran for a few years, increasing his knowledge of light and darkness, often spending his time philosophising and seeking knowledge. However, it wasn’t long until he was assigned on a mission. A dormant ley node had been discovered in the small village of Ambermill, and its reactivation would be a great boon to the Kirin Tor. Placed under the leadership of Archmage Ataeric, Atlow travelled with other mages and spellcasters to Silverpine Forest where he would assist Ataeric in his task.

It was never meant to be.

One fateful night, a mysterious humanoid appeared on the doorstep of Ambermill. When questioned by two of the warders and instructed to turn back, the creature drew a pair of daggers and killed them where they stood. The assassin continued to enter the village, slaying arcanists and making its way to where the Archmage resided. Ataeric fought well, but was bested by the cloaked figure. Atlow witnessed this, and was about to witness his master’s death when he uttered a prayer of desperation to the heavens.

I would give my own life ten times over to save Ataeric!

Little did he know that his prayer was to be answered. He opened his eyes when he felt an intense stabbing pain in his chest to realise that the assassin had plunged its daggers into his chest and that Ataeric was stood where Atlow once was. This gave the Archmage enough time to swiftly teleport to safety thanks to the priest’s martyrdom.

Atlow’s corpse was buried nearby, but was dug up and graverobbed by the gnolls in the area, and it wasn’t long before he was a mindless servant of the Lich King. After being killed again by a wandering warrior, he answered the call of Sylvanas and was raised as a forsaken. He didn’t remember anything immediately other than his name, but when asked his identity by a fellow forsaken, he stuttered out the first syllable, much to the amusement of his peer. The forsaken decided in an act of sadism to give him the name Akhryuusa, a name that he still struggles to pronounce to this day. Throughout his short time as a forsaken, Akhryuusa has found that his powers as a priest have been slowly returning to him, as has his thirst for the knowledge he once sought out as Atlow. After a chance encounter with Dark Matron Déliana, Akhryuusa became an initiate of the Church of Shadow, a cult which he hopes will provide him with the answers he seeks about the Shadow and the Light.

More recently, Akhryuusa was travelling in search of answers, and more importantly himself, when another chance encounter changed his second life. After being attacked by Witherbark trolls in the Hinterlands a revantusk shaman saved his life. Upon asking him what power he used, the shaman simply replied with that he was well versed with the power of 'mojo'. To Akhryuusa, this was a revelation. So far, to him power only rested in the lap of the Forgotten Shadow, but now he realised that there were many other types of power that could be harnessed in different ways. Although he found that he was incapable of utilising this foreign power himself, the fact that it could be contained in a flask created a promising thought: what if all types of harnessable power could be merged using the power of the Forgotten Shadow as a base? Akhryuusa wandered from the walls of the Undercity and began keeping a journal of the different kinds of power; Mojo, the Earthmother, the Old Gods, even the psychological power that the orcs seemed to accumulate merely with the title of 'the Horde', Akhryuusa slowly became consumed by his dream, but he knew that one day his body wouldn't physically be able to handle the amount of power that he desired. Thinking of ways to combat this problem, he struck a deal with a corrupt goblin, one Hatch Sparkshuttle, who when paid enough agreed to see if he could increase the priest's bodily resillience through machinery. Akhryuusa has no qualms about being 'upgraded' if it means that he will be able to withstand the godlike power he dreams of one day attaining.

"They said it couldn't be done...not in this lifetime, anyway. Now, I will see them worship me as a god!"

Weeks passed, Hatch continued his research but it all ended up fruitless. Goblins were masters of creating explosives and transportation machines, but their operation skills proved to be no better than remodelling hair and features. Angered, the priest concluded business with the goblins and continued to better himself through natural causes, physical and mental training, eventually travelling through the dark portal to Outland. There, he saw many interesting things, but one really took his interest: The Consortium. The ethereals had technology that the races of Azeroth could only dream about, and with that Akhryuusa's dream was rekindled. After completing many profitable errands on the behalf of the Consortium, the ethereals got to work on what Akhryuusa had wanted since his revelation. It was all very technical, but the basic science of his new body functionality was that he could assimilate all kinds of power by being either subject or victim to it. The assimilated power would then be stored and blended in the pinnacle of their work, the Arcana Power Core, which was placed in the priest's chest. Akhryuusa could then either release the power stored inside him or continue to collect it up until the core was full. However, the thing that Akhryuusa found most useful is that the Arcana Power Core's capacity could be furtheredd with frequent trips to the ethereals who created it. The deal was simple: once Akhryuusa had filled the core, he would discharge all of his collected power into a container which the ethereals coveted as a rich energy deposit. In return for this ongoing supply of merged energy, they would continue to increase the capacity of his power core, effectively increasing the power he could attain. So Akhryuusa could continue to push up the limit of his power and the Consortium got a steady supply of ripe energy. However, the core did have the side effect of being heavily unstable, and upon reaching the half-full point the energy would slowly leak from Akhryuusa's body, causing pain and negative side effects as well as the need to constantly assimilate energy to fill his core. Now half-satisfied with the power he had accumulated, Akhryuusa returned to the Church of Shadows to continue his teachings of the Forgotten Shadow to continue his thirsts for power, knowledge and answers.