Esme

Name
Esmeralda Underwood

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i103/UnspeakableEsme/esme-profile.jpg

Physical Traits
Forsaken witch (shadow priest). Esme was probably a beautiful woman before she was claimed by Undeath. Her face bears large patches of rot, and her mouth is permanently twisted in a smirk, as if she is thinking of an extremely unpleasant joke. Her eyes glow maliciously, and her shiny black hair is pinned up with an ornate clasp made from a child's finger bone. She is accompanied everywhere by her Familiar, a sleek black kitten named Naboo. Usually wears the black robes and cowl of one of Sylvanas' most devout followers, although favours a pointy hat when performing acts of professional witchery.

Guild
Unspeakable Villainy

Occupation
Potions merchant, Fortune teller, President of the Forsaken Business Association, Chairwoman of Unspeakable Finance, Brill's premier witch.

Background
Esme was born in Stormwind. After being educated both at home and at a Finishing School, she was enrolled as a novice at the Cathedral of Light. She soon became engaged to a young man of noble stock and they moved to Lordaeron where her fiance was enlisted to fight the Scourge. During her time in Lordaeron, Esme became increasing bored and disaffected by her duties as a novice priestess and grew to despise her insipid fiance. She began to search for forbidden knowledge and started studying black magic in secret. She also  met and fell in love with a local hoodlum known as Vincent Blackblood, AKA Trauma. The two attempted to elope during a Scourge assault on the city, but didn't get far before they were killed by ghouls. After an unknown amount of time wandering the forests as mindless dribbling zombies, they were liberated by Sylvanas Windrunner and became members of the Forsaken.

Family Background
Born to Claudia and Albertus Underwood. Claudia was a former high-flyer at the Cathedral of Light before her surprise marriage to local tailor Albertus and swift pregnancy. There were rumours that Esme was not Albertus' natural daughter and was in fact the illegitimate child of the Bishop, but all that is obviously stuff and nonsense. Albertus died of natural causes. Claudia travelled to Lordaeron in a desperate bid to find her missing daughter, and encountered the Forsaken Esme and her new husband marauding Silverpine Forest. The undead couple butchered Mrs Underwood and ate her. Esme still keeps her mother's skull as a trophy and uses it for some of her more unpleasant magical workings. Esme recently met and befriended one Archibald Underwood, a former farmer from Lordaeron. He is presumed to be a distant relation, possibly a second cousin.

Esme's father had two brothers, Jansen and Franklin Underwood. Jansen currently resides in Booty Bay where he works as a blacksmith, and Franklin Underwood went to sea as a pirate.

For more details see Underwood (Family)

Criminal Record
Here are some of Esme's more famous crimes:


 * Suspect in the murder of Minetha Nightingale and her family.
 * Rumoured to be the Godmother of the crime syndicate Unspeakable Villainy.
 * Ordered the assassination of Silvermoon's vice queen Madam Maphalda to avoid settling a debt and to take over the Comfort Houses of Silvermoon.
 * Killed and ate an unknown number of gnomes and dwarves during a skirmish just outside Sunrock Retreat.
 * Vandalised a Booty Bay hotel room with the help of Barnabas Creedy and Shadon.
 * Attacked and injured Angst Ironboot during the Mountaineers investigation of the Undead infestation of Duskwood.

Esme's Spellbook
See also: The High Witches of Tirisfal

Esme has performed several different magical rituals, with various degress of risk and success. Here are a few examples:

Esme's Glamour spell is not much more than a fancy parlour trick, involving a complicated magic circle drawn on the floor and some magic words. It only works within the magic circle and for a limited time. Esme has been trying to work on the practical implications of this spell for a long time with very little success.
 * Scrying: Using various methods of fortune telling, from palm reading upwards, the witch can divine the past, present and future of her subjects.
 * Glamours: A glamour is a spell that makes the wielder appear to change appearance. Unlike actual physical transformation spells, such as Polymorphs and Shapeshifts, Glamours fool the eye of the beholder for a limited time. There are several magical objects and potions that cause Glamours (Orbs of Deception and Savoury Deviate Delight for example), but they are rather limited in scope: savoury deviate delight can turn you into a pirate but it can't make your hair change colour, for example.
 * Exorcism: By feeding the subject some magical potion and chanting an invocation, the witch can cast out demons. This might sound impressive, but it usually involves the witch asking the demon to shove off, and if it doesn't work, giving up.
 * Channelling: An extremely dangerous ritual that involves the witch using the heart of a dead person to channel their spirit so that others can ask them questions. During the ritual, the witch speaks for the spirit. What makes the ritual so dangerous is that eventually the heart begins to beat and burst into flame, whilst the witch experiences how the person she is chanelling died. If the ritual is not aborted before then it could kill the witch. Needs at least two other people, a magic circle, an invocation and a magic bell to perform.
 * Possession: The witch can send her spirit to possess someone else temporarily, leaving her body behind and vulnerable. Not a good idea to cast this when enemies are near.
 * Flight: The witch makes a magical ointment that when liberally spread upon the body can allow her to fly on a broom. To date, Esme still hasn't managed to get the consistency right.

Personal Notes
Adept at all forms of fortune telling and scrying, sometimes using animal intestines. Much of Esme's magical abilities are ritual-based and cobbled together from various other magic traditions. Is a devout follower of Sylvanas Windrunner and regards her as the saviour of her race. Is a keen civil rights activist campaigning for Forsaken rights.

Esme rides a skeletal horse named Smiley McTeeth, who in life was a three-times winner of the Lordaeron Derby. She paid a huge sum of money to have necromancers raise the horse as her steed.

Very fond of fine Forsaken cuisine, like deep fried crispy elf ears and raw Gnome hearts.

Current Status
Plotting...