Aodhan

Name
Aodhan Burnell.

Appearance
((Please note: This page states the OOC race, class and faction of the character using the name Aodhan. This character is human because I'm too cheap to fork out for a faction change. He exists in Forsaken form over on the Horde side, but may sometimes crop up IC on Alliance to avoid cross-faction communication issues.))

This badly-decayed undead man is small and slightly-built, even considering his mostly-skeletonised state. His rotted form is shrouded in heavy layers of musty dark robes - tattered garments bearing some unpleasant-looking stains. Though rarely revealed and usually hidden within the depths of his hood, his face is for the most part reduced to bone and scraps of withered, dried skin and his eyesockets are empty save for the faintest glimmer of ghost-light in their depths. His age is difficult to ascertain, but could be placed somewhere in middle age owing to the streaks of grey in his lank, dark brown hair, which has been pulled back into a straggling ponytail at the nape of his neck. He stands as straight as a rotting corpse can. When seated, he tends to sprawl out and take up space, lounging with one leg over the arm of a chair, for instance. His body language in general could be said to be relaxed and confident.

Those who knew him in life might recall him as a scrawny, pale, sickly-looking man in his mid- to late-forties, usually grinning at something or another. With his hair in a stupid ponytail.

Background
Aodhan waas born in Dalaran around ten years before the First War broke out. Though naturally talented in magic, his family's impoverished circumstances meant he came to formally study the arcane sciences later than most, beginning his studies in his late teens - shortly after the Second War. An intelligent young man, overconfident and easily bored, his insatiable curiosity led him towards the dark art of necromancy and, in his arrogance, he believed he would never fall to corruption. He believed he would be the one to prove the Kirin Tor wrong about such magic. When the Cult of the Damned approached him, he thought they were nothing more than an association of like-minded arcanists who wished to study and research.

The rest followed as might be expected. Able to practice necromancy and advance far more rapidly than he had been able to alone and exercising little caution in doing so, he rapidly succumbed to its corrupting effects on his body, mind and soul. By the time the Cult's real intentions became clear to him, he no longer cared. He desired to become undead himself and to bring others to that cursed state was, in his twisted mind, merely bestowing upon them the gift of eternal life. He was well-regarded for his work within the Cult, though not well-liked in himself, being a loud, obnoxious little man. Thus, when the Third War was over and Lordaeron lay in ashes, Aodhan was sent south - as far away as possible from those whose nerves he got on. His task was to lead a Cult faction within Stormwind.

Going by the name of the Arcane Order, that faction comprised a handful of cultists and a number of innocent mages with no knowledge of the Cult side, who acted as a front for the organisation. Its official purpose was to teach students to undertake research in the arcane and other fields, including alchemy and engineering. Aodhan eventually made the mistake which was to bring the whole thing down, when he recruited a close friend of his into the Cult. The mage Zeiko Regrave should never have been initiated into the cult - his motive for joining at all was part of a scheme of his to somehow turn Aodhan away from the dark path he followed. He went on to betray Aodhan to the authorities, forcing him to flee for his life. Despite the disruption, the cult was able to orchestrate the plaguing of Stormwind before the Northrend expedition.(1)

After some months on the run, harried by Theramore marines, paladins and old friends of his, Aodhan was finally cornered by Regrave, who was accompanied by a large number of allies. Greatly outnumbered and unable to escape, Aodhan fought to the end, though he seriously wounded his old friend in doing so. His body was buried in Silverpine Forest, some miles from the place where he fell.

Control of the Cult faction was contested for a short time, but eventually fell to an ambitious young shadow priest named Davrith Gant. This man eventually succeeded at locating Aodhan's remains, several months after the fall of the Lich King, and raised him as one of the undead. With no remaining ties to the Scourge, the battered remnants of Aodhan's cult survive. The last known sighting of the man himself was in southern Silverpine Forest, near Pyrewood Village. His current location and goals are unknown.

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OOC notes on this section:

(1) We had a plague event. In the run-up to the Wrath launch, Blizzard had kept their plans under wraps and we decided to have our own plague event two weeks ahead of release, having no idea at all what they intended to do. Level one alts swarmed the streets howling for brains and even made it on the boat to Theramore and it was all generally a lot of fun.

Two weeks later, Blizzard's plan was revealed to be a plague event. We facepalmed. The Cult of the Damned had plagued the same city twice in two weeks and we looked jolly silly. And their event was better than anything we could have managed, even if ghouls did corpse-camp my low-level priest in Thelsamar for an hour.