Zechariah the Castellan

The man who would become known as the Castellan once lived a successful life, but one wracked by tragedy. Witnessing firsthand the horrors of all three Great Wars and losing his entire family to the Horde and the Scourge, Zechariah was left with little but his faith. He made a name for himself as a seer and a soothsayer in the years following the Plague, and ultimately he came under the sway of Katherine Pike, whom he serves as an oracle and keeper of holy relics. Physically frail, he claims to be able to commune with and even channel the spirits of fallen heroes of Lordaeron, using their power to bolster his own.
== Description ==
It is an elderly man who stands before you, his dark face haggard from many long years and many deep wounds. He walks and speaks slowly, leading some to think him senile or dumb. His gray eyes shine with intelligence, however, and to think him infirm would be a mistake.
Zechariah has kinky, springy hair that has gone snowy white from age; he has always kept it short, and now as it thins and recedes from his scalp, it is only the tight curl of his hair that seems to give any depth to his hair at all. There is a slight jut to his upper lip, the cause of which is a set of wooden dentures that replaced his aged, rotting upper teeth; he hides this behind a thick mustache that spreads into mutton chops on his cheeks. He has a bulky body that does not seem particularly muscular or fat, but rather simply makes him appear large and sometimes ungainly, and he does not possess the strength one might expect from one of his build.
He is often seen wearing simple woolen robes dyed a deep crimson, over which he will wear a Scarlet tabard or a bleached homemade tabard bearing the Red Hand of Tyr on the upper left breast. He never carries weapons on his person, relying on his powers as an oracle to steer him from harm. He will resort to physical violence only as a last resort, and only then by (in his own mind, at least) channeling the resolve and strength of Scarlet heroes past.
== History ==
Zechariah was born into the merchant class of Lordaeron. His father, Isaiah Walker, was a reputable merchant and tradesman in Brill who married well to the daughter of a local landowner, a beautiful young woman named Daedilah. Zechariah, as a commoner, had little formal privilege or education, but Daedilah was a learned woman, and together she and Isaiah taught Zechariah to read, write, and calculate, all important skills in business. He and his two older brothers, Jebedias and Brand, were all groomed to inherit and expand Isaiah's trade empire. Jebedias, the firstborn, was already accompanying his father to negotiations before Zechariah turned eight.
Due to the frequency of Isaiah and Jebedias's travels, it is more difficult to ascertain their own beliefs, but by and large the family seems to have been religious and were a common sight at the local parish. On holidays, they would travel to the great monastery in northern Tirisfal to bear witness to the religious rites of Lordaeron's most faithful. It is this faith that Zechariah would come to cling to in later years.
Zechariah became properly apprenticed to his father at age 13 and was conducting his own business within his father's mercantile company by age 18. On his 22nd birthday, Zechariah was sent southward to Stormwind with a caravan and the funds needed to purchase a homestead. Zechariah settled in the town of Goldshire, where he began to put down roots as a citizen and a merchant, expanding his father's business as a southern affiliate. It is around this time he met a woman named Carter, a local tavernkeeper. The two were married within a year of his emigration to Goldshire, and by the end of their first decade together she had borne him five children, two sons and three daughters.
Zechariah was thirty-four at the opening of the Dark Portal. His home of Goldshire was not an early target of the Horde, as Grand Hamlet and the other fiefdoms of Brightwood stood between the Orcish invaders and the heartland of Stormwind, but he - like many others - either lacked the means to leave or was simply overconfident in the Royal Army's ability to prevent the Orcish advance. Zechariah and his eldest son, Barrett, were in the midst of negotiations with a Dwarven mining expedition in Khaz Modan when Goldshire was sacked, leading to the deaths of his wife and the remainder of his children. Zechariah, upon hearing of his home's destruction, attempted to return to Stormwind, but by the time he had completed the journey, the capital city had fallen to the Horde. With both his family and business in ruins, Zechariah fades from history for a time, lost amongst the other refugees of the Horde's onslaught.
Around 3 LC, Zechariah is known to have returned home to Lordaeron with his now 11-year-old son, where he stayed with his father and brother Jebedias, taking on an administrative role in the northern branch of his father's business. He seems to have devoted much of his time to his son during this time, rarely traveling far from his father's homestead in Brill in an attempt to give his son a more stable upbringing. Stability was not destined for the family, however, as the Second War soon brought the Horde to Lordaeron. Isaiah and Jebedias were both present in the capital city of Lordaeron when the Dragonmaw Clan unleashed its enslaved dragons upon it; neither men would ever be seen again, presumably having suffered a brutal death at the hands of dragonfire. In the aftermath, Brand - who had himself relocated to Kul Tiras - and Zechariah took full ownership of the crumbling pieces of the business. With their land-based trade routes in shambles, Zechariah was forced to operate at a loss as he attempted to reconstitute the business. Brand, who had established his own contacts in Kul Tiras, communicated less and less with his brother over the next few years, and by 12 LC the two were no longer in contact, with Brand taking his portion of the business for himself.
Barrett came of age around this time and was given an administrative role in the business. While not as prosperous as it once was, it proved capable of providing for the two men and the women in their life; Zechariah had taken his ailing mother under his care, and Barrett had married a young soldier's widow, a petite country beauty named Sesille. Barrett and Sesille would give Zechariah three grandchildren, all boys. Zechariah seems to have taken them on as pupils, giving them the same instruction he had been given by his father. The family was close-knit and lived relatively harmoniously under one roof for a time, but the business soon got back on its feet and Daedilah passed away, and it was decided that the family separate. Jebedias was given his father's house in Brill, while Zechariah retired to a small farmhouse in the Westweald. He continued doing administrative work for the business while there, but Barrett had taken control of its day-to-day operations. There is little record of Zechariah's life at this time, save for his old administrative notes and some theological musings, which offer little insight into his personal life. Barrett and his family lived well for a time, but they would become early victims of the Plague that would sweep Lordaeron in 20 LC.
=== Red Hand of Tyr ===
There are few records of Zechariah after the Plague. His homestead was deserted, with its one-time inhabitant presumed to be among the many refugee parties wandering Lordaeron. Unlike many, however, it seems he did not attempt to travel southward to safer nations, but rather remained in the land of his birth. It is believed that during this time he began claiming to bear divine inspiration that allowed him to speak to the spirits of Lordaeron's fallen heroes; the travelogues of multiple refugees reference a man matching Zechariah's description offering prophecies and guidance to party leaders in exchange for refuge, though he would rarely stay for more than a few months, usually leaving on bad terms.
Zechariah would ultimately make his way to the former internment camp of Stout Hill, where he remained for an indeterminate period of time. It is believed that he was an early convert to the Red Hand of Tyr, participating in the atrocities they committed against their own people. He came to be a close confidante and associate of Katherine Pike, the leader of the Red Hand and later a notable figure in the elite Scarlet Crusade sect the Hand of the Unblinded. He has become known as the Castellan, and continues to offer his services as an oracle as well as a keeper of relics. He is one of the few it is said Pike truly trusts, perhaps one of the few persons in the Crusade potentially as mad and visionary as herself.
While affiliated with the Crusade and Katherine, Zechariah does not seem to be part of the Unblinded's actual hierarchy, and as such he is largely absent from their records.
Category:Characters
Category:Scarlet Crusade
Category:Human
Category:Hand of the Unblinded