Rashgarroth

== Overview ==
Rashgarroth is a Nathrezim field agent for the Burning Legion, and he works alongside his fellow agent and brother, Varthisimas, to spread chaos and discord throughout the mortal races in preparation for the inevitable Legion invasion of Azeroth. He is currently working alongside his brother to cause new-found chaos across Pandaria.
== Appearance ==
Rashgarroth stands mighty at a staggering eight feet and seven inches tall, well over the heads of nearly all of the mortal races. His skin is sickly pale, like the flesh of a corpse and has a waxy texture to match it. Veins pulse slightly underneath bulging muscles, showing that not only is Rashgarroth a master of magic, but also has strength to pummel those who prove to be nuisances into the dust. His face is very lean, having an almost elfish look about it and with a pair of ears to complete the ensemble, but that’s where the similarities between Elves and Rashgarroth end. His lips are thin and can pull back to reveal rows and rows of dagger-like teeth inside of his maw, so sharp in fact that they can tear right through a human arm without any hindrance. A pair of gnarled, blackened horns protrudes from Rashgarroth’s forehead, and extends nearly two feet up above and end in wicked points. Black, leathery bat-like wings jut out of his back, each one connecting into the flesh beneath each shoulder blade, and have a wingspan of eighteen feet to carry the demon through the skies with ease. His hands end in viciously sharp talons that can rip through the flesh of mortals like a knife through butter. His entire torso is very humanoid, but at the waist is where it changes drastically. Instead of common humanoid legs that end with a pair of feet, instead there’s a pair of long, black furred equine legs that arch back like a goat’s and end in a pair of cloven hooves that leave burn marks wherever they tread.
However; Rashgarroth has never truly revealed his full form to all but his worst enemies and those of the Legion. He utilizes a combination of illusion and possession to coerce mortals into his eternal servitude with the promise of immortality or other otherworldy desires, but in the end he never fulfills his end of that infernal pact.
Rashgarroth’s armor is forged from Fel-Steel, one of the most durable metals within the Nether, and fits only to his form. His chest plate is colored a dull ebony trimmed a burnished gold and is covered with verses from various demonic texts written in a myriad of languages, most of which cannot be comprehended by the mortal mind. With this breastplate is a pair of pauldrons, which rest firmly on Rashgarroth’s broad shoulders and are decorated with spikes that jut out from the trimming, and has the skull of an unknown creature of the nether planted firmly in the center of the right pauldron. On his wrists lie a pair of bracers that have the same spiked trim as his pauldrons and more demonic text, but are also decorated with a pair of dark blue orbs that act as focal points for spells which making them more potent and accurate when cast. Covering his legs are three-piece armor sets that have the same spiked trim as his pauldrons and bracers, and are also decorated with more demonic text.
== Personality ==
Rashgarroth is an intelligent, cunning demon who preys upon the hopes and fears of the mortal races of the universe. Life is all but meaningless to this individual, for each being can be twisted and molded to his own sadistic whims on a moment's notice. Subverting the wills of mortals brings something akin to pleasure to Rashgarroth, for gifting the lesser races with founts of untold malice and deceit is the greatest gift one could give to the universe. When the bonds between friends, family, and countrymen dissolve before his very eyes, he rejoices in the chaos wrought, taking immense pleasure in what he has unleashed. He revels in every act of malice imaginable, whether or not it was a direct or indirect cause of his own diabolical machinations, but he especially revels in those that are. It would also be incorrect to assume that Rashgarroth would rather see a foe brought down low from afar, but he only intervenes in schemes personally if it is of the highest priority, otherwise he would dispatch his foes with his minions.
The battlefield is Rashgarroth's second home, watching legions of demons scour the land of life field by field, land by land, planet by planet. Although; he prefers to stay behind the innumerable lines of advancing demons or other minions, coordinating their actions with his superior intellect and cunning, and fleeing the battle when the odds become to great for him to overcome. He usually reserves such a leadership position only in times of war, preferring to use a mixture of possession and illusion to enact his schemes, and while using the body of a mortal as a guise to infiltrate the factions of Azeroth he is able to replicate the mannerisms of whomever he possesses and can express false compassion despite being a Demon. This makes him highly convincing, making his diplomacy alone one of his many strengths.
Between himself and his brother, Rashgarroth is more enigmatic and quiet when dealing with their mortal servitors.
== Background ==
=== Ancient Times ===
Spawned from the primordial blackness of the universe arose a demon by the name of Rashgarroth, a Nathrezim with powers of the nether and seeker of the darkness within the hearts of mortal men. For as long as he remembered he had been brother to a being even more malefic than he, the insidious Varthisimas, self-proclaimed Prince of the Dark whose even the mighty Rashgarroth considered his equal, and perhaps even his superior. Together, these brothers Nathrezim used the darkness to corrupt whomever they came across, greedily devouring their souls and damning them for all eternity. They were stopped, however; when the great Titan Sargeras led a crusade against all evil in the universe and imprisoned many demons within a great prison, dooming them to an existence of imprisonment until the end of days. Rashgarroth languished in that prison for what seemed like an eternity, until the most unusual of beings came to shatter the binds that held the demons.
Sargeras, the very being that had imprisoned them in the first place, relented against the Titan Pantheon and became a Dark Titan, hell-bent on unraveling the order the Titans had worked so hard to create. To do this, he needed to form an army of the darkest beings in existence, and thus released the demons from their imprisonment. From that plethora of screaming demons he created the Burning Legion, an organized army that would sweep across the stars with a trail of burning hell-fire to scour it of life and order. Rashgarroth eagerly accepted a place in this army, and had a mighty suit of armor forged for him from fel-steel, constructed in the diabolic forgeries of the Tothrezim and Mo’args, and ‘blessed’ with a ritual using the souls of the slain. 
=== War of the Ancients ===
Eons passed and the Dark Lord of the Legion was drawn to an insignificant backwater world known as Azeroth, where the dominant Highborne race had been tampering and abusing Arcane magic, which drew the demons to the planet like moths to a candle. Led by Queen Azshara and her High Councilor, the Highborne paved the way for the Legion by misusing the powers of the Well of Eternity to create a portal strong enough so that many demons, including the powerful Hakkar the Houndmaster and Mannoroth the Destructor could enter the mortal realm and begin the invasion. Rashgarroth was one of the many Nathrezim sent in to aid the Legion, and followed the swarms of Felguard and Felhounds into the city of Zin-Azshari to cull the weak and worthless, melting flesh off the bone with quick incantations and cleaving apart bodies with his claws. Raging Infernals streaked through the burning sky, blotting out the sun in their approach and creating massive gouges in the earth as they crashed with hellish fury. Darkness blanketed the land as the innumerable horde of demons continued to sweep across the land, bringing death and destruction wherever they walked, destroy entire villages and ripping the screaming souls from the corpses of those that had fallen to their blades and magic. 
However; the champions of the Kaldorei Resistance were in the end, triumphant, as per the heroic actions of Malfurion Stormrage and strange individuals from the distant future ensured the portal's destruction, sending all of the demons screaming back through as a gale stronger than even Archimonde or Mannoroth, ripped them from the ground. As all the demons funneled back into the Twisting Nether, the Dark God Sargeras refused to accept defeat, and attempted to step through the closing portal and open it with his own strength, but it was too much. The portal collapsed on Sargeras, and he ceased to be on the physical plane of existence. 
=== Interim ===
This was a devastating blow for the Legion, with their leader seemingly destroyed, the leadership of the Legion came under the joint-command of Kil'jaeden the Deceiver, and Archimonde the Defiler. The Legion would continue on, slowly plotting the downfall of Azeroth from beyond the stars, while Rashgarroth decided to return to the planet once more roughly six hundred years before the event known as the First War, enslaving a cabal of deemon-worshipers into his service to open a rift for him to pass into the mortal plane. Rashgarroth proclaimed this cult to be the Malfested, as their outward appearance became morphed and twisted by the sudden infusion of fel magick into their very beings. The Cult took up residence in an estate deep between the mountains of Lordaeron, renaming the estate Vain Hallow after the current residents were turned into deemonic felsworn under Rashgarroth's control. The survivors managed to flee from the mountain estate only to regroup with determined resolve to oust the demon worshipers who have taken root in the now ruined estate and reclaim it, unknowing of the powerful demon controlling these crazed worshipers. They storm the estate, killing many of the worshipers, but suffering a few casualties themselves before they finally push to the main ballroom in the center of the estate, which has been transformed into a place of worship for the cultists, and contains a number of grotesque idols and ritual sacrifices. 
After they finished slaying the last of the cultists, Rashgarroth revealed himself to the group and killed one instantly as he dropped from the ceiling and crushed him under his hooves. The Dreadlord then lashed out with his demonic bastard sword, catching another across the throat, spraying an arc of crimson across his blackened breastplate, much to the shock and surprise of the others, who pushed down their fear and rushed to avenge their slain comrades. Rashgarroth proved to be an extremely tricky and cunning foe, never allowing them to get too close before flying up into the darkness that permeated the ceiling and crashing down towards them, forcing them to separate or be crushed underneath the bulk of the demon, but left them vulnerable to being picked off one-by-one afterwards. Things looked horribly grim for the stalwart heroes as most of their kin lay dead or dying from the demon's unrelenting onslaught, and now only three of them remained, battered and bruised from the fight. They would have been slain then and there, if it wasn't for the untimely arrival of both Priest and Magician, that turned the tide of the battle in the favor of the mortals.
Rashgarroth was poised to slay the remaining interlopers as suddenly a bright light flushed the room, dispelling the darkness ahead and momentarily surprising the demon as he turned to look at what caused this horrid, blinding light. At the entrance to the ballroom stood a group of roughly five or six figures, some dressed in white robe with gold trim, while others were covered by a robe of purple and gold with an eye dominating the chest of the robes. Priests of the Light and Magicians of the Kirin Tor have come to fight the corruption that ensnared this home, putting aside their differences to destroy this evil that dared encroach on human lands. They lashed out with holy beams of light, and bolts of fire and frost at the demon, who merely snarled at this second intrusion and rushed to meet them head-on, deciding to quickly put these mongrels to the blade instead of toying with them as he did with the others. Sadly, Rashgarroth's schemes were destroyed that day, as the Magi managed to banish the demon from the mortal plane, unable to actually land a killing blow on the crafty demon. Rashgarroth wouldn't return to Azeroth for over six hundred years.
=== Third War ===
When he did return, it wasn't until right before the Third War. After the Orc's failure during the Second War, the Chieftain Ner'zhul attempted to flee Draenor by opening various portals across the world that he and his followers could run through to escape the Alliance, but instead of finding sanctuary he found only fury. Kil'jaeden had found his former pawn during this ill-fated escape attempt, and tortured him for some time before placing his essence within a set of armor and sword encased in ice and flung him into the most northern part of Azeroth. Thus the Lich King was born, destined to create a plague strong enough to destroyed the mortal Kingdoms of Azeroth and create an army infinitely stronger than the Orcish Horde that had failed the Legion previously. To monitor the fledgling Lich King, the malefic Dreadlords were sent to safeguard him, Rashgarroth was one of the many Dreadlords sent to watch the Legion's new pawn and watch he did. Rashgarroth traveled to the ruined keep and discovered that his cult still existed in the caverns beneath the keep, twisted and warped by centuries of living underground and residual fel energies that seeped underground. They were little more than actual humans anymore, and thus truly lived up to their named as the Malfested.
Rashgarroth served as a commander for the Burning Legion during the Third War, and marshaled a combined host of demons, undead, and mortal servants to destroy all remnants of civilization that remained in Lordaeron after the Scourge's rampage. His work would not be as well known as other Nathrezim from that era, but nonetheless he did his fair share of destruction before the Legion's cataclysmic defeat on the slopes of Mount Hyjal. The Dreadlords in Lordaeron remained unaware of their master's defeat, however; and continued to fight on against the Grand Alliance that remained within the ruined kingdom. Luckily for Rashgarroth, he avoided ultimate defeat at the hands of the Forsaken, and went deep into hiding to restore his lost strength and once again exert his influence over his mortal servants.Category:The Burning LegionCategory:DemonCategory:NathrezimCategory:WarlockCategory:Back story