Josephine Ashweald

Josephine Ashweald

**Josephine Ashweald** is a figure of some repute among the burgeoning nation of undead Lordaeron, known best for her avid studies into black and 'forbidden' magics largely concerning the demonic and umbral, as well as her constant enthusiasm, patriotism, and altruism towards her fellow Forsaken. By self-proclamation she is a Pioneer of the Occult Sciences, and has aspirations of grandeur and power for the betterment of her people.

She greets her fellows in the wider Horde tentatively with the same enthusiasm, knowing the poor regard many take for the Undead - but she is a steadfast ally as any, and travels infrequently to Kalimdor to establish connections with other warlocks amidst the Horde, as well as to offer aid on behalf of the Forsaken with the continent's lingering demons.

## Physical Appearance

A short waif of a woman, Josephine has the sprightly vivacity of somebody unburdened by what must have been chronic sickness, in life. She takes great pride in her appearance and its somewhat-rotted features, which leaves a hole in her left cheek, patches of exposed muscle tissue across her body, and decayed-away ligaments and skin across many of the joints of her body. Some self-mastery or limited dark magic allows her a curious and oftentimes unnerving control over her body, oftentimes detaching and reattaching parts of it to suit her needs.

She garbs herself in faded red robes, sashed at the waist with much of her hands and arms wrapped in bandages. It's all suitably grimed and tattered, in keeping with the spirit and fashion of the risen dead - something she even seems to enjoy. She keeps a bag and reagent pouches close at hand, as well as a variety of charms and implements for the casting of dark and infernal magics.

## Biography

### Early life

Josephine Ashweald was the firstborn of an aristocratic noble family, situated in the eponymous Ashweald, west of and vassaled to the duchy of Stratholme. Geographically known for its white-barked forests and the mountain pass that gave it a spate of trade-bearing coastline, it was known best for its trade with the likes of Quel'thalas, importing and exporting goods - alchemical and arcane reagents, in particular. It proudly boasted a singular mage tower as well, often occupied by a (lone) Kirin Tor official.

Mired herself by the inflated authority and expectation of nobility, Josephine saw little of the land and its supposed grandeur for herself, confined to her family's manse as she was by chronic illness and frailty. Outperformed by younger siblings who shared few of her proclivities and limitations, the eldest Ashweald was passed from tutor to tutor in the hopes of shaping her into an educated and marriageable young woman. Few of her studies she paid much mind to, especially in fields of etiquette and propriety (much to the frustration of an impatient mother), though she grasped the intricacies of magic and alchemy under purchased Dalaranian tutelage better than many other things.

Though, while scholarship is fine and well for a noblewoman's distractions, it is not the lot of a firstborn - and so she was married to a farther-east lordling who promised the Ashweald further trade and clout among the easterly breadbasket. Though neither the young woman or man were scarcely interested in romancing each other, Josephine herself was grateful for a reprieve from her family's house and whims, which allowed her more time to herself to pursue her studies while parents delegated more active tasks and appearances and alliances to siblings less prone to catch a cough on a forest stroll. Rumors abounded on occasion as well, of auspicious and darker things that she might have studied in her husband's lofty manse with the man absent, and nobody to keep her watch.

### The Third War

Less traumatically than many others, Josephine fell ill to a bad batch of luncheon bread, retired to her chambers early, and awoke not-quite-herself to rip out her husband's throat by the teeth, before shambling out together into the onset of the Undead Plague throughout Lordaeron. Years later, when the Lich King's grasp on his undead hordes wavered and the Forsaken wrested back their will, her reaction was to first vomit the contents of a rotted stomach, turn about to get a grasp on her surroundings, and savage the nearby Cultist of the Damned.

Pilfering several books and scrolls on black magics, she retreated out of the Plaguelands and into the safety of Tirisfal, where she took up residence in the above-ground ruins of Capital City and established herself as a warlock of prodigal skill, finally unburdened from her illness in life and the hundred-and-one demands of her family. Her vibrancy was uncommon, but uplifting to enough people that when she set out to aid her new home with its many and varied troubles, she became known to many.

When the Forsaken joined the Horde, she accepted the potential alliance as a means of collaboration and security, in a world where the likes of the Alliance and the Scarlet Crusade had rebuked the Forsaken for a matter of misfortune and circumstance. The orcs had turned over a new leaf much like the Forsaken had, albeit not as morbidly, and rather than falling prey to old prejudices she traveled to Kalimdor as emissary of Undercity and eagerly set about establishing her name there, too.

If they're largely put off by the presence of the warlock, it's no worry - the Undercity Department of Foreign Affairs explicitly outlined the circumstances under which she might harvest a creature's soul or flesh, and it precludes anybody friendly - much to the misfortune of local Quillboar and Harpy populations.

## Notes and references

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Bloodsail Hold - Josephine Ashweald