Liniadel Sha'Qelas

The Sin'dorei High Commander of the Phoenix Highguard, and ex-Blood Knight.

## Early Life

Born in Goldenmist Village to a wealthy Magister Couple, Liniadel enjoyed a life of pampered ease alongside her older and younger brothers. She was raised to become the lady of the household, with all the etiquette and arcane training she could need from her mother. When she was still very young, her brother shocked the family by announcing his desire to join the Farstrider's. Outraged, Liniadel's father banished Barthelm from the family and disowned him. Though he remained on the other side of the woods, he still continued to visit Liniadel in secret, training her to use a bow, and filling her young head with glorious stories of fighting trolls.

Years later, at the age of 15, the news was broken to Liniadel that her brother had died during a Troll ambush on his camp. Liniadel was devastated by the news- but even moreso devastated by her parent's seemingly apathetic attitude towards losing their firstborn. After being verbally reprimanded and embarrassed by her father, Liniadel soon began to abandon her archery and talk to adventure, and fell into becoming the obedient daughter her father wanted, secretly afraid of being fed to Trolls if she did not.

### Womanhood and Syndrath

As Liniadel grew into a woman in her own right, her arcane studies would soon be abandoned for even more etiquette lessons, as well as pampering her for an arranged marriage. While her younger brother soon stepped up to fulfill the role of becoming a powerful magister, Liniadel was being groomed to both lead the family and save it. Financial times had hit them hard, and as a result, the family was rapidly running out of money. Liniadel was being prepared to marry into a rich family to save her own, and she soon found that to be increasingly easy. She had grown into a fine woman, and with her mother's teaching, she had her pick of suitors throwing themselves at her feet. And yet, she hesitated.

She seemed to enjoy dating around and playing with the men more than she actually remembered that she wasn't doing this for herself. Deluded by the lives of luxury and attention she was getting, nothing seemed to be good enough for her, until a chance encounter with a petty thief, attempting to loot her family's stores during a party. Syndrath, a common lowborn looking to make a quick gold piece, was swiftly beat back by Liniadel's fencing skills, and as a result, he fell head over heels for her.

Throughout the next few years, the two slowly developed a friendship that would turn into even more. He offered a freedom from her usual suitors and stuffy life, and she offered him of course, a beautiful woman to enjoy his company.

Their romance soon seemed to blossom into a storybook romance, though discontent lurked beneath the surface. Syndrath wanted nothing more than to take her away from her life and become some fantastical king and queen of thieves, whereas Liniadel remained grounded and knew that their relationship would never last. She remembered her duties and needs to marry, and soon grew distant from the thief, and their relationship began to crumble. Fights erupted daily between the two, fueled by Synndrath's frustration of being her dirty secret, and furthered by her impatience with his idealistic and irrational goals and dreams. Ultimately, one final fight used up the rest of her patience, and their relationship ended with a promise from Liniadel that she would order he guards to kill him if she ever saw him again.

### Leothen and Priesthood

A month after their separation, Liniadel discovered that she was not yet free- she was pregnant, with what could only have been Syndrath's child. Deciding not to deal with the headache that was the young thief, she made up a fantastical story of her child's absent father- of a valiant spellbreaker killed in a troll raid, and promptly left her village. She traveled into the human kingdoms surrounding Quel'thalas, and was readily accepted to study the Light as a lowly priestess as she allowed her pregnancy to grow. Upon the birth of her son Leothen, whom she aptly named after Syndrath's real identity, she began the journey back to her hometown, to continue studying and practicing her healing prowess with the Light, while raising her son in relative safety. Though still living a lavish Quel'dorei life, she toned it down somewhat as she focused her life to wandering Eversong with her son, healing those whom she could.

## Third War and beyond

As with all Quel'dorei, the fall of Quel'thalas violently destroyed her world. Her villages was one of the first to fall to the nerubians and abominations of the Scourge army, and she was only able to escape as her parents stayed behind, vowing to defend their home and their family. Liniadel fled with her son north, hoping to catch a ship out of the Sunsail Anchorage, only to arrive too late. Luck would see her that day, however, as her late timing saved her and her son from a fate of being on the ships as it was attacked by the gargoyles and bats of the Scourge armies, slowly sending them to the bottom of the bay. Terrified, the Guard at the docks led her further north with a large group of refuges, deep into the hills to avoid scourge protection. Throughout the invasion, the fall of Silvermoon and soon the fall of Quel'danas, she remained in that camp, guarded by a few select Farstriders.

When it had been clear for them to return to the newly reclaimed Silvermoon, she followed, and soon noticed that her son fell into a deep seated sickness. The tainted Sunwell was sickening and poisoning Quel'dorei all around her, yet the children and elderly seemed to be affected by it the worst. Her son's sickness only grew worse as Kael'thas ventured forward and destroyed the Sunwell. At the age of 8, weeks after the sunwell had been destroyed, her son simply wasted away.

Enraged and lost by the death of her son, Liniadel soon traded in her tattered dress for thin armor, her few pieces of jewelry for a makeshift weapon, and joined the guards still fighting the remains of the Scourge army outside of the City gates. Wandering without a goal in mind, she continued, until she was found by a recruiter of the newly formed Blood Knights. He ensured her that with this new power source and order, there would be no way for her to lose the Light again- and it would soon become a way to save her people. She quickly accepted.

### Blood Knight training

What she lacked in proper training, she made up in determination, and she adapted swiftly to the ruthless and bloodthirsty training of the Blood Knights. The jests and jokes of some of her more lowborn companions only fueled her anger, and after a trial by combat to ascend to the rank of Adept resulted in her opponent beaten bloody and disfigured almost to the point of death, she soon earned a reputation of being exceedingly ruthless and cold. This matched the Blood Knight Master that took her on as his pupil, and he only furthered her fury and cold desire for vengeance. He constantly pitted her against scenarios that would test her and her morals, as he wanted to see exactly how far she would go or how she would be held back, and she rose to each challenge. After one test in which she was ordered to execute her own brother who had become a wretched, she earned her Knight rank, and the right to finally feast upon M'uru's power. When she proved her dominance over the Naaru, she was granted her right to join the rest of her Blood Knights in the war in the Outlands.

### The Burning Crusade

Her time serving in Hellfire Peninsula earned her a gruesome fel fire scar on her shoulder from an infernal, and numerous military experience. Her reckless behavior was soon starting a collection of scars on her body, and yet she managed to survive. Kael'thas' betrayal came to no surprise to her- in fact it only sparked her vengeance even further, and she readily joined the Shattered Sun Offensive, though she was obviously disgruntled with Liadrin's new views of the light, and her new Draenei allies. She joined in on the assault of the Sunwell, though a vicious attack from a felhunter left her with a mauling on her chest. She survived, and as she recovered, was pleased to hear that Kael'thas was brought to justice... Yet the renewing of the Sunwell did little to placate her or change her views of the Light. She continued using as if she was still drawing upon M'uru, and though the headaches had ceased, her vengeance was not finished. She turned her gaze to the next cause she blamed for her son's death- Arthas and his Scourge.