Corverus

**Corverus Crowwing** is a disgraced Blackrock warrior who was isolated from his clan after an incomplete Mak'gora. Instead of killing him, his opponent—Bannok Grimaxe, the champion of the Firebrand Legion—exiled him as a calculated embarrassment. Stripped of his armor, he was forced to wander into the scorched wastelands until, after weeks of travel, he stumbled upon the construction of the new Horde outpost, Kargath. Agents of the  Harbingers saw both individual potential and critical information in the Blackrock defector and told him, if he swore fealty to the Warchief Thrall, he would once again find his honor.

## History

Among the orcs of Blackrock Mountain, subterfuge and combat are equally valuable career advancements. For Corverus, a simple blacksmith, neither were available options. He reveled in war, yet the war had dissipated, and his brethren hid in the mountains. He wanted to rise above them, to become Rend Blackhand's confidant, and then to convince him to mount an offensive against the pitiful races that had surrounded them.

Yet, all he would be tasked with was the maintenance and forging of the legions' equipment.

A low-ranking member of the Bloodaxe Legion, he came upon a scheme after learning that the champion of the Firebrand had schematics to forge a potent new weapon that had yet to be crafted. He manged to attract the attention of his supervisor, the Bloodaxe Quartermaster Zigris, and promised him this axe made of arcanite in exchange for the legion's favor. The Quartermaster grunted in agreement and walked away.

Corverus knew little of the Firebrands' movements, but he did know where Bannok Grimaxe stored his spoils. In the early hours of night, he sneaked into the cache to take the schematics, yet was discovered by Firebrand guards. Furious and panicked, he accused Bannok of hiding valuable war intelligence from the Dark Horde and challenged the champion to Mak'gora. If he would win, he would take the schematics. If he lost, he would at least die in honorable combat.

The champion laughed and agreed. The fight was swift and demoralizing. Bannok, honed by years of rigorous training, handily defeated Corverus. But in the last moment, he shouted to the crowd that if anyone would stand by the blacksmith's actions, he would give them the chance to fight him as well.

The Quartermaster watched from afar and, as Corverus looked over, averted his gaze. Bannok laughed again and told the defeated orc that he was both friendless and a traitor. For his punishment, he would not receive the warrior's death. He would instead be stripped of his worldly possessions and commanded into exile in the Searing Gorge.

The disgraced blacksmith, naked and afraid, was marched out into the desert and abandoned. For weeks he wandered, scraping by at the brink of starvation as he endeavored to avoid dwarven patrols or the attention of the vicious monsters and elementals.

He arrived in the Badlands, inches from death, and there he saw an impossible sight. Orcs, in plain daylight, building fortifications. Orcs planning an assault. He heard that no orcs outside Blackrock Mountain had survived the Second War, yet there they were, with the courage to fight where his brothers had failed. Before he could move closer, he was surrounded. From the shadows stepped several assassins, including a face he had remembered from years ago. A high-ranking Dragonmaw orc by the name of Shaego. The Dragonmaw, he thought, had been all but destroyed, but he was clearly wrong about many orcs.

"You're a Blackrock orc?" Shaego leaned close to him. "Why are you alone?"

"I have none left who stand with me," he said, on one knee.

"You're coming with us, then. We may have use for you."

The assassins escorted him to a wyvern, and they made haste to the land of Durotar, where the new Horde had nearly finished construction of its capital city. Informing Corverus that the knowledge of a Blackrock defector was imperative in the years to come, Shaego introduced the group as members of the Harbingers, an elite group of operatives working at the behest of the new Horde's Warchief, Thrall. If he agreed, they explained, he would be initiated into their order and given new meaning in life. Though Corverus had little intention of swearing loyalty to weaklings who had, as he heard, been captured by mere humans, he had to admit to himself that these orcs had done what his allies never could. They had survived, and so would he. He would make it back to Blackrock Mountain and take revenge on the orcs that had humiliated him with life, especially Bannok and Zigris. And if this "Thrall" was the successor of the great Orgrim Doomhammer, then perhaps he would provide the army needed for such a task.

## Current Events

The tales of tomorrow have yet to unfold. Return at a later time, wayward adventurer, to hear of Corverus's quest for revenge!

## Personality

Corverus is a prideful and arrogant orc. Even though he was low-ranking among his comrades in the Dark Horde, he still commands far more combat expertise than the average orc in the new Horde. Thus, he has a tendency to view his new allies as beneath him, especially since they openly cavort with non-orcs, and *especially* with pacifists like the Mulgore tauren or the abominable human corpses of his former opponents. Nevertheless, he respects power and knows that the fraternity of the Harbingers commands such power. Every member among them is a lethal assassin in their own right, and Corverus has come to begrudgingly tolerate the specific non-orcs within their ranks.

Corverus is driven by a potent sense of vengeance. To deny an orc the honor of death in a Mak'gora is among the greatest insults one could ever receive, and to that end, he has sworn to eliminate those who have spurned him.