Saigio Talorsin

Saigio Talorsin is a heroic paladin of some renown among the many people of Azeroth. Well known for his bravery and compassion, he stands as a symbol of hope to those he defends and a ferocious and deadly foe to his enemies. There are many legends about the knight, though not all of them are true. Even more about the paladin isn’t commonly known, and these mysteries are even more clouded by uncertainty than the common tales.

 **Place of Birth**
 **Occupation**

## Appearance

Saigio Talorsin stands around six feet and four inches tall and has the powerful build of an athlete. His head is topped with golden hair that flows to his shoulders. His face is young and gentle with an easy handsomeness to it. His well groomed beard is the same golden hue as his hair and his eyes are a brilliant emerald green. His clothing and equipment are all of high quality, finely tailored cloth and well fitted armor.

## History

#### **Childhood**

Saigio is the only child of Johnathon and Maria Tal. His father was a simple farmer, his mother was the daughter of a minor Dalaran noble named Darin Tal. The two had met at a summer festival and, against the wishes of Lord Darin, they began to see each other. Darin Tal forbid his daughter from seeing the young farmer, threatening to disown the young woman. Instead of obeying her father, she fled, taking the sword Shimmer, a relic of the family dating back the heroic half-elf battlemage Sai Suntalon, the ancestor of the family. That very night she and Johnathon were married and conceived Saigio.

Naming the baby boy for his heroic ancestor, Maria decided to make mockery of her father and declared the boy the true heir to the legacy of her family. Taking the new surname Talorsin, she declared that he would surpass the house of Tal and leave her former family forgotten to history. Her father was outraged and denounced her, disowning her and declaring that she had lost her mind.

Saigio was raised on legends of famous heroes from history, his mother keeping his true heritage hidden from the boy. When he was old enough, his mother called on a mage from one of the many academies of magic in the city to evaluate the young child. Finding he had great magical aptitude, his parents put together every coin they could to put him through schooling.

After they had saved every coin they could, they discovered they only had enough to cover the boy’s schooling, and not enough for the supplies he would need. Johnathon suggested selling the sword Shimmer. Maria refused angrily, insisting that the weapon was Saigio’s birthright. Instead she sold the only other memento she had left from her family, a beautiful gemstone necklace that had been her mother’s. With the coins from the necklace the couple had enough to afford Saigio’s education.

Saigio’s schooling was a difficult time for the youth. He found it difficult to make friends, often facing mockery for requiring secondhand supplies. The mockery only grew worse when it was found that his mother was Maria Tal. The only solace he found was with a young high elf girl named Coria Morningray. The two quickly became friends. They helped each other in the subjects that the other had trouble in, and often found ways to cause mischief with enchanted objects, as both of the young children were quite adept at the art.

However, nothing on Azeroth lasted forever, and Saigio was forced to grow up much faster than many when the Third War erupted and the Scourge came to Dalaran.

#### **Loss**

Saigio was 13 years old when the threat of the Scourge came to Dalaran. Panic overtook the city. Saigio and his fellow students were ushered out of the city through the sewers by their teachers. While the assault continued only feet above their heads, the young children fled through the spacious tunnels. Finally emerging in the hills outside the city, the survivors watched in horror as the great towers of their proud city crumbled under an invisible hand.

Saigio was distraught. Like the other children, his parents had been inside the city when the attack came. Desperate, Saigio searched among the other survivors as they fled south, trying to find any word of his mother and father. No one could give him the news he needed.

Eventually he came to Darin Tal. The man offered the grieving boy no compassion. Still seeing him as an insult to his proud name, Saigio’s grandfather sneered at the crying boy and informed him he had witnessed his parents crushed below fallen stones from a tower. Darin mocked his suffering further, telling the boy that he was the last of a mongrel line and should do himself and the other survivors a favor and die far away.

The young boy fell into a depression at the cruelty of his surviving relative. The cruelty of Darin Tal stung the boy deeply and he retreated, becoming little more than a shell. Only the continued presence of Coria at his side kept Saigio from laying down and letting their undead pursuers take him.

After some time, Saigio and many of his fellow students ended up on a ship bound for Stormwind. Saigio spent most of the trip in his cabin, barely eating. It wasn’t until the last day on the ship, as they approached the city, that he left to walk the deck of the ship. A faint spark of hope stirred him as he stood and watched the distant city come closer.

#### **Growing Up**

Saigio found the chance to continue his education in Stormwind. While the schooling in the city was nothing compared to what he had already received in Dalaran, the boy still had the chance to become a great mage. Coria stayed by his side, the two having already fallen in love before the destruction of their home. The Mages Tower provided lodging for all the refugee students, happy for the chance to see their ranks swell with talent from Dalaran.

Saigio slowly began to fall behind in his learnings. Still devastated by the loss of his parents and enraged by the words of his grandfather, Saigio’s thoughts were filled more with ideas of vengeance against the undead and the patron of the Tal family.

It was nearly a year after he had arrived in Stormwind that Saigio was given the chance to embark on a path that promised him the power to destroy those that had hurt him.

It started with a strange book that appeared one day among his other tomes. When Saigio opened the heavy black book, the words on the pages made Saigio’s skin crawl. They were wrong, something about them horrified him on a primal level. But another part of him whispered that he needed the book, that he should keep it and learn from it. On the inside of the cover of the book was the name of a tavern in the Mage’s District of the city, one that had a seedy reputation. The Slaughtered Lamb.

Saigio followed the trail, going to the tavern with the heavy book, hoping to find the owner and learn more about the strange black tome. It was at the Lamb that he found the author of the book, an ancient and bent wizardly man by the name of Alaiar. The man spoke with Saigio at length, but after the conversation, Saigio remembered little of what was said, only that the man had offered to teach him power, more power than he had been offered by the mages at the Tower, and that he could teach it faster too.

Tantalized by the promise and the chance at revenge, Saigio returned the next day after his lessons at the Tower had concluded. He was taken into the deep crypts below the tavern. Alaiar was waiting for him down there. No longer bent and crooked though still clearly ancient the man stood tall and straight, holding a staff of black wood that seemed to smolder.

The room they stood in was a large circle, far bigger than the tavern above. The walls were lined with massive bookcases lined with books bound in black leather with red lettering along the spines that seemed to glow in the pale green torchlight. In the center of the chamber was a shallow pit, almost like a pool emptied of water.

Saigio recalled little of his first encounter in the crypts. He remembered making a pact, and that he was promised lessons in a forbidden art that would give him power unimaginable. For the next two years Saigio studied the arcane during the day and crept out during the night. Keeping the charade drained the young boy, and Coria and what other friends he had made during his schooling began to notice.

Despite his detachment, Saigio and Coria grew closer during this time. Their relationship tragically came to an end just one day after Saigio’s 18th birthday, after the two had spent the night together.

#### **Falling Down**

When Saigio came of age, Coria rented a room at a local tavern. Treating her lover, they shared a large meal and too much wine. They ended up sharing a night of sloppy and awkward passion. Afterward Saigio lay awake long after Coria had drifted to sleep. He resolved to himself to leave the warlock coven in the morning after he woke.

The morning sun woke Saigio with the ghosts of his thoughts from the night before and the specter of the wine. He crept out into the morning mist before Coria could wake, making his way to the Slaughtered Lamb to inform his masters that he was abandoning the dark path. He’d seen the Master’s anger toward students that left the coven, but he knew he would find safety if he told the mages at the Tower of the threat.

He never got so far. As he entered the tavern he discovered he’d been followed. Coria grabbed him from behind, pushing him against the wall outside the bar. She confronted him, angry tears in her eyes. Saigio couldn’t answer her demands for an answer to his reason for being at the tavern. Ashamed, he dropped his eyes to the ground and fumbled for the words to explain.

It wasn’t enough. Enraged at the betrayal of her trust, Coria unleashed a blast of fire that struck the stone by Saigio’s head. She stormed off, telling Saigio that if she saw him again she would kill him. Saigio collapsed to the ground there, devastated. He wasn’t sure how long he sat alone. He knew the sun was high in the sky when he moved again. When he stood he found that Alaiar was next to him.

The elder warlock whispered words in Saigio’s ears. Words of how the coven was his only family now and how he couldn’t trust anyone lest he be hurt again. The distraught and emotional young Saigio listened. The words made sense to him then. He followed the warlock master back down to the depths and began his lessons in earnest.

The next few years were a blur for the young man. Dark and depraved rituals took place, and Saigio was made a part of many of them. Ritualistic sacrifices, hazy rituals in chambers heavy with the smoke of incense and magic, and conjuring powerful and dangerous demons to make secret pacts. It all took a toll on Saigio, and he began to feel weary and old beyond his years. He started to wish for a way out, not knowing that one was nearer than he expected.

After several years of lessons and rituals years Saigio drifted from the coven. Having completed his lessons in the dark arts he struck out on his own to further his knowledge. His travels took him many places and he learned a great deal of forbidden knowledge. His journey slowly took him north, toward his former home of Dalaran. It was near the ruins of the great city of his birth that his path would be changed forever.

On the road entering the area of Hillsbrad, Saigio was ambushed by a band of Forsaken raiders. Unable to fight them off, Saigio feared that he would soon join the ranks of the undead monsters. It was then that there was a bright flash of light and a dark skinned knight in black armor road in on a shining horse. The paladin drove off the undead attackers.

Once the two were safely away from the road, the knight introduced himself as Lord Darkhaven of the Order of the Ebon Flame, an old order of adventurers and heroes dedicated to protecting the people of Azeroth. Saigio was reminded of many of the tales of his youth, the legends his mother would tell him as he slipped into sleep filled with dreams of knights and dragons and heroes. The Lord Darkhaven offered a place in his order to Saigio, and he agreed, hoping to find a way to turn his powers to good and to find a chance at the vengeance he still sought.

Saigio’s service to the Order did not last long, as soon after the battle in Outland the leader of the group vanished. It was thought that perhaps he had journeyed out beyond shattered Draenor to find other evils to battle, or that he had simply fallen in battle and his body was never found. WIthout a leader, the order disbanded and went their separate ways. Saigio alone was left to carry on the mission of the Order of the Ebon Flame.

#### **Redemption**

Saigio soon found his chance at the vengeance he had so long wished for. The Scourge returned to threaten the living once again not long after Saigio joined the Order. The young warlock jumped at the chance to battle the army of monsters that had taken almost everything from him. He joined the initial assault on Northrend, using his fel flames to burn away the undead hordes.

Saigio soon found himself being sent with strike teams into the tundra of Icecrown. Saigio’s rage against the undead in battle often left his allies in danger and the Alliance soldiers grew wary of the young warlock. This fear and distrust suited him well, as he preferred solitude during his missions, the anger and sorrow of years ago being brought back to him with every ghoul he faced.

It was his anger against the Scourge that brought ruin to one of the teams he had been assigned to and almost lead to the end of Saigio’s own life.

Battling a the servants of a powerful lich deep in one of the many vrykul crypts, Saigio’s over-enthusiastic use of magic weakened the ancient supports that held the ceilings of the ancient tunnels in place. Worse yet it also drew the attention of the lich, who sent more undead, including a monstrous abomination, against the small band of heroes.

The party was slaughtered save for Saigio, who hid under the bodies of his companions. He knew it was only a matter of time before he would be found by the undead and briefly he considered using his magic to burn his own body to ash to escape the fate that surely awaited him. As he cursed himself silently and prepared to take his own life to avoid being a servant to the Lich King, a battle cry rang out in the tunnel. A blinding light filled the dim chamber and teh sound of ringing steel filled the air.

Moments later a man clad in silver and gold armor lifted the bodies away from where Saigio had been hiding. The knight helped Saigio to his feet and told him to run for the exit and wait by the warhorse out there. Saigio nodded and obeyed. Half an hour after Saigio stepped onto the icy plain outside the cavern entrance he and his fallen allies had used to asault the lich’s lair the knight stepped out, carrying a heavy sack over his shoulder. Without a word he removed his masked helm. His dark hair and olive complexion brought memories of Lord Darkhaven back to Saigio’s mind.

The knight was not the warlock’s missing lord. He introduced himself as Sir Aasim of the Argent Crusade. The paladin had been sent by the Crusade to investigate the lich and lend aid to the Alliance soldiers there. He had been waylaid by a frostwyrm, and arrived after the party had been overwhelmed. He offered to take Saigio back to the Crusade’s camp. Numbly, the warlock accepted the offer, unsure of what else he could do.

At Aasim’s tent in the Crusade camp, the two shared a hot meal. Saigio spoke little during the evening, but as night fell, he opened up more. With the trauma of the day finally fully dawning on him, Saigio broke down. He told the knight much of the past years and left little out. As Saigio spoke long into the night, Aasim only listened, speaking only to offer Saigio food or drink. In the end, Saigio slumped. He looked up at the knight. Outside the first light of dawn was starting to break, a grey light filtered through the ever present clouds over Icecrown.

“What if I was wrong all along? I want to do good, but it seems that this power only causes more hurt then good. Is it too late? Am I lost?”

Aasim paused before answering. “No one is ever truly lost, Saigio Talorsin. Not for good. You may stumble, you may fall. You can keep falling, or you can pick yourself up, keep going, find a more righteous path. Only you can make this choice. How you go from here is up to you. I shall pray that you make the right decision. Have faith in the Light and it shall guide you.”

It was in that moment that the young warlock decided that he would take up the path of paladin.

#### **Knighthood**

Saigio’s path to redemption and knighthood was not an easy one. While he had some training with a sword, and his magical aptitude was a help in learning to wield the Light, he still needed a great deal of training to begin. His mentor, a draenei vindicator named Aknaan, started him with training in the Light as a priest, and sent him across Azeroth, helping people throughout the world, and bringing the Light where it was needed.

He trained for several months in the healing arts, going to a friend of his, a draenei priest named Leneel. The priest worked as a healer in Stormwind, and was happy to teach Saigio how to use holy magic to heal.

During the travels Saigio’s body was wracked with pain as he went through withdrawals of the fel energy he had been so used to coursing through his veins. Without the evil energy in him, he felt weakened and sickly. Dealing with the results of dependency on fel magic and it’s absence, the year was long. When his journey was nearly finished, he was suddenly summoned back to Northrend to aid the assault on Icecrown.

Using his abilities as a priest he stayed on the upper levels below the top of the spire and helped fight back the waves of undead fighting their way up to aid their dark master. It was in the battle that Saigio proved his dedication and faith to the Light. After the Lich King was slain, the fledgling paladin was given a final test. He was sent to the top of one of Northrend’s many towering mountains where an ancient shrine of origins unknown had been found. It was believed that the shrine was from humanity’s early ancestors.

In that shrine Saigio prayed and meditated. For a full day and a full night Saigio didn’t move from his position before the shrine’s crude altar. Inside, he waged an inner battle. Struggling against the corruption and darkness left within him from the fel corruption suffered, Saigio was given his most challenging test yet. Eventually, however, he prevailed and cleansed his body and soul of the corruption. When he came down the mountain, Aknaan greeted him and annointed Saigio as a knight of the Crusade.

Saigio was filled with pride at the honor. He was eager to aid the Crusade in their struggle against the evils that threatened Azeroth. He first embarked on a mission to the ruins of Dalaran. Now that the city was partially restored and floating in Northrend, the knight wished to see the ruins of his childhood home. There he recovered the remains of his parents and had them laid to rest in plots in Stormwind City. He also discovered the sword Shimmer, the ancestral blade of his family. He took up the weapon and had it reforged, naming it Compassion in honor of the Virtue of the Light that lead him to becoming a paladin.

Fall of the Cult of Fiends

Saigio’s first true mission as a knight found himself aiding a young woman who had fled a Legion cult. The woman, a warlock named Hodisone Banaphash, came to the knight to confess and warn him of the cult’s plans. Acting and thinking quickly, Saigio warned the Church and the Alliance military of the cult’s plot to kidnap high ranking members of the Faith to sacrifice to their demonic masters. He then took the woman to a safe house and stayed with her to guard her from retaliation from the cult until it came time to assault the cult’s hidden lair.

Saigio joined the front of the assault, carrying his sword high as he and other brave heroes charged deep into the catacombs below Karazhan. A brief battle ensued, with the cult’s mercenary allies putting up little resistance to the heroic charge. The heroes arrived in the depths of the lair before the Cult could complete their ritual, and the leader was captured along with several high ranking members of the cult. After a brief trial, more of a formality given the leader’s admission of guilt, the head warlock was executed.

#### **Cataclysm**

Saigio soon heard the call to action again. The return of the dragon Deathwing brought need for all the heroes of Azeroth to band together. The paladin had his doubts, largely stemming from the threat of the forsaken who were rising to a position of replacing the Scourge. Instead the Crusade ordered him to the Blasted Lands where he was charged with watching the town of Surwich and guarding them from demons coming down from the Tainted Scar. Saigio performed exceedingly well at the task, finding fighting demons to come naturally. He worked on protective wards to help guard the town, and used his free time to fight Twilight Cultists and aid the Loch Modan Adventuring, Archaeology, and Treasure Hunting Company.

It was working for the Company that Saigio found himself once again working with Hodisone Banaphash. Soon, Saigio found himself drawn to the woman. They found they had more in common than they at first had known, both had lived in Dalaran before it had been destroyed, though Hodisone belonged to a noble family and as far as Saigio knew his parents had only been peasants. It was not to be at the time, as she was engaged to another, a Gilnean druid named Renard. Though Saigio confessed his feelings to the woman, and she confessed she had feelings for him as well, the knight refused to come between the betrothed couple.

Forces seemed to conspire against the engaged couple, however. Targetting the company as they investigated relics in the ruins of Gilneas, a pair of afflicted serial killers kidnapped Hodisone and her husband to be. The company became panicked, and rushed to save them. Saigio was driven to rage. For a week he hunted the ruined kingdom for the lair of the psychopaths that had kidnapped his friends, barely eating, barely sleeping. Eventually exhaustion took him and he was forced to retire from the hunt. However it wasn’t long after that the couple were recovered. Badly wounded and terrified, they were taken to Ironforge and brought to healers. Though Saigio was still recovering from his prolonged search, he remained, aiding the healer and keeping watch over the couple as they recovered from their wounds.

Eventually family and other obligations took Renard away and his engagement to Hodisone was broken off. In the wake of his absence, Saigio offered comfort to the woman and they became lovers. Soon after Hodisone began training as a priestess. The pair were still haunted by the specter of the worgen, and Saigio spent much of his time hunting him. Saigio would encounter the man twice more, both times while working with Modan Company. Once, in a crypt below Duskwood, where Saigio attacked the worgen barehanded, nearly killing him before he escaped with the aid of his assistant. The second time in a ruined ziggurat where Saigio once again attacked without his sword, declaring that the psychopath didn’t deserve to die on a sword named Compassion. This time he killed the worgen, with the help of another paladin working with the Modan Company. Together the two destroyed the body with holy fire. Satisfied finally, Saigio returned home.

#### **A New Family**

Feeling safe at last, Saigio and Hodisone married and settled in Surwich together, and ended up adopting a young girl, child of a a previous lover of Hodisone, though not belonging to the priestess herself. The girl, named Samira, had lost her family to Twilight Cultists. With Hodisone the closest thing to family she had left, the newly married couple took her in.

Samira was eager to learn. First the couple began teaching her the arcane, using what they remembered from their schooling, and calling on tutors for the rest. It wasn’t long though before she changed her focus, looking up to Saigio and his heroic deeds, she asked to be trained as a paladin. Proud, Saigio agreed and began her training.

The two also adopted an infant boy who had lost his parents in the Shattering. Naming the child Jorgai, after a hero from one of Saigio’s childhood bedtime stories, the two took him home with them.

#### **Mists of Pandaria**

The fall of Deathwing saw the return of the Pandaren to the rest of Azeroth. Saigio found fascination with the bear-like people, and made the journey to see their lands. He spent much of his time there studying their culture, especially intrigued by their talk of the Light. It wasn’t long before Saigio was called on to aid the war efforts however. The fighting taxed Saigio, his emotions often manifesting sha. Though he learned to better control himself in battle, he avoided the fighting when he could, aiding the war effort from home through crafting enchantments for those fighting the Mogu, the Sha, the Mantid, and Garrosh’s Horde.

In secret Saigio began a personal crusade, using members of the Argent Crusade who looked up to him and agreed with his stances. He struck against Forsaken encampments, venting his frustration at the leadership of the Argent Crusade and their stubborn refusal to deal with the threat. His actions soon drew the attention of his superiors who were faced with the difficult task of punishing the knight.

Unable to execute him for insubordination due to his rising popularity within the lower ranks, but needing to deal with the young knight and keep him away from the forsaken for fear of undead retaliation, the commanders of the Crusade soon found their solution when the Dark Portal changed.

#### **Warlords of Draenor**

Saigio was ordered through the Dark Portal as part of the initial assault, and placed in command of a hundred soldiers, all men and women who had aided his personal war against the forsaken.

Saigio was furious at the mission. He saw it for a suicide mission, and an unneeded risk to the lives of those to be sent with him. Despite his protests, he found himself standing near the front of Khadgar’s attack on the portal. Much of the charge through the portal was chaos for the attackers. Saigio remembered little of the fighting. There were orcs and fire, then a great arena turned to ice. A mine where he met a young draenei woman named Yrel and helped her escape her slavers. He fought an orc shadowmancer, a servant of Nerzhul. Finally they battled through the jungle and escaped.

Saigio established a fortress after the chaos, flying the Crusade’s banner reluctantly. He and the soldiers under his command fought against the Iron Horde. Saigio used his position and the opportunity of having traveled to the past world of Draenor to strike against the orcs that had lead to so much suffering in his life. He joined the head of the strike against Nerzhul and his forces. Nearly slaying him at the Dark Star, Saigio helped repel the orcs at Karabor before striking down the shadowmancer orc in his lair with a joint effort of other heroes.

Saigio joined the head of the hunt against Gul’dan. He fought many demons on the fields of Draenor. But he felt that each victory was empty. With the Iron Horde broken early, Saigio found little work that fulfilled him. He longed to return to Azeroth with his forces and strike against what he saw as a truer enemy, the Forsaken. While the knight found great friendship in Yrel, aiding her to raise in rank to Exarch.

Shortly before the assault on Tanaan was planned, Saigio was ordered to lead an assault against the jungle with his forces. The knight saw the plan for what it was, a suicide mission meant to lead to the death of the commander and the crusaders under his command. Saigio rebelled, abandoning the crusade and leading his forces home. He took his forces to Lordaeron and the land of Blackmarsh, to aid the forces trying to retake Lordaeron. His first mission took him back to Draenor where he and other heroes fought eredar twins. Wracked by cruel corruption sent by the demons, Saigio and the others fought on. Converting one of the demon’s lieutenants, Saigio faced the final battle and the team of champions found victory and saw the corruption purged.

Saigio himself joined the assault on Hellfire Citadel, and took part in the slaying of Archimonde. The knight took a trophy, one of the eredar lord’s tendril rings. He left and returned to Lordaeron. For most of a year, Saigio walked the land, helping the citizens and fighting undead and other threats that loomed over the land.

Saigio now lives in Dalaran, having abandoned Surwich when the portal first opened after aiding the evacuation of the citizens.