Tor'delan Firesong

**Allegiance**
 **Relatives**
 **Titles**
 **Born**
 **Status**

Tor'delan Firesong was the eldest son of House Firesong founder and patriarch, Bailas Firesong. Tor'delan showed talent in the arcane arts and was sent to study in Suramar from a young age, and would come to develop a strong attachment to the jewel of the Kaldorei Empire.

## History

Developing a strong attachment to the city, Tor'delan advocated moving House Firesong's seat from Vash'jir to Suramar, seeking to marry Lady Eryana Willowglow, a Suramarian noblewoman and arcanist; he stressed the latter, with a country estate in Azsuna.

Bailas rejected the notion, himself and his younger son Solanar heavily involved in House Firesong's metallurgy work and coming to view the unexplored lands east of Vash'jir as a source of endless, untapped resources, establishing population and economic hubs around them, in a similar model as the thriving Felonaar.

Tor'delan grew incensed with Bailas, and the two would not speak again during the 500 years remaining until the Sundering came. Tor'delan remained formally recognized as House Firesong's heir apparent, his retainers and position as permanent Firesong Ambassador to Suramar remained as such. What Bailas did not know is that Tor'delan had a number of income streams independent of House Firesong. When the independent-minded Tor'delan first noted that his father Bailas lacked his own zeal for Suramar and the potential it held, he did much to attempt to convince Bailas, but according to Tor'delan, all of Suramar to the stubborn Bailas was simply a design to be copied and transplanted to backwoods Vash'jir, even the arcway!

Tor'delan supplemented the incomes of his retainers, whom after but a few years were entirely those of his choosing, were generally elves from Suramar with additional gifts, arcane gems and fabrics, holidays and the such. According to Suramarian ledgers, Tor'delan's listed personnel of 140 elves was over three times what House Firesong's ledgers indicated, and paid for.

Bailas Firesong likely remained unaware of the larger scale of Tor'delan's Suramar activities, though his younger son, Solanar Firesong I, almost certainly did if his diaries make no mention of such. Solanar trained as his brother's apprentice, if his magical path went its own way as such does, Tor'delan and Solanar were not close as children, with Tor'delan already in Suramar and seldom about when Solanar was young, but working and serving in combat against the trolls and insects then plaguing modern Crystalsong Forest soon made up for lost time, and the siblings grew close, with Celeste holding dear memories of her father from her childhood and early adulthood, without hint of quickly all would change.

## Sundering and Legacy

Tor'delan like most Highborne, visited the Well of Eternity often, and only in the years before the first Legion invasion began did such visits become unsettling, the once tranquil, harmonious Well now a chaotic vortex of energies the fool Xavius acted as if he could control. Like most in Zin-Azshari, Tor'delan had always deeply revered Queen Azshara, owing to her the very civilization in which they lived in such prosperity.

However on those final visits, the mood was quite different, elves scrambling about the Wellshore as if on some dire mission, though none would say what exactly their task was, beyond some cryptic nonsense regarding the font's secrets. Surely it held many, but such chaotic energies would very likely destroy the deepest of them, far below the shore, where Aqueous Eternite and even more powerful compounds yet to be discovered were speculated to reside. And the zeal at which residents followed the Queen, had transformed from a deep reverence and respect to an unquestioning, blind loyalty, one that would seeingly see them go as far as to take their own lives or that of their loved ones on her whimsical orders.

Tor'delan knew better than to speak of such publicly, instead focusing his research interests on Suramar's Arcway and Nightwell in what peacetime remained, unsure what was happening in Zin-Azshari, only that it would be foolish for Suramar, where quiet reservations were held by many, to rely on energy from Zin-Azshari with the increasingly murky situation there.

Although Suramar under the independent-minded Grand Magistrix Elisande was somewhat protected, Tor'delan thought instantly of his brother Solanar when he received word of Queen Azshara summoning Highborne sorcerers from far and wide to Zin-Azshari, presumably to join..whatever those by the Well were doing. Unable to reach Solanar, Tor'delan travelled to Vash'jir for the first time in several centuries, to be told his brother was serving Her Highness at Zin-Azshari, he smiled as the handmaidens showered praise and affection onto her name.

Seeking his father Bailas, whom held a degree of skill in divination and the sensory perception of the arcane, Tor'delan was prepared to bite his tongue to ensure the safety of his kin, though Bailas had been outside the city, staff couldn't speak of where - according to Solanar, a number of outposts in the fashion of Felonaar had been established outside Vash'jir, sometimes quite distant. Tor'delan was able to wait three days before he could excuse absence from Suramar no longer, leaving his father an apology, and warning of the unusual events in the capital, a suspicion of magical control and warning against travel there. It seemed as though most of House Firesong's more experienced magi had already been reassigned there, and Tor'delan cursed himself for having allowed the rift between them to grow to where it may cost the safety of his kin.

Tor'delan offered welcome and safety in Suramar, explicitly stating without political intent, though in a note no such way to convey the dire seriousness the Highborne felt of the situation. He returned to Suramar seeing the spires of Vash'jir for the last time, a part of him lamenting knowing his home, and his family besides Solanar, so little.

Queen Azshara's declaration of war soon followed after his return, this "Burning Legion" didn't sound pleasant, and Tor'delan was relieved to see Grand Magistrix Elisande state what they all feared; these actions were not in the best interests of the Highborne, confirmed by but a glance of their vile, demonic forms. Elisande was among very few Highborne leaders to oppose Azshara's declaration, and perhaps the only with the means, the Nightwell, Arcway, and strength in Highborne Arcanists, to not instantly suffer the fate of nearby Azsuna.

Tor'delan did not see Eryana after the strange spell over Azsuna, knowing her family's country estate, in practice their principle income generators, were located there. He feared the worst but dare not travel there, warning Celeste to remain within the city lest Suramar City itself was breached by demons. Celeste met his false stoicism with a tear Tor'delan wiped off, though agreed to his warning, holding it dear far beyond the immediate practice.

He'd a desire to join efforts to defend the city with a series of wards, and lamented the absence of his brother Solanar, whom was a master of abjuration magics, though knew well most had never faced combat of any sort, and the magnitude of horror these demons brought was many times that of the fiercest trolls, even making the Aqir seem tame.

Tor'delan was put in command of a squadron of battlemages, if he was the only among them to have had faced combat before, by commanding them to join their spells and strike from afar, he was able to keep them from getting too close while effectively limiting enemy movement as they eased into combat, which grew increasingly intense defending vital strongholds now defending Suramar from Zin'Azshari itself. Able to hold them off, if narrowly, at Black Rook Hold and the Moon Guard Stronhold, Tor'delan had lost over a quarter of his men in but a few weeks, and while briefly back in Suramar while the men recovered and he discussed the next course of action, demons fell as locusts about the Temple of Elune, seemingly seeking to turn the Temple itself into one of their vile portals.

A bold plan to seal the emerging portal with Titanic relics emerged; Tor'delan knew little of such things, but his combat and defensive magics would very much be needed if the effort was to stand a chance.

Tor'delan saw Celeste safely to the basement of her Moonrest Gardens abode, not far from his own residence. Landing first in the northwest of Thal'dranah to divert the demons from the teams moving into the Temple, such seemed not to matter with their high numbers - the opening of the portal and destruction of Suramar seemed all but inevitable with each elf he lost. Acting with little regard for his own life, Tor'delan took on demons with his spellblades in increasingly desperate efforts to maintain what little foothold they held.

The few whom made it back to Suramar speak of Tor'delan dying a hero's death, cut apart in a desperate push forward, allowing the broken Highborne lines to retreat to their portal. The survivors saw the shield form as they pulled back from the island, though it is believed Tor'delan fell before the success of the mission became known.

The body of Tor'delan Firesong was never recovered, though a monument dedicated to him was placed at Tel'anor, holding a number of personal effects selected by his daughter Celeste. Among the last buried before the shield's erection and Suramar's long isolation, his stone read simple "Zin-al Elune. Here Rests Tor'delan Firesong, Hero of Suramar", the same script as most of the other hastily buried war dead, with the land itself seemingly turning against them.

Celeste knew the importance of Tor'delan's family to him, despite his bitter relationship with his father, and used the surname Firesong-Willowglow for a time, though with her mother having never returned from Azsuna she never formally changed her name, and the point became moot when she married beneath the starless sky. Believing the rest of House Firesong extinct, Celeste taught her children and grandchildren well of Tor'delan, his brother Solanar, and all that House Firesong was and stood for.

Raising them to take pride not only in their Highborne bloodline, but in the specific deeds and sacrifices both her maternal and paternal ancestors made, Celeste's descendants grew up with a far more personalized concept of their birthright than other Shal'dorei, something she believes Tor'delan would value.

House Firesong was all but a note in some ancient records, and a legend in the minds of a few scattered descendants until the dome rose and the dust of another demon invasion began to settle. Celeste instantly thought of her father upon seeing a Sin'dorei and learning a bit of Thalassian history; intrigue of the possibility she'd family among them helped sustain her through the dark times, when in the Third Legion War, demons did enter Suramar, and Celeste followed her father's 10,000 year old warning, and fled as she promised. She remains hopeful but not overly optimistic of meeting elves related to her father, whose love and concern for her spanned those dreary millennia under a false sky.

## Righting the Past

Tor'delan's story was not fully known to the surviving members of House Firesong until the Suramar records were accessed following the fall of the pro-Legion government and ascendance of First Arcanist Thalyssra. House Firesong's version of events included Bailas using his telepathic magics to send warning to Solanar and others in or near the capital, and Bailas further followed Tor'delan's advice in sending relatives still in Vash'jir to the relative calm about Hyjal, where what survived of the family later regrouped.

That the warning Bailas sent was initiated by Tor'delan was omitted from history, either not conveyed in the brief, spell-driven communication Bailas and Solanar held, or intentionally omitted by Solanar, though such is unlikely given their close relationships, and the lament in Solanar's diary that, "I must conclude my brother Tor'delan is lost to us. I wish he'd heeded father's warning and was here with us, but he died in the city he loved, and contributed much to the mage I am and to what House Firesong holds the potential to become."

Statues to Tor'delan were rare in Ashal'Thalas compared to the large works of Bailas, Solanar, and A'malia, most replaced entirely after the Troll Wars when a new generation of Firesong hero emerged. That Tor'delan had died in Suramar would go unquestioned, until Entilzha Firesong learned otherwise...

(TBC)