Abraham Glendale

Abraham Glendale

"*Always ensure your adversary regrets their every victory.*"
—Abraham Glendale
**Abraham Theobald Woodrow Glendale II** is a Kul Tiran naval captain. Known for his sharp intellect and genial personality, Abraham Glendale has been able to command the respect of superiors, friends and adversaries. Abraham was able to create a name for himself through his courageous actions during his service in Second War and exposing corruption in the Kul Tiran navy through gritty law practices.

## Biography

### Early life

On February 28th, 14 BDP, Abraham Theobald Woodrow Glendale II, named for his grandfather, was born into a noble Kul Tiran family with an impressive naval lineage. His mother succumbed to complications during childbirth, so his father, Lawrence, took the necessary steps to keep his only child safe. However merely two years after his first wife passed away Lawrence remarried and bore a child with another noblewoman. But nevertheless, Lawrence intended to focus on his eldest son instead of his youngest, Donwald. On top of being a child growing up with a hostile stepmother, Abraham was a sickly child, with a plethora of health conditions, including asthma. But he managed to overcome them by daily outings with his father, whether it was horseback riding or taking a rowboat on the bay. Lawrence helped his son build endurance and stamina through running, hiking, and swimming. He was tough on young Abraham so that he wouldn’t succumb to his childhood diseases, and it would prove effective. By the age of seven, Abraham was able to overcome most of his ailments, but the asthma persisted until the age of nine.

From the start, Abraham developed a distaste for his younger brother, mostly because of the hostility from his father’s second wife. She would always pry Lawrence away from spending valuable bonding time with his eldest, to spend time with Donwald. From Abraham’s perspective, it was always his father favoring Donwald when in reality it was the other way around, this realization would not occur to Abraham until his later life. As the two got older their rivalry intensified. Lawrence began to bring Donwald to the excursions that were once exclusive to Abraham and Lawrence. Donwald would taunt Abraham for lagging behind, even though Abraham was older, Donwald was the one pestering his brother.

#### Schooling

At the age of eight, Abraham would meet his life long partner, Eleanor Donovan. Their meeting occurred during their first day of school, while during recess a group of boys led by Donwald were bullying Eleanor by playing keep away with her doll. Abraham was the only student who tried to put a stop to the bullying of Eleanor. Abraham who would normally try to avoid his brother’s annoying ire and harassment was empathetic towards the young girl and grabbed the attention of his devil of a little brother. With the focus on Abraham, Eleanor was able to retrieve her doll and hide from the young Donwald. After the traumatic incident, the young Abraham would console Eleanor, telling her that he knew what it was like to be harassed by Donwald, and told her that he’d step in if things get like that again. It was this action that created the foundation of a relationship that would last for many years.

Eleanor was the daughter of a blue blood family in Boralus, so after the incident with Donwald, Eleanor pulled Abraham aside and presented him a jewel encrusted butterfly brooch which she stole from her mother’s dresser because she was perplexed by the wonderful colors of the various jewels on the trinket. She gave it to Abraham as a token of appreciation but made him promise to wear that brooch over his heart for as long as he lived. It was to represent the promise Abraham made and ultimately their relationship for years to come. Abraham agreed to the promise and wore the trinket from that point on and he’d be rarely seen without it. It was also in this moment where he decided that he will no longer permit Donwald’s bullying towards anyone, not just for his sake, but his friends and Eleanor’s sake as well. From that point on he would work hard to earn the respect of his peers not just in his grade but the entire school’s respect.

#### Growing Confidence

By sixteen, Abraham now commanded the respect of his peers and could casually brush aside Donwald’s jabs. With his strong confidence, Abraham constantly participated in athletics, from swimming to track to boxing, Abraham welcomed the thrill of competition. He was humble when it came to victories and respectful when faced with rare defeats. One of his early accomplishments was participating in one of Boralus’ Local Boxing tournaments, and he signed up just for the fun of it. His passion for boxing carried him all the way to the final match where he would be squared off two time winner Dusty “Jawbreaker” Callahan. The seventeen year old Abraham was not shaken by his experienced adversary, and ultimately came out on top while suffering a mild concussion. From that point he’d participated in the boxing tournament for one more season before hanging up his gloves from the relentless pleas from Eleanor to devote more time to his studies. As much as Abraham enjoyed the thrill of athletics, he saw it more as a hobby where as he valued academics over physical skill.

Abraham would be known for his fierce love of athletics and his endless quest for knowledge. When he wasn’t participating in sports he’d be in the library with Eleanor and the debate team. As vicious of a competitor he was in the ring, Abraham was more of a competitor when it came to debate tournaments. Abraham would read on vast topics, from the arts to the sciences of engineering, to the point where he would be nearly proficient when discussing them. Abraham was willing to learn everything about specific subjects just to get an upper hand on his opponent. For the most part of his teenage schooling, Abraham was extremely dominant on the debate stage, until his senior year where he was bested by Quentin Armstrong. Impressed by Quentin’s strategy, Abraham personally sought Quentin to learn his techniques. From there the two would become best friends. Abraham then completed secondary school at the top of his class, and was the school’s valedictorian.

### Proudmoore Naval Academy

Following his graduation, Lawrence enlisted Abraham to continue his education at the Proudmoore Naval Academy. At the academy he would enroll in the Pre-Maritime Law program that they offered, which would automatically put them on track to become an officer in the Kul Tiran Navy. In preparation of the shift he would study naval regulations and tactics used by the greatest Kul Tiran captains and admirals, from battles between the Irontide Raiders to the Bloodsail Buccaneers, he read journal after journal to get an understanding of the concept of naval engagement. Abraham’s good friend Quentin was also accepted into the Law program and the two work as partners. With the aid of his father’s connections, Abraham and Quentin were appointed to the Sixth Fleet’s Admiral Maynard Garfield’s staff. Garfield who served as Admiral for a stunning two decades thanks to his valorous poise, was the perfect mentor for the prodigy Abraham.

#### Pursuit of Higher Education and Family Life

During his first year at the naval academy, Abraham proposed to his longtime friend and sweetheart at the age of eighteen. Eleanor who moved on to upper education as well, began making plans of starting her own bakery. One of the passions she and Abraham shared was the love of baked goods, many of their dates occurred at a bakery in Upton Borough. When he was twenty, his son George Charles Glendale was born, however the pregnancy took its toll Eleanor, she got really sick during labor, and she almost didn’t make it. This event had a lasting impact on Abraham to the point where he didn’t want to put his wife in that situation again, his wife on the other hand wanted many children and Abraham knew he couldn’t talk her out of it. But when it was all said and done, Abraham was happy that his wife recovered easily and their son was healthy as could be. The young family purchased a home in the Upton Borough in Boralus, where the first floor would be a storefront for Eleanor’s Bakery. And then shortly after they welcomed their second son, Robert Bernard Glendale, this time there were no complications, much to the young couple’s relief. Abraham absolutely supported Eleanor’s dream and helped her raise their children, but his duties at the Naval academy also required his attention.

At the Academy, he would earn the respect of many of his superiors through his mannerisms and quick wit which paved the way to him becoming a Lieutenant within the Kul Tiran Navy. Abraham spent most of the daylight hours in the library studying for his law courses or brushing up on naval maneuvers and protocols as suggested by Admiral Garfield. He would then return home to his young family, and would tell stories and sing lullabies to his children. Eleanor questioned Abraham’s workload, fearing that her husband had too many responsibilities and that the pressure might crush him, nevertheless he assured his wife that the challenge of all the positions he maintained was worth it. Abraham would complete his Undergraduate degree with high honors, but this success was not achieved without long hours of studying. Abraham would have aspirations to continue his education at the academy to pursue a law degree, but fate would have other plans for Abraham.

### The Second War

News began to spread that invaders from another world decimated the Kingdom of Stormwind, and that war might be on the horizon for the seafaring nation. But soon the orcish Horde was on the doorstep of the Kingdoms of Lordaeron and Kul Tiras joined the coalition to combat the savage invaders. With this news of the creation of the Alliance of Lordaeron, the Kul Tiran Fleet mobilized. The news came and Admiral Garfield tasked Abraham to man the helm of a Seascraper Class Transport, one of the smaller ships the Kul Tiran Navy had to offer. Shortly after his deployment Eleanor gave birth to his first daughter, Caroline Edith Glendale. As happy as he was from hearing that both were healthy, he was rather upset that he could not be by his wife’s side during the process, but he had a duty.

#### Heroics on the High Seas

Though Abraham did not sail on a regular basis, he welcomed the challenge of putting the naval tactics and protocols he read about and studied to use. Eager to deal with the navy’s new adversaries, Admiral Garfield pulled Abraham aside and provided some very valuable advice that would stick with Abraham going forward. The legendary Admiral would tell the young officer that he must be ready for anything, and not be afraid to put his own life on the line even for the sake of one man. Abraham would keep the wiseman’s words in the back of his mind. But hubris enveloped Abraham and his crew since they did not expect the Horde to put up a fight put against them on the High Seas, the reason being that no one in the world had a grander navy than Kul Tiras. They would soon find out that this was false. It was a warm night on the sea, it was midsummer and the young Lieutenant Glendale and his First Mate, Quentin Armstrong, were out on the deck observing the night sky. Their ship was well away from the mainland and Kul Tiras, however there were a few islands in the distance that he saw earlier in the day. His crew of nine sailors were either asleep or drinking the night away, most of them were asleep though. The waters they sailed in were shark infested, one misstep by a sailor would turn them into fish food. One moment the night was calm, the next Lieutenant Glendale’s ship was split into two.

Abraham was thrown off the deck into the water, after a few moments of the men struggling the sounds of their screams polluted the once silent midsummer night. One of the sailors cried out that they were in shark infested waters, Abraham knew that struggling would draw the attention of the sharks. He hollered into the moonlit night calling for his crewmen to swim to him and find and piece of debris they could float on. Most of the men followed these orders, while two sailors perished, the first one drowning from exhaustion and consumption of salt water and the other was killed on impact of the ship. As the men grouped together, First Mate Quentin let out a blood curdling scream, fearing the worst, Abraham’s worst fear was realized. The outline of a shark was clasped firmly around the pained Quentin, using his quick wit, Abraham would punch the beast in the nose and it would release the First Mate. Abraham placed Quentin in the middle of the makeshift raft and along with two men would slowly paddle in the direction of the island they saw earlier. Before Lieutenant Glendale mobilized his shipwrecked crew he wanted to find what could’ve destroyed his ship. Initially he thought it was a whale shark, but he saw a faint silhouette of a ship none that he had ever seen. Later he found out it was a Horde Juggernaut.

Abraham would paddle the makeshift raft, with the help of the remaining crew who would alternate after long intervals of time. Abraham elected to keep paddling, despite suffering from fatigue, he would rather have a shark come and attack him than one of the remaining crew members. As he kept paddling, he would periodically check on Quentin, who would let out a groan of pain to indicate that he was fighting for his life. After several hours paddling they weary shipwrecked crew finally made it to land. Of the nine crew members of the vessel, only six survived, and would eventually become five. After trying to tend to his wounds, Quentin Armstrong passed away as a result of an infection that spread as a result of the untended shark bite.