Trial of the War Mage Journal: Levi Morne

This journal has been published by the Cabal of the Burning Sword to help those who wish to ascend to the Rank of Cabalist to better understand what it takes to become a Cabalist.

## Mage Gauntlet Journal - Levi Morne

### Entry 1: Thunder Falls

This is the written account for the consideration of the Mage Circle of Sarceline, and the Cabal of the Burning Sword of the Mage Gauntlet Trials of Wizard Levi Morne. My first task in this trial given to me was the Trial of the Warmage, a journey to the ley lines of Azeroth to attune my magical senses to them. I offered a brief farewell to those with whom I serve should the worst happen, I am under no illusion that though this is meant to be a simple attunement that I am headed into the woods. If this journal is found without its author my last will and testament should be executed per my established wishes.

-Thunder Falls-

I begin this trial with perhaps the nearest of the ley lines that I am going to visit with the most local, the ley line that is in the mountains around Stormwind City. The journey wasn’t a difficult one to make as I climbed up the lower mountains around Stormwind City to attune my senses to the ley line. Upon arrival over Thunder Falls I focused my magical abilities to tap into the ley line which has a pattern of wind, which likely explains the storms that give the city its name. As I tapped into the ley line I was able to summon up a gale through the area of the falls powerful enough to lift me from the ground. Upon completion of the attunement I decided that I would teleport north to continue my attunement.

### Entry 2: Storm Peaks

*\*The following is written in a very shaky script\**

Arriving in Northrend I sought out the ley line I am most attuned to, a ley line that is the source of all of the coldness on Azeroth, finding it of course in the Storm Peaks. After teleporting into the area, as close as I could get to the ley line I made my way on foot to this place. The cold is intense, so much so that I can barely think my very blood feels as though it is going cold, the ink seems to be \*The script would suddenly cut off\*

Alright I am in the Grizzly Hills now and I have started a fire enough to warm my ink, I am not sure that I will ever feel warm in body again, and that doesn’t really bother me, the exposure to the ley line of cold was intense. After my ink froze I placed it back in my satchel and made my way into the wash of the ley line, there were bodies all around me, creatures that had frozen in an instant when the ley line was triggered. I focused my attunement to the pattern of frost that runs through the ley line and summoned my weakest spell of frost, the intense cold of the frozen missile makes me believe that if I tap into this line while casting frost spells they will be exponentially more powerful, as though the wrath of a thousand frozen years was inside of them. After the casting I decided to focus the attunement more fully and sat to meditate on the line, I am not sure how long I was there but my lack of frostbite is proof of an attunement to the line. I have teleported to the Grizzly Hills to seek out ley line on the Eastwind Shore.

### Entry 3: Eastwind Shore

At the close of my last entry I was searching for the source of the ley line that runs along the Eastwind Shore, there is no doubt that this is why the northern wolf cult chose the area, the beast inside of me is scenting the wolves that used to haunt this northern area and it is baying for blood. I am not sure what the pattern in this line is though I can feel a primal power running through it. This is the Grizzly Hills though, the magic here feels wild as the land where it runs. I sat on the shore and focused my attunement to the line, quieting the Worgen inside enough to attune my magical senses to this northern line. I am now going to teleport to Kalimdor and make my way through the ley lines there.

### Entry 4: Vale of Beasts

*\*The following is written in an exaggerated script, as though by a hand larger than normal\**

I have been unable to transform since I arrived at the Vale of Beasts in Ashenvale, very little useable magic for a mage runs through this line, though it does seem to call out and soothe the savage beast and monsters in the area. I had decided to bed down for the evening, teleportation and this attunement has taken a lot out of me and a good night sleep was supposed to be the best cure. I woke up as a Worgen and began to run wild through the Vale of Beasts, it was as though I could hear the animals speaking as I ran past them, inquiring about the new wolf in their vale. This may have been my imagination as I kept my human mind in a struggle for dominance over the animal inside of me. I have managed to return to my armor and as soon as I can transform I will dress and make my way to Stonetalon.

### Entry 5: Mount Fairview

Whoever decided to name Mount Farview has as much imagination as many of the magi I have known. Much like the Stick of Truth, Mount Farview is exactly what the name would suggest, you can see for miles and miles. However that is not even the least of what the ley line allows for. As soon as I began to tap into it I could hear a nest of baby birds halfway down the mountain waking up. The ley line of Mount Farview seems to increase the senses, I can smell what they are cooking in a village further away than I could guess, I can see an eagle flying near the border with Ashenvale, and also my next ley line objective, the Great Maze.

### Entry 6: The Great Maze

It would seem that the Great Maze contains a ley line that is connected to the very stone of the land within these mountains. As centuries of wind and rain carved these canyons that make the Great Maze the walls have maintained because running through this line is a pattern of stone. I am sure that this line may be better suited to a shaman rather than a mage but the attunement has been interesting. It is like my skin is made of stone, now I know what a dwarf feels like. It has increased my physical resilience to injury, I almost regret that this is only temporary, and that I cannot pass this on to the rest of the regiment.

### Entry 7: The Mulgore Hotsprings

Upon my arrival in Mulgore I had to find a place to lay low for a time until after dark then I was able to make my way down to the hot springs where the ley line flow. It was surprising how worn out I feel with these attunements. I have done very little in the way of fighting for the past few days but it feels as though I have been in battle with no sleep. However once I made my way into the hot spring which houses the ley line pattern for healing I felt renewed. I lay in the water attuning myself to the ley line feeling the power of healing wash over me, even in the past when I walked a different path healing was always a more evasive talent to me, I can feel why. Healing takes a lot of focus and a level of peace that I have never been able to attain in my own mind. As I got out of the hot springs I saw that a lot of my old scars and pains are gone, however not being inside of the line my weariness has returned. I have a single teleport left in me before I collapse probably, I need food and sleep. Since I am sure that trying to get either of these things in Mulgore will result in me being dragged to Thunder Bluff for an extended stay.

### Entry 8: The Ghostlands

A word of advice for whoever undertakes this trial after me, if you are going to teleport into the Darnassian camp in the Ghostlands of Quel’thalas try to announce your arrival beforehand. I teleported into the camp after my attunement to the pattern of healing in Mulgore ready for a nice meal and some sleep, and was surrounded by rather on edge Kaldorei. Once they figured out that I had a lion on my chest rather than a phoenix things were calmed down, but having a Sentinel press a moon glaive to your throat will wake you up in the morning, no doubt. After getting a bunk and some shuteye, my appetite for the moment lost, I awoke to attune myself to the ley line that the Kaldorei are using to spy on Silvermoon. On a side note with how little I have eaten since I left I doubt that Mother Muriah will be able to call me ‘jolly’ after this.

As I attuned myself to the ley line my divination increased as I opened my mind, I could see my friends back in Elwynn at the garrison. I could see into my home, my staff doing their job admirably and the clergy puttering about their tents outside their ruined abbey as the snow continued to fall. I could see into the dark cold place where my sister has been kept from me. That was the most unpleasant and I decided to end my divination after that final image of my sister holding her winter rose. I know I should eat something after this attunement, I haven’t had anything since a small bit of trail food when I awoke yesterday. However my appetite is yet again turned against me.

### Entry 9: The Great Bulwarks

The Great Bulwarks outside of Grim Batol, nothing quite like coming to a place with such a devastating history to really feel the full weight of the past pushing down on you. Grim Batol has been a place of shadow and darkness since the death of Modgud during the War of the Three Hammers. This place just feels wrong, the taint of Deathwing is still very much felt. I don’t want to linger here longer than I have to, I will attune myself to the pattern of shielding that runs through this place and I will be gone to my final destination for this trial.

I focused my energies into summoning up an arcane shield I could feel the power of the ley line flowing through the shield, I don’t think that this shield could break if all of the power of the Horde was arrayed against it, though that is likely hyperbole. I am going to teleport to the Searing Peak now, I need to be away from Grim Batol, the feel of this place is just like eating something that has spoiled. I do not like this place, and I really want to never come back.

### Entry 10: The Searing Peak

I was not able to focus on writing while I was in Searing Peak, deep down where the ley line is. The heat of the volcano was just too intense to focus on anything but attunement to the ley line. So I am sitting outside of Karazhan right now and I will write what I can remember. I do find it interesting that this journey started with me visiting the coldest place in all of Azeroth and ended with me in the heart of a volcano. I was able to summon flame in that place hotter than any I have ever summoned, it seemed to bring all of my emotions to the surface as the pattern of flame met my attunement. Fire has always been the element most closely associated with passions as opposed to ice which is patience and focus. As soon as I was attuned the heat seemed far less intense around me, I am sure that heat and fire won’t bother me as much as long as I am attuned to this ley line. Still though, I needed out of that volcano as quickly as I could.

### Entry 11: Karazhan

Now here I sit outside of Karazhan, the terminus of all of the ley lines in Azeroth. I am forced to think about how I have been in the past. When I first retook the mantle of being a Spellblade and embraced magic again I was seduced by the power and if I am being honest the darkness of it all. The dark artifacts were a fascination and rather seductive. I took time away from it all, the Stormwind Vault, the military, and I lost everything during it. I just had this darkness inside of me from the loss of everything, first there was my family lost as I grew into a man. Then after that the continuous loss of love after love, and then the loss of my children. Now sitting here at the terminus of the ley lines of Azeroth I can’t help but understand how dangerous embracing those negative emotions was, I stood at the edge of darkness and was able to pull myself back.

Looking at Karazhan the bastion of Medivh and the reason for the darkness that envelopes almost all of Duskwood I can admit that I was being a fool. Instead of focusing on what has been taken from me I must focus on what I still have, the friends who have become family, the chance that is always around the next corner. This journey has forced me to have an introspective, perhaps an unintended consequence? In any event I must return now, to those friends who have become family, and to the path that I have chosen. My horse is approaching, and I will ride back to Stormwind.

This closes the account of the Trial of the Warmage. I look forward to the further trials of the Mage’s Gauntlet that are to come.