Lorthermur Pendragon

Gabriel was once a human Lieutenant in the Lordaeron army, during that time he served under Prince Arthas. However he did not join his Prince and his expedition in Northrend, he remained behind in Lordaeron. His death did not come when Arthas murdered his father, he was killed months later.

Eventually he became a death knight under the employment of the Lich King. While in the service of a Dark Master, he took a new name: Lorthermur, and he helped the Scourge sow chaos across the lands of Azeroth, along with several other potential allies. Even though he and his comrades had brought the Scourge many victories, the tide of the war soon turned, and the Lich King was defeated. Lorthermur Pendragon, Malleus and Drezhul are the only ones presumed to have survived the "extermination" in Northrend.

Nowadays, Lorthermur has taken advantage of his past heroic deeds to become Warlord of the Black Mantle, an organization of Scourge survivors who had pledged loyalty to Lorthermur Pendragon. Now they seek to reform the Scourge step by step...

## Home Sweet Home

Gabriel was born into a family of farmers who lived in the village of Whiteridge, near the town of Farengarde. His family was poor, like most of the village's inhabitants, and so they had to work hard to provide for their son. They didn't live bad, but everything had to be earned with a lot of work and sweat. Gabriel began helping his parents at the age of 5, by watering the crops, cleaning the house, and at one point, feed the chickens and collect their eggs when the time was right.

He had a few friends in the village, namely Joseph Sullivan, who was the son of a blacksmither. They got along just fine since childhood and barely argued with each other.

At the time, the town of Farengarde and Whiteridge were not in the best of terms, because Whiteridge was the home of "classless, hillbilly people", and were often disregarded by the commoners of Farengarde, who were actually successful traders, miners, chefs... The villagers would rarely walk into the town, only when necessary to try and sell their goods, and they would get paid like everyone else since the townsfolk needed supplies, but socially the villagers were treated badly and often hustled (selling exorbitant amounts of something in exchange for a much lower amount of money).

One day, Gabriel and Joseph walked into town and found themselves surrounded by plenty of people. It was Market day and the streets were filled with people doing windowshopping, shouting to get attention, purchasing goods. For hours they just strolled around looking at the town's beauty, the architecture for example, they weren't used to fancy looking stuff. Eventually, Joseph grew hungry and approached a market table packed with tons of fruit. While the vendor was distracted, he helped himself by grabbing an apple and turning his back to meet up with Gabriel. Unfortunately, when he turned his back a few apples were spilled into the street, thus catching the attention of the vendor, who quickly realized what had happened. "Guards! Guards! Thieves stole my apples, get those kids!" - he said, and the guards quickly answered the call of aid and began to pursue both children.

Joseph was a bit fatter than his friend, so he was eventually caught by one of the guards, while the others ran after Gabriel. The later was physically fitter (he was 10 at the time) and was able to fit into spots no ordinary person could. For nearly half an hour, the guards were unable to catch the ten year old, who even jumped from a house to another at one point, the guards were not successful in doing the same, as the armor's weight did not help them at all. But in the end, Gabriel was cornered by a trio of guards, who took him back to Joseph Sullivan and the Town's Captain of the Guard. Despite being threatened to spend a whole day in a dark tower (jail), the ten year old kid spat the Captain right in the face, forcing him to draw his blade.

It was then that a man riding a horse came out of the crowd and said: "Stay your blade, Captain..." and the Captain looked at the approaching man, barely able to see his face because of the sunlight. The man who had ordered him to stop was King Terenas Menethil II, who had been watching the events for some time. The King was disgusted by the guard's behaviour, threatening a child with a sword. He reprimanded the man and dismounted, kneeling at Gabriel and putting his hand on his shoulder: "Are you alright?", Gabriel simply nodded. "You have a lot of courage, young man, what is your name?" - he asked. "Gabriel Pendragon, sir" - the young boy answered.

"Stealing is against the law... but I liked the way you dealt with the guards. I only wish they had been trained more properly..." (said in a displeased tone). "... but tell you what, I will give you and your friend a ride home, where do you live?"

After the reply, the King ordered some of his men to pick the children up and put them on their horses for the journey back. Gabriel, while mounted on the horse, looked to his right side and saw another young boy, he was blonde and rather handsome and physically fit, nobility most likely. On the way home, he found out that the noble boy was Prince Arthas.

When he arrived home, the King told one of his men to speak with Gabriel's parents, telling them that their child would be taken at the age of 12, to be trained by the best instructors in the Kingdom, so that he could one day fight for his family and King. At first his parents were scared, they had plans for him, but eventually they convinced themselves that Military service would be better for their family.

## For Country and King

And so it happened, Gabriel had been taken at the age of 12 for training. Everything from that point forward proved to be a challenge, being able to block, to strike, to find out a weakness in his opponent's fighting style, to duck and fit into small places... All these challenges were overcome with time, and at the age of 20, he was ready for action. He was posted on guard duty at the village of Strahnbrad, before the orcs arrived. But when they did and sacked the town, Gabriel was led into battle by Prince Arthas who had come to take the fight to the intruders. Even though the village was safe, some of the inhabitants had been taken prisoner and Prince took a regiment of men to find the missing villagers, which had been taken to an orc base near Uther's encampment.

By the day's end, the orcs had been routed out and some villagers had been saved, while others had been killed. Those of the regiment that were still alive were taken to the capital, along with Uther Pendragon and Arthas Menethil to be patched up and celebrate if they wished to do so.

   Private Gabriel was later reassigned to Stratholme. A few months later, when news that the plague from the North had reached the city, via Andorhal's distributed grain shipments. Prince Arthas, Jaina Proudmoore and Lord Uther travelled to the city to plan their next move. However Arthas, had his own plans, and this resulted in Jaina and Uther walking out on the Prince. Having lost those he trusted most to help him, he granted Gabriel a battle field promotion. Lieutenant Gabriel assisted the Lordaeron Prince in the Culling of Stratholme, but he did not follow him to Northrend. He remained behind, to attend to his family.

## Servitude in Death

Gabriel, now known as Lorthermur, was raised as a death knight and for a time he watched over the Scourge's interests.

    No clear information exists on what his duties were for a long time, but we do know that his career began when the Scourge arrived in the Eastern Kingdoms, after Arthas merged with Ner'zhul and the Lich King's five years of slumber.

He did not side with Darion Mograine, leader of the Death Knights of Acherus, not because he was some sort of patriot in death, but because he felt there was no turning back.

He was promoted later on to Baron Lorthermur, and was dispatched to serve a subgroup of Scourge Agents, under the command of General Menelaus. There, he served alongside some of the most iconic members of the group: Heini "The Dreadshade", Malleus, Reynall, Veroth The Damned, Icebane Dremon, Jankelstein, Soulkeeper Kishin...

Although there was no clear friendships, like there is in the world of the living, there was a sense of companionship, a common cause and that brought those men and women closer.

The Scourge's defeat at Icecrown was a tremendous loss to the Scourge loyalists. Dremon was slain when cornered by a group of Ebon Blade Knights, Malleus was reported missing in action, Veroth the Damned had left the Scourge long before the battle for Icecrown Citadel, Heini "The Dreadshade" and General Menelaus had been branded as traitors and therefore executed... it all came crashing down around Lorthermur's ears. He took the few forces he had at hand and departed to the Eastern Kingdoms, hours before the Lich King's inevitable death.

## Out in the Shadows

The former Baron and his troops knew they could not linger in one place for too long, without risking detection. Their main concern was the Argent Crusade and The Forsaken. While they evaded both factions for some time, they were eventually discovered by the later.

They were taken to Sylvanas in Undercity, where they would have them publically executed, but Lorthermur Pendragon persuaded her that his forces could be of use to her, considering that the Forsaken are unable to procreate and the fact that Varimathras' betrayal had caused the Forsaken to be immersed in a mantle of disregard, disapproval and even distrust by the other Horde races.

Sylvanas kept Lorthermur and the others alive for awhile, until they fled Forsaken territory during the night. Anya Eversong, a Dark Ranger at the disposal of Sylvanas Windrunner, was dispatched with the objective of eliminating the Scourge remnants.

She was led into quite a chase, but she was incapable of following those orders and was recruited by the Pendragon, who took her under his wing. Together, they made Duskwood a suitable place to start rebuilding the Scourge. And some time later, they recovered the remains of Sakarr Darkraven, who gladly joined them.

    The three of them reunited and agreed that the new Scourge faction would be called: "The Black Mantle".

A few weeks later, both Anya and Sakarr began to suspect that their new leader was acting strange, and they found out that a disease had fallen upon the Pendragon, causing him to change psychologically. Sakarr suggested that the Pendragon went on a pilgrimage of some sort, to try and figure out how to fight back this disease that could very well be a threat to their plans.

## Illness Arise

The drastic mood changes were really causing confusion amongst the minions of the Black Mantle. Lorthermur had to be cured, otherwise the Undead might go rogue if they see that their great leader is incapable of taking command.

So the Pendragon tried to find a place of learning and study that was close to Duskwood, his only option was Karazhan, he would have to evade the Kirin Tor though, and that would not be an easy task. However, he sucessfully managed to waltz right in undetected and for hours he stood in the library searching in books and parchments, looking to identify the disease and find a solution to this problem. Until he came across an Alter Ego curse. Not much information was given on how it could have been contracted, but there were a few suggestions on how to resolve the problem.

One of them was to learn a body duplication spell and with the second body (which would be dormant), he would expel the second mind within him and force it into the other corpse. It took some time until the preparations had been made. Lorthermur was constantly looking out for any possible Kirin Tor patrols, but when he found an opening to perform the ritual. He acted and it appeared to have worked.

Lorthermur Pendragon felt different, relieved, but he couldnt leave his body there, who knows if it would ever wake up. The thought of having someone with his body somewhere in the world screwing around was not a pleasant one, so he carried the corpse with him all the way to Duskwood, where he placed it in a coffin.

A few days later, that corpse came to life. All the memories that the Pendragon had, were transferred into the other twin body. But any further experiences and memories lived by either of them, would be their own. The two Lorthermurs began to talk to each other and they agreed that they could help one another, especially due to the fact that the original Lorthermur is more profficient in hand to hand combat, while the new Lorthermur appears to be stronger with the use of magic. This means that they could actually complement each other if they decided to work together. There was only one matter left to figure out: What name would the doppelganger have?

One night, The Mantle Leader heard screams coming from one of the rooms in the Crypt. It appears that his Twin had had a nightmare (a vision) where he experienced a possible defeat of the Mantle before their campaign could start. At first, the Pendragon was skeptical about these "visions", they could have been mere nightmares. But other visions followed, and even though these were smaller ones, with smaller consequences and effects, they came true. The title of "Prophet" was bestowed upon the second Lorthermur, by which he is usually adressed by.

## Additional Information (IC + OOC)

Gabriel Pendragon makes use of his experience in combat tactics and warfare strategies, added to his already impressive list of completed assignments while a member of General Menelaus' division during the Lich King's resurgence. He is considered a war hero and veteran by his servants, he seems to inspire his followers and, at some point, persuade them to fight against overwhelming odds.

The former Baron has one secret though, as to how he can "inspire" and persuade his minions. He possesses telepathy, an ability that can become very powerful with time and practice. This ability can be used on enemies aswell as friends, however enemies do tend automatically offer a mental barrier (even if easy to break in some cases) as they consider him a threat. Friends, however tend to let their guard down and become more easy to manipulate...

While telepathy allows its user to do multiple things, as it branches out into different types of mental powers, Lorthermur has been known to be capable of reading minds, telepathically speaking and Mind Control.

* Reading Minds, as the name states, allows him to read the minds of his opponents and allies whether they are processing images or words in their minds.
* Telepathy (speaking), allows him to communicate short-medium distance with anyone he wishes.
* Mind Control, used to force the target or targets to obey any command mentally given.

**Note:** Mind Control allows for a more successful domination or submission of the targets into making them loyal to the user, until the link is severed. However, if carelessly used, this ability might drain the user fatally. That is why a lighter approach can be used, via "spoken commands", which has the same effect and with less danger to the caster, however once the command/objective has been completed, the control over the target is lost and there is always the chance that a second order has to be given, as this approach requires a certain tone or emotion behind it to create more impact. (ex: a calm person issues a command to another, the order may come by as a suggestion instead of a real order, so the target may not comply...)