Katherine Pike

Hand of the Unblinded

 **Status**

Katherine Pike emerged from a life of obscure peasantry in the wake of the Plague of Undeath, first as the head of a small Light cult known as the Red Hand of Tyr, and then as the High Evangelist of the elite Scarlet Crusade sect known as the Hand of the Unblinded. In both cases, her fanaticism, manifesting as an obsession with a vision of a world purified by holy fire, has become legend in the Plaguelands, and today she stands as a testament to the Crusade's madness as she calls more converts to her cause of holy war.

## Description

Katherine Pike is young for someone claiming the authority she claims, still in the spring of her life, albeit perhaps late spring. However, there is an intensity in her gaze and demeanor that belies the darkness she has experienced in her time, and in all likelihood, the darkness she has unleashed upon others.

Katherine is of average height for a human woman. Her subtly tanned skin, her svelte feminine figure, and full features would make her a very attractive woman, a fact that would be more readily apparent if not for the hardship of recent years that had rendered her body somewhat gaunt and placed a spark of madness in her gaze. Her face, however, remains full and unlined, with subtle cheekbones and sharp coffee-colored eyes. A wavy mane of chocolate locks, with just a touch of auburn, falls down to her shoulders, or is swept behind her into a bun or short ponytail. Long but strong fingers bear faint red burn scars down their lengths, and similar scarring occasionally pokes out from her robes.

She typically is found wearing layered priestly robes of red and white, cut away to allow for ease of riding, with a heavy woolen cloak of deep crimson pulled around her shoulders in colder months. A soft crimson band always encircles her forehead, keeping her bangs from her face. She only occasionally carries a weapon, and if she does nothing more than a dagger, but she is rarely found parted from her staff, and never found parted from the scorched hymnal book in which the deep secrets of Tyr are recorded. Dark leather riding trousers and boots are worn beneath her robes; she is, after all, a working priestess, not cozily holed up in some secure parish.

## History

### Early History

Katherine's early history is not well-known. She was born Katherine Phillips and was raised in a small hamlet in the Westweald denizens called Riverbones, or Esgyrn Afon in the old tongue, in the domain of House Barov of Caer Darrow; her parents were presumably the farmers Balric and Harmony Phillips. Being of low birth, it is likely that none in the Phillips household were literate. Balric and Harmony's names are only known as they were recorded in the registry of the local chapel by the parish father. It is unknown if Katherine had siblings.

In 17 LC, Katherine married the local blacksmith, Hammond Pike, at the age of seventeen. He was five years her senior. Soon after she became a pupil at the chapel, where she remained a student and assistant to the parish father until the Scourge invasion. Sometime during this time she gave birth to a son, Anduin, named for the fallen Alliance hero Anduin Lothar. She and Hammond would have lived modestly, but as a skilled laborer Hammond would have had a more noteworthy income than many of the farmer folk in their village. They lived in a small stone house that served also as Hammond's blacksmith shop.

The Plague of Undeath struck the Kingdom of Lordaeron in late 20 LC, and Katherine's village was no exception. Comprehensive records of this time in the outlying hamlets of Lordaeron are practically non-existent, but due to Esgryn Afon's proximity to both Andorhal and Caer Darrow, major strongholds of the Cult of the Damned, it likely fell victim to the Plague and the Scourge early. The village received no support from the royal army of Lordaeron or the levies of House Barov, and contained no living humans by 21 LC. Balric and Harmony Phillips, along with the parish father and most recorded inhabitants of the village, pass out of known history at this point, most likely victims of the Plague or the Scourge invaders.

Katherine's next appearance is not until 23 LC, when she, her husband, and her young son Anduin were recorded as residents of the former internment camp known as Stout Hill in the mountains of the western Plaguelands. Most of what is known of Stout Hill comes from the writings of former military clerk Horace Bassett, who arrived in March of 22 LC and fastidiously documented his time there. Stout Hill had stood abandoned since the Horde's exodus to Kalimdor, its royal commander Leonhard Vanderleigh presumed killed in action by the end of the Scourge invasion, but refugees had begun trickling in as early as 21 LC, taking advantage of its isolation, fortifications, and small subsistence farms to survive. Bassett suggested that around three dozen people lived in the decrepit longhouses of Stout Hill at the time of his arrival, and while this number would change frequently as people came and went, there were typically never less than 30 residents of the camp and no more than 45.

Families with children were typically allowed to settle in some of the small farmhouses, while single individuals and older couples were divided into the longhouses that had once housed the Orcish inmates. The Pikes inhabited one such farmhouse, in the northeastern-most corner of the camp, slightly elevated on a hill overlooking a pumpkin patch. Bassett recalled relatively few interactions with Katherine, whom he described as "pretty young woman, hardly more than a girl, with the look of heartbreak in her eyes." According to Bassett's account, she suffered from a severe melancholy that had Hammond claimed had consumed her since their village fell to the Plague. Katherine rarely was seen outside her cottage, and many in the camp felt sympathetic for Hammond, whom they felt was having to raise his child alone as well as care for his ailing wife. Hammond, Bassett noted, rarely spoke of Katherine at length, but he remained convinced that Hammond cared deeply for her. Bassett also believed that Katherine kept a diary, though none was ever found.

Bassett's account abruptly stops in October of 25 LC. His last notes express some disquiet about a group of three men who recently arrived in the camp. He also notes seeing more of Katherine outside than usual in the final weeks, though he never spoke to her in this time. Stout Hill was presumed to have been destroyed soon after, with many of its residents disappearing without a trace.

### Hand of the Unblinded

    When Katherine Pike next appeared in the spring of 26 LC, it was not as a humble peasant's wife but as a member of the fanatical Scarlet Crusade, and more specifically the elite Hand of the Unblinded sect. She has taken to calling herself the High Evangelist and was recorded as traveling the Plaguelands and beyond under heavy guard to preach of the Crusade's Light. She is a revered figure among the Unblinded, though one regarded with no small degree of fear. Her sermons regularly express a belief in the purification not just of the Undead but of apostates, heretics, and false believers as well, and her reputation is an inquisitor was fearsome. She keeps the company of many of the Crusade's inner circle, and leads a small but fanatical inquisitorial sect known as the Red Hand of Tyr, recognizable by the bloody handprint sigil on their clothing.

## Trivia

* Katherine is an avid participant in the harvest festival Hallow's End, and loathes that the Forsaken have co-opted it for their own heretical rituals.