Halyhk DeMonte

Lord-Captain Halyhk DeMonte is a Stormwind nobleman who rules over The Kasian Colony as the Lord-Captain of Fort DeMonte. Halyhk is a Firesworn practitioner of Light and Shadow magics, a former petty officer of Stormwind's army, and a Netherwing rider.

 **Age**
 **Birthplace**
 **Present Home**
 **House**
 **Race**
 **Religious Affiliation**
 **Parents**

## DESCRIPTION

Halyhk carries the posture of a career soldier and the good humors of a bard. Halyhk's face is a mess of weather-blasted old scars, typically carrying a soft expression reflected in kind, gray eyes. There is a somewhat large piece of flesh over his right cheek would seem to have been gouged out long ago. His voice is baritone and guttural carrying well when he means to be heard, but he is otherwise a soft-spoken man.

The armor that Halyhk wears is forged of enameled Titansteel the color of wine, interlaced with decorative trimmings of Dark Iron. The armor, though finely crafted originally, bears the marks of battlefield damage and subsequent repairs; some portions of the armor hence appear to be in newer than other pieces. A crimson cloak sewn of a thick and durable material is fastened to his breastplate, it too bears the marks of long-time use. The cloak has been tore, slashed, and in places burned, yet each time repaired as best as it could.

A violet Netherwing scale can be seen pinned to Halyhk's right pauldron. A closer inspection would reveal that the scale is glowing faintly from within, emitting a gentle pulse of energy. Truesight, or the any adept spellcaster could tell that the scale appears to have been converted into a telepathetic conduit of some kind.

The hammer Baz'Fal is slung across Halyhk's back. The weapon is crafted of arcanite and dark iron, and the handywork of its design suggests that it was crafted by a denizen of Shadowforge City. The weapon is an absurb anomaly of conflicting energies. Holy Fire rages within the head of the hammer, its radiance visible even through the metal. Powerful Void runes are adorned upon the head and haft of the weapon, creating motes of pale fire around them as the elemental forces destroyed one another in an endless dance.

## TITLES

**Lord-Captain of Fort DeMonte.**

The fort was established by the Netherwing Court following the the slaying of Deathwing. It is an heavily utilitarian structure and is built to protect the mountainous entryway to its attendant lands, the Copper Valley.

**Count of the Kasian Colony**

Comprised of six towns, ten villages, one fledgling city, numerous camps for loggers and hunters, and Fort DeMonte. The Kasian colony has population of close to five-thousand and is primarily composed of refugees from Westfall with a sizable minority of Kaldorei and Goblins.

## HOUSE

Halyhk claims noble lineage from House DeMonte of Westfall on his mothers side, and the knightly house of Stanbridge on his fathers.

House DeMonte is a minor noble house of Westfall, ruled by Lord Boris DeMonte. They were once known to be a quite faithful family producing many priests and paladins from their line until the rise of the Defias saw them impoverished. The house has since relocated to the Citrine Isle of the Kasian Colony.

## BIOGRAPHY

Halyhk DeMonte was born to Kethan DeMonte and Amarath DeMonte shortly after the conculsion of the Second War. Although his sires were of Stormwind, he was raised in the Lordaerian town of Corrin's Crossing; where he lived until the Culling of Stratholme. Fearing the uncertainty of Arthas' disappearance, and the brutality he displayed, Kethan sent Halyhk, his sister Judiasia, and Amarath back to Stormwind to live in the company of Amarath's brother's family in Westfall. No word returned from Lordaeron after its fall of Kethan's fate and he was assumed by his surviving family to have died in the war. Filled with the angst of youth and righteous fury, Halyhk left the DeMonte estate in a desire to join the Silver Hand and began his training in the Northshire Abbey. Halyhk proved to be fast on his feet and cunning though earned much ire from his instructors due to a percieved lack of honor. One particular tactic Halyhk favored was to fool his opponent into thinking he was yielding, only to use the opportunity to turn the duel into his favor.

Halyhk developed a unique connection to the Light over this time; Holy fire answered his command with little issue but he showed little talent for healing the wounded. Such was his humors at the time that only wrath, and not compassion, yielded the conviction to wield the Light effiectively. This reality paired with Halyhk's behavior on the sparring grounds worried his tutors. In an effort to correct the issue he was instructed to study, and he was kept to sparring only those familar with his tactics in an attempt to disuede their use. Though this greatly frustrated Halyhk, he persisted. As Halyhk trained, Westfall rotted from the Defias' influence. A letter from Amarath informed Halyhk that his sister Judi had gone missing. The letter itself made no accusations, but word-of-mouth spreading from Westfall made clear the suspect. Halyhk left the abbey in the dead of night and took with him the texts he had been instructed to study. He had lost his father far away and unable to help; he could not see this happen again to another of his family.

Halyhk lied to his mother in promising that he had been given leave by the masters of the Abbey. The household guard of the DeMonte estate had thusfar found no trace of Judiasia and Halyhk's return made little difference in this matter. Yet every day men would be sent out to villages and farmsteads to ask their residents if she had been seen. Fewer and fewer of these men would return as the violence and unrest in Westfall grew. If it were left to Halyhk or Amarath the search would not cease until she was found, but the DeMonte Estate was ruled by Amarath's brother, Boris. Boris DeMonte refused to send forth any further search parties and made his household ready to flee the troubled land. Fury possessed Halyhk and were it not for the intervention of Amarath he would have challenged the man to a duel. The matter was settled and House DeMonte fled its estate; Amarath reluctantly following her brother to the safety of Stormwind. Halyhk refused to again flee and elected to remain in the now-abandoned estate, continuing the search by himself if he must.

Halyhk turned over the estate the rising tide of vagrants left homeless by the Defias. With gold stolen from Boris in his hasty evacuation Halyhk found would-be warriors among the vagrants and armed them. This proved to be mostly an unwise choice as many choose to become thugs and brigands with their newfound equipment. Yet there were a few that Halyhk found companionship with; who agreed to assist Halyhk in his search. They found themselves plenty of work assisting those farmers that remained in protecting their crops, but would never find Judiasia. As the years pass and Stormwind finally is able to regain control of wayward Westfall, through much grief and anger, Halyhk came to accept that he would never find Judiasia. It was now past time that he move on with his life. He briefly he considered returning to the Abbey though he knew that it was unlikely that he would be reaccepted, and further doubted they could teach him much. In all that time searching; Halyhk studied. Though he was hardly a savant his prowess with the Light was never-the-less impressive for one mostly self-taught in its ways.

Halyhk and his remaining companions would travel onwards from here to Stranglethorn Vale to lend their swords to Lieutenant Doren's men in their fight against Colonel Kurzen. This experience gave Halyhk and his companions practical experience fighting in the jungle and would lead to them becoming the "Trollhunters" on the payroll of Booty Bay. This work proved to be dangerous and by the time of the Lich King's return most of the original group had been slain. It was during this time that Halyhk had been given the moniker "Lightsworn" as warranted by his ability in the Light, and the fact that he had never been by the Silver Hand as a true paladin.

Those of his original companions that were not slain had each, one after another, split off to make their own fortunes. Halyhk remained for a time ever fearful and ashamed to return to his family for having failed to find his sister. Finding no more friends within their ranks Halyhk would leave the Trollhunters, taking what gold he earned and drinking it away in the taverns of the trade city. Weeks of this passed and most of Halyhk's wealth was squandered, what little he earned from odd-jobs barely keeping the ale flowing. The return of the Lich King and the beginning of the subsequent assault on Stormwind sobered Halyhk. He had too long evaded what remained of his family, now at risk of being lost to the same evil that claimed his father. He resolved to return to Westfall and fought alongside the People's Militia against the undead that assailed the newly-restored land. Halyhk made his way to Stormwind as the immediate threat of the Scourge was defeated, but could not find the courage to reunite with his family.

Halyhk was conscripted into Stormwind's levies as the Kingdom prepared to invade Northrend. As Halyhk possesed noble blood from his mothers side, and some command experience from his time with Trollhunters, he was granted command of a company of his fellow conscripts. The company often mockingly refereed to Halyhk as the "Lord-Captain" as he was a noble without lordship, and a captain without a true rank. Halyhk's company spent most of the war stationed in Dragonblight assisting the Wrymrest Accord against the Scourge. The nature of the conflict forced Halyhk to fight side by side for the first time with warriors of the Horde; the boogeymen and monsters he was taught nearly destroyed humanity. Disgusted to fight alongside Trolls and Orcs at first; Halyhk grew an understanding of those brutish peoples, burgeoning on respect. That was shaken by the events of the Wrathgate and the aggression of Garrosh Hellscream, but not broken.

Injury at battle of the Ruby Dragonshire saw Halyhk confined to a bed in Dalaran's infirmary for the remainder of the war as more and more of Stormwind's sons and daughters died. There was little love between he and his company but made frequent, and unsuccessful, inquires as to their status. He was shamed by his wound, by laying in a bed while others fought to save the world. Days after the worst of his injuries had been stabilized Halyhk received a visitor in the form of his paternal aunt, Lerona Stanbridge. Lerona and Kethan Stabridge had long feuded with one another over the circumstances of their mothers death and as such Aunt and Nephew had only met eachother twice; once at Halyhk's birth, and the other at Judiasia's birth. The reunion was an awkward thing for both of them at first as they fumbled to find common ground between them, yet that ground was found.

In an effort to lift Halyhk's melancholy Lerona would often bring with her scholarly tomes and scrolls. At first Halyhk would chafe at this unpleasant reminder of his time at Northshire; he would soon grow nigh-addicted to the study. Books of the arcane, transcribed oral histories of shamans, druidic runestones, and legal documents helped to pass the time. Halyhk furthered his studies into the Light's mysteries, but was as well introduced to the vagaries of Shadow and Void. This latter study was more gripping than he would at the time admit. As the war ended and Halyhk recovered he opted to remain in Dalaran, spending much of the next year pouring through whatever documents he could get his hands of; Of note during this time he became functionally fluent in Orcish.

The Cataclysm and the wars that followed brought Halyhk's focus back to the world at large and his comfort in Dalaran ended. He joined a free company of Alliance volunteers that based themselves out of Northwatch, and in the opening months of the war was involved in various raids and battles within and around the Barrens. The longer the war went on, the less Halyhk could stomach the atrocities committed. The thousands of Horde citizens killed or displaced by the Alliance sickened Halyhk even as he believed it was a necessary cost of war; until camp Taurajo. Halyhk would leave the company, no longer able to stomach the wanton brutality.

Halyhk found himself in Theramore for a time as he awaited a ship to return him to the Eastern Kingdoms. Here he would meet Saraphine Whitelotus, Paragon of the Netherwing Court. After a night and a day of discussion, with no where else to go, Halyhk joined Saraphine. During the war against Deathwing the Netherwing Court fought against elements of the Twilight's Hammer Cult that sought to corrupt the Netherwing for their own ends. The Court gave Halyhk many great friendships including that of the Netherwing Drake Xuninaku, who would be a constant companion to this day.

Showing his ability for battlefield command and bravery in the face of death, namely manning a cannon against a Black dragon after its gunners had fled, he was promoted to captain the Netherwing Court's retinues. Leading the Court's military forces in the war, Halyhk gained a great deal of practical military experience. Indeed his connection to the Light grew during this time as well in part due to competition with shadow-users of the Court, who's challenges made him grow more resolute. Yet Halyhk by this time began to see the Light not as an object of worship, but as a power obtained through righteous conviction. The death of dogma allowed Halyhk to see his shadowy compatriots in a more positive light.

It was no longer following Deathwings defeat that the Court split apart as the mission that defined it had been completed. Much of its leadership and members went on to the next stages of their lives, but Halyhk and others remained for a time. The Court's new leader, Luthien Binel, ordered Halyhk to take the remaining retinues and servants of the Court and establish a new base. Halyhk chose an area in the North-West of Stranglethorn that had become something of a refugee camp for those citizens of Westfall wishing to flee the violence of the Defias; erecting Fort DeMonte there.

Not long after the fortifications had been completed did all communication with the Court cease, leaving Halyhk and a little less than three hundred veterans to man the keep without orders. Over the course of the next several years Halyhk would work to unite the various groupings of refugees, helping them to establish towns and farms by eradicating the local troll population. As the region stabilized Halyhk and the various local leaders would begin work on a mutual agreement of support and would announce themselves as the Kasian Colony. Of controversy the Earthwalker Clan of Orcs, lead by Chieftain Gorrum Bloodspitter and situated on Sunwave Isle, was party to this agreement. The Earthwalkers had fled the Horde during Garrosh's rule, and until Halyhk's arrival had been the strongest single force in the region. Though there were those that did the trust the orcs as one may expect, the two peoples remained largely separated from one another and thus retained the peace.