Pathonia Shaw

Pathonia Shaw
Title	Silver Cutpurse
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Class	Rogue
Affiliation(s)	Kingdom of Stormwind
Occupation	Thief, Assassin
Status	Deceased
Relative(s)	Deceased daughter, Mathias (grandson)

This article contains lore taken from Warcraft novels, novellas, or short stories.

Pathonia Shaw was the grandmother of SI:7 leader Mathias Shaw, who considered her made of iron. In her youth, Pathonia was caught three times for stealing, causing the guard of Stormwind to give her the choice of working for them or be hanged. She subsequently chose the kingdom, and when she carried out assassination missions she always made her to disguise them as anything other than what it was. She taught her daughter the trade and when she died, she taught her grandson Mathias. She always wore a grotesque amount of rings.

In the RPG

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Pathonia Shaw was the founder and leader of a guild of rogues called the Stormwind Assassins. For over 30 years she led them through times of peace, and even during the Great Wars. Her grandson Mathias Shaw would succeed her in leading the assassin's guild. Waltion Freemore was her lover, unbeknownst to everyone.

Biography

Leader of the Stormwind Assassins

Long before any of the wars, the kingdom of Stormwind felt it was unable to do everything it wanted to within the law. One of its leaders, Erwill Youngton, secretly approached a thief in one of their prisons called Pathonia Shaw. She had been imprisoned repeatedly for theft, caught perhaps three times at most, and she was notorious for scores of high profile crimes. Youngton offered her clemency if she agreed to form a society to take care of Stormwind's dirty work quickly and cleanly. She agreed at once and added that she would find a way to do it with a sense of style as well. The Stormwind Assassins began that day, with Pathonia Shaw sneaking into a corrupt high elf mayor's room that night and killing him, making sure to keep the bedroom immaculate: not a drop of blood spilled nor a sheet rumpled. With the agreement of Erwill Youngton, she combed the prisons for her fellow thieves to bring into the family, as they were called and soon built a small force to serve the kingdom.

Among the first rogues, she recruited from the Stockade was Waltion Freemore, a man who served as her right-hand and lover for 30 years, helping her build the guild into the powerhouse it would become. No one knew of the relationship he had with her, and he promised to keep that secret.

Shaw had been a thief for the thrills and was not necessarily evil. Once she was allowed to do her favorite thing in the world and still get paid for it, she became a loyal fighter to the crown. She made sure to hammer this home in her recruits: one does not steal from the hand that feeds. If the thrill of the stolen goods and the secret kill, along with a steady salary, was not good enough for her thieves, they were not initiated into the guild. She had one other requirement when she built the society: secrecy was a must. The king of Stormwind is the only one with a full list of the Stormwind Assassins, and when one was assigned to be part of a larger operation, her true purpose was not revealed to the other troops.

Pathonia and her assassins were there when the orcs poured from the Dark Portal during the First War, taking out stray scouts, and eventually even Horde leaders.

At some point, Waltion and Pathonia had a daughter (and later a grandson called Mathias) who eventually also joined the guild, becoming a First Finger assassin, but she would die on the job when Pathonia's grandson was 4 years old.

Retirement

After many years leading the Stormwind Assassins, Shaw retired 10 years ago and put her grandson Mathias in charge. She had groomed him for the job from when he was an infant, testing his speed and dexterity on a physical level and making sure he understood the difference between doing what was right and doing what was necessary, and how those two do not always mix. Pathonia had chosen to retire instead of die and leave things in disarray for him.

RPG notes

• Lands of Conflict mistakenly says Pathonia served the Alliance before the Great Wars, something that would have not been possible as the Alliance was only founded after the First War.