User:Joshmaul/Ordevaas Portalseeker/Into the Frozen North
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This article is a player character biography page The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official World of Warcraft history or occurrences which are accurate for all realms. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and applied for roleplaying, fictional, speculative, or opinions from a limited playerbase only. |
After the battle in Outland, Ordevaas Portalseeker travelled to Northrend to bring the war to the Scourge, and seek revenge against the Lich King for despoiling Quel'Thalas and slaughtering countless thousands of its people.
The Second Invasion
Along with his father Kel'theris, Ordevaas witnessed a sight outside Silvermoon that no Thalassian had witnessed in nearly a decade: A Scourge necropolis within the borders of Quel'Thalas. Realizing this was part of a greater problem, Saavedro of Stratholme sent a message via the Argent Dawn to Sunfury Spire, requesting that Ordevaas join him in Lordaeron to coordinate with the Dawn's forces. Ordevaas agreed and immediately set out for Light's Hope.
Upon his arrival, Ordevaas was given his instructions from the Argent command to locate a "shadow of doom" in one of the encampments maintaining a Scourge necropolis in the major war zones. With Lordaeron flooded by gloryseekers, Ordevaas instead joined a small group in the wilderness of Azshara and destroyed all in their wake. Taking an Argent standard to spread the Light's fury among the evil Scourge, Ordevaas and his allies decimated the Scourge encampments in Azshara and destabilized the necropolis, destroying it entirely. For this latter action, Ordevaas was allowed to wear the colors of the Argent Dawn in battle.
Arrival in the Tundra
While his friend Saavedro arrived at Valiance Keep in the Borean Tundra, Ordevaas took the zeppelin from Orgrimmar - recovering from the damage caused by the Scourge attack - to Warsong Hold, a fortress west of Valiance Keep near the center of the Tundra. Here, the Horde forces of the Warsong Offensive were ruled by Garrosh, son of Grom Hellscream, who had regained his fighting spirit...almost arrogantly so, as Ordevaas witnessed an argument between Garrosh and High Overlord Saurfang - one of the Horde's greatest warriors - in the main hall within seconds of stepping off the zeppelin.
Upon his arrival, however, Ordevaas was set immediately to work. The Hold was under siege by the forces of the Nerub'ar - undead nerubians in Scourge service.
In the Quarry
Ordevaas was tasked with rescuing Warsong peons too stupid to retreat and encased in webbing to be devoured by the nerubians. He was also tasked with killing several of these nerubians to thin out their forces. Travelling down the front steps and into the Mightstone Quarry, Ordevaas used his hammer - a gift from Saavedro - to slay several Nerub'ar, including at least two crypt lords commanding the besieging arachnids.
With the nerubian forces thinned, Ordevaas was given a set of seaforium charges to place in sinkholes made by tunnels, used by the nerubians to besiege the Hold. With the explosives set, the charges went off, caving in the tunnels and sealing off the nerubians' entry point into the Mightstone Quarry. With this victory under his belt, Ordevaas was sent to the roof to take a ride on a flying carpet (a fact Ordevaas found mildly amusing) to an outpost near Garrosh's Landing, an abandoned settlement along the eastern coast.
To the Plains of Nasam!
Arriving at Garrosh's Landing, Ordevaas met with Gorge the Corpsegrinder, a tank commander who needed his aid in repairing the tanks for use against the Scourge.
The goblin mechanic Mobu asked him to retrieve a "pneumatic tank transjigamarig" from a hut near the abandoned stables in order to get the tanks running, and super strong metal plates to reinforce their armor, scattered across the beach. Upon entering the mist, Ordevaas discovered that the mist was the reason the settlements were abandoned, and that men called the Kvaldir resided in the unnatural fog. Being extra cautious as a result, Ordevaas ventured into the mist and accomplished his mission quickly and efficiently.
Kel'Thuzad Resurrectus
With the siege tanks prepared, Ordevaas took the controls of one of them and drove southeast to the Plains of Nasam, where Scourge forces were assembling and spreading their dread plague. Ordevaas was given a mission by Gorge to return to Garrosh with the following: Destroy Scourge forces, rescue injured Warsong warriors, and identify the commander.
Ordevaas set out on his task and - guns firing, saws grinding and mines at the ready - arrived at the plains and began wiping out Scourge all around him. As he approached the dais in the center of the plains, Ordevaas was horrified to discover that the commander of the Scourge was none other than the dreaded Kel'Thuzad himself, returned from his defeat in Naxxramas nearly two years earlier. It seemed that the individual who defeated him delivered his phylactery to a hidden agent of the Cult of the Damned, who kept the phylactery and used it to resurrect his master.
Angered by this, Ordevaas parachuted from his siege tank and immediately leapt onto his waiting charger, riding from Garrosh's Landing to Warsong Hold and delivering his news to Garrosh personally. It seemed that they would have far worse to deal with now that they knew of Kel'Thuzad's return...
Hellscream's Champion: Further Into The Wastes
Despite early animosity - as a supporter of Thrall, he was incensed by the events that had occurred shortly before the attack against Orgrimmar - Ordevaas eventually gained the respect of Garrosh Hellscream. Upon delivering an Alliance deserter to Valiance Keep - where he was met by Captain Oren Tanis, an officer working for Saavedro - Ordevaas was tasked with battling the magnataur and their kobold minions at Gammoth, east of Warsong Hold.
The kobolds, in particular, seemed to venerate the bloodspore, a strange plant that grew around Gammoth. As he gathered the carpels growing around the area and the pollen from the wings of the moths, Ordevaas was soon to understand why. Bloodmage Laurith, the blood elf who had sent Ordevaas after these materials, tested the bloodspore on the Blood Knight Master; the plant weakened him and made him feel ill. Ordevaas was enraged by this, though he was placated somewhat by the insistence that it was to be used against the magnataur in order to prevent an attack against Warsong Hold. Given a pouch of crushed bloodspore, Ordevaas entered deep into Gammoth and faced the magnataur chieftain, Gammothra the Tormentor. Weakening him enough to fight, Ordevaas slew Gammothra with several quick strokes of his blade.
Returning to Warsong Hold with the magnataur's head, Ordevaas' effort was saluted by Garrosh, who tasked him with travelling via a Warsong Hold wolf across the Tundra to a taunka settlement called Taunka'le - within sight of the Temple City of En'kilah.
The Scourge of the Tundra
Upon being gifted with a greataxe by the taunka, Ordevaas was approached by one of their elders, Greatmother Taiga. A seer named Highmesa had been sent to the Dens of Dying, to the north of Taunka'le, and had not reported back. Upon his arrival, he discovered that Highmesa - and a longrunner named Bristlehorn - had been sent to this region to investigate signs of a plague that had broken out among the magnataur. The Dens of Dying were sacred ground to the magnataur, the place where they went in their old age to die - much like the kodos of Kalimdor went to Desolace.
After slaying several plagued magnataur, Ordevaas was given a collection of purifying seeds to place within a plague cauldron in one of the dens, guarded (naturally) by a member of the Cult of the Damned. Ordevaas killed the plaguebringer and neutralized the cauldron before returning to Highmesa, who had another task for him.
West of the Dens of Dying was a Scourge necropolis called Talramas. A malfunction of some kind had caused the necropolis to crash, seriously damaging the structure. Its master, Lich-Lord Chillwinter, pushed the Scourge inside to repair it before the Lich King discovered their failure to maintain the necropolis. Highmesa tasked Ordevaas with destroying Talramas' undead force, and finding Longrunner Bristlehorn. Upon entering the ruined interior, Ordevaas found Bristlehorn in a cage on the upper level, moments from death. Just before expiring, Bristlehorn made one last request: That Ordevaas destroy the Lich-Lord and the necropolis' scientist, Doctor Razorgrin.
Vowing to honor the taunka's dying wish, Ordevaas - fuelled by rage - climbed to the summit of Talramas, slaughtering any Scourge that entered his path. He cornered Razorgrin in his makeshift lab and - calling upon the power of the Light - tore the scientist apart, before making his way to the top. Facing Chillwinter one-on-one, Ordevaas dealt such a blow to the lich that he would never regain corporeal form again. With Talramas' threat neutralized, Ordevaas returned to Highmesa, who instructed him to report back to Taiga in Taunka'le. Bristlehorn, it turned out, was Taiga's grandson, and the Greatmother was pleased that Ordevaas had honored her grandchild's last request.
Finishing Off Valanar
In a collaborative effort with his friend Saavedro and at the behest of the villagers of Taunka'le, Ordevaas entered the Temple City of En'kilah - a nerubian holy fortress in the shadow of Naxxanar. Saavedro and Ordevaas - joined by the death knights Thassarian and Settra, a few Alliance troops and an orcish shaman named Goktar - entered En'kilah and slaughtered its Scourge defenders, and cornered the city's three high priests - the darkfallen Andorath, the crypt lord Naferset, and the crypt fiend Talet-Kha. Slaying all three and obtaining scrolls from their corpses, the two paladins discovered that they were the words of power to enter Naxxanar: "shabtir bakh sohken", or "the servant bows to the master's authority" in the language of the nerubians. With the code words in their possession, the paladins gathered their allies and entered Naxxanar.
Saavedro's plan was two-fold. He and Thassarian would go to the roof to find Prince Valanar, and face him in battle. When they defeated him, Valanar would retreat to the interior of Naxxanar, where Ordevaas, Settra and Goktar would be waiting. The plan was pulled off without a hitch; Saavedro and Thassarian broke the Prince's hold over his prisoners, and Ordevaas and his comrades waited for him. In addition to Valanar, the taunka Chieftain Wintergale commanded Ordevaas to slay Valanar's darkfallen lieutenants, Luthion the Vile and Vanthryn the Merciless. Axe swinging through anyone that stood in his path, Ordevaas slew Valanar and all of his lieutenants before leaving the necropolis empty.
With Valanar dead and the Scourge leadership in the Tundra broken, the taunka realized that in order for their people to survive, they must flee to their lands in the east...
Hangmen Also Die: The Fall of the Scarlet Onslaught
Travelling to the Dragonblight to secure the taunka a place there (only to find that their capital was besieged by the Anub'ar, the servitors of Anub'arak), Ordevaas travelled to the outpost of Venomspite to aid his Forsaken allies in their efforts against their enemies. One of those enemies, not so far from their front doorstep, was the Scarlet Onslaught.
Weeks earlier, the death knights now known as the Knights of the Ebon Blade had laid waste to the Scarlet Crusade. They destroyed their last standing army in the towns of New Avalon and Havenshire, east of Tyr's Hand. With the war suddenly turning against them, High General Brigitte Abbendis - the last of the Crusade's original leaders - led what was left of her forces and fled across the Great Sea to Northrend, claiming to be led by the Light. Once situated in their new stronghold, which they called New Hearthglen, Abbendis and her forces began their war against the Scourge...and the Forsaken.
In order to secure their location, High Executor Wroth and the other denizens of Venomspite sent Ordevaas to wipe out their numbers, discover their plans, and eventually collapse their leadership from within. He collected explosives from the siegesmiths of the Scourge in the Carrion Fields to the east, right in the shadow of Naxxramas, to use against the Onslaught's ballistae. He took a collection of malnourished rats from one of Venomspite's apothecaries to feast on the bodies of slain Onslaught soldiers so that they could not be resurrected. He tortured a torturer, LeCraft, to reveal all of what the Scarlets knew of the Horde operations. He stole warhorses from Onslaught knights, slew Forsaken prisoners in order to keep them from revealing any secrets, and coordinated with a spy in the Onslaught's midst to discover what was going on.
While in the Carrion Fields - outside of the Alliance citadel of Wintergarde - Ordevaas met with Saavedro once again. Saavedro, it seemed, was busying himself with breaking Naxxramas' siege of Wintergarde, but revealed that Commander Eligor Dawnbringer - the Argent paladin who had led the efforts against Naxxramas in Lordaeron - had written up orders to have Abbendis terminated. Ordevaas had no doubt that the Forsaken would order the very same thing, and promised to signal his brother paladin when it came time to take the fight to the High General.
That time came soon enough - while in New Hearthglen, Ordevaas broke into Abbendis' home near a small chapel and stole her diary, revealing everything that had happened from the time she claimed to have received visions to sometime after they arrived in Northrend. What interested him was the reference to Barean Westwind, the Scarlet Grand Admiral; Ordevaas had seen the statue in the Scarlet Monastery's Hall of Champions, and was surprised that Abbendis mentioned that he was alive. With the Onslaught weakened significantly enough for a strike, Ordevaas received his orders from High Executor Wroth: Assassinate the High General, and bring back her head.
Aided by Artimus Devaneaux, who had scouted ahead to insure that everyone was where they should be, Saavedro and Ordevaas - bringing their allies with them - marched into the cathedral and slaughtered the Onslaught defenders. Ordevaas and Abbendis fought one-on-one in the center of the room. Master and General were evenly matched; Abbendis carried a small axe and a shield, while Ordevaas hefted a greataxe given to him by the taunka. Eventually, even giving into her rage was not enough to save Abbendis from death, as Artimus' blades pierced her heart, Saavedro's mace cracked her skull, and Ordevaas' axe sliced across her neck, taking her head cleanly off; to this day, it is unclear which attack killed her, but it is generally assumed to be an effort of all three men. As Abbendis lay dead on the floor, Admiral Westwind - who had observed silently - commented that Abbendis had served her purpose and that he would await them in Icecrown...which left Ordevaas more than a little confused.
The War Intensifies
In the northern reaches of the Dragon Wastes, on the border between the Dragonblight and Icecrown, stood an imposing structure known as Angrathar the Wrath Gate - the very gates of Icecrown Citadel itself. There, forces of the 7th Legion under Highlord Bolvar Fordragon and elements of the Kor'kron under Saurfang the Younger had built up bases and rallied a combined Alliance-Horde army to lay siege to Icecrown. Upon his arrival in the Dragonblight - escorting the taunka from their besieged village of Taunka'le - Ordevaas was put immediately to work in preparing for that stand against the Lich King...
It turned out that the taunka capital, Icemist Village, had been besieged by the forces of Azjol-Nerub, led by Under-King Anub'et'kan - a lieutenant of Anub'arak, the Lich King's nerubian majordomo. Most of the taunka living in the village had been slaughtered, and the Anub'ar were crawling all over the area - including just outside the Westwind Refugee Camp where the Taunka'le survivors rallied. With his orders in hand, Ordevaas began slaughtering Anub'ar ambushers who preyed on the taunka refugees, and collected stolen armaments that were to be used for soldiers destined for the Wrath Gate.
With that done, the tauren Emissary Brighthoof, who had rallied the disheartened survivors, gave Ordevaas a scroll with orcish runes - the oath of allegiance sworn by all warriors of the Horde. Ordevaas himself had gone before Thrall after the razing of Orgrimmar and pledged this very same oath. Taking it to the taunka refugees and assuring them that allegiance to the Horde would give them a chance to fight the Scourge, Ordevaas had the taunka repeat the oath to him as he read it out; once they did, they took up weapons and armor and reported to Agmar's Hammer, the Horde outpost to the east.
The Liberation of Icemist Village
Having secured the taunka's allegiance to the Horde, Ordevaas was sent into Icemist Village itself to collect armaments from the armored nerubians that laid siege to it, and also to find out where the nerubian forces were coming from by scouting the Pit of Narjun. The pit, it turned out, led directly into Azjol-Nerub itself...
While there, Ordevaas also carried out an order given from Agmar's Hammer to terminate a traitor, Zangus, who had been exposed as a member of the Cult of the Damned and had in fact led the Anub'ar in an attack against Horde forces. His exploration of the Pit of Narjun brought him into contact with living nerubians, let by Kilix the Unraveller, who sent him into Azjol-Nerub (and later into the Old Kingdom, Ahn'kahet) to do battle against the evils that resided within. Ordevaas did so gladly; joined by Saavedro, Ordevaas went deep into Azjol-Nerub and slew Anub'arak, taking his shattered husk as proof, before going into Ahn'kahet and destroying the servitors of the Old Gods.
While battling the Anub'ar, Ordevaas discovered a tome bound with flesh and bone, and delivered it to the base. The tome, it turned out, was written in the tongue of the Scourge, and only one man in the base could translate it: Koltira Deathweaver, one of the revered and reviled Knights of the Ebon Blade...the first of the Horde's death knights. Ordevaas had known Koltira before his fall, and was astounded and somewhat disturbed to see him in that manner.
Koltira agreed to translate the tome in exchange for aid. His runeblade, Byfrost, had a thirst for the minions of the Lich King, but first required powers of blood, frost and the unholy to etch runes into it. Koltira gave Ordevaas three gems, one for each of those powers. The blood gem was to be used against a crazed tuskarr villager who resided on Lake Indu'le, driven mad by the powers unleashed by Malygos. The unholy gem was intended for Duke Vallenhal, a death knight of the Scourge, who resided within the besieged Ruby Dragonshrine. And lastly, the frost gem was for a frost revenant that resided at the Mirror of Dawn, east of Wyrmrest Temple. With the power in his possession, Koltira sent Ordevaas into the world of shadows to deal with the shadowy tormentors that had agonized him since the Battle of Light's Hope Chapel.
Ordevaas completed his tasks quickly and efficiently, and earned the death knight's respect. With his requests granted, Koltira translated the tome Ordevaas had found, which gave the names of every member of the Cult of the Damned in Northrend...including some within the ranks of the Warsong Expedition, and within Agmar's Hammer itself. Bringing the tome to Guard Captain Gort, Ordevaas insured that the traitors would be found and executed. After that, he rode into battle on the back of a Kor'kron wind rider against the Anub'ar blightbeasts, the dread flying creatures that served the Anub'ar, and destroyed them with ruthless efficiency.
With his efforts agaisnt the Anub'ar, Ordevaas was approached by Greatmother Icemist, the wife of the High Chieftain, Roanauk Icemist. Her son Banthok had returned to Icemist Village to find his father, and Ordevaas agreed to locate the young taunka and aid his quest. Upon finding him hiding near a waterfall outside the village, Banthok told the Blood Knight Master that his father was being held in Scourge chains in the center of town, and the fragments of the key to free him were being held by three nerubian vizier-magi: Anok'ra the Manipulator, Tivax the Breaker, and Sinok the Shadowrager. Finding them and slaying them, Ordevaas brought the nerubian prison key to the Scourge chains that held Roanauk imprisoned. Enraged by the brutal slaying of his people, Roanauk resurrected his dead warriors and challenged Under-King Anub'et'kan himself. Aided by Ordevaas and his warriors, Roanauk slew the lieutenant of Anub'arak, and his husk was taken by Ordevaas back to Overlord Agmar himself as a trophy.
With the nerubians' power broken with the death of both Anub'arak and Anub'et'kan, the taunka were liberated. Ordevaas was given the blood oath scroll, which he delivered to Roanauk. The High Chieftain of the taunka called his people around him and read out the blood oath, swearing his and his people's eternal allegiance to the Horde.
The Forsaken and the Scourge
After the liberation of the taunka, Ordevaas gave his aid to the Forsaken at their encampment of Venomspite in developing their secret weapon against the Scourge: A blight that destroyed the undead. For some reason, it did not work on the Scarlet Onslaught, probably because of the strange power that surrounded Admiral Westwind (and thus anyone who followed him). However, Ordevaas was to test the perfected product (bolstered by the ectoplasmic residue of the ghosts of Arthas' troops, left on the Forgotten Shore) by driving one of the Forsaken's blight spreaders east through Vengeance Pass to the Carrion Fields, where the hungering dead - the raised corpses of the slain citizens of Wintergarde - marched on their way to join the Scourge forces at the Wrath Gate. From a high bluff overlooking the fields, Ordevaas launched the Forsaken plague against them to great success...
Dragons, Traitors and Undeath: The War for the Undercity
With the missions he conducted for the Horde successfully freeing up their forces to reinforce the Wrath Gate, Ordevaas was instructed to report to the Kor'kron Vanguard, the forward command post for the siege of Icecrown, and speak with Saurfang the Younger. Attired in the armor and weaponry of his father, Varok Saurfang, the young orc was the commander of the Horde offensive against the Scourge at the Wrath Gate.
Before he and Highlord Fordragon could begin the attack, Saurfang requested that Ordevaas journey to the Wyrmrest Temple. There, he was to beseech the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza to give the aid of the Red Dragonflight against the frost wyrms that would pin down the combined forces. Alexstrasza, though unable to give direct aid because of the Blue Dragonflight's siege of the Temple, did offer Ordevaas a means to accomplish his task. Once again paired with Saavedro, Ordevaas flew a red dragon to Galakrond's Rest, where the Scourge attempted to raise the skeleton of the dragon progenitor Galakrond as the most powerful frost wyrm ever created.
The two paladins destroyed the scavengers digging up Galakrond's skeleton and battled the Grand Necrolord Antiok, on the shoulder of Thiassi the Lightning Bringer. Destroying the giant, the two men duelled Antiok to the death and defeated him, taking his scythe - which he used for raising frost wyrms - back to Alexstrasza. Both men were immediately sent back to their respective bases, where they would command the defense of their holds while Fordragon and Saurfang confronted the Scourge. But the plan went completely awry, as the Forsaken - using the very same plague that Joshmaul had aided in creating and Ordevaas had tested against the Scourge - betrayed their Horde allies and unleashed their deadly plague upon the Scourge AND the living. To his horror and rage, Ordevaas recognized the figure of Grand Apothecary Putress, who he had (reluctantly) aided during the second Scourge invasion of Azeroth.
After Alexstrasza and her dragons had cleared the field of plague, she beckoned Ordevaas to her, and told her to take the shattered armor of Saurfang - a family heirloom - to the High Overlord at Warsong Hold. Saurfang provided Ordevaas with a portal to Orgrimmar, to a scene of utter anarchy. The capital of the Horde was under martial law, all shops and services closed for the duration of the crisis. There were Forsaken refugees all around the main gate and in the Valley of Strength, and angry citizens of Orgrimmar demanding why there were Forsaken in their city and what Thrall was doing about it. Upon arriving in Grommash Hold, Ordevaas was surprised to see Sylvanas there, and even more surprised to see the next two visitors: Lady Jaina Proudmoore, the ruler of Theramore...and Saavedro of Stratholme.
Jaina and Saavedro had been sent to Thrall as emissaries from King Varian, demanding an explanation as to what had happened at the Wrath Gate. Varian was calling for war against the Horde, and Thrall explained (much to the horror of both paladins) that the Undercity had fallen to a coup perpetrated by Varimathras, who had taken advantage of the destruction of the largest standing armies of the Horde and the Alliance to show his true colors. Enraged by this treachery, Ordevaas accompanied Thrall, Sylvanas and the Darkspear chieftain Vol'jin to the gates of Lordaeron, to do battle with the fiend. Charging in alongside his Warchief, Ordevaas laid waste to the Forsaken who dared betray the Horde and their Dark Lady, relying on his powers of the Light, the banshee magics of Sylvanas and the Warchief's mastery of the elements to make their way through the city. (At the same time, King Varian was leading his own forces, accompanied by Jaina and Saavedro, through the sewers to deal with Putress.)
Entering the Hall of the Dark Lady to find Varimathras powering portals, Warchief, Queen and Master stood alone against the onslaught of demons that came through them. When he could maintain them no longer, the dreadlord himself entered the fray. The battle was long and fierce, but in the end, the dreadlord was defeated. They took advantage of their victory just as Varian, Jaina and Saavedro, accompanied by a small force of elite Stormwind soldiers, entered the room. Shouting threats of retribution, the King became locked in combat with the Warchief, until Jaina intervened by teleporting all of the Alliance forces out of the Undercity and back to Stormwind...leaving Thrall to wonder exactly what the future held.
With his duty done, Ordevaas returned to Northrend...