Sllade Nightshadow

Younger Life Of Sllade Nightshadow

Not much is known about the first origins of Sllade, in fact there almost seems to be no birth record of a man by that name. There are many theories as to why this may be; the most absurd one is that Sllade was not born but created, though this is clearly false as he is not a god or a demon. More realistic theories suggest perhaps Sllade covered up his past, to keep those he considered family hidden, thus to make himself immune to blackmail from this perspective. Others believe him to be a cruel, heartless bastard and say he killed his family and burned every last trace of his past as some sort of self-initiation to his life of cruelty. Whatever may be the case, there is not much known about Sllade before his early adulthood. Sllade is not a Kal'dorei elf, but rather a Highborne. His skin, unlike the blue and purple of Night Elves, is white, like a mire fog that hangs over a swamp. There are no accurate records that tell when Sllade first entered the scope of the Kal'dorei's lands, however what few early reports were recovered indicate that he was within his late adolescence when he began living in Ashenvale Forest. For most of his younger life, he was a hoodlum. He lived in essentially cracks in corners and hovels in the ground, stealing for survival. For a long time, that was truly all that Sllade cared for, was survival. He did not keep close friends or speak to many people. He found entertainment many times in the suffering of others, whether physically or metaphorically. This sadist lust only grew more when Sllade began dealing with the Satyr. The Satyr would offer him wealth and riches in exchange for Sllade doing some basic grunt work for them. However, this did not last long, as the governing powers of the Kal'dorei began to see Sllade more and more as a domestic threat. Sllade was left with no choice but to flee east, towards the humans' lands. After weeks of hiding like an animal from Sentinel scouts, Sllade escaped from Ashenvale and made the long trek across the Barrens and Thousand Needles (back before it was flooded) towards Theramore Isle, seeking a ride to the Eastern Kingoms, far away from the jurisdiction of the Kal'dorei. Upon arrival in Stormwind City, Sllade went straight to work, looking for a name and identity to make of himself.

Early Days

In his early days in the city, Sllade mostly hung about in bars, trying to get acquainted with his new surroundings, figuring out who was who and who the important people are. After a short time in the city, Sllade met a woman by the name of Sarcastica, an SI:7 spymistress whom at first did not take much liking in Sllade. At this period in time, Sllade was quite brutish in his acts, and did not have tact. There was no doubt in Sarcie's mind that Sllade had the killing intent and the strength physically to do so, but he lacked certain elements of subtlety required to catch her interest. After much begging and pleading, Sarcastica agreed to allow Sllade a "test job". At the time, the Westfall Brigade, led by Commander Kelhan, was having some issues with the Defias Renegades in Stormwind City ((By the way, as a side note, the Defias Renegades was, in my opinion, the last REAL good Defias guild Moon Guard ever saw. That kid Edgar came in with his hordes of mindless children who had no idea as to any bit of Defias lore and absolutely destroyed the reputation that Defias guilds had built up...anyways, back to the story!)). Sarcie asked Sllade to keep an eye over the two groups and to try and formulate some sort of way to contain the violence and eventually work to a peace between the two groups. Sarcie had a "grand scheme" to rid Stormwind of the black stain known as the Stormwind Guard. She found them (rightfully so) to be a group of lazy, corrupt, and incompetent idiots who did nothing but spoil life for Stormwind's residents. Sarcie wished to rally her allies over time unite against the Guard and establish a new order. Sllade's work with Kelhan and the Westfall Brigade ended ultimately with him joining their ranks.

The Westfall Brigade

Though Sllade had no intention whatsoever to watch over and guard the residents of Stormwind, he still joined the Brigade, though never fully knowing why. During his days in the Westfall Brigade, Sllade only remained because of friends he had made, his first real friends, were made in the Brigade. However, during his entire time in the Brigade, Sllade had his sights ultimately set on working under Sarcastica, to learn everything he could from her. However, he realized that to do that, he had to first get on good terms with the woman. So he stayed, seeing as to how the Brigade and Sarcie worked closely at times, he remained as Kelhan's "ambassador" to Sarcie. During his time in the Brigade, Sllade did whatever it was Sarcie bid of him to find out, as far as inner-workings within the Brigade went. Things were looking great, the Brigade was strengthening and Sarcie's "grand scheme" seemed to be coming together. It seemed as though she was catching the curiosity of the leaders she spoke to, though not fully winning their hearts over to her cause. The Brigade suffered a great blow when their jurisdiction within Stormwind was nulled by the council. A man named Stilwater, who was registered as a Defias, came before the council and protested that the Brigade had unlawfully captured, beaten, and imprisoned him simply for the fact that he wore red. The Council glazed over the issue for the most part and merely said that this was not the first complaint against the Brigade. "To prevent further distress", as they said, the Brigade's jurisdiction within the city was removed. A furious Kelhan stormed out the chambers along with the rest of his Brigade. Sllade, quite bored by the lack of action due to this new law, decided to take his leave and move on with his own career.

However, leaving was not as easy as Sllade thought it would be. He had made various friends within the Brigade that he regretted leaving. However, the largest strike to Sllade's heart was the discovery that he had a daugther, whom he had worked with during his time in the Brigade. Avalinnae, a Highborne like Sllade, came to the realization that Sllade was, in fact, his father one night at the Pig and Whistle. Ava was telling Sllade of the story of her childhood, that she did not know who her father was aside from that her mother and him slept together one night and thus she was born. Ava's mother told her that her father was an elven rogue who travelled quite a bit and had their paths and passions entwine one night. From Ava's description of her mother, Sllade came to a quick realization that Ava was his bastard daughter. From that moment on, Ava and Sllade were almost inseparable, a strong father-daughter bond. This was, and still is, Sllade's only known bit of family.

SI:7 and Sarcastica

After some time of doing various freelance jobs, Sllade had convinced Sarcie to consider him for the ranks of her SI:7. He was sent out to investigate a new Defias uprising, led by some miscreant by the name of Honas Q. Kaltharion. Upon their first meeting, Sllade did had not thought much of Honas. In fact, Sllade saw Honas merely as any other young hoodlum around in those days; with no direction or power, just all bark and no bite, as the saying goes. One of Honas's henchmen began harassing Sllade and the woman he was seeing at the time. Quite annoyed by the young boy, Sllade took it upon himself to teach the rat a lesson. He chased the boy down to Cutthroat Alley and began to, essentially, beat the child's brains in to the concrete. He tackled the kid and beat him until the boy began coughing blood. As for Honas, a swift roundhouse kick across his face sent him to the ground. Satisfied with his handiwork, Sllade and his lady left the scene. It was not until a few days after this encounter that Sarcie had ordered Sllade to go undercover and gain the trust of Honas and his Defias (which had grown to a considerable size at that point in time).

It took him some time, but Sllade was able to gain Honas's trust. Honas, offended that a warlock had insulted his dignity, ordered Sllade to kill the man. Sllade, sly as he was, tracked down the warlock, running into him while the warlock was eating with his wife. Sllade explained to them the situation, using the wife's worried nature as a tool to convince the warlock to leave the city for a while so that he could convince Honas the hit had been carried out. Pleased with Sllade's cutthroat attitude and willingness to kill, Honas brought Sllade aboard the Defias ship, the Mary. Sllade climbed the ranks in no time, not kissing ass but not saying no to the boss either. However, sufficient to say, the other Defias did not like Sllade as a newcomer. In fact, within five minutes of boarding the ship, Sllade had already begun to quarrel with half the crew, who quickly jumped to fight him. Sllade, more agile than those who came to attack him, was easily able to hold them off and send them falling to the ground in pain. Honas, satisfied with each demonstration of ferocity and power by Sllade, continued to boost him in the ranks, letting Sllade in further and further on their operations. After about a month of gaining Honas's trust and learning of his plans, Sarcie ordered Sllade to speak to Jorngen, Seargent of the Stormwind City Watch ((They were a fun bunch, and it makes me sad that they are not around that much anymore =[ )) and to arrange for a capture of Honas.

To Sllade's great surprise, Stillwater was a high-ranking official within the Watch and was assigned to work with Sllade on this case. Sllade, not at all happy with the assignment, protested but Sarcie merely said "Deal with it, get your job done." That night, Sllade called Honas into his "workshop", a small, empty, bar that Sllade had turned into a small laboratory where he developed various weapons, poisons, and tools for his trade. He offered Honas some of his "specially made cornbread". Coated within the delicious treat was a potent sedative which knocked Honas out within seconds of consumption. When Honas awoke, he found himself surrounded by Watchmen and Sllade standing behind them. Honas trembled with fury and screamed in insanity and wrath, calling Sllade a traitor and swore to get back at him. While he had earned Sarcastica's trust and respect as an agent, Sllade was left with a terrible scar within him. Honas, over the time of his work, had grown to be a good friend. And now, Sllade for the first time felt guilt and remorse for betraying a friend. Despite Sarcie and his friends' attempts to comfort him by saying he did the right thing, Sllade never let that wound go.

The Rise of "Pariah" and his Syndicate

Over the long