Loneliness

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This story is about a NPC I once used for a long campaign in Zangarmarsh some draenei players might remember as 'The Eye'. Despite him being a NPC, I find Kwu to be one of the most engaging characters I created in WoW, which is why I decided to write a short story about his current whereabouts and history. If it was possible to play a Broken Warlock, I would; but sadly that remains an impossibility.

Loneliness

Deep beneath the Swamp of Sorrows there was a labyrinth of ancient Troll tunnels and temples that were once devoted to honor the Blood-God Hakkar. Kwu had chosen this particular underground area for two distinct reasons. One: though the ancient ruins were mostly abandoned, powerful wards still persisted throughout it. It only took very base abjuration to set up a perimeter of wards and arcane defenses. And if those failed, there will still a ton of green dragons and undead trolls wandering around the same tunnels to were sure to grab more attention and so mask his presence. Two: it was close to a settlement of Lost Ones that lived in the swamp.

Kwu's laboratory once functioned as a sacrificial altar. There were decorations along the wall of Trollish deities and ancient rites that were to be performed in order to appease to them. Rather than sacraments, the tall and deep hall now housed a basic alchemy set and a few bookcases, trunks and shelves full of arcane trinkets, tools and tomes. Amongst these was an enchanted mirror that allowed the user to peek into his past. Kwu knew that he spent just a little much time gazing in to it and yet could not manage to tear himself away from the reflection.

His fair and youthful reflection wore the same stern expression that the present Kwu did, yet, seemed like an almost entirely different creature. The reflection was a tall, proud and well-build draenei in his prime with broad shoulders and a long, strong tail. The Broken creature peering into the looking glass in contrast was pale, hornless, tail-less, had a hunch in his back and looked very sick indeed.

It was wrong to wallow in the past. Yet, Kwu had grown strangely used to and even fond of doing wrongs. To the horror of some of his former brethren, he had embraced the dark energies that twisted and warped his image. Kwu found that, rather than to make him feel sick like before, the green flames of Fel were now the only thing that made him feel strong and healthy. He knew this to be an addiction and he knew it to be wrong and yet, when he looked at his Lost cousins, he knew that he had little choice but to continue on the path he had been thrust upon. Without the raw demonic energies that corrupted him, he would fall even further into madness and would lose what little of his intelligence he had left. He would join his brothers outside in shambling aimlessly and without purpose. Instead he was alone, stuck with his intelligence, deep beneath the earth.

Life on Draenor had not been easy on him. During the reign of the Betrayer, Kwu had served the Elder Akama unquestionably without being aware of his scheming against the Master, believing him to be acting in the best interest of Lord Illidan. Kwu had dedicated himself to Lord Illidan's cause because he felt a strange kinship with the warped elf. Illidan had embraced his demonic curse willingly to fend off the Burning Legion's siege ob Azeroth, his home-world. Kwu could relate. In fact, Kwu had for the longest time believed that Illidan genuinely had the best interest of Draenor's peoples at heart. He had driven off the Burning Legion and had given the Broken tribes back their freedom. He had even given his people some shadow of vengeance against the Orcish Horde and their Demonic masters and allowed them to feel pride again for the first time in a long, torturous era of oppression. Kwu idolized him for it.

Whether he fell to madness or had been mad all along, Kwu did not know, but at some point the Betrayer started acting irrationally. He lashed out against A'dal's Sha'tar when they descended and had fought both the Horde and the Alliance at once simultaneously, all while fending off the Burning Legion. The Illidari could not stand against all those enemies at once. Why did Illidan not attempt to find new allies; something he had proven to be so adapt in at the past? Why did he not try striking a deal with one of these many warring parties? Was this not the charismatic leader who gathered an unlikely army of outcasts around him with the force of his personality alone? What happened to the Lord Kwu had loved? His wits seemed to have abandoned him and the once guileful outcast-hero acted like just another tyrannical lunatic. Some say his defeat at the hands of Arthas who would later become the Lich King had left him bereft of his sanity. Kwu simply did not know. All he did now was that his persistent allegiance to Lord Illidan, up till his defeat at the hands of the elder Akama, had made him an outcast amongst outcasts. Akama hated warlocks with a passion and Broken like Kwu had no place amongst his Ashtongue. With the fall of the Illidari, Kwu was left alone and isolated.

And then he got caught by the Naga.

Kwu tried convincing them of the fact that he was an Illidari loyalist and not in fact a traitor to Lord Illidan, but the naga were unimpressed by this. As it turned out, they had cared very little for Illidan in the first place and now only wished to return to the deep seas they called home. After Illidan's fall, all Broken had become their enemies. And so they enslaved Kwu to serve them as their personal cohort with demons. They put him in chains and forced him to do their divination for them, something the Naga were apparently woefully inept at.

There is, of course, one problem with forcing somebody to do your divination for you. And that is that they are likely to find someone out there in the world that can help them escape from their predicament, since you can't exactly check what it is their mind is projecting out in the world he is surveying for you. Surprisingly enough, Kwu found this person in the very same underwater prison in which he was being held. A man'ari eredar whose name Kwu still does not know to this day was held close to him. The Naga had miraculously managed to capture him and were draining him of his demonic energies and tried to coerce him to open them a portal back home to Vasj'ir. Though Kwu had all his magic sealed except for his divination, this was enough to communicate with the demon without the Naga noticing, which had proven to be enough to plot both of their escapes.

They needed some outside forces to help them escape seeing that, stuck in prison with most of their powers sealed, there was not much they could do. Luckily, the Ogres of Draenor are a superstitious yet power-hungry lot and as such it was easy to convince them to aid Kwu in his escape on the promise of great demonic power upon the release of his master. Right as the pieces started falling into place and the stars were aligning, a group of draenei from Telredor interfered with his plans. At first Kwu had tried to dispose of them, but he quickly realized it would be better for everyone involved if he used them instead. So he guided them in their efforts against the Naga, leading them to the half-sunken deactivated gateway they intended to open up to Azeroth. And on the very climactic night when the Naga witches forced the eredar to open the portal, the heroes arrived at exactly the right moment to disrupt the Naga and allow Kwu's ogre cohort Yub'yob to undo his master's seals. The eredar feigned his own demise and escaped. After gathering his strength, the eredar rained down his vengeance upon the naga that had slighted him, creating a window for Kwu to escape. The 'noble' demon offered to take the Broken warlock into his employ, but when Kwu refused, the eredar turned against him and tried to eliminate him. Kwu managed to somehow miraculously make his escape and ventured off into the marshes. The ogres, of course, chose to support the bigger demon with the bigger fireballs and cast Kwu out like so many others had done before them.

Just as Lord Illidan had come to Draenor to hide from the terrible wrath of Kil'jaeden, Kwu had traveled to Azeroth to hide from his demonic benefactor. He had been hiding in this swamp for Light knows how long, moping and biding his time. But for what? Kwu had escaped with his life, yes, but what good was his life now? He had no master to serve, no greater cause. He was a walking, breathing contradiction. He rejected the Legion's call, yet indulged in their sick magics, gorging on their green flames. Was he a servant of the Light or an unwitting pawn of the Legion? Kwu did not know anymore. He had try to commune with the local Lost Ones, but found little to commune with. They were little more than animals, wantonly scurrying around foresting and hunting. He was not foolish enough to look into finding a cure. If the Naaru themselves were unable to lift this curse, no force in the universe would be able to. He was too cowardly to take his own life. He was frightened of the mercilessly fair judgment of the Light. He had already been cast out by the Light in life and he refused to be cast out again in death.

So what remained? Where would he go? Whom would he fight? Who would he serve? He was an outcast amongst his own kind for having served Illidan until his very fall. He was an outcast amongst the draenei for being a warlock. He had refused the call of the Legion. He could not join the ranks of his Lost brothers without devolving to their level and he was scared to lose his intelligence. Frightened to what he would become if he abandoned the fel on which he was so dependent. He was alone and without purpose.

“Baby, stop looking into that reflection,” a sweet tempting voice rasped from somewhere in the dungeon, “you are more beautiful like you are as you are right now; and even if you don’t see it, I do”

Kwu blushed in a deep blue hue and covered the mirror with a dark piece of cloth. He turned around to face his captive: a beautiful, scantily-clad succubus he had summoned and enslaved to drain fel energy from.

“Are you ready to go for another round, baby?” the succubus crooned sweetly.

“Shut up,” Kwu wheezed with his raspy, sickly voice, “I told you not to speak unless spoken to. Don't forget who the master is here.”

“O, I'm sorry, babe.” the Succubus apologized, “You are right. I am being woefully insubordinate. You ought to punish me. Do you want to use the whip? My whip?”

Kwu sighed deeply and walked up to the succubus. His glowing green eyes stared straight into hers and he found nothing but a soulless husk, a sensual machine designed to woo men and drain their souls for energy. Yet, Kwu found himself entranced, like always, by the feminine wiles of the creature. He was wise to have sealed her more potent magical abilities.

“I can see you checking me out, babe.” the succubus crooned, “Don't be so shy. I'll show you how to have a good time. What are you worrying about? You've drained my fangs of my poison, baby, and I know how you love my bite when it can't hurt you”.

“Not in the traditional sense, no” Kwu muttered strangely. His forehead was by now almost touching hers, his breath condensing on her forehead. Despite having been down in this dungeon with him for weeks, she still smelled sweetly and her raven-black hair was impeccably groomed. It was a strange trait, unique to the Sayaadi and unreproducible.

“You are almost empty,” Kwu said coldly, “You know that. You know that I will have to replace you soon, so know you are trying to seduce me with what powers you have left. To convince me to spare you and keep you around, which I have no reason for. I have no need for an empty battery.”

“Baby, how clever you are!” the succubus crooned excitedly, her tail wrapping around Kwu's leg, “You've got me all figured out. No wonder you managed to dominate me so easily. Now... How are you going to do it? Are you going to stab me? I long to be stabbed by you, right trough-”

“That's enough, wench,” Kwu snapped angrily, slapping the succubus across the face. She crooned with delight, cackling strangely.

“That's it. Let it all out, baby” the succubus swooned. Kwu touched her lips with his crooked fingers and, muttering a simple spell, sealed her lips with searing hot needle-less thread. The succubus screamed noiselessly, her maliciously sweet eyes boggling helplessly.

“One last time, then.” Kwu muttered darkly, holding the succubus by the chin. “And this time, I will make sure that you don't enjoy it”.

Amazing, as usual.