Scaramouche, Scaramouche

You know - it's kind of damn annoying that people don't seem to learn much of anything from past experiences.

Didn't we just do this song and dance not even a year or two ago? Didn't everyone here very nearly end up toast - or maybe snowcones is more appropriate - because the enemy's agent provocateur action worked ten times as well as it had any damn right to?

Now we're doing it all over again. Someone, we don't know who, is stirring the pot, spreading rumours, starting crap, cultivating distrust and dissent and anger, playing us off one another again, taking advantage of fear...and nobody's even considering the fact that things might just not be exactly what they look like?

People can't possibly be that stupid, right? (I know what you're going to say, Koltira.)

Everyone knock it the hell off. Stop being so hopelessly damn gullible. You're playing right into the hands of the enemy just like you did before, and this time you might not be lucky enough to squeak through the space between the thumb and the index finger if you get my drift. I know saying this makes me sound like an incredible ass, but luck had a lot to do with the ultimate victory over my late 'boss'. As much as skill and determination. I'm not talking about the last brawl, but rather what led up to it.

It was extremely touch and go for a long time, and a lot more than most people on the ground realize. The Undercity business very, very nearly had everybody down. When Wrynn was hankering after an outright war, both the Horde and the Alliance were, very briefly, as good as dead to the one. I'm not exaggerating. War would have annihilated both factions. Not only would they have been too busy fussing at each other to pay attention to the Lich King and giving him ample time to plot the best way to rip them apart, but...well. It's hard to deal with an enemy who can reanimate your fallen comrades when there's so very many comrades you've given him to use, you know.

If there'd been an open war, that would have been that. I know I'm supposed to be the 'nice one' of the two of us, but nothing's nice about lying to spare people in cases like this. Horde, Alliance, anyone - for a brief, stomach-gnawingly frightening moment, all of us were as good as gone because we couldn't keep it together and think before we acted. If we hadn't brightened up we all would have been his. For a little while there... I don't even like thinking about this. Remembering my 'years of distinguished service' is creepy enough.

So - now we're going to do this AGAIN? Come the damn hell on. It takes a lot to get to me but you're on my nerves now. Who do you think you're helping by acting paranoid and stupid and going off at the slightest hint that the other guy looked at you funny? Who do you think that's going to save? Do you think you're a hero for acting like a jackass? Don't even get me started. I might be the 'nice one' but I'm not going to spare someone's fragile confidence when my friends are being hurt and persecuted. To make a long story short: you idiots shouldn't have pissed off Koltira, because now you've gone and pissed me off. Furthermore, shut the hell up about Sylvanas.

Someone hasn't got their story straight, and it's not us. Sylvanas is not the Lich King, the Forsaken are not the Scourge. Thee is a vast difference between them and I shouldn't have to be drawing pictures to explain this to grown-assed adults.

I'm warning you once: wise up and back off. If you can't follow those simple instructions, don't expect me to hold off clotheslining you or knocking your heads together when you try to run off half-cocked. I'm not that nice.

Hurt the people I care for again, and you're going to regret that. I don't do empty threats. You've been warned.

-Thassarian
Ebon Blade Commander, Alliance Liaison
Diplomatic Emissary to Undercity

Hello, my name is Ishandarr, and I am a Death Knight who is so ravingly mediocre with the Blood discipline that it makes most of the Darkfallen giggle! However, I am very damn good with Frost and also quite adept with Unholy and prone to dorky theorycrafting and research. So, today, I'm going to be discussing that and the Plague of Undeath, since they're related and I have a better understanding than many about their exact mechanics. I'm not exactly sure why this decidedly-creepy topic of conversation has come up, but here it is and here I am, since I'm the one who dealt most with the Plague and its quirks and minutiae.

Hold onto your spine. It's going to be an unsettling ride.

( ... )