Infinite Azeroths: There But For the Grace of the Light

Zin-kalim, the capital of the Kaldorei Empire, over 12,000 years ago. Inside the higher levels of the glorious, marble palace a little girl paced around nervously. When she noticed a bird sitting on the window-sill, she runs up to it and scared it off. Near her, two royal guards stood guard before a large, glided door. Standing almost motionlessly, they only kept looking at the little girl. They were visibly unnerved by her constant pacing, and yet remained motionless, as was their duty. In their minds, they were just counting time for their shift to be finished. Suddenly, the little girl noticed something – a tall, handsome night elf male was slowly approaching. The guards remained motionless, but watched the new arrival carefully.

Then, the doors behind them opened. A male midwife with a bloodied apron came out, cleaning his hands on a piece of cloth. The girl momentarily stopped walking around and looked at the man. The midwife smiled.

“Congratulations, princess Aszune, you have a sister. Your mother wishes to call her Azshara.” The newly arrived male approached them all and without speaking a word, he kept just looking between them. The midwife looked at him, not recognizing the person. “Who would you be?” the midwife said, “The herald to bring the news to the people?”

The guest smirked and spoke up with an eerily echoing voice. “In a way. I am a herald… of your doom.”

Infinite Azeroths: Adamant

Timeline: Azeroth-20
Character: Emperor Adamant of House Lothar, High King of the Arathi and the Azotha, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm

The trumpets sounded outside the windows with the coming dawn. The bloody trumpets, what was I thinking? the old emperor thought getting up. Although he did not think of himself as old, he definitely changed since the days of his youth. Young Adamant Lothar was a brilliant, handsome warrior – a scourge on the battlefield, and a beast in bed. He likes to pretend he is still like that, by whoring around and taking part in tournaments, but sometimes, only to himself, he thinks that he’s getting old. His stamina in either of the favored stations is not the same as it used to be and his muscular, handsome body has grown in all the wrong directions. But he’s still the emperor, and he can’t let the former kings, his lords paramount of their former kingdoms, see weakness in him. He created this empire and he can’t let it fall in his lifetime.