Natasha Ebonlocke: A Small-Town Girl in a Big City

Natasha Valerie Ebonlock was born in Grand Hamlet, Brightwood, to Ello and Madeline Ebonlocke. The second of two daughters born to the new young mayor of Grand Hamlet, she had life easy. She was born after the Orcs had invaded and destroyed Grand Hamlet, after it had been rebuilt. The king’s patrols kept the roads free of any dangerous wildlife, the Orcs hadn’t attacked since before she’d been born, she had plenty of little friends, and was generally a very happy little girl.

Life continued on in Grand Hamlet for a few years, though Natasha doesn’t remember it too well; a series of tragedies occurred that changed life in Grand Hamlet in a manner that affects its residents to this day. First, several town officials visiting Medivh in his tower, Karazhan, inexplicably did not return. Unbeknownst to the townsfolk, Medivh had drained the life of all those attending a party in the tower in order to fuel his battle with his mother, Aegwynn. Among them was an Ebonlocke. A few years later, when Medivh was killed by a few of his closest friends: Khadgar, Lothar, and Garona.

When this happened, a massive surge of fel energy was unleashed from Medivh’s body, casting a dark miasma over the nearby Brightwood. The miasma has yet to be lifted. Brightwood was bitterly renamed Duskwood, and Grand Hamlet, Darkshire.

Natasha’s life changed drastically at that point. The war started by Medivh’s treacherous unleashing of Orcs onto Azeroth was raging hard enough that the king could no longer maintain a military presence in the town. Thus, the Night Watch was formed. They fought undead corpses and skeletons that choked the graveyards and sometimes encroached upon the roads and even the town. Nat could no longer venture out of the town to play in the woods with friends. She had to remain inside, or else play in the town square, under the watchful eye of many of Darkshire’s Night Watch. This sudden, perpetual darkness, the sudden grim nature of so many once-smiling adults, and very limited play areas were decidedly unwelcome to small children who didn’t understand what was going on around the area. Many tears were shed, but, as resilient as Nat and her childhood friends were, they adapted and were soon happy again, though the adults remained grim.

The third and final tragedy specific to Nat’s childhood was the loss of her mother at the tender age of five. A miner, nicknamed Jitters, discovered the Scythe of Elune buried in the mine known as Roland’s Doom. No sooner had he picked it up than the shadows practically erupted with worgen from the Emerald Dream. Most of the miners were killed, though Jitters escaped to hide in a nearby barn.

These worgen added to the terror of Duskwood and their undead concerns, and the third tragedy of Nat’s childhood came to pass – one evening, as her mother Madeline was out behind the town hall picking duskroses, a small party of worgen from the Nightbane pack stole down the hill from behind it and snatched her and several other townsfolk away. The Night Watch gave chase, but the worgen were too fast. All that was found of the townsfolk, including Nat’s mother, were a few tattered, bloody shreds of clothing.

After the loss of her mother, her father declared it was best his daughters learned to defend themselves. He assigned a master-at-arms to them. Nat’s sister Althea, ever the tomboy, showed a natural affinity for every bit of armor, shield, melee weapon, and ranged weapon she could get her hands on. Her natural strength, grace, balance, and coordination had the master-at-arms, Senior Sergeant Grant, swelling with pride every time he watched his student learn new weapons and techniques. Nat, on the other hand, was completely lacking in that same strength, grace, balance, and coordination. She couldn’t lift anything larger than a single shortsword. She couldn’t hold a shield at all. Mail and plate armor weighed her down so much she continually fell down. Leather armor restricted her and made her even more ungraceful and uncoordinated. Even with a light wooden practice sword, she lacked the grace and coordination to learn techniques, and ended up hitting herself and falling down as often as she did her assigned target dummy. A switch to firearms proved unfruitful; Nat was not strong enough to lift a rifle, and even a pistol was a struggle. Between her lack of strength to hold it steady, and her fear of the loud pistol shots, her aim tended to stray, and it was quickly decided she was as much a danger to friendlies as she was to foes with the pistol. Senior Sergeant grant met with Nat’s father after months of seeing absolutely no progress, despairing of the young girl ever learning to defend herself adequately.

Also at the table that evening was seated Kanrethad Ebonlocke, Ello’s brother. Ello loved his brother, but did not approve of the branch of magic Kanrethad had adopted – fel summoning. Kanrethad, however, was far more powerful than Ello knew, having risen to the top among the Council of the Black Harvest, a gathering of exceptionally powerful warlocks. Kanrethad listened to the woes of Senior Sergeant Grant, dismayed that one of the two nieces he doted on – bringing them gifts from far distant places, including a Netherdrake Egg for Nat he’d acquired from the Netherwing Fields near the Black Temple in Outlands where he was working – was completely unable to defend herself. He made his opinion known to Ello that this could not stand. If she was unable to defend herself through natural means, then the only other option was for her to learn to defend herself with magic, taught to her by the only one present who knew any: himself.

Ello and Sergeant Grant were both vehemently against Nat learning such vile magics, though, after hours of arguing, Kanrethad’s point that she had no other choice of self-defense available prevailed. Kanrethad visited often after that, first teaching the languages of Eredun and Demonic to his niece, refusing to teach her any actual spells until both age and a mastery of both languages were attained. When Nat was twelve, she learned to summon her first imp. By the age of sixteen, she was summoning scores of Legion hordes at a time, much to the delight of her uncle, and the general alarm of the rest of Darkshire. The townsfolk eventually learned to accept it, especially when Nat would, with or without her uncle’s help, venture out into problem areas around Duskwood and stamp out undead or worgen uprisings. Nat’s power grew and grew, as did her confidence in such situations, though she was not without weakness. For one, her weak constitution proved that, for all her summoned hordes, a single well-placed strike to her person would fell her, and her subjugated hordes would vanish. For another, though she was quick enough to strike out at undead and feral worgen, she was loth to cause harm to another sentient being. Animals she only attacked out of the greatest necessity, and then cried for quite a bit after. Humans she never attacked once, not even to defend herself. It’s by sheer luck that the attacks she would later suffer in Stormwind by other sentient races were always in front of people who were quick to leap to her defense. All in all, though, Nat’s power grew immeasurably, and Uncle Kanrethad doted on her more and more as the two grew closer.

Nat spent some time in sadness after the loss of her mother, though she bounced back after nearly a year of grief, as did her sister Althea, now commander of the Night Watch, and her father Ello, still mayor of Darkshire. Nat spent the rest of her childhood, teenage years included, in Darkshire, too afraid to venture out into the scary places beyond the Night Watch’s eye. She continued playing with her friends within the rules of her father and the watchful Night’s Watch. She visited her neighbor, Madame Eva, quite often, as she had become something of a grandmotherly, if not motherly, figure in her life. Nat learned how to cook, bake, and read Tarot cards from her, and the two often spent long evenings closeted together doing one or more of these activities.

When Nat came of age, her schooling continued. Her studies graduated from basic literacy and arithmetic to advanced mathematics, diplomacy, negotiation, accounting, forensic accounting, sociology, and psychiatry. Her future educational goals include the study of several languages, beginning with those within the Alliance. She took a post with her father in the town hall as an accountant and executive assistant, where she remains employed to this day.

It was at this point that the Burning Legion returned to Azeroth, attacking Dalaran where it hovered over the nearby tower of Karazhan. After Khadgar and other archmages teleported it to the Broken Isles to combat the Legion in earnest, Nat announced her intention to join the fight. Her father urged, even begged, her not to go, though her sister accepted it. She even approved of Nat’s will to use the Legion’s own hordes to fight them, citing an old military adage about using greater strength against itself. Nat’s struggles against the Burning Legion lasted a couple of years, and, after Sargeras himself was vanquished, Nat returned home not to visit, but to remain for good. Her power had grown immensely during the campaign, and the people of Darkshire felt even safer now, under her protective presence.

Not much more than a year later, the once-adventurous Natasha felt the need to leave the town again, even if only for day visits to the big city of Stormwind. Visiting on pleasure instead of business, Natasha learned much about human nature outside of her dainty little hometown, and about that of other races. She visited taverns and parks, she walked the streets, she sat on benches and porches. She met a very great many people, and, much to her surprise, nearly all of them seemed to like her! Very pleased with this, she continued her day visits, drinking coffee with friends in the mornings, learning to drink mead and wine in the evenings. She read Tarot cards to a great many, which also turned out to be a great hit. She met the likes of Linea Bleakfang, Evan Renfrew, Addison Donahue, Nahlia Felbloom, Apheliah Beverlyn, and Rodney Reeves, along with many others. At the formation of Blackflag Imports, she joined her friends for work, keeping this job in addition to her job at the town hall of Darkshire. Business and pleasure aplenty were had in her new company, and life was good. Addi and Nea in particular taught her to drink harder, and many shenanigans occurred as a result. Nat learned to play Deathrolls, and had games at company outings as often as everyone could get together. Life was great!

Visits to Stormwind were not without their dangers. Attacks by everyone from a pickpocket team to a racist family to a hitwoman to a weird void amalgamation thing that tried to hypnotize her and consume her in Lion’s Rest were suffered, though, in each case, there was always at least one other person nearby to leap to her defense. Her friendship with the perpetually quiet Gommaan stems from one such attack, and he defended her several more times afterward. Those in her company had also defended her on many occasions.

Nat’s first birthday as a Stormwind regular, August the thirty-first, was particularly memorable. Plans had been in motion for six weeks for a birthday pool party at the waterfall behind the Stormwind Keep. Her excitement grew. On the day of, she received many gifts, despite her urging of her friends to bring her nothing, but rather, simply gift her their presence for fun and swimming. These gifts she treasures to this day, and the party itself was a blast she’ll never forget.

Not only did she have a party, however; she had herself quite a scare early that afternoon. The most terrifying woman she’d ever laid eyes on approached her as she walked the streets of Stormwind, stopping her and scaring the wits out of her with nothing more than her fiery presence. Every facet of her screamed “danger” to Nat, yet she found herself utterly riveted to the fiery-haired woman before her. It was fortunate that the woman wore gloves, or the woman’s Hand of Death tattoo would have made her faint on the spot! The woman was absolutely stunning, every facet of her bearing perfect and beautiful. She had a very commanding presence as well, and her grin, perfect as it was, only terrified Nat further.

This woman’s name was Lady Kat.

Life changed forever for Natasha Ebonlocke in that meeting. The Lady demanded a Tarot reading, and, to Nat’s immense relief, she seemed to actually enjoy it. Nat was deeply shaken after the Tarot reading, though the looming birthday pool party eventually snapped her out of it. From then on, however, the Lady kept appearing around Nat, discussing her Tarot reading and searching for the Hermit at first, then to get readings for members of her gang, the Cheshire Cats. Nat did readings for Grim, Shari, Celeste, and Ian, and found herself becoming more and more embroiled in the events of the Cats, and less and less with Blackflag Imports, after several company members seemed to have moved on to other lands. After a terrifying and ultimately tragic event in which a demon-possessed member of one of the Cats, Celeste, occurred, she felt much closer to the gang. Ultimately, Natasha and Celeste fell in love, and the two remain a couple to this day.

Meanwhile, some time before the event with Celeste’s mother, Lady Kat had opened the door to Nat to join the Cheshire Cats. Many more intense events ensued, and Nat grew closer, until finally, Nat agreed. On January the seventeenth, Nat went with Shari and Ian far, far out into the ocean, floating on calm seas with the sun setting, and gained closure with Blackflag Imports, giving a cherished company tabard a long tribute and then a ceremonial burial at sea. Heartbroken, yet elated at the future to come, she returned with her friends to Stormwind City, her departure from the company soon to be soothed with her induction into the Cheshire Cats. On January the eighteenth, Nat underwent her induction ceremony, and donned the tabard of the Cheshire Cats. She wears the colors of the gang with deepest pride, and is ready to begin her adventure in this newest chapter of her life. What will happen to her next, only time will tell.

HAIL CHESHIRE CATS!