Life had not been easy lately for Lieutenant Aedelas Blackmoore of Durnholde Manor.
The Horde's army had completely occupied the South. Word had it that even the dwarves' lands had fallen, and some rumors even claimed that war could engulf the Arathi Highlands at any moment. Panic gripped the manor, and many farmers were so frightened that they fled north to Lordaeron!
But Blackmoore could not do that, though he was afraid too.
After all, he was a noble, and nobles could not abandon their lands. That was an immutable truth... a noble with land was a noble, while a noble who lost his land was a fallen noble. Blackmoore was not particularly educated, but he still understood that much.
For instance, Blackmoore had already heard something of the miserable lives led by those fallen nobles who had fled Stormwind City for Lordaeron.
He took a considerable sum of money from the castle and won over a group of farmers... for the time being, the manor settled down.
But Blackmoore also harbored a secret... a secret that could bring him danger.
Over a year earlier, by sheer chance, Blackmoore had found an extremely ugly, green-skinned orc infant beside a river in the forest...
Normally, when one encountered such a monster, one ought to throw him into the water and drown him.
But a strange idea had suddenly occurred to Blackmoore.
For years, Blackmoore had always had to expend twice the effort for half the results to obtain the same positions as men of similar birth and experience. Because of his father, he lived under the shadow of his father's shameful betrayal. Though he did everything he could to gain power and strength, many people still regarded him with suspicion. Those around him always called him "traitor's spawn" behind his back,