Shadowsteel

Shadowsteel are a small guild on The Sha'tar EU RP server. They were formed by Shannin and Lupia.

There are currently 50 members. Azarael is Guild Mistress or Shadow Lady, officers are Tuul, Valkara, Artaar and Lupia. Shadowsteel is not a raiding guild, although several of its members raid regularly with the Fifteenth Dusk.

Shadowsteel is mostly focused on moderate to heavy roleplay at any one time there may be several ongoing stories for the members to actively get involved in - and of course create their own.

Shadowsteel forums can be found here: Guild Portal

Here is the story of Shadowsteel's formation, originally told by Lupia on the official EU realm forums.

"Undead rogue was looking at the battlefield. All was going well for the Horde - maybe this time they will finally push those Alliance weaklings out of Warsong Gulch for good. Alliance was getting defeated all over - his men... creatures - were working as effective groups, while Alliance soldiers were running alone, unable to match the united strength of Horde.

What is that over there? A lone enemy moving on the battlefield. Undead general decided to investigate personally and stealthed himself. Not because of fear - as a combatant he was experienced beyond comparison, with equipment and enchantments coming from the very the highest circle of the Forsaken - he had little to fear even from many enemies at once. But he liked to sneak in behind his enemy, up close and personal, helpless victim being completely unaware up to the point when dagger slid into victim's neck, severing spine in one quick move. His favorite move had become so well-known that no one remembered the name which he had been given at birth and under which he had died. Now he was simply known as Spinestabber.

Aha! There was the enemy - one of those Draenei, mage by the look of it. Spinestabber had never liked Draenei, but then again, there was very little he liked. One of those things, though, were mages. Wearing nothing but cloth armor, they were especially helpless against his favourite move. So... crunchy. Rogue licked his lips in anticipation and sneaked onwards.

Blasted! Careless move or sound had alerted the enemy - or maybe it was that rumored Draenei ability to see beyond visible, supposedly given by their Naaru gods. He ran forward to dispatch this lifeling quickly - so he can find another target and enjoy the crunchy sound.

Double-blasted! The thrice-curced she-mage had managed to freeze him in place and was now bombing him with spells from a few steps away. No matter, blasts of fire and ice barely nicked him... just a few more seconds and then this mage will die. And Spinestabber will enjoy a healthy meal of Draenei liver, restoring himself to full health in matter of seconds.

Ice shards flew as undead general jumped forward and attacked, daggers doing heavy damage to the mage. Just one more strike to underbelly and... Spinestabber's dagger met unexpected obstruction midstrike. What is that?! A glowing bubble shield was surrounding the mage. A quick look around revealed dwarf paladin coming running towards him, her hands barely lowered after casting the shield spell.

Paladin! Those were very definitely among the things Spinestabber disliked. He bore several nicks from "meetings" with paladins - nicks made with holy weapons, nicks that refused to heal on his undead flesh. But no paladin had hope to withstand him in battle, their holy spells and swords were just... inconvinient.

He closed in to the paladin, who desperately tried to battle him. The dwarwen girl - where was her beard? - saw death sentence in general's undead eyes. Go, go, little one - shield yourself, this does not make me go away, I am your nightmares come true!

Suddenly generals whip-fast movement slowed... bloodied mage had cast a frostbolt. That was followed by blast of fire, that lit up all his clothes. He turned to mage - and paladin chose that exact moment cast a holy seal. Spinestabber could feel it all the way down his spine. This was... not good. No, not good at all. He turned back to paladin - only to get another blast of fire from mage and second seal from paladin.

Spinestabber's limbs refused to take commands from his long-dead brain. He fell over, last remnants of his undead life leaving his body.

Lupia looked down at the remnants of the rogue, "Not so tough at all. I could have done it by myself, you know."

"Sure you would have," replied Shannin, the paladin.

"Nice moves, though," offered Lupia. "For a paladin."

"Same goes for yourself. For a mage."

Awkward peace made, girls looked at each-other.

Shannin kicked the rogue head, which flew feet, "You look pretty tough and doesn't look you like Horde too much..."

"Yeah... I guess you could say that."

"...so would you like to help me in my quest?"

"What quest?"

"Let us just say it involves lots fighting. Rest of the explanations," Shannin looked at incoming Horde monstrosities - dispirited but still attacking, "could perhaps wait until we finish off this filth?"

"Sure. Meet you for a beer after the battle?"

"Works for me."

Several days later Lupia was fixing her slightly ruffled hair while keeping an eye on Shannin - who was trying to dislodge her sword from the skull of a Tauren. "Strong... skull... like... an ox," gasped Shannin while pulling.

"Well, they are rather... dirty and cowlike, you know." Lupia sighs. "You know, I've been thinking..."

"Didn't know you had time left over from constant grooming," mutters Shannin under her breath, still bent over the corpse.

"...we really need more fighters. Sure, we fight well together, but we are going against armies too mighty for two of us alone. So perhaps we should join a guild?"

"Bah! Guilds! All they do is talk how mighty they are and how they protect the Light - but how often do you see them actually doing something? Never, they just parade around and look shiny."

"Perhaps we should start our own guild, then? A guild for fighting, not posing. A guild for going places where others don't dare to go."

"Now ya talking, lass. Let me think about it for a bit."

Late on the same evening, around the camp fire, Lupia went deep into her pack and got out a small harp.

"What's this, you going to invite all the monsters here now?"

"Oh, shush, I have a song at the back of my head and it has to come out." With that, Lupia picked idly on strings and slowly sang:

We stand between a candle and a star.

Between day and night.

Between good and evil.

We go where Light is forgotten

and Darkness fears to come.

We walk between Light and Dark,

our paths winding in shadows.

We are Shadowsteel.