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Magister Entilzha Sunsong is a Sin'dorei Magister of the Sunwell and Lord of House of Sunsong.
Since his father's fall during the invasion, he has served as the hereditary leader of House of Sunsong and governing their southern coastal enclave of Ashal'Thalas alongside his sister, Sun Matriarch Salandra Sunsong. Entilzha has a one year old daughter-heir, Ysandre Sunsong though his wife Valeria died during childbirth. Like his sister, Entilzha can be described as conservative, having fled Kael'Thalas and SIlvermoon when he noted the use of demonic energies and from his family's history with the War of the Ancients, was cautious, preferring arcane methods when at all possible. Sunsong believe in the reunification and independence of Quel'Thalas, and opposes the relationship with the horde. A veteran of the Second War, two tours in the Nexus War - one in which he was seriously wounded, and House Sunsong's 2+ year campaign to restore the Ghostlands, Entilzha fights tirelessly to restore both the lands and traditions of the Quel'Thalas he lived peacefully in for over a century before the breach of the elfgates.
Early Life
Entilzha was born 265 years ago to parents Xarian and Ariella Sunsong in a Ashal’Thalas, the hereditary holdings of House Sunsong in southern Quel’Thalas, known today as the Ghostlands. An energetic young elf, described by his grandmother Sun Matriarch A'malia Sunsong as a handful, Entilzha’s earliest memories are of running through the lush forests of southern Quel’Thalas, and of the seemingly endlessly tall spires towering from Silvermoon when he was first taken there at a few years old.
Coming from a family line known for learned mages, and the presumptive heir to his father’s Lordship, Entilzha’s arcane talent was recognized from a young age and began lessons at the Falthrien Academy at eight years old, though many of his earlier lessons were broad in nature, covering history, the Thalassian language and such topics.
Although unknown to Entilzha, his father Xarian assured his young son was not overburdened so as to not enjoy his youth. While never especially close with his father given his duties, when he learned of such after his father fell, he lamented having not known him better, but unbeknownst to Entilzha, it was his father whom assured he had those fond early memories he now deeply treasures of the pristine Quel'Thalas he once called home.
Entilzha’s sister, Salandra Sunsong, was born when he was 19 years old, after he had been admitted for a more rigorous magical education, beginning at the Sunspire across from the academy, though as he progressed, his studies gravitated to Quel'Danas. Utterly awed by the beauty and power of the Sunwell, Entilzha, recognizing that he would soon enough be expected to take on a larger role within House Sunsong, devoted himself to his studies with a passionate vigor, spending three decades training under Grand Magister Belo'vir until he himself was named a Magister of Silvermoon.
Entilzha came to display impressive command of wards and protective magics, and grew fond of illusion magics initially for comedic value, then as both a means of offense, defense, subterfuge, and entertainment. His passion was and remains the Sunwell itself and Entilzha retains an intimate, personal relationship with the Well.
Salandra's path was quite different, and she came to envy the freedoms her brother was afforded. With her mother refusing the Sun Crown, the symbol of the female head of House Sunsong, Salandra was brought up by her grandmother, Sun Matriarch A'malia Sunsong, formerly A'malia Dawnstar, though from a cadet line.
Salandra was brought up to be a "proper lady" with hardly a spare moment and the two shared little in common in their youth, though Entilzha was fiercely protective of his sister, once bloodying an elf whom has made advances unsuited to a lady of her stature. Entilzha and Salandra grew closer with time as they each settled into their respective roles, and Entilzha credits his sister with much of the deep-rooted love of Quel'dorei culture for which he now fights.
The Second War
As the orcish horde marched towards Quel'Thalas, Entilzha along with most initially displayed little concern, confident in the two elfgates and Sunwell-fueled Ban'dinoriel, few thought the invaders posed any true threat to Quel'Thalas, though as enslaved red dragons burnt Entilzha's beloved Southern Quel'Thalas into the unrecognizable Scorched Forest, Entilzha was called into his first significant military service, fighting atop the outer elfgate now called the Thalassian Pass, Entilzha is said to have fought bravely, learning how much Dragonfire his wards could absord and improving upon them, working with the other magisters and Rangers atop the gate to defend against the aerial menace.
When word of orcs slipping around the gate and aligning with the ancient enemies of the Quel'dorei reached the gate, Entilzha was part of a detachment sent to prevent their retreat as resistance was bolstered in Eversong. While Silvermoon was never under serious risk due to the Ban'dinoriel, half of Quel'Thalas lie burnt and Entilzha reluctantly accepted that aid from other Alliance of Lordaeron factions was the primary factor in keeping the destruction from reaching the very gates of the city. He first visited Dalaran, which would later on two occasions become his place of residence and at times somewhat of a home, during this period.
Fighting valiantly to push back the trolls and orcs, Entilzha was supportive of King Anasterian's decree to eliminate all remnants of the Amani, seeing such as feasible with the extra soldiers the Alliance provided. However once the immediate threat drew to an end, and with Silvermoon never in serious jeopardy, the political will to invade the Amani Peninsula and put an end to the ancient threat once and for all faded, with Quel'Thalas withdrawing to its historical seclusion.
Entilzha never questioned that Quel'Thalas was a home for elves and elves only, though especially with the scorched condition of the wood he once ran and played with, wasn't opposed to allied military support enabling the full conquest of the peninsula, seeing the territory as an occupied part of Quel'Thalas, now more vital than ever given the time it would take for the south to heal. He was dismayed there would be no assault to end the Amani threat once and for all when Silvermoon withdrew from the Alliance, though understanding his people well, not fond of malanore soldiers on Quel'dorei soil himself, but seeing such permitted briefly to end such a long standing threat as tolerable. Sunsong accepted the decision and returned to his work as a magister of the Sunwell.
Fall of Eternal Spring
As war again raged through Lordaeron, Entilzha managed to convince his father, Lord Paramount Xarian Sunsong, to send his sister Salandra on a "diplomatic mission" to the reclusive Highveil elves, a mission she was told would last two weeks but became an exile of years. Lord Xarian and Entilzha's grandmother, Sun Matriarch A'malia Sunsong, were at the Sanctum of the Moon when the scourge overran the area and fell before Silvermoon was even aware of the incursion. His mother, Ranger-Captain Ariella Sunsong, fell alongside the Ranger-General and so many efforts in a desperate effort to keep the scourge at bay. While ultimately failing to defend the city and the Sunwell, the valiant defense provided by the Rangers is believed to have been vital in preserving the few regions in Eversong untouched by the scourge, namely Sunstrider Isle, and the eastern coastal area where the Duskwither Spire stands.
Entilzha himself was working at the Well as per usual when word of the attack reached Quel'Danas; he and the other preparing a desperate last stand headed by Grand Magister Belo'vir. Entilzha thought it odd that many of the senior magisters weren't present, later to learn they were somehow bound by scourge magics to prevent their aid. Among the more talented of those present, Entilzha marshaled even the freshest apprentices into a hastily prepared defense led by the Grand Magister. Prepared to die for the Sunwell, and nearly doing so several times as the fighting intensified, Entilzha only decided to evacuate via portal when diviners learned of what the scourge were doing with the dead further south. Refusing to allow his body to be used in that manner, Sunsong fled through a portal between waves of spellfire. With but seconds to get a portal open, and with only the coordinates of a location far from Quel'Thalas in mind, Entilzha's portal opened in the dense Stranglethorn Forest, one of the few such portals Entilzha knew.
Feeling the sense of agony shortly after arrival in the jungle when the Sunwell was destroyed for the time, the loss of the Well and his need for the arcane hit Entilzha even harder than most, due to his almost daily direct interactions with the Sunwell. He and the few other ragged elves whom made it through the portal reached the neutral merchant city of Booty Bay, where, with little coin on them, they were forced to trade priceless staves and other such regalia in exchange for accommodations, though Entilzha first carved out the Sunstones from his stave, crystals infused with the energy of the Sunwell using focusing prisms over long periods of time on which he often worked at the Sunwell, replacing them with latent gems.
The stored energies within the crystals would last perhaps years at staving off the pains, shorter if needed for any spellcraft, and Entilzha, hearing nothing of Quel'Thalas, used them cautiously, drawing just enough to be able to get up out of bed and move around some. He began in earnest a study of ley lines and ley energies, recognizing the need for an alternate source, and fortunately close to the grand ley nexus beneath Karazhan, began charting where the junctions lie, in time offering his service as a diviner on seafaring vessels common in Booty Bay in order to chart underwater formations. Focusing much of his time on obtaining arcane crystals, trading whatever materials; anything Quel'dorei, even a simple buckle, was exotic in this place, and of value to some of the passing traders, swapping anything inert for anything arcane so that he could at least channel gentle divination spells, allowing him to both trade his services for sea passage, and locate ley lines and physical sources of arcane to get by, if with difficulty.
Though seemingly forever there was no word of Quel'Thalas, soon odd rumors began to arrive by traders, trolls attacking, the action which cut him off from the Sunwell being carried out by his own people, alliances with naga, and imprisonment of survivors as relations with the Alliance collapsed among them; Entilzha feared his people may well become a dead race, doubting there had been many others outside Quel'Thalas.
Eventually the rumors grew more consistent, and Entilzha was able to confirm that Price Kael'Thalas, now Sun King (Ent was at this point not aware of the name change from Quel'dorei to Sin'dorei), confidently believing had rallied the survivors and led them to the shattered remains of Draenor, with others under Grand Magister Rommath fighting to reclaim Silvermoon. Entilzha was relieved initially, and joined in the efforts to retake the city, even more relieved when taught the Mana Tap spell, no longer needing to worry constantly of arcane withdrawl, and able to divert some energy to more powerful spellcraft. However his hope soon dashed to worry when he was invited to meet with the contingent on Draenor-Prime.
Sensing vile magics and noting elves openly commanding demons, at the direction of the "Sun King", Entilzha grew wary, cautious of family legends dating to the War of the Ancients, and returned from Outland as soon as possible, spending but a few days there before seeing and knowing enough to know to be elsewhere once more. Wary of the direction Kael was leading his people, Entilzha returned briefly to Ashal'Thalas, finding some contamination along the now sealed tunnels and through the Thalassian range but overall the enclave in good shape.
Entilzha was crowned with the Drassil'felo'aseasl (Crown of Sunsong), which his father had left securely in Ashal'Thalas, donning a replica at the time of his death, and named Lord Paramount of Ashal'Thalas and the traditionally stylized title of Lord Arcanist of House Sunsong. Arranging his ranger force, the Emberstriders, to deal with sealing off the tainted lands, Sunsong didn't linger overly long after his coronation, assuring both the Emberstriders and civilian defense corps were under firm leadership, before departing for the Hinterlands to check on Salandra and share what he knew...and map ley formations in the area. He would be sure to steer clear of Silvermoon itself save for extremely brief visits during the time without the Sunwell, as the energies felt...wrong, a sense that preserved his bright blue eyes and body from fel corruption. Politically shrewd, Entilzha was able to use his duties as Lord of Ashal'Thalas to manage to remain formally loyal to the new government though taking little role in supporting it, exaggerating his duties to Ashal'Thalas at times and taking a protectionist stance over his own lands, he refused to support the horde and kept House Sunsong and Ashal'Thalas staunchly neutral right up through his eventual departure from Quel'Thalas.
Initially mistrusted by the Highveil, Salandra having lived among them a time vouched for his brother, though he had a hard time convincing her not to return to Ashal'Thalas yet, though eventually enough talk of the disturbing things he'd seen on Outland persuading her to remain safely in the Hinterlands.
Entilzha traveled a time, charting ley patterns and learning to sate his need for arcane without the Sunwell, his strength in the arcane returning with time, knowledge, and piles of ley charts. As the treachery of Kael'Thalas became known and the time to reclaim the Sunwell proper neared, Entilzha enlisted with the Shattered Sun Offensive, joining his fellow magisters in a diverse effort to reclaim the plateau.
Feeling the restoration of the well as a moment of pure jubilation, such was short lived, noting all the green-eyed elves and having learned fel magic was used to keep eastern Silvermoon from crumbling without the Sunwell's energies, he remained wary of Quel'Thalas, though refusing to abandon his nation, traveled to Dalaran under Aethas Sunreaver, seeking to enact justice for the desecration of the Sunwell. The fate of his parents was unknown given the lack of any recovered bodies, and ending this Lich King once and for all seemed both necessary for Quel'Thalas and possibly the souls of his parents.
However, the Nexus War broke out shortly after Dalran was moved to Northrend, and Entilzha was involved in near daily, fierce fighting, first pushing the drakes from the city, then onwards to the Coldarra. During his second tour, leading a sortie in Dragonblight to destroy one of the devices beyond deployed by the Blue flight to divert ley lines, Sunsong and his men found themselves ambushed by mage-hunters and pinned down. Holding their own for a time by remaining low to the ground, they were flanked by a number of blue dragonkin and an emergency evacuation was ordered, though the mage casting the portal fell as it appeared, Entilzha and most of the others made it back to Dalaran. Like the true mage he is, though barely alive and severely burnt from spellfire, Entilzha was more frustrated with missing the fall of the Coldarra and any chance of getting his hands on the Blue Dragonflight's Arcanomicon and the allegedly complete ley maps contained within than the fact he'd nearly died during the ambush. Sunsong remains interested in the Arcanomicon as the right ley nexus is essential to his dream of a stable mana font and homeland, and will quietly inquire as to the text when an opportunity to so arises. However he views ever actually seeing it as a longshot, and works to merge his own ley charts with those of others in its stead.
Quite severely wounded, Entilzha took to training magi for the Argent Tournament and eventual siege of Icecrown Citadel, generally raising elven-only units which are said to have performed well. During this time he typically dressed as a typical Kirin Tor, and with his magical experience, met the qualifications to be named an Archmage, a title he seldom uses presently.
After Icecrown fell, Entilzha spent more time back in Quel'Thalas, often moving back and forth between there and Dalaran, Sunsong kept his involvement in Kirin Tor politics minimal, not seeking a permanent home in Dalaran, he remained a minor though respected Archmage. As Dalaran begin to move from Northrend over the open ocean, the city was of much use in charting typically hard to access ley formations, though many others in the city naturally had similar notions, and with their combined effforts, his ley mapping grew more thorough if far from the compete map he'd hoped at least a glimpse of. Entlzha was not in the city during the Purge of Dalaran, though places blame on both Aethas for breaching the peace of Dalaran and Jaina for excessive force and the slaughter of civilians; he was deeply upset the opportunity to get Silvermoon away from the mongrel horde had collapsed and the purge remains a sensitive topic.
Lord Arcanist and the Ghostlands Campaigns
After the carnage had ended, Entilzha felt safe enough to return to Quel'Thalas, albeit generally in Ashal'Thalas, ever leery of lingering demonic energies even with the Well restored and planned to keep it that way. Sending an escort to return Salandra from the Hinterlands, House of Sunsong, now led by Entilzha as Lord Arcanist with his parents death during the invasion, set out on an aggressive campaign to restore the Ghostlands proper.
Entilzha and Salandra were both leery of the "Sin'dorei" concept, and discussed joining the Quel'dorei in exile, though their nation had been through the unimaginable, and both Sunsong's felt a duty to do what they could to heal the land and its people. Hoping the restoration might draw broader support as progress began to show, and perhaps carve out a home for those wishing to live a traditional Quel'dorei lifestyle, the two year campaign, supported at times by both Kaldorei and Tauren druids and shaman, began showing results, with pockets of green beginning to emerge closer to Eversong and the reconstruction of Goldenmist village drawing a hearty few South, House Sunsong gained much in the way of recognition for their efforts, but little in the way of support.
As Lord Arcanist, Entilzha goes to great length to keep House Sunsong out of the horde-alliance conflict, with those sworn prohibited from serving in the horde military, under penalty of death. However, his nationalist fervor was shared by few, and while Entilzha had expected somewhat of a return to normalcy with the Sunwell restored, few seemed to even possess the knowledge of how to properly draw from it, and the normalization of relations with the horde set House Sunsong far to the political right of the often deceitful factions in Silvermoon, despire Lord Theron, whom Entilzha respects as a level-headed ruler, the same could not be said for this new generation of elves, many of whom seemed to value the savage horde over their great nation.
As the first phase of the campaign wound down in the repelled First Battle of Goldenmist, Entilzha married his longtime friend and deputy, Valeria Morningray. Per Valeria's wishes the wedding was a quiet affair, and she became pregnant shortly after. Determined that she was carrying twins, Entilzha initially saw the rare gift as a blessing, though such was not to be. Complications during childbirth led to the death of one of the children and of Valeria, herself a priestess of impressive skill, using her final bits of strength to deliver their daughter, Ysandre Sunsong.
With a hole in his heart from the loss of the only person he'd ever loved, Entilzha grew reclusive, spending much of his time in Ashal'Thalas with Ysandre, whom showed early signs of potential with both holy and arcane magics, as the High Elf Mage-Priests of the past. While Lady Salandra did much to assist her brother and he could well have left her with her more often, he scarcely left her sight for the first year of his life, eventually invigorated by a friend to begin the second stage of the Ghostlands effort, which was intended to focus on restoring the lands closer to Eversong securely in elven hands and culminating with the retaking of Suncrown Village.
Such would not yet come to pass, as during Entilzha's seclusion, he encouraged those in his service to serve among The Sunsworn under Lady Liadrin, for the Burning Legion was and until its downfall, will be the greatest threat facing Quel'Thalas and Azeroth.
Second Ghostlands Campaign
As the campaign on Draenor draws down, House Sunsong is preparing a second offensive, striving to push deeper into the heart of the taint and establish a magical font known as the Ban'belore, based on the Sunwell's energies, to bolster restoration efforts.
Sunstones and the Ban'belore
The Ban'belore sits metaphorically and with time shall physically, sit at the heart of Falah'Thalas as well. at the heart of During the early stages of the Ghostlands campaign, Sunsong began pondering the notion of a magical energy source derived largely but not wholly from the Sunwell, informally called the Ban'belore, Gate to the Sun. In his work as Magister of the Sunwell, much of which involved empowering crystals, weapons and the sort from the font, as well as closely monitoring its overall health and strength, Sunsong began using an array of focusing irises to densely channel the Well's powers into crystals of draenic origin, which held arcane exceptionally well. Dubbed Sunstones, full empowerment was said to have taken a significant deal of time, and while many of the stones, which glow radiantly when looked upon, were retained by the Magisters of Quel'danas, Entilzha, denying any monetary or land-based compensation for his work on the Plateau, over a number of years came to retain a number of the powerful crystals which stand at the heart of the project.
Sunsong continues to produce Sunstones in his function as a magister of the Sunwell, and the well ideally is intended to be empowered under ideally a ley nexus or short of that, powerful ley flow such as the ones empowering the Dawnstar Spire and Sanctums of the Sun and Moon, with similar mechanisms as those of an arcane Sanctum used to draw up the ley energies into the nascent font. It's believed some other items, likely magical in nature, are also involved, and the project had been showing progress, intended for creation during the upcoming Second Ghostlands campaign.