Essai (SC'19)
Formerly, the Warforged
On the continent of Ellara, the last hundred years or so have seen two incarnations of Warforged. The first, created in Uman' Yiro to defend the city from outside threats. They were souls inhabiting suits of armor. They had thoughts, feelings and emotions but were created with one purpose, fight to the death.
The principal minds behind the project, Archmage Emon Thermack and Archmage Sekal Loreweaver may have had the best of intentions in mind when they began creating the metal warriors but the other Archmages were dubious of their methods and where they obtained the souls used to animate the beings. Dark magic was used to transition the souls, wipe all of the former memories and imprint the behavior that the Warforged are known for.
Without an outside enemy to guard against, the soldiers were used as entertainment to fight against each other for decades until a new plan was developed for the city: rip it from the ground and launch it into the sky. The Warforged were evicted from the city granting them their freedom, but without a place to go or a reason to exist. Both of the responsible Archmages were also shunned by the city.
Many of them roamed together and eventually settled in the abandoned Eladrin city of Odysia. For decades they just existed in the city, fortifying it and destroying what didn't suit them.
Meanwhile, to the west a war was brewing between the city of Overwatch (formerly and again afterwards known as Overdale) and Winterhaven. Unknown until it was far too late King Zannon Carter had enlisted the help of Sekal Loreweaver to boost his troops with a new batch of Warforged who were now 100% compliant and fought with a new ferocity.
After many skirmishes, Overwatch marched to the gates of Winterhaven and began what they thought would be the final battle of a long war. One of the groups assembled to help guard the city were the Warforged who had been living in Odysia, summoned by Jarahk Ironhide who asked for their assistance. Inside Winterhaven Hall, Malchus Grimnas secretly met with Archmage Ellanan Duskwalker who gave him a device called the Diara Si’eye or 'clean slate' meant to destroy all of the Warforged and turn the tide of the war.
Malchus would indeed activate the device, decimating over 95% of the Warforged population. Over the next few years many more would perish from the magical disease but the survivors began to gather and regroup in the small town of Aldmoor. It is unknown how many are actually left but the assembled survivors have taken to calling themselves by a new name, Essai.
Now, as much as ever they will fight fiercely to defend their new home and the lives they are trying to make for themselves.
