 Haungse | |
|---|---|
| |
| Titles | Warlord, The Grey |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Mogu |
| Character class | Warrior |
| Age | Unknown |
| Height | 9'2" |
| Weight | Unknown |
| Birthplace | Jade Forest |
| Affiliation(s) | Himself
|
| Former Affiliation(s) |  Mogu Empire
|
| Relatives | "The Deserter" (Ancestor) Unnamed father |
| Status | Deceased |
Warlord Haungse, also known as The Grey, was a mogu warlord and the last living descendent of the bandit known as The Deserter.
Background[]
Early Life and Ascension[]
Haungse was born the son of a Bandit Lord and a descendent of "The Deserter". Like many of his lineage, Haungse was told several times of his ancestor's story and the tales of the Thunder King and the days that predated them, which had a heavy influence over the young mogu's personality. Haungse was eager to see his people unite and rise to power over Pandaria once again, but also frustrated at the small size of his family's band and their conditions as brigands. Unlike his father and many before him, Haungse refused to train in the arts of stealth and assassination and dedicated himself to the path of a warrior, stating that the rogue, while possessing vital knowledge of survival and being a cunning strategist, cannot be a leader of a warrior race and that descendents of "The Deserter" were wrong in making themselves "stalkers" like their ancestor, he said that "The Deserter" hid himself to pave the way for a generation of brave warlords who wouldn't allow themselves to be minor characters in mogu history, and that, since his very father didn't make himself such warlord, Haungse himself would be the one.
Such thoughts were expressed by Haungse during an argument with his father about his wish to become a warrior, the Bandit Lord was all but pleased with the decision, stating that his son was breaking millenia of tradition, which was harshly denied by Haungse, who stated that the tradition was to rally as many mogu as possible in the right path of union and conquest and restore the glory of the days of the Thunder King's reign, not be eternal ransackers and lowly criminals, depending on the supplies of other races to survive, even if acquiring them through attrition. Haungse's father then stated that "attrition" would be the only way that the young mogu would be able to follow his own path and "dishonor" his family, and the answer was a very sound threat, a proof that the Bandit Lord was being challenged by his own son, more than it, Haungse wished to fight not only for his fate, but also for the band's leadership. The outraged Bandit Lord accepted his son challenged and both agreed to meet at the cliffs overlooking Krasarang Wilds, where their ancestor had died, to have their duel, also agreeing to give each other three months of preparation. The members of the band were impressed with young Haungse's attitude and many secretly supported the Bandit Lord's son, hoping the father would be overthrown.
Young Haungse isolated himself in the woods of his homeland, the Jade Forest, in order to practice in the ways of the warrior by, ironically, spying on the other mogu groups and observing their skills before practicing them against the local wildlife. He would also train his skills by hunting hozen and jinyu through direct combat, whenever he failed, he retreated and supressed the damage to his pride, but when he succeeded, he would subdue the humanoids and use them as living training dummies for as long as they could endure, discarding their bodies once they died.
The day of the duel finally came, the mogu band, stronger than milennia ago, manged to fend off the saurok that occupied the spot they designated to "host" the duel, which didn't take long to begin, without saying a word to each other, father and son clashed and fought for dominance for fifteen days and fifteen nights, the first eight days were known as "Haungse's Nightmare", in which his father's overwhelming skills as a rogue would grant the Bandit Lord immense advantage over the young mogu, but during the dawn of the nineth day, the deeply wounded Haungse managed to land a slash of his two-handed axe against his father's knee, limiting his swift movements and managing to even the scales of the battle, but at the night of the same day, Haungse's training in the woods began to pay off as he progressively gained the upper hand over the battle, the six days that followed were known as "Triumph of the Right Path" for the bandits, in which Haungse, the "Right Path", bested his father and slayed him by chopping his head off in a vertical slice. However, there was no furious roar that followed young Haungse's victory, his underlings approached the Bandit Lord's son, curiosity in their eyes, they stared the victor for hours in silence as he glared at his father's corpse, heavy, tired breaths of Haungse being the only sounds those mogu heard in the mean time.
Afte roughly three hours of silence, one of the mogu stepped forward and cleared his throat, stating that he and his "brothers" were glad for Haungse's victory and accepted him as their new Bandit Lord, but Haungse shook his head in disapproval, he slowly opened his bleeding mouth as he turned to his brethren, then finally spoke, stating that no mogu should proud himself of being called a lord of bandits, for bandits are for the lesser beings their brethren once dominated, he said that, from that day on, their group of brigands would become a proper warband, and Haungse their "Warlord".
From that point on, the brigands would no longer hide and steal, they would expose themselves, charge at those they considered enemies and take whatever they wanted and needed, more than it, they settled themselves at Krasarang Wilds, in defiance to the saurok, who killed the founder of the group thousand of years ago.
Haungse and the Dying Veteran[]
Months later, Haungse's henchmen and the Warlord himself stumbled upon a dying mogu war veteran named Lao-Zhanshi and nursed him back to health in exchange for the old warrior's experience, thus the healed veteran took the warband, even Haungse himself, under his tutelage for proper warrior training, but the leadership of the group still belonged to young Haungse, who also appointed Lao-Zhanshi as his personal advisor so that his life experience would help him bring his band into the right path. Decades passed and Haungse's forces, which was once a small band of sneaking criminals, became a warband worthy of being called a mogu legion, even if the group was small. The first stage of Haungse's plans for his father's —or better— his legion was realized, his men were converted into true and proud warriors, but something didn't seem right, Lao-Zhanshi would constantly take a handful of Haungse's men to the depths of the wilds, the excuses that they were going to collect lumber convinced the warlord for one year and a half as they always returned with huge stacks of it so that they could build their tents and make campfires, or so Lao-Zhanshi thought.
Secretly, Haungse pretended he didn't notice how suspicious Lao-Zhanshi's behavior had become over time and how some of his own men seemed to hold the veteran in a higher regard than their own warlord, during this time, and the one year and a half period, he schemed. Slowly, he would spread the word among his most trustworthy men about how Lao-Zhanshi was acting strangely, and had his "loyalist" pretend to be incredibly interested in the veteran's ways, Haungse's spies returned and exposed strange mrunes around their bodies, they said that the others who followed Lao-Zhanshi had the same runes, and remarked that the fact their armor covered them was the reason the warlord never noticed it, then explained Lao-Zhanshi's plan: the old veteran was seeking ways of transcending his old age in the form of his abilities with arcane magic and rune mastery, Lao-Zhanshi mentioned how Haungse and his mogu's arrival had reawakened the thirst for power in the old warrior and that he would begin by stripping the warlord from his legion's command, but that his men would undergo a proud and powerful destiny if they chose to overthrow their current leader and allow themselves to be bolstered by Lao-Zhanshi's magic, they also mentioned how Lao-Zhanshi mentioned several times how the "Gods" had abandoned them and that he would lead the soon-to-be-his warband, and perhaps all mogu, to an independent future. Haungse was surprised, the situation was bigger than he thought, neither him nor his "loyalists" expected that a warrior like Lao-Zhanshi would be such a skilled magic weaver even though they obviously knew their people's ability with it was natural.
Haungse, although knowing that, like all mogu, magic was innate to him, was taken aback by the sensation of knowing exactly what sort of spell was cast upon the runes in his men's bodies, for he never had experienced it so strongly. The runes greatly increased his men's strength, and such easy "blessings" would make him lose them. Haungse called his warband for a meeting and ordered them to form a circle around him, then ordered Lao-Zhanshi to stand in front of him, no one, save for his loyalists, could understand what was going on, but they obeyed their warlord, some hesitantly. Lao-Zhanshi stared his warlord with a mix of curiosity and distrust, a small spark of fear sprouted in the back of the advisor's mind, however, Haungse's first act in that meeting was a silent snap of his fingers, causing a huge arcane rune of power to sprout under the circle of mogu around him, a surge of arcane energy enveloped his warriors and dispelled the runes on those who followed Lao-Zhanshi.
Once the immense blinding light had vanished, the mogu opened their eyes, and Haungse said that those who were feeling dazed and nauseated had to rise their hands, and those who felt in such way did so, Haungse then ordered those who didn't feel this way to behead them, which they promptly did after a small struggle between the two groups, Lao-Zhanshi glared at Haungse and roared a question about what was going on and told the young warlord to direct himself to him as he was called to stand in the center by his side, Haungse merely answered with a silent glare in the old mogu's eyes, then looked back to his underlings around him. Haungse ordered his men to unclasp the armor of the beheaded mogu, revealing scar-like marks of runes in their headless bodies, the small dusts of arcane had a scent that his men identified as being recently dispelled, the sight caused Lao-Zhanshi's eyes to widen, he finally understood it, the warlord discovered his scheme, the confirmation came from Haungse himself once he said that those "marked ones" were traitors who attempted to desert from his band in a similar way that the First Bandit Lord deserted from the imperial army. Haungse said that there was a crucial difference between them, while "The Deserter" was abandoning a cause that brought only disgrace to his people in order to find a way to bring them to a more worthy fate, his warband's deserters were only powerhungry individualists akin to many of the old mogu clans before Lei Shen's rise, he then turned to Lao-Zhanshi and directed his plated fist to the veteran's face, but what reflexes of his war experience remained in his old mind caused him to cover his face with his armored wrists, the impact causing the warrior to stagger backwards a bit, once he uncovered his face, he saw Haungse's foot coming to his throat in a kick, taken by surprise this time, Lao-Zhanshi fell to his knees, gasping for air as he coughed blood. Haungse shook his head as he mentioned how the traitors allowed themselves to be seduced by promises of power and false unity, how Lao-Zhanshi's plans weren't directed to his people's prosperity and glory but only his own. As Haungse spoke while glaring at his former advisor, the suffocating mogu attempted to blast the young warlord with a spell, but his difficulty to breathe caused him to not be strong enough to harness power to cast even the most simple spell, the kick had closed his throat, it was only a matter of time before he died. Haungse said he and his mogu had made a crucial mistake for not making proper use of their magical talents, and "thanked" Lao-Zhanshi for both turning them into proper warriors and making them realize how they should pay more heed to their innate sorcery, the young warlord's hands began to glow with a white-purple aura as arcane energy was harnessed during his speech, Haungse then proceeded to slam his glowing left fist over his former advisor's head, the sheer impact caused a huge bone cracking sound coming from Lao-Zhanshi's skull and the torrent of magic unleashed by the blow entered the mogu's head by way of the opened wounds, exploding it from the inside.
With Lao-Zhanshi dead, Haungse rose his left hand and a dark energy emanated from his palm and directed themselves at the corpses of all dead traitors, siphoning their souls and forcing them to hover around him. Haungse then called his warband to see the culmination of his punishment towards traitorous within his warband and brought them to the site of a battle between two mogu groups at Krasarang, the place was littered with corpses and, most importantly, seemingly lifeless statues of mogu and feline-like beasts. Haungse then unleashed each of the souls inside a corresponding number of the feline statues, which suddenly started to move, the seventeen quadruped stone beings assembled around the warlord and positioned themselves by his side, sitting on the ground shortly after, a gesture that indicated they were submitted to his will.
Administration[]
Haungse felt an overwhelming sensation of supremacy, he turned his enemies into loyal servants of rock for the first time in his life, but he shook his head in disapproval of the sensation, afraid this might lead him to divert from his objectives, so he made sure to make it the only occasion. Instead, from that point on, he had some of his mogu forge such legions for him using the souls of those they killed, keeping a tight watch over their behavior and executing the few who became overly greedy.
Thus, the legion had acquired a much more complex structure, now with proper warriors and spiritbinders. Also, the numbers of Haungse's warband increased as he constantly visited many sights of inner fights between mogu, often taking the survivors under his wing to bolster his ranks and using the souls of those who refused to join or died in the process to increase his stone legion. Although it sounds like Haungse's legion became an expressive group of mogu, this was not the case, instead, they were unknown to nearly everyone and their numbers remained in the same way than in previous eras, although better organized.
Mists of Pandaria[]
This section concerns content exclusive to Mists of Pandaria.
With the news that the Zandalar tribe had arrived on Pandaria and were making efforts on ressurecting the Thunder King, Warlord Haungse promptly led his men to aid their newly arrived troll allies, like many groups of mogu. During this time, interaction between Haungse's legion and other mogu groups increased and they started to feel more reinserted in their brethren's society after milennia of reclusion. With the ressurection of Lei Shen, Haungse told his men they were now part of the empire that his old ancestor defended and that, from that moment on, they'd be making important steps in realizing The Deserter's dream, the warband's dream.
Certain day, with Haungse's forces gaining access to the Mogu'shan Vaults, the warlord came across the Engine of Nalak'sha, where he found a strange piece that he mistook for a huge chunk of ghost iron ore, the warlord approached the suspicious object, unsure of what to do with it, the other mogu didn't seem to care much about it and some even stared Haungse as if he was some sort of mongrel for giving that thing so much attention. The Warlord eventually questioned a random warrior about the nature of the thing, the warrior said that the object Haungse found was a relic of titan technology and, while powerful, was rendered useless by a mysterious defect that caused those who first discovered the object to give up on it. The Warlord grunted in anger as he took the object for himself, claiming that he would find the source of the problem and claim the power to himself, an eerie sensation crawled through the warlord's spine upon touching the object, which made him conclude that the source of the issue was probably magical in nature.
Warlord Haungse consulted Hexer Za-bumjo, a witch doctor of the Zandalari and the first troll the warlord met in his life, and the two studied ways of finding the source of such defect, upon combining the best of their magic, black and white smoke materialized in front of the mogu and the troll and took the the form of a deformed humanoid-like beast, its black and grey "skin" suddenly assuming a blue-purple tone. He could feel as if the hatred of his ancestors towards the likes of the creature flew across his mind, the word "Sha" coming to his mind. Haungse had seen the Sha before, however, the coloring and the power that emanated from the Sha he and Za-bumjo expelled from the titan relic was bigger than most of them, save for the highest ones and, obviously, the Sha primes.
The mysterious Sha unleashed by Haungse and Za-bumjo.
The witch doctor, the warlord and his forces fought a desperate battle to contain it, it took hours but they succeeded in defeating the Sha. After inspecting on the armor again, he found no traces of any negative magic and messed with the engines and buttons of the object until he finally managed to "turn it on", the ore-shape object suddenly acquired the form of a square and its surface opened, revealing small azure crystals that emanated a faint blue glow, the "box" itself also started glowing. Upon touching the object again, Haungse felt the raw power of titanic technology in his hands, but it was weakened, he attempted to empower the relic with his own magic, but it was to no avail. Haungse grunted and said that it needed something to charge it with enough power to turn it on. Regardless, the mogu warlord decided to think of this later and tested the relic's resistence by slamming his sword against it and was impressed with its durability as it remained intact.
The warlord ordered his blacksmith to take the relic and reforge it into an armor for him, thus, it took two months for them to finish the armor, they needed to create the armor without compromising the relic, after all. The armor was almost complete when they noticed that they'd need to mix the remaining "reagents" with the minerals of Pandaria if they wished to forge the chest piece, Haungse merely scoffed and ordered them to use the remaining reagents alone to forge a crown for him instead of a chest armor, stating that, with the powers he will soon obtain, no one will get close enough to try to hit it. The armor was done, and Haungse could feel a very faint surge of power, but also the presence of an enormous slumbering potential.
Now with a gear that he considered proper of a mogu warlord, Haungse and his warband resumed their duties for the Thunder King.
The Thunder King[]
The whole of Warlord Haungse's men followed the Shan'ze clan and the Zandalari to the Isle of Thunder, where they aided their allies in standing their ground against both Alliance and Horde forces. As soon as they arrived on the isle, Haungse's limbs trembled at the very presence of the immense power that lingered across the whole island, the power of the storms manipulated by Lei Shen, shortly after the first surprises of being in the Mogu Empire's first seat of power, Haungse moved his forces to aid the Shan'ze clan at the Court of Bones.
Certain day, Haungse and his forces were cornered by a massive group of Horde adventurers, among them was Leugim. The two forces clashed for hours at the Court of Bones and the battle seemed to reach no end no matter how many casualties each side inflicted, Haungse was beginning to despair as his new equipment, although doing well against the offensives against him, wasn't being enough to give his men significant advantage in terms of causing enemy deaths. Suddenly, a huge lightning fell amid the battlers, the lightning, however, always seek the highest point, and the highest one at that day was Haungse, the lightning fell over his crown and a huge glow of blinding white light ensued, when both sides recovered their sights, they saw Haungse having strange convulsions, but his figure was completely different.
Most of Haungse's veins were now white and reshaped into rune-like forms while emanating a thick bright glow, his eyes also turned white as did his hair while his skin turned into a greenish tone of grey, the azure crystals of his armor were enveloped in a pulsing blue aura, Haungse's armor absorbed the lightning and saved his life, more than it, the power of the lightning was enough to charge the relic which the armor was made of, infusing Haungse with its full power. Warlord Haungse unleashed a thundering roar and stretched his left arm forward, unleashing a barrage of lightning against the Horde members in front of him, pulverizing them, Haungse's sword suddenly started glowing and crackling with power, the mogu turned around and slashed the air, a blade-shaped blast of lightning destroying every mogu and adventurer in its wake until it crashed with the ground and exploded, the surviving Horde adventurers, one of them being Leugim, retreated from the Court of Bones and returned to Dawnseeker Promonontory. A thundering sound ensued and the aura around Haungse waned considerably, his newfound power finally stabilizing, the mogu sensing he would never be able what he did that day again, but he still acquired a very strong source of power.
Haungse and his allies roared for their victory, the members of his warband giving him a new title: the Grey, referencing his new skin, representing his new self.
Vendetta Conflict[]
See: Vendetta Conflict
With the defeat of the Thunder King, Haungse and his surviving warriors retreated to the shadows of Mogu society, watching over it by hiding at the darkest corners of the isle of Shan'ze Dao. Haungse and his group were eventually discovered by Shado-Pan members accompanied by Alliance adventurers, but they managed to fend them off. With their position revealed, Haungse, having his philosophies and dreams crushed by the defeat of Lei Shen, decided that the warband should leave and seek an even more secluded place to stay hidden until another one can truly make them raise to power and lead their people to glory. Using twisted Shan'ze cloud serpents, they departed the isle. Unbeknownst to the Grey, the forces of Saulanar Azureseeker were spying on his forces, having been attracted by the immense power emanated from the mogu's armor, as they battled their now dead ambushers, the blood elves giving chase to them in what became a long dog fight between that brought Haungse and his men to Kun-Lai Summit at the Vale of Emperors and pushing the mogu warband all the way to the Shrine of the Merciless One, where they finally managed to make a successful effort in holding the Expedition's advance, however, Saulanar called for Commander Leugim of the Grey Legion, who brought Overseers Tsukia and Suke with him.
Haungse, empowered by the energies of his armor, about to face off against Tsukia, Saulanar, Suke and Leugim.
With the aid of the three high ranking members of the Legion, the Azureseeker Expedition attacked again and, this time, started causing casualties again, eventually taking the battle inside the shrine against Haungse himself. The Grey used the best of his abilities but was eventually bested by the combined efforts of Leugim, Tsukia, Suke and Saulanar himself as the blood elf guild master's forces stood outside to prevent anyone from interrupting their battle. However, their power alone didn't seal his fate, the despair and anger for having his forces decimated by such puny and lesser creatures causing the mogu warlord to be progressively possessed by the Sha. In order to prevent falling for the evil his people and the "Gods" fought against millenia ago, Haungse carved his blade into his own skull, destroying himself.
The mogu's armor was then removed from his corpse by Tsukia and Suke and transported to Grey Point under Leugim's orders by way of a portal opened by Saulanar, thus completing the Commander's first step in forging a weapon that would be strong enough to best Daw'gar Stripribs's incredibly powerful new equipment.
Trivia[]
- Haungse's name is a play on 灰色 (Huīsè), which is chinese for "The Grey".
- The name of Lao-Zhanshi, Haungse's traitorous advisor, comes from 老戰士 (Lǎo zhànshì), which is chinese for "Old Warrior".