Characters:
Major Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Bojo Kegpaw
Minor Characters:
Issues
Leugim's initial decisions as an Overseer caused a great turmoil within the Grey Legion, among his first deeds were: taking initiates and soldiers to Azshara in order to practice their skills on living targets, such targets being caged animals trapped and tortured by Leugim; His harsh and aggressive leadership methods, akin to what he learned with Mol'Tsok; His use of the Grey Legion death knights' necromantic abilities to raise Alliance corpses as ghouls to work for mindless larbor, although approved by the Grey Legion's leadership, met considerable opposition in the lower ranks; Having shaman of the Legion summon elementals to serve as living target dummies during training sessions, one of them being even corrupted by demonic magic by a warlock under orders of Santangelo himself with the excuse of using it to improve the Legion's preparation to face demons, Leugim then ordering that same warlock to summon a demon itself to fight alongside the corrupted elemental against the Legion; Slaughtering Thistlefur furbolgs at Ashenvale in order to submit them into servitude to the Legion during a deployment to the region, the bloodshed of furbolgs was only prevented by an unexpected Alliance invasion to the village, forcing the Legion and the Thistlefur to work together, which eventually ended up developing into a pact of cooperation between the two factions that lasts to this day but not thanks to Leugim's diplomacy.
In most of these occasions, there was a resulting inner commotion within the Legion, most of them would simply not approve of the corpse's methods. While Leugim insisted in saying that he was merely doing what had to be done, the opposition would simply say that it was just mindless and unnecessary violence. Leugim's attitude and planning caused so much trouble that he was even threatened to be removed of the Grey Legion by Commander Lance Topsail, the goblin's words weighted heavily on his mind, more than any of those who protested against him. Leugim was confused, his operations ended in success and without casualties, but even then there would be dire complains, he felt as if he was wrong no matter what he did, the corpse wasn't willing to give in to what he considered to be "petty morals" of the "underlings", but at the same time, he knew there should be a balance between his style of action and the thoughts of others, but it seemed impossible to achieve.
Aside from this, or probably because of it, many soldiers and even initiates had little to no respect for Leugim, which would result in a huge effort to make them work, the corpse put a few punishments into motion in order to make them learn discipline but it was also frowned upon. There were underlings that wouldn't respect him, his methods to deal with it weren't considered proper, Leugim was facing his own inner turmoil in his mind, he felt shackled and at the mercy of those who didn't approve of his leadership methods. Luckily for him, these indisciplinate members weren't the majority of the Legion's manpower, but they still posed a serious problem whenever the corpse had to work with them.
This issue persisted for quite some time, and deep inside him, Leugim suffered, facing it on a nearly daily basis was torture to him, but he never demonstrated it, although he was crumbling in the inside, Leugim would seem the same mentally solid, cruel and harsh Overseer in the outside. Leugim needed help and he knew it, he wasn't willing to ask for it, though, his pride wouldn't allow him and this would only make matters worse. However, the spontaneous advice of several other members in the Legion who didn't oppose him helped mitigate the ever-growing despair within him, to a point.
Serving the Horde well was Santangelo's greatest goal in undeath, but all this was slowly convincing him that he was nothing more than a burden and that, if he truly wished to serve the Horde, his demise would be the best help he would provide. Hours after leading a Grey Legion task force to secure the oil trade routes and escort oil carriers between The Fold, at Stonetalon Mountains, and Silverwind Refuge, at Ashenvale, Leugim ran deep into the forest and turned his communicator off, the ill thoughts about himself had finally consumed his mind. Leugim climbed the highest tree he found with extreme determination, whatever he was going to do, it was meant to be the only proper service to the Horde and the Grey Legion that he could do. Once he reached the highest portion of the huge tree, he looked down, hesitating. But suddenly, guilt would pull the trigger. Arnosh came to Leugim's mind, the orc sacrificed himself in order to bring Santangelo back to life, and now the corpse noticed that, with the "chaos" he was causing, Stripribs' sacrifice was in vain. Leugim shook his head to wash the memories away, he didn't need them anymore, he was certain of what he needed to do, he didn't climb that tree like a pitiful dead monkey for nothing, the corpse let out a low snarl and hurled himself off the tree, expecting that the fall would destroy his body for good, freeing his soul from its link to it and finally ending the ridiculous warmonger that was Leugim Santangelo.
The corpse fell brutally on the ground, his plate armor shattered and the once mighty Futou was reduced to pathetic smithereens, pieces of the plate gear and the Greataxe of the Black Challenger crawling into Leugim's deformed and damaged flesh, bone and organs; His limbs twisted, fragments of broken bones piercing them; the only thing that remained slightly intact was his spine, which had only a few cracks in the boney part, the impact was mostly mitigated thanks to the Cobalt reinforcement and the plate armor taking it before the rest of the body, his face was also saved for he fell on his hindhead, causing severe damage to the back of his skull and neck bone. Leugim attempted suicide, but he didn't die, his body resisted, it was destroyed, but not enough to cause permanent death. The corpse agonized due to his failed attempt, afraid that the Legion would find him and those who didn't see the truth, the ones who didn't oppose him, would find means to repair him, he was unable to move, his body would answer his soul's commands as it was still strongly bound to it, but it was too broken to even make the most basic crawl or roll, Santangelo had no choice but stay there, staring the sky with a hopeless look, awaiting for someone to seal his fate, awaiting his end.
The incredible happened, though. As destiny would have it, Leugim heard a familiar whistling, it was a pandaren in red leather armor, gathering herbs and putting them into a bag while whistling lowly, the pandaren walked from one side to another of the corpse's proximity, up until he finally stumbled on Leugim and fell near him, the pandaren composed himself, complaining of the pain he was feeling in his feet, once he finally looked down to check on the "rock" that caused his tripping, he recognized Leugim, and Leugim recognized him: it was Bojo Kegpaw. Bojo stared the corpse in shock, almost motionless, he tried asking Leugim what happened but the corpse wouldn't speak, merely answering with a blank stare, a stare which Kegpaw saw in the beginning of the year when they first met, the stare of disgrace and defeat of a broken mind, the pandaren took the destroyed corpse in his arms and rushed to Splintertree Post, where a mage friend of his, named Mizaia, was waiting for his return. Mizaia was surprised with Bojo's early return and with his "package", the desperate Huojin monk asked that she opened a portal to the Undercity in order to save a friend, while Leugim grunted and snorted at the notion of making friends post-death, Mizaia nodded at Bojo and promptly opened the portal.
Repair the Body
Bojo, Leugim and the female pandaren mage went from Undercity to Deathknell, where Leugim was left to have his body repaired. Miraculously, Leugim's body, although heavily damaged, didn't need to have any parts replaced, perhaps reinforced with some extra stiching, but not fully replaced. Leugim spent hours having his body readjusted and the pieces of Futou and his armor removed from him, with Bojo and Mizaia watching over him and fending off some nearby newly risen Forsaken that went wild, meanwhile, there was a val'kyr watching everything with her arms crossed, it was Gazorra, she shook her head at the sight, unaware of the reasons behind his current state, but she did say that what they were witnessing and the time that was being lost repairing Leugim was the reason she hesitated into raising him, calling Santangelo nothing but a troublemaker. Bojo swiftly rose his fists and charged at Gazorra in order to shut her up, but was frozen still by Mizaia, who begged that he didn't pay heed to the val'kyr's taunting for the good of his friend shortly after dispelling the ice tomb.
Mizaia and Bojo, who is carrying Leugim, at the Vale of Eternal Blossoms on their way to the Peak of Serenity.
After some long time, Leugim was finally physically well, but his mind was far from such state, he wouldn't talk or barely move properly, the Forsaken who took care of Santangelo then said that the best was to dispose of him, since he grew useless, Gazorra nodded approvingly. Bojo snarled and took the nearly motionless undead in his arms and rested him over his shoulder, his determinate tone saying that Leugim should have never left the Peak of Serenity, and that they would return. Mizaia nodded at Kegpaw and opened a portal to the Shrine of Two Moons, the trio then went to the Peak all the way from the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
Repair the Spirit
Upon reaching the base of the Peak of Serenity, Mizaia bid Bojo goodbye as she wasn't a monk, Kegpaw scoffed and insisted that the mage followed him, stating that the masters would understand the situation, but even then the woman declined and left, though not before saying that she would be at Mistfall Village should he need anything and bidding Bojo and Leugim good luck. Bojo brought Leugim to his arms as he closed his eyes and emptied his mind, a meditative cloud spawning under him the more the pandaren monk concentrated and lifted him to the peak.
As soon as he landed, Bojo called some colleagues for help. Leugim was then given a new leather attire to replace some of his destroyed plate armor, some of the remaining intact parts, such as his pair of boots, were covered by leather in order to match his current vestment, he then spent the rest of the day laying over the floor near the fountain of the Serpent Shrine under the watch of Bojo and other monks who tried to soothe his mind through Mistweaving and standard talk, even though they knew the corpse wouldn't answer any time soon, Bojo said that Leugim couldn't be unconscious, deeming it impossible, a female Forsaken monk then replied that what probably happened to Leugim was something that shook his mind considerably, as they are not free from mental damage and trauma. By the late night of that same day, Leugim made a slight move with his claws and slowly rose to his feet, sighing heavily as he looked at the few monk caretakers that were awoke at the time. The monks cheered and each one of them gave Leugim a light fist jab to the shoulder as a sign of approval of his return, the corpse merely answering them with a nod, pondering about what just happened. After answering the monks' questions about what happened to him, Leugim was approached by one of the mistweavers, who stated that he let himself give in to despair and doubt, the monk and Leugim took a walk around the Peak, the mistweaver explaining to him how the pandaren learned to master their emotions in order to not trigger the Sha and how Leugim's lack of control over such emotions were the only thing that prevented him from being a full monk, Santangelo then mentioned that his small time training could also be a reason, the pandaren chuckled, stating that Leugim not only had a natural talent for it, but his lack of need to sleep also had him train about nine times more than an average apprentice. He said that was imperative that the corpse mastered or at least acquired some stronger control over his emotions, both positive and negative. The mistweaver then said that, since Leugim's kind has been forged in war and fighting, the trials that Leugim would face in the next morning would have him fight his inner demons directly and even literally. On the night of that same day, Leugim put himself into a state of deep meditation for about six hours nonstop in order to prepare himself.
During the morning of the next day, Leugim was called by Bojo, his masters demanded his presence, trials awaited him.