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Caileanmor here, posting as my Death Knight Bannis.

Long story short, I have been slowly developing characters around a broad and perhaps vague story idea involving character types found among the NPCs and Quests of Duskwood, Deadwind Pass, and likely to include also Swamp of Sorrows. I'm presenting the nuts and bolts of this idea to the RP community in good faith to invite with open doors those who might be interested.

You are welcome to contact me in whatever manner you see fit, IC or OOC, on whichever Alt you know me by or find me on, and join this budding RP in whatever capacity you so choose. It has already been active in one capacity or another for several months now, and rest assured I will be expanding and molding it for months to come on my own. However I very much enjoy the creative process, constructive collaboration with like-minded creators and players, and a reasonably healthy dose of imagination along with respectful flexibility where creative differences are concerned.

Phew! That was a mouth full.

A word on arguing, since it comes with being respectfully flexible. We all need an avenue in which we present ideas. They will not always be popular or understood in the same manner and so I welcome the healthy debate of these ideas (in other words a "respectful argument", which in any opinion is void of insult or offense) as I believe it is a good tool to foster creativity and establish understanding. So check most of your ego at the door, but not all of it. A small bit of ego is still important as it makes us bold in our creations and proud of them.

See what I did there? *snicker* I put "bold" in bold...
Ahem...

So please. Feel free to join me if you wish and together we'll see what fun and exciting dark adventures we can scare up! :D

Final note: This RP isn't intended to be boxed and self contained. I welcome and encourage it's use and ties into other stories. Feel free to include whatever portion you wish in the weaving of your own tapestry.

Alrighty. On to those nuts and bolts I mentioned...
**Yea, I get wordy and descriptive. I'll try and do a TL:DR near the end of all of this for you.

I love Karazhan. I love the lore behind it, the mystery surrounding it. I love to solo it from time to time on my alts and simply explore the instance, appreciating the sheer artistry that went behind its creation. From time to time I have imagined various characters and the sorts of stories that might filter from such a place. I've never wanted to be a Lord of the Ivory Tower, but instead experience some of its wonder through the eyes of a certain servant or guest. I've also wanted to explore what it might be like for one of my own characters to explore the tower and surrounding ruins. What would they find? What mysteries might unfold? What power, artifact or secret might still be hoarded away in some undiscovered vault?

To this end I began devouring anything and everything I could find on the tower, which inevitably led me into Duskwood and Deadwind Pass. I latched onto the lore of the Dark Riders and in their spirit I created Bannis, the cursed Death Knight, and formed (admittedly for my own vanity) a guild called the Horsemen of Karazhan. I had some lofty ideas, but they were brought down to reality when I discovered the story endorsed by Blizzard that defined the Dark Riders of Duskwood as mere cursed merchants. Mildly interesting, but ultimately disappointing since I had aggrandized the mysterious Riders as something akin to Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings. Boy did I feel silly. Still, it is an interesting background. Just not the background I wanted for Bannis.

I then turned to the lore of the first Death Knights. The ones created by Gul'dan after he and his warlocks slaughtered the formidable Knights of Azeroth, crushing the Brotherhood of the Horse. He then defiled their corpses by raising them as Death Knights. How cool is that! I thought. Perhaps Bannis was one of them and later he.... Nope! It says right here that Gul'dan sacrificed his warlocks and used their souls to create the Death Knights....so in essence those first Death Knights were simply Orc souls inside corrupted human shells. Eh. I'm not big on Bannis having an Orcish soul. I'd much rather he retained his original much like the ones from Acherus...but have him not "be" from Acherus. Hmmm. I'm mulling it over at this point.

I eventually sidelined the matter and fixate on the Brotherhood of the Horse. I still find it interesting that its theorized that they might have used Karazhan as a kind of base to stable their horses, seeing as how there is a rather large stable of undead horses, caretakers, and even a Horseman Boss (Attumen the Huntsman) who strangely enough looks a lot like the Horseman in the Death Knight starter storyline that rewards you with your Death Charger mount. His name was Salanar the Horseman, who oddly enough was the leader of the Dark Riders of Acherus! Hmmm. Interesting. Whether or not they were intended to be, my mind started pulling these little threads together.

TL:DR
I love Karazhan, and I'm pulling bits and pieces of lore together to formulate a premise for RP that is interesting to me.

Continued in the next post....

Spiel continued...
TL:DR at the bottom.

I understand that Medivh sucked the Tower dry of all its power when he returned from the dead, then an extradimensional demon set up shop there when BC came out. Now it apparently lays dormant and relatively empty since our heroes kicked the door in during BC and had their way with it. But what if the Ivory Tower wasn't sucked "completely" dry. What if it still had power to impart, treasures to award, and secrets to reveal at its own discretion? It is a mysterious and rather enigmatic place after all.

I'm setting my premise upon the assumption that the Tower infact is still very much "alive". I am treating it as its own character, giving it the respect I feel it deserves. TheTower is beholden only to the one powerful enough to claim it. As far as we know Medivh was the first but it is possible that there were others before him (we just don't know), and Prince Malchezaar was the second. When either of them occupied it the Tower availed itself to them. Not only lending them its powers, secrets, treasures and wealth but also its servants of every sort. Side note: Medivh was a dirty kinky man. Now that the Tower is unoccupied, it has closed itself down, calling all of its servants in to protect it, its hoards, its secrets, but also its lands and yes its interests. More on that in a sec...

I know the lore behind Duskwood and its darkness and the origins of its Worgen. That said, clearly Karazhan has a tie to Darkshire if you note the similar names of certain NPCs in the ballroom and dining hall. I also feel it has a connection to the Knights of Azeroth (Brotherhood of the Horse) due to the ample stables and the horse architecture in those lower areas. Thin though they may be, it is enough to build something upon. Therefore I am drawing a conclusion that Karazhan and Duskwood are linked in some unknowable fashion. Everything that has happened to Duskwood may not be coincidental nor an accident. That's the assumption.

So, what if the Tower (in its own way) has claimed Lower Elwynn (Duskwood) as its own. Include Deadwind Pass and you have yourself a small kingdom. I am unfamiliar with the Swamp of Sorrows lore to be honest, but I'm sure some sort of link could be made to it. Including the swamp, now you have a rather sprawling mysterious kingdom, guarded by all manner of monsters and aberrations, ruled over by a strange mysterious sometimes omnipotent entity that is Karazhan. It has a will of its own. How and why, who knows, but there it is.

TL:DR
Karazhan is treated as a character by itself and may be responsible for all the crap that has happened to Duskwood and therefore Duskwood, Deadwind, and Swamp of Sorrows are all under its influence, protection, control, etc.

TL:DR at the end.

So! How does Bannis and this vanity guild fit into all of this?

First off, this isn't a guild recruiting...whatever... If you'd like to join the guild, cool, if not no biggie. I'm not going to preclude you from participating in any measure for not joining. That said, the name of the guild will certain change soon since imo it now includes more than simply the Horsemen of Karazhan. I may just simply call it Karazhan, but idk. The name is a work in progress.

The RP premise of the guild will be roughly this. <the guild heretofore named> serves the mysterious entity of Karazhan.

Bannis is a Death Knight that serves the Tower as a mysterious Dark Rider. He roams Duskwood, Deadwind, and the Swamp, protecting the land in whatever way the Tower directs him and carrying out whatever deeds the Tower deems necessary. He is both Key Master and Gate Keeper who protects the Tower itself when needed. He is not alone. There are several others Death Knights (Dark Riders, Horsemen, etc) like him with similar duties, though not every Death Knight serves the Tower in the same way. Bannis is just one example.

The overall RP (and not just that of the guild) is themed around dark characters and their stories. Worgen of all classes, Warlocks of all races, Shadow Priests, Death Knights and just in general dark characters. There is no need to be tied to or originate from Duskwood.

I have other details, but they are more guild and character related. The thing that I am attempting to illustrate here is that I have derived my characters and guild from this RP premise I have built around Karazhan (Duskwood, Deadwind, Swamp). If you find it interesting, feel free to join me in the expansion of this idea or just chat with me about it :D. Respond however you wish to this thread (preferably with respect). It is not a finished nor a polished concept, but its something; and as I said earlier I will be continuously adding, subtracting, and molding this in hopes that #1 I learn better how to do this and #2 that I can provide a little something back to the community.

I hope you enjoyed!

TL:DR
Karazhan rules over the darkness of Deadwind, Duskwood, and Swamp of Sorrows. Take, use, interpret that how you'd like, I just hope it can bolster your own RP in a way and perhaps scare up some stories that use or in part dovetail into these areas, thus enrichening the community RP lore we players create for ourselves. I also presented an idea for my characters and a guild based on this premise, merely for an example (a showcase if you will) and not as a recruitment bid. I hope to hear from you all.

To answer your bit about the Swamp of Sorrows: Prior to the opening of the Dark Portal, the entire region was a big festering marsh - the current Swamp of Sorrows and the region known as the Black Morass (seen in the Caverns of Time dungeon of the same name) to the south of it, where Medivh opened the Dark Portal on the Azeroth side, in conjunction with Gul'dan and the Shadow Council at the Stair of Destiny in Hellfire Peninsula. (Most likely to hide the evidence of how the orcs arrived on Azeroth, given that the Dark Portal was not discovered until after the Battle of Blackrock Spire.) The blasted landscape of Hellfire, caused by the collective corruption of the entire orcish species - and likely their stripping the place of all valuable resources, since Warlords indicates the Hellfire region was a jungle pre-Horde - seemed to take hold in the region around the Portal, forming the Blasted Lands we see today. The crater where the Dark Portal is now was caused by the destruction of the original portal by Khadgar.

The first two orcish settlements on Azeroth were founded in the region - Stonard, rebuilt as a Horde outpost in the Swamp of Sorrows, and Rockard, taken over by ogres and now called Dreadmaul Hold, recently taken by Garrosh's forces during the Cataclysm. After the fall of the original portal, Nethergarde was built to keep watch over the Dark Portal and to prevent the corruption that resulted in the Blasted Lands from spreading further.

*ears perk up*
I thought the Lore behind the Tower was that Medivh himself erected Karazhan as sort of his fortress of seclusion that he might pursue his.. hobbies... as he saw fit without being disturbed by the common folk, or anyone who thought to meddle in his affairs.
I know there's a lot of magic surrounding the place, and there seems to be a big nod toward some extra-dimensional tinkering.
Can you tell I love KZ too? It's my favorite raid in the game.
I've been meaning to intrude ICly into the Tower to gain access to the Library. Ket's a lot like me, in that she can't get enough knowledge. Her pursuit of knowledge about the Burning Legion and the Titans keeps her particularly occupied.
Now. to find some excuse to pull myself away from Pandaria...

@Rakeri
Thanks for that info :) All very interesting. Much of it strikes me as familiar, like I might have glanced over it at some point, somewhere, but I hadn't yet drawn that correlation between the Black Morass and Blasted Lands. I haven't yet done the Caverns of Time instance. Makes sense though seeing as how there is a splinter at the south of the Blasted Lands zone with a flight point and quest hub that could fit the Black Morass description fairly well...as if it were a corrupted remnant of what was once there. *scratches chin* Hmm. Perhaps then I could include the Blasted Lands in this as well. Food for thought!

@Ketryu
Yep! :D The Last Guardian (a Blizzard endorsed story) mentions that the Pass itself was created by a huge explosion that weakened the fabric of reality in that area. The Tower was built later. No one knows by whom, but Medivh mentions in the book that it sits above a nexus of ley lines, so it was likely built to take advantage of that. He does muse at some point that it was as if the tower and everything was built so that he could use it, but I also seem to remember that he says something to the effect that he was not its first occupier and he will not be its last. Or something to that effect. Maybe I'm miss-remembering that last part. I'll have to re-search my lore again :P
The book also mentions that the pass or the area resembles a skull, but I have yet to see that in-game. Perhaps that bit was solely for the story.

Edit:
Along those lines, I have also considered something interesting and sorta mind bending.

When considered as a whole the inside of the tower is vastly bigger than it appears on the outside, suggesting to me that when you enter you unknowingly step into another reality altogether. The top of the tower where the Prince is encountered also twists through dimensions and appears to open up somewhere into the Twisting Nether. There is even a citadel floating in the distance similar to the ones floating just off Netherstorm in Outland. Given the existence of a place like the Caverns of Time, I see no reason why this area can't have something both interdimensional and time-bending going on.
It's entirely possible to me that there exist multiple Towers across multiple dimensional realms and time streams that converge at this very point. So the Tower Medivh drained could have been different from the Tower he actually inhabited, and different still from the one we see today. Or perhaps they are the same tower, just experienced at different points in an ever shifting time stream.

*shrug* Its a wild supposition, but not outside the realm of possibility for WoW.

I actually have not read that one. I need to get my paws on a lot of the older books. I've read Rise of the Horde, Arthas:Rise of the Lich King, the War of the Ancients trilogy, the Theramore book and I am always catching up on the short stories they add here, on the official website.
It did always strike me that KZ was so much bigger on the inside (like a certain blue box). Though, honestly, I just swept that aside as an in-game thing. My knowledge of the Tower itself is sketchy at best. I focus mainly on the primary Lore that affects current gameplay and anything to do with the Burning Legion.
Perhaps we'll see KZ revisited? I know there was something on MMO Champion about them cleaning it up, but I never bothered to follow that to any conclusions.
I imagine you'll find plenty of Mages, Warlocks and generally ne'er-do-well characters drawn to the area, especially because of the ley activity. That much power condensed into one area tends to breed all sorts of conflict (like we saw in Coldarra during poor Malygos' madness).

I believe Last Guardian mentioned there is a "mirror image" of Karazhan, exact same as the tower - going DOWNWARDS. Supposedly, this was Medivh's innermost sanctum.

@Ketyru
Yes, I hope that they do revisit it :) I also hope that they can manage to keep the lvl 70 raid in tact as it is and simply make it a selection like "Heroic", "5 man", "10 man", "Original". Its sad to me when they revamp an instance and we lose the original. But I'm nostalgic like that, I guess. :/

@Ketiron
I've heard of that and read a little on it. It had been supposed by some that the Crypt we're barred from entering was suppose to resemble that, but the idea was either scrapped or just tabled for unknown reasons. That's another place I wish they'd finish and open.

Oh gods, if they Zul'Aman KZ.. I might die... A heroic level 100 version would be cool, if they could somehow make it y'know.. feasible... I can't see a reason to sto---
*epiphany*
OH!
We're going back into an altered Timeline! Medivh will be THERE. ALIVE. Holy crap! HOLY CRAP! *bounces with excitement* Omg, do you think we're gonna raid Kara to turn Medivh to our side or kill him before he can open the Dark Portal?! *squeeeeee!*

*mind explodes*

That would be AWESOME! Good thinking Ket! I can't wait to see :D