The Diary of Atherya Sunleaf - Entry 4: Silverpine Forest

21st Day of Spring

   Silverpine Forest is a bitter place. There is little healthy life - every other squirrel I have come across is infected by something, and though I had no idea what it was initially, I soon found out, and I've killed them through mercy whenever I've found them since.

   I do not understand the Forsaken. I had always pitied them, and Sylvanas Windrunner especially, since she was once what I was, but since the Lich King fell, they have changed their focus from revenge on a single soul, to revenge on any living thing. I was beside the Dark Lady herself when I witnessed the powers of the Val'kyr she had in her allegience. Human remains lay before us, and after the Touch of the Val'kyr, they rose up and bent their knee to Sylvanas. It felt wrong.

   I had thought that, given their unnatural fate, they wouldn't wish it upon anyone else. I was wrong.

   Not only were they raising the dead, I discovered, but also devising cruel methods of killing. After a few days of travelling, I reached the Forsaken Front, and the battle that was commencing outside of the great Gates of Gilneas. They had great barrels of glowing green...something. I don't truly know what it was, but it certainly wasn't gunpowder, or explosives.

   I watched how carefully everyone - particularly the Orcish guards who were present and, I felt, keeping an eye on the Forsaken - moved near these barrels, and after seeing a curious squirrel get a little too inquisitive towards a spilt puddle from a leaky barrel, I realised just what they were doing.

   I cannot put it on paper, however. I'm still too disturbed to fully put it into words. I begin to wonder just how we can possibly be allied with these monsters.

   The more time that goes by, the more I want for home, though I am admittedly feeling a little better after having left Tirisfal Glades. There was something about the place that made me uncomfortable. It was more than just the Forsaken, and the ever lingering memory of Human civilisation which came from the towering ruins of the old capital city. It was something deeper. Something darker. I can't explain it better than that, but I am in no hurry to go back any time soon.

   The only way, now, is south. I will follow this road from the Forsaken Front and see where I end up. But the further I get from Tirisfal Glades, the better I feel. Anywhere is better than that place.

   I knew I was right not to hope for this place.

-- Atherya Sunleaf