The grove was illuminated by the soft glow of Elune, her moonlight peeking through the thick canopy of Ashenvale to gently caress the grave markers. The forest itself was serene, with barely the ambient sound of rustling foliage or wildlife to disturb the peace of this place.

Tharion Greyseer, demon hunter of the night elven people, knelt in the center of the opening. He wore his traditional garb: a loose fitting kilt hung from his waist, a single piece of armor rested upon his right shoulder, a blood red mask covered his face from nose to mouth and sat below one of the worn blindfolds that were tied over a demon hunter’s burned out eyes. Upon the Greyseer’s back was a single weapon—a large blade emblazoned with firey runes. It was the former weapon of an old orcish blademaster.

The moonlight fell around him, highlighting the places of the dead, but it did not fall directly onto his exposed upper body. Indeed, Tharion’s felsight barely noticed this, for it only picked up the violent glowing auras of demonic and arcane magics. The rest of the world, the mundane world, appeared muted and hollow.

Grave markers were placed in a semi-circle around him. Some of these were the weapons used by fallen students—glaives, swords, and daggers alike—forced into the ground to mark the places of rest. Others, however, were merely wooden posts with a tattered blindfold tied ceremoniously around the shaft. And still others were simple stones, a ritual pattern painted on the smooth surface in ink. Tharion’s eyeless gaze passed over each of them, the names crawling out of the depths of memory.

Above him, in the ancient trees of the the Ashenvale forest, hung paper ribbons. Each of these had a different name scrawled upon them, the names of those who did not survive their training. The banners were for those who died dishonorably; those who fell to the corrupting influence of the fel magic.  They were given no stone nor wooden post, but they were still remembered.

All needed to be remembered.

Once a year, during the season of Hallow’s End, Tharion visited this place of fallen students. Hallow’s End was a time to cast away the old, to burn away the bad things of the past, and to hope for a better future. For Tharion Greyseer, it was a time to honor those fallen and remember the sacrifices made.  He was often alone in his remembrance.

They had been equally alone in their deaths.

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