Weldon Barov

Full History

The fall of Lordaeron scattered families and brought down institutions that had stood for generations. House Barov had once been among the kingdom’s wealthiest landowners. Its holdings reached beyond the island of Caer Darrow into settlements such as Brill, Tarren Mill and Southshore. The deeds describing those estates endured even when ordinary security and government had collapsed around them.

The family’s great crime was its bargain with Kel’Thuzad. In hopes of preserving power through immortality, the Barovs allowed their estate and crypts to become a stronghold of the Cult of the Damned. The necromancers transformed the place into Scholomance, where bodies and souls were made into tools for the Scourge. A household that wished to escape death instead provided the setting for its study and propagation.

Weldon escaped that fate as a living man. Yet he did not abandon his ambitions or the expectation that noble birth entitled him to command. His brother Alexi had become one of the undead, and for a time Weldon had an opportunity to destroy him. He spared Alexi’s life and came to regard that decision as a bitter mistake when he discovered that the undead heir still intended to claim the inheritance.

The quarrel turned upon four deeds held within Scholomance: Caer Darrow, Brill, Tarren Mill and Southshore. They represented lands across communities that had been ravaged, abandoned or divided by the wars. The brothers’ demand for these documents had an almost grotesque quality. Even as their country struggled to survive, they measured victory by which heir could possess papers describing an old fortune.

Weldon’s life gives a second view of the Barov tragedy. Alexi shows how the undead could carry human desires into their new existence. Weldon shows that remaining alive was no guarantee of wisdom or generosity. The Barov heirs survived the collapse of their house, but they did not escape the habits that had helped draw it into disaster.