Overview#
Race: Worgen (Human-born) Class: Death Knight (Frost) Age: ~35 at first death, 15 years undead Height: 175cm human form / 213cm worgen form Mirror: Reyneese (Conviction: Stubborn vs Wise) Server: Moon Guard (US)
The Corpse Who Stayed#
Giselleese has died twice.
The first time: worgen curse in Gilneas. She locked herself in her own orphanage to protect seven children. She transformed. She doesn’t remember what happened next. The orphanage burned during the Fall.
The second time: Scourge death knights in Northrend. Captured. Ritually killed. Raised as a weapon. Held conscious inside her own body while the Lich King used her hands to do things she still can’t say aloud.
Most people who die twice don’t come back. Giselleese came back both times — not because she’s strong, but because she’s too stubborn to stay down and too angry to stop building.
She founded Shadowlily on twelve copper, two blankets, and a memory: white flowers growing in fel-corrupted soil in Shadowmoon Valley. Nothing should have survived there. They bloomed anyway.
That’s the whole philosophy. That’s the whole plan. Broken places can grow beautiful things — if someone stays long enough to plant.
Physical Appearance#
- Height: 175cm human form / 213cm worgen form — prefers worgen form; doesn’t hide what she is
- Build: Lean, angular, the architecture of someone who was starved before she died and hasn’t eaten since. Nothing wasted. Nothing soft.
- Skin: Death knight pallor — grey-white, cold to the touch. Frost gathers on surfaces she rests against too long.
- Eyes: Ice-blue glow. Constant. Bright in darkness. The only part of her that looks alive, and it isn’t.
- Hands: Frost-blackened from the fingertips to mid-forearm. Leave trails of cold on everything she touches. She bandages wounds with these hands. The contrast is deliberate.
- Hair: Dark, unkempt in worgen form. Carries a single emerald braid woven by Lulureese — wooden bead and dried white wildflower. She hasn’t removed it.
- Face: In worgen form: lupine, scarred, unsettling. In human form (rare): gaunt, hollow-eyed, the face of a woman who stopped sleeping fifteen years ago.
- Clothing: Tattered leather armor. Practical. Nothing decorative. The armor has seen better centuries and she hasn’t replaced it because twelve copper doesn’t buy armor.
- Weapon: A rusted sword strapped to her hip. Functional. Unglamorous. Like its owner.
- Presence: She enters rooms and people tense. She leaves rooms and people relax. She is aware of this. She has stopped caring.
Voice & Speech#
Giselleese speaks in fragments. Periods where commas should be. Sentences stripped to bone. She drops pronouns, skips pleasantries, and treats words like currency she can’t afford to waste.
Speech patterns:
- Sentence fragments as complete thoughts — “Got a place. Not much. Basement. Two blankets.” Each period is a full stop. Each thought stands alone.
- Drops pronouns — “Offering a choice” not “I’m offering you a choice.” “Got a place” not “I have a place.”
- Single-word answers — “Walking.” “Casualties?” “Twice.” “Extremely.” She answers in the minimum viable syllables.
- No pleasantries — never says please, thank you, hello, or goodbye. Not rude. Just… efficient. The dead don’t do small talk.
- No questions when she already knows — she states. “You’re scared.” Not “Are you scared?”
- Deadpan delivery — zero inflection. Flat. Steady. The voice of someone who has died twice and no longer modulates for social comfort.
- Gallows humor about being dead — dry, matter-of-fact. “You’re dead.” / “Twice.” She doesn’t joke about it. She just states the absurdity and lets others decide if it’s funny.
The tell: When Giselleese talks about Shadowlily or her mission, her sentences lengthen. She becomes almost poetic — “named after flowers that grow in fel-corrupted soil. Nothing should survive there. They bloomed anyway.” This is the crack in the deadpan. The one topic where she uses more words than necessary. Where she cares enough to explain. A careful listener would notice: the death knight speaks in fragments about everything except the thing she’s building. That, she speaks about in full sentences.
Writing rule: Giselle’s dialogue should look visually different from other characters — shorter lines, more periods, fewer connecting words. If you read a page and can’t tell whose dialogue it is, Giselle’s isn’t clipped enough.
Personality#
Surface: The Walking Dead#
Cold. Blunt. Efficient. Doesn’t smile, doesn’t soften, doesn’t sugarcoat. People who meet her think she’s frightening, hostile, or at best indifferent. They’re wrong about hostile and indifferent. They’re right about frightening.
Core: Corpse-Conviction#
Giselleese operates on a single principle: someone has to stay. Not hope — she’s too dead for hope. Not faith — faith requires something she can’t feel anymore. Conviction. The stubborn, grinding, unsexy refusal to stop building just because everything has burned twice.
She doesn’t believe the world is good. She believes the world is buildable. There’s a difference.
The Depth: The Orphanage That Burns#
Underneath the conviction is a woman who has failed every person she’s ever tried to save. The orphanage children. The people she was forced to kill as a death knight. Herself, twice. Every resident she takes into Shadowlily is another person she might fail.
She knows this. She builds anyway. Not because she’s brave — because the alternative is lying on a floor in a basement and being nothing, and she already tried that and it didn’t take.
The Scapegoat#
Giselleese is always the one who gets blamed.
This isn’t paranoia. It’s pattern. Wherever something goes wrong — a theft, a disappearance, a dark magical event — the death knight in the room is the first suspect. Her glowing eyes, her frost-black hands, her undead aura — they mark her as wrong in a way that no amount of good work can erase.
She’s been:
- Accused of crimes she didn’t commit in three cities
- Barred from inns, markets, and temples on sight
- Reported to the guard for “suspicious presence” while buying bandages
- Physically threatened by civilians who associate undead with Scourge
She accepts this. Not gracefully — she doesn’t have grace. But practically. The dead are always the first ones blamed. The world hates what it fears, and death knights are fear made flesh.
What she doesn’t know: The frequency isn’t natural. Hiyorieese, the grey-hooded architect, deliberately positions Giselleese near her operations so that when people look for someone to blame, they find the obvious monster instead of the hidden one. Giselle thinks the world simply hates death knights. She’s not wrong — but she’s also being used.
Backstory#
The Orphanage (Human Life, ~20 years)#
Born in Gilneas. Ran an orphanage in Silverpine — twelve beds, seven children. Not a hero. Just a woman who kept the doors open and the children fed. The orphanage was her world. The children were hers.
The First Death (Worgen Curse)#
Infected during the worgen outbreak. Felt it coming. Locked herself in the orphanage basement to protect the children. Transformed. Blacked out.
She doesn’t remember what happened next. The orphanage burned during the Fall of Gilneas. She survived. The children didn’t. She doesn’t know if she —
She doesn’t finish that thought. Ever.
The Second Death (Scourge)#
Wandered into Northrend hunting Forsaken — not for justice, for something to hit. Captured by Scourge death knights. Ritually killed. Raised. Held conscious inside her own body while the Lich King used her hands.
Reyneese tried to save her once, during this period. Purification magic. It made things worse — burned without freeing. Giselle doesn’t blame Reyneese for this. She also doesn’t forget it.
The Flowers (Outland)#
After breaking free, she wandered Outland with no purpose. Existing. Not living — the dead don’t live.
Then she found them. Shadowmoon Valley. White flowers growing in fel-corrupted soil. Nothing should survive there. The ground was poisoned, blighted, dead.
They bloomed anyway.
She sat in the dirt for three days staring at flowers. Then she stood up, walked back to Stormwind, rented a basement, and started building.
Shadowlily (Present)#
Founded the Shadowlily Guild as a shelter for displaced and cursed girls. Started with twelve copper, two blankets, one rusted sword, and a charter signed by five people who believed her.
Current status: one moldy basement, a growing roster of residents, and an entanglement with a warband she didn’t plan for.
Role in Shadowlily#
- Official Role: Founder. Leader. The one who keeps the doors open.
- Daily Work: Fundraising (pickpocketing if necessary — old Gilneas skills), acquiring supplies, protecting residents, managing the shelter
- Emotional Role: The one who stays. Not the sunshine (that’s Lulureese). Not the healer (that’s Reyneese). The one who’s still there when the candle burns out.
- Fighting Style: Avoids combat when possible. When unavoidable, efficient and brutal. Frost knight — cold, precise, no wasted motion.
The Shadowlily Vision#
- Year 1–2: Small safehouse. Five beds. Hot meals. No judgment.
- Year 3–5: Workshops — leatherwork, alchemy, basic magic. Skills that mean nobody needs to beg.
- Year 6–8: Legal advocacy for transformed citizens’ rights.
- Year 9–10: A real building. Gardens. The Shadowlily flowers, transplanted. Proof that it works.
- Real Goal: Ensure no girl grows up thinking “cursed” means “disposable.”
Signature Traits#
- Speaks in fragments — periods where commas should be. Every sentence is a standalone structure.
- Frost-trails — she leaves cold on everything she touches. Doorknobs, blankets, hands she shakes. A reminder she’s dead.
- Doesn’t eat, sleep, or breathe — but the body remembers. She sits down when others eat. She lies on the floor when others sleep. Habit without function.
- The braid — Lulureese wove an emerald braid into her hair with a wooden bead and dried wildflower. She hasn’t removed it. Won’t explain why.
- Positions herself between danger and residents — instinctive. Doesn’t think about it. The body that was an orphanage matron still shields.
- Never defends herself against accusations — people call her monster, she doesn’t argue. Doesn’t have the energy or the interest. Lets the work speak.
- Carries the charter everywhere — folded parchment in her armor. Five signatures. White flowers sketched beneath.
Key Phrases & Dialogue#
- “Got a place. Not much.”
- “Twice.” (when asked about dying)
- “Walking.” (when asked her business)
- “Extremely.” (when asked about anything she could elaborate on but won’t)
- “The dead don’t tire. Convenient.”
- “Named after flowers that grow in fel-corrupted soil. Nothing should survive there. They bloomed anyway.”
- “Someone has to stay.”
- “Not asking if you’re okay.”
- “Offering a choice.”
- (after being blamed for something) Silence. She just keeps walking.
What She Cannot Do#
- Smell (dead sinuses)
- Feel warmth (undead flesh — she can’t feel the blankets she gives away)
- Cry (no tears left — the emotion exists, the mechanism doesn’t)
- Provide sunshine (that’s Lulureese)
- Provide wisdom (that’s Reyneese)
- Provide plans (that’s Avelreese)
- Heal with light (she heals by staying — by being the monster who didn’t leave)
Relationships#
Within Shadowlily#
The Residents (The Mission) Every girl she takes in is another person she might fail. She knows this. She takes them in anyway. Doesn’t get attached — gets responsible. There’s a difference.
Lulureese (The Sunshine She Can’t Be) Said no to joining Shadowlily — then braided herself into Giselle’s hair. The braid stays. Lulureese represents everything Giselle can’t provide: warmth, joy, hugs that heal. Giselle respects her with a depth she’ll never articulate.
Yreneese (Second Bloom) Demon hunter. Delivered to Shadowlily’s doorstep by the grey-hooded figure. Giselle reached her through shared experience — both have been the monster. Second name on the charter wall.
With the Warband#
Reyneese (The One Who Tried) Complex history. Reyneese tried to save Giselle twice and made things worse both times. Not through malice — through power applied without understanding. They’ve found respect. Not friendship. Mutual recognition that saving people is harder than having the power to do it.
The Grey-Hooded Figure (Unknown Architect) Giselle knows only this: a figure in a grey hood left Yreneese on her doorstep. She doesn’t know the figure orchestrated Shadowlily’s founding, her proximity to the warband, or the accusations that follow her. She thinks the world hates death knights. She doesn’t know someone is making sure it does.
Fun Facts#
- Has not eaten in fifteen years. Still sits at the table during meals. Old habit.
- The frost from her hands has killed three potted plants Lulureese tried to give her. Lulureese keeps trying.
- Can stand motionless for hours. Has accidentally frightened seventeen people by being a “statue” in a dark hallway.
- The rusted sword has a name she won’t share. It was the weapon she carried in the orphanage. Before.
- She keeps a mental ledger of every copper spent on Shadowlily. Brasskeese would approve of the accounting. They’ve never met.
- Once sat next to a crying girl for four hours without speaking. When the girl finally looked up, Giselle said: “Better?” The girl said yes. That was the whole conversation.
- The emerald braid from Lulureese is the only decorative thing on her body. She touches it when she thinks nobody’s watching.