Many years ago...
There was a battallion in the Stormwind Army, the 4th Infantry Battallion. To disorient spies, all the battallions had aliases like Bravery, Righteousness and so on. The 4th Infantry Battallion was also known as Justice.
The First War
Justice was serving at Redridge Mountains during that time, low-manned and on guard duty. One day, three men spotted a most peculiar creature approaching from the south. It roared at them fierecly and waved a huge battleaxe. Its skin was dark green and its eyes glowed red with rage. Within an instant, one of the guards was beheaded by the charging creature. After a fierce fight, the remaining two managed to bring it down with precise cuts. Wing-clipped, the creature was unable to move, was restrained by ropes, and then brought to the headquarters in Stonewatch Keep.
It appeared that the creature could talk, but only in a most foreign language. A skilled interrogator and a scholar were called in to see what they could get out of the creature. After a long night, a pale-faced, trembling scholar came out of the torture chamber. All he had found out was that the creature called itself an Orc and that it appeared to belong to some huge army, more like a vast Horde.
Messengers were sent at that instant to warn Stormwind and scouts were sent to confirm the Orcs' statements.
More orcs were seen along the borders of the Black Morass. Their numbers were vast. Soon enough, nearly the whole Stormwind Army was assembled, and Justice itself was fully manned. Within days, a Horde force of gargantuan proportions appeared on the horizon marching against Stormwind. A long battle followed, but the defenses held, and few orcs survived. A blinding mist appeared to the southeast, and the remaining orcs retreated, pursuers being unable to follow.
Not too long afterwards, the Horde had regrouped and started systematically to destroy human settlements closer to the Morass. The defending battallions could not move fast enough to defend a town in full capacity. Justice was positioned in Northshire Valley, building defenses around the holy chapel. News of defeat from retreating remnants of other battallions came to the Justice; Grand Hamlet, Sunnyglade, Moonbrook and Goldshire had fallen. The orders were strict. Hold ground and do not let the orcs enter Northshire.
One night the Justice had a most unexpected visitor. Lord Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Stormwind, rode through that evening with a few of his knights. He asked for assistance and a few troops to accompany him to the tower of Karazhan, in Deadwind Pass. The sorcerer Medivh, it appeared, was the reason of the orcs onslaught, and the betrayer had to be slain before he could cause further damage to mankind. Four troops of men left with him, but only two returned, shaken to the bone by the horrors of Karazhan, never to be the same again.
Medivh was slain, but the Horde forces advanced. Soon, they were upon Stormwind once more, but the confident defenders were sure they would manage to hold off the orcs one more time. However, it was not to be so. This time, the full might of the Horde was behind the assault, and with the sheer numbers and force of the huge army, the Horde knocked down the defenses. Stormwind had fallen and was destroyed. The last order the Justice received was to secure the refugees and take them north, to Lordaeron.
The Second War
The survivors of the Kingdom of Stormwind sailed across the sea, aided by the military navy nation of Kul Tiras. They made their way to King Terenas Menethil II of Lordaeron, seeking help and warning him of the Orcish Horde. The Seven Kingdoms stood now united, awaiting the Horde's battleships and legions to arrive from the south. Justice was assigned to the Arathi Highlands, and now had it's new headquarters at the city of Stromgarde. It was at that time that a young Spartian, future Commander of the Circle of Justice, and a number of others were found on a small boat of unknown origin by a patrolling Kul Tiras battleship.
Soon enough, Justice got requests of help from the Dwarves, the Horde had invaded Khaz Modan with huge forces, and were using Red Dragons to scorch battlements and other defenses. The Commander of the Justice consulted the Wildhammer Dwarves at Aerie Peak, and with new information, Justice assembled it's full strength and moved south, over the Thandol Span.
The trek through the marshlands was relatively quiet, and Justice reached the Algaz Pass very soon, defeating the Orc guards stationed by the abandoned dwarven guardtowers. No dragons were sighted, so the whole thought was dismissed as a desperate idea for a more dire plead of help. Pressing onwards, Justice arrived in a landscape dominated by a large lake. They had almost reached Dun Morogh, where the dwarven capital of Ironforge was located. The orcs were being surrounded. With victory in mind, the Justice Commander lead the force onward.
However, in a treacherous pass, almost at the border of Dun Morogh, they were ambushed. Fifteen Red Dragons and riders poured over the mountains, and orcish archers appeared at vantage points all around. A large gate shut before the tunnel in front of the Justice, and a force of huge orc warriors closed in on them from behind. The battle began...
From all sides, Justice suffered heavy losses, causing only minimal damage to the Horde. In the middle of the chaos, a small group of troops lead by the young knight Spartian, tried to hold ground against a party of large orcs with warhammers. The orcs were taken down, but more appeared to be coming from behind a hill. Suddenly the humans were pulled aside into a small, almost invisible canyon, just as the Red Dragons breathed fire on the army, incinerating every single man in the field.
Only Spartian and his troops stayed alive, rescued by the mysterious small beings. The small ones appeared to be dwarves, and they motioned to the survivors of the Justice to follow them down below the earth. They travelled far within small tunnels, until they reached a chamber of sorts. The leader of the dwarves introduced himself and the others as Ironforge Mountaineers. There were also creatures even smaller than the dwarves, that were called Gnomes. The leader of the Mountaineers started explaining events to Spartian and his men, and it became clear that no dwarf had sent a call for help from the Humans at any point. The dwarves did have a thought or two to share about who might be behind all this, though.
A black dragon called Neltharion, also known as Deathwing, or Deathwing the Destroyer, had long assisted the Horde and given the leader Nekros Skullcrusher of the present orc clan, the Dragonmaw Clan, a powerful artifact that he controlled the Red Dragons with. Deathwing must have sent false messengers to the Human Commander, also enthralling him, and leading the whole battallion to its undoing. However, a young mage called Rhonin was seen around the Dragonmaw fortress at Grim Batol, so the Dalaran Mages were involved. Something was bound to happen.
A few days later, with the humans gaining new allies among the dwarves, they got word that the Dragonmaw were retreating, their fortress destroyed after a series of events caused by the young Rhonin. Immediate action had to be taken, since Nekros had fled with a caravan, containing the Red Dragon Mother, Alexstrasza. The humans and dwarves rallied to positions for an ambush on the caravan.
The ambush was successful, and in the battle Nekros was slain by Rhonin and the dragon-mage Krasus. The artifact of power, called the Demon Soul, was destroyed, and Alexstrasza was set free. Deathwing appeared on the sky, and fought against other mighty dragons, and, to the awe and horror of the humans and dwarves, a huge Red Dragon was slain and sent crushing down to the earth. Deathwing was chased away, but the presence of his malice left its marks in everyone.
Soon news of the Alliance's progress came from the north. Tol Barad, Dun Modr and Algaz had been taken, and the Horde was rapidly losing ground.
Spartian rallied the remaining humans and volunteer dwarves and gnomes, and formed a military organization, which he called the Circle of Justice. They were no longer part of the official Alliance Army, since they did not meet the requirements of a full battallion, but they joined in with the forces and assisted in the battles. The Circle of Justice took part in many swift hit-and-run attacks against the Horde. In the Battle for Blackrock Spire, the Circle of Justice was not involved, but was sent on a mission to take out the supply lines behind the enemy, in the Swamp of Sorrows. The orcish town of Rockard was destroyed.
Supreme Allied Commander, Lord Anduin Lothar, was slain in the Battle for Blackrock Spire, and his second-in-command, the paladin Turalyon, took over. After a long battle, the Horde was defeated at Blackrock Spire.
It's warchief, Orgrim Doomhammer, was sent into exile, and the remaining horde routed and sent to prison camps.
The Alliance advanced to the Blasted Lands, to seal the forsaken Dark Portal forever. But there was one slight problem. It couldn't be sealed properly from the Azeroth side. So, five heroes gathered their troops and went through. Lead by Turalyon, assisted by Alleria Windrunner, the Archmage Khadgar - who used to be Medivh's apprentice, Kurdran of the Wildhammer Clan and his gryphon, Sky'ree, and last but not least Danath Trollbane, direct descendant of the Arathi King Thoradin Trollbane.
Khadgar was assured that if he sealed the portal from the Draenor side of it, it could securely be destroyed from the Azeroth side. The Circle of Justice had received reports of a huge black dragon going through the Dark Portal, and wished to join the heroic army to Draenor, to confront Deathwing. Turalyon's response was negative.
The Circle of Justice was to remain in Azeroth, keep watch over the gateway, assist the mages of Dalaran in building and maintaining a fortress, Nethergarde Keep, and in case something went wrong and creatures appeared from the gate again, fight them with full force and once again, warn Stormwind.
Khadgar's plan succeeded, and the Dark Portal was made inactive. Stormwind was rebuilt, and the Circle of Justice made it's home in Nethergarde Keep, adding various constructions and an additional keep building. They fought against the ogres that had fled to the mountains after the Horde's defeat, and assisted the mages of Dalaran in various tasks and research about the situation of the Dark Portal.
Today
Since then, the Circle of Justice became a military guild, keeping the military ranks from the battallion, Commander, Marshal, Soldier, Reserve... The guild has bolstered it's ranks with more capable men and women, and has been sent to various missions around Azeroth. Spartian, now older and wiser, has remained as the Commander of the Circle of Justice, and neither he, nor the original survivors of the slaughter in Loch Modan, have forgotten the deeds of Deathwing the Destroyer, and to this day they seek to avenge their brothers in arms, and slay the beast of darkness...
Many allies and friends of the Circle of Justice, yet not members of it, are the valiant defenders of Nethergarde, and several quests and missions are still appointed from the mages of Dalaran, who still keep contact with the sorcerers of the Circle of Justice, even if they sealed their enchanted city from the rest of the world.
written by Thunderbeard
