I was browsing through Wowpedia's listed members of the Royal Apothecary Society recently, and I ended up discovering one Forsaken NPC who has fast become one of my favorites: Apothecary Vicky Levine.

Now, I'm sure most players have no idea who she is. I know I didn't, until I stumbled upon her page. And this is understandable - she's not really very remarkable. She's a minor Horde quest giver in Venomspite, Dragonblight, who only gives Horde players four quests. She has no special voice actor or real lore significance, and her quests aren't anything super exciting or even really important in the grand scheme of things.

So why do I like her so much? Simple: she's essentially the perfect personification of everything I adore about the Forsaken as a race.


She's practical
Most people would be satisfied with a wanted poster basically stating "kill every Scarlet Crusader you encounter." But Forsaken aren't most people. Ever-practical Vicky Levine doesn't like this idea - not because she cares at all about Scarlet Crusade lives, but because come on, mere death is hardly a good enough solution!


She's heartless
Did you see what that quest asks you to do? Test Vicky's "blight" on the helpless Scarlet Crusade prisoner standing a few feet away. Now, she doesn't say exactly what to expect, but she IS a Forsaken, and it's called blight, so I think you can make a pretty educated guess.

Spoiler! The blight doesn't work.


Doesn't even care a bit. An uncaring shrug, then back to work. That's the Forsaken way!


She's not...completely heartless
If you talk to Vicky after accepting the blight quest, but before you test it on the prisoner, this is what she says:

Messages along the lines of "oh by the way, you way wish to avoid doing X if you don't want to meet a horrible, painful death" is rather common when doing Forsaken quests...that's about as sympathetic and/or considerate as they get, really.


She doesn't quit after failure

"I starve the vermin, so they should be voracious!"

Of course you do, Vicky. Of course you do.



She revels in the suffering of her enemies


And yet, she still cares about family


That's it! That's Apothecary Vicky Levine's entire presence in WoW. Just four quests, and yet in the breadth of those four quests, she manages to capture so much of what makes the Forsaken so deliciously twisted and fun to play.

The quests are really quite mean, but because they're presented in such a lighthearted manner, you don't really notice. You don't have time to feel bad about dosing the prisoner, because you're laughing at how Vicky decides to reprimand her assistant. And you don't feel bad about defiling Scarlet Crusade corpses with a box of rats, because you're chuckling over Vicky's bizarre worry that the Crusaders might have some kind of special anti-rat protection.

And as for Vicky? She's cruel, she terminates her own ally without a shred of regret, she cackles at the plight of her foes...and yet, she frets about her work, she (sort of) tells you to be careful when handling the blight, and she misses her sister.

To me, it is this Forsaken blend of completely contrasting character traits - murderous hate tempered by military discipline, sadistic glee balanced with amusing everyman humility - that makes them so interesting to me. You really experience the full gamut of emotions when exploring their lore - you gasp at what the terrible deeds they propose, you shudder as they take things even further, you laugh at how dry their humor is, and you feel sorry for them when you're reminded of what they've lost.

The Forsaken have it all, and Vicky Levine (in just four quests!) manages to convey almost everything.