Vanessa VanCleef

Vanessa VanCleef is the daughter of Edwin VanCleef and his successor as head of the Defias Brotherhood. It is revealed in a flashback that Vanessa was present when Edwin VanCleef was killed and decapitated by forces of the Alliance onboard his juggernaught in the Deadmines. After her father's death, Vanessa was adopted by the Saldeans, who were unaware of her identity. They named her Hope and parented her while they watched her grow up over the years. Her identity as Hope Saldean worked to her advantage as she secretly became her father's successor as the leader of the Defias Brotherhood. Unlike her father, she is not especially skilled in close combat. However, she has very impressive skills in making poisons, especially ones that cause hallucinations or insanity. Little is known about Vanessa VanCleef's early childhood except that she was the daughter of Edwin VanCleef, leader of the Defias Brotherhood and ruler of the Deadmines. Apparently the only people who knew about her birth were Theodore and Verna Furlbrow, having seen her as an infant. Approximately five years prior to Deathwing's return, she watched from the shadows as her father was defeated by a group of adventurers on the orders of Gryan Stoutmantle. According to Salma Saldean, "in the dead of night, a little girl walked right into our farmhouse and collapsed on the floor. Nobody had a clue as to her identity. The poor thing had no recollection of who she was or where she came from - truly a lost soul." The Saldeans adopted her and named her Hope due to the hard times that had fallen on them. At some point Hope started caring for the poor and destitute and ended up at Sentinel Hill. However, she secretly began plotting the resurrection of the Brotherhood. Having learned or known that the Furlbrows recognized her face from when she was a baby, Vanessa arranged their deaths to prevent any possibility of the couple prematurely identifying her, something she considered regrettable but necessary for her plans. Soliciting the help of such unsavory characters as the ogre Glubtok and the goblin Helix Gearbreaker, she used gnoll attacks to distract the forces of Sentinel Hill so the Defias could rescue the worgen Admiral Ripsnarl from his imprisonment there. When the gnolls proved ineffective, she resorted to anti-Stormwind propaganda, targeting the homeless masses in Westfall. Vanessa personally delivered a rousing speech to the masses in Moonbrook, denouncing King Varian Wrynn among others and the toll the war in Northrend had taken on the people of Westfall.