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The Story of The Black Dragonflight with Nobbel87
Live
Publié
10/10/2022 à 16:17
par
DiscordianKitty
With the Dragonflight pre-patch event on its way, Nobbel87 is beginning a spoiler-free series that will look over the major Dragonflights, beginning with the Story of the Black Dragonflight.
Neltharion, aka Deathwing
Their aspect Neltharion was empowered by keeper Tyr and the Titans after the, at the time, proto-dragons, banded together to end the threat of Galakrond. His personal blessing came from Khaz’garoth, the shaper and forger of worlds.
My blessing upon you will seem humble compared to those which have been bestowed upon the others: the managing of time, of life, of dreams and magic. I offer you the earth. The soil, the ground, the deep places. But know that the earth is the basis of all things. It is where we are rooted. Where you must come from, if you are to go to. Here is whence true strength comes. From deep places... within the world, and within oneself.
Just one small problem, the earth upon Azeroth houses the threat of the Old Gods. Their whispers came to Neltharion even before he was made an Aspect, and his connection to the earth made their voices all the stronger. Their corruption seeped into his mind, into his heart and into his body. Spread throughout the entirety of his flight. Under their guidance, Neltharion would eventually become known under the name that most of you know him as: He would become Deathwing.
The Demon Soul
Deathwing's plans and the fracturing of the Aspects started with the creation of a powerful device known as the Dragon Soul. Back during the War of the Ancients, over ten thousand years ago, Deathwing suggested to his fellow aspects that they should all sacrifice a portion of their power to it. Combine it all into one single device - into one single attack. All for the defense of Azeroth and the defeat of the Burning Legion.
Ysera: That terrible glow, should that be?
Neltharion: For it to be as it must, yes.
Malygos: It is a weapon like no other. It must be like no other.
They didn't know the madness that lay hidden underneath, and wouldn't find out until it was far too late. The disc did what Deathwing had promised it would do, but not just the demons were going to feel its might. Azeroth's defenders had to flee from the battlefield as well, and then he turned it on his fellow dragons. He nearly wiped out the entire Blue Dragonflight, which sent Malygos into the pits of despair and madness. But wielding the device also had its effects on Deathwing, forcing him to retreat and put his body back together with plates. Enough damage was caused, though, yet his plans and that of the Old Gods were prevented. The Legion was stopped at a great price, and the Dragon Soul, now known as the Demon Soul, was hidden away on Azeroth, away from Deathwing. Powerful enchantments were placed upon it to prevent any dragons from wielding it in the future, and, of course, there were powerful protections in place, to keep it out of Deathwing's hands. His treachery would curse his entire flight to a life of fear and seclusion, as in the coming ages, they'd find themselves hunted to the brink of extinction by all the other flights. Except for something rather miraculous.
Ebyssian, an Uncorrupted Black Dragon
After the war, we would see Huln Highmountain on the war path for Deathwing, tracking him down at his vault. Inside, Huln got his hands on the artifact called the Hammer of Khaz'goroth. With its Titanic power, Huln and his allies couldn't destroy Deathwing, but at least they could banish him from their lands all the way to Deepholm, the elemental plane of earth. While there, they also managed to birth an uncorrupted black dragon. Ebyssian would from then on remain a close ally to the Highmountain Tauren.
As the position of High Chieftain passed through Huln's line, they would always find wisdom and power from their 'Spiritwalker Ebonhorn', keeping his draconic identity a secret between them. It was Ebonhorn that foresaw our coming during the expansion
Legion
, and his assistance would allow us to save the Highmountain Tauren, and eventually have them added to the Horde. He also met his fellow uncorrupted black dragon Wrathion - although we might have lost Ebonhorn to the whispers of the Old Gods, was it not for our and Wrathion's aid. There's darkness locked away within Highmountain, not to mention that an Old God was released from its prison during
Battle for Azeroth
. We needed to empower our Heart of Azeroth with draconic power if we were going to have any hope of taking care of N’zoth. Again it was Ebyssian that stood at our side, doing what their Aspect could not: stand up against the Old Gods and guiding our way to the power of the Black Dragonflight.
Enslavement of Alexstraza by the Dragonmaw Clan
Going back to their Aspect, Deathwing wouldn’t stay in Deepholm forever, but it would be a comfortable recovery spot as he planned his next moves. Although the enchantments had made it impossible for him to wield the Demon Soul himself, that didn’t mean he couldn’t guide others to the treasure and have them do his dirty work for him. It was the alien orcs that had come to Azeroth through the Dark Portal that would make for his perfect servants. The Dragonmaw clan was guided to the disc and instructed on how to wield it. With it, they managed to imprison the red dragon queen Alexstraza.
They enslaved her, and by extension, her entire Red Flight to the will of the orcs - turning them into tools of war - and he could not have done much worse to her than turning her children of Life into bringers of Death. Despite their added power, the war between the Alliance and the Horde would still be lost by the orcs. That didn’t mean Alexstraza's freedom though, nor did it mean that the orcs wouldn’t try a second time. The Dark Portal re-opened, and this time, they didn't come to conquer the world - they came for some powerful artifacts. The artifacts, in turn, would allow them to open more portals to different worlds. This was seen as an opportunity to our Deathwing: a gateway to a whole new world for him to conquer. The orcs were approached with a deal. They would take a whole bunch of his dragon eggs to their world of Draenor. In exchange, they would have the knowledge and power of his flight on their side during their quest of gathering these artifacts.
Draenor and Sabellian
Deathwing was accompanied by his son, Sabellian, and others of their flight, while the orcs finished up their mission on Azeroth and upheld their end of the bargain. Quite a dangerous allegiance, one that did not go unnoticed by the Alliance of Lordaeron. They weren't going to let the orcs inflict the same damage to other worlds as they had brought to Azeroth, so brave heroes stepped through the Dark Portal as well to stop the Horde once and for all. Within what we now call the Blades’ Edge Mountains, Deathwing and the others found some heavy resistance in the form of Gruul the Dragonkiller and his children. Not to mention that Khadgar and the Alliance started mashing up their eggs as well.
Their combined assaults - not to mention Khadgar figuring out how to use his magic to dismantle those plates holding Deathwing together - pushed the Black Dragonflight back, and when ultimately the Alliance shut down the Dark Portal, Sabelian and several of their flight stayed on Draenor while Deathwing, he abandoned his plans - he abandoned the eggs, he abandoned the planet, all of them - and returned to Azeroth. Escaping the destruction that followed: the magics of the Twisting Nether, which transformed Draenor into the Outland as we know it as today. Sabelian and crew kept up their fight against Gruul and his children, not afraid of making friends and allies like Rexxar, or recruiting heroes while under the visage of Baron Sablemane. Anything it took to get their mission done - but besides the story that they had with the
Burning Crusade
, Sabelian and the others just kinda remained on Outland. They haven't really been given storylines, so who knows what changes have happened to them while being away from Azeroth so long - not to mention that by now the world is now cleansed from the Old Gods' infection. Who knows if and when they're ever going to bring Sabelian back into the story, who knows what he's going to be like.
The Netherwing and Twilight Dragonflights
We can say for certain that those dragon eggs that were left behind - they did change quite a bit. Those magics unleashed that transformed the world also transformed these unhatched eggs from Black Dragons into the so-called Netherwing Dragons. Ironically, it would be this new accidental breed of dragon that would restore Malygos’ sanity, but that’s a story we’ll save when dealing with the Blue Dragonflight. Keeping it with the black one, Sintharia, also known as Sinestra, had a great interest in these Netherwing dragons, as we see her walk around during the
Burning Crusade
, pretending to be an emissary of the Black Dragonflight. In truth, SIntharia hated Deathwing. She had been his prime consort, but mating with him after his transformation, it proved to be fatal for most if not all of them. She was one of the few, if not the only one, that survived that horrific experience, only to be scarred for the rest of her life. Now she felt eternal, agonizing, burning pain. She wanted to work on her plans and schemes away from that foul Deathwing and her flight, but what she didn’t know was that she was actually still following his whispers, his guidance all along. Following it to use the Netherwing dragon and create a brand new breed: this time the so-called Twilight Dragons.
Lady Sinestra: Come forth, children of Twilight, your mother calls!
It's within the book
Night of the Dragon
in which she would be defeated, only to then be resurrected by Void magics for the expansion
Cataclysm
. Not a whole lot was left of her spirit, now they just used to create more and more of the Twilight Dragons until heroes ventured into the Bastion of Twilight and stopped her - hopefully for good this time. That still didn’t stop the spread of Twilight Dragons though, as they have shown up a couple of times - we’ve even seen Vexiona infused with the Void.
Lord Prestor of Stormwind
Deathwings schemes run deep, the echoes of his plans everlasting. So the Mad Aspect, he managed to escape Draenor before it turned into Outland, and he decided to go with a bit more manipulation.
His disguise was that of the noble Lord Daval Prestor. With it, he managed to infiltrate the court of Lordaeron. He become buddy-buddy with the king, he almost even married his daughter Calia - basically, he tried to destroy the Alliance from within. It might have even worked, was his attention not drawn to a different plan. The orcs of the Dragonmaw clan, at this point, still held queen Alexstraza captive. They were forcing her to breed, produce a whole bunch of eggs and dragons for the orcs to use. Seeing how his own flight had been hunted to near extinction and how he had lost a whole bunch more on Draenor, Deathwing decided that it was time to take Alexstraza’s eggs and add them to his flight. Fake visions of an imminent Alliance attack were sent to the orcs to get them moving out of their hiding hole of Grim Batol. Then there was also the mage Rhonin, send out by Krasus to save his beloved Queen. Another pawn that Deathwing could use to sell his little fiction.
Long story short, Deathwing's plans failed. Alexstraza was freed, the other Aspects showed up to save her. Rhonin managed to get his hands on the Demon Soul, that the orcs were using. He destroyed it, and returned the stolen Aspect powers. For the first time in over ten thousand years, Deathwing was forced to face his fellow Aspects as equals, which was a battle that he simply could not win.
Again he was forced into hiding, but no worries, he still had a son and daughter hard at work.
Onyxia, or Lady Katrana Prestor
Onyxia took a page out of his book and disguised herself as the noble lady Katrana Prestor. She infiltrated Stormwind and the house of nobles. She manipulated events so that the Stonemason's Guild was not properly paid for their work of rebuilding Stormwind. Riots were led through the streets by Edwin van Cleef, and one single rock took the life of Queen Tiffin Wrynn. This left Anduin Wrynn without a mother, and Varian Wrynn without a wife. The depression that followed left him vulnerable to her controlling magics, but the love for his son kept him grounded. Time for a different approach.
By using the newly formed Defias Brotherhood led by Edwin van Cleef, she had Varian kidnapped and then used her magics to split the king into two. One would be his strong-willed side - that side she would dispose of while leaving his weak-willed side alive - a side that was easier to manipulate - and rule from behind the curtains. Unfortunately, her spellwork was interrupted by the naga, which gave the strong-willed Varian a chance to escape. He would later return after earning himself some new friends, a gladiator victory, and the nickname Lo’gash. Her treachery was exposed for all of Stormwind to see - a beautiful classic questline which most of you probably experienced by now if you've ever attuned yourself to Onyxia’s lair. That’s where she kidnapped young Anduin Wrynn too, so the two parts of the king and their friends, they formed a raiding party, and they went after her. Many whelps and more dots later, she was kind enough to blast the two Varians during the fight with magic which also put him back together. In the end, she lost her head, quite literally, displayed for all to see in Stormwind.
Nefarian, or Lord Victor Nefarius
Then her brother, Nefarian, who took on the visage of Lord Victor Nefarius. While he did dabble with the humans and infiltrated a little bit of high society, he spend most of his time with the orcs within Blackrock Mountain. There he worked on his own plans and experiments to rebuild their Black Dragonflight. In time, managing to combine the powers of all the different flights into one, the so-called Chromatic Dragonflight. Not all of his experiments were successful, but those that were proved to be extremely powerful. Horde heroes caught wind of what this black dragon and his so-called Dark Horde were up to. Into the mountains they went, slaying any and all that dared to stand in their way. Even poor Vaelastrasz, a red dragon that had come to stop Nefarian, but was instead corrupted, had to be put down. And like his sister before him, Neferians lost his head, which was put on display for the world to see our victory over the dragons.
But all of that wouldn’t be the end of either sibling. Like their mother Sintharia, Nefarian was also brought back with Void magics. His dad was kind enough to pick up the head of his sister from Stormwind, and within the Blackwing Descent, they tried to bring her back - not the only new experiment that was being performed there. Together with the former human Maloriak, Nefarian had once again created some incredibly powerful foes to take out, and take them out we did. Despite Nefarian being really mean to us.
Nefarion: Congratulations! Allow me to grant you a title befitting the amazing achievement you just performed. Henceforth you shall be known as the "Slayer of Stupid, Incompetent, and Disappointing Minions.
As you might understand by now, these dragons don’t like to stay dead. In the case of Onyxia and Nefarian, their rest was disturbed during
Battle for Azeroth
, where the Old God N’zoth and his minions wanted to bring them back for yet another round. Our Wrathion wasn’t going to let that happen though, stopping their efforts and using the last remaining scales to make us a cloak which actually protected us from N’zoth's corruption and ultimately allowed us to take him out.
Wrathion, Another Uncorrupted Black Dragon
Speaking of Wrathion and N’zoth.... let's rewind a little bit and go back to the
Cataclysm
time period. This expansion was the culmination of all that the Old God had been working towards. They were going to bring about the Hour of Twilight, the moment in which they would set free from their prison and rule Azeroth once more. The madness within Deathwing intensified, burning like it had never done before. Random territories across the world were put ablaze, and the elements themselves were pushed into a frenzy. They were allied with Cho'gall, the Twilight's Hammer, Ragnaros, Al'Akir, the Druids of the Flame - everything, basically, that they had, was thrown at the world.
And the world united behind Thrall and the other Aspects to stop Deathwing and his schemes - they also allied with the Red Dragonflight in making something rather unique. Or, at least, it was at the time, as we had no idea that Ebonhorn already existed. We were going to make the first uncorrupted black dragon in millennia. Some lines were crossed to make it so, as the red dragon Rheastrasza captured the black dragon Nyxondra and forced her to lay eggs for their experiments. We then combined one of her eggs with wild black dragon eggs, black whelpling corpses, and a strange ancient Titanic device. Seeing how the dragons were created by the titans, they figured that this ancient relic might do the trick, and they were right! That strange mixing pot resulted in exactly what we wanted: a purified black dragon egg from which our Wrathion - after keeping it away from Deathwing - would hatch. What the reds didn’t plan on was that Wrathion wasn’t exactly happy with what they’d done, and he had no intentions of following their lead or being controlled.
And while he might not be the best team player, he did become exactly what we wanted. He was a true black dragon, one upholding the charge of keeping Azeroth safe. First task on the agenda: that was taking care of those among his own flight that were listening to the whispers of the old gods. He doesn’t know about Sabelian on Outland, but he is able to track down targets in Gilneas or those closest to him or even his own father. Let's not forget that pretty much anything Deathwing has done so far has been to try and bring his Old God masters back, free from their prisons to rule the world once more.
Deathwing: The Hour of Twilight is nigh, the sun sets on your pitiful mortal existence.
And during the world-transforming Cataclysm, we saw all that the Mad Aspect had to bear.
The Chromatic Dragonflight
His son's experiments to create a Chromatic Dragonflight were pushed forward in the book
Twilight of the Aspects
. A massive five-headed dragon called Chromatus would have been a major threat to the world had they not taken care of it in the book. It was so powerful that they couldn’t just destroy it. Instead, it has been locked away within an arcane prison and guarded by the different flights, just waiting for the day, for someone to give it the spark of life.
That's where it remains, even now. Rumor has it that Chromatus was actually intended to be a boss within the Dragon Soul raid, but has been replaced by Ultraxion. The monstrous Twilight Dragon is introduced by Deathwing as the culmination of all their efforts. But not even Ultraxion was able to stop us, stop the heroes of the world that had gone above and beyond, through time itself, to save Azeroth and prevent the Hour of Twilight. With the original Dragon Soul, taken from the past and re-empowered, they stood shoulder to shoulder with Thrall and the Aspects. Meanwhile, the mad Deathwing was empowered by N’zoth beyond anything he had been granted before. Even so, it wouldn’t be enough. By sacrificing a huge chunk of their powers, the Aspects were able to fulfill their purpose and bring about the dawn of the Age of Mortals.
Wrathion in Pandaria
Deathwing's defeat, and the Aspects' sacrifice, would ripple through the flights who now found themselves working together with the mortals to keep their domains going. Wrathion, of course, had no problem accepting their aid, in fact, he made quite a lot of use it. He offered legendary rewards for any heroes that were willing to follow his plans. Plans that took us to Pandaria where Wrathion became rather close with Prince Anduin Wrynn, while also preparing the world for what he had seen. He had seen the coming of the Burning Legion, and he was prepared to do anything it took to prepare the world. As in his mind, a world divided would not have a chance against it, so he wanted one faction to take over from the other. He wanted the Alliance, after uniting against warchief Garrosh Hellscream, to dismantle the Horde and take them over into one unified front. But instead, Vol’jin is appointed as Warchief, and Varian steps away.
Wrathion says: But that idiot, IDIOT Wrynn! "High King" indeed!
Wrathion says: Why did he allow another warchief? He could've united the world under the Alliance banner. What a fool I was to trust his ambition! Should've taken the throne room myself. Like Auntie Onyxia. Get things DONE.
The Lore of Wrathion's Parentage
There’s actually a
bit of a lore problem
when it comes to Wrathion’s proclamation that Onyxia is his aunty, and that Deathwing is his father, although, they have tried to clear it up.
So we know that, while Wrathion’s creation is a bit different compared to the rest of his kind, his mother would be Nyxondra.
We know from Sinestra that mating with Deathwing is an excruciating experience, that leaves its scars if not outright kills you, so looking at Nyxondra, how can it be that she’s still alive and completely unharmed? To that there was no answer given, but to try and explain how he calls Onyxia his aunty, they’ve made Nyxondra Onyxia’s sister so another child of Deathwing... Which has its own implications when it comes to dragon mating.
This still doesn't answer how she survived the mating though, and to that, they had to concede, Deathwing isn’t technically Wrathion’s direct biological father. Before we turn this into the
Maury Show
, personally I’d say that Wrathion has no direct bloodline to Deathwing but in a general sense, Deathwing would be the daddy of all the black dragons. Calling Onyxia his aunty could be seen as similar to how Anduin calls Jaina his aunty. Not to mention that calling yourself the Prince of the Black Dragonflight, especially when you believe that most of your flight has been wiped out, it just adds a bit of flair - it adds a bit of a title - but that’s my personal take. I would love for Blizzard to clarify.
Alternative Draenor and the Coming of the Legion
Either way, his plans of uniting the world by having one faction take over the other blew up in his face. His new plan was to work together with the bronze dragon Kairozdormu. They were going to use adventurers to bring them the power needed to liberate Garrosh Hellscream from his trial and send him over to a brand-new reality. There he could form a brand new Horde, bring that over into our reality and have it stand with us against the coming Legion. Unfortunatly, Garrosh had no intention of playing along, of being used by the dragons. Make no mistake, he was going to form his Horde, but not in the defense of our Azeroth - rather to conquer it. The Dark Portal turned red, and Azeroth united against this threat. Once more, they stepped through the Dark Portal into this alternate Draenor, and while there were
books
talking about Wrathion being on this alternate Draenor as well - some observant players even saw him once or twice - but he played no major role in the expansion that he started.
Ironically, trying to protect the world from the coming of the Legion actually made it happen. From alternate Draenor there came alternate Gul’dan, who was sent over into our realm to kick off the next and biggest invasion from the Burning Legion. Varian Wrynn and Sylvanas Windrunner led the charge onto the Broken Shore, and it was upon these shores where Varian would sacrifice himself to give the Alliance the chance to retreat. The manipulations of a black dragon once upon a time meant the death of his mother, and now, once again, it meant the demise of one of Anduin's parents - and the boy king would not forget.
Wrathion's Legacy
Despite doing everything he could to defend the world from the Legion, Wrathion didn’t really play a part in that final battle. That’s ok though, plenty of other things to protect the world from: like the old god N’zoth that finally managed to escape his prison during
Battle for Azeroth
. In his time away, Wrathion has not sat idle. His personal Blacktalon agent forces have been expended. He’s been searching for the Dragon Isles, but also searching for ways to counter the Old Gods' corruption. This research has led him to places like Dire Maul or the Lorewalkers in Pandaria, but he also went to Karazhan, where he had some chats with the shade of Medivh.
"I can never change the actions of my past," he told him, "but I can forge a new legacy to leave behind."
That wisdom stuck with our young prince, whose research not only saved his brother Ebonhorn, it also equipped us to stand against the corruption of N’zoth. With Wrathion at our side, we ventured into Nyalotha itself, cut our way through the Heart of Corruption, and for the first time in a very, very long time, the world of Azeroth has been cleansed of its Old Gods infection.
Poetic how his father fell victim to them and caused so much destruction, where in the end, our Prince would make things right, and do what not even the Titans were able to do.
Wrathion: The Old Gods have been vanquished, yet they were only one threat to Azeroth. Many others still loom on the horizon and lurk in the shadows.
Wrathion: Know that from this day forth, the black dragonflight will honor its ancient charge and stand in defense of our world... along with its champions.
Future of the Black Dragonflight
And that’s pretty much the major story of the Black Dragonflight. A corrupted flight with a dark legacy, but perhaps the future can be brighter. Wrathion, Ebonhorn, and perhaps even Sabelian - the future of the flight is in their hands.
Time will tell what that future is going to be.
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