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wowcustodian · 7 years

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History of the Black Dragonflight Part 2

Part 1: https://wowcustodian.tumblr.com/post/158604089586/history-of-the-black-dragonflight-part-1

The silence was only the quiet before the storm evidently as since his retreat into Deepholm Deathwing had not been idle. He had rested within the Stonecore, weakened from his wounds at the Battle of Grim Batol until the Twilight Hammer cult came to him and began working on forging Elementium armor plates from ore Deathwing had commanded the gyreworm Coroborus to dig up. The plates were hammered and fused into the Dragon’s flesh to sear his wounds closed and hold his slowly rupturing body apart. His madness taking physical form as the power of the Old Gods had steadily increased within him with the awakening of C’thun and Yogg-Saron. His power increased to greater then ever before and his body ready for war Deathwing burst from the Stonecore, shattering the World Pillar and destabilizing the connection between the Elemental Plane and Azeroth, erupting back into the world and causing the cataclysm known as the Shattering. The world itself heaved causing floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, the Elemental spirits were sent into a frenzy as Deathwing made his way east until he crashed down upon Stormwind, scorching the park and the stone towers before leaving, having reclaimed the heads of his children Nerafian and Onyxia. His madness now completely overtaking him his goal was to usher in the Hour of Twilight and see the eradication of all life from Azeroth.

Deathwing’s message had been clear, he had returned to see the world eclipsed in fire and shadow. Heroes from the Horde and Alliance began their work, hunting down the newly realised Twilight’s Hammer and quelling the unrest caused across the planet. In the Badlands a lone Red Dragon, Rheastrasza had begun research into the Black Dragonflight to see if there was some way to purify them of the Old Gods corruption. With the help of players and a gnome scientist, Dr Hieronymus Blam, she collects eggs from the captured Black Dragon Nyxondra and experiments on them, ultimately being able to purify a single egg. She calls players to a cave and to wait while she collects the egg only to be found by Deathwing who has learned of her plan. She begs that the egg be spared by Deathwing refuses and burns them both before leaving. Upon the player investigating it is revealed that the purified Black egg is long gone and the egg Deathwing thought was the purified one was one of Rhea’s own. (Also this quest is fucking heartbreaking. No matter how high level I get I can never bring myself to get rid of the Trinket you get from it.)

As his plans began to take motion Deathwing went to Mount Hyjal, just as Ysera’s Green Dragonflight arrived to witness Deathwing summon Ragnaros the Firelord back into Azeroth from the Firelands to see Nordrassil burn. Al’akir the Windlord also allies himself with the Old Gods and Deathwing as his minions seek to take control of a Titan machine in Uldum that could wipe out all life on Azeroth and in the Twilight Highlands the Twilight Dragons battle the Reds for control of the area as the Twilight Hammer, led by Cho’gall, claim the Bastion of Twilight as a stronghold to continue their experiments. Alextrasza and her son Calen lure Deathwing to the Highlands to try and end him once and for all and while both Dragons badly wound the other ultimately Deathwing survives. Calen has the player leave with his mother while he stays to hold Deathwing back, claiming later that the Black Dragon was more hurt then he let on and was forced to retreat to recover.

As further fuel for his experiments Deathwing, using the power of the Old Gods, revived his dead son Nefarian as an undead dragon and set him to work in Blackrock Spire once more. His experiments more gruesome then ever, resulting in his final “greatest” creation; a revived Onyxia supposedly capable of being a new Brood mother for their flight.

Another plan of Deathwing’s that ended in failure was the Blue Dragon Arygos, son of Malygos. After Malygos’ death the Blue Dragonflight were discussing who to choose as the new Aspect of magic and in secret Arygos had stuck a bargain with Deathwing that would see him as his father’s successor and the Blues to survive the coming destruction in exchange for loyalty to the Black Aspect. The plan ended when the Blue Dragonflight voted Kalecgos as their new Aspect of Magic. Arygos ran from Coldarra and was soon after killed by the Twilight Hammer for his blood to be the catalyst to bring Chromatus to life. (I did say it was years later.)

As Deathwing and his forces ravaged the lands Kalecgos as the newest Aspect, as well as Ysera, Nozdormu and Alextrasza began meeting at Mount Hyjal to discuss possible ways to defeat the Destroyer. Ysera also took time to train Thrall to better connect to the earth, allowing him to see for hundreds of miles around until he felt some kind of “gap” in his perception beneath Hyjal. Delving down Thrall constructed a stone copy of himself as he reached the empty space and found it to be a chamber hidden under the mountain, blocking anything from seeing inside. As he entered the Orc found himself face to face with the Black Aspect who proceeded to beat and claw the stone Thrall, the pain of his wounds reaching his flesh and blood self. Deathwing saw it as a mockery that the other Aspects dared to try and “replace” him as Earth Warder with a mortal shaman. It was only by the Aspects, Earthen Ring and Cenarion Circle that Thrall survived and the Aspects themselves came to the conclusion that the only chance to defeat Deathwing was with his own creation; The Dragon Soul.

Nozdormu opened a time portal to send heroes back to the Well of Eternity, before the Sundering to allow the disc to be stolen before it was sent away. Bringing the item back to the present and ferrying it to Wyrmrest Temple, Thrall and his Hero escorts (*coughfuckthisdungeoncough*) are accosted by the Twilight’s Hammer, desperate to prevent the Dragon Soul from being used.

At some point before the Dragon Soul was brought to Wyrmrest the Red Dragons employ a Rogue to recover a Decoder ring from Hagara the Stormbinder and deliver it to Corastrasza in the Twilight Highlands, claiming it could act as a cipher for a hidden message. Upon arriving the Rogue discovers a dead thief at the Dragon’s feet and she explains the purified Black Dragon Egg Rheastrasza sent off from the Badlands was being kept at the Vermillion Redoubt for safe keeping until a band of these thieves snuck in and stole it. The cipher is needed to decode the message in the pocket of the dead man. The message is revealed to be instructions mentioning to meet up at Ravenholdt Manor in Hillsbrad with the egg and the Rogue is sent there to retrieve it.

Upon reaching the basement where the egg is kept it’s revealed the egg has hatched into the Black Prince, Wrathion. Pure of the Old God corruption but no less merciless than the rest of his kin. He employs the Rogue to hunt down other Black Dragons, claiming that they are a threat to Azeroth and to himself.

The first is Hiram Creed, a Black Drakonid who, disguised as a Gilnean has gathered a motley crew together on promises of retaking their city. He has infected them with his Draconic blood to heighten their senses and abilities while slowly corrupting them into being his slaves.

The second is Nalice, the Black Dragonflight representative from Wyrmrest Temple. Now she’s hiding out in the caves underneath Karazhan and digging up arcane secrets.

Thirdly is Deathwing himself. Wrathion tasks the Rogue with being one of the Raid that sees Deathwing destroyed. So it finally comes to the battle of Wyrmrest. Deathwing and his forces attack Dragonblight in full force. The ground ripped open as colossal maws of leviathan tentacle covered beasts spew the minions of the Old God N’Zoth out to swarm the temple. The Black Dragonflight battle their cousins, filling the sky as the Horde and Alliance airships try to defend the temple as best they can. All of the combined efforts trying to buy the Aspects enough time to use the Dragon Soul, or rather for them to empower the Soul so Thrall can use it since it’s still unable to be wielded by a Dragon.

It was here Deathwing unveiled his “ultimate” creation; the Twilight Dragon Ultraxion. Having consumed the energies from Nether Dragons, Ultraxion radiates crackling purple lightning and attempts to bring down the Aspects as they work on the Dragon Soul. Ultraxion, like all of Deathwing’s plans, failed due to the Heroes of Azeroth defending the Aspects and slaying the Twilight Dragon. Finally prepared, Thrall releases the power of the Dragon Soul on Deathwing, badly wounding him. In his rage the Black Aspect destroyed the Horde airship and began making his way back to the Maelstrom to flee into Deepholm as he had done before. The Aspects, Thrall and Heroes of the Horde and Alliance all boarded the Alliance airship, the Skyfire, and gave chase.

After fending off Warmaster Blackhorn and his Twilight Drakes the Heroes dove out of the Skyfire and landed on the back of Deathwing himself and proceeded to forcefully tear away the Elementium plates holding the Dragon’s body together. The damage done to him and another blast from the Dragon Soul by Thrall pierced a hole through Deathwing’s chest, causing him to crash into the Maelstrom.

Believing him finally dead, the group met up with Thrall and the Aspects on the shores of the Maelstrom only to have their celebrations cut short as Deathwing, now little more then a writhing insane mass of fire and tendrils, rose from the waters for one latch ditch effort to snuff them out and cause a second Cataclysm. With the immense power of the Aspects Deathwing was finally slain and his body utterly destroyed save for his jaw which was carried back to Stormwind and Orgrimmar as a trophy just as had happened to his children.

With the plans of the Black Dragonflight finally stopped Wrathion’s agent returns to him to find the Black Prince standing at the corpse of a Red Dragon, claiming the “Treacherous” Red Dragonflight attempted to kill him off. It is then Wrathion informs the Rogue of one final Black Dragon that he wishes to see dead. His bodyguard Fahrad. Wrathion goads Fahrad, pointing out that as a Black Dragon he too shares the visions and whispers of the Old Gods every one of his brothers and sisters has. Becoming agitated Fahrad takes on his Dragon form and attacks but at the last second the Rogue lunges from the shadows and deals a killing blow.

Relieved Wrathion claims he is, as far as he is aware, the last Black Dragon in existence. He takes on his Whelpling form and flies off.

Later in Pandaria strange agents working for an unknown master pop up here and there, scouting the lands. As it turns out they serve Wrathion who calls heroes he deems worthy to the Tavern in the Mists where he explains that he has foreseen the return of the Burning Legion and that Azeroth has no hope to survive should the Horde and Alliance continue their war. As his only interest is in Azeroth itself and not the mortal races, he pledges his loyalty to each faction without the other knowing. He tasks these heroes with proving their faction deserves with win the war and thus be the vanguard to stand against the Legion. He judges Varian and Garrosh, asking the Heroes to see for themselves what the Alliance and Horde truly stand for.

During his stay in Pandaria Wrathion becomes friend with Prince Anduin. The two debate on the merits of harsh leadership versus compassion as Anduin recovers from an attack by Garrosh.

After gathering requested resources for Wrathion he leads Heroes to the Isle of Thunder, to the Thunder Forges. His plan being to use the power of Lei Shen against him. Acknowledging the brilliance of the Thunder King as well as the Titanic machinery he uses, Wrathion manages to craft the Lightning Lance which he claims can harness the very power the Thunder King himself wields, however the weapon must be tempered by using the Lance on the Cloud Serpent Nalak just as it dies, to absorb the power Lei Shen imbued into the creature. With what the Heroes gatheres Wrathion creates the Crown of Heaven to empower the Heroes armor and declares them the “spark” that with ignite and unlock Azeroth’s true potential.

Next he requests the Heroes to return to the Isle of Thunder to gather Titan Runestones to learn about the history of the Mogu race, their Titanic origin and their servitude to the Titan Keeper, Ra. Their purpose of protecting the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and its power. Their eventual rebellion and founding of the different clans and eventually the rise of the Thunder King and his Empire.

After learning of the power Lei Shen holds Wrathion commands the Heroes to go to the Isle one last time and return with the Heart of the Thunder King. The campaign is long and difficult but they do return victorious and present the Heart to Wrathion who, despite Anduin’s obvious disgust, eats the heart to gain the Titan knowledge Lei Shen possessed. After devouring the heart he receives a vision of millions of worlds presumably all the planets the Titans visited and a voice speaks through him of having to “Rebuild the final Titan.” Afterward he claims to’ve forgotten everything the Heart showed him and that all the Mogu too also forgot their purpose.

The next task the Prince has is to talk to all four August Celestials and complete a trial from one of them. Each of the Celestials asks Wrathion of his opinion of each trait they stand for; Strength, Hope, Fortitude and Wisdom. Each Celestial disputes Wrathion’s thoughts, such as him believing strength to mean having the power to crush your enemies or that he does not truly believe Azeroth can withstand the Legion.

Yu’lon and Xuen both have the Hero duel a blindfolded Wrathion. Chi’ji and Niuzao summon a vision of Deathwing’s humanoid form and ask the Hero to heal and protect Wrathion as he fights it. From this we learn that beneath all of Wrathion’s cold arrogance he is terrified of Deathwing. Despite the attempts to offer advice Wrathion dismisses the words of the Celestials, interested only in the power they offer. Taking their blessings Wrathion creates a Cloak of Virtue, another token of power gifted to us as a reward for our aid.

The Black Prince has one last mission for us, to allow us to earn his Draconic power to be augmented into the cloak to increase its power and so sends us to the newly discovered Timeless Isle. At the Isle Wrathion introduces the Heroes to Kairozdormu, a Bronze Dragon studying the anomaly that is the Timeless Isle. Gathering the reagents from the Timeless Isle Wrathion requests he asks us to meet him at the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. With Lorewalker Cho transcribing the tale of your exploits the two begin to argue about what kind of “Hero” the story is about, one who seeks to benefit the world or destroy their enemies. Nevertheless Wrathion forged the Cloak with the power of his own magic, creating the Legendary Cloak. With its immense power Wrathion gives the Hero the task he apparently had been preparing them for all along; Garrosh Hellscream’s assassination. To take part in the Siege of Orgrimmar and end Garrosh, leading to the Alliance taking the chance to destroy the Horde in their weakened state.

As this is not the outcome, the Hero returns to Wrathion to find him storming about the Tavern in the Mists, throwing glasses about and breathing fire, insulting Varian Wrynn for throwing away his opportunity. His plan had been to aid the Horde in conquering Azeroth until Garrosh alienated himself from the other Horde Leaders at which point Wrathion’s allegiance changed to the Alliance. In his anger he claims he should have do what “Auntie Onyxia” did and assume direct control of the Alliance himself.

His bartender Tong grows infuriated at Wrathion’s rambling and finally talks back to the Black Prince, trying to convince him that the Horde and Alliance are at their strongest because of the conflict between them pushing them both, however Wrathion dismisses Tong’s words as he did the Celestials and flies off after proclaiming that he will stop at nothing to prepare Azeroth for the coming war and that “next time” he will leave nothing to chance.

Wrathion is not one to sit and do nothing and so as the world prepared for the trial of Garrosh Hellscream he began planning. As the trial went on he met regularly with Anduin Wrynn as the two grew to become good friends yet Wrathion also ventured to meet with Warlord Zaela, leader of the Black Dragon clan and engineering her clan as well as several allies, attacking the Temple of the White Tiger to disrupt the trial long enough for Wrathion’s other ally, Kairoz, to free Garrosh and together the two lept across time and space to Alternate Draenor. His belief was that a new more powerful Horde could sweep across Azeroth and remove the Alliance and the old Horde from the world so that an Azeroth of united Orcs would stand ready to fight the Legion when they inevitably return.

Wrathion himself travelled to Draenor and ended up at Admiral Taylor’s garrison claiming to have angered the local Ogres and sought somewhere to stay. While there he grew to distrust Taylor aswell as one of his followers, Ephial. Wrathion eventually left the garrison, taking several of Taylor’s men with him. Beyond being briefly seen in his Whelp form sat outside Khadgar’s tower in Talador the Dragon has not been seen since.

Since the Legion’s invasion and the campaign across the Broken Isle Wrathion himself has not been seen however as this is the very conflict he was so obsessed about I’d be surprised if we didn’t see him at some point. We were introduced to a new Black Dragon, minor spoilers if you haven’t completed the questing experience in the new zones.

It is discovered that when Huln Highmountain banished Deathwing to Deepholm he used the Hammer of Khaz’goroth to attempt to purify some of the remaining Black Dragon eggs of their corruption. While most were destroyed a single Whelpling remained, Ebyssian or as Huln names him, Ebonhorn. Ebyssian had remained in Highmountain across the centuries having taken on the form of a Tauren and serving as an advisor to every High Chieftan to follow in Huln’s hoofprints. After completing the Nelthation’s Lair Dungeon Ebyssian says he has “Family matters” to attend to which seems to hint at a confrontation between himself and Wrathion but we have yet to see anything from the two since then.

Wrathion gives us our best depiction of how Black Dragons were before the Old Gods corrupted them as Xuen calls him “A Black Dragon through and through.” From him we can determine the Black Dragons are rather disconnected from the mortal races, focused on the wellbeing of Azeroth as a whole. Focused, arrogant and seemingly unwilling to listen to the advice of others, they will do whatever it takes to achieve their goals and are unrepentant about doing so. Many Black Dragons have shown a preference for manipulating mortals, humans more then any other, to carry out tasks for them rather then get their hands dirty themselves.

Ebyssian is the exception to this being compassionate and loyal to the Highmountain Tauren however as he was raised with zero contact with any other Dragon, living in hiding it is understandable how he grew so attached to the people.

Male Black Dragons tend to end with the suffix “an” while females usually end with “ia” though as with all Dragonflights there are exceptions such as Razormaw, Nalice, Nyxondra and Neltharion himself. Like many Dragons they choose to live in caves however Black Dragons generally choose somewhere deep underground with molten lava running about their lair. They can breathe lava and the symbol of the Black Dragonflight is a volcano.

PHEW Jeez this one took a while. I thought the other posts were long. This one ended up taking a lot more effort then I realised, hopefully I won’t make that mistake again. If you made it through the entire thing congratulations! Apologies if my rambling was boring, any feedback is welcome as always.

Ciao!

P.S. WrathionxAnduin OTP!

#warcraft #World of Warcraft #lore #dragon #rpg #wowcustodian

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oyungunlugu-blog · 5 years

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