Illidan stormed into Hyjal’s war-torn forest. He had no specific destination in mind, but he had a purpose. To bring the Legion to its knees, he needed even greater knowledge and power. Illidan sensed both emanating from northern Ashenvale, where immense fel energies rippled out from the wilds. He followed the magics to their source, and he soon found himself in Felwood.
The first creature to bar his way was not a demon. It was a human who reeked of death.
On the Lich King’s orders, Arthas Menethil had joined the Legion’s invasion of Kalimdor—not to help the demons but to secretly hamper their efforts. The death knight worked from the shadows, always careful not to alert the demons of his intent. He subtly influenced the Scourge, sometimes causing the undead to disobey their Legion masters and run amok. This slowed the demons’ progress to Hyjal Summit. Occasionally, it even allowed their enemies to escape.
Yet these measures were only minor nuisances. As Arthas pondered another way to hurt the Legion, he found himself drawn to Tichondrius and the Skull of Gul’dan. The dreadlord had used the artifact to corrupt a large swath of Ashenvale with fel magic. These dark energies spread farther by the day, slowly creeping up Hyjal’s slopes.
If Arthas could strike down Tichondrius and destroy the Skull of Gul’dan, it would stop the spread of fel magic and deal a significant blow to the Legion’s war effort. Yet slaying the dreadlord was easier said than done. Arthas himself could not destroy Tichondrius without alerting Archimonde to the Lich King’s treachery. But what if someone else did the killing for him?
That thought crossed Arthas’s mind when he discovered Illidan Stormrage carving a path of destruction through the woodlands. Fel magic suffused the strange night elf, but he was no friend of the Legion. Nor was he a staunch supporter of his own people.
Arthas sensed Illidan’s insatiable yearning for power. It would be an easy thing to use the night elf’s ambition as a weapon.
In Felwood, Arthas confronted Illidan and enticed the night elf with knowledge. The death knight revealed that a powerful artifact called the Skull of Gul’dan was nearby. Yet finding the relic would not be easy. Arthas warned Illidan that a cunning dreadlord named Tichondrius prowled Felwood.
Illidan was deeply suspicious of Arthas, but he had already sensed the great power emanating from within Felwood. It was too enticing to ignore. Illidan went in search of it and left Arthas behind. It would not be the last time they would meet.
A trail of fallen demons stretched behind Illidan Stormrage by the time he found the Skull of Gul’dan. He was pleased to discover that the artifact was filled with not only energy but knowledge. The skull contained the memories of the orc warlock. Rather than simply draw power from the relic, Illidan consumed its energies entirely. Fel magic surged through his flesh and blood. Massive horns sprouted from Illidan’s skull, while leathery wings unfurled from his back. Illidan transformed from a night elf into something else. A demon.
As power flooded into Illidan, so did Gul’dan’s memories. He learned of the creature’s homeworld, Draenor, and of the mysteries and ancient artifacts locked within the Tomb of Sargeras.
Imbued with this new power, Illidan hunted down Tichondrius and destroyed the dreadlord.
By claiming the Skull of Gul’dan, Illidan had struck a grave blow to the Legion. Felwood would remain tainted, but its corruptive energies would not spread into the rest of Ashenvale or Hyjal.
Despite the fact that he had helped the night elves’ war effort, Illidan faced scorn from his brother, and even from Tyrande Whisperwind. He had gone too far in consuming the Skull of Gul’dan. He had become a demon—one of the very creatures that the night elves were struggling to defeat. Malfurion Stormrage banished his brother from night elven lands. Illidan obeyed, but only because he knew that staying in Hyjal was meaningless. If the night elves thwarted the Legion’s invasion, it would not matter. A single defeat would not stop the Legion from coming back.
Illidan Stormrage had his own war to fight. For him, it was the only war that mattered.
THE LEGION’S WAR PATH THROUGH KALIMDOR IN THE THIRD WAR
As the Legion steadily ascended Mount Hyjal and approached the second Well of Eternity, thousands of night elf Sentinels and druids gathered near the mountain’s summit. They did not fight alone. Though the druids had been unable to summon the Wild Gods, they had rallied many other forest spirits to their cause, such as the dryads and the keepers of the grove. The Horde and the Alliance refugees also hacked away at the demonic army with all their strength.
This gathering of races had not been seen since the War of the Ancients. Even so, the defenders were outnumbered. Worse still, most of them were not working together. The night elves and the forest creatures were wary of the Horde and the Alliance refugees. Tyrande Whisperwind in particular believed that the two factions were responsible for leading the Legion to Kalimdor.
With Hyjal’s defenders in disarray, Archimonde sensed that victory was within his grasp. But he did not know of Medivh’s presence or of his grand designs.
Medivh brought Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, Tyrande Whisperwind, and Malfurion Stormrage to his side. The meeting was tense. Tyrande balked at the idea of unifying with the Alliance refugees and the Horde. But Medivh eventually convinced her to put aside her prejudices for the good of Azeroth. The disparate factions unified, but they knew they could not defeat Archimonde through brute force.
Malfurion proposed a solution. A dangerous and costly one. The World Tree Nordrassil was imbued with powerful enchantments from the Dragon Aspects, enchantments that granted the night elves immortality and immunity to sickness and disease. Malfurion believed that he and his fellow druids could ignite these magics, causing an explosion that would annihilate Archimonde and the Legion invaders. But doing so would also destroy the enchantments, leaving the night elves vulnerable to aging and sickness for the first time in over ten thousand years. The impact on night elven society would be devastating, but the defenders had little other choice.
As Malfurion and his druids prepared to draw out Nordrassil’s enchantments, the rest of the defenders dug in around Hyjal’s summit to buy them time. Orcs and humans, night elves and tauren, trolls and dwarves—all fought a bitter battle against a relentless tide of undead and demons.
Thousands of defenders died that day, but they did not give their lives in vain. By the time Archimonde reached Nordrassil, Malfurion and his druids had completed their work. Countless incorporeal spirits known as wisps emerged from the forests around Hyjal. They closed in around Archimonde, but they did not attack him. At Malfurion’s urging, they instead channeled their energies into the World Tree and ignited the enchantments within.
A shockwave of blinding energy erupted from Nordrassil, shaking Kalimdor to its roots. Archimonde was instantly destroyed. So were most of his undead and demons. The Legion’s hopes of seizing the second Well of Eternity were shattered.
The defenders immediately launched a counterattack against the surviving Legion forces. Their furious assault destroyed almost all of what remained of the demons and undead in Kalimdor. Arthas Menethil only narrowly escaped the attack. He rallied as many of the Scourge as he could before he retreated to the Eastern Kingdoms.
Following the victory, the Horde and the Alliance refugees departed Hyjal in search of new lands to settle. Their tenuous pact would remain, but it would be tested in the years to come.
Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage remained in Hyjal and began rebuilding. Most of the surrounding woodlands were in ruins. Worse yet, Nordrassil had been damaged by the explosion. Many of its great roots, which had provided life-giving energies to the world, withered and died. Though Nordrassil would heal in time, the enchantments from the Dragon Aspects were gone. The night elves would no longer enjoy immortality or immunity to sickness. They would grow old and infirm. They would die, just like all other mortal races. The damage wrou
ght by the explosion also made it far more difficult for Malfurion and the other druids to reach the Emerald Dream.
From afar, Medivh surveyed the war-torn world and was relieved by what he saw. The Legion’s invasion had failed. Azeroth was safe…for now. Medivh knew that other threats, like the Lich King, yet lurked in the dark corners of the world, but he could not stop them. His powers were waning, and he felt that his time on the physical plane was coming to an end.
The task of safeguarding Azeroth now fell to its inhabitants, just as he had intended. Medivh had shown them that there was strength in unity. All he could do was hope that they would continue fighting together as they had on Hyjal.
And with that, the Last Guardian of Azeroth vanished.
THE DEATH KNIGHT ARTHAS MENETHIL ASCENDS TO THE FROZEN THRONE
Once more, against impossible odds, Azeroth’s defenders had turned back the Burning Legion.
Despite the crushing defeat, the demon lord Kil’jaeden did not believe that all was lost. He still had the Lich King, some of his dreadlords, and the Scourge at his disposal. The undead had suffered heavy losses in Kalimdor, but thousands of the monstrous creatures remained in control of Lordaeron. The Scourge could quickly replenish their ranks and mount another attack.
But when Kil’jaeden reached out to the Lich King, his hopes died. The entity refused the demon lord’s command.
The Lich King had seen the defeat at Mount Hyjal as an opportunity to break free of the Legion, and he wasted no time. He rallied Arthas Menethil, Kel’Thuzad, and the rest of the Scourge in Lordaeron. With his forces amassed and completely under his control, he sent them against his remaining dreadlord handlers: Balnazzar, Varimathras, and Detheroc.
The dreadlords stood little chance against the seething mass of undead. The demons fled into the Plaguelands and used their dark magics to shroud themselves from sight.
Now the Legion could not oppose the Lich King. The Scourge was his, and his alone.
Kil’jaeden had always suspected that the Lich King might rise against him. What the demon lord hadn’t expected was how devious his weapon had become. The Lich King had hidden his true might from Kil’jaeden and the dreadlords. He’d played the part of a loyal servant, all the while manipulating the demons. As the Scourge had grown, so, too, had the Lich King’s strength. His psychic power was far beyond what it had once been.
The opportunity to use the Lich King to launch another Legion assault against Kalimdor had slipped away. Far worse, the entity now posed a direct threat to the demons. If the Lich King conquered Azeroth, any future demonic invasions would be nearly impossible.
There was but one thing left to do: destroy the Lich King. Kil’jaeden sensed a new demon on Azeroth who was strong enough to complete the task. Someone who had allied with the Legion during the War of the Ancients…
In consuming the Skull of Gul’dan, Illidan Stormrage had acquired otherworldly knowledge and strength. But transforming into a demon had also made his presence known to Kil’jaeden.
From afar, Kil’jaeden reached out to Illidan with an offer. If the former night elf destroyed the Lich King, he would be granted anything his heart desired. Illidan was intrigued. Given his history of fighting the Legion, he would have expected Kil’jaeden to see him as an enemy, not a potential ally. Clearly, the demon lord needed him, and he thought the former night elf would simply bend the knee for a few scraps of power.
Kil’jaeden knew nothing of Illidan’s singular quest to annihilate the Legion. Though it took great effort, the former night elf buried his true thoughts deep within his mind and hid them from the demon lord.
Illidan feigned allegiance to Kil’jaeden and accepted the offer, seeing it as an opportunity to learn more about the Legion. He was also eager to rid the world of the Lich King. In his view, the entity was nothing more than a Legion-forged weapon. The sooner he culled the creature from Azeroth, the sooner he could focus all his attention on the Legion itself.
From what Illidan knew of the Scourge and its vast numbers, a frontal assault against the Lich King would be impossible. He had something else in mind, something more suited to his sorcerous abilities.
The Skull of Gul’dan had granted him knowledge of an artifact called the Eye of Sargeras. It could act as a conduit for Illidan’s own magic, amplifying it and allowing him to strike the Lich King from a great distance. There was only one hurdle to overcome, and it was immense. The artifact lay across the sea in the Tomb of Sargeras, an ancient structure on an archipelago known as the Broken Isles.
The Broken Isles had once been part of the night elven empire, but that was over ten thousand years ago. Illidan knew little of what dangers might await him there now. He needed allies to help him recover the Eye of Sargeras, but he could not ask for assistance from the night elves, not after Malfurion Stormrage had banished him from their lands.
Moreover, Illidan was being hunted. The night elf Watchers who had guarded him for millennia were furious that Tyrande Whisperwind had set him free—none more so than the order’s leader, Warden Maiev Shadowsong.
The epitome of the Watchers, Maiev was a militaristic proponent of the law who dedicated her life to watching over prisoners and hunting down dangerous criminals. She saw Tyrande’s liberation of Illidan as more than an act of recklessness. She saw it as treason. Tyrande had killed many of the Watchers to unleash the Betrayer. Maiev would never forgive her for that. Never. Nor would she allow Illidan Stormrage to walk free.
Illidan knew that it was only a matter of time before the Watchers found him. With little other choice, he reached out to creatures from his past: the Highborne sorcerers.
Ten thousand years ago, when the original Well of Eternity imploded during the War of the Ancients, the Highborne sorcerers were sucked into the depths of the sea alongside their queen, Azshara. There, in the darkness beneath the waves, they found salvation from the Old Gods.
In exchange for servitude, the Old Gods spared the Highborne from their watery doom. But there was a price. The elves were twisted into scaly serpentine creatures called naga. Their hearts became as black as the deepest ocean trenches, and hate enveloped their thoughts.
Illidan Stormrage had heard only rumors of the Highborne’s fate. Whether they were true, he did not know. But when he cast a powerful spell to reach the Highborne in the ocean deeps, they answered. A group of naga led by Lady Vashj emerged from the depths, an army of scale and fang. One and all, they pledged themselves to Illidan.
The naga did not come because of the history they shared with the former night elf. Nor did they respect his power as a demon. They came because the Old Gods willed it.
The Old Gods had taken notice of Illidan. His hunger for power and his chaotic past intrigued them. His quest to destroy the Lich King could spark a new war on Azeroth, one that would likely envelop the undead, the world’s nations, and the Legion. With that kind of turmoil consuming Azeroth, Cho’gall and his cultists could awaken the Old Gods relatively unopposed.
Illidan had the potential to be very useful, and the Old Gods had sent the naga to make sure his campaign against the Lich King succeeded. If the former night elf became troublesome, so be it. The Old Gods would simply command the naga to cut out his fel-corrupted heart.
Either way, the Old Gods were confident that they could use Illidan Stormrage to bring a new age of conflict to the world.
With the help of his new allies, Illidan Stormrage crossed the Great Sea and reached the Broken Isles. He had grown up in the region, but that had been long before the Great Sundering. Time and isolation had changed the Broken Isles. Illidan sensed and saw many intriguing creatures prowling the shores, but he did not indulge his curiosity. Maiev Shadowsong and her Watchers were on his heels.
Illidan outmaneuvered his hunters and plunged into the Tomb of Sargeras. He felt forbidden magic stirring in the depths of the ominous tower, along with ot
her things. This was a cursed place, a monument to death and betrayal. Danger lurked in every corner. Gul’dan’s memories helped him safely navigate the tomb’s winding, water-logged corridors. He found the Eye of Sargeras not a moment too soon. A number of Watchers had closed in around him, but whatever chance they might have had to restrain Illidan was gone. With his sorcerous power magnified by the Eye of Sargeras, he was beyond their control.
Of those Watchers who confronted Illidan in the tomb, only Maiev survived.
Severely wounded, she retreated to the surface and rallied the rest of her Watchers. Her brush with death did not frighten her into abandoning her hunt. To the contrary, she was desperate to destroy Illidan as soon as possible. He had slaughtered many of her loyal Watchers. Vengeance burned hot in Maiev’s soul.
She dispatched a messenger to Kalimdor, imploring Malfurion Stormrage for aid. No matter what, she would not run again. Maiev and the remaining Watchers on the Broken Isles prepared to make a final stand against Illidan.
Illidan later emerged from the tomb, though somewhat reluctantly. There was more power he could gain from the structure, but he knew that Maiev was still alive. Something else consumed his attention as well. The Eye of Sargeras was not quite as powerful as he had expected. Even when he channeled his own magic through the artifact, he could not assault the Lich King. The distance was too vast. He needed an additional source of magic to amplify his spellwork. Once more he sifted through the knowledge in Gul’dan’s memories. And, once more, he found an answer.
In his mind’s eye, he saw a glimmering city to the east. Not only was it filled with magic, but it was also constructed on a nexus of potent arcane ley lines. The city’s name was Dalaran.
World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 3 Page 10