Burning Legion
The Burning Legion are a vast demonic army that features in Warcraft.
Contents |
History
The Burning Legion was a vast army of Demons that inhabited the universe where they were chaotic beings native to the Twisting Nether. Long ago, the god-like Titans sought to bring order to the worlds of the Great Dark Beyond where they encountered the deadly threat posed by Demons. To combat this enemy, the charged their most noble and greatest champion Sargeras to ending this scourge on worlds. With his great power, he was able to attain victory after victory against the largely unorganised and incompetent Demons. However, he came to witness entire civilizations being turned to ash along with their inhabitants being turned into horrible abominations in the process. This led to the Titan Sargeras feeling a sense of hopelessness but he continued with his mission. It was eventually discovered that the Demons he had slain simply reformed in new bodies allowing them to continue their predations on the universe. Thus, the Titan Pantheon dispatched another of their number namely Aggramar to aid his comrade Sargeras. Together, the pair were more effective in combating the demonic threat thus allowing Sargeras time to study the nature of the Twisting Nether. He came to learnt to manipulate that realm's energies allowing him to craft a prison world named Mardum to serve as a jail for the defeated Demons thus preventing them from incarnating again upon death. This led to Sargeras and Aggramar splitting up to better fight their enemy as they continued to bring peace to the cosmos. During this time, Sargeras came across a world that was smothered by void energies and he discovered it to be infested by horrors known as the Old Gods. Looking to learn more of them, the Titan began to interrogate some of the demonic Nathrezim and learnt of the malevolent Void Lords. These entities were responsible for sending out the Old Gods throughout the universe where they hoped to corrupt a slumbering Titan's world-soul with the intention of creating an unspeakable creature that would consume all matter and energy in the cosmos. Horrified at this discovery, Sargeras killed the conclave of Nathrezim and cleaved the infested world in two with his blade.
Ten thousand years ago, the demonic hordes of the Legion were attracted to the world of Azeroth due to the experiments conducted at the Well of Eternity by the Highborne Elves. Sargeras himself made contact with the Elven sorcerers and intended to use their magic to bring forth the Burning Legion to the planet. To do so, he reached out and made contact with a Highborne named Lord Xavius who in turn brought the demonic Titan's existence to the attention of Queen Azshara. They were offered unfathomable power that could allow them to remake their homeland of Kalimdor and turn it into a paradise. Thus, they allied with the fallen Titan and summoned his agents to Azeroth.
Thus, the Legion decided to embark on their next scheme on conquering the world to Azeroth. This saw the soul of the Orc Shaman Ner'zhul being twisted into becoming the Lich King and the disembodied spirit was sent crashing in the frozen lands of Northrend on Azeroth. Once there, he was set to establish an army of undead called the Scourge that would bring about the conquest of the lands. To ensure his cooperation, a group of Nathrezim Dreadlords was dispatched to keep an eye on him. Within Northrend, he set about conquering the kingdom of the spider-like Nerubians and set about forming an army of followers that would aid in conquering the southern regions of the Eastern Continent. Through the Cult of the Damned, these acolytes and necromancers set forth creating the Plague of Undeath that infected the living which killed them whereupon their bodies were reanimated into undead servants completely under the Lich King's power. The Dreadlord Mal'ganis was primarily responsible for leading the efforts in spreading the plague with this attracting the attention of Arthas Menethil who was a Prince of Lordaeron.
With the ritual complete, Archimonde was summoned into Azeroth who then heralded the invasion of the planet. He commanded the Dreadlords take over the Scourge from the Lich King whilst the demonic armies began arriving in the lands to conquer them. The second invasion had truly begun. The forces of the Legion swept across the Eastern Kingdoms and soon reached the shores of Kalimdor, home of their old enemy, the night elves. The Legion chose as its main goal the consumption of the World Tree on Mount Hyjal, which granted immortality to the night elves, and to seize the Well of Eternity to form a powerful gateway for the Legion. At the final hour, an alliance of humans, orcs, and night elves fought desperately to hold back Archimonde and the legion while Malfurion Stormrage performed a desperate druidic ritual upon the World Tree itself. Finally, Malfurion gave the signal that he was ready and the Legion was allowed to reach their goal...the World Tree stood exposed to Archimonde. As the demon embraced the tree and began to feed upon its magics, Malfurion's spell took hold. The World Tree released all of its energy into Archimonde at once, destroying both the World Tree and the demon. The ensuing explosion destroyed the tree and laid waste to Hyjal Summit. The Legion had been defeated once again but at the cost of the night elves' immortality. With Archimonde finally defeated, Kil'jaeden assumed complete control of the Legion.
Although the Alliance resistance suffered a great loss with the blood elves, they continued fighting against the Scourge. However, they were not a serious threat to the Burning Legion. Rather, the dreadlords Balnazzar, Detheroc, and Varimathras who were in charge of the Scourge were impatient for orders from Archimonde and ensured that the Scourge was ready for action, ignorant of the death of their leader. Soon after, Arthas returned to Lordaeron's Capital City. He told the undead leaders that the city was now his and that he wouldn't require the dreadlords' services to watch over it. When Balnazzar retorted that the Scourge belonged to the Legion, Arthas replied that their masters had been defeated and that the Burning Legion was "undone." He then tried to slaughter the dreadlords but they managed to escape and warn Arthas of their inevitable retribution. Later, the dreadlords found out that the Lich King was weakening, and together with Sylvanas Windrunner planned to overthrow Arthas.
Overview
In appearance, the Burning Legion was the name of a vast demonic army consisting of countless fel races and beings.
There were various types of demons within the ranks of the Legion that included:
- Ered'ruin :
- Nathrezim :
- Annihilan :
- Shivarra : a race of six-armed humanoids noted for being devout and exceedingly charismatic whose priestesses lived only to evangelize the power of Sargeras' dread vision with them serving as the driving heart of the Burning Crusade.
- Aranasi : a race of arachnid demons whose origins were unknown though it was believed that they were a remnants of a people that were long ago conquered by the armies of the Burning Legion.
- Man'ari :
- Mo'arg :
- Gan'arg :
- Sayaad : a winged race of demons similar to the Nathrezim whose females were known as succubi and males were incubi.
- Wyrmtongues : a diminutive race of red-skinned humanoid demons that served as manual laborers in the Legion.
The Burning Legion made use of a large number of constructs that were part of their armies with these including:
- Abyssals :
- Infernals :
- Devastator :
The Legion possessed dagger-shaped spaceships that were capable of teleport and travel between the Twisting Nether and the Great Dark Beyond. The tip of the Legion ships formed a portal that could be used to summon more demons or to bombard the enemy with infernal fireballs.
Members
- Sargeras :
- Kil'Jaeden :
- Archimonde :
- Mannoroth :
- Tichondrius :
- Mal'Ganis :
- Kazzak : the Supreme
- Tyranna : Brood Queen of the Aranasi who was placed in charge of the world of Mardum by Sargeras.
- Jagganoth :
- Rakeesh :
Notes
- The Burning Legion were created by Blizzard Entertainment and made their first appearance in the third Warcraft game named Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
Appearances
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos:
- Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne:
- World of Warcraft:
External Link
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
