Onyxia covertly undermines Stormwind

Full History

After the orcish wars, Stormwind remained an important human power, but survival did not protect its government from enemies within. Katrana Prestor moved among the kingdom's ruling circles as a political figure. Her true identity was Onyxia, a black dragon, whose manipulation placed a danger of ancient origin close to the court. The contrast between an apparently familiar noblewoman and a dragon in disguise lay at the center of the threat.

The black dragonflight's history stretched back to the time of the Aspects. Neltharion, once charged with guarding the earth, betrayed the other flights during the War of the Ancients and became known as Deathwing. His descendants continued to pursue their own designs long after that catastrophe. Onyxia's activity in Stormwind showed how a struggle originating in the world's deepest history could intrude into the politics of a much younger human kingdom.

For Stormwind, the consequence was an unstable political environment in which ordinary military decisions and domestic rivalries could be affected by hidden manipulation. The influence of a disguised dragon should not be confused with open conquest: her power depended in part upon remaining accepted by the very people whose affairs she sought to direct. Such secrecy made the threat difficult to identify through the usual signs of war.

Onyxia's deception remained part of the original World of Warcraft setting. Her exposure or defeat cannot be assumed merely because later adventures offer the possibility. The historical fact at this point is that Stormwind faced an adversary disguised as an adviser, a continuation of the ancient black dragonflight's broken covenant.