Nordrassil grows over the new Well

Full History

The collapse of the original Well of Eternity had ended an age, but Illidan Stormrage's attempt to preserve its waters created a new source on Mount Hyjal. The surviving night elves could not ignore such dangerous power. A new order arose around the lake, marked by the growth of Nordrassil, the World Tree, and by the intervention of dragon Aspects associated with the protection of Azeroth. The world above the second Well would not become another court of Highborne spellcasters.

Nordrassil took on an importance greater than that of a great tree in a remote mountain refuge. Through the dragonflights' blessings, the night elves gained enduring gifts and a closer relation to the realm of nature and the Emerald Dream. The World Tree became inseparable from the Long Vigil, during which the kaldorei guarded their lands while generations of druids entered long periods of dreaming. The tree embodied the attempt to restore balance after a civilization's misuse of magic.

Thousands of years later, the Legion returned to Kalimdor in the Third War. Archimonde sought the extraordinary power of Nordrassil, and the defenders of Mount Hyjal found themselves confronting a familiar enemy on the ground where their ancestors had struggled with the consequences of the first invasion. Human refugees, Thrall's Horde, and the night elves joined in the desperate defense of the mountain.

At the battle's climax, Archimonde was destroyed, but the victory exacted a profound price from the night elves' blessings. The World Tree survived as a place and historical symbol even as the conditions that had defined kaldorei life changed. Nordrassil thus links three moments of Azeroth's history: the aftermath of the Sundering, the long age of night-elven guardianship, and the alliance that halted the Legion in the Third War.