The Aspect of Life and red flight

Full History

Alexstrasza, called the Life-Binder, held a charge far older than the human or orc kingdoms that later fought across Azeroth. As queen of the red dragonflight, she represented the safeguarding of life among the ancient dragon Aspects. Her guardianship made the abuse of her power during the Second War especially cruel. The story of the red dragons therefore stretches from the world's first defenders to the conflicts of mortal armies.

The Aspects were entrusted with distinct responsibilities: the red flight was associated with life, the green with nature and dreams, and other flights with time, magic, and the earth. That division of care was shattered when Neltharion betrayed his fellow guardians and employed the Dragon Soul against them. The red flight nevertheless endured. Long after the War of the Ancients, the Dragonmaw clan exploited Alexstrasza's captivity to turn her children into unwilling weapons for the Horde.

Alexstrasza's ancient charge and later imprisonment belong to the same history because both concern responsibility for the living. The original Warcraft II manual describes chains, magical coercion, and the breeding of dragons for war; the novel Day of the Dragon describes the ending of that bondage. Her story cannot be reduced either to a neutral catalogue of dragon colors or to the Second War alone. It records how the guardians of Azeroth could become victims of its wars.