Dragonqueen Alexstrasza is liberated at Grim Batol

Full History

The defeat of the Horde in the Second War had not freed every victim of its campaigns. In Grim Batol, the Dragonmaw clan continued to hold Alexstrasza, the red dragon Aspect, through the power of the Demon Soul. The artifact reached back to Neltharion's betrayal during the War of the Ancients. In the hands of the Dragonmaw it served as a means of enslaving dragons whose natural charge had been to protect life, forcing them into military service.

The captivity made Grim Batol a place of shame and danger. The fortress already carried the scars of the War of the Three Hammers and the curse associated with Modgud. Its renewed role in the enslavement of the dragonqueen connected two very different historical disasters in a single location. The Dragonmaw could not sustain their control without the ancient artifact, but its power protected them against ordinary efforts to free the prisoners.

Rhonin became central to the effort to end the captivity, with assistance from companions whose paths crossed in the expedition. Their mission drew them into the conflict among dragons, orcs, and the remaining secrets of the Demon Soul. The artifact was destroyed, breaking the coercion that held Alexstrasza. The dragonqueen's freedom also allowed the red dragons to turn against the captors who had exploited them.

The liberation did not restore the dragonflights to the unbroken unity they had enjoyed before Deathwing's betrayal, but it ended a grave consequence of the ancient weapon's survival. It also showed that the Second War's aftermath contained unfinished struggles beyond human and orc politics. Alexstrasza's rescue in Grim Batol belongs to both the modern history of the Horde and the older history of the Aspects, whose ancient conflict had made the enslavement possible.