Neltharion / Deathwing

Full History

Long before the first human kingdom arose, the dragonflights watched over powers too vast for mortal armies to command. Neltharion led the black dragons and bore the charge of the deep earth. Among the five Aspects, each entrusted with a different part of Azeroth's preservation, he was once considered a guardian rather than a destroyer. His strength, his knowledge of the world beneath mountains, and his place beside Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, and Malygos gave him the trust that would make his betrayal catastrophic.

That trust did not survive the War of the Ancients. As the Burning Legion entered the world through the night elves' reckless use of the Well of Eternity, the Aspects faced a conflict large enough to threaten every living thing. Neltharion offered a weapon that seemed to answer their fear: an artifact that would carry the combined strength of the dragonflights. The other Aspects contributed portions of their power to the Dragon Soul. They understood it as a shield against demons. Neltharion understood that its power could also be turned against his fellow guardians.

When Neltharion unveiled his true intent, the weapon devastated the forces around him, striking not only the Legion but allies who had placed their confidence in his plan. The blue dragonflight suffered ruinous losses. Malygos, once among Neltharion's peers, withdrew into grief. The other Aspects found themselves vulnerable to a device empowered by their own sacrifices. In one betrayal, the guardianship of Azeroth had become a means of controlling those appointed to defend it.

The name Deathwing endured because the treachery reached far beyond a single ancient battle. The Dragon Soul survived as a dangerous relic; the remaining dragons feared its power. Neltharion's body, too, bore the price of his corruption. His own might threatened to tear him apart, and he was remembered as a black wyrm whose armored form concealed profound damage. The story of a former Earth-Warder turning against the earth itself became one of Warcraft's defining warnings about the corruption of great power.

The Sundering changed the face of the world, but it did not undo what Neltharion had done. The night elves remembered their ancient catastrophe. The dragonflights remembered that their greatest enemy had once sat among them.

Thousands of years later, Deathwing returned to the intrigues of mortal kingdoms. In the original-era history surrounding the aftermath of the Second War, the dragon appeared in human disguise as Lord Prestor, attempting to use the politics of Alterac and the Alliance to secure a kingdom and influence its rulers. The disguise was more dangerous than an army at a city's walls. A nobleman's promise of stability could open doors that a dragon's terror would keep closed.

His schemes were connected to the fate of the Dragon Soul, now widely known as the Demon Soul. The Dragonmaw orcs used the relic to hold Alexstrasza prisoner at Grim Batol. Her captivity turned the red dragonflight's young into weapons for Horde forces, binding the queen of life to a cruel war. Deathwing saw further opportunity in that suffering: by exploiting the imprisoned flight, he hoped to bend dragonkind's future toward his own ambitions.

The novel *Day of the Dragon*, published before Warcraft III, places the undoing of this design at Grim Batol. Rhonin, aided by allies including Vereesa Windrunner, Falstad Wildhammer, and the red dragon Korialstrasz, struggled against the Dragonmaw's hold on Alexstrasza. The orcs' control depended upon the Demon Soul and upon their captor Nekros. When the artifact was broken, its captive power returned to the Aspects. Alexstrasza could act freely, and Deathwing confronted dragons who were no longer bound by his ancient trick.

The struggle drove Deathwing away. It did not transform his corrupted nature or announce his permanent destruction. For the remaining Aspects, the victory was a recovery of strength and a chance to heal old wounds. For mortals, it was a glimpse of rivalries older than their recorded history, in which a war between dragons could shape the outcomes of battles between kingdoms.

In the years following the Third War, Deathwing himself is not an openly present ruler or conqueror. His absence matters. The black dragonflight has not vanished, and the world contains indications that it has continued to pursue power while its former guardian remains beyond ordinary sight. Onyxia's infiltration of Stormwind is a contemporary menace, and her plots hint at how much influence a black dragon can wield without revealing its true form.

The location of Deathwing and the full extent of his schemes remain unresolved in the original starting world. Even those who study the black flight cannot say with certainty where its former master has gone or what he plans next. The Earth-Warder is a tragedy precisely because his earliest charge was protective. He was given the strength to sustain the world and used it to betray those closest to him. Azeroth's defenders continue living with the consequences long after he disappears from their view.