Monday, June 1, 2020

Free Agent Demons in a Post-Legion Warcraft, and the Rise of the Nathrezim

The ending of Legion leaves a couple things ambiguous:

During the Antorus raid, Sargeras has manifested as a dark cloud slowly encroaching on Azeroth. Meanwhile, we delve into the engine that keeps the demons regenerating (faster?) and dismantle it, first freeing Aggramar from his fel-induced magic the standard way we know how, by beating the crap out of him (it worked for the Keepers of Ulduar too! How come it didn't work for Neltharion?) Then, we journey to the Seat of the Pantheon, recorporating the Titans, only to face the Titan Argus, who has spent the last 25,000 years tortured and used as a battery to keep the soul-recycler of Antorus working.

Defeating Argus allows the Titans to focus on capturing their wayward brother, drawing Sargeras back into the Seat of the Pantheon. As they do, Sargeras is transformed back into his humanoid/Titan form and summons his massive sword, plunging it into Azeroth and kicking off the current expansion.

We depart of the Vindicaar with Magni and Velen, but Illidan decides that his destiny is to help keep Sargeras imprisoned at the Seat of the Pantheon, the true final sacrifice that he's been destined for.

The war seems over. With Kil'jaeden pretty definitively perma-dead and Archimonde... probably perma-dead after Warlords (I wonder if by breaking Antorus we've prevented his return) the Legion's leadership is pretty much wiped out. I'd guess the highest-ranking demon in the Legion who is left is probably Tichondrius, whose death in the Nighthold was most likely not permanent.

Tichondrius is an interesting case that we'll return to.

The Pantheon is holding Sargeras, and presumably in a way that has negated many of his advantages in the past. Illidan's role there might be to deal with unforeseen consequences. I don't know if he's eternally battling the Dark Titan, or if perhaps he's using his second sight to ensure that loyal demons aren't trying to free their god.

I also don't know what has become of Argus. The Unmaker was the final boss of Legion, and had some great power over death, but he was also one of the Legion's most pitiable victims. If the Pantheon could survive, longterm, their destruction at Sargeras' hands, might Argus be allowed to return? And if he does, will he be friend or foe?

In the past, all of, or at least the vast majority of demons we've encountered have been part of the Legion. All working toward a single purpose, and shockingly loyal and free of backstabbing and personal ambition. Not only that, but many demons, it appears, felt that they were actually agents of the greater good - that their war was against the horrors of the void.

Not to get too close to the real world here during a time when people with power and authority are abusing it in horrific ways, but it's possible that the vindictiveness with which the demons conduct themselves is less about the mission than the nature of corrupting power. Sure, in a fantasy world, desecrating holy sites can serve a practical, tactical purpose, but it would also make sense if a lot of the Legion's demons were happy to join a cause that let them claim to be "saving the universe" because it gave them a license to commit whatever horrible deeds they wanted to.

Now, it's possible that the Legion still exists, and it's just in a leadership crisis. They might be struggling to rebuild or to redefine their purpose. In other words, it's possible that we'll simply see them again several expansions from now, regrouped and ready to take vengeance on us for our victories on Argus.

What I would find more interesting, however, is to see the demons scattered and breaking into new factions. We've had demons who broke from the Legion before - many Shivara joined the Illidari, and they never seemed to simply be playing a part as sleeper agents.

The figure that inspired this post is Viz'duun, an NPC found in the Underbelly of Dalaran in Legion. Rogues on the Subtlety artifact weapon quest chain (Fangs of the Devourer is the name of the pair of daggers you're looking for). Viz'duun is just sitting in the sewers, wearing dark clothes and a hood with a mask that covers most of his face. But if he expects he can simply pass as a Draenei, he must be an idiot, because his red skin and fell-green eyes are not hard to spot, not to mention that he has no Draenei accent (how come Man'ari Eredar don't have Greek accents? Did Velen and his followers develop it during their exile?)

Viz'duun shows up in Legion, obviously, well before we even go to Argus. And he's plainly a Man'ari Eredar (or possibly a Sargerai ex-Draenei, though the lack of accent suggests the former.) But he helps us subvert the Legion. What's his game?

I figure there are three possible explanations:

The first is that he's working some incredibly long game that either never did or hasn't yet born fruit, somehow trying to aid the Legion by seeming to help us.

The second is that the demons in the Legion aren't as loyal as they appear - that he's actually happy to help us take out one of Kil'jaeden's top assassins because he wants to rise in the ranks and possibly take her place, or have whoever does owe him a favor.

The third, and the version I find more interesting, is that there are actually tons of demons who aren't part of the Legion, and have their own agendas that might overlap with ours.

The ranks of such free-agent demons in a post-Legion cosmos could make for some complex and interesting stories moving forward.

After all, Demons are beings of disorder in the Warcraft cosmos - not explicitly evil. Warcraft player characters are generally railroaded by quests into doing anything for anyone in exchange for pants and XP, and some demons with mysterious goals would make for some really cool questionable quest-givers.

Shadowlands is opening up a whole new multiverse for us to explore. While the Shadowlands has its own entities and factions, I could imagine Warcraft going broader and more cosmic in future expansions. (I say that as if it hasn't already - the very first expansion took us to an otherworldly, science-fantasy setting.)

I would actually kind of love to see future developments where various factions of demons have to figure out their place in the cosmos. Some might be into destruction for its own sake. Some might be a remnant of the Legion, trying to carry on the Burning Crusade. And some demons might take a look at us mortals and say "hey, you know, these guys kick a lot of ass. Maybe we should try to ally with them... or corrupt them... to pursue our own goals. Screw Sargeras, I want what's mine!"

And that brings us back to Tichondrius.

The Nathrezim are ancient demons. It was Sargeras' pursuit of them to the world that is now Telogrus Rift (so I'm assuming the world was called Telogrus, as well as the Titan World Soul inside) that led to his discovery of Old Gods and the Void, which set him on the path to form the Burning Legion.

There are theories that we'll be learning a lot more about the Dreadlords/Nathrezim in Shadowlands, given their hinted connection to Revendreth and the Venthyr. But if there was ever any major sub-faction within the Legion, it was the Dreadlords, who were given special tasks that required particular subtlety and deftness. Dreadlords managed the spread of the Scourge and kept the Lich King on task during the Third War. Balnazzar infiltrated the Scarlet Crusade and turned it into the theocratic inquisition that it became. Varimathras faked a defection to the Forsaken and remained Sylvanas' second-in-command for years. Detheroc pulled a Kim Philby and took over SI:7 during the Legion's invasion, posing as Matthias Shaw (I just did the quests to get the Kingslayers - the Assassination daggers - on my Vulpera rogue, and I remember having a bitter taste in my mouth when Shaw refers to Garona as a half-breed, but then remembered that by this point, it's already Detheroc in disguise.)

The point is, the Dreadlords are masters of subtlety, and they're also kind of a faction in and of themselves.

With the collapse of the Legion's leadership - Sargeras imprisoned and Kil'jaeden and Archimonde both dead - this seems like absolute prime time for the Nathrezim to pursue their own agenda.

But we can't be sure it'll be anything like it was in the Legion. Sargeras got Archimonde and Kil'jaeden on board because he promised them knowledge and a chance to fight the Void. But the Dreadlords freaking loved the Void before they were imprisoned and then coerced into joining the Legion. The Eredar were welcomed in, and joined voluntarily, and given elite status in the Legion. The Dreadlords, masterful and brilliant beings that they were, were always enslaved to the cause. Varimathras was tortured for years after his failures in the Undercity. I doubt Kil'jaeden got the same treatment after the Sunwell.

The Dreadlords have just become the most powerful demons in the cosmos. And again, there is no reason whatsoever to think that they shared Sargeras' vision.

So what are they up to now?

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