World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s main characters and lore explained

World of Warcraft Players have been wading through uncharted territory and working their way through the realms of death for some time now shadowlands. dragonflight, the next expansion currently in alpha, looks like a narrative reset. Players are returning to Azeroth, and the Dragon Isles appear to be the setting for some good old-fashioned fantasy adventures.

Of course in a game that is so lengthy and narratively dense World of Warcraft, nothing is ever really easy. It looks like Blizzard will return to many old storylines and reintroduce older characters. If you’ve taken a break from Azeroth, but dragonflight If you’re interested, here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming expansion’s cast.

[Ed. note: This article contains mild spoilers from Public Test Realm content.]

It looks like dragonflight starts fresh after a time warp – something much needed since up shadowlandseach expansion has covered a chronological window of about one to two years. It has now been “several” years and things have changed. Characters have rested and healed, there has been a royal elven wedding, and Azeroth has stepped off the train of constant, incessant crises and wars. So what are all the big players up to?

The Horde and Alliance

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

The Horde is in a very interesting narrative place thanks to the long and at times very horrifying story played through by Sylvanas Windrunner Battle for Azeroth. The Horde has made peace with the Alliance, but that doesn’t change the faction’s violent past, which committed genocide under Sylvanas’ command, burning down Teldrassil and the home of the night elves and killing all the people who lived there. This is something the narrative tries to contend with, and the Horde characters find themselves in an awkward position as a result. Right now the Horde is being run by a council of level-headed people instead of a warchief, and things seem to be going well.

Allianz, on the other hand, has not made any structural changes. They are still a monarchy led by a High King. Anduin Wrynn, the soft, sweet boy of Warcraft, is still quite traumatized by the events of Battle for Azeroth and shadowlands, so he takes a vacation. Then there’s the reigning ruler who took Anduin’s place: Turalyon, a 1995s war hero warcraft 2 who disappeared at the end of the game and didn’t reappear until 2016 legion. Not only was he off-screen for two decades, but in-game he also spent a thousand years in a space dimension fighting an endless war against demons. As such, he has evolved into something of a cop, and it remains to be seen if he is capable of effectively ruling the Alliance.

Overall, there is peace between the two factions. Hell, players from both sides can even play together now. That means we have to focus on one type of enemy — after all, as the old joke goes, that’s who War

Oops! All dragons!

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

The extension is called dragonflight, so of course there are plenty of dragons: the red, blue, green, bronze and black dragonflights, along with their leaders and aspects. At the end of catastropheThe Dragon Aspects gave up most of their power to defeat Deathwing, the insane aspect of the Black Dragonflight. It looks like much of this power has been restored or is in the process of being restored; Dragons are no longer barren and we are in the new age of dragons. Clean!

Alexstrasza, the dragon queen and aspect of the red dragonflight, will be one of the main quest givers and NPCs we travel with. An important part of the franchise since the RTS games, she is generally a benevolent kind – Alexstrasza helped the heroes Wrath of the Lich King and catastrophe and even took some time to help save a lost soul from the scourge of undeath.

Kalecgos, the aspect of magic and leader of the blue dragonflight, is relatively unexplored. He starred in a manga in 2005 and briefly dated Jaina Proudmoore a few years later, but he’s a blank slate. So is Merithra of the Dream, the new leader of the Green Dragonflight. She took on the role after players killed her mother, a corrupt Ysera legion

The last two leaders are the most interesting. Wrathion is the son of the aforementioned evil, insane Deathwing, and he is on a quest to redeem his dragonflight. Trouble is, Wrathion kinda sucks – he’s young, impulsive, and tends to run off with an idea instead of checking in with his friends. As a result, he is one of the most popular characters in World of Warcraft.

Then there is the bronze aspect of Nozdormu. The players have learned again catastrophe that Nozdormu is destined to fall into corruption and attempt to sabotage all timelines of the universe. So far, Nozdormu is pretty cool… but there’s literally a time bomb in this character that could go off during this time dragonflight.

Early dragonflight In the content available for testing, the Aspects, Horde and Alliance work together to stop threats such as the original Proto-Drakes and their Elementalist cults, and uncover the mysteries behind the new playable race, the Dractyrs, which are like a hidden science experiment appear that Deathwing has finally unleashed upon the world.

Azeroth itself seems like a decent place dragonflight, and our journey to the Dragon Isles feels a lot more optimistic and adventurous than the starting points of the last few expansions. But there are some hidden narrative mines carefully placed by the writers in characters like Nozdormu and Turalyon that will likely lead to complications sooner or later. Finally, players need to raid some for their sweet booty.