Adventurers of Warcraft‘s Azeroth have heard of the horror that is the Burning Legion. Additionally, these green-tinted demons and monstrosities served as World of Warcraft‘s main antagonistic faction throughout its expansions. Essentially, Sargeras the Dark Titan personally leads the Burning Legion in their horrific conquests of world souls. Unfortunately, Sargeras set the Burning Legion’s sights on Azeroth for quite some time. Thankfully, Azeroth’s heroes in Blizzard‘s hit fantasy series succeeded in defending the realm from the Dark Titan’s forces – so far.
However, it seems Sargeras and his Burning Legion have more to hide than they let adventurers know. Moreover, it appears Sargeras considers the Burning Legion as key to his plans for Azeroth and the universe as a whole. For fans of Warcraft‘s lore, just what significance does the Burning Legion hold?
10 Destruction Over Chaos
It’s interesting to note that Sargeras has more than “destroy the universe” when talking of his plans for the Burning Legion. Lore fans might remember that Sargeras, once a Titan of Order, realized that his battle against the forces of Chaos would never end as they always reformed. As a result, Sargeras began imprisoning demonic souls in the world of Mardum to prevent them from resurrecting. It’s these same souls that Sargeras will force into his command when he formed the Burning Legion.
However, Sargeras’ turn to the darkness wasn’t purely based on corruption. In fact, Sargeras created the Burning Legion as an extreme measure against the Old Gods. Sargeras realized that the Old Gods wanted to corrupt young world-souls with void lords in order to consume all life and turn everything into chaos. To avoid this, Sargeras assumed destroying the universe would be better than a universe ruled by the Old Gods of Chaos.
9 Playing With Fire
Aside from their allegiance with Sargeras, the Burning Legion becomes easily recognizable with their attachment to Fel magic. According to lore, Fel represents the volatile and entropic nature of chaos, effectively opposing the order of the Arcane. As a result, while Fel magic can produce the same effects as Arcane magic, the former almost always corrupts its users.
Like radiation, those imbued with Fel magic spreads corruption around them. In turn, both objects and creatures they infect mutate and eventually have metallic spikes, green gems, and fires that only enchanted water can douse. Moreover, Fel always demands life energy to work – which explains why Warlocks can subdue the most powerful of demons with soul shards made out of living energy.
8 Styles Of Corruption
Sargeras and the Burning Legion often corrupt the original denizens of their target worlds before their conquest. As a result, various worlds and their races fall prey to the Burning Legion’s corruptions with different results. For instance, Sargeras’s lieutenants Kil’jaeden and Archimonde represented Sargeras’ corruption of the intelligent Eredar, with their remnants becoming the Draenei. Meanwhile, the Legion traveled to Ancient Azeroth and corrupted the Highborne elves, paving the way to the Naga and Satyr.
Further ahead in history, the Legion’s efforts will corrupt the High Elves into beings addicted to Fel magic, turning them into Blood Elves. Meanwhile, their corruption of the Orcs made them much stronger but also extremely ruthless.
7 Azeroth Is The Goal
In Warcraft lore, all worlds possessed a world-soul that will “awaken” during their maturity. During her infancy, the Titans saw Azeroth as a world with so much potential that her awakened form might serve enough to defeat the void lords, the Old Gods, and even Sargeras himself. Unfortunately, Sargeras didn’t take kindly to this and sought to eliminate Azeroth before its full awakening.
Interestingly, Sargeras’ obsession with Azeroth might be tied outside his own survival. After all, if the void lords corrupt Azeroth, then she will be nigh unstoppable.
6 First Invasion: War Of The Ancients
Players of WoW might notice the Maelstrom, a furious storm at the center of Azeroth that separated the world’s continents. However, Azeroth had one continent during its infancy. This Ancient Kalimdor served as home to the Highborne Elves who lived prosperously until the slow corruption of its high council, courtesy of Sargeras. This corruption led to the War of the Ancients, where the corrupted Queen Azshara attempted to open a portal for Sargeras through the Well of the Ancients.
Thankfully, the Kaldorei Resistance stopped the Legion’s assault. Its leaders, Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, would call this conflict the War of the Ancients. This War culminated in the destruction of the Well, sealing Sargeras’ portal at the cost of tearing Azeroth asunder.
5 Second Invasion: Nature’s Defense
Given Azeroth’s world-soul’s potential, the Legion didn’t stop their conquest after failing the first time. In fact, Warcraft 3 details the second attempt to a full-scale destruction of Azeroth, albeit via a slow process. First, Archimonde’s influence led to the creation of the Lich King, which would lead to the corruption of Arthas via Frostmourne and the creation of the Undead Scourge. This would serve as Archimonde’s army and means of summoning himself into the realm.
After doing this, Archimonde hoped to drain the Nordrassil of its power and eliminate all threats against him, paving the way to both unimaginable power and Azeroth’s destruction. Unfortunately for him, orcs and humans would ally to stop him. The forces of light will eventually destroy Archimonde when the Nordrassil itself “detonated.” It seems even the World Tree, representative of Azeroth’s nature herself, would not let herself become corrupted even if it meant her death.
4 Third Invasion: The Crusade’s Fall
The Legion would attempt to invade Azeroth for a third and final time after Warlords of Draenor. In the expansion, the Legion used the Pillars of Creation to reopen the Tomb of Sargeras and pave way for the Legion to conquer. Unfortunately, this prompts the unity of the Alliance, the Horde, and even the Armies of Legionfall to seal Sargeras once and for all.
Interestingly, this event culminates in the closing of some bigger plots in the story. For instance, Illidan Stormrage will reject his destiny as the Chosen One. Instead, he chose to guard Sargeras’ prison for eternity.
3 Original Design Had A More Basic Goal
In both the original and Reforged versions of Warcraft 3, Acrhimonde assaults Nordrassil (“Eternity’s End”) with an Undead (Scourge) base. However, Blizzard’s initial idea was for Archimonde to use an actual Burning Legion faction. Sadly, Blizzard had to scrap this idea, as they believed that the vastness of the Burning Legion didn’t fit the existing faction mechanics (e.g., tech trees, resource farming) in the game.
Moreover, the Burning Legion had a more primitive goal outside Sargeras’ original plan. In the earlier version of Warcraft 3‘s premise, the Burning Legion simply wanted to consume the universe and remake it as a pure vastness of chaos.
2 Better Death Than Torture
Since WoW expands what’s happened before, during, and after the original RTS games, players might find interesting snippets of lore from mere dialogue with from both ordinary and relevant NPCs. For instance, in the quest “Power of Our Enemy,” Illidan tells players that the Burning Legion relies less on intelligence and more on intimidation to achieve their goals.
Interestingly, Forward Commander To’arch expands on this further. The Thrallmar Jungle Troll gives an interesting piece of gossip to players who do his quests in Hellfire Peninsula. According to him, the Burning Legion delights in torturing their captives. As such, it’s better for captives to receive instant death by insulting Sargeras in demonic tongue. Apparently, the quote “Xar il romath da tidesbi” does the trick.
1 Down, And Currently Out
Despite the threat the Burning Legion posed throughout millennia, Azeroth’s heroes would prove to become their demise. Much to the horror of the Burning Legion, players have effectively killed Kil’jaeden and Archimonde – Sargeras’ second-in-command – in Legion. This arc ends with Sargeras imprisoned within the Seat of the Pantheon. This effectively ended the Burning Legion’s Burning Crusade.
With no one to lead the Legion, it’s very likely for the remaining lords of the Legion to fight amongst themselves to prove their worth of becoming Sargeras’s successor. Meanwhile, it’s also likely for other demon lords to defect and create their own organizations.
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