CHAPTER IX - WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY, WE CAN REBUILD HIM
Deathwing, aka Neltharion the Betrayer, the Destroyer, the Worldbreaker, the Aspect of Death, the Unmaker of Worlds, was originally known as Neltharion the Earth-Warder. This was the title granted to him by the race of Titans long ago, when the dragons were guardians of Azeroth, and he was put in charge of the land and caverns and deep places of the world. He used his power to create mountains and rivers for the benefit of the little mortal races, and they loved him. He and Malygos (the dragon in charge of magic) were good buddies.
Everything was fine for a long time, and then the Old Gods whispered their corrupting voices into his mind and promised him power beyond imagining (because making mountains and rivers gets boring, I guess - let this be a lesson for you Minecraft players!) The Old Gods convinced Neltharion, with the help of the Goblins, to create the Dragon Soul. The Dragon Soul was a gem-like disc made out of Neltharion’s blood, shielded with magic so its nature could not be determined, and contained some corruption of the Old Gods.
When the Burning Legion arrived during the First War, Neltharion captured some of the demons and added their powers to the Dragon Soul. Then he went to his buddy Malygos and got him to convince all the dragon aspects to contribute some of their powers to the Dragon Soul too. He said it could be a great weapon to use against the Burning Legion. When the time came to fight, Neltharion used the Dragon Soul to destroy thousands of demons in one swing (along with a good bunch of unfortunate night elves).
Horrified, the other dragons and their dragonflights tried to take the Dragon Soul from Neltharion and reason with him, but with a single swing he destroyed the entire blue dragonflight. Then he paralyzed all the other dragons and proceeded to smash and scatter most of them. The remaining dragon aspects ran away and hid themselves from detection with magic.
But wielding this enormous power came with a price. The growing corruption tore at Neltharion’s body and he began taking on a demonic appearance. His body started tearing apart at the seams until even his burning heart was exposed, and fire and lava flowed from his wounds. They started calling him Neltharion the Destroyer, and the Dragon Soul became the Demon Soul.
His body was coming apart, and he needed some rest and some major league first aid, so he retreated underground to where goblin craftsmen were able to forge armor plates out of admantium to attach to his body to hold it together. If they hadn’t been able to cage his body within the admantium plates the power of the Demon Soul would have torn him apart completely.
While he was underground getting repairs, Malfurion used the Emeral Dream to locate his lair and stole the Demon Soul and escaped. Illidan and Azshara’s guards captured Malfurion and took the Demon Soul to Mannoroth the pit lord, and they used it to power up the portal that would bring Sargeras into Azeroth.
Neltharion made one last attempt to recover the Demon Soul while it was being used by both Sargeras and the Old Gods and actually succeeded in reaching it. He was almost destroyed in his attempt and he grabbed it and a power surge made him drop it and knocked him back. The dragon aspects and Malfurion recovered it and closed the portal (with a bang!) and then cast a spell on the Demon Soul so that Neltharion could never find it again.
He was pissed, and vowed to destroy all life in return. Neltharion caused volcanoes all over the planet to rise, and combined with the destruction of the Well of Eternity, most of Kalimdor sank under the ocean. After this he started calling himself Deathwing.
Legends have it that when Neltharion was a peaceful dragon aspect he made mountains between peoples to keep them from fighting with each other, and he made rivers to keep the land fertile. Now that he was insane and hateful he lowered the mountains and turned lush lands into deserts to make the world hostile.
10,000 years later (hmm, familiar number) Deathwing discovered the location of the Demon Soul. Although he couldn’t use it because of the magic the other dragons used on it, he convinced the Dragonmaw Clan of orcs to do it for him. The warlock Nekros Skullcrusher figured out how to use it enough to enslave Alexstraza to breed dragons for the Horde. In return for getting dragons for the Horde, Deathwing used Ner’zhul’s portal to stash some dragon eggs on Draenor.
Then, Deathwing devised a cunning plan and disguised himself as the human Lord Prestor. He managed to make friends with King Terenas and the other Alliance leaders and was able to influence affairs of state. He started a campaign to pit the human kingdoms against each other, specifically against the mages of Kirin Tor, who had used their magic to determine that Lord Prestor was a non-human being in disguise.
He then got greedy and tried to steal the rest of Alextrasza’s eggs to raise as his own, but the orcs fled Grim Batol and the mage Rhonin stole the Demon Soul from them and found a weakness in it and destroyed it, releasing the powers of the dragon aspects back to them. With the other dragons back at full strength, Deathwing had to flee and went into hiding in one of the dark places under the world.
With some more goblin repairs Deathwing emerged a few years later and in doing so broke the World Pillar that held up Azeroth’s crust and kept the oceans from spilling into the underworld. The crash of the pillar was so destructive that it created earthquakes world wide, and triggered volcanoes and giant floods. It reshaped the surface of the world. And Deathwing was free from his lair to fly about the world and occasionally burn young adventurers to a crisp.
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