World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s major players and lore, explained

World of WarcraftPlayers have been exploring uncharted territories for some time, making their way through Death’s realms. Shadowlands. DragonflightThe current alpha version of the next expansion, titled ‘Next Expansion,’ looks like it will be a narrative reset. Azeroth players are back, and Dragon Isles looks like a place for good-old-fashioned fantasy adventuring.

Naturally, this is true in a long-running game with a dense narrative. World of WarcraftThere is no such thing as a simple solution. Blizzard seems to be returning many of its old plot threads, and introducing some older characters. If you’ve been taking a break from Azeroth, but Dragonflight has piqued your interest, here’s everything you need to know about the cast of the upcoming expansion.

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

This is what it looks like Dragonflight starts fresh on the heels of a time skip — something sorely needed, since up until ShadowlandsEach expansion covered an approximate one- to two year time period. It’s now been “several” years, and things have changed. Characters have been resting and healing, there’s been a royal elf wedding, and Azeroth is off the train of constant, unceasing crises and war. How are they doing it?

The Horde and Alliance

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Thanks to Sylvanas Windrunner’s long, sometimes horrifying story that was told through the Horde, The Horde finds itself in an interesting narrative position. Azeroth: Battle. The Horde has made peace with the Alliance, but that doesn’t change the faction’s violent past, as they committed genocide under Sylvanas’ command, burning Teldrassil and the home of Night Elves and killing all who live there. That’s something the narrative tries to wrestle with, and Horde characters find themselves in an awkward position as a result. At the moment, the Horde’s leadership is a group of level-minded people, rather than one Warchief. It seems that everything is going well.

The Alliance, on the other hand, hasn’t made any structural changes. They’re still a monarchy, led by a High King. Anduin Wrynn, Warcraft’s soft, sweet boy, is still pretty traumatized by the events of Azeroth: Battle Shadowlands, so he’s taking a leave of absence. Then there’s the regent ruler who took Anduin’s place: Turalyon, a war hero from 1995’s Warcraft II who vanished at the end of the game and only reappeared in 2016’s Legion. He has been absent from screen for over 20 years, and he also spent thousands of years fighting demons in space dimensions. As such, he’s developed into kind of a cop, and it remains to be seen whether he’s able to rule the Alliance effectively.

The two sides are generally at peace. Players from each side can play together. This means we need some kind of enemy to focus on — after all, as the old joke goes, it’s the Warcraft franchise.

Oops! All Dragons

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

It is also known as expansion DragonflightSo naturally, there will be many dragons. The Red, Blue Green, Bronze and Black Dragonflights are just a few of the numerous types, as well their leaders and Aspects. The end of CataclysmTo defeat Deathwing, the evil Aspect of Black Dragonflight, most of the Dragon Aspects’ power was given up. It looks like much of this power has been or currently is in the process of being restored; dragons are no longer infertile, and we’re in the new age of dragons. Neat!

Alexstrasza (the Dragon Queen and Aspect the Red Dragonflight) will be the NPCs and main quest-givers that we travel with. She’s been a major part of the franchise since the RTS games, and she’s generally a benevolent sort — Alexstrasza helped out the heroes in The Wrath of the Lichking CataclysmEven took the time to save one soul from the terrible scourge known as undeath.

Kalecgos (the Aspect of Magic leader and Kalecgos the Blue Dragonflight’s chief) is relatively underexplored. He starred in a manga back in 2005, and briefly dated Jaina Proudmoore a few years later, but he’s a blank slate. Merithra the Dream is the Green Dragonflight leader. After her mother was killed by players, she assumed the leadership role of Green Dragonflight leader Merithra of the Dream. Legion, and saved Ysera’s soul by binding it to the realm of Ardenweald in Shadowlands. She’s got some big shoes to fill, so we’ll likely learn more about her in Dragonflight.

Two of the most intriguing leaders are Wrathion and Deathwing. Wrathion is the son of the aforementioned evil, maddened Deathwing, and he’s on a mission to redeem his Dragonflight. The problem is that Wrathion kind of sucks — he’s young, impulsive, and tends to run with an idea, instead of checking in with his friends. As a result, he’s one of the most beloved characters in World of Warcraft.

Then, there’s the Bronze Aspect Nozdormu. The players learned this back in CataclysmNozdormu will fall into corruption and attempt to destroy all the timelines in the universe. So far, Nozdormu is pretty chill… but there’s a literal time bomb in that character that might just go off during Dragonflight.

Get started early DragonflightContent available to test includes the Aspects and Horde working together with the Alliance to defeat threats such as the primal Proto-Drakes, their elementalist and cult scums. Also, they uncover the secrets of the Dracthyr who seem to be like an undiscovered science experiment that Deathwing unleashed upon the world.

Azeroth itself seems like it’s a decent place in DragonflightOur trip to Dragon Isles feels more adventurous and optimistic than our starting point in the previous expansions. However, there are hidden plot holes in characters such as Nozdormu or Turalyon which will cause problems sooner than expected. All players must raid. Something They are a sweet treat.