Burning Legion

The **Burning Legion** (simply **the Legion**, occasionally referred to as the **Legion Forces**, the **Burning Shadow**, or the **Great Burning Shadow**, and the **infinite army**) is a vast, innumerable army of demons and corrupted races who seek to destroy all life. Sargeras created it with the purpose of destroying all world-souls in the universe in order to prevent the void lords from corrupting them, which would lead to the birth of a dark titan, a being of unspeakable evil that would utterly annihilate and consume the universe.

The Legion is responsible for the annihilation of countless species and some entire planets across the Great Dark Beyond, and it transcends all universes destroying their possible worlds in the grand Crusade. It has thrice invaded Azeroth and was only beaten back at a terrible cost. Much of Azeroth's history — including the First, Second, and Third War — was due to the Legion's influence. It can be said that the Legion is Azeroth's nemesis, since it caused the Great Sundering of Kalimdor, corrupted the orcs and sent them to invade Azeroth, created the Lich King, and was the source of most of Azeroth's scars. Finally, it should be noted that Azeroth is the only known planet that the Legion has ever failed to conquer.

### Genesis

When the godlike titans of the Pantheon carried out their mission to bring order to the worlds of the Great Dark Beyond, they soon encountered a deadly threat: the chaotic demons of the Twisting Nether. To combat this foe, the Pantheon sent their greatest champion, the noble Sargeras. Though he won victory after victory over the unorganized and incompetent demons, the constant sight of entire civilizations being reduced to ash and their inhabitants warping into horrid aberrations began to fill Sargeras with a great sense of hopelessness, but he nonetheless continued his work.

When it was discovered that the demons Sargeras had defeated simply returned later to torment the physical universe once more in new bodies, the Pantheon sent the titan Aggramar to aid Sargeras. Together, the two were able to more effectively combat the demonic threat, simultaneously allowing Sargeras to more closely study the nature of the Twisting Nether. By learning how to manipulate Nether energies, the titan champion crafted a prison world known as Mardum to contain the demons he had defeated and prevented them from reforming after death. Soon, Sargeras and Aggramar brought peace to the cosmos and decided to split up to more effectively fight their foe. It was during this time that Sargeras came across a world smothered in Void energies and infested by horrors known as the Old Gods. By ruthlessly interrogating a conclave of demonic nathrezim who had come to dwell among the aberrations, Sargeras learned the full plans of the malevolent void lords. By hurling the Old Gods out through the universe, the void lords hoped to corrupt slumbering world-souls and transform them into unspeakably dark creatures that would be able to consume all matter and energy in the universe, bringing all of creation under the void lords' will. This horrified Sargeras so much that he instantly killed the nathrezim before cleaving the infested planet in two with his blade.

When he returned to the Pantheon to tell of his discoveries, Sargeras was harshly chastised by his fellow titans. They argued that they would have been able to save the world-soul had Sargeras not acted so rashly. In response, the champion tried to argue that existence itself was flawed and that it had to be purged completely to prevent any chance of the void lords' plans coming to fruition (in his mind, even a lifeless universe was better than one dominated by the Void, for he argued that if life had once taken root in the Great Dark on its own, perhaps it would do so again), but once he realized that the Pantheon would never see things the way he did, Sargeras stormed off into isolation.

### First Invasion

Many thousands of years ago (10,000 years before the First War) the Burning Legion became attracted to the world of Azeroth due to the continued experiments on the Well of Eternity by the Highborne elves. The fallen titan hoped to use the sorcerers and their great magic to expedite the Legion's journey to Azeroth. Without a suitable gateway, he knew that traveling to the world would take ages. Thus, much as he did on Argus, Sargeras reached out to the Highborne and capitalized on their hubris. Lord Xavius was the first of the Highborne to hear Sargeras's call. The power-hungry Xavius quickly brought Sargeras to Queen Azshara's attention. The fallen titan promised to grand the night elf queen and her servitors unfathomable power, thereby allowing them to remake Kalimdor into a paradise. Sargeras requested only that Azshara and her followers summon his agents into the world of Azeroth so that they could give the Highborne this power.

Enthralled by Sargeras's might, Azshara and her Highborne used the Well of Eternity's energies to bring the Legion minions into Azeroth. Waves of demonic warriors flooded out from the queen's palace, murdering every night elf in their path save for their Highborne allies. Led by likes of Mannoroth the Destructor, Hakkar the Houndmaster, and Archimonde the Defiler, the Legion stormed across the Kaldorei Empire in a tide of death and destruction. Blazing infernals tore through the skies, shattering night elf cities, while thousands of bloodthirsty doomguard and ravenous felhounds reduced Kalimdor's tranquil woods to smothering green embers. War, the likes of which no mortal empire had ever witnessed, had come to Azeroth.

A night elf resistance force was formed by a noble named Kur'talos Ravencrest to stand against the Legion's furious onslaught. Among these brave defenders were Malfurion Stormrage, his sorcerous twin, Illidan, and the beautiful priestess whom both brothers loved dearly, Tyrande Whisperwind. Though the resistance initially suffered many defeats against the Legion, the night elves did make gains. Malfurion himself delivered one of the most decisive blows against the Legion and its Highborne allies. From the depths of the Emerald Dream, he unleashed his druidic magics upon Xavius, striking him down.

Despite this setback and the bravery with which the resistance fought, more and more demons spilled into Azeroth through the Highborne's portals. The Legion also bolstered its numbers with a new breed of demons, born from denizens of Azeroth itself. The first of these abominations was Xavius. Sargeras had warped the defeated Highborne's body into a twisted demonic visage of jagged horns and cloven hooves. This new form became known as a satyr, and it would mark Xavius as an eternal servant of the Legion. At Sargeras's bidding, he set out to curse of the many his fellow Highborne, transforming them into new satyrs as well.

As the Legion's numbers swelled and the War of the Ancients progressed, Malfurion realized that the night elves could not prevail alone. He convinced Tyrande and Illidan to accompany him to the tranquil Moonglade near Mount Hyjal, where they beseeched Cenarius for aid. The great demigod agreed to rally the mighty Wild Gods against the Legion, but they were unpredictable beings, unaccustomed to fight as one. Thus spurring them into action would take time, a luxury that night elves did not have.

While Cenarius gathered the Wild Gods, Malfurion called on the mighty Dragon Aspects to defend Azeroth. Led by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, the dragons convened at their ancient meeting ground of Wyrmrest Temple to discuss how to hold back the Legion's invasion. It was during one of these gatherings that Neltharion the Earth-Warder proposed a solution. He convinced his fellow Aspects to sacrifice a portion of their power and infuse it into the Dragon Soul, a singular artifact of his design. The weapon, he claimed, would focus their powers and scour the Legion from the face of Azeroth.

Amid a furious battle between the Legion and the night elf resistance, the five dragonflights made their final assault against the demons. Working in unison with his comrades Neltharion unleashed the full might of the empowered Dragon Soul and utterly decimated the Legion. Unbeknownst to the other Aspects however Neltharion had fallen prey to the whispers of the Old Gods and thus the dragons and night elves were unprepared when Neltharion turned the weapon against them soon after. The betrayal shattered the united of the dragonflights, nearly killing all of the blue dragonflight and robbing Azeroth of one its greatest defenders when it needed it most. Neltharion himself would be transformed by the powers of the now christened Demon Soul and take the name Deathwing.

Deathwing's betrayal struck a terrible blow to the night elves' morale and, worse, Illidan had mysteriously gone missing. Unbeknownst to the resistance, Illidan had decided to strike out on his own, incensed by remaining in his brother's shadow and that Malfurion had claimed the heart of Tyrande Whisperwind, who both brothers desired. When Illidan confessed his love, Tyrande rejected him, convincing him that she intended to take Malfurion as her mate. In the wake of this bitter rejection, dark thoughts plagued Illidan. Unbeknownst to the sorcerer, the satyr Xavius was subtly twisting his mind and fanning the flames of his despair. With mounting discontent, Illidan left the resistance and joined the Legion and against all odds, secured an audience with Sargeras himself. Blessed by Sargeras with exceptional powers, Illidan would venture and steal the Dragon Soul from Deathwing, delivering it to the Highborne, who planned to use it to open a massive gateway for the Legion within the heart of the Well of Eternity.

Around this time, the Highborne of Suramar, who had watched as their city was used by the cunning nathrezim as an experiment in the creation of an undead army, responded to an attempt by the Legion to create a second portal in the depths of the Temple of Elune. Using the Pillars of Creation, the court of the Grand Magistrix Elisande sealed the tomb, and proceeded to create a massive barrier surrounding the still intact sections of the city, sealing themselves off from the conflict.

The Legion delivered many crushing defeats to the night elf resistance, but the resistance refused to give up as it rallied around Jarod Shadowsong and secured new allies such as earthen, tauren, furbolgs, Highborne dissidents led by Dath'Remar Sunstrider, and at long last the Wild Gods and their forces which emerged to combat the Legion. With their allies in arms, the resistance launched a desperate assault against Zin-Azshari itself. The resistance stormed the broken capital and clashed with the Legion's seemingly numberless ranks. The cost was horrific. Thousands upon thousands of demons fell, but so, too, did many of Azeroth's mighty defenders. The Legion's bloodletting warriors even overwhelmed a number of the Wild Gods. One by one, these primordial creatures succumbed to the poisoned black blades and fel powers wielded by the demons. With each death, the forest atop Hyjal shivered, and the winds howled in sorrow.

As the titanic battle raged around Azshara's capital city, Malfurion and Tyrande journeyed to the Well of Eternity's shores with a small, elite force. They hoped to reclaim the Dragon Soul and prevent the Legion from using its power. Malfurion and his allies were joined by Illidan, who claimed his allegiance to the Legion had been a ruse to learn of their ways. Although suspicious, Malfurion accepted Illidan's aid, for he had discovered that the Well of Eternity had become a colossal portal - a direct gateway for Sargeras himself to enter Azeroth, as Azshara waited in anticipation for his arrival. As the impossibly huge shadow of the dark titan drew ever closer to the Well's raging surface, the delusional queen had gathered the most powerful of her Highborne followers, linking their magics together in one focused spell to be able to create a gateway large enough for Sargeras to enter.

Realizing that no standing army, no matter how vast, could withstand the terrible might of Sargeras, Malfurion knew the only hope for victory would be to destroy the Well of Eternity itself. Stealing the Dragon Soul, Malfurion drew upon its power to disrupt the Highborne's carefully crafted spellwork and shattered the connection between the Legion and Azeroth. With their connection broken, Sargeras and most of the Legion's ranks were ripped back into the Twisting Nether by the energies of the collapsing Well of Eternity.

The resultant catastrophic explosion shattered the earth and blotted out the skies. This Great Sundering would change the geography of Azeroth forever, and Legion remnants stuck on the planet would eventually rally around Xalan the Feared and strike against the fledgling new night elf government, but would ultimately be defeated in the War of the Satyr.

#### The Hidden Threat

In the following millennia, in the growing human societies of Azeroth, there were legends among the populace of the First Days, where demons roamed free and great heroes arose to drive them out. Knowing the real truth, the Kirin Tor of Dalaran forbade demonology - any attempt to summon demons were to be found and stopped at once, often by force. As such demons had a limited public impact on the people of the Seven Kingdoms, mostly existing through rumors and folk legends. Most situations involving demon worship ended up taken care of by local authorities, with individuals such as venal farmhands and greedy merchants committing sacrifices and other foul acts in the name of some old demon whose name they couldn't even properly pronounce after hearing their whispers in their sleep. Real ceremonies involving demon summoning and fel spells did happen, but they were secretly neutralized by the efforts of the Kirin Tor and the Council of Tirisfal.