While walking through Aburrus as part of the new story quests that were released today. I took my first good look at the raid. In the final rooms of the raid, subzone Edge of Oblivion. There is a set of murals that depict the fall of Naltherion being crushed under the weight of the world. And the rise of Deathwing, holding the world in his talons.
But this is a proper depiction of Deathwing. Elementium plates and all.
The Dragon Isles were sealed before the sundering as a means to protect them from the War of the Ancients. After Deathwing’s defeat and being wounded by the Dragon Soul at the climax of the War of the Ancients he retreated to Deepholm.
It was there that he was affixed with the elementium plates that held him together. Where he assumed both the title and visage of the Deathwing we know.
This depiction should not exist.
Unless you hand wave it with, maybe the void gave him a vision of himself as Deathwing. In which case I would say that the physical form of Deathwing is not strong selling point for a decent into madness.
Like advertising learning necromancy by telling the prospective student that all their flesh is going to rot off and they will live in eternal suffering as the magic they learn destroys their body but prevents death.
There is a reason he experimented on Elementium using Kazzara as a test subject. The Encounter specifically states the experiments to perfect Deathwing’s Armor happened in Aberrus showing that he became Deathwing in Aberrus itself.
By the time he rushed out of the place he already had covered himself in Adamantium Plates(because he was in a rush due to his body being on the verge of tearing apart and thus could not wait for the Elementium Experiments to finish).
But he could not have returned to Aberrus after being wounded because the isles were already sealed.
I fully accept that he could have had the idea for the armor and designed it in Aberrus. Fallen to madness there and become Deathwing in every way…
Except the depicted form. Which was explicitly done in Deepholm. Even if the design of the armor was already established, things like the gaping chest wound should not be there, unless he planned on being almost ripped apart as he designed the armor.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Storykeeper_Jaru says it was sealed after the Sundering not before.
Deathwing was already in full armor attempting to retake the Demon Soul just before the Sundering happened!
Why he sealed Aberrus when he left to reclaim the Demon Soul is unknown. He seemed frightened over what was in there. Was it the gauntlet? Was he that afraid of the Dragons finding a way to use the Dracthyr against him?
I feel like the mural should only exist in the section of the raid that clearly takes place in the void. Which is where we fight Sakarath.
Blizzard tends to miss details like this. I mean the statue of Azshara in Tomb of Sargeras does not have the tail addition that Maiev and co. found back during WC3: TFT.
Not just the aspect of the centaur migration to the dragon isles, which I knew was a retcon but did not know the specific timings.
But there are other issues.
He assumed his armored form halfway through the war of the Ancients as you said, but on further research the location of the change has been moved from Deepholm to the Naltharians Lair dungeon.
Deepholm is where he got the elementium upgrade.
They also changed the cause of the sundering to Deathwing himself, using his powers to force greater upheaval by exacerbating the damaged from the well exploding.
I am unable to find any timings on events on the dragon isles. But at the very least it could be assumed that he would be unable to go there following his betrayal prior to him becoming armored.
He didn’t assume the Deathwing form as we know it until the demon soul started to rip his body apart which was after he used it to wipe out demons and night elves at his moment of betrayal.
It still makes no sense for that relief to exist where it is. The timing and context is different from my first assumption but my point is unchanged.
Deathwing caused the Cataclysm also known as the Shattering which was a separate event from the Sundering.
The Sundering was caused by Illidan and Malfurion imploding the Well of Eternity with their Mass Banish Demons Spell using the Demon Soul as a focal point as mentioned by the The Sundering novel.
The Shattering was caused by Deathwing leaving Deepholm after completing his Elementium Armor.
The Wiki page calls Neltharion’s Lair the place where Deathwing had his armor built but the actual Lore Sources infact mentions nothing about where his armor was built just that it was built in a mountainous area which Blizzard decided was on the Dragon Isles.
The Lore Sources for Neltharion’s Lair only says it was once Neltharion’s home. Why he didn’t live in his lab or throne is unknown aside from the fact that neither seems to have a bed.
Nelth’s lair was always where he got the first set of reinforced plating on him. The WotA’s trilogy (where it is first mentioned) does not claim he got the Adamantium plates placed on him in Deepholm but instead his lair iirc.
He was banished to Deepholm by Huln Highmountain but by that point he already had his adamantium plates attached to him.
Where was this stated? The only he did related to the Sundering was just cause of Volcano’s to erupt among the chaos caused by the Sundering as a visual sign of his rage that he could not find the Dragon Soul.
I see it as Deathwing already had an idea that he wanted armor. Why? Possibly that he was either doing a batman and formulating ways to beat his fellow aspects if needed, wanting armor for the war against the Primalists Proto Dragons, OR he was already fallen when that lab was built and looking for a way get an advantage over his fellow aspects and everyone else.
He always planned to fashion armor for himself. But it wasn’t ready by the time the Aspects left the Dragon Isles
The Dragonflights left the Dragon Isles after the Well of Eternity imploded causing the Sundering.
Deathwing left to assail the Well of Eternity a short time before it imploded and was already in full armor.
A notable period of time had past after he had injured himself with the Dragon Soul by which time he was having the Goblins put Adamantium plates on himself because he couldn’t wait for the Elementium Plates that were being tested any longer.
As for where he had Goblins putting plating on himself the The Sundering Novel mentions Malfurion needing to search for where he and the Dragon Soul were to be found and the location being among Mountains.
That is all The War of the Ancients Trilogy mentions on that point.
The Neltharion’s Lair Lore descriptions for the Dungeon state that Deathwing once lived in Neltharion’s Lair but he abandoned it after The Sundering. That’s all it says on that matter. It doesn’t state that that particular Lair was the place where Malfurion found the Dragon Soul and Deathwing applying Armor to himself.
Deathwing in the end lost all of his Mountain Lairs(The Obsidian Citadel, Aberrus and Neltharion’s Lair) during the Sundering and likely had to find new ones. The way the Day of the Dragon Novel describes it it seems he made his new Lair near Alterac and after he was driven off moved over to Deepholm.
Exactly. The Elementium Plated armor wasn’t ready. When his body started to get torn to shreds the best proof of concept he had was a dragon that went insane during the process of installation. He, in his own mind, was still quite sane so he didn’t want that so he went with Adamantium plates as a stop gap to literally keep himself together.
I say that he always planned for that…Cata Deathwing look with his armor. It just wasn’t ready by the time he had to leave. Let alone when he had to keep himself from being literally being ripped apart. Now for what purpose he wanted that armor is up for debate. Could it have been originally developed to be used against the Primalists in their war? Possibly but I believe he always intended to use that armor against his fellow Aspects.
There was long enough period of time to test the Elementium Armor Prototypes(at least to Kazzara’s level) following his leave in the Demon Soul Novel up until finally deciding to put Adamantium on ASAP in the The Sundering Novel.
Needless to say it is not hard to imagine he could post the mural he wanted of himself in an instant just by pointing at the wall considering he melted a Rock with just a thought and made moving Mouths on Windows in Day of the Dragon.
Oh I’m not doubting he put that mural there. In fact I’m pretty sure that mural was like a concept art of how he wanted his armor to look. Probably looked so awesome to him.
The one where he is depicted as Atlas, holding the world on his shoulders would fit that bill tbh. Given that the main reason why he sided with the Old Gods was due to his belief that his ‘gift’ was actually a curse.
