I shared this elsewhere, but thought it would work well for others who aren’t quite understanding what’s happening and how the lore got us to where we are today. This is told from the perspective largely of the Nathrezim and what worked/didn’t work for them in the long run. It is my understanding of how things went down and what led to the inevitable fight we are now facing.
- The Arbiter grows weary of the cycle created by the First Ones and sees it as flawed, preventing true choice. He rebels, but his people beat him back, punishing him by making him the jailer of the souls he sought to destroy and/or corrupt away from the other realms of Death.
.5) The Jailer recruits the Nathrezim, children of Denathrius, and through them convince their master that he was right all along. Denathrius acts as the eyes and ears of the Jailer who is stuck in the Maw. Most mortal souls cannot traverse into the Maw, but the eternals can, as can those touched by the greater power of beings such as the titans, known as Maw Walkers. The eternals “could” allow mortals to enter the Maw and come back, but the threat of domination magic wielded by their brother is too much so they tell everybody it’s “impossible.”
- To break the Jailer free, the Nathrezim convince Sargeras to start the Legion to create perfect “order” in order to defeat the Void Lords and their Old God Minions. They become some of his most twisted allies.
1a) As part of his forming of the Legion, Sargeras destroys a world soul, but it doesn’t go to the realm of Death, so the Nathrezim have to come up with a new plan.
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The Legion takes over Argus and begins corrupting it as an engine using fel to cycle the demons back from their own deaths in the Nether/Void.
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The corruption taints the world soul within Argus, but it’s not ready to be born yet, they need a catalyst.
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Turning the Legion’s attention to another world soul, Azeroth, they begin their assaults with the first invasion, but are turned back by the dragons et al at the well of Eternity.
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While the demons continue to send small pockets of forces to Azeroth, Sargeras burns countless worlds on his crusade. The remaining argusians, the draenei run away to Draenor but are eventually found.
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The Legion can’t get to Draenor yet, but like Azeroth can send communications/small batches of forces, so they corrupt Guldan. While they’re distracted, the Nathrezim give special attention to Nerzhul.
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The new gate to Azeroth is opened and the orcs are sent through to herald the return of Sargeras through his soul fragment bound to Medivh.
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Medivh ultimately fights back the corruption and dies, while the orcs are driven back or captured and put in internment camps.
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Back on Draenor, the humans track down Nerzhul, and he dies trying to open portals for the Legion to break through to Azeroth. The world is destroyed.
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Before his soul can reach the Shadowlands, the Nathrezim, using domination plate they claim to have made in the Shadowlands, bind it to the armor to “aid Kil’jaeden” who sends it cascading back to Azeroth and creating the Frozen Throne.
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Nerzhul’s consciousness, far from Kil’jaeden but now bound directly to Death through domination listens to the whispers and decides he wants to win back his freedom by becoming the lich king. His hatred of the Legion and the Eredar is enough to get him to do what is necessary without exacting any will upon him.
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The nathrezim introduce the plague and spread it across Lordaeron. Prince Arthas fights against it, killing Kel’thuzad in the process.
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Now in the realm of Death, Kel’thuzad is told the truth of what’s happening and agrees to join in on the promise that he’ll become not just a lich, but a true lieutenant to what’s going on.
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With KT on their side, the nathrezim convince the now corrupted Arthas to bring the lich back, all to “help the Lich King’s plan.”
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KT comes back and is strong enough now to call to Archimonde to Azeroth, where he wrecks havoc but ultimately loses again. The lich king is promised a new body in the form of his death knight, but Arthas’ will is stronger and he usurps the power of the domination plate. Because he hates the Nathrezim so much, he doesn’t align with them, but remains faithful to the Legion, for now.
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Effectively cut off from their plan by the new Lich King, the nathrezim turn their attention back to the Legion, where they have finally started the manual voyage to Azeroth under leadership of Kil’jaeden. As they draw closer to the world, the Eredar leader’s ability to communicate across space grows stronger, like coming into range with a radio.
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Taking care not to reveal too much, the Legion uses the demonic essence now bound to Illidan to convince him that there are some among them who will work for him now because he’s “so powerful.” Illidan just wants to destroy Kil’jaeden and Sargeras, so he’ll take all the help he can get. To hedge their bets, they also offer Kael’thas the power to save his people if he keeps an eye on the Betrayer.
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Kael’thas is killed in the Eye before he can draw enough power to send back through to his people in Azeroth, but Kil’jaeden snatches his soul before it can go to the Shadowlands and corrupts it, returning it to Magister’s Terrace where he uses the Sunwell to call the Eredar through to Azeroth, but the world’s heroes fight him back just as they did his brother in arms, Archimonde. Kael’thas is killed again, and this time Kil’jaeden cannot catch him to bring him back, so his soul is sent to Revendreth for its pride.
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At around the same time, Illidan and his demon hunters successfully invade one of the Legion’s bases of operation, proving that he can, but before he can use this information to reach Argus, throne of the Legion, he’s captured and imprisoned.
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With the Legion’s plans thwarted for now, the Jailer uses his connection to Arthas through the domination plate to push him to attack Azeroth once again. Because he cannot directly control the lich king, he nudges him with promises that an undead Azeroth couldn’t be turned to the Legion. Arthas complies because that’s what he wants is to avoid the Legion winning. The nathrezim are careful to stay at the fringes, where they play again as Legion followers trying to corrupt the world and giving purpose to Arthas’ decision.
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After an extended campaign, Arthas is going to win, but Tirion’s control over the light grants him momentary reprieve from the chilling death magic that freezes him and he shatters Frostmourne. Arthas is killed and collected by Uther to be cast into the Maw without the Arbiter’s say so. Sylvanas throws herself from the Frozen Throne, and the sisters prevent her soul from crossing into the Shadowlands by convincing her there is another way and showing her that her fate was never her’s to control. It was all just another layer of serving the greater purpose of the First Ones. This convinces the Banshee Queen that she must do what she can to end the cycle so that she can finally be free of it.
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With the return of the Old Gods and Deathwing, whose madness prevents control of undeath and domination, the nathrezim are at a loss for what to do, sufficing for now to infiltrate the Army of the Light and continue their work with the Legion on Argus.
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When word reaches the Legion that one of the titan’s pets sent heroes back to Pre-destroyed Draenor to alter time, Archimonde was deployed again, using those threads of magic to pull his people back and once again corrupt the orcs, but this time they are denied by Garrosh and the Iron Horde. It becomes a conflict of knowledge of the past events that ends when the former warchief is slain in Nagrand. Free of opposition, Guldan finally convinces part of the horde to join him and become the fel horde. Because the heroes are still cleaning up the iron horde, who could never have been prepared to fight somebody who was already well aware of their tactics and strength, they were too late to reach Hellfire Citadel before Guldan could open his portal to allow Archimonde in.
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But the heroes of Azeroth have also fought Archimonde before and defeat him once again. Because he foolishly led them into the nether, he dies without being returned to Argus, but not before sending Guldan back to present-day Azeroth.
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Guldan, at the behest of Kil’jaeden once more, breaks open the pathways to the Legion and begins the invasion once again. He uses the distraction at the broken shore to delve into the Tomb of Sargeras, reignites his soul shard, and attempts to bind it to Illidan’s corrupted form. This ultimately fails, and the warlock is destroyed for his efforts.
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Unable to fight the full might of the Legion, the heroes of Azeroth collect the world’s artifacts in a bid to stop Guldan and his masters. They succeed, but not before Kil’jaeden arrives in person and Illidan opens the passage to Argus.
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By now, the world soul of Argus has been fully twisted, bound to death through the many resurrections it was forced to power through the Legion. As the heroes of Azeroth fight through the rank and file, they encounter the abandoned nathrezim, Varimathras, who tries to warn them that Sylvanas is working with Death, who abandoned him. Sargeras, meanwhile, has had enough of Azeroth’s champions, and almost deals a death blow to their world but is captured in the process by his resurrected brethren. The world soul of Argus is split, much like Uther and Sylvanas. The order-related piece of it stays in the seat of the Pantheon, while the corrupted portion is sent to the Shadowlands. Because titans aren’t supposed to go there, it’s too much for the arbiter to accept and she is overheated to the point of shutting down.
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Sylvanas is convinced that sending souls to the Shadowlands while the Arbiter is damaged/shut down will shatter the chains on the Jailer, who knows how to break the cycle she hates so much. It works, and by the time of Saurfang’s death, they are ready to enact their plan. At around the same time, Azshara and the old gods keep the heroes of Azeroth busy once again by opening the way to Nya’lotha using the keys they planted in the Tomb of Sargeras (by locking one door, they unlocked another).
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As the heroes finish cleaning up the mess created by the Old Gods and the wound in Azeroth is healed around the sword plunged within her, Sylvanas strikes, collecting a number of powerful souls for the jailer’s selection of who they can use to find and collect the sigils of the eternals. To bring them through and begin the final stretch of the plan, she shatters the helm of Domination, which breeches the passage into the Shadowlands.
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The souls brought to the now freed Jailer are deemed unworthy and left to torment in Torghast, but Anduin shows that there’s more to him through his connection to the light. This is why the Jailer gives him special attention while we free the others. Eventually, to enact her plan, Sylvanas is convinced that domination is the only way, and she corrupts Anduin. What she doesn’t know is that the plate and sword he is given are bound to the shard of Arthas that remained after Uther threw him into the maw.
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As we lock up Denathrius, and fight back against the Jailer’s forces in Sanctum, he and Sylvanas have proven they can expand the maw using the souls sent to it and use that confirmation to overtake Oribos, where the Jailer can destroy the Arbiter and reclaim his sigil. Too late, he reveals his intentions to not just break the cycle, but reforge it so that he can control it. This, of course, is counter to his promises to Sylvanas, who won’t stand for the betrayal. Unfortunately, her borrowed power is his, and he just takes it back. His “thanks” is to return the shard of her soul that she was missing and leaving her to the people she betrayed. Meanwhile, he and Anduin, who is fighting against Arthas (who btw has experience beating down consciousnesses) but losing, leave into 9.2.
