#neltharion

Assorted WoW Dragon Visage doodles.

I tried. Will try more characters, too

(Bonus, right bottom corner: Neltharion and Malygos' fanfic redesigns)

idk how to draw in MLP art style so i just went with a weirdly exaggerated vversion of my regular art style but with the world of warcraft dragons lol

i'm not deep into MLP i'm more of a casual enjoyer from afar because i really haven't seen the show hardly at all [i watched 1 episode and it was too sweet for me to handle] but i do love the worldbuilding and like... the sheer size of the world i guess idk how to describe it

it's very neat

Ebyssian: "Neltharion used the dracthyr as...fuel. He fed off of them, siphoning their essence into this prison. What other machinations did he have? What does this say about the origins of our allies? I worry for them."

Skarlette: "I worry for the lore."

Emberthal: "It is a dark place, full of pain...and failure. This was where Neltharion tested those he considered most worthy of his attention. He poked and prodded us with powers we could not understand or control. Many of us were found...wanting."

Skarlette: "Out of character much?"

--------------------------------------------

Seriously, WTF happened to Neltharion's original characterization as a noble, trustworthy guardian quietly losing the battle for his sanity?

"Oh, but Skarlette," you might say, "he was hiding--"

Bullshit. I could believe that he was hiding the whispers in his head from the Old Gods, and the chaotic, destructive, paranoid thoughts they planted. But this extensive mad scientist operation and secret army of super soldiers...you expect me to buy that none of the surviving members of his own flight knew about this? The other Aspects didn't sense this? None of the drogbar, goblins, and other mortals who served Deathwing ever tattled? Nothing ever surfaced during or after the War of the Ancients to hint at all this?

Nope. #NotMyNeltharion

I only played Dragonflight until I dinged max level and then quit, and didn't pay that much attention to the ongoing lore in the interim, so I hadn't seen it first-hand until now. Yikes. Way to retcon one of my favorite characters.

And the funny thing is, it all fits Nefarian's M.O. just fine. They could have written him having a massive secret lair full of twisted experiments and genetically-engineered minions and it would have been awesome.

"But Skarlette," the hypothetical person I'm arguing with might say, "maybe they were thinking that Nefarian just took after his father! Diabolical apples don't fall far from the corrupted tree, as they say."

Yeah, no. There was never any indication of that. Nefarian never mentioned carrying on his sire's work. Sinestra mocked Nefarian's efforts (while taking them one step further with the Twilight Dragonflight) but never made a connection to Neltharion/Deathwing, either. Surely the Earth Warder's eldest son and prime consort would have known something.

While I liked the dragonflight expansion of wow, I have had thought how bad the aspects and their flights have had through wow history, honestly, there’s something even disturbing about how they are portrayed, especially the female characters, hardly more obvious than how the female consorts are treated…

But well, I have thought about an AU I wanted to write with Neltharion and the black dragonflight in general, its increasingly becoming bigger and bigger, so I wanted to give a brief resume of the main characters in this AU.

Neltharion:

I overall hate “corruption”, this word is most always a cheap escape to turn anyone evil, so I wanted to demote the old gods from having any role in Neltharion story, I simply think he is as hard to corrupt as all the aspects were so far, I wanted his reasoning to be more deeper, a real fear, which caused him to act irrationality and inadvertently, become an antagonist, and I always like to make this distinction, but an antagonist is not a villain, it isn’t doing evil for its own sake, its simply taking a path which directly conflicts with the heroes’ path.

I see him more as an anti-hero, someone wanting to do right, but by his own terms.

My main POD happens in the War of the Ancients, Neltharion, with the aspects, creates the dragon soul and uses it against the demons, but their legions were endless, despite the superweapon the aspects had created. Malfurion would have the idea to destroy the well of eternity, which would cause immense suffering and destruction through Azeroth, but stop the burning legion for now.

Neltharion was handling the dragon soul with several blue dragons, which would all be killed when the destruction of the well of eternity also sent a magical shockwave which caused the orb to explode on Neltharion’s face. He was considered dead as the aspects scrambled but never found him or his body.

Neltharion was in reality, pushed away through Old Kalimdor, fragmenting, and as he landed, his aspect powers had saved him from certain death, unlike many dragons’ fates for the several years to come.

He had fallen into a deep sleep for centuries to come, recovering. The old gods had tried to manipulate him in this moment, as Neltharion’s mind grew anxious with the burning legion and the cost of unpreparedness had in the world HE was supposed to protect, above all other aspects.

Neltharion would reawaken during the Great War, with the magical surge caused by the opening of the dark portal, he would watch humans and orcs fighting, his mind now growing ever more radical in his ideas, he thought the aspects had spent too long playing as benevolent gods of the mortals, and the lack of meticulous intervention had been causing this.

Secretly, Neltharion, seeing the orcs tainted with devil blood, grew ever more disgusted by them, and supported the humans in the war, with the intention of the complete destruction of the Horde. While the orcs were defeated right at the Stormwind battle, they scattered, the humans pursued them but overall failed to kill all of them.

Neltharion, now disguised as a noble, supported the foundation of the Alliance of Lordaeron. He was rather impressed by the might of humankind, such a young race which he had not seen last time he was awaken, even more, a warrior race which he wished to replace the pacifist and naturalist night elven as the true defenders of Azeroth.

Time would pass, the Alliance would splinter as the Horde was soundly defeated and petty struggles had returned.

Neltharion would then return to his lair, to find his family and the rest of the black dragonflight, in shambles.

Sintharia:

Consort of Neltharion and Queen of the Black Dragons, Sintharia would remember the last centuries as the most painful time of her life, almost reaching to the break point.

The War of the Ancients had scattered the black dragonflight, many, in the absence of Neltharion, followed Sintharia as the de facto leader of the flight, while many more would corrupt through the old gods due to not having the mental strength the aspects or their associates had, from warmongers to destroyers, ravaging an already destroyed land.

More importantly, Sintharia held the last two eggs she had with Neltharion, his very legacy, in the belief he was dead as the other aspects thought, Onyxia and Nefarian. In sight of a destroyed flight, a lost aspect and a weight too big to bare, she withdraw for decades from any clear leadership, nearly driving away the last remnants of a united flight.

Sintharia would eventually commit to continue the legacy of Neltharion, pledging her presence at the Wyrmrest Temple and upholding the accord to watch and rebuild the mortal world, growing closer to Alexstrasza, who deeply understood her pain.

Until the day Neltharion returned old of nowhere to their lair, Sintharia had focused in her two children, determined to raise one of the worthy of being the next black aspect, a rivalry which both of them would battle fiercely.

Onyxia:

The youngest of the two siblings, Onyxia had hatched into an intelligent, charming and charismatic dragoness, aspiring brood mother and above all else, aspect of the black dragonflight.

As soon as she and Nefarian had grow into drakes, Sintharia sent them into a mission which would help her decide which of them should become aspect, to locate either Neltharion or his remnants. Both agreed and begun decades and decades of pursuit without success.

The embrace, which Azeroth’s two moons combine, the only time which aspect powers could be granted, came and gone, and Sintharia refused to grant any of the two with the powers or the ritual.

Onyxia and Nefarian grew frustrated with their mother, and their rivalry slowly became more and more friendly, and despite angry for none of them becoming aspects, at that point, they grew wise enough to know Sintharia not only knew better, but she knew it was a burden rather than a blessing for their ambitions.

While Onyxia served as an ambassador for Sintharia at the Wyrmrest Temple, as soon as she was aware of Neltharion’s return, she immediately returned to their main lair, together with Nefarian, and met their father.

The family reunion was filled with sorrow and euphoria, but Neltharion had returned different. Long were the days which he was carefree and a pacifist, now he was more determined, to protect Azeroth, to protect whatever remained of his flight, and his children abide to his requests without questioning.

Onyxia, charming and charismatic, was sent alone to the Stormwind Kingdom, in Neltharion’s grand plan to unify humanity into a single power, growing deluded of the possibility of the seven kingdoms unite on their own accord.

She quickly grew her power by playing the stonemasons and nobles who were rebuilding the city, soon causing a revolt and the harsh crackdown of the stonemasons into the countryside, where they would form a militia to hit back at Stormwind. One of the casualties of this revolt was King Varian Wrynn’s own wife, Tiffin, which had pledged a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

As Varian grew more absolutist, Onyxia under her guise organized his kidnapping and then murder in a remote island off the coast of Azeroth, establishing herself and Bolvar in a regency council for the young prince Anduin.

Onyxia would later successfully and effectively crush the stonemason rebellion and restore full order to Stormwind and her territories.

While through an amulet, Onyxia had full control of Bolvar, her ultimate plot to take full control of Stormwind fall short when she unexpectedly caught herself rather caring for the young prince, her motherly instinct had rather shifted her plans into convincing Anduin, now alone and scared, that she was the best for him, and his future kingdom.

Through the years, she successfully convinced Anduin, and as soon as he reached the age to become king, she granted him powers, still under her full tutelage, but rather gentle guiding hand over the human kingdom.

She would continue her dominion until Nefarian’s plan would come to reality...

Nefarian:

Nefarian, the sibling of Onyxia, charming, charismatic but a brute with intelligence, they were two sides of the same coin after all, and in Neltharion’s grand plan, he flew with him to Lordaeron, the capital city and strongest of the human kingdoms.

Through the help of Neltharion, Nefarian was to conduct the young and ambitious prince Arthas towards the complete domination of Azeroth as the main meat for any potential future legion invasions.

Arthas’ descend proved to come much sooner than expected, as he intended to purge a town to save his kingdom from the growing problem of the undeath plague spreading through infected grain. While Arthas’ mentor and lover, Uther and Jaina, respectively, refused to purge the city, soon after they left a mysterious figure come by, Nefarian under a guise and encouraging the prince to do so.

Stratholme was purged, and Nefarian soon grew to be Arthas’ only friend in a world that has defied his wish to protect his people, at any cost. While battling the undead and remnants of the horde in the wilds, Nefarian’s whispers grew ever louder and Arthas was then fully convinced that his limited powers were not enough, he needed to assume control, to slay his father.

Marching into the capital, Arthas killed his father and soon proclaimed himself king, while violently purging all opposition to his new rule. Nefarian at his side, as adviser and friend, Arthas marched over the neighbor kingdoms, crushing their armies as the remnants of the black dragonflight revealed themselves to support their forces and change the tides.

Arthas had granted Nefarian a place in order to hatch their flight’s ground forces, dragonspawn, drakonids and other dragonkin, which would soon fight side by side with humans.

The unfolding of Neltharion’s plan came with huge backlash of the other flights, and Alexstrasza, as queen of all dragons, demanded a meeting with Neltharion and the ceasing of the pointless wars. While Neltharion attended the meeting, he left clear the reborn black dragonflight would not abide to the passivity of the aspects, and that he required no consent of the accord in order to act to protect Azeroth.

While Alexstrasza refused to engage into a full war, which she could absolutely win, as the black dragons were severely weakened, she sent several red dragons in disguise in order to support the waves of refugees coming from Arthas’s brutal wars of conquest, as well as even offering one orc refugee and leader of a small community, Thrall, to join them and move them to Kalimdor, where they could reestablish a society free from tyranny.

Within years, the Lordaeron Empire extended through all Azeroth and the eastern kingdoms, the last human kingdom standing before Arthas was Kul Tiras, protected by the sea and a vast fleet, Arthas had wasted no time in building a massive fleet, which he counted with the black dragons in order to overwhelm Kul Tiras, the home of his former lover, Jaina, which he was certain would come to face him once for all.

As the navies clashed, Arthas’ fleet suffered heavy casualties and the expected support of the black dragons came but did little to change the tides, as the unexpected Kul Tiras’ red dragon reinforcements, which were instructed to not antagonize the black dragons, came and reversed the change of tides into a decisive Kul Tiras victory.

While Lordaeron’s fleet lays in the bottom of the ocean, King Arthas, which was soon expecting to be crowned Emperor Arthas, as he merged his empire with his last vassal, Stormwind under Onyxia, suffered a severe reverse of fortunes.

For Neltharion and Nefarian, his defeat was a setback, but not a major one, for now at least Alexstrasza finally showed the firmness of her decisions, but had not desired to proclaim an outright war against the black dragonflight.

Through Kalimdor, as orcs, humans, elves and trolls establish through the coastal region, a sentiment of hope and dread come by, as a sorta of cold war begins between Lordaeron and Kul Tiras, in a similar vein, a cold war between the dragon aspects, while Nozdormu remained neutral, Ysera pledged her loyalty to Alexstrasza, Malygos had presented himself as rather on the side of Neltharion, his old friend, seeing some wisdom in his actions.

Malygos had long been watching the mortal races with contempt, and even worse, disgust at their childish usage of magic, the downfall of Dalaran and their ceasing of magic studies was quite amusing for him, and he pledged support for Neltharion’s wise intervention in mortal affairs.

Nefarian however, had bigger plans, as he grew his dragonkin army, he rather saw Arthas as merely a temporary leader, and soon, he himself would take over in a swift and brutal coup, erasing Lordaeron’s emperor and his army, setting a new age of dragon rule of humanity.

Wrathion:

Wrathion didn’t live much to presence much of the events that had come forth so far, but he was the youngest and newest whelp hatched from Neltharion and Sintharia, decades after their reunion.

(Note: Yeah, he is directly a son of Neltharion, because I absolutely wanted to fix the ungodly mess that has become the black dragons’ family tree)

He still quite young and a protegee of Onyxia, the aspiring brood mother, and remains overall in her castle in Stormwind, where he developed a friendship with king (now governor) Anduin, which her begrudgingly allowed to happen, out of a somewhat genuine intention to merge the black dragons and humans into one state.

Despite his very young age, Wrathion would come to be charming, independent and above all, ambitious, quickly convincing Anduin to go with him on small adventurers through Azeroth in search of powerful artifacts he could discover, while Onyxia was fully aware of it, she let it all happen out of curiosity.

Even though Wrathion grew both inspired and friendly to Onyxia, certain events would bring him into a more cold and hostile relationship with his older brother, Nefarian. After sneaking in his lab at Lordaeron with Anduin, Wrathion uncovered Nefarian’s plot to gradually replace humanity with the dragonkin, minimal dragon blood spilled, total domination, and this could only mean one thing, his dear friend, Anduin, was under risk, he would be among the first to go when the time came.

Not wasting much time, Wrathion took Anduin and left the lab, into the wilderness, which he intended to escape to Kalimdor and the free settlements.

It didn’t took Onyxia much time to realize the dastardly whelp and the king under her control had been gone for good, she sent her dragonspawn into a mission in order to bring back Wrathion to her claws, where she would punish him for his disrespect of his elder, and to kill Anduin if he resists.

For the young whelp now, much like the rest of Azeroth, the world has drastically change, a future conflict seems inevitable, the return of the legion too, as everyone focus on fending for themselves, even Neltharion, now locked into a frozen unannounced conflict with Alexstrasza, has shifted all his plans for preparedness.

As the elders fighting among themselves, Wrathion found comfort and confidence in friendship with Anduin, though brainwashed, remained the same young and hopeful leader for his people he hoped to be.

Wrathion now stands alone in a cold world, what will he do?

Hopefully nothing as stupid as canon XD