Many of World of Warcraft’s players may remember Deathwing, whose immense shadow blocked out the sun. He was the Black Aspect, turned evil after thousands of years spent seething beneath the earth. What players might not know, however, is how close World of Warcraft’s biggest, nastiest dragon actually came to breaking Azeroth apart.
Once Deathwing’s mind had been totally lost to madness, his goal was nothing less than the destruction of the entire planet. He had once sworn to protect Azeroth, but the influence of World of Warcraft's Old God, N'Zoth, had wormed into his mind and spread corruption through the whole Black Dragonflight. After that, the Black Aspect became known as Deathwing the Destroyer, hell-bent on bringing about the Hour of Twilight, Azeroth’s end.
Deathwing's Emergence Would Change World of Warcraft's Zones Forever
The titular Cataclysm in World of Warcraft’s third expansion occurred when Deathwing emerged from his long and agonizing slumber. It had taken some ten thousand years to put his body back together after a horrible accident, and now his scales were infused with metal, held together with rivets and bolts. Deathwing’s agony broke free at last, and he erupted from the plane of Deepholm, the domain of Azeroth’s earth elementals. This event became known as the Shattering.
When the World of Warcraft's Black Aspect crashed through Deepholm’s core and broke into Azeroth, he set off a chain of events that would change the face of the planet forever. Great earthquakes and tsunamis bent and sundered entire continents, uprooting cities and casting them into the sea. The devastation was unimaginable, affecting the entire world from Stormwind to Darnassus and beyond.
The Shattering, followed by the Cataclysm, changed a huge number of zones in the game with the release of the new expansion, as the elements were in total chaos following Deathwing’s emergence. Most of the city-state of Gilneas cracked apart and slipped beneath the ocean, an event which caused its worgen inhabitants to abandon their once-impregnable home. Much of Durotar and Thousand Needles was flooded, and one of World of Warcraft’s most iconic Horde zones, the Barrens, was split into two by an immense fiery chasm.
Players who only ever experienced the world post-Cataclysm were intrigued to find the various lands often looking completely different when playing World of Warcraft: Classic. This version of the original game as it was released shows how much-beloved zones like Loch Modan and Burning Steppes were completely wrecked, especially since the latter was the epicenter of the great dragon’s upheaval. Seeing these places as they once were gives perspective to the magnitude of the destruction wrought by Deathwing, and how, even though the Hour of Twilight was averted, Azeroth will never be the same.
As if this devastation on its own wasn’t bad enough, World of Warcraft's Deathwing breaching into Azeroth shattered the World Pillar within Deepholm, a structure that supported all the elemental and magnetic energies within the Elemental Plane. For millennia, the black dragon had been slowly absorbing the earthen energies within Deepholm, weakening its foundations and leaving it susceptible to further damage. If the Earthen Ring shamans hadn’t rushed to repair it, then the entire realm of Deepholm would have collapsed into Azeroth, breaking the earth apart and rending the planet to pieces.
In World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the game’s current expansion, Deathwing has recently become a relevant part of the story once more. The consequences of his betrayal and near-annihilation of Azeroth still linger on in the hearts and minds of all dragonkind, most especially the other Aspects. More about Deathwing’s past is about to be unearthed by World of Warcraft's Primal Incarnates, and it seems the Black Aspect’s impact on Azeroth is far from over.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is available now for PC.