Deathwing is one of World of Warcraft’s most memorable and essential villains, featuring mainly in the game’s third expansion Cataclysm. He was defeated at the end of the Dragon Soul raid, which was released almost 12 years ago. Since then, he hasn’t featured much in World of Warcraft beyond the odd reference or two, but returning to the Dragon Isles has changed that.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is the game’s newest expansion, set around the idea of dragons returning to their ancestral home, the Dragon Isles, to restore their legacy as Azeroth’s protectors. The dragon Aspects, leaders of their kind, have a long and tragic history, with Deathwing - the former Aspect of Earth - being no exception. He betrayed all of dragonkind at the moment of the Sundering long ago, shedding his former identity and taking on the moniker Deathwing the Destroyer, intent on bringing about the end of the world.
Why Deathwing Is as Important in World of Warcraft's Current Story as Ever
Although Deathwing is long dead, the trauma he spread impacts countless dragons to this day. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and its setting, the Dragon Isles, explores how his betrayal left a hole in the hearts of his closest friends. The former mad Aspect was once known as Neltharion, and he was Azeroth’s staunchest protector. Little is known about when exactly his mind snapped, but it is believed that the Old Gods corrupted him over time, letting his old personality completely rot away.
Since Deathwing’s defeat, only a few black dragons remain given most of them had been killed alongside their errant Aspect in Cataclysm. Those that still live include Wrathion, Sabellian, and Ebyssian, characters who feature heavily in Dragonflight’s story. They all seek to rebuild their flight’s legacy and show the world that they are nothing like the monster their father became. A significant part of the expansion's quests and gameplay includes these characters rediscovering their purpose and restoring the black dragonflight's reputation as Azeroth's protectors.
Most intriguing are the secrets Neltharion kept hidden for so long. The Dracthyr, World of Warcraft’s newest playable race, were created by the Black Aspect as soldiers that embodied both the power of dragons and the tenacity of mortals. They remained hidden away in stasis for over 10 millennia, no one knowing of their existence until the Dragon Isles awakened. They are determined to uncover their past and learn why Neltharion kept them from the rest of the world for so long, as players know very little about the Dracthyr's true purpose.
Neltharion’s name continues to come up in this expansion, as new content has revealed that World of Warcraft's upcoming raid, Aberrus, is set within another of the Destroyer’s well-kept secrets. Being Aspect of the Earth, there was no shortage of hiding places to keep his experiments concealed. The Primal Incarnates are particularly interested in the fires that power Aberrus, as Iridikron, the Earth Incarnate, believes it can be used to cement their victory over all dragonkind.
Players are familiar with the black dragonflight’s scheming, having experienced it in similar raids like Blackwing Lair and Blackwing Descent, but Aberrus seemingly promises even greater power. No one knows exactly why Neltharion had access to this molten fuel and why it’s so powerful, but it begs the question whether the other Aspects really knew him at all. Deathwing is dead, likely never to be revived, but his legacy is being re-examined for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, so there are entire chapters of his story yet to be told.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is available now for PC.