Medivh works from the shadows to guide his son Med'an in protecting the world of Azeroth.
"Bwonsamdi guards our spirits well, he makes death most inviting. Ya think he be a trickster, his humor often biting. Behind his smile and pointed humor, dere lies a darkness, a hint of rumor. He knows things dat make de brave men shriek, the truth from him, ya must not seek. De realm of death be his alone. Ya life and spirit to him be known. And when dat life do end, make sure Bwonsamdi be ya friend. Den Bwonsamdi will surely guide, come on through to de other side."
— On Bwonsamdi
Whether in the original games, World of Warcraft, or the expanded universe, Azeroth has played host to some number of characters. Here are the most magnificent.
Ordered by first appearance.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Original games
Examples
- Medivh is the last Guardian of Tirisfal and mage of unrivaled power whose possession by the Dark Titan Sargeras forever shaped Azeroth's history. Possessed by Sargeras while still in his mother Aegwynn's womb, Medivh was used to aid the orcs in crossing over to Azeroth to prepare for the Burning Legion's second invasion. Using his great willpower to hold off the godly Titan for much of his life, Medivh would use his little time free to help his apprentice Khadgar and lover Garona uncover his own plots and eventually kill him to set his spirit free. Over the following decades, Medivh orchestrated his own resurrection with his mother's help and took on the guise of a mysterious prophet to warn of the coming invasion by the Legion and their undead Scourge minions. Ignored by much of the human leadership, Medivh used dreams to convince the orc Warchief Thrall and forced the young mage Jaina to watch her beloved Prince Arthas fall to evil to win her over. Uniting the orcs and humans with the night elves of Kalimdor, Medivh ensured the Legion's invasion would fail and, now content, took his place amongst the legends of the past.
- Garona Halforcen is an orc/draenei crossbreed that survived her abusive upbringing by becoming both a deadly combatant and clever spy skilled in many languages. Taken in by Gul'dan and his Shadow Council, she would silently dispose of their enemies and acted as the warlock's emissary to Magus Medivh. Becoming the mage's lover, she is forced to murder him when he goes insane and regretfully assassinates human King Llane Wrynn under mind controlled orders from Gul'dan. Bearing a son by Medivh, she watched over Med'an for decades and engineered his rescue when he was captured by Cho'gall and the Twilight's Hammer Cult. After helping her son defeat Cho'gall, she later turned to the Horde and masterminded operations that led to the ogre's death and the destruction of his citadel. When the Burning Legion invaded, Garona aided the Uncrowned in sabotaging an invasion of Stormwind, and finally formally rejoined the Horde and became their chief of operations in their war against the Alliance.
- Orgrim Doomhammer, the second Warchief of the Horde, overthrows Gul'dan and his Shadow Council, killing their pawn Warchief Blackhand and declares himself the new master of the orcs. Devoted to his people and honorable in ways Gul'dan never was, Orgrim takes over the war and nearly brings the entire human alliance to its knees, stopped only by Gul'dan's treachery. Orgrim shows an exceptional grasp of tactics and strategy, even managing to ambush the Alliance's greatest hero, Anduin Lothar, and defeating him in single combat before being captured at the war's end. Escaping, Orgrim later resurfaces to guide the young orc Thrall to help save their people and eventually gives his life for their freedom, naming Thrall his successor as Warchief.
- Illidan Stormrage was once a night elf mage who joined the Highborne during the War Of the Ancients to bring them down from within. Upon being shown by Sargeras the Legion's true might, Illidan has realized just how dire the fight truly is. To ensure his people's future, he creates a new Well of Eternity against their wishes and named the Betrayer for his crimes. Imprisoned for ten millennia and later freed in modern day, Illidan delves into dark powers and even makes himself the Legion lord Kil'jaeden's servant to undermine them from within, taking over Outland and putting together a group of demon hunters while striking at the Legion's own worlds and dealing them their worst defeats in eons. upon his revival, Illidan brings the world of Azeroth close to the Legion world of Argus to "force the hand of fate" and helps lead a daring strike on the Legion, forming the strategies to crush them once and for all before electing to serve as the eternal jailer for Sargeras himself. A complex, fascinating figure to the end, Illidan has been one of Azeroth's greatest villains and greatest heroes, giving all he has to secure Sargeras's fall after ten thousand years.
- Lady Vashj was once the vain and envious handmaiden of Queen Azshara, yet she claimed her own legacy when became a Naga and her Queen's valued right hand. Leading the Naga to countless victories over the millennia, she would come to Illidan's call for aid and help him enact his schemes and even recruit Prince Kael'thas and the Blood Elves after manipulating them into a join or die scenario. Later helping Illidan conquer Outland, Vashj enslaved the Broken Draenei of Zangarmarsh and used them to build great reservoirs that drained the marsh and gave her control over the world's water supply. While later slain, her victories in life gave her an afterlife in the eternal wars of Maldraxxus where she became spymaster of the House of Eyes, avenged her fallen house by cunningly destroying its saboteurs, and later exposed and wiped out the Dreadlord insurgents that sought to ruin the war effort against the monstrous Jailer.
- Onyxia is the Broodmother of the Black Dragonflight, tasked alongside her brother Nefarian by their father Deathwing to ensure their resurgence upon Azeroth. While her brother conquers Blackrock Spire, Onyxia infiltrates the Alliance as Lady Katrana Prestor and convinces many former allies to abandon the faction and further weakens Stormwind by causing the Stonemason's Guild to riot after refusing them payment for rebuilding the city. When the Queen is killed during the unrest, Lady Prestor turns the depressed King Varian into her puppet and later has him kidnapped to leave his young son in her care. The young Prince Anduin her figurehead, Onyxia further weaken mankind's armies from within while allowing her brother's forces to overrun the borders. Eventually found out and ousted by a returned Varian, she kidnaps his son while luring him and his allies into her trapped lair wherein Onyxia fights her slayers to the bitter end.
- Edwin VanCleef, the Defias Kingpin, was once merely the leader of the Stonemason's Guild who helped to rebuild Stormwind after the First War, but later started riots when the House of Nobles refused payment. When a riot leads to the Queen's death, Edwin guided his followers to hide out in the Deadmines and instructed them in the art of stealth and subterfuge to create the Defias Brotherhood. Mastering guerilla warfare, the Defias bandits under Edwin's orders drove away the farmers of Westfall to starve out the kingdom, allied with gnolls and kobolds to plunder the mines of Elwynn, and worked with Onyxia to kidnap King Varian and smuggle him to far away Kalimdor. With the kingdom weakened, Edwin had a heavily armed warship secretly constructed to lay siege to Stormwind but died to adventurers leaving his legacy and ideals to his young daughter.
- Master Mathias Shaw is the leader of SI:7, Stormwind's intelligence agency, and covertly oversees all the dirty deeds that would otherwise stain the honorable Wrynn Dynasty. When first introduced, Shaw sets up his former student Edwin Van Cleef for execution and oversees the dismantling of his Defias Brotherhood and roots out traitorous nobles aligned to the bandits. Serving as the dark right hand of the Wrynn monarchy, he oversees the extermination of the Twilight Hammer cult in Stormwind and later, after being captured and rescued, helps to foil the plot of a Dreadlord imposter seeking to spark conflict between the factions. When war between Horde and Alliance breaks out once again, Shaw masterminds operations that cripple the Zandalari Empire and helps to set up a Horde splinter faction that ends the war in the Alliance's favor.
- Abercrombie is known to the people of Duskwood as a kind but kooky old hermit, but, in truth, is a powerful necromancer known as the Embalmer seeking the destruction of Darkshire. Completely fooling the town with his scatterbrained old man routine, Abercrombie manipulates a well intentioned adventurer into helping him gather a series of necromantic magical artifacts under the ruse of helping him fend off the dangers of Duskwood. When his plans come to fruition, Abercrombie sends a taunting letter to the mayor of Darkshire detailing how he fooled everyone before unleashing his greatest creation. The infamous abomination Stitches rampages through much of Duskwood before it and Abercrombie are finally put to rest.
- Sabellian is the eldest son and right hand of Deathwing the Destroyer and has committed countless atrocities over the millennia. When Deathwing forms a pact with the Orcish Horde, Sabellian takes a number of eggs off Azeroth to Draenor to preserve a future for the Black Dragonflight. Coming into conflict with Gruul the Dragonkiller and his Gronn, Sabellian takes the human form of Baron Sablemane and manipulates both the Alliance and Horde into defeating the Gronn and unwittingly helping him restore his brood. He would completely purge his family of Old God influence over the decades and return to Azeroth to challenge his nephew Wrathion over the power of the Black Aspect. After securing his brood's eggs by using himself and Wrathion as obvious targets guarding fake eggs, Sabellian would come to see his father's legacy as twisted and depraved and hand control over to his more humble and moral brother Ebyssian.
- Loken was one of the Keepers tasked by the Titans to watch over Azeroth and the imprisoned Old Gods, but over time was corrupted by Yogg-Saron and betrayed the other Keepers and their allies. First accidentally murdering the wife of his brother Thorim, he deflects blame to the ice giants and ignites war between the two, and completes his betrayal by masterminding the capture and corruption of the other Titan Keepers. Preparing for the future, he manipulates the abused Helya into turning against his father Odyn and imprisoning him, claiming his title of Prime Designate in the process. His brother Thorim his last obstacle, Loken disguised himself as an enslaved witch and guided the adventurer into helping Thorim recover from depression and regain his courage, all to lure Thorim into a trap and corrupt him as well. While ultimately slain for his crimes, Loken uses his role as Prime Designate to ensure his death would mean the end of Azeroth as well.
- Stefan Vadu is a Knight of the Ebon Blade who traveled to the ice troll nation of Zul'Drak to bring an end to the Scourge assault led by the traitorous troll Drakuru. Using the adventurer's previous acquaintance to Drakuru, he uses a medallion the troll sought to use to enslave his former pawn as the basis for a disguise to infiltrate and sabotage the Scourge forces. Disguised as a ghoul, Stefan sends the adventurer to take out targets of opportunity while getting valuable information as they ascend to Drakuru's inner circle. Undoing the troll's undead controlling scepter, he sends the player to use Drakuru's own minions against him and ruin his invasion.
- Bwonsamdi is the bombastic and snarky Loa of Graves who was once a mortal priest of the cruel death god Mueh'zala, whom Bwonsamdi betrayed and replaced by usurping his worship from nearly all the troll civilizations. His first major act in modern Azeroth was to gain the servitude of Vol'jin and the Darkspear tribe by helping them reclaim their home, and motivated Vol'jin into rising against Warchief Garrosh Hellscream by testing his convictions. Bwonsamdi later becomes the chief deity of the Zandalari Empire by empowering King Rastakhan in his darkest hour and claims ownership of him and his daughter Talanji as well. When Talanji succeeds her dead father, Bwonsamdi guides her into allying the Zandalari with the Horde by helping to foil assassinations against her to ensure their combined forces stop Sylvanas and her loyalists from killing him. Ultimately shown to be good at heart, he expends his power to keep troll souls out of the Maw, aids the Winter Queen in saving wild god souls from Mueh'zala, and ensures Vol'jin earns his peace by becoming the new Loa of Kings.
- Lilian Voss was once a devout agent of the Scarlet Crusade fighting against the dead, until she herself died and was raised into undeath. With no identity to call her own, Lilian would singlehandedly wipe out the Crusade in Lordaeron and murder her father for ordering her execution. Finding common allies among the rogues of the Uncrowned, Lilian would lead secret operations against the Legion's command structure and root out undead homunculi infiltrating the major cities. Later formally aligning with the Forsaken undead and the Horde, she became complicit in their war crimes by leading terror operations in Kul Tiras, yet secretly rallied undead who grew unsatisfied with their Queen Sylvanas's ever greater atrocities. When she abandoned her people, Voss stepped up to become their representative on the Horde Council to lead the Forsaken to a brighter future.
- Vanessa VanCleef was but a young girl when she witnessed her father Edwin, leader of the Defias Brotherhood, be slain and beheaded by Alliance mercenaries. Seeking revenge, she fakes amnesia and becomes adopted as the innocent and kind Hope Saldean and makes contact with Defias survivors to rebuild the Brotherhood. After having the elderly Furlbrows murdered for knowing her true identity, Vanessa makes alliances with the gnolls of Westfall to launch diversionary attack while she spreads anti-Stormwind propaganda among the countless dispossessed homeless and recruits them as a foundation of a new Brotherhood. With a new army at her back, she claims her vengeance by burning Sentinel Hill to the ground and freeing her captured agents. A master of poisons, she uses hallucinogens to fake her death when cornered and defeated to fight another day.
- Wrathion was born to be the last uncorrupted member of the Black Dragonflight and saw it as his duty to protect Azeroth even as his methods proved ruthless and extreme. Fresh out of his egg, Wrathion takes control of the Ravenholdt assassin's guild and uses its agent to track down and kill the last remnants of his fallen flight, including Deathwing himself. Later in Pandaria, he uses champions from both the Horde and Alliance to shape their war and bring it to a swift end, yet loses his cool when King Varian spares the Horde against his plans. Wanting to take on a more hands on approach, Wrathion commands renegades from the Bronze Dragonflight to free the imprisoned former Warchief Garrosh Hellscream and use him to form a Horde from an alternate timeline to fight the Burning Legion. When this plan backfires and brings the Legion to Azeroth, Wrathion reflects on his failures and gains the wisdom he needs to finally redeem himself. Now a wise and humble leader, Wrathion leads the forces of Azeroth in destroying the Old God N'Zoth and casting down the Black Empire forever.
- Xal'atath, Blade of the Black Empire, is a sentient dagger dating back to ancient days when the Old Gods ruled over Azeroth. Ostensibly a servant of the Void, her sultry yet maddening whispers brought ruin to entire civilizations and corrupted countless wielders into the service of her dark masters. When the Burning Legion invaded, Xal'atath aided the High Priest of the Conclave in battling the demons all the while planting seeds of shadow in the places they visited while often tricking the priest into deadly situations for her own amusement. Later taken and used by the naga, Xal'atath engineered a rescue by another adventurer and manipulated them into gathering powerful artifacts and securing a new body in the process. Ultimately betraying her latest wielder to N'Zoth, she finally secures her freedom from the dagger just as she always wanted.
- Ve'nari is a Broker once of Cartel Ve who led an expedition into the Maw, only to betray and murder her comrades for unlimited access to its unique resources. Extremely clever and resourceful, Ve'nari would steal and reverse engineer the Jailer's technology to move freely around his hellish dimension. Coming in contact with the Maw Walker, she took advantage of their need to rescue their allies to manipulate them into a "partnership" that saw them provide her with resources and information with no danger to herself. While Ve'nari ultimately never betrayed her newfound ally, she would stay in the shadows while the united forces of the Shadowlands pursued and defeated the Jailer in the first realm of Zereth Mortis. There Ve'nari used the resources she gathered in the Maw to free herself from her physical form, fake her death, and wander the cosmos at her leisure.
- The Accuser is one of the Harvesters of Revendreth who takes great pride in guiding evil souls to atonement through eons of torture while draining them of their sin-laden anima. Once a heartless assassin in life, in death, the Accuser is among the first to side with Prince Renathal against their Sire Denathrius for siding with the Jailer and the Maw. The last holdout of their failed rebellion, the Accuser nearly overwhelms her enemies when captured before being punished by being hunted for sport by the Fearstalker. Always a step ahead, she creates a trap to teleport her hunter away while turning the Maw Walker to her side by revealing the Sire's true intentions. She then lures in the Fearstalker and all her hunters into a complex trap to wipe them out, sending the Maw Walker to find and rescue Renathal and restore the rebellion that eventually overthrows Denathrius.
- Iridikron the Stonescaled is the most feared of the Primal Incarnates for being the most cunning and ruthless amongst them. In ancient times, Iridikron usurped control of the Primalists and masterminded their war against the Dragonflights. He would use his own Black Dragon sister to fake attacks on mortals settlements to turns them against the their enemies and formed secret pacts to strengthen his armies. The last to be captured and imprisoned, Iridikron awoke tens of millennia later into the modern day and played his enemies and allies alike for fools. He manipulates the power hungry Fyrakk into consuming the corruptive shadowflame so that he could be a great distraction while Iridikron himself allies with the Infinite Dragonflight to travel back in time. He forces the Bronze Dragons to make a Sadistic Choice by allowing him to successfully empower an ancient artifact while they save their Aspect Nozdormu and defeat the Infinites. Iridikron mysteriously leaves the only Incarnate to have achieved everything he desired.
- Koroleth is one of the leaders of the Primalists and wages war upon the Green Dragonflight to gain access to the Emerald Dream and the secret lying within. Requiring aid in her war, she manipulates the power hungry centaur chieftain Balakar Khan and his Clan Nokhud to fight as her vanguard and teaches them storm magic. In the centaur gathering at their capitol Maruukai, Koroleth assassinates the Green ambassador and ignites a civil war among the clans. Koroleth always proves one step ahead and wipes out most of the mystics of Clan Ohn'ir by sending them false tidings, uses their magics to create dragon killing ballistae, and traps the centaurs' god Ohn'ahra when she comes to stop them. Afterwards forcing Ohn'ahra to summon the Green Dragons, Koroleth orders Balakar to launch a massive assault as a distraction while she very nearly accomplishes her goal before finally dying.
- Rymek is a Blue Drakonid who joined the Primalists to free his people from servitude to the dragons. Seeking to complete what Koroleth started, he comes disguised as a friendly and inquisitive ambassador from the Blue Dragonflight. Rymek proves a skilled actor who manipulates the adventurer into removing obstacles to his plans while acting sympathetic to the Green over their recent losses to be allowed access to their Dream portal. Here Rymek lauches his trap by freezing the defenders and creating an impenetrable ice barrier while summoning in reinforcements to search for the World Tree seed hidden in the dream. Ultimately, Rymek's plans proves foolproof enough that the Green are forced to open a "back door" to the Dream by resurrecting Green Aspect Ysera to undo Rymek's plans and save the Dream.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Examples
- Arch-Thief Rafaam, the self proclaimed Supreme Archeologist, is a villainous ethereal whose outward hammy and bombastic personality masks a truly devious megalomaniac. First introduced as the Arch-Enemy of the League of Explorers, Rafaam curses the pieces of the Staff of Origination they were seeking to allow him entrance into the Hall of Explorers to plunder its artifacts at his leisure. While foiled, Rafaam would return by uniting previously defeated antagonists into the League of EVIL and using their unique talents to carry out a grand heist and steal the entire city of Dalaran. He would later aid an invasion of Uldum to distract the Explorers while he stole the Plague of Undeath and use it to resurrect the ancient dragon Galakrond. Ultimately seeking to use the draconic monstrosity to secure his legendary infamy, Rafaam refuses to back down and dies all the while securing his place as Hearthstone's most iconic villain.
- Book of Mercenaries: Onyxia, the Broodmother of the black dragons, is once again portrayed as a devilishly theatrical schemer. Integrating herself into the Stormwind aristocracy disguised as a human, Onyxia works with her brother Kazakusan to claim the shards of the broken naaru Mi'da to gain absolute power, using her wealth and connections to have mercenaries collect the shards for her. Orchestrating Tamsin's attack on Stormwind, Onyxia uses the chaos to smuggle the shards to Kazakusan in Alterac Valley, completing their "dark naaru" and giving them all the power they could want. While ultimately cornered in her lair and abandoned by her brother, the determined Onyxia fights to the bitter end, and even a little after that.
