War of the Scaleborn Lore Facts
The War of the Scaleborn: A Timeline
Mounting Tensions
The events of the novel start just over a decade after Galakrond’s demise (32). By the end, it has been around five centuries or so since the dragons were granted the titans’ gifts (368).
Tyr, worried the dragonflights needed to grow more quickly to face whatever threats might arise, commanded Alexstrasza to take primal dragon eggs from the wild and forcibly infuse them with Order magic (19, 24). Ysera and Nozdormu disagreed with this course of action, but Malygos and Neltharion persuaded the Dragon Queen it was necessary. Alexstrasza ultimately acquiesced to Tyr’s demand with one stipulation - that they only take unguarded eggs that had been abandoned (23-25). It seems, however, that this edict was not always obeyed; some of the primal dragons reported their entire clutches being stolen time and time again (83, 206).
The dragons placed no restrictions on ordering dragons who were with clutch as long as they consented (134).
The whelplings born of primal eggs taken from the Dragonwilds were aware they had been stolen, many remembering vague sensations of Order magic transforming them while still in the shell (53, 83, 133, 206). Vyranoth expected hundreds, if not thousands, of eggs were stolen over the course of the war (211).
The Aspects engaged in diplomatic relations with the primal dragons for two centuries, Wyrmrest Temple acting as a neutral embassy between the factions. Unfortunately, the Winterskorn War only served to increase the primal dragons’ mistrust of the titan-forged and, consequently, the Aspects (44, 175).
Iridikron launched a propaganda campaign against the ordered dragons, claiming they were responsible for everything from forcing Order magic on tarasek to the primal dragons being pushed out of their hunting grounds. Iridikron continued this campaign by forcing his clutch-sister, Ikronia, to burn down the towns of tarasek and mortals alike, spurring even more negative sentiment against the ordered dragons (74-76, 88). Some mortals actually joined Iridikron’s forces as a result (76).
It was at this time Iridikron officially named his faction of followers the Primalists (117).
Raszageth and Ikronia terrorized mortal and tarasek settlements for 50 years (116).
While Raszageth often attacked ordered dragons on the edge of the Broodlands, she never dared to fully cross the border until her final attacks on the Reach (126).
Despite Raszageth’s attacks on their borders and Iridikron’s rapidly growing army - stirred by primalist propaganda as it was -, Alexstrasza strove for peace (88).
Neltharion attempted many times over the years to send emissaries to meet with Iridikron in Harrowsdeep, but all were turned away, sometimes even violently (88).
Alexstrasza allowed the primal dragons to hunt in the territories around Wyrmrest Temple so long as they did not harass the ordered dragons (111).
Alexstrasza forbade the drakes from fighting with the primal dragons unless lives were at stake (136).
A Rising Storm
Though it was not the case initially, the primalist forces outnumbered the Aspects’ at the onset of the war by three-to-one (115, 198-199).
Neltharion kept the truth of Tyr’s death from the dragonflights, though the Aspects knew (112). It was not until war officially broke out many decades after the keeper’s death that the ordered dragons found out the truth (230-231).
Stormsunder Crater, a region in the eastern part of the Forbidden Reach, was formed when Raszageth crashed to the ground during her assault on Neltharion’s dracthyr (154).
Raszageth’s attack on the Reach came to be known as the Battle of Stormsunder (242).
Neltharion did not want word of what transpired that day in the Reach - and the dark truth of what he did - to get out. Nor did he want Iridikron to turn the dracthyr against the Aspects. Afraid he could not manage either of those things without the control Oathbinder afforded him over the dracthyr, he gave them one last command with the remains of the destroyed artifact and sent them back to their creches (158, 164). A short time later, Malygos would freeze all of the dracthyr in a deep slumber (165).
Neltharion lied to Malygos about what happened at the Reach, telling his old friend that he’d personally attacked and incapacitated Raszageth before imprisoning her (161).
Malygos agreed to help Neltharion conceal the truth of what occurred at the Reach under two conditions: 1) that he would be in Malygos’ debt, to be called upon at any time, and 2) they tell Alexstrasza the Incarnates attacked the Reach right away (163).
Neltharion did not want to tell Alexstrasza about the dracthyr out of concerns that the Dragon Queen, dedicated to peace as she was, would disapprove of his choice to breed soldiers for war (161).
After Raszageth’s attack on the Reach, Alexstrasza declared all primal dragons banned from the Broodlands and Wyrmrest Temple (168).
Battle Rages
At Iridikron’s behest, a newly-made Incarnate Vyranoth and the Primalist forces attacked Wyrmrest Temple in retaliation for Raszageth’s imprisonment. Aside from Raszageth’s attack on the Reach, this was the first battle of the war (183-184).
Iridikron later launched another attack on Wyrmrest Temple in an event now known as the Battle of Dragonblight. The ordered dragons won, but at the cost of any territory they had beyond Wyrmrest Temple (219).
Iridikron and other primal dragons often sent earthquakes throughout the Broodlands in covert attempts to destabilize the ordered dragons’ efforts. In response, the blue and black dragonflights erected a series of magical obelisks along the Broodlands’ border that would make the land impervious to Iridikron’s earthly attacks. Each of these obelisks was connected to Vakthros through a ley line (86, 201).
During the war, Malygos lobbied to alter the obelisks so that they would form a shield of sorts over the Broodlands. Unfortunately, Malygos warned the strain placed on them would cause the already old obelisks to give out in a year’s time. They lasted twenty-five, falling victim to sabotage from within at the last (201-202, 219, 225, 235).
The ordered dragons suffered only a hundred casualties over the first twenty-four years of battle while the Primalists lost about a thousand (220).
Nozdormu was the one to suggest building a vault to hold the Incarnates in perpetual stasis, though it was Alexstrasza who inspired the idea by insisting they not kill them (205).
Alexstrasza established flight academies for drakes at this time to teach them the skills they would need to defend the Broodlands (220).
Nozdormu saw a potential alternate timeline in which Alexstrasza hunted down and killed each of the Incarnates, one by one. The dark truth of what she had done in that timeline broke the alternate Dragon Queen’s mind, causing her to terrorize the world. In another, she forced all dragons to choose between Order magic or death (223).
Nozdormu also told Alexstrasza that her death would inevitably lose them the war in every timeline (224).
According to Nozdormu, Fyrakk was always the first or second to fall in the potential timelines he saw (246).
Six ordered drakes, among those who had been stolen from the Dragonwilds as eggs, turned against the Aspects in outrage when they learned the truth of their upbringing. Their ranks included Talinstrasz, Sirigosa, Ellegos, Nolizdormu, Azarian, and Ivarus. They were the ones who sabotaged the magical barrier protecting the Broodlands (227). Sirigosa would later claim she saw the error of her ways and repent (280).
Malygos was the one who captured and imprisoned Fyrakk in a conflict now known as the Battle of Flamesfall. He weaved an illusion over himself to appear as Alexstrasza, then whisked the Incarnate through a portal to the Vault once they engaged in combat. Ysera put Fyrakk in a deep slumber, allowing the Aspects to imprison the Incarnate once and for all (258-259, 265).
Five hundred of the Primalists’ forces were slain in the Battle of Flamesfall. It was the second single greatest loss of life during the war, second only to the Battle of Emberfall in which a thousand casualties were suffered between both sides (265, 267).
In the Battle of Emberfall, the brood-mother Oxoria made a push into the Reach to free Raszageth. Nearly two hundred of the black dragonflight perished in the battle (267).
The red dragonflight also had to contend with a growing force of djaradin encroaching on the Waking Shores at this time (267).
The djaradin had only become increasingly hostile in the last century, perhaps using the ongoing war to their advantage to claim territory in the Waking Shores (269).
Alexstrasza forbade drakes from fighting on the front lines against full-grown primal dragons (270).
As time went on, betrayals became more common among the ordered dragons. Black dragons played double agent, bronzes attempted to reverse time to help the Primalists, and members of the green and red dragonflights made a bid to kidnap eggs from the life pools, among other things. Many of them were imprisoned beneath the Obsidian Citadel and later freed by the Primalists (270, 277-278).
Iridikron’s Rockfuries did not personally join the battle until centuries into the war (287).
Alexstrasza challenged Vyranoth to single combat. The terms were such that if the Dragon Queen were to win, Vyranoth would consent to being imprisoned within the Vault of the Incarnates or perish. The duel was held at the Icebound Eye, part of Vyranoth’s territory (290, 293, 300, 319). This event occurred over fifty years after Fyrakk’s imprisonment (266-267, 289).
Upon Vyranoth’s defeat and subsequent imprisonment, her dragon companions swore to join Alexstrasza’s cause as long as she honored her original promise to Vyranoth and not force Order magic on them (321).
For centuries, Iridikron’s earthquakes had been part of a plan to carve out secret caverns and tunnels under the earth for an eventual underground attack on Valdrakken (298).
For the next few decades after the battle at Valdrakken, Iridikron tried and failed to create more Incarnates to replace his lost commanders (331).
It wasn’t until the end of the war - after three Incarnates had been imprisoned - that Iridikron turned to the djaradin (334).
After Razviik, Mithruz was Vyranoth’s third-in-command. He would fall in single combat against Ysera toward the end of the war (235, 325).
Neltharion ultimately subdued Iridikron by using the gifts the Old Gods gave him. He vowed to himself it would be the last time he ever gave in to the whispers (371-372).
As part of the negotiations made between the ordered dragons and the remaining Primalists at the end of the war, Alexstrasza promised to withdraw from the Dragonwilds and grant them to the primal dragons. She also swore that no primal egg would be stolen from its nest ever again (375).
Alexstrasza then personally visited each dragon that had been taken and ordered in the shell, promising all of them a boon as recompense for the act she had committed without their consent (376, 378).
Alexstrasza and the Aspects resolved to never speak of the War of the Scaleborn again, wishing to avoid imposing the horrors of it upon future generations (380).
The Vault of the Incarnates was bound with three magical protections: one of time, one of arcane, and one of stone (381).
Alexstrasza & The Red Dragonflight
Before and during the War of the Scaleborn, a red dragon by the name of Saristrasz acted as Alexstrasza’s majordomo (5, 301).
Tyranastrasz, one of the Dragon Queen’s consorts before his death during the Second War, may have actually been her mate as far back as when they were proto-dragons (8).
Alexstrasza knew the name of every dragon hatched at the life pools (133).
The Ruby Flamebringers served directly under Alexstrasza (272).
Neltharion & The Black Dragonflight
The black dragonflight’s majordomo was Nalaxa (159).
A black dragon by the name of Umbrenion was principal architect of the Obsidian Citadel and various structures within Zaralek Cavern (29).
The Shadowscales were a military sect of black dragons dedicated to gathering intelligence on the enemy. They were led by Egnion (61, 86).
The Ironscales were one of the largest battalions in any dragonflight, numbering nearly two hundred (304). By the end of the war, they still boasted around one-hundred-fifty (346).
The Onyx Reavers of the black dragonflight were incredibly deadly in combat. They used their speed to their advantage, often dropping on unsuspecting enemies from above at such breakneck speeds that they would easily shatter their enemies against the ground (236, 254).
Custom dictated that the bodies of black dragons be burned, their bones interred in mausoleums in the Veiled Ossuary, and their ashes spread over the magma falls in the Waking Shores so that they could return to the earth from which they originally drew power (160, 242).
Neltharion had heard whispers since even before he became Aspect. It wasn’t until sometime in the next two hundred years that they grew stronger, afflicting him with tormenting thoughts and whispers. He never told another soul about them (87).
Neltharion heard at least four separate voices whispering to him (87). This is of note since at this point, Aman’Thul had already dealt with Y’Shaarj, leaving just three Old Gods.
Neltharion experimented on mortals in secret for years, seeking to understand them so that he could create a hybrid army capable of withstanding the primals’ burgeoning might (105).
At this time, Rashok was captured by the black dragonflight and imprisoned within Aberrus (105-106).
Neltharion discovered Oathbinder deep within a titan vault. He asked the titan-forged to modify it so he could use it on the dracthyr specifically (149).
Neltharion was still mostly in control of his faculties after submitting to the Old Gods during the battle at the Reach, though he acknowledged he would never again be the same after letting them in (157). With time, the whispers would only grow stronger, sometimes even debilitating (195).
The black dragonflight spent 300 years preparing for war in secret, having started forging a massive cache of armor and weapons since the day after their oathstone was empowered. In doing so, they developed new forms of blacksteel and elementium, lightweight metals that could provide the dragons protection in the air (193).
The Blue Dragonflight
Beregos was the archlibrarian of the Azure Archives (220).
Centuries after Iridikron began his movement against the Aspects, the blue dragonflight learned how to summon and control arcane elementals (130).
The blue dragonflight frequently employed arcane elementals glamoured as dragons on the field of battle to make their numbers look bigger than they actually were (282).
Malygos and Nozdormu usually fought side by side (281).
Malygos was able to enchant stones that would portal a dragon at a moment’s notice, should the need arise (342, 361).
The Bronze Dragonflight
During the war, the bronze dragons discovered they could reverse wounds with time magic (267).
The Green Dragonflight
The green dragonflight’s majordomo was Vathira (208).
Toward the end of the half-century Raszageth perpetrated attacks against ordered dragons, Ysera oversaw the creation of the Eye of Ysera within the Dream (126).
The Incarnates
Thanks to Fyrakk’s help, Iridikron discovered the means by which primal dragons could imbue themselves with elemental energies and become Incarnates. It is unclear if this means Fyrakk uncovered the crucial knowledge, or if his being the first to survive the process simply helped Iridikron crack the code in his own discoveries (though the latter seems more likely) (33-34).
Hundreds of primal dragons perished in the initial attempts to infuse themselves with elemental powers. Fyrakk was the first to succeed, followed by Iridikron, who then helped Raszageth through the necessary rituals (31, 32, 36). Iridikron did not consult Fyrakk when he opted to add Raszageth to the Incarnates’ ranks, something which greatly angered the fire dragon (31).
While ideologically opposed to visage forms, the Incarnates decided taking on forms rooted in the elements could give them a tactical advantage in the war (116).
Fyrakk
Fyrakk is Alexstrasza’s cousin. He was the one who taught the Dragon Queen how to hunt and fight (21, 179, 248).
Iridikron
Neltharion and Iridikron had long been rivals by this time, though they were once close thanks to their shared interests in the earth. While it is unclear exactly when they grew apart, it seems likely their disagreements over the titans’ gifts caused a rift to form between the two dragons (22, 86, 124).
Even as an Incarnate, Iridikron was smaller than Neltharion (124).
Though Alexstrasza was close friends with Vyranoth and cousin to Fyrakk, she had never actually met Iridikron (22).
Iridikron had a sister named Ikronia who willingly submitted to Order magic and became a black dragon (70-71). Few of the primalists knew she even existed (169). Though allied with the Primalists, she perished at Raszageth’s hands during the Incarnate’s attack on the Reach (148).
Vyranoth
Vyranoth initially thought Iridikron no better than the Aspects, having altered himself for the sake of power just like them (46). Though he obsessively sought to recruit her to his side, she refused to pick either him or Alexstrasza over each other, instead desiring peace and neutrality (49).
Vyranoth hadn’t laid a clutch of her own in centuries, having declined to take a new mate ever since Galakrond slew her last one (50).
Alexstrasza and Vyranoth used to meet for a hunt at least once a season (61).
Razviik, once of the proto-drakes Vyranoth had taken under her wing, was the one to bestow the moniker “the Frozenheart” upon her (206).
The Mortals
A tribe of trolls took up residence in Apex Canopy, a small region in southwestern Waking Shores. Having seen that they would shape the fate of the world in time, Nozdormu informed Neltharion who then told the other Aspects of his plans to reach out to them. Each of the Aspects, cloaked in an invisibility spell by Malygos, descended upon the settlement to investigate the mortals (63-65).
Neltharion claimed the trolls migrated to the Broodlands from larger well-established civilizations in the south (65).
The Aspects debated over how best to approach the mortals. Ysera thought they shouldn’t interfere with their development, but Nozdormu insisted a relationship between dragonkind and the mortal races would be important in times to come (65-66).
Ysera was the first one to propose the dragons don visage forms to empathize with and understand the mortals (66-67).
Malygos initially wove illusions around the Aspects, trying to mimic mortal forms to little avail (67).
Alexstrasza eventually sent emissaries to the mortals cloaked in temporary visages developed by Malygos (103).
Both the green and red dragonflights took to visage forms much more quickly than any of the other flights. As a result, the mortals forged strong bonds with the green dragonflight and moved in great numbers to the Emerald Plains (112, 131).
After five years, the mortal settlements in the Broodlands grew to triple their initial size (103).
By this time, mortals had trained wolves to hunt alongside them (104).
The dragonflights began forging relationships with Northrend’s indigenous mortal races as well (111).
The dragons gifted technology and knowledge of projectile weapons to the mortal tribes living in Apex Canopy so that they could defend themselves in the event of an attack (176).
Locations in Lore
The Aspects were the ones who conceived of Valdrakken, not the titan keepers. That said, Tyr may very well have influenced its building by teaching Alexstrasza about cities (4, 11).
While the Dragon Isles were originally known as the Broodlands, the vast expanse of territory beyond them - stretching far into modern-day Northrend - was called the ‘Dragonwilds’. The Aspects’ law covered the disparate territories of the Broodlands, but did not extend to the Dragonwilds. As a result, many primal dragons averse to the titans’ influence chose to live there instead of the Dragon Isles (14, 31-32).
Iridikron was rather reclusive and usually kept to his underground den, a place called Harrowsdeep near the Stormscale mountain range, part of what is now known as Northrend (22, 31, 39). Vyranoth’s aerie was in the ‘Frozen Fangs’ - likely Icecrown - while Fyrakk made his home in the ‘Caldera’ (33, 49, 81).
Raszageth’s aerie, the Whorl, was the closest of the Incarnates’ dwellings to the Broodlands (169).
Wyrmrest Temple was constructed simultaneously with Valdrakken (32).
Twenty years after Wyrmrest Temple was built, construction finished on the Obsidian Citadel. Shortly after that, Vakthros was completed as well (43-44).
Alexstrasza had an upper tier added to the Ruby Life Pools two centuries later after its original establishment (48).
Construction on the Vault of the Incarnates was completed after twenty-five years (222-223).
Stormsunder Crater, a region in the eastern part of the Forbidden Reach, was formed when Raszageth crashed to the ground during her assault on Neltharion’s dracthyr (154).
The mountain range at the northern edge of the Dragon Isles is called the Scalecracker Peaks (159).
The mountain range housing the Obisidian Citadel is called the Black Mountains (254).
The mountain range on the eastern edge of Thaldraszus was one of the tallest mountain ranges in northern Kalimdor, rivaled only by the Storm Peaks (266).
Some of the many new regions mentioned in the War of the Scaleborn, exact locations unspecified, include: Icewing Rift, the Molten Abyss, Emberstone, the Glacial Maw, Frostfire Chasm, Cinderfrost Vale (220, 237, 249, 254).
Sawtooth Mountain was near Wyrmrest Temple (336).
The Icebound Eye was a natural sinkhole in the Frozen Fangs (294).
The earth tendrils curving around the Vault of the Incarnates are not naturally occurring structures. They were made when Neltharion ossified lava Iridikron pulled from the surrounding magma pools during their confrontation at the Vault (316).
Misc
Drakonid are actually tarasek who have been transformed by Order magic, not unlike the dragons (14).
Ordered creatures apparently take on a subtle scent of something akin to “smoke and stardust” (15).
Only one in four whelplings in the primal dragonwilds ever made it to drakehood. Alexstrasza supposed barely half of those even saw half a century of life (25).
Primal dragons often abandoned their young when they grew into drakes, though one brood mother - Oxoria - was notorious for raising broods with sustained familial bonds (200).
The ordered dragons’ whelplings were raised communally, allowing their parents to be as involved in the upbringing as they desired. Sometimes this meant they chose not to be involved at all, complete strangers to their offspring (53, 135).
Dragons can be identified by their scales (92).
It is not unusual for one to experience great disorientation and vertigo after their first portal travel. It can take hours to recover (259).
Captain Drine has been guarding Valdrakken ever since the War of the Scaleborn (305).
The dragons were under the impression that they needed titan keepers to create more Aspects (322, 326).
The Dragon Isles are the djaradin’s ancestral lands (334).
