Aesthetic and visuals are vital components in what makes World of Warcraft such an attractive game, and it’s their compelling take on their magic effects that makes the Warcraft MMO so appealing to gamers. However, the keen attachment to blue colors isn’t just an artistic choice on part of the World of Warcraft MMO. The choice to make arcane magic for the Mage Class blue seems to stem from something in Warcraft lore.
For Warcraft fans, it may help to learn that the blue of arcane magic comes from the Blue Dragonflight. Tasked to protect magic in Azeroth, the Blue Dragonflight was once a proud Dragonflight that may even be able to keep their fellow Dragons in check. Unfortunately, a tragic history would leave the Blue Dragonflight one of the smallest in numbers throughout the MMO’s history. Just what happened to the Blue Dragonflight throughout the course of the series?
10 The Gift Of Magic, A Keen Curiosity
After defeating the terrifying cannibalistic proto-dragon Galakrond, the Titans rewarded Malygos and his comrade proto-dragons with a great gift: guardianship over Azeroth. Contrary to his other companions, Malygos received the gift of magic courtesy of Norgannon, the master-magician of the Titans. This transformed Malygos into the Spell-Weaver, and his Blue Dragonflight became guardians of magic.
In turn, the Blue Dragonflight became primarily concerned with ensuring magic doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. This became true despite the tragedy to happen to them through millennia. After making their home in the Nexus within Northrend, one of the first acts of mysterious magic the Blue Dragonflight had done was to “connect” through another existence and bring an entity only called the Aluneth into Azeroth. Despite causing a rampage throughout the Nexus, Aluneth’s unpredictable nature encouraged the Blue Dragonflight to research further. Only years later, Guardian Aegywnn, mother of Medivh, defeated Aluneth and bound the entity to the World of Warcraft great staff of the same name.
9 The Betrayal Of Deathwing, The Maddening Of Malygos
It was during the War of the Ancients in World of Warcraft lore, when the Night Elves accidentally summoned the Burning Legion, that the biggest tragedy would occur upon the Blue Dragonflight. When Neltharion suggested to the Aspects that they should bind their essences into the Dragon Soul, none of the Aspects objected as this was said to be able to control the demons and fend them off. Unfortunately for them, Neltharion was already corrupted by the Old Gods and, now called Deathwing, sought to control all life in Azeroth.
Had it not been for a moment of distraction, all hope would’ve been lost. While the other dragons managed to attack Deathwing in his moment of weakness, Deathwing had already unleashed the full power of the Dragon Soul unto the Blue Dragonflight, decimating their numbers. With Malygos left as one of the few survivors of the incident, the loss of companions drove him into complete madness. He tears apart Coldarra and the Nexus away from Northrend and begins his life of seclusion that lasted for around 10,000 years. Meanwhile, the Red Dragon Korialstrasz found a few surviving Blue Dragonflight eggs and nurtured them within a pocket dimension for their safety.
8 Life Goes On, The Tragedy Of Shandaral
Despite Malygos’s madness, most of the surviving Blue Dragonflight have remained committed to their mission of preserving and protecting magic throughout Azeroth even after the Sundering. Before his madness, Malygos had assigned surviving Blue Dragons to guard the Nordrassil and the Well of Eternity in Mount Hyjal. Not only that, Blue Dragons continued to update the location of Azeroth's leylines documented inside the Acranomicon. Most importantly, even a Blue Dragon attempted to sway Guardian Medivh away from the dark path that eventually led to his corruption by Sargeras, the Dark Titan.
While most of these early missions of Blue Dragons remained hush-hush, other events have cemented throughout Azeroth’s history. One such incident occurred in the High Elf territory of Shandaral, who wanted to use the Blue Dragonflight’s powers of crystallization to also draw magical power from them. Despite the Blue Dragonflight paying no heed to their requests, the Elves stole these techniques from the Nexus anyway. After a tragic attempt by Shandaral Highbornes to use these techniques against the Blue Dragons, an explosion transformed their entire territory into the crystal. This is currently found in the World of Warcraft game as the Ruins of Shandaral and is located east of the Crystalsong Forest.
7 The Tale Of Scepter And Staff
Throughout World of Warcraft history, Blue Dragons have consistently served as guardians of various ancient artifacts, notably weapons that may be used for evil. A historical instance of this includes the War of the Shifting Sands, where Blue Dragons have aided the Night Elves and the Bronze Dragonflight in their mission to quell the full-scale invasion of the underground Qiraji of the desert Silithus from their home in the Ahn-Qiraj temple, which ended up being the prison of the Old God C’thun.
While the Blue Dragons were entrusted with a shard of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands that could reopen the temple, the cost of the encounter had been Arygos, an offspring of Malygos, who everyone thought perished. Another artifact entrusted to the Blue Dragons was Aluneth, the same great staff of Guardian Aegwynn, passed onto his son Guardian Medivh and became his weapon until his death.
6 The Battle Of Grim Batol
During Deathwing’s betrayal in the War of the Ancients, the Blue Dragonflight ensured the Dragon Soul would never be used by a dragon again. Deathwing took advantage of how literal this restriction was and slowly corrupted an Orc Warlock named Nekros to his side. Thanks to the Dragon Soul, Nekros enslaved the Red Dragonflight Aspect Alexstrasza and commanded the Red Dragonflight with the Horde during the Second War, which events occurred in Warcraft 2. Desperate for help, Alexstrasza’s consort Korialstrasz sought the help of Malygos, who once ignored him but relented when convinced by Ysera, the Green Dragonflight Aspect.
Thanks to their combined efforts, Deathwing was pushed on the defensive in the War of Grim Batol. Not only that, but a ruse involving the Dragon Soul’s fragility caused Deathwing’s scales to destroy the artifact. This released all the dormant energies present in the artifact, restoring the powers of the Dragonflight.
5 The Third War, The Sunwell
During the events of Warcraft 3, Arthas Menethil, in his investigation of the Undead Plague, would become corrupted by the Lich King. While the Dragonflights have largely been uninvolved in these events, the home of the Blue Dragon Sapphiron would be eyed by Arthas in search of power. Not only was Sapphiron slain, but his remains would be transformed into a frost wyrm in service of Arthas.
After the Lich King was put in stasis after the Third War, the Blue Dragonflight steadily increased in numbers but not fast enough for Malygos’s liking. It didn’t help that the fabled Sunwell, the High Elves’ power source, was destroyed in the last months of the Third War. However, a mysterious spike of magical energies in Lordaeron forced the Blue Dragons to investigate, leading to the discovery of Anveena Teague, who ends up being the new Avatar of the Sunwell. The young Blue Dragon Kalecgos became in charge of protecting Anveena, a feat that would earn the admiration of his peers.
4 The Nether Dragons, The Twilight Dragons
Contrary to popular belief in Warcraft lore, the five (5) Dragonflights were not the only Dragonflights to ever exist in Azeroth. Due to experimentation and other events, several “Lesser” Dragonflights began popping up. And due to the connection of Blue Dragonflight members to magic, they were usually the ones to discover them. First and most vital among these variants are the Nether Dragons, nether-corrupted spawns of Deathwing exposed to the Dark Portal’s energies. While brought initially to Azeroth for stabilization, Malygos awoke from his slumber and ate the magical energies of the Nether Dragons instead, finally curing him of his sanity.
Another interesting variant of Dragonflights the Blues discovered was Twilight Dragons. Deep beneath Grim Batol is a lair where Black Dragon Sinestra was creating her “ultimate” child, the Twilight Dragon Dargonax. Thanks to the efforts of the Blue Dragons, aided by Nether Dragon Zzeraku and even Dargonax himself, Sineestra was defeated, and the plot to create more Twilight Dragons stopped.
3 Enter The Nexus War
Aside from their near-extinction, the Nexus War may be the most important event to ever happen to Blue Dragons in Warcraft history. After much contemplation after regaining his sanity, Malygos decreed that the existence of magic and the mortals who lusted for lasting power became the source of Azeroth’s troubles. Due to this realization, Malygos began siphoning all the world’s magic unto himself - something that had the Blue Dragonflights sprung into action to heed their master’s bidding and the rest of the world to try to stop them.
It’s this power struggle that forced the hand of the magical organization Kirin Tor to transform Dalaran into a floating island on top of Northrend. Not only that, even the Red Dragonflight worked with the Kirin Tor to stop Malygos’s rampage, which culminated in the three-part Nexus raid where players will ultimately kill Malygos.
2 The Crisis Of Having No Aspect
The death of Malygos may have prevented a magical apocalypse, but this also introduced another problem to the Dragonflight: the lack of an Aspect. It’s revealed that an Aspect could only be created and empowered during the unity of Azeroth’s moons during the Embrace. Pivotal to this decision was the “choice” of would-be Aspects, which fell on a decision between Malygos’s son Arygos and Malygos’s apprentice Kalecgos.
Unfortunately, Arygos would ally himself with Deathwing for the promise of being assured the position. And even without Deathwing’s interference, the Blue Dragonflights would choose Kalecgos anyway.
1 The Defeat Of Deathwing, Separate Ways
Kalegcos became instrumental in defeating Deathwing for the last time, as his knowledge of magic allowed the Aspects to turn Deathwing’s ultimate weapon - the Dragon Soul - against him. This unfortunately cost the Aspects all their powers, thus transforming them into mere mortals. Due to their dwindling numbers, the Blue Dragonflights decided to part, but still willing to perform their duties of protecting Azeroth’s magic. Unfortunately, their separation would lead to tragedies, such as the theft of their Focusing Iris by the Horde, which then led to the destruction of Theramore through a mana bomb.
Given their separate ways, only very few Blue Dragons also served as guardians of the Nexus in Northrend, with Kalecgos among them. After learning of the true history of the Dragonflights, Kalecgos decided the Blue Dragons may have to stick together. It was during the events of World of Warcraft: Legion that the players would help the Blue Dragonflight reclaim the Nexus in an attempt by the Ethereum to control its powers. It’s also learned that among the separate Blue Dragonflight, it’s the Azurewing led by Senegos in Azsuna that became the largest sub-group in the Dragonflight. It’s currently unknown how the Blues would adjust to the status quo in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight without a leader.
World Of Warcraft: Dragonflight is set for a November 28, 2022 release.