Fireside Tales: The Mysteries of Aberrus

It’s time for another Race to World First (RWF), which is an invitation to indulge in a little more lore digging!

While Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible is a place shrouded in mystery, we can take a look at some of some of the experiments Deathwing and his brood continued over the years – many of which were started in the secret laboratory below the Dragon Isles. From the Dracthyr to Shadowflame, perhaps we can glean some clues as to what comes next, or even find other things that Neltharion may have hidden.

Table of Contents

Mysterious Origins of the Dracthyr and Aberrus

The Dracthyr are shrouded in mystery, with little known about them besides them being the personal army of Neltharion. Evokers are in a very strange place, which can also be a very fun place. Much of their origin has been shrouded, and most of the information we find point to them being the personal army of Neltharion, helping him to contain threats against Azeroth. We also know from the Forbidden Reach quests that Neltharion had the black dragon essence extracted from the Dracthyr for some purpose. There’s also the involvement of the Blue Dragonflight in sealing the Dracthyr in stasis. We knew that Neltharion and Malygos were close allies, but what were they planning that didn’t involve the other Dragon Aspects?

It’s still a little hard to tell exactly why he locked them away, and considering
Aberrus was one of Neltharion’s places of experimentation, it goes to show that maybe we can find the answers there. This leaves a lot of exciting places for dragon and Dracthyr lore to go as we continue through Dragonflight.





After all, the Primal Incarnates have some idea as to what Neltharion had been experimenting with in his hidden laboratory. While they write off the experiments as useless to their purposes, the force that powers the lab will be useful. Spying on them, Scalecommander Sarkareth and his other leaders within the Sundered Flame feel whatever is in that lab is rightfully theirs. It’s hard to see how it isn’t some sort of birthright, to be honest, but I would argue that it’s not just the Sundered Flame’s, but rather all the Dracthyr’s and Black Dragonflight’s, as well.

Or, given the names we’re going to be fighting, maybe it would have been better if it had stayed hidden, but we’re in the business of not asking those questions and breaking down doors without thinking about the consequences, instead. Something about kicking butts and bubble gum here.

Scalecommander Sarkareth & The Sundered Flame

We haven’t seen much of Sarkareth himself as players, aside from Evokers.

When the dracthyr Evokers were awoken, we also made contact with Sarkareth’s weyrn as they were under attack. One last push against the Primalists allowed him and his followers to leave the Forbidden Reach separately from those that followed along with Wrathion, Ebyssian, and the other dracthyr, vowing that they would never side with dragons again.




The revelations for the Dracthyr as they wake up and leave their creches are pretty tough, so it’s hard not to empathize with Sarkareth in that moment. As a reminder, Neltharion created the Dracthyr, and his tool to control them was destroyed. He chose instead to put them into stasis for something like 20,000 years. All I’m saying is, I get it, Sarkareth. You’ve basically been betrayed by the only parent or leader you’ve ever known, that’s a lot. But why do you have to be a villain? I mean, aside from Taliesin Jaffe’s voice being just perfect for a villain.

As to further answers about the Dracthyr, we've run into the Sundered Flame a number of times as we sought to learn more about their origins and purpose, and gain power to fight the Primalists. While the Sundered Flame can be found in all of the zones on the Dragon Isles, they play a huge part in the Azure Span leveling experience particularly (and Azure Vaults dungeon). There are also a few places you can find our Horde and Alliance allied evokers searching some places of import alongside some of the Sundered Flame dracthyr. We run into Sarkareth during the Dragonscale Expedition renown campaign, where he steals a book of titan research from the players and races us to find the necessary pieces to open a titan research facility.

Now that Neltharion’s lab has been discovered, the Sundered Flame and the Black Dragonflight seek to claim whatever remains of his legacy. Knowing what we already know about Neltharion, that can’t be anything good.

Deathwing, the Cataclysm, and Wrathion

To understand where we’re going in Dragonflight, it’s important to know the history regarding the Black Dragonflight and what happened during the Cataclysm expansion. Anyone who has played this game since at least Cataclysm should be very familiar with some of Deathwing’s experiments. By the time we reached the Cataclysm, we had already seen black dragons on Outland (which led to the Netherwing dragonflight), the Twilight Dragonflight, as well as the Chromatic dragons created by both Deathwing and his son, Nefarian, in the Blackwing Lair raid in Vanilla.

With Deathwing’s return, the Twilight’s Hammer cult also reanimated Nefarian. Two guesses what that means? That’s right, more Chromatic dragon experiments! Oh, and when we got to see Nefarian again, we also got to see an undead Onyxia. Again. Thanks, Nefarian. At least she didn’t go back to her cave.

One thing that had slipped by me when putting this together is exactly where the fight against both siblings took place. One of the first raids in Cataclysm that we visited is the Blackwing Descent. During this raid, we fought both Nefarian and Onyxia in quite an interesting area - Vault of the Shadowflame. One of the properties of Shadowflame is the ability to create undead, which is displayed here when Nefarian resurrected Onyxia. Throughout this raid, we saw Nefarian and his minion’s experimenting on other dragons, including a boss in the raid, Atramedes. We saw this experimentation come to a climax in the Dragon Soul raid, where we fought the strongest twilight dragon Deathwing created, Ultraxion.




During the Cataclysm, we also saw the birth of Wrathion - the only known uncorrupted black dragon left on Azeroth. We basically helped him purge all the remaining known black dragons from Azeroth, along with Deathwing, effectively wiping out his entire flight. A pretty bleak undertaking, but unfortunately necessary. Thankfully in Dragonflight, the lost part of the Black Dragonflight comes to help reclaim The Obsidian Citadel.

Jumping forward to Battle for Azeroth, we returned to the Blackwing Descent with Wrathion to create a cloak from the essence of Onyxia and Nefarian. With this, we were able to resist the corrupting whispers of N’Zoth. Granted, we only went there because we were lured by N’Zoth’s minions, but hey, we won anyway. Another Wrathion cloak in the bag!

Shadowflame

One of Neltharion’s most dangerous creations was the chaotic and destructive Shadowflame – a mixture of elemental fire and void magic. If you look at the cosmology chart from Chronicle Volume 1, it shows a little bit of how the different cosmic forces interact, or at least relate to each other. Shadowflame is actually a combination of fire and void, creating a powerful fuel for Aberrus. So, this being the power that the Primal Incarnates are searching for, I would bet Sarkareth would see value in it, too.




This power has been used over the years by a number of different forces. While Neltharion made Shadowflame on Azeroth, the Burning Legion also knows how to manipulate different magic relatively easily, and so their own warlocks have access to it (player characters use Shadowflame as well!).

A key thing about the magics used, and as they pertain to the cosmology chart specifically, is what sits in between them. Death. Which, of course, means Shadowflame does creepy necromantic things! Meaning the Scourge employed it to their own ends. Nefarian also used it to reanimate Onyxia, which granted her Shadowflame breath just like her brother and father.

There is also an item from Legion that proves how Shadowflame is used beyond Azeroth. The Riftworld Codex is a trinket that drops from Portal Keeper Hasabel in Antorus.

As for what this means going forward, we’re about to have one of our big bads have something we haven’t seen on any large scale yet. While we do fight an elemental formation of Shadowflame, we still aren’t going to know how Iridikron and the others plan to use it for some time, but, considering Neltharion hid Aberrus away and locked it down, it would be hard to say we’re out of any danger.

Looking Forward

For better or for worse (definitely for worse), Shadowflame is part of the legacy Neltharion left behind for his children. We know that the Incarnates, Fyrakk mostly, is going to use the Shadowflame to enhance himself. However, we don’t know the ultimate purpose of the Shadowflame for the Incarnates. Is it an elaborate plan to enhance themselves for the final battle against the Aspects? Is Fyrakk just a distraction to keep us from following Iridikron and Vyranoth to their real goal? Only time will tell.

What we know for sure is that Shadowflame is not the only thing we’ll find in Aberrus. With Sarkareth being the final boss of the raid, we know that he’s found something, and, from the looks of his boss abilities, it’s something dark. With all of his children delving into the depths of Aberrus, we will see which of them will be the true heir of Neltharion and the void he served.

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