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Know Your Lore: Bad Dragons

Elizabeth Wachowski
Updated ·6 min read

Once upon a time, cavemen roamed the earth, great volcanic eruptions disrupted the cavemen's gaming time, and I wrote an article called "Know Your Lore: Good Dragons." Now it's time to cover the "bad dragons" - the Blue, Black, Chromatic and Infinite Dragonflights. And yes, I know you're all going to complain about the blue dragonflight being "bad", but unless you really want to run every dungeon at level 80 without a mage, you're gonna have to fight them.

Blue Dragonflight

  • Leader: Malygos.

  • Characteristics: The blue dragons may be the most intelligent of all the dragonflights. They're the masters of magic, the weavers of the arcane, and the guardians of icy areas. Of course they're going to be villains at some point! "Arcane magic corrupts" is one of the primary lessons of WoW, along with "elves are jerks" and "never get involved in a land war in Kalimdor."

Blue Dragonflight, cont'd

  • Job: The word on the street is that Malygos may have been the creator of arcane magic on Azeroth, but that's just a rumor. What we do know is that Malygos and the blue dragons consider it their duty to guard the use of magic in Azeroth and make sure it's only being used for good. They're probably not super-pleased with the blood elves, warlocks, undead, etc. flinging their precious magic around like so much monkey poo.

  • History: The blues have an ... intriguing history. When Neltharion created the Demon Soul and attacked his fellow aspects, Malygos and the blue dragons were hit the hardest. Almost all the dragonflight was wiped out by the attack, and Malygos lost his mind. Most of the blue dragons retreated to Northrend, where Malygos makes his home in the Nexus. The blues regained some measure of power after Deathwing was defeated at Grim Batol, but Malygos was still a rare prescence in this world.

  • And now ... After the races of Azeroth visited Outland, a disguised blue dragon took some members of the Nether Dragonflight back to Northrend. Their energies helped restore Malygos to his full sanity and power. What happened next was sort of like what would occur if Ted Williams' head was unfrozen and he saw Barry Bonds. Malygos discovered that instead of being a closely guarded art among the most intelligent of spellcasters, arcane magic was being used by pretty much anyone -- zombies, magic crackheads, midgets, overly muscular humans in dresses, etc. So Malygos has decided it's time to kill all mortal spellcasters, especially the Kirin Tor in Dalaran. We get to fight him at level 80.

  • Famous members: Azuregos, Sapphiron, Arcanagos (Nightbane in Kara.)

  • Locations: Northrend, Winterspring, Azshara.

Black Dragonflight

  • Leader: Neltharion/Deathwing.

  • Characteristics: Originally the warders of the earth, the Black Dragonflight has fallen under their master's evil and now want to conquer/destroy all life on Azeroth. Also they have a "thing" for the red dragons.

  • Job: Hey, baby, wanna kill all humans?

  • History: Long story short, Neltharion was originally the protector of the Earth, but the Old Gods corrupted him into wanting power and dominance. He convinced the other dragon aspects to put their power in an artifact and then turned that artifact against them. He then tried to hide in Draenor, and when that failed, disguised himself as a human to try to get to some of Alexstrasza's eggs. While trying to get to the eggs, he was attacked by the four other dragon aspects and driven away. He left behind two children, Onyxia and Nefarian, both of whom also enjoyed cross-dressing as human nobility.

  • And now ... Almost all black dragons are under the control of Neltharion's kids, although there are a few independent -- or possibly working for Big Daddy - black dragons scattered in Outland. No one knows where Neltharion himself has gotten off to, although he's definitely alive and possibly in Outland. Nefarian has set himself up as Lord of Blackrock Mountain and is experimenting to create a new race of dragon, although you probably stopped him. Good for you! His sister, Onyxia, is more the drama queen sort, and splits time between her lair in Dustwallow Marsh and "assisting" the King of Stormwind.

  • Famous members: Nefarian, Onyxia, General Drakkisath, Razorgore, Ebonroc, Firemaw, Flamegor

  • Locations: Dustwallow Marsh, Blackrock Mountain, Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, Blade's Edge Mountains.

Chromatic Dragonflight

  • Leader: Lord Victor Nefarius/Nefarian.

  • Characteristics: The Chromatic Dragonflight, as you might guess, is multicolored and shiny. They've been bred by Nefarian to be the new Black Dragonflight, but like all mad scientists except me, Nef bit off more than he could chew. Many of the dragons came out with strong elemental weaknesses.

  • Job: In theory, they're supposed to guard Nef's lair, as well as prop up the shadow government of Rend Blackhand and the Dark Horde. In reality, they got their butt kicked up and down Blackrock Mountain for about two years until all the adventurers suddenly disappeared.

  • History: The Chromatic Dragonflight was actually an original creation of Deathwing, who seems to be impotent at producing his own eggs for some reason. Deathwing wanted to create a dragonflight with all of the magical powers of the five flights but no weaknesses.That experiment failed for reasons unknown, and Nefarian tried his hand at it ten thousand years later. His drakes and dragons turned out okay, but a lot of his drakonids (the big Broodlord-like dudes) had vicious weaknesses to a certain school of magic.

  • And now ... Disappointed in his son, Nefarian has sent a message to the orcs that are breeding nether dragons in Outland: the Chromatic Dragonflight lives on. As the black dragon Lady Sinestra puts it, "While he has fallen, the experiment continues. My master... He continues the work that his progeny began."

  • Famous members: Chromaggus, Gyth.

  • Locations: Blackrock Spire, Blackwing Lair.

Infinite Dragonflight

  • Leader: Unknown, but they serve one master. Speculation on WoWWiki includes Kil'jaeden, Deathwing (who must be busy with all this plotting), the Old Gods, and some sort of creepy alternaverse Medivh.

  • Characteristics: This mysterious dragonflight has been working to disrupt history in the Caverns of Time.

  • Job: It's hard to say why they're trying to mess things up, since we don't know who sent them, but their activities appear to be trying to prevent the current Horde of Azeroth from ever coming to be.

  • History: They just kinda showed up in the timestream one day.

  • And now ... They seek to stop Thrall from escaping Durnholde and Medivh from bringing the orcs over from Draenor. They claim a lot of suffering and death wouldn't have happened had Medivh died before opening the portal, which is a point to consider.

  • Famous members: Epoch Hunter, Chrono Lord Deja, Aeonus.

  • Locations: Caverns of Time.

Thanks to WoWWiki, Worldofwarcraft.com, and the forums, as always.