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Know Your Lore: Good dragons

Elizabeth Wachowski
Updated ·8 min read

Before we get into this week's KYL, we have a little bit of business to take care of. Some of you may have noticed that this feature has been rather inconsistently published in the past month. This is due to my beginning a new job and classes at the same time. So to keep up our publishing schedule, and to bring a fresh face to the column, Matthew Rossi will be taking over KYL every other week, beginning next week. Please do not throw eggs at him.

And, now, on with the show! It's pretty much a given that in any fantasy game, you're going to have to kill a dragon or two, and WoW is no exception. There are tons of dragons hanging around, so much so that it becomes a problem to tell exactly what they're doing. Because of this, a concerned (and confused) reader wrote in a few weeks ago asking us to do a piece on the different dragonflights that were sent by the Titans to guard the world of Azeroth. As you wish, reader. As you wish. However, there are a LOT of dragons, so today we'll cover the "good" dragonflights: Red, Bronze, Green, and Nether. Next time we'll get the "Bad Dragons": Black, Blue, Chromatic, and Infinite.

Red Dragonflight

  • Aspect: Alexstrasza the Life-Binder

  • Characteristics: Red dragons breathe fire, and use it as their primary attack. They are the friendliest of dragons and most likely to ally with mortals. They are particularly close to humans, elves and dwarves. However, the red dragons at Grim Batol will attack anyone on sight, leading to speculation that they're guarding something huge or are just jerks.

  • Job: Red dragons control mortal life, which is way less cool than it sounds, probably because they don't blow people up. Mostly they disguise themselves as mortals and make sure that everything is running smoothly down on Azeroth. The disguises would probably work better if they didn't insist on always ending their name with -strasz or -strasza.

  • History: Alexstrasza was created to have compassion for all living things, and was thus given power over the rest of the dragonflights. However, she gave up some of her power to create the Dragon Soul with Neltharion (now Deathwing), who is no longer subject to her. Alexstrasza created the first world tree for the night elves, Nordrassil, and the red dragonflight helped fight the Silithids in the War of the Shifting Sands. During the Second War, the Horde captured Alexstrasza and forced her and her mate to create red dragons for their armies. Eventually, Alexstrasza was rescued in a very confusing battle involving the Dragonmaw clan, a ragtag band of adventurers, and all the dragon aspects. Basically, the four uncorrupted aspects fought against Deathwing, destroyed the Dragon Soul/Demon Soul, and reclaimed their powers.

  • And now ... Grim Batol, with its red dragons, will be a future zone in WoW. The red dragonflight has promised to aid the humans against the angry blue dragons in Wrath of the Lich King, so it's likely we'll be meeting them on Northrend. The reds and the greens are also involved with investigating Sunwell Plateau.

  • Famous Members: Vaelastrasz is probably the most well-known dragon and/or guild destroyer in-game. Other red dragons are Korialstrasz, Alexstrasza's top consort, and Caelestrasz, one of the dragons trapped in AQ40. Trapped in AQ40 forever -- a fate worse than death.

  • Locations: Grim Batol, Sunwell Plateau, Mount Hyjal, Blackrock Spire, Blackwing Lair.

Bronze Dragonflight

  • Aspect: Nozdormu the Timeless

  • Characteristics: Bronze dragons are slow and may seem uncaring and aloof to mortals, but that's because they work in a time span beyond what we can see. They usually live and work alone, occasionally banding with other dragons if needed. Gaining their trust requires a lot of work, as is shown by their three (?!) rep grinds in-game.

  • Job: Bronze dragons monitor the flow of time and make sure the past remains as it was. They do their work from the Caverns of Time below Tanaris, and have recently taken to using humans as agents. Like the red dragons, they also disguise themselves in mortal form, but are a bit more creative with their names -- and tend to appear as blood elves. On an unrelated note, bronze dragons also spend a lot of time trying on Black Mageweave Leggings in the dressing room.

  • History: The Bronze Dragonflight were the main immortal actors behind the War of the Shifting Sands. They assisted the night elves in driving the Qiraji back after the Qiraji attacked the Caverns of Time. Nozdormu also helped save Alexstrasza and restore the power of the dragons in the Battle of Grim Batol.

  • And now ... Nozdormu and his followers are content to guard history from the Infinite Dragonflight in the Caverns of Time. Anachronos, the leader of a group of dragons called the Brood of Nozdormu, is leading the charge against the resurgence of the Silithids and Qiraji in Silithus.

  • Famous Members: Anachronos, the "It is not my time!" dragon, is a Bronze, as is the little gnome "Chromie" in Western Plaguelands. Soridormi, Nozdormu's top mate, runs the Scale of the Sands faction, and also has a totally awesome spectral dragonwhelp form.

  • Locations: Caverns of Time, Silithus, Mount Hyjal, Western Plaguelands.

Green Dragonflight

  • Aspect: Ysera the Dreamer

  • Characteristics: Think of the Green Dragonflight as being like Phoebe from Friends -- spacy, ethereal, not entirely with it, a bit of a hippie, but still good at heart. Green dragons have poison and sleep powers and use teleportation to get where they're going. They mostly don't interact with mortal races, although Ysera has a bit of a crush on the night elves and their druidic powers.

  • Job: The green dragons guard the mysterious, druidic realm of the Emerald Dream. Because they spend most of their time in the Dream, they can be slow to figure out what's going on in Azeroth.

  • History: The green dragons have pretty much the same history as the rest of the color-based dragonflights -- bla bla Titans, bla bla Demon Soul, bla bla Battle of Grim Batol. However, Ysera has done a couple of neat things on Azeroth. She bound the World Tree (originally planted by Alexstrasza) to the Emerald Dream, enabling the night elf druids to wander the dream. She also convinced the Bronze and Blue Dragonflights to help rescue Alexstrasza.

  • And now ... Despite their meager history, green dragons are pretty common and very important to Azeroth. Many green dragons have been affected by the Nightmare in the Emerald Dream, and have lost their minds and attacked mortals. The dragons in the Temple of Atal'Hakkar, along with the world dragons at the portals to the Emerald Dream, have been corrupted and are formidable opponents, as you know if you ever tried to organize an Emeriss raid. ("No! Get away from the mushrooms! GET AWAY FROM THE MUSHROOMS! WHY ARE THE ALLIANCE HERE?") The Green Dragonflight is also investigating Sunwell Plateau with the Red Dragonflight, while continuing to fight the Nightmare in the Dream.

  • Famous Members: The most famous green dragons are the four "world dragons": Emeriss, Lethon, Taerar and Ysondre. Eranikus, "the Tyrant of the Dream", is also a corrupted green dragon.

  • Locations: The Emerald Dream, Swamp of Sorrows, Feralas, The Hinterlands, Duskwood, Ashenvale.

Nether Dragonflight

  • Leader: Neltharaku

  • Characteristics: Nether dragons are a race of dragons created to be evil. However, some of them have learned to befriend humans and are attempting to create a new identity for themselves. As such, nether dragons range from hostile to neutral to friendly, depending on how far you've progressed in gaining reputation with them. Their main physical characteristic is their transparency.

  • Job: Nether dragons are unemployed, which is why you find them wandering aimlessly throughout Outland. They're looking for soda cans to turn in for the deposit.

  • History: Nether dragons were created when the black dragon aspect Deathwing snuck into Draenor after the Second War. Like a mother cat looking for a safe place for her kittens, he laid some eggs (???), or snuck in some eggs he had hidden, or spit out eggs he had swallowed like that boss from Super Mario 2 that looks sort of like a prostitute. He then left to head back to Azeroth. When Draenor was torn apart by Ner'zhul's portals, the black dragon eggs were twisted by the energies and became semi-ethereal. This is how the nether dragons were born. Since Deathwing was unable to raise them, they've had to figure out who they are on their own.

  • And now ... The nether dragons are most famous for letting you ride them if you've been very, very good. That sounds bad but is accurate. You have to do a number of quests, including freeing Neltharaku's mate from Zuluhed, disguising yourself as a fel orc, and meeting with Illidan himself (in a non-killing-you form.) Then you get to pick your netherdrake from a selection of colors. I am actually sort of creeped out by the idea of keeping an intelligent, talking being in my backpack, but apparently some people really like them.

  • Famous members: They're too young to have many famous members, but the most well-known are Karynaku (Neltharaku's mate), Mordenaku (their son), and Netherspite (a nether dragon that somehow decided to cross the Dark Portal and hang out in Karazhan.)

  • Locations: Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm, Blade's Edge Mountains, Shattrath City.

Most of the information in this article was gleaned from the various contributers to WoWWiki and the official WoW forums. Thanks, community!