Sargeras

"You have failed me, Varimathras!"

- Sargeras

Sargeras is the creator and leader of the Burning Legion and was once a Titan, but was corrupted into becoming the Titans' worst enemy. His actions, or the effects of his actions, essentially make him the primary antagonist of the Warcraft series.

Titan Champion and Fall into Darkness
Sargeras was a giant of bronze who lead the armies of the Titans in the preservation of order in the universe. He was just and true, unable to conceive or understand pure evil, and was called on to defeat, destroy and imprison the demons of the Twisting Nether so they could not disrupt the order that the Titan’s had brought about. Sargeras performed this task for many millennia, but as he saw more and more of the chaos and evil the demons brought about, he became more and more depressed. As Sargeras sank deeper into his confusion and misery, it became even worse when he was forced to battle the vampiric demons known as nathrezim. These dreadlords conquered worlds by possessing their people to turn them to shadow and sowed hatred and mistrust to turn whole nations against each other. Sargeras easily defeated the nathrezim, but their dark nature affected the titan deeply. He remained shaken by the demons, the nathrezim in particular, eventually losing faith in his mission and slipping into a brooding depression, finally losing all faith in the Titans’ vision for an ordered universe Sargeras came to believe that the concept of order itself was foolish. Thinking that the only absolutes within the universe were chaos and depravity and despite his fellow Titans' attempts to make their brother see the error of his new beliefs, Sargeras stormed from their ranks forever to find his own place in the universe. The Pantheon felt sorrow at the departure of their champion, but they had no idea as to how far Sargeras would go.

The Legion is Born
With his valiant spirit now consumed by his madness, Sargeras decided that the Titans themselves were responsible for the flaws of the universe. He concluded that he must undo their work and destroy and ravage everything his former brethren had created. Now in need of an army to do this task, Sargeras roamed the Twisting Nether, freeing the demons he had imprisoned. Now becoming know as the “great, dark god of the Nameless Void”, he bent the demons to his will, creating a demonic army that would become known as the Burning Legion. Though these evil creatures quite willingly bowed before Sargeras, the dark titan couldn’t find any among them that had the cunning and natural power to act as commanders and tacticians for his new army. After arriving on the planet known as Argus, Sargeras found just the creatures he’d been looking for, the Eredar, a race that was highly intelligent and had natural skill in magic. He appeared before the Eredar’s leaders, Archimonde, Kil'jaeden, and Velen and offered them great power in exchange for their loyalty. While Archimonde and Kil’jaeden accepted, Velen fled with a group of his followers to become the Draenei. Sargeras ordered Kil’Jaeden to find the darkest races in the universe and recruit them into the Burning Legion. Archimonde was ordered to lead the dark Titan’s army against anyone who might try to resist his will. Now with his army ready, Sargeras unleashed the Burning Legion upon the universe and to this day, it is unclear how many worlds they have burned and consumed.

Invasion of Azeroth
Sargeras eventually became aware of the fledgling world, Azeroth, due to the reckless use of arcane magic by the Night Elves. The dark Titan came to desire the endless power of the Well of Eternity, sensing its great potential and knowing it could satisfy his hunger for magic. Sargeras brought the Burning Legion to the ethereal outskirts of Azeroth and contacted the Night Elf queen, Azshara. She was overwhelmed by his power and the Enemy of All Life used a form of subtle mental manipulation on her and her councilor, Xavius, while he spoke to them. Azshara and her Highborne came to see Sargeras as a god and she agreed to give him access to this world, if only to taste his knowledge and power. With that the first invasion of Azeroth began. Archimonde and the terrible pit lord, Mannoroth, led the Burning Legion’s forces through Kalimdor, ravaging the land and taking every bit of energy they could get from it. Sargeras waited for Azshara to strengthen the portal and free him from the Twisted Nether, an event that was fast approaching. But the night elves forces, with help from the woodland spirits of Cenarius and Alexstrasza’s dragons, entered a battle with the Burning Legion and the Highborne. The conflict resulted in the destruction of the Well of Eternity and ravaged Kalimdor, banishing the Burning Legion back into the Twisting Nether.

Conflict with Aegwynn
Nine thousand years after the War of the Ancients, Sargeras saw Aegwynn, the last Guardian of Tirisfal who had been destroying demons wherever she could find them, as a serious threat. However the Destroyer saw how she could be manipulated to his advantage and sent his demonic agents on dragonhunts. Aegwynn appeared to aid the great beasts and together they drove back the demons. As she was looking over the scene, she discovered the rift that the Legion’s agents had used and from this portal, an avatar of Sargeras emerged. Aegwynn attacked the avatar, but the dark Titan held back so as to let her destroy his physical form. As the avatar died, the Destroyer reached inside the guardian’s body and lay dormant there for many years. Unaware of this, Aegwynn buried Sargeras’ physical remains inside a tomb that she cast deep below the ocean. Years later, when she was ordered to pick her successor, she refused to pick anyone not of her lineage. She seduced a mage, Nielas Aran, to whom she bore a son, Medivh, whose mind was possessed by Sargeras even before he was born. When he turned 14, Medivh’s guardian powers appeared, throwing him into a 20 year long coma. When he awoke, he was completely in Sargeras’ control, who went to contact Gul’dan, an orcish warlock that lead a group of orcs on Draenor, which had been discovered earlier by Kil'jaeden. Medivh then opened the Dark Portal, allowing the orcs access to Azeroth to wage war on the humans of that world. Many of his relatives and friends had begun taking notice of Medivh’s strange behavior and his mother contacted a general called Lothar, who realized he had to fall. With help from Medivh’s apprentice, Khadgar, and an orc emissary, Garona, Lothar infiltrated the guardian’s tower. Despite his power, Medivh was killed by his former friends and comrades in his sanctuary. This greatly disrupted Sargeras’ plans, who had wanted to enter his avatar and shed Medivh’s body, but had not had time to do so before the guardian’s demise.

Fate of the Dark One
With Medivh’s death, the portion of Sargeras’ spirit was sent spiraling back into the Twisting Nether. To this day, it is unknown what exactly has become of him, but many believe he still endures, stripped of a physical body, hungry for revenge against Azeroth.

Appearance
Sargeras is a colossal and terrible being, clad in a molten suit of burning black armor. Flames surround his head to form hair and a beard, a pair of horns extend from his forehead, and a burning tail extends behind him, leaving a trail of embers in his wake. One of Sargeras’ arms wields an enormous barbed lance and flames pour from his body.

Powers and Abilities
Sargeras does not even try to fight fair, he goes for the throat as quickly as possible and never fights alone, keeping hordes of demons to do his bidding. He is almost impervious to physical damage and extremely resistant to magic, especially flame and fel magic. Sargeras’ uses mainly physical attacks and in battle, he identifies the strongest threat and orders his most powerful forces to attack it, until it is dead or gone from the battle. Sargeras' armor can nearly burn ones eyes and his body flames can scorch everything in his path. Sargeras has demonstrated telepathy, illusion creation, various magical abilities, the ability to look through the eyes of a chosen servant, entrance of mortal bodies, knowledge of the cosmic world, and strength so great, 100 dragons equal but a fraction of it. Sargeras is stated to make Archimonde or Mannoroth look like fleas, but it is unknown if this is in terms of power or size. He also wields the sword, Gorribal.