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A character subpage for the WarCraft universe, including World of Warcraft. For the main character page, see here.
When Sylvanas threw herself from Icecrown Citadel, she met with something known only as The Jailer, a major cosmic entity of death that rules over the dreaded Maw within the Shadowlands. Making a deal with him in order to return to the living world in exchange for Anima of deceased mortals, she began to wage wars that left the mortal kingdoms with many casualties, which led to a massive increase of her and Jailer's power, and loudly gathered more and more of her Forsaken to their shared cause.
After being ousted as Warchief of the Horde during a fateful Mak'gora against Varok Saurfang, Sylvanas had accelerated the implementation of her plans and assaulted the Icecrown Citadel with a single goal: to destroy the Lich King's Helm of Domination in order to shatter the veil between Azeroth and the Shadowlands and then unleash the leaderless Scourge free to reap more mortal souls. However, Sylvanas seems to have her own agenda to uphold, and her alliance with the Jailer seems to be one of convenience at best.
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General Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: While Nathanos and Sira were aware of the Maw, it is unknown if the rest of them know as well.
- It's also unknown how many of them rejoined their former factions or went independent.
- Face–Heel Turn: They serve Sylvanas, who betrayed the Horde.
- Heel–Face Turn: After the Forsaken reclaimed Lordaeron, Dark Ranger Lenora and presumably other loyalists have rejoined the Horde, though some of the night elves and void elves in their ranks chose instead to leave and rejoin the Alliance.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Hold this view to Sylvanas to the point that they joined her in abandoning the Horde.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Coincidentally, all of the undead still loyal to Sylvanas all have the same burning red eyes as she does.
- Undying Loyalty: They are loyal to Sylvanas, and Sylvanas alone, no matter what her current goals might be.
Nathanos Blightcaller
Nathanos Blightcaller
Champion of the Banshee Queen
Class: Dark Ranger
Voiced by: Jim Pirri (English), Vincent Violette (French), Alexander Voronov (Russian)
"Amidst our ranks, there are few with more dedication and vigor."
— Sylvanas
The champion of the Banshee-Queen, Nathanos Marris was the very first and last of the human ranger lords, and a hero of the Alliance. He was personally trained by Sylvanas despite objections by the leaders of Quel'thalas and accomplished many victories for the Alliance. He was killed and raised as undead during the Third War, but was freed by Sylvanas, who made him her personal champion.
In World of Warcraft he first resided in the Marris Stead in the Eastern Plaguelands, being part of an extensive questline for the Horde and the target of an Alliance questline, culminating in his attempted assassination. As of Cataclysm, he appears to have survived and has moved to the Undercity, where he now trains hunters. Canonically he was fought in the World of Warcraft Shadowlands prepatch event and is somewhere unknown in The Maw after being killed by a raid of players in such a prepatch event.
- Absurd Phobia: A Timewalkers' quest in Dragonflight reveals that, at least before he became undead (and possibly after), Nathanos was deeply terrified of ducks. And he isn't too fond of other birds, either.
- Anti-Hero: Nathanos is an Unscrupulous Hero as an undead, and turns full-on villain over the course of Battle for Azeroth.
- Arch-Enemy: Comes to consider the Alliance player as this in Battle for Azeroth, calling them his "most annoying meddler" during the War Campaign.
- Ascended Extra: With Sylvanas ascending to Warchief, he gains a lot more relevance in Legion as her champion and gets a new red-eyed human model on top of that.
- Attack Animal: He fought Alliance players with a lot of plaguehounds back in classic.
- Back from the Dead: After being seemingly killed by Alliance players in classic, he was revealed to have gotten better in Cataclysm.
- Badass Longcoat: His new model in Battle for Azeroth includes an awesome black longcoat over his armor.
- The Beastmaster: With the aforementioned Plague hounds. Despite being a Dark Ranger in lore, he also trains (mainly undead) hunters, giving him a reason for his access to them.
- Blood Knight: One of the few things that can brighten Nathanos' eternally sour mood is a sporting battle. He eagerly goads Genn Greymane into transforming into a worgen and relishes fighting the "beast". In the Shadowlands Prepatch, he outright laughs as he's firing arrows at his opponents. When Tyrande arrives to fight him, he grimly smiles because now he found the fight interesting.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: He switches between using his bow and his two axes in combat.
- Bullying a Dragon: Averted in the Hordeside Legion Stormheim questline. A large raven turns up speaking the player character's name after the initial story. Aside from their unusual size and knowing your name, there is nothing to indicate they are in any way special...but they seem to make Nathanos, who has been very belligerent, rude, and contemptuous of anyone not Sylvanas in the Legion story to that point, willing to kill anyone who so much as inconveniences him, very uncomfortable, and he asks the player character to deal with them. The raven is a messenger of Havi...who is secretly Odyn, the Titans' Prime Designate. It's interesting to imagine what Nathanos's fate might have been had he harmed one of Odyn's messengers. Amusingly, Dragonflight reveals that Nathanos had a phobia of ducks back when he was a living human, and a great dislike for other birds, which might have been an additional reason for his discomfiture.
- The Champion: His personal title is "Champion of the Banshee Queen".
- Deadpan Snarker: Is somewhat of one during the mission to get Talanji out of Stormwind and back to Zandalar, responding to Rokhan’s “Don’t be acting like you not happy to see us.” with “Delighted”
- Demoted to Extra: While ultimately not a super-important player, being demoted from a quest-giver and target of two extensive questlines in Vanilla to a simple class trainer is pretty damn degrading. This is finally reversed in Legion, where he steps back into action and gets a new model out of it. His role grew even bigger in Battle for Azeroth.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Implied. In Legion, Nathanos is dismissive towards the Forsaken troops and the closest he gets to complimenting the player character is calling them "competent". He also talks to Sylvanas about whipping the troops into shape and in the short story Dark Mirror glances at a group of soldiers training and immediately dismisses them as "pathetic".
- Dual Wielding: His melee weapons are a big pair of axes. He switches to a smaller pair of axes with Legion.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Not towards Blightcaller, but from him towards the player. He scoffs when the player is declared 'Speaker of the Horde' by King Rastakhan, and in the Seething Shore battleground he complains loudly that there are no Dark Rangers in the battlegroup (made up entirely of player characters) and says "you'll have to do!" in a very annoyed tone. This despite the many, many foes the player may have brought down, whose numbers could include the Lich King, Kil'jaeden and more than one Old God.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A very twisted example, but when he sees his cousin Stephon Marris again, part of him his proud that Stephon fulfilled his goal of becoming a paladin...and although he mocks him, once Stephon is dead and sacrificed to restore his own flesh, he has a hint of regret. In Shadows Rising when Stephon's spirit confronts him, he defends his actions by saying his rapidly decaying body left him with no choice. Despite dismissing the encounter when he realizes it was a trick of Bwonsamdi's, Nathanos is clearly shaken.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- In the Sylvanas Warbringers cinematic, he's shown visibly hesitating when Sylvanas gives the order to burn Teldrassil. Later on, at the Battle for Lordaeron, he's visibly saddened at the prospect that they need to abandon Undercity and Lordaeron, where he was born, grew up, lived, and died. He also seems uncomfortable with Sylvanas at several points during the war campaign.
- In Shadows Rising when he is about to kill Bwonsamdi's priests in order to lure the loa out of hiding, he is willing to hurt the child among then but also resolves to harm her last and only if it proves absolutely necessary.
- Evil Brit: Either he picked it from Sylvanas, or he had Gilnean or Kul Tiran ancestry.
- Fallen Hero: From the perspective of the Alliance. He was one of the Ranger Lords that brought many victories to the Alliance in life, now he stalks the Plaguelands and has killed Alliance members in Sylvanas' name.
- Fantastic Racism: He despises Worgens, considering them more as beasts than as cursed humans.
- Flanderization: In Vanilla, while Nathanos was a jerk to Horde players, doing quests for him would see him slowly starting to respect them more and more, and returning his final quest to him would see him outright give a respectful salute for doing it. However, his being a dick was the character trait mostly remembered from him, so for his return to prominence in Legion and Battle For Azeroth, that was what was kept, leaving his growing respect for the player entirely gone.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: In the Sylvanas novel, he's shown to have been this to the High Elven Farstriders. He's described by Lor'themar (whose life he saved when they first met) as a braggart and a bully, only tolerated because he was favored by Sylvanas, the Ranger-General. When she announces her intent to induct him as a full member, they're aghast.
- Forest Ranger: Trained by the elves to be one, which is a rarity. He's the only undead human to be Dark Ranger in death. All others are undead Elves.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: He ends up playing good cop to Sira as he prefers Pragmatic Villainy to her desire to leave a trail of corpses wherever she goes.
- In the Hood: He's always wearing a brown hood. After the ritual, he trades it for a black one.
- I Shall Taunt You: Nathanos launches several verbal jabs in the game whenever he's fighting an opponent alongside the player character.
- Jerkass: Except towards Sylvanas, he is at best cold and aloof towards everyone and at worst vicious and dismissive (for a major example, see below). Furthermore, unless he's talking to or about Sylvanas, everything he says is either an insult or condescending and abrasive.
- Kick the Dog: While he did accept Sylvanas sacrificing his own cousin in a ritual to give him strength (which is a Kick the Dog moment in and of itself to some), taunting his cousin about about their noble calling and still caring for Nathanos was cruel and petty. After his cousin is gone though, he does feel a hint of regret.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: In the Shadowlands prepatch event, in his last moments, Nathanos mocks Tyrande for being powerless to save her people or stop what is coming. Before he can finish, Tyrande cuts out his throat.
- Killed Off for Real: Nathanos is killed during the pre-patch event of Shadowlands. However as Sylvanas is working with the Jailer, he could easily be spared the Maw and thus enabling his return as a spirit. However Sylvanas was unaware that he died meaning that his soul is suffering eternal torment.
- Lady and Knight: The Black Knight to Sylvanas's Dark Lady.
- Mage Marksman: He is a dark ranger and capable of mixing his skill with a bow with shadow magic.
- Moral Myopia: He's furious at Tyrande for killing one of Sylvanas' last valkyre despite having just invaded Darkshore to kill one of the top Wardens (who are all Night Elves) and raise both her, Delyrn, and several other Night Elves as Forsaken to use against their former comrades.
- Necromancer: In undeath, fitting as he's a Dark Ranger, which replaces the nature magic of Rangers with it.
- Not Afraid to Die: When Tyrande split open his stomach and held her blade to his neck, Nathanos merely dared her to kill him, as dying would simply send him to the Maw and thus to his Dark Lady. However Sylvanas was unaware that he died meaning that his soul is suffering eternal torment.
- Number Two: Has become Sylvanas's new right hand.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He's loyal to his Banshee Queen, but he can exercise reason when it benefits them long term. When Anduin proposed a meeting between human and Forsaken to restore family ties, Sylvanas was going to reject the offer outright. Nathanos was the one to examine the offer and convince his Dark Lady that, succeed or fail, permitting this meeting would only improve her standing with the Forsaken.
- Progressively Prettier: Nathanos initially looked as decayed as any other Forsaken, with rotting flesh and exposed bones. In the Legion expansion, he gets a human model with pallid skin and red eyes. In Battle for Azeroth he receives his own unique human model with a black longcoat that makes him look like a vampire. The player character can ask him about it, but Nathanos' response can be summed up as "I won't tell you and stop asking questions!" This is later explained in the short story "Dark Mirror" released during Legion: Sylvanas has her Val'kyr take Nathanos' still living (at the time) cousin Stephon (with a Strong Family Resemblance) and uses him as spell food to restore much of Nathanos' body and also make him stronger.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: With his Legion undead human model, his eyes have become red like other dark rangers, and as Sylvanas' devoted champion, he's either a villainous or anti-heroic figure.
- The Resenter: He seems to speak with a particular disdain for the Horde adventurer, such as giving them annoyed looks when Sylvanas seems to favor them, spitefully referring to them as "Speaker" during missions or commenting on how the Zandalari don't like him. It's implied that he dislikes being relatively less important and popular.
- Sarcasm Mode: When confronted in the Shadowlands prepatch, Nathanos is dripping with sarcasm over the amassed forces out for his head.Nathanos: Well, well, well. If it isn't Azeroth's mightiest "champions". Congratulations! You've managed to track me down to the most unlikely of places... My very own home. Seeking "retribution" for all the bad, bad things I've done, I suppose?
- Ship Tease:
- He and Sylvanas appear to have been unusually close in life, especially considering how much she vouched for him to attain the position of Ranger Lord despite being a human. This seems to have continued even in death. Pointed out in-universe in the short story Dark Mirror. One of Sylvanas' Dark Rangers, Anya, points out all the hints to him after the ritual wondering how a man of such cunning could be so blind to it: She defied an entire nation to have him work for her, she took unneeded time out of her plans to find and then free him from the Scourge back in the plague lands, and now used up energy from her most valuable resource to restore his body. Nathanos just glares at her till she shuts up, mentally denying any of it is true, and even it was, he no longer was cared due to his death.
- In the finale of the war campaign, if you were a loyalist, you get to see Sylvanas sending Nathanos on what's implied to be the last time he may ever see her, as he departs, Sylvanas says "Safe journey, Nathanos" with an uncharacteristically soft tune, to which he responds: "Safe journey, my love". Whether this confirms their relationship or if Nathanos was admitting his feelings for the first time, he definitely loves her, though there are implications that she is simply manipulating him.
- The Sylvanas novel goes more into detail about his and Sylvanas' relationship, confirming that they were lovers before they were killed and raised as undead.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He became noticeably smug and snarky in addition to his model revamp in Legion, and even more so in Battle for Azeroth.
- The Undead: Well he IS A forsaken.
- Undying Loyalty: To Sylvanas.
Sira Moonwarden
A high ranking and famous hero of the Wardens. When Maiev Shadowsong left her post in the aftermath of the Third War in order to pursue Illidan, Sira took up the mantle as unofficial leader of the Wardens in her stead. When the Legion launched their Third Invasion, Sira rallied the surviving Wardens against the forces of the corrupted Cordana Felsong, working alongside the Class Orders to combat the Legion's forces throughout the Broken Isles.
- Fallen Hero: In Battle for Azeroth, she is killed and raised as a Forsaken during the Battle of Darkshore.
- Mission Control: Serves as the main contact and coordinator of Legion's World Bosses. After her transformation into a Forsaken, she serves as the Horde commander of the Darkshore Warfront in Battle for Azeroth.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: She makes it clear in Shadows Rising that she's following Sylvanas not out of loyalty to her, but because it allows her to kill, which is the only thing that gives her any kind of feeling anymore.
- The Remnant: With the amount of their numbers lost first to Maiev's vendetta and then to Cordana's betrayal, the Wardens are definitely not what they used to be, and she knows it.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Maiev's red. Whereas Maiev is utterly obsessed with justice and punishing those she perceives as guilty and has been utterly consumed by her hatred of Illidan and the arcane, Sira is, by contrast, considerably more level headed and diplomatic.
- The Resenter: Battle for Azeroth reveals that she was deeply embittered by Maiev essentially abandoning her post and her comrades for the sake of her single minded obsession with Illidan. She manages to hide her resentment throughout Legion, but her transformation into a Forsaken in Battle for Azeroth brings these feelings straight to the forefront.
- Sense Loss Sadness: Shadows Rising reveals that she's completely numb to almost all emotion and feeling. Literally the only thing that grants her any feeling or fulfillment anymore is the act of killing.
- Walking Spoiler: Its very hard to talk about her without mentioning the massive changes she underwent post-Legion.
