Sign inAlexstrasza
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Alexstrasza the Life-Binder is the Dragon Aspect of the red dragonflight and queen of all dragons, charged by the Titans with protecting life on Azeroth. During the Second War she was captured by the Dragonmaw orcs and held in chains at Grim Batol, where her children were bred as war mounts for the Horde. She never appears in the original World of Warcraft, but her flight is everywhere in it: Vaelastrasz in Blackwing Lair, the red dragons around Grim Batol, the blessing she refused to give Teldrassil, and her envoys in Ahn'Qiraj.
Biography
The Aspects
Long before history began, the Titans chose five great dragons to watch over the world. Alexstrasza received power over life from the titan Eonar, and was named queen of dragonkind. Her mortal disguise, or visage, is that of a high elf woman with red hair and horns.
During the War of the Ancients, the black Aspect Neltharion, later known as Deathwing, tricked the other Aspects into pouring part of their power into his Dragon Soul and then turned it against them. After the war, Alexstrasza joined Ysera and Nozdormu in planting the World Tree Nordrassil on Mount Hyjal over the new Well of Eternity, and the dragons blessed it so that the night elves would be immortal. She also gave two Prismatic Blades to the elves. One of them, Quel'Serrar, went to a night elf warrior.
Captive at Grim Batol
During the Second War, the Dragonmaw clan found the Dragon Soul where it had been hidden in the Redridge Mountains. Using it, the orc Nekros Skullcrusher captured Alexstrasza and her consorts and dragged them to the dwarven fortress of Grim Batol in the Wetlands. For years she was forced to lay clutch after clutch of eggs. The adults became the Horde's fire-breathing mounts, the whelps were raised to serve, and the Life-Binder could do nothing without endangering her unborn young.
After the war, Deathwing tried to steal her eggs while the orcs moved their captive dragons out of Grim Batol. In the chaos, Alexstrasza broke free, swallowed Nekros whole, and with the help of her consort Korialstrasz and the mage Rhonin, saw the Dragon Soul destroyed. The Aspects regained the power they had lost ten thousand years earlier and drove Deathwing into hiding. Alexstrasza then withdrew from the world to recover.
In World of Warcraft
Alexstrasza herself is absent from Classic, but several pieces of content in patch 1.12 are about her.
The Wetlands and Grim Batol
Grim Batol sits in the eastern Wetlands, still closed to players. The Dragonmaw orcs who once held her are a constant presence in the zone: Dragonmaw orcs such as the Dragonmaw Raider hold the fortress gates and ruins, and red whelps and dragonspawn roam the hills near the mountain. The wrecked Dragonmaw caravan from her escape still sits in the marsh.
The refused blessing
Night elf players learn part of her story in their starting zone. In Crown of the Earth, a druid in Dolanaar explains that when Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm grew Teldrassil after the Third War, he asked the dragons for their blessing. Nozdormu refused and chided him for his arrogance, and Alexstrasza agreed with him. Without her blessing, the new World Tree grew flawed, which the quest line blames for many of the island's troubles.
Vaelastrasz and Blackwing Lair
Her flight's best-known appearance in Classic is Vaelastrasz, a red dragon held prisoner by Nefarian in Blackwing Lair. Vaelastrasz the Corrupt begs raiders to end his torment and buffs them before they fight him. During the Opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj quest line, Vaelastrasz's spirit reveals in [[forever:quest:8730]] that he guarded the red shard of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands for a thousand years and that Nefarian has taken it.
Envoys in Ahn'Qiraj
Each of the four flights sent a representative to the war against the Qiraji. [[forever:npc:15379]], a red dragon, appears in the 1.9 gate-opening scene and waits inside the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj near C'Thun, and [[forever:npc:15503]] of the Brood of Alexstrasza stands at the temple's entrance. In Silithus, [[forever:npc:15693]], a Watcher blessed by Nozdormu, offers a choice of swords in [[forever:quest:8745]]; one of them, the [[forever:item:21523]], is named for her consort.
Later history
Wrath of the Lich King brought Alexstrasza into the game at last, at Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight, where she united the flights against Malygos and fought at the Wrathgate. In Cataclysm she reopened Grim Batol as a dungeon, confronted Deathwing in the Twilight Highlands, and joined the other Aspects to destroy him at the end of the Dragon Soul raid, giving up her titan-given power to do it. Dragonflight returned her flight to the Dragon Isles, where her Aspect power was restored.
Trivia
- As Dragonqueen she was given authority over all dragonkind, not only the red flight.
- Two of her consorts appear in her story: Tyranastrasz, killed by Deathwing during her escape from Grim Batol, and Korialstrasz, who also walks among mortals as the mage Krasus.
- She is a playable hero in Heroes of the Storm.
Sources
Categories: Characters