History

Deathwing

Deathwing, once called Neltharion the Earth-Warder, is the corrupted Aspect of the black dragonflight and one of the great villains of the Warcraft setting. He never appears in Classic World of Warcraft, but his shadow lies over much of it: his children Onyxia and Nefarian are two of the era's biggest raid bosses, his flight holds Blackrock Mountain and the Wyrmbog, and his old plots still ripple through quest text. In the Cataclysm expansion (2010) he returned and broke the old world apart.

Deathwing's in-game model in the Dragon Soul raid © Blizzard Entertainment

Race	Black dragon
Title	The Destroyer, formerly the Earth-Warder
Affiliation	Black dragonflight, Old Gods
Children	Onyxia, Nefarian
Alias	Lord Daval Prestor

Biography

The Earth-Warder

When the Titans ordered Azeroth, they chose five great dragons to watch over the world. Neltharion was given dominion over the earth and the deep places of the world, and his black dragonflight became its keepers. Living so close to the buried Old Gods, he began to hear their whispers, and over time they drove him mad.

Deathwing, as drawn by Chris Metzen © Blizzard Entertainment

The War of the Ancients

During the War of the Ancients, Neltharion persuaded the other Aspects to pour part of their power into a disc he had made, the Dragon Soul, as a weapon against the Burning Legion. Once it was charged, he turned it on the other dragonflights and nearly wiped out the blue dragons. The power he took in tore at his body, and he had adamantium plates bolted to his hide to hold himself together. From then on he was known as Deathwing.

Day of the Dragon

After the Second War, Deathwing took human form as Lord Daval Prestor, a nobleman who tried to work his way to the throne of Alterac. At the same time, the orcs of the Dragonmaw clan were using the Dragon Soul to enslave Alexstrasza and the red dragons at Grim Batol. Deathwing tried to reclaim the artifact, but it was destroyed, and he vanished. His children carried on in his absence. The name "Prestor" lives on in Classic through his daughter's disguise, Lady Katrana Prestor.

In World of Warcraft

Deathwing has no NPC in Classic, but he is mentioned often:

The ogres of Stonemaul in Dustwallow Marsh call Onyxia "the daughter of the black dragonlord, Deathwing" in The Brood of Onyxia.
In the Badlands, the orc Gorn wants to silence two of Deathwing's lieutenants, imprisoned in Lethlor Ravine since the Second War, when the Horde was allied with him (Broken Alliances).
Blue dragons in Winterspring warn about "the cursed brood of Deathwing" in Wrath of the Blue Flight.
The black dragonflight occupies Blackrock Spire, the Burning Steppes and the Wyrmbog. The quest chains that grant access to Onyxia's Lair and Blackwing Lair are about rooting out his children.

The Blackwing Lair necklace [Neltharion's Tear] takes its name from his original name.

Later history

Deathwing on the Cataclysm box art © Blizzard Entertainment

In Cataclysm, released December 7, 2010, Deathwing burst out of the elemental realm of Deepholm. His emergence tore the continents apart and reshaped the zones of the original game: many of the areas preserved in Classic were rebuilt, and some, such as Thousand Needles, were flooded. He appeared over zones across the world, burning everything beneath him.

In patch 4.3 (2011), the Dragon Soul raid ended his story. The Aspects, with Thrall wielding the restored Dragon Soul, defeated him over the Maelstrom.

Because Cataclysm changed the old world so much, the pre-Cataclysm map is one of the main reasons players returned for World of Warcraft Classic in 2019.

Trivia

Deathwing first appeared in Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (1996), where he aided the orcs.
His betrayal at the Well of Eternity is told in Richard A. Knaak's War of the Ancients novels, and his Prestor scheme in Knaak's Day of the Dragon (2001).