Princess Theradras

Princess Theradras is the final boss of Maraudon: a colossal earth elemental, daughter of Therazane the Stonemother, and mother of the centaur race. Her grief and corruption drained the life from the land above her lair and turned it into Desolace. For groups of level 45 to 52 she is one of the richest kills of the era, with a deep table of blue items, a rare epic dagger and a kill quest with three rewards to choose from.

Background

When the titans' servants locked most of Azeroth's elementals away in the Elemental Plane, Theradras escaped and slept deep underground. Ages later she woke and drew the life out of the green grasslands around her to restore her strength. The land became a desert, which the horrified tauren named Desolace.

Zaetar, a son of the demigod Cenarius, came to see what had happened. Instead of imprisoning her, he fell in love with her, and their union produced the first five centaur khans. The centaur saw that their father was disgusted by them and killed him. Theradras kept Zaetar's body, and his spirit, in her lair, which the centaur came to treat as their holiest ground. With the Old Gods whispering to her, she turned it into a pit of corruption, and the satyr Lord Vyletongue moved in to serve her.

She waits on an island in Zaetar's Grave, a bright, overgrown cavern at the bottom of Maraudon. The water around the island belongs to the crocolisk Rotgrip.

Abilities

• Boulder: hurls a boulder at a player at range. Since patch 1.3 it also knocks them down.
• Dust Field: shakes the ground around her, damaging players in waves and knocking them back.
• Repulsive Gaze: paralyzes her target with terror for 6 seconds and sends everyone else nearby running in fear.
• Thrash: two extra attacks at once.

Strategy

Theradras hits hard and keeps throwing the tank around, so the fight tests the tank and healer more than anyone else.

• Tank her with your back to the cave wall or the edge of the water so knockbacks bounce the tank back into place rather than across the room.
• Two tanks make the fight easier: when one is thrown or feared, the second takes over. A priest's Fear Ward on the tank helps.
• Keep casters and healers at long range. Dust Field interrupts anyone close to her, and Boulder only reaches people far away, which is easier to heal than being in melee.
• Bring a healer with mana to spare. The fight is a long tank-and-spank, and she has more health than anything else in the dungeon.

Loot

She drops one of seven blue items, each about one time in seven in our data, plus Theradric Crystal Carvings for Twisted Evils.

The epic dagger [Blade of Eternal Darkness] has a chance, when its wielder lands a damaging spell, to deal Shadow damage and restore mana. According to Warcraft Wiki, she was the first final boss of a dungeon with a chance to drop an epic item of her own rather than a world drop.

Quests

• Corruption of Earth and Seed (Horde, from Selendra) and Corruption of Earth and Seed (Alliance, from Keeper Marandis): kill Theradras so the druids can recover Zaetar's remains. The reward is a choice of [Thrash Blade], [Resurgence Rod] or [Verdant Keeper's Aim].
• Seed of Life: when Theradras dies, Zaetar's Spirit appears and gives you the first seed that sprouted from his remains, to bring to his brother Keeper Remulos in Moonglade.

Trivia

• Her model uses the same skeleton as the abomination, the stitched-together undead of the Scourge (Warcraft Wiki).
• Night elf plays about Theradras and Zaetar show her as a slender woman rather than a hulking elemental, according to World of Warcraft: The Magazine.

Later history

Patch 1.3 made her Boulder knock players down and her use of Dust Field smarter. In Cataclysm she returned as Crown Princess Theradras, one of the lieutenants helping the Twilight's Hammer during the Elemental Unrest, and her level dropped to 39. Her mother, Therazane, never forgave the mortals who killed her only daughter.

Sources

• Theradras - Warcraft Wiki
• Princess Theradras (tactics) - Warcraft Wiki