Origin of the Burning Legion

As always, the information I present to you is gleamed from the following:

Over eight years of playing the game, being very attentive to lore and detail every minute of the way.

reading from several of the Warcraft Novels. 

Last and certainly a rare one that I will avoid using if at all possible; the numerous different somethingpedia sites that all seem to give slightly different explanations or reasons for things. Not saying they're bad sources, just a little shaky at times.

Lorebound is proud to present you with the Origin of the Burning Legion, the faction that will serve as the primary antagonist for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion; Legion.

So in order for you to understand the origin story of the Burning Legion, there is a few things you need to have a basic understanding of first. They are;The Void Lords, The titans, the twisting nether & the demons from there, and Sargeras.

The Void Lords:

There is little information on these entities, but it is known that they inhabit a place called the void, which is outside of the boundaries of the physical universe. We do know that the void lords have been watching the Titan pantheon since the moment reality came to be. They have but one purpose, and that is to consume everything there is, and they will stop at nothing until that goal is achieved. Luckily for us in the physical reality, only the most powerful of them may even have a chance to manifest themselves here, and when doing so a massive amount of matter and energy is needed to maintain its own existence. One more thing we know is that the infamous old gods that have caused endless amounts of trouble for Azeroth throughout most of its existence, were created and sent by the void lords to help in preparing the universe for the eventual end that they will never stop trying to achieve.
For more information on Void Lords: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Void_lord

The Titan pantheon:

 The pantheon is a group of titans, who are gigantic in size and almost limitless in power. They, to put it simply, help in the creation of worlds by altering their course of evolution during a planets primordial stages. The worlds the Titans create represent order in the universe and are a constant target of the Demons, which are explained next.

For more information regarding the Titans: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Titan

The demons of the Twisting Nether:

The demons who inhabit the twisting nether are dangerously powerful and malevolent entities who seek only to destroy everything that the titans have worked to achieve, I.e. completely eliminating any and all life from existence, and remaking all of creation into a desolate mass of constantly changing and destructive energies.

   The twisting nether is a plane in the Warcraft universe existing with, but not in the same way as the physical. Its pretty hard to understand (even harder to explain) and basically the only thing you really need to know is that it is a place filled with magic and it is also the place where a demons physical form is no matter what. This is why you cannot actually kill a demon in the physical plane, but must first kill his physical body and then find him in the Nether to finish the job correctly.

For more information regarding the twisting nether :  http://wow.gamepedia.com/Twisting_Nether 
And the demons who call the place home: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Demon

And finally there's Sargeras, warrior, and chief protector of the Titans' creations throughout the cosmos. 

   Before corruption        

Sargeras was at one time the one among the titans who was charged with protecting the planets the titans created, which brought him in very close proximity to corrupting energies which the demons used frequently to corrupt the denizens of planets they wanted to conquer. The demons manipulated mortals into unthinking hatred and mistrust, causing whole nations to war with one another to the point of near devastation, making a planet weaker and less likely to defend against an attack by the very demons that corrupted it from the shadows.       

           

After Corruption

Depravity and darkness were everywhere, and Sargeras was beginning to think that it was a vain goal to fight these things. Sargeras was even starting to believe that the only way the universe could hope be safe was to remain as it was, when there was no semblance of order or life at all. The other titans of the Pantheon attempted make their brother see reason before committing himself to reversing all their work, but the soon-to-be dark titan just stormed away from them, convinced they were never going to see the truth that Sargeras not only saw with his own eyes, but slowly fell victim to.

For more information regarding Sargeras: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Sargeras

Mardum: 

The world of Mardum was a prison created by Sargeras to house the physical forms of any demons he encountered. This ensured that the demons would never be able to manifest anywhere else when returning from the twisting nether to reclaim their physical form. It had become quiet full of demons in all the time that Sargeras used it for its intended purpose. However when Sargeras defected from the pantheon and made it his goal to scour reality of the titans influence, he realized an army would be needed. He looked no farther than the world he kept every one of the vile things he had once battled and been mortal enemies with. He split the planet in half, causing an immense explosion of fel energy, which also directly hit Sargeras causing him to now look hideously deformed. The explosion also created a gateway to the twisting nether, from which an endless horde of demons poured through into the cosmos, ensuring Sargeras got the army he needed.
For more information on Mardum: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Mardum,_the_Shattered_Abyss

Sargeras' Final confrontation with the Pantheon:

Sargeras had all that he needed to see to the destruction of everything, so he sought to test his new Legion on a planet that was ordered by the Titans themselves. His forces quickly overwhelmed whatever opposition there was on the planet, which was called Nihilam. The pantheon eventually caught wind of this and called for a meeting with their former brother, whom they still wanted to believe could have a good soul. Attempting to get Sargeras to see reason, they told him of a planet named Azeroth that has a world soul sure to be powerful enough to face the full might of the Void Lords. But utterly convinced that he was doing the right thing and that his former fellows simply would never realize it, he killed them. It was a very long and costly battle, which the pantheon lost. Sargeras wanted now to truly make his new and somewhat inexperienced Burning Legion more formidable and terrifying than ever, and so went about recruiting a new and capable race to help him in this.
 

Kil'Jaeden, Archimonde, and Velen:

These three made up the Triumvirate of the Eredar, who lived on the planet of Argus.

 They were an old race which valued magic and knowledge, which made them easy for Sargeras to detect and eventually contact himself. 

Sargeras knew that he could not be all places at once, so capable and ruthless commanders were needed to give the legion the constant edge it needed to complete the goals of its master. 

Sargeras offered this Triumvirate things he knew they wouldn't be able to resist. Simply put, power beyond imagining, knowledge, magical secrets and lore from all worlds in the cosmos. Two among them, Archimonde and Kil'jaeden accepted the deal with a quickness, Velen however, felt as though there was something wrong with what was happening. Velen meditated on the issue, and was given a vision of the future if he and his brothers sided with this burning legion. Sure there would be power and other glorious things that would have made the Eredar proud and superior to all others in the universe, but only because they would be the harbingers of destruction and misery for countless worlds, a never ending Burning Crusade that would bring death to an unknowable number of living things was what Sargeras wanted, but Velen could only find these truths horrifying. He eventually reached out through the cosmos using his mind and made contact with beings who were called the Naaru. They promised to get him and any of his people who would follow off of Argus and away from the Burning Legion. When the Naaru ships entered Argus' airspace, the exodus from their longtime home began, and after escaping a fate worse than death, Velen and his followers would be called the Draenei, which translates as 'exiled ones' in Eredun. There is more to the story of the Draenei but I will have to make another post about them later on, for now I have to stick with the Burning legion and their origin. 

But some more info on the Draenei: http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Draenei

Conclusion:

The Burning legion has been diligent and brutally efficient in its goal to destroy everything in the universe and return it to its original state. There is no way to ever know how many worlds the legion has obliterated in its Burning Crusade that has permeated through time and space. The only world that has yet to be destroyed by this omnipotent army of destruction is Azeroth, but not for a lack of trying. The burning legion has invaded Azeroth two times before this expansion, and I've heard that the battles to come are going to be crazier and more epic than anything we've seen in the Warcraft lore or game itself ever. So I'm pretty excited.





Just going to end this with a little side note........





SPACESHIPS! IN LEGION!?!?!?!

Intergalactic Empire?...