[Speculation] Wrathion burned Teldrassil.

[AlmightyGerkin]

Don’t think its wrathion who burns teldrassil. He only wanted to unite the horde and alliance against the incoming invasion of the burning legion. Her burning teldrassil im still unclear on why she wants to.

[Ursiel]

Sylvanas will burn down Teldrassil to give the Orcs more resources. In the past, Garrosh pointed out correctly that Durotar is too harsh and lacks resources, and this problem persists. Famine has settled in Orgrimmar, and Saurfang demanded a solution from Sylvanas.

While Saurfang said that the Orcs only needed to take Ashenvale, Sylvanas explained to him that all the resources they would get would be quickly depleted to defend Ashenvale from the Elves of Darnassus, who would also be backed up by the Draenei and, soon, the remaining Alliance forces. Her solution was to, in a quick move, to take down Teldrassil, giving a future for the Orcs, but dooming the Night Elves and angering the Ancients.

But of course this is all speculation.

That's a pretty sound theory tbh.

[Narveid]

No offense to the humans - they are the very best of army fodder - but if my people are refugees in some stinking human city next expansion I'm burning Stormwind down, then the world.

If anyone touches my tree, everyone's gotta die. Elune wills it.

I mean .. Who cares about Teldrassil though? It's pretty new, and the Night Elves did fine without it for thousands of years.

[Grimfrost]

I think that council that's against sylvanas did it tbh.

[Deleted]

I suspect that the alliance burned Teldrassil. We've been told about how destructive Azerite is and that we don't know what it really does - so it's possible that an experiment or demonstration was taking place in Teldrassil and caused an explosion which burned the tree.

[corebit]

No offense to the humans - they are the very best of army fodder - but if my people are refugees in some stinking human city next expansion I'm burning Stormwind down, then the world.

If anyone touches my tree, everyone's gotta die. Elune wills it.

Lore-wise, as a night elf player, why do you care so much about Teldrassil? Did you know it was originally planted by Fandral Staghelm who had the delusion to regain immortality back for the night elves but it didn't? It was a corrupted tree that did not serve its original function and caused all manner of troubles for the night elves until Malfurion cleansed that corruption much later.

The only world tree that existed and should continue to exist is Nordrassil, all the other world trees were mistakes.

Gameplay-wise, Teldrassil (and Exodar) has always been a terrible location, way off to the side of Kalimdor and not being a useful transit point for any land. Even Mt Hyjal is the quickest point for Alliance nowadays if they want to go anywhere in northern Kalimdor.


As for refugee location, I don't think Stormwind will have anything of the sort other than the Embassy buildings datamined where the faction leader NPCs are gathered.

[CreatureLives]

If someone is secretly behind it then he is the one I'd go with. I still think it's Sylvanas but it makes sense if Wrathion has been manipulating things this whole time.

I mean he was in Mists of Pandaria where he was escalating the war between the Alliance and the Horde then and it just so happens that there was some Old God stuff going on in that expansion with Garrosh. So It's possible that Blizz was planning something with Wrathion back in MoP but then plans changed when they pulled a time travel expansion out of their ass so it got put on hold and then they decided they were bringing the Legion back at the end of WoD so Wrathion's storyline was once again put on hold a second time. Now that WoD & Legion are over they are able to get back to that storyline. Maybe he was driven mad by the Old Gods like Deathwing and played us this entire time. I've heard in BFA Wrathion is with the Alliance so it's possible he burns down Teldrassil and convinces the Alliance that it was The Horde to get the war started up again so that it distracts the Alliance & Horde so that N'Zoth and possibly Y'Shaarj (if still alive) can do whatever it is they are planning.

[Piamonte]

I have reconsidered my position. I stood that the alliance hit the Horde first in BfA (or previously) and caused the battle, but the truth is: the Alliance didn't hit first the Horde this time. Neither the Horde hit the Alliance.

It wouldn't make sense to Anduin to attack Lordaeron, even with Genn influence. He would be above that.
It wouldn't make any sense for the Horde to simply retaliate and burn down Teldrassil. I would expect them to hit hard back at Stormwind if that was the case.

And why the Horde didn't burn Teldrassil at first? Some said it would be strategic to not have an Alliance capital closer to Orgrimmar. But Sylvannas is not in Orgrimmar. She shits in Undercity. Why would she mess with the Alliance in Kallimdor just to have the entire Alliance marching to get her? She is way too clever to do this.
It is not even strategic to hit Teldrassil. It is too far away from both Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar.

Why would Wrathion then burn down Teldrassil?

Well, here is how it starts.


He wanted Varian to destroy the Horde and "unite" the world under the banner of the alliance (probably he wanted the horde dead anyway).

Wrathion lured Sylvanas and setup things to make look like the Horde burned down Teldrassil, among other things. He has enough power to incinerate Teldrassil, no doubt. She may even try to stop him, knowing what that will lead. How can she explain herself to the Alliance? They still think she betrayed them at Broken Shore. Would anyone listen to her? Genn? Her sisters?

Further evidences: In the demo played at Blizzcon, Wrathion is in Stormwind along with the Alliance leaders.
Is he also in Orgrimmar? Answer is short: no.

Remember Wrathion words: "Next time, I will leave nothing to chance".
What would make a war escalation without causing much problems to the alliance? Maybe burn down Teldrassil, why not? Wouldn't be reasonable to hit back the Horde HARD after they burned Teldrassil down?

Wrathion is, after all, a Black Dragon, and has manipulated both Alliance and Horde before. Why not do it again?

Given the facts, this is very acceptable.

from the front page of mmo-champion: "They have talked about plans for Wrathion for various other things, but currently have no plans for him in BfA.", it seems that Wrathion is not important in this expansión, so i dont think he burned Teldrassil. Also, Wrathion doesnt have the power to do it, not even Deathwing could burn Teldrassil i think

[CreatureLives]

I'm sticking to the idea that Wrathion is N'zoth in disguise. In Lovecraftian lore, Nyarlathotep takes the form of an Egyptian pharaoh. N'zoth has many similarities to Nyarlathotep with some suggesting Nyarlathotep is the basis of N'zoth's lore.

Cue: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/17604950630

if Wrathion really did burn down Teldrassil, and N'zoth is Wrathion, then this quote from Il'gynoth makes sense:
"The boy king serves at the master's table. Three lies will he offer you."

Or Y'Shaarj. Y'Shaarj is believed to be dead but we never actually got to face him/her. I could see that being the twist at the end of the expansion. We defeat N'Zoth thinking we've finally ended the Old Gods but it's revealed that Wrathion is Y'Shaarj. Y'Shaaj's heart was in Pandaria the same place we meet Wrathion.

It's also worth noting that N'Zoth is known to be the weakest of the Old Gods so it would be weird if the last one we face happens to be the weakest. Doesn't seem like much of a threat if we've already killed 2 stronger Old Gods. Y'Shaarj is the most powerful of the Old Gods.

[Daevelian]

Eh, i suspect that Sylvanas actually did have it burnt. It just makes sense to me that when she said she wants to take Stormwind, she might attack a target on the complete opposite side of the map as a distraction to draw out the alliance navy, making Stormwind an easier target. Whether this is suggested to her by someone or she comes up with it on her own, who knows. If it WAS suggested, i could see Wrathion being the one to suggest such a thing.

Though, of course, this backfires as the fires they set end up reaching the Azerite and setting the whole tree aflame, causing the survivors to flee and the distraction to not only be worthless, but galvanise the alliance against the horde.

This is of course the theory i have based on the evidence supplied to us.

[Deleted]

Just one thing bothers me... why do some say that Genn took her immortality? I've read that several times and it's just not true. He took her means of making more Val'kyr and thus she has to be careful with the ones she has, but she still has some... so it's not over just because she dies one more time.

[corebit]

Just one thing bothers me... why do some say that Genn took her immortality? I've read that several times and it's just not true. He took her means of making more Val'kyr and thus she has to be careful with the ones she has, but she still has some... so it's not over just because she dies one more time.

Sylvanas relied on the Val'kyr to sacrifice themselves each time she died, so they could resurrect her. And she only has a couple of Val'kyrs left now.
If Genn didn't stop her from abducting Eyir, she would effectively have an infinite supply of Val'kyrs, ergo infinite lives, ergo the source of her "immortality."

[Deleted]

Sylvanas relied on the Val'kyr to sacrifice themselves each time she died, so they could resurrect her. And she only has a couple of Val'kyrs left now.
If Genn didn't stop her from abducting Eyir, she would effectively have an infinite supply of Val'kyrs, ergo infinite lives, ergo the source of her "immortality."

Yes, that is correct, ofc. Just in some posts it sounded like she was going to die for good the very next time she dies and that is not the case. She only can't die several more times.

[Torrasque]

I believe that the most popular theory is that the world trees, all of them, are massive sources of Azerite. To prevent this, the Horde takes the initiative and occupies Hyjal while burning down Teldrassil, ensuring that the Alliance doesn't access it. Supposedly, Azerite is highly combustible in a certain magical situation, and it ignites during the attack, by accident, and kills off a large population of the Night Elves in Teldrassil, including Tyrande. From the Alliance point of view, it is seen as genocide, and they march on Lordaeron in retaliation.

[Marmot]

in one of the interviews on the front page they said they have no plans currently for wrathion in battle for azeroth

[Chernobyll]

in one of the interviews on the front page they said they have no plans currently for wrathion in battle for azeroth

Well, from “no plans” do they mean to put him in the alliance embassy in

[lazypeon100]

http://www.wowhead.com/blizzcon=2755...roth#news-post

In a Gamespot Interview, WoW production director John Hight clarified the timeline for these events. Teldrassil is burned before Lordaeron is attacked. To clarify, there's still a bit of a gray area as to what happens between Antorus and Teldrassil, aside from Azerite appearing in Silithus--there could be other major events we are unaware of after Argus is defeated and before Teldrassil is burned.

Good to know, thanks! Also, thanks to the other person who linked the article as well!

[Tartys]

That plot of a forsaken rogue group doing things? Isn't this too Wrathgate?

History is repeating... (and that part had not been removed from the game later?) but, we cannot exclude N'zoth intrusion. Who lead this Council, who inspire them?
Someone linked to N'zoth? Just like happens before with Kel'Thuzad and his Cult...

Could be Wrathion as well, could be one of the Council in disguise and at the same time be himself on Ally side...

But first, are we sure Wrathion will be part of this expansion? In an interview dev team talk about him: They have talked about plans for Wrathion for various other things, but currently have no plans for him in BfA.

Also, maybe the Teldrassil destruction is not just a way to ignite a war... Teldrassill look like a torch...

"Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path.".. the keys are the pillar of creation, but the torchs maybe are the World Trees?

G'Hanir, Vordrassil are gone, Shala'drassil has been corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare... Teldrassil is burned, just Nordrassil, the original World Tree, is left... by now.

[Ragnarocket]

History is repeating... (and that part had not been removed from the game later?) but, we cannot exclude N'zoth intrusion. Who lead this Council, who inspire them?
Someone linked to N'zoth? Just like happens before with Kel'Thuzad and his Cult...

Could be Wrathion as well, could be one of the Council in disguise and at the same time be himself on Ally side...

But first, are we sure Wrathion will be part of this expansion? In an interview dev team talk about him: They have talked about plans for Wrathion for various other things, but currently have no plans for him in BfA.

Also, maybe the Teldrassil destruction is not just a way to ignite a war... Teldrassill look like a torch...

"Five keys to open our way. Five torches to light our path.".. the keys are the pillar of creation, but the torchs maybe are the World Trees?

G'Hanir, Vordrassil are gone, Shala'drassil has been corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare... Teldrassil is burned, just Nordrassil, the original World Tree, is left... by now.

That's...not a bad thought. We've all assumed the five keys were the Pillars of Creation. And I still think that's probably the case but we do have another important group of 5 things with the trees.

[Moonstream]

Wait in that photo of the tree not yet burned, whose the kneeling elf. That looks like they are surrendering...?