Sylvanas Brisaveloz, the Dark Lady of the Horde

We review the complex revenge and uprising story of Sylvanas Brisaveloz before the arrival of Shadowlands, a new expansion for World of Warcraft.

It is not easy to end the Dark Lady. Sylvanas Windrunner (or Brisaveloz) will rise from the dead again and again in order to fulfill his purposes and protect his people. Some of the titles she holds are Queen and founder of the Forsaken, war chief of the Horde and as if that were not enough: Azeroth's best archer. A life chained by deaths and resurrections builds the story of one of the most interesting and complex characters in the World of Warcraft universe. With the recently announced expansion, Shadowlands, we know that the dark forest still has a lot to tell and that is why the time has come to review its most important feats and leave a summary of them in writing.

We remember that reports marked as Lore Hunters contain spoilers of the games they deal with.

The origins of Sylvanas: family and first steps in the war

The Windrunner family (Brisaveloz in Spanish) to which Sylvanas belongs was one of the most important in the society of the High Elves. Also called Noble Elves, it is a race descended from the Altonatian Night Elves who left the western continent Kalimdor to settle in the Eastern Kingdoms and found the forested region of Quel’Thalas. Despite having origins full of tragedy and conflicts, the High Elves achieved a significant number of troops by joining the Alliance and participating in various Wars such as the Troll. It was in the Third War when tragedy accompanied them again.

Before arriving at these events we must name Sylvanas' sisters and brother: Alleria, Vereesa and Lirath. Next to them he had a relatively peaceful childhood in his home, Windrunner Spire, located in the forests of Quel’thalas. Even so, "tranquility" is not a term that relates to Sylvanas. Growing up, he soon joined the military corps of Foresters, archers and elite warriors very skilled in skirmishes. Sylvanas' leadership and military talent began to shine when he rose in the ranks of the Foresters until he became his General over the years.

When the Second War broke out, a conflict between the forces of the Alliance and the Ancient Horde, the High Elves only offered a little help to the Alliance by sending a command led by Alleria, Sylvanas' elder sister. As for this, he left with the remaining Foresters to the forests of Quel’Thalas when they heard that some mysterious fires were putting his home at risk. Upon arrival they found some forest trolls threatening with an ambush the forces of Alleria. Because of his impulsiveness and determination, Sylvanas got his scouts to join the fray and achieved victory.

The two sisters caught up and Alleria reported that the forests south of the Elven nation were being razed by a band of orcs and some dragons. There Sylvanas' forces were directed to assist the army at the hands of Paladin Turalyon. Despite the hardness of the battle, the Horde troops finally fell, the faction was driven from Azeroth, the Dark Portal was destroyed and the Second War came to an end. This was the first victory of Sylvanas's side, who showed that she was prepared to adapt to any war challenge and react in time to drive her own to success.

After the war, the High Elves decided to go free and separate from the Alliance. Therefore, it was Sylvanas and the remaining Foresters responsible for protecting Lunargente from any threat. Although calm seemed to reign in the lands of the elves and the forests managed to recover their ancient beauty, Sylvanas remained alert and prepared, since she knew that peace is fragile and can be broken easily.

Fall in the dark, the confrontation against Arthas

The fears of the General of Foresters came true when an army of undead commanded by Arthas, The Traitor of Lordareon, suddenly appeared on the borders of Quel’Thalas. Confident, Sylvanas once again led her armies in order to stop the attack, but soon proved that the undead outnumbered the living, so her strategy shifted to a constant guerrilla fighting and retreat tactic when necessary.

The time came when escape was not an option. Arthas's forces broke through the powerful defenses of Quel’Thalas and put an end to all the elves that faced them. Faced with this desperate situation, Sylvanas tried to send a warning to the Silvermoon citadel to order an evacuation, but his opponent managed to stop all the messengers in order to keep his attack as a surprise. The General demonstrated that surrender is not a word that is part of her vocabulary and she confronted the prince directly until he, with the help of her supernatural powers, managed to drive her sword into Sylvanas' stomach and kill her. .

After the battle, the official report clarified that General Brisaveloz fought and died to defend her homeland and that her lifeless body did not receive adequate honors when consumed in the fire that destroyed the Elven capital. However, the reality was that Sylvanas was mortally wounded and dragged by Arthas himself to an ancient temple, where the Tumorani Trolls made human sacrifices with elven prisoners of war. There he kept her alive for days and subjected her to terrible torture until she got tired of doing so and finally decided to end her life.

But the rest did not come for Sylvanas, since the prince brought her back through her necromantic arts and turned her into a spirit full of hate and evil. In this new undead form, he became completely controlled by the Lich King and upon retrieving his body he obtained a new title: Queen Soul in Pena.

Her blond hair and bright green eyes became ash and penetrating blood red respectively, while her skin remained the blue of the dead and her armor changed to be violet and more threatening. A new appearance, much darker, to accompany the color that had dyed his soul.

The rise in the ranks of the undead

The lack of self-will was not an impediment for Sylvanas's strong convictions and abilities to disappear. However, she was forced to change her fighting style, since Queen Soul in Pena discovered that the link she had with nature had disappeared with her death. Therefore, he developed in the necromantic arts and managed to create the Dark Forest.

His expertise allowed him to ascend quickly in the hierarchy of the Scourge and became one of the main Generals of his arch nemesis, Arthas. Together with him, they were responsible for ending the traitors and anyone who opposed their regime of terror. The remaining humans of Lordaeron were also victims and at this point Sylvanas showed that the being he had become had no mercy or qualms about biasing the lives of innocent children or elderly people:

"Humans are simply a means to an end"

It was at that moment that Ner’zhul, old shaman and War Chief of the orc clans of the former Horde, weakened and lost control of the minds of Sylvanas and Souls in Pena. She demonstrated her intelligence by hiding this fact to develop her own plan and secretly met with the lords of the traitorous Demons to help them in their plan to stop Arthas. Of course, always under their own rules.

Revenge Time

"I hate him. I have my own reasons to seek revenge. Arthas murdered my people and made me this … monstrosity. ” With this, Sylvanas demonstrates that she has knowledge of her own fall from grace and describing herself as a "monster" denotes the contempt she feels for the being she has become.

At that time Arthas already fully trusted Sylvanas, believing that mental control by dark forces remained strong and unaltered. It was a serious mistake, since the Queen of Souls in Pena tricked him into meeting alone with him in the woods and once there he was struck by an arrow specially designed to contain a paralyzing poison.

“So you have arrived, Arthas. It's time for an eye for an eye ”

Arthas asked her for a dignified and rapid death, but Sylvanas decided to apply the same tactic that her enemy used with her and grant her a slow and painful death. However, his plan was cut short when Kel’Thuzad's forces appeared and made the Souls flee in Pena. Despite the slight failure in the strategy, that was the moment when Sylvanas and other undead finally got rid of Ner’zhul's control. They failed to recover their original bodies, but at least their souls were released to take their own course.

Sylvanas was once again the leader of a small group of undead seeking revenge. Due to the small size of its forces, it was time to seek allies. The Great Demons offered to join her, but the Queen did not want to submit to anyone or lose an iota of her newly recovered freedom:

"We will continue with our own path in this world, demon, and we will kill whoever gets in the way!"

Those chosen to be part of their ranks were a diverse selection of ogres, forest trolls, gnolls, bandits and even murlocs, whose leaders possessed the Souls in Pena sent by the leader. With this diverse and powerful army, Sylvanas triumphed in the war and even used his power of conviction to convince the demon Varimathras to kill another Demon Lord, something forbidden among his class.

Having eliminated all his enemies, Sylvanas proclaimed himself as the leader of the Forsaken, a title he retains today. Thanks to this, the Renegades group did not need to follow the Scourge or the Legion anymore and were free to take their own path and end all who intervened.

Queen Banshee and leader of the Horde's armies

Having become so powerful did not make Sylvanas lose sight of its origins. The queen believes that despite being dead, her obligation remains to ensure the protection of Quel’Thalas. Therefore, apart from its military functions, it is in charge of continuously sending supplies and troops to the Blood Elves. With this he shows us that there is still some kindness in his cold heart and that he regrets having failed his people when he fell before Arthas.

Speaking of former enemies, Varimathras had not yet fallen and had the intention of executing his own revenge by performing a lift in Undercity. Once again, Sylvanas was prepared to face it by commanding a Horde army with the intention of retaking the city with Thrall and Vol’jin. Upon reaching the Throne Room of the city, Queen Banshee finally ended the life of Varimathras, but the story did not end there.

Soon the name of Arthas came up again, who has long fled and went to the Ice Throne of the Ice Crown to merge with the Lich King himself. He held this position for a long time until the Dark Lady arrived at the place in search of ultimate revenge. Before the confrontation, she met with the spirit of Uther the Enlightened One (founder of the Holy Order of Paladins the Silver Hand and killed at the hands of Arthas), who warned her that if Arthas was destroyed, someone should replace him as Lord of the Plague in order to avoid a holocaust by the undead.

It would not be easy to defeat the Lich King, since he had increased his power to unsuspected limits and Sylvanas realized that not even all of his faction's forces could end him. However, they did manage to kill Arthas (specifically at the hands of the High Lord Tirion Vadin and his champions of the Light). When one of the adventurers, who carried the legendary Agony of Shadows, brought a vial of blood to the Queen that she found in a sealed chest, she uttered a few words she had long wanted to release:

“So, it's done… I didn't dare to trust my senses. The Lich King has fooled me too many times. Finally, he has paid for the atrocities committed against my people. May Azeroth remember the terrible price we pay for our weakness … For our pride. And now what hero? … What about those freed from their burdens but still chained to their mortal bodies? Leave me … I have to reflect … ”

Thus, it stopped being Sylvanas' problem and could turn the page to a long history of hatred and revenge.

New conflicts and a dark and promising future

By finally closing the chapter on the story against Arthas, the Dark Lady was able to focus on other matters. One of them was the cooling between the Forsaken relations with the rest of the Horde since the battle of Angrathar the Wrath Gate. At that time the War Chief was Garrosh, who pressured Sylvanas' forces to stop producing and experimenting with the New Plague, an adapted version of the plague that struck Lordaeron. With its effects, the leader of the Forsaken sought to annihilate both the Scourge and other races to predominate over others and extend their reign.

On the other hand, given the inability of reproduction suffered by his army, Sylvanas made a pact with the Val’kyr (who served the Lich King in the past) to raise the fallen and transform them into undead. They also helped her to return from death more than once in order to continue with her ambitious plans, so it became clear that the Val’kyr represent the future of the Forsaken.

Art by: Šárka Š. – Claina

The enmity with Garrosh continued to grow until Horde and Alliance joined together to penetrate the Orca capital and put an end to the reign of the War Chief, who had become too ambitious and blinded by power lust. Sylvanas helped in the contest, not because he had a special sympathy with the Alliance forces but because he believed that ending Garrosh would be the best for his people. We remember that the leader of the Forsaken has always been characterized by following her own path in order to achieve her goals, selfishly but effectively.

Finally, Garrosh was defeated and captured and although Sylvanas wanted his immediate execution, he was eventually tried. However, the Queen did not stop there and tried to kill him using her sister, Vereesa Windrunner, to poison the orc leader's food. This was raised to command the Forsaken with Sylvanas, but finally changed his mind and betrayed his sister. She lost all hope about the strength of family ties and vowed that she would never love anyone again.

Later (at the events of Legion), Horde and Alliance rejoined forces to deal with the growing threat of the Burning Legion, whose purpose was to invade Azeroth. However, this truce ended when Sylvanas withdrew his troops during the battle and this led to the death of King Varian Wrynn of the Alliance. In this case it was not his own strategy, but the war chief Vol’jin had ordered it. Before he died and with his last words, he bequeathed his title to Sylvanas and eventually became War Chief of the Horde.

In the events of Battle for Azeroth, Sylvanas once again demonstrates his great leadership and ingenuity skills in positions of power, in addition to continuing to have his own convictions (which may or may not be linked to the Horde despite being his war leader ). For this reason and after various events (which would be endless to narrate in detail), the forces of the Horde ended up being divided between those who supported Sylvanas and their ambitious and terrible plans and those who positioned themselves with Varok Saurfang (legendary orc warrior ), who was one of the generals of the Chief of War. Unable to endure Sylvanas's cruel and brutal reign any longer, he faced him despite knowing in advance that it was a battle he could not win. So it was, when the leader used her dark magic to end the life of the rebel orc.

The last thing we know of our protagonist's walks is what is seen in the newly released trailer of Shadowlands (the new expansion that will arrive in 2020). In it, Sylvanas opens the way to the afterlife after Azeroth's bravest defenders have fallen into a darkness that consumes everything. After an intense battle against the Lich King (Bolvar Fordragon after the death of Arthas), he succeeds in defeating him and removing the helmet:

"You don't deserve to wear this crown or have so much … power (…) This world is a prison and I will make everyone free!"

With these words and flaunting an immeasurable force, Queen Banshee, war chief of the Horde, Dark Lady and leader of the Forsaken destroys the Lich King's helmet. With this, it unleashes countless undead, something that will lead to the terrible holocaust that Uther warned her of long ago. But it doesn't matter anymore, since Sylvanas has become a shadow of what it once was. A dark and powerful shadow that wants to see the world burn and the dead dominate the lands of Azeroth. And apparently, he invites us all to try to stop her … or join her once again.

Sources:

World of Warcraft Wiki – Sylvanas and other entries
Gamepedia – Sylvanas Windrunner
YouTube: Vress Games / The story of Sylvanas Windrunner
YouTube: Fall of the Lich King Ending
YT: War leaders: Sylvanas
World of Warcraft – official website
Youtube: The end of the Battle for Azeroth War