Know Your Lore: The fate of Turalyon and Alleria

The last time anyone mentioned Turalyon and Alleria, it was their son Arator back in The Burning Crusade’s Outland. We met him in Honor Hold in Outland. There, he seeks out Danath Trollbane for any news of his father, but Danath has nothing to tell him. But now, at long last, we know where Turalyon is.

Up front: This one is chock full of spoilers. If you haven’t leveled to 110 and done the Light’s Heart quests, things will be revealed in this KYL that you haven’t seen yet. To a degree there’s no escape from this. It’s a column about World of Warcraft‘s lore, and that means talking about what happens in the game. If you don’t want spoilers turn back now.

High Exarch

Our first clue as to the whereabouts of Turalyon comes when we discover Light’s Heart. We’re first alerted to the existence of this artifact when Khadgar contacts us. He tells us that something was seen screaming from the sky, crashing into the waters off the coast of Suramar. Since the Legion is likely to have detected the object as well, we’re sent to retrieve it as soon as possible. After some initial confusion thanks to a greedy giant, we obtain the artifact and bring it to Khadgar, who triggers a message contained within it.

This is a huge moment, because it’s the first time we see or hear of Turalyon in World of Warcraft outside of someone else mentioning him, and the first time he’s been heard from directly since the end of Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal. We now know that Turalyon is embroiled in the war against the Burning Legion. He’s somehow related to the artifact you’ve discovered.

More is revealed once you take Light’s Heart to the Exodar. The Prophet Velen informs you that the object is the sentience core of the Naaru prime, Xe’ra — one of the very first beings created during the great ordering of the cosmos in ages past. The battle against General Rakeesh, which led to the death of O’ros, also prevented us from accessing Light’s Heart. For a time, we were unable to learn much more than we had from the image of Turalyon himself.

Legacy of the Windrunners

Meanwhile, any Hunters who did the Marksmanship Artifact quest will know that Alleria’s bow, Thas’dorah, was being held on a Legion portal world named Niskara. A raid by Alleria’s sister Vereesa and the future leader of the Unseen Path liberates the bow from the demons. But there’s no sign of Alleria herself, merely the weapon. Vereesa concludes that this must mean that Alleria escaped.

This leads us to several questions — are Alleria and Turalyon together or separate? Turalyon is revealed to be fighting on Argus as part of the Army of the Light. When the same hero that found Light’s Heart uses the Tear of Elune, one of the Pillars of Creation, to access the sentience core, they make contact with Xe’ra herself. She reveals the horrible truth — that Sargeras and the Legion managed to destroy the Titans long ago. There was nothing left to stand in the way of the Legion’s march across the cosmos. We discover that the Army of the Light is, in fact, a force made up of survivors of the Legion’s planet destroying campaign. That fighting force is waging a war on the planet Argus itself — a war it is losing.

But while the Army of the Light might be losing, it hasn’t lost yet.

A Message to Arator

The Paladins of Azeroth come to count Arator himself as one of their number. And it is Arator who next receives a message from Turalyon, a message that comes to warn him of danger both personal and cosmic. In the message that Turalyon sends, he reveals that he and Alleria have been fighting the Burning Legion across the cosmos itself for ‘ages’. The dreadlord Balnazzar, as part of the Legion’s invasion of Azeroth, has been given special orders to destroy everything Turalyson finds precious — especially his son.

Turalyon’s message also confirms what Xe’ra said in her revelations. Turalyon tells his son that Azeroth is the last light of hope remaining in the cosmos, and that Arator and the other Paladins must fight, or the Legion will triumph. We are also told that Turalyon is now known as High Exarch in the Army of the Light.

This statement, combined with Turalyon’s message contained within Light’s Heart and the Thas’dorah questline, seems to imply the following:

• That when Turalyon and Alleria escaped the destruction of Draenor, they possibly ended up on a Legion portal world. One like Niskara, where Alleria lost her bow in their escape.
• The two of them are together still, fighting the Legion. Since Light’s Heart contains the sentience core of Xe’ra, and the Naaru prime said that the Army of Light was fighting on Argus, that’s where they are now.
• For now, he and Alleria still live.

We discover more when Balnazzar attacks Netherlight Temple.

Lothraxion

During the battle at Netherlight, High Exarch Turalyon sends High Commander Lothraxion, a dreadlord infused with the Light, to aid the Paladins and Priests in their battle.

A dreadlord infused with the Light.

I feel like I could just write that over and over again for the rest of the article. But yes, that happens — there is a dreadlord out there in service to the Army of the Light. It’s the personal subordinate to Turalyon. Lothraxion was sent by one of the greatest Paladins in Azeroth’s history himself, to serve as his representative and the representative of the Army of the Light. This tells us that Turalyon is potentially the commander of the entire Army, or at least one of its most highly placed generals.

But we still need to know more. What is Alleria doing while Turalyon sends dreadlords to Azeroth? Are they both still on Argus, as has been implied? If Alleria lost her bow, what weapon does she wield now? Are we eventually going to get a  family reunion with the Windrunner sisters? If a dreadlord can be purified by the Light, can Sargeras be redeemed? So many questions remain.

For now, though, we know more about the fate of Turalyon and Alleria than we have since Warcraft II.