Oorduus became a half-flesh, half-elemental monster after accepting the power of the Eternal Flame. The burning flames plunged him into endless pain.
He tried many methods to alleviate his suffering, eventually discovering that the power of faith could lessen his pain.
So he spread faith among the Yaungol, encouraging them to imitate his path to 'godhood,' dedicating themselves to the flame and offering their faith to him.
Centuries later, the Yaungol demigod disappeared, but the Yaungol, through generations of ritualistic inheritance, altered their faith in the Earth Mother, embracing the worship of fire.
The Yaungol's obsession with fire is exceptionally profound.
Just look at the names they give to their tribe's locations: Ossul Fire Camp, Oorduus Fire Camp, Lu'qin Fire Camp...
The Yaungol of Pandaria are wild and combative, making them difficult to subdue even with overwhelming strength. Even under the enslavement of the powerful Mogu Empire, the Yaungol repeatedly revolted, requiring the Mogu to expend considerable effort in suppression.
Baine, through this special ritual of being burned by flames, still stood strong on the altar, eventually gaining the allegiance of those Yaungol tribes.
However, this allegiance is only superficial obedience. After all, Little Bull, being a Tauren, passed the ritual and has already gained the approval of most Yaungol people. If the Yaungol elders were to go back on their word, it would easily cause the collapse of faith at the grassroots level.
Galen would bet that those seemingly simple but actually cunning Yaungol priests were already scheming to kill Little Bull.
Of course, Galen wouldn't stand idly by. For the sake of the bond he had with Baine since he was a calf, Galen would ensure Baine's survival.
Moreover, the Tauren are an important link in his alliance, and their growth is essential.
For this purpose, the Yaungol's fire god... is doomed!
A god who requires his followers to sacrifice their lives to him is definitely an evil god. First, there was the blood god Hakkar, whom the trolls universally hated, and now there's Oorduus, the fire god of Pandaria.
What else needs to be said?
The trolls have already provided the answer; the Tauren just need to copy it.
Godslaying!
Just do it.
With the matters in Pandaria basically concluded, Galen left the closing work directly to Shao Hao. The two sides agreed that the Pandaren would directly send envoys to Stromgarde next year to formally sign a treaty.
As a newly emerging race, the Pandaren need more than just fertile land to smoothly join the Alliance. They must demonstrate their strength to the various nations of the Alliance.
Therefore, high-end combat power within the envoy group is essential. The Pandaren's contemporary legendary-tier combat power includes Zhu Talan, Master Snowdrift, Gu 'Eagle Eye' Niu Rong, Ironbelly Chen, Yalia, and Tao Xi.
Galen believes that with Shao Hao's experience and wisdom, he knows what kind of team should be dispatched.
When Galen returned to the Twin Moon Shrine, the Four Celestials had been waiting for a long time.
It was still the adorable female Pandaren Yu'lon, Snow White, transformed into a strong human, and Niuzao, the Tauren radiating light.
"Four, I must temporarily leave Pandaria. More important things are waiting for me in Azeroth. Thank you very much for your care during this time."
Galen sincerely expressed his gratitude to the Celestials. After all, he had gained a lot of convenience in Pandaria by using the title of Celestial Emissary. Otherwise, the conservative Golden Lotus and the Shadowpan's law enforcement team wouldn't have been so easy to talk to, and the Cloud Serpent Riders wouldn't have easily given three little hatchlings to the children.
"It is we who should thank you, Galen. It is you who has brought a bright future to Pandaria."
Yu'lon, as the face of the August Celestials, came to Galen with a folded cloak in her hands: "This is the reward we four give you, Galen. When you face overwhelming darkness, we will face it together with you!"
Niuzao came to Yu'lon's side and said just as sincerely: "Galen, you are very powerful, more powerful than you think. Face the darkness bravely with this belief. All we can do is silently support you from behind!"
Finally, it was the White Tiger Xuen: "It is a pity that too many things have happened during this time, and there has been no time to spar with you. Put on this cloak and set off with our blessings!"
Galen grinned. The orange cloak was complete!
He didn't hesitate, reaching out his right hand to grab the cloak radiating orange light and flicking it behind him in a handsome gesture.
The silk from the Valley of the Four Winds was woven with the scales of the Azure Dragon as the main body, the fur of the Black Ox adorned the edges of the cloak, the claws of the White Tiger served as clasps, and the feathers of the Red Crane shone at the tail!
"Good cloak!"
"Good style!"
The gorgeous cloak set off Galen's imposing manner. As the saying goes, clothes make the man, and Galen was very satisfied with the gift from the Four Celestials.
"Farewell, everyone. I hope that in the future there will be a chance to fight alongside you!"
Galen flicked his cloak and walked towards the portal in the Twin Moon Shrine without looking back.
The three Celestials silently watched Galen's back disappear into the gate of the Twin Moon Shrine.
"Farewell! Galen!"
"Farewell, my friend!"
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
Twenty-two years after the opening of the Dark Portal passed in the blink of an eye. After the Winter Veil holiday, the people of the Alliance once again entered a busy season.
Under Galen's leadership, the Alliance grew stronger day by day. In addition to population growth, the lives of the people became more prosperous.
Recently, what the people of Stromgarde have been talking about is their king's launch of a large-scale ocean trade and the signing of a treaty with the Pandaren from the southern continent, officially joining the Alliance.
The common people won't know too much about such major events as alliances. They only know that this group of round, even somewhat cute, black and white creatures are very strong. There are three or four legendary masters in the envoy group alone.
The number of high-end combat forces in the envoy group alone has surpassed the perceived weakness of Alterac and is even on par with Gilneas in the Alliance, which shows the strength of the new member of the Alliance.
Of course, what the people discuss more are the specialties from Pandaria: silk, tea, jade, porcelain, and those huge carrots and qingwu!
Luxury goods are, after all, the exclusive domain of the nobles. The common people are more curious about those cheap vegetables and grains. They can't imagine that the vegetables and fruits exported from the southern continent are so big!
For a time, it caused a scramble among the people of the Eastern Kingdoms.
Fortunately, for the past ten years, Galen has been controlling the grain trade in the Eastern Kingdoms and strictly controlling the export volume of grain in Thorium Point. Therefore, the grain from Pandaria did not cause too much impact on the market.
After all, Pandaria only has one Valley of the Four Winds, while Galen's base farms are already in the tens of thousands.
Behind this peaceful scene, some undercurrents of darkness are quietly breeding.
In the Broken Isles, a special team is traveling through the mountain roads of Stormheim.
Leading them were two humans. One was a dark-skinned youth clad in black scale armor, his head wrapped in a thick white hood. The other human was bare-chested, wearing only black skirt armor besides shoulder pauldrons.
"Prince Wrathion, do you know why the Dragon Queen wants us to capture those Storm Dragons with their limited intelligence?"
The bare-chested human was clearly a brute, accustomed to using force. Therefore, when he encountered something he couldn't understand, he habitually asked his fellow tribesman.
After all, this tribesman with the cloth wrapped around his forehead as a hood had displayed his superior intellect from a young age, ensuring the continuation of their tribe.
"Because we need them as experimental subjects. We can't use our own dragon eggs, can we? Each one used is one less!"
Wrathion, one of the few remaining members of the Black Dragonflight on Azeroth, had a unique insight into the future prospects of the world.
Besides that, his identity was very special. He was the last Black Dragon Prince of the Black Dragonflight, besides Nefarian, Sabellian, who had disappeared, and Blackhorn, who hadn't revealed his true identity.
His background was rough. Originally, he was just a blank dragon egg forced to be laid by the Red Dragon Queen Alexstrasza when she was imprisoned in Grim Batol Fortress by the Dragonmaw Clan.
Originally, the fate of this dragon egg should have been to be sprayed with the life essence of Tyranastrasz, the Red Dragon Queen's consort, and then heated and catalyzed with dragon breath until it hatched. After hatching, it would be artificially cultivated by the Dragonmaw orcs using secret techniques to become a low-intelligence mount.
It was just that later, by a twist of fate, Deathwing stole a batch of dragon eggs and sprayed his dragon essence all over them.
Later, after Deathwing was driven away by Galen and several Dragon Aspects, the liberated Red Dragon Queen also discovered this batch of hidden dragon eggs in the fortress.
It was just that at that time, most of the dragon eggs had already hatched into Black Dragon whelps with cursed bloodlines, and Alexstrasza had no choice but to deal with them all.
Wrathion was lucky enough to have not hatched yet. The Red Dragon Queen personally took action and successfully purified him into a pure Black Dragon egg without the curse of the Old Gods.
Afterward, this dragon egg was transferred to the Ruby Sanctum, a Red Dragonflight outpost in Northrend, where it was cared for by the red dragon Korialstrasz. The Red Dragon Queen hoped that this dragon egg could grow safely away from Deathwing's sight, but unfortunately, this dragon egg mysteriously disappeared not long after.
No one could have guessed that this dragon egg laid by the Red Dragon Queen, combined with Deathwing's life essence, developed consciousness earlier than other dragon eggs.
This dragon egg also had its own plans in its heart. It didn't want to hatch under the protection of the Red Dragons, so when this dragon egg hadn't hatched yet, it issued a distress call and hired the thieves of Ravenholdt Manor to steal it from the Ruby Sanctum.
As for how he met Sinestra, the 'Madam' of the Black Dragonflight, that's another story.
Wrathion's face was a bit gloomy. The heavy responsibility of revitalizing the Black Dragonflight made it hard for him to breathe. After all, according to the growth cycle of dragons, he was still a child!
Originally, these heavy burdens were borne by the Dragon Mother, but because the current Black Dragonflight was too weak and secretly manipulated by the Twilight's Hammer and the Scarlet Crusade, Sinestra was destined to become a sacrifice. He, the prince, had almost grown up overnight!
Their destination for this trip was Nastrondir, north of the Storm Peaks.
A tribe of Storm Dragons lived there.
Before setting off, Wrathion's painstakingly assembled Blacktalon agents had already found out that in the peaks of the Storm Peaks, there was a dragon named Thorim, whose ancestors had sworn allegiance to the Titan Keepers hundreds of thousands of years ago and belonged to the Titan lineage.
As for why they failed to become members of the Guardian Dragonflight, Wrathion also got the answer from Sinestra.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the proto-dragon Galakrond mutated for unknown reasons and began to slaughter other creatures. Some surviving proto-dragons assisted Tyr, the King of Order, in killing Galakrond and protecting Azeroth.
Tyr proposed granting these proto-dragons the power of the Titans so that they could jointly protect Azeroth.
If the Titan Keepers were equivalent to the headquarters established by the Titans on Azeroth, then the proto-dragons who received the Titan's blessing were equivalent to opening branch offices in various regions.
Regarding this proposal, only Keeper Odyn among the nine Titan Keepers raised objections.
He recognized the courageous actions of the proto-dragons, but he did not believe that the fate of Azeroth should be entrusted to their shoulders.
Odyn believed that proto-dragons were just primitive life on Azeroth and were not worthy of the responsibility of guarding the world. Only they, who were personally created by the Titans, were qualified to guard this world.
However, Odyn alone could not stand against Tyr and the remaining Keepers' opinions. In the end, the Keepers held a grand ceremony in which the Titan Keepers acted as conduits for transmitting the power of the Titan creators, bestowing the blessings descended from the Pantheon upon the proto-dragons.
Highkeeper Ra guided the power of his creator Aman'Thul, granting Nozdormu the power to control time, making him the Timeless One.
Freya summoned her creator Eonar, bestowing Alexstrasza with the power of life, making her the Life-Binder.
At the same time, Freya also pleaded with Eonar to grant Ysera the blessing of nature, Ysera was responsible for monitoring the evolution of all things in Azeroth in the Emerald Dream, becoming the Guardian of the Emerald Dream.
Loken summoned his creator Norgannon, granting Malygos earth-shattering arcane power, achieving the title of Malygos the Spell-Weaver.
Keeper Archaedas then gifted Neltharion to Khaz'goroth, and Neltharion was given the title of Earth-Warder, in charge of the mountains and chasms of the entire earth.
And according to Sinestra, who witnessed everything, there was actually another proto-dragon present at the time!
She was Thrymjaris!
In the original plan, she would have been granted the power of storms and thunder by the Titan Keeper Odyn requesting the Pantheon Titan: Golganneth, Lord of the Skies and Seas, in that grand ceremony, becoming the Guardian Dragon controlling the power of storms.
However, Odyn, who originally disagreed with this ceremony, intercepted most of the power during the transmission process, causing Thrymjaris's final power to be insufficient and failing to become a Guardian Dragon like the other five dragons!