Aranna, Illidan and the Rusted Legion – The Lore of Trial by Felfire

Party on, Hearthstone fans! The Felfire Festival is in full force, and with it came the first part of Ashes of Outland’s single player experience called Trial by Felfire.

Over the course of five chapters and a total of 21 missions we hear about the story of Aranna Starseeker, Trial by Felfire’s female protagonist. In this article we take a deep dive into the happenings around Aranna, her mentor Illidan, and the Rusted Legion, all with Warcraft’s lore of Outland and the Burning Crusade expansion in mind!

Chapter I: A World in Ruin

The description of Trial by Felfire’s first mission hits the nail on the head: “Aranna finds herself in a devastated land” – a land called Outland. Once the orc homeworld called Draenor, Outland set the stage for WoW’s first expansion The Burning Crusade.

To put it in a nutshell, a very stubborn orc called Ner’zhul once tried to open up more and more portals for his orc brethren to escape the attacks of the Alliance that tried to close the Dark Portal which the orcs originally used to invade Azeroth. 

Portal opening in Warcraft lore has always been a two-edged sword, and Ner’zhul’s efforts were no exception to that: The planet got torn apart by the Twisting Nether, leaving behind a shattered world full of demons and other monstrosities.

A pit lord called Magtheridon, lieutenant of the Burning Legion and sent by Sargeras himself, took Outland after its creation and ruled with a fel fist over the remaining orcs.

Now back to the first chapter: After she stepped through the Dark Portal to make ground-breaking discoveries just like her sister Elise, Aranna encounters a horned demon called Inquisitor Dakrel, who tries to recruit her for the Rusted Legion. 

In the grand trailer of Felfire Festival we learned that Mecha-Jaraxxus, Dr. Boom’s most threatening experiment, took over countless of demons and other creatures of Outland to turn them into his mechanized minions.

In our first fight we encounter many of these creatures already, such as the “Rustsworn”. References to the “Felsworn” of the Burning Legion, Warcraft’s original demon horde, are not only blatantly obvious but also important to the main story: Hearthstone doesn’t try to ridicule the heritage of Sargeras’ legion – it’s actually quite the opposite, and that really shows through the single player campaign.

Aranna looks to be a huntress, and thanks to her toolkit she takes Dakrel with ease.

In the next fight, we encounter Xur’goth – a so-called floating watcher. Aranna meets Shalja, a naga shaman that Xur’goth seeks to recruit for the Rusted Legion. The night elf once again drives the demon back and saves the naga outcast, who joins her in her adventure as a result.

A night elf and a naga … Where did we hear that before?

This is where the grand homage to Illidan’s storyline starts. Years ago, in a certain strategy game called Warcraft III, Blizzard told the story of the Betrayer that we revisited during the Demon Hunter prologue a few weeks ago. In one of WC:III’s missions, Illidan gets help from the naga and Lady Vashj, who from then on wouldn’t leave the side of her leader.

Back to Trial by Felfire: As Aranna and Shalja move on to discover Outland, they encounter a weird creature that is about the be devoured by a nether stalker called Zixor. They manage to rescue this creature called Sklibb, who turns out to be a sporelok. Sporeloks are rumored to be a sub-species of the sporelings led by Archspore Msshi’fn.

The party of three advances through Hellfire Peninsula, Outland’s easternmost region. They happen to intervene in a fight between a horned dreadlord called Baltharak and the orc Karnuk. But Karnuk is not just an orc. 

Did you ever wonder why the average Warcraft orc has green skin? Long story short: They’ve been corrupted by Gul’dan and his fel magic. Karnuk belongs to the orc race of the Mag’har – the “original” orcs from Draenor, shown through his natural brown skin color. In addition to that he seems to be a priest, which isn’t very common among orcs in Warcraft lore.

Aranna and her entourage save the day once again and Karnuk joins her ranks. Just like Illidan back in the old Warcraft games, Aranna seems to have quite the talent for leadership, especially towards those that have been outcasts their whole life just like herself.

Chapter II: To the Black Temple

Aranna recognizes that saving her friends has become her main mission, so she makes her way to the Black Temple, once an ancient Draenei temple site, to find Illidan, a specialist in dealing with demonic legions.

On her way she fights Kanrethad Ebonlocke, a warlock that we already talked about in HSTD’s most recent Lore of Legendaries piece. Together with her friends, Aranna frees another outcast called Baduu. Baduu belongs to the broken – once Draenei, these creatures have suffered under and been mutated by the chaotic fel energies once brought to Draenor by the Burning Legion.

Yet again, Hearthstone’s single player campaign pays tribute to Illidan’s heritage. In Warcraft III it was the broken Akama who pledged allegiance to the Betrayer, who eventually became the betrayed himself after Akama helped Maiev Shadowsong and the united forces of Azeroth.

The five outcasts continue their journey through Outland and manage to seize a demolisher from the fel orc Burgrak Cruelchain in the second mission of the second chapter. In the third mission, Aranna’s team of outcasts have to brave a fel storm that developed over the skies of Zangarmarsh, only to be met by the terrible Mother Shahraz in the last mission of the chapter.

The six-armed shivarra demon guards the Black Temple as well as Illidan himself. To prove the their worth to the Betrayer, the outcasts have to make short work of her.

All outcasts? Well, not exactly. During the fight against Shahraz, Baduu recognizes her hopeless fate in following Illidan’s ruthless crusade for vengeance and decides to leave the party – just like Akama did decades ago.

Chapter III: To be a Demon Hunter

Finally at the Black Temple, Aranna and the band already accepted that the only way to defeat the Rusted Legion is to become what they fear the most: Demon Hunters. Over the course of four sparring missions, Elise’s sister and her friends fight with each other to show Illidan their abilities as potential Demon Hunters.

During these training sessions, we learn about Aranna’s life and her constant battle with Elise. Illidan encourages her to “turn her hurt into rage” – just like he did during his time as a night elf with his brother Malfurion Stormrage.

Mission after mission, the whole team turns into Illidari – and the alternative hero art perfectly sells this story: Shalja gets four glaives for each of her four arms, little Sklibb grows demonic wings, and Karnuk turns into a red-skinned fel orc.

Now part of Illidan’s army, they have to pass their first test as Demon Hunters against a menace of the Rusted Legion. In the third mission of Chapter III, Jek’haz, a mechanized bird-humanoid of the Arrakoa, merely serves as a punching ball for Aranna.

On top of the Black temple she meets Magtheridon, once Lord of Outland, who now has been turned into a Prime mech by Mecha-Jaraxxus.

By the looks of it, the eredar freed the pit lord from corruption through mechanization – not a bad deal given the fact that Magtheridon’s fel blood was used to bolster Illidan’s army after he had been captured during the Burning Crusade expansion.

However, having a body of steel and possession of one’s blood doesn’t help in the fight against a bunch of Demon Hunters, and thus Magtheridon eventually falls to Aranna and her Illidari.

Chapter IV: Battle for Outland

In the Battle for Outland, the fourth chapter of the single player experience, Aranna and Illidan take the fight to the Rusted Legion.

In their first fight in Netherstorm, Outland’s northernmost region and home of Dr. Boom and Mecha-Jaraxxus, they encounter the mecha-ogre Gok’amok. Thanks to Aranna’s new Demon Hunter toolkit, we break Gok’amok’s mechanical necks and make our way to Flikk.

Flikk is an imp. That’s all there is to it – and not only Illidan and Aranna are quite baffled. However, over the course of the fight, a Rusted Fel Reaver takes over control and poses a lethal threat similar to the Fel Reavers that once patrolled Hellfire Peninsula in World of Warcraft and one-shot players left and right. 

In the end, Aranna and Illidan manage to dismantle the monstrosity and advance to fight the Rusted Legion. In the third mission they encounter an old friend – Baduu. Sadly, she has been turned into a Prime mech by Mecha-Jaraxxus as well and seeks to fully destroy the Demon Hunter entourage.

Just like the other mechs, Aranna makes short work of Baduu – but she doesn’t want to die in vein. After defeat, she reaches out to Aranna:

We know that Baduu refers not only to all Outland citizens but also specifically to her kin, the Broken. Back when Akama served Illidan, he also hoped that his people would be freed from corruption and slavery – but Illidan’s words only contained empty promises, turning Akama into the defector that eventually decided the fate of the Betrayer. 

In the fourth encounter of the last chapter, Aranna and Illidan finally reach their nemesis: Mecha-Jaraxxus. Equipped with the most vile inventions, the modified eredar seeks to turn even more citizens of Outland into mechanized monstrosities.

In the heat of the moment, Illidan shows his true colors. Aranna’s goal to save her friends as well as Outland and its creatures from the Rusted Legion doesn’t align with the plans of the Betrayer to destroy all demons – mechanized or not – once and for all.

Chapter V: The Final Test

After the defeat of Mecha-Jaraxxus, one could think that Hearthstone’s current single player adventure would’ve found a twisted ending – but the finale still awaits. In a last fight, Aranna faces her mentor – her shan’do, as Illidan respectfully called his older brother Malfurion in night-elven language – in a “battle of the wills, with the soul of Outland at stake”.

It is in this final moment where Aranna again becomes aware of her true Starseeker origins – the complete opposite of what Illidan and his crusade stands for.

On the other side of the board, the Betrayer Illidan exclaims that his actions won’t be remembered as “shades of grey” – is this just a natural pop culture reference, or a shot fired at Warcraft’s current anti-hero Sylvanas, the queen dressed in “morally grey”?

He even goes further and compares Aranna to his lost love Tyrande, calling her “soft and slow”, which again could point to a possible weakness towards his female student.

Despite countless vituperations, Aranna tries to conciliate Illidan, and succeeds eventually:

And that is where the first part of Trial by Felfire ends. Left behind is an enlightened Illidan, who has been turned away from hate by his student and only true friend. Will Illidan finally become the good-natured night elf his brother always wanted him to be? Or will hatred yet again consume his soul like it did so many times in his demonic past?

Conclusion

Back when Ashes of Outland was announced, we explained the story of Illidan as a translation of one simple question: Is Illidan good or bad?

Many arguments have been brought up for both answers to this question ever since the introduction of Illidan into Warcraft lore, and Hearthstone’s story-telling adds just a few more. 

Team 5’s Shakespearean approach to the story behind Warcraft’s most polarizing persona really doesn’t come off as “retconning” – the counter-intuitive rewriting of stories and characters for a greater good; in fact, Aranna’s adventure pays its tribute and perfectly entwines with decades of complex tale-tinkering, only to continue to tell a compelling Warcraft story in the most courageous way.