Opening the Way
The cinematic opens in Timberstep Outpost, the Shikaar village we first visit in the Ohn’ahran Plains, which is overlooked by Valdrakken. Shalkeel, a centaur guarding the village, notices the three Primal Incarnates flying overhead. As he goes to investigate, he finds himself confronting Fryakk, who incinerates the centaur with the sort of swift brutality we’ve come to associate with the Fire Incarnate.
Shalkeel: Hmm.
Shalkeel: Halt! You trespass in Shikaar territory! Explain what you… are… doing… here.
Fyrakk seems impatient, but the reason for the Primalists’ presence here is quickly revealed. “A hidden path to Aberrus”, which will take us underground and into Patch 10.1.
Fyrakk: Can we get on with it? You said we’d find it here.
Vyranoth: We have. From what I have transcribed, Neltharion had a hidden path to Aberrus, just below this ridge.
Iridikron: Sealed beneath earth and water, undisturbed for thousands of years.
Vyranoth: Then let us open the way.
While it takes the magic of all three Primalists working together to open the way into Zaralek Cavern, only Fyrakk is sent down with clear instructions from Iridikron – feast on the elemental power below and awaken the Djaradin Elders.
Iridikron: Fyrakk, you will feast upon the elemental power below. Wake the Elders from their slumber and incinerate any who stand in our way.
Wake the Djaradin Elders
The Djaradin Elders were first mentioned by Tarjin the Blind in one of Tarjin’s Tales. In his Tale of the Elders, Tarjin describes the four Djaradin Elders who combined their powers to burrow deep inside the earth. Once they emerged, they were “touched by the fires of the world” and had gained the power to command “full control over fire and earth”.
Tarjin the Blind says: According to legend, four elders of those ancient djaradin joined their powers together to burrow deep inside the earth.
Tarjin the Blind says: The legends do not agree what happened down there, but they all end the same way.
Tarjin the Blind says: The elders emerged, touched by the fires of the world to be true djaradin, commanding full control over fire and earth!
Tarjin the Blind says: In turn, the elders empowered all djaradin into the mighty giants you see today!
In a later tale, the Tale of the Slumbering, Tarjin described Neltharion finally defeating the Elders through “guile and trickery”. According to the Djardin’s tales, the Elders did not die, but slumber deep beneath the earth. During the Vault of the Incarnates raid, Djaradin can be overheard discussing the search for an Elder.
Qalashi Emissary yells: Be on your guard, I do not trust these dragon worshippers.
Qalashi Emissary yells: If their aid were not necessary to find our elder, their bones would be adorning our hall.
The Elemental Powers Below
From Tarjin’s Tales, we know that the Djaradin believe their powers come from their Elders becoming touched by the “fires of the world”, deep beneath the Earth. Iridikron has also mentioned this strong elemental power before, during the Secrets of the Reach, Patch 10.0.7’s introductory cinematic. According to Iridikron, Aberrus is empowered by molten fire – and it is this elemental power that Fyrakk will now feast on.
Vyranoth: The location of Aberrus must lie within this vessel. I will decipher its knowledge.
Fyrakk: What use are Neltharion’s twisted experiments to us?
Iridikron: The laboratory itself is of no consequence. But the molten fire that empowers it… that we can use.
We have speculated before that this molten could have more to it than just extremely strong elemental power. In a way, Neltharion’s power had always been inherently linked to the power of the Void, because he took power from the same Earth that the Old Gods had infected. His “dominion over the deep places of the earth” caused Neltharion to be uniquely susceptible to Old God corruption, as they had corrupted those deep places.
This makes us once again wonder about the uniquely powerful molten lava that empowered Aberrus and the Djaradin Elders and that will help to empower Fyrakk now. Is it just extremely hot fire, or will Fyrakk find some Void powers in the fire deep below the earth as well?
From the PTR, we do in fact know that Fyrakk becomes infused with Shadowflame after bathing in the molten lava found within Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible.
Let the Children of Neltharion Claim their Birthright
Iridikron and Vyranoth do not follow Fyrakk into Zaralek Cavern, seemingly uninterested in claiming the elemental power below for themselves. We don’t yet know what their plans are, but their final words make it clear that they are aware Sarkareth and the Sundered Flame have followed them.
Vyranoth: Exquisite. In his wake, the dracthyr will succumb to the temptation of Aberrus and unleash the Aspects’ darkest nightmares.
Iridikron: Come. We have much to do.
Iridikron: Let the children of Neltharion claim their birthright.
Again, this directly references Secrets of the Reach, which closed with Sarkareth determined to reclaim Neltharion’s legacy from Aberrus for the Sundered Flame.
Sarkareth: Whatever remains of Neltharion’s legacy… belongs to us.
Once the Ebon Scales, the formation of the Sundered Flame happened during the events of the Dracthyr starting area. Disillusioned after waking to find Neltharion gone and his promises broken, Sarkareth declared an intent to claim the legacy that he views as belonging to the Dracthyr by right.
Scalecommander Sarkareth says: I am done taking orders! Our vow to serve the dragons is sundered… just as Neltharion broke his promises to us!
Scalecommander Sarkareth says: Let the Ebon Scales be forgotten! We are now the Sundered Flame! We will claim the destiny that is ours by right!
The Sundered Flame seek the power that can be found within Aberrus, but Vyranoth and Iridikron’s comments suggest there is more to this story than just power.
Once again, Neltharion’s legacy is inherently linked to his fall to corruption. This is a theme we see echoed throughout stories involving the Black Dragonflight, from Wrathion’s attempts to purge his flight of corruption, to Voraxian and Veritistrasz discussing the Black Dragonflight’s true legacy or Emberthal and Ebyssian’s conversations. Over and over, we find both Dracthyr and members of the Black Dragonflight struggling to grapple with what it means to be Neltharion’s children and the legacy that involves, with the Sundered Flame representing those who have decided to embrace the power of Aberrus and claim it for themselves.
Unleash the Aspects’ Darkest Nightmares
While all Neltharion’s children share a complicated legacy, there have been many hints about something unique about the Dracthyr. Time and time again, it has been shown Neltharion feared something about his own Dracthyr. In Dragonflight Legacies: Chapter Three, we saw how Emberthal still felt loyal to Neltharion even after she regained her free will. Despite commanding this loyalty, Neltharion still chose to put the Dracthyr in a stasis after losing complete control over them – a betrayal that Emberthal struggles to come to terms with.
Emberthal: So he locked us away. Forgot we even existed. It would have been kinder to simply destroy us.
Nozdormu: I am sorry, my young friend. We had to know the truth. But do not despair. I now believe that Neltharion locked you away because of what you might become.
Emberthal: What we might achieve free of his control.
In the Burden of Lapisagos, a lore book from Patch 10.0.7, we learned that the blue dragons guarding the Evokers believed their nature to be so dangerous, that it would be better to collapse the creches and kill all Dracthyr rather than allow them to escape with their free will. A collection of Forbidden Reach Journals records how the Black Dragon Adamanthia tried to advocate for the Dracthyr, arguing that did not need to be controlled and their hearts and minds could be won over instead.
I have confirmed that the dracthyr are not “broken.”
Dracthyr with free will are powerful, dangerously so. Yet they are not mindless cretins. Their hearts and minds can be won over just as any free thinking mortal might.
With your permission, I would like to awaken more of the weyrns so that we might explore this assertion further.
Neltharion’s response reads as extreme, to say the least. Adamanthia herself can be found imprisoned in a stasis in the High Creche.
This is your final warning, Adamanthia. If you continue in your defiance, you will become an example to all any foolishly entertain such asinine aspirations.
Your suffering will span millennia. Even death will not release you. Any who look upon you will gaze upon your torment and despair. Cease this folly, or retribution awaits you.
Over and over, it seems that Neltharion’s fear of the Dracthyr goes beyond mere paranoia – there is something about their inherent nature that disturbed him. Something that the Primal Incarnates seem to believe will be unlocked in Aberrus.
With Sarkareth and the Sundered Flame determined to claim their birthright, it seems we may learn just what Neltharion was so afraid of soon enough.
