Recommended Game Story · Warcraft Part 22

The Fall of Argus · Those Who Kept the Light Despite Losing Their Home

Spoiler Notice: This entry covers the three leaders of the Eredar civilization, the offer of Sargeras, Velen’s vision and the aid of the Naaru, the escape from Argus, the long exile, and the beginning of the settlement on Draenor. Events revealed in the Legion expansion are placed within their original chronological context, while the later Argus campaign and the final battle are reserved for their respective eras. This is a narrative commentary based on official events. The atmosphere of the scenes is an interpretation and not a reproduction of official novel text or dialogue.

Chapter 1 · Even the World of Demons Had a Past by Another Name

To those who first encountered the name Argus in war, it appears as the homeworld of demons. However, looking back through the long history, a different world emerges. There was a prosperous Eredar civilization, filled with people who mastered knowledge and magic. Before it became the starting point of an invasion, it was a home to which some longed to return.

At the center of this civilization stood three leaders: Velen, Kil’jaeden, and Archimonde. Looking only at their later names, it feels as though they were enemies from the start, but the era they ruled together was a time when all three names could look toward the same future. The destiny that would split them into a Destroyer and a Prophet was not yet their defining title.

The relationship between Velen and Kil’jaeden was particularly close. The official short story reflecting on Velen’s failure to turn his brothers back does not explain this schism merely as a failure of policy. The story of losing those one was close to extends into the wars of the cosmos. Here, the word 'brother' is not a statement of bloodline, but a term reflecting the deep bond between old companions.

How did those who protected civilization become the commanders of a legion that destroys it? One must grasp this question first so that the fall of Argus does not become a simple story about a planet inhabited by evil beings. Those who became demons had a history before, and someone who remembers that time survived.

In the previous part, we saw the darkness hidden within Medivh, who inherited the power of the Guardian. This time, we look back much further in time to examine the origins of the leaders who joined the Legion on a distant star. In that it follows the roots of a threat spanning multiple worlds, the story of Argus connects to the previous story of the Guardian. On one side, it burrows into the heart of a trusted shield; on the other, it approaches with an offer promising a magnificent future. While we do not merge the events of the two worlds into a single date, there is a similar crack in the way the catastrophe is prepared.

Chapter 2 · It Was Not an Army That Knocked on the Door, but a Promise

Sargeras took note of the Eredar’s capabilities. Instead of simply destroying an outstanding civilization, he chose to use it for his own purposes. What he offered was power and knowledge that exceeded the limits the leaders had imagined. What he demanded in return was loyalty.

The danger of this deal lies in the fact that the price can appear as a separate, minor clause. It promises greater power to those already strong, and deeper truths to those who already know much. A promise to complete what one possesses can sound more appealing than a demand to give it up. This is not a rewriting of the leaders' inner thoughts at the time, but a commentary on why an official offer could shake a civilization.

Kil’jaeden and Archimonde decided to accept the offer. Their decision did not end with the change of two individuals. The countless people who trusted and followed the leaders' names, the civilization they represented, and the knowledge and abilities that civilization possessed were all turned toward a different goal. The history of Argus shows the massive scale of how one person’s choice can displace so many lives.

Velen saw a different outcome beyond that promise. He was a Prophet who examined the future through artifacts like the Ata’mal crystal. The future that crystal showed for the Eredar was not one where his kin became wiser. It was a path where the Eredar turned into demons and destroyed life. It meant that the offer to enhance the power of civilization was, in reality, an offer to turn the civilization itself into something else.

Despite his warnings, the decisions of the two leaders did not change. People who heard the same words and the same offer did not reach the same conclusion. What is needed to understand this split is not just a comparison of who possessed more magical power. There was a judgment to be made between the power promised before their eyes and the consequences that power would bring.

What remained for Velen was not to keep that judgment to himself. If there was a path to avoid this, he had to lead his kin along that path. It was the moment when a man who had been a leader became the leader of those who had to leave their civilization.

Chapter 3 · In Search of a Path to Leave

When Velen sought help, it was the Naaru that responded. The beings of Light said they would lead those who shared his intent to a safe place. The public search text of the official chronicle reveals that the Naaru who delivered this response was K’ure. For a leader in despair, a way to gather his people had emerged.

The Light here does not act as a declaration that all problems have vanished. Even with help, the decisions made by the leaders of the homeworld remain, and those who leave must part ways with those who stay. It is not a victory march that arrives immediately at a safe destination. It was the beginning of a long life of constant flight across the cosmos.

Velen quietly gathered the Eredar he could trust. Taking people away is not expressed merely in grand numbers. For a leader widely known enough to move a civilization, what was needed now was the judgment to let those who followed him leave safely. The homeworld they had protected together in the previous history no longer guaranteed them the same safety.

However, even trusting those close to one was not guaranteed to be safe. In the public search scene of the official novel, Talgath appears, to whom Velen showed his vision and sought cooperation. As he, who seemed to agree at first, lunges at those preparing to escape, trust turns into a threat. It was not just the Legion from outside the homeworld that blocked the refugees. There were also instances where people known and lived with inside the home chose a different path.

In this section, we follow the actions that can be confirmed in the public scenes. The subsequent pursuit by Talgath and the story of Velen’s family added by the game are covered more deeply by contrasting official quest materials in the relevant character section and the Legion-era main story. We do not fabricate the final fate of the family or the exact escape route that has not yet been confirmed.

It was the Genedar that carried those who left. This dimensional vessel, accompanied by the Naaru, opened a path that could lead away from the homeworld. This name is worth remembering. If one thinks of the later Exodar, the Xenedar of the Army of the Light, and the Vindicaar returning to Argus as all being the same ship, the evacuations and expeditions of various eras become muddled into a single scene. In English, this first evacuation ship is the Genedar, while the ship used by the later Army of the Light is the Xenedar.

Boarding the same ship meant having made the same choice. It was a choice not to offer their abilities to the Legion, a choice to leave open the possibility of living in a place yet unknown. Their new name was Draenei, meaning 'the exiled ones.' The history of the Eredar who refused corruption thus continues as the history of refugees.

However, if one only follows the departure of the Genedar, one cannot see the full price of this escape. This is because there were those who remained for the sake of those who left.

Chapter 4 · One Light Remained and Bought Time

The Naaru L’ura remained on Argus. While Velen and his people escaped on the Genedar, L’ura bought them the time they needed. This brief fact carries the meaning that the salvation of those who left was placed upon the danger of someone else.

There is no need to fabricate the exact spells or dialogue of how they fought. The result conveyed by the official dungeon guide itself is heavy. Kil’jaeden was enraged by the defection and had the wounded L’ura imprisoned in the Seat of the Triumvirate. The Light that had helped the refugees was left behind at the center of the old civilization, unable to leave with the surviving kin.

If one views the location 'Seat of the Triumvirate' only as the name of a dungeon where a battle takes place, the weight of this history diminishes. The place that once held the era of the three leaders has now become the place that imprisons the victim of that decision. At the center where people once looked upon and ruled the world, the being that allowed them to leave the world is trapped. The distance between a throne and a prison is deeper here than the size of the building.

L’ura’s later story continues to a distant era. Those who came to the Argus expedition in the future encounter L’ura again, who, after long years of imprisonment, has tilted from Light to Void. We do not bring the final battle into the current escape scene as if it has already ended. What must remain in this part is the moment of sacrifice and the beginning of the results that sacrifice left behind across a long time.

That fact prevents us from reading the Naaru and the Light simply as signs that are always safe and unchanging. Even a being that provides help can have wounds and pay a price. However, one cannot broadly say that all Naaru experienced the same events in the same order as L’ura. Not turning the tragedy of one confirmed being into a law regarding all Light in the universe is the way to read this story accurately.

The Genedar left, and L’ura remained. This is why the evacuation of the Draenei cannot be remembered only as the great decision of one person. There were other choices that sustained that path.

Chapter 5 · The Left-Behind Star, the Chaser, and the Chased

On Argus, the Eredar who chose to be loyal to Sargeras turned into demons. The process of a prosperous civilization being swallowed by the Legion followed according to whose purpose the inhabitants entrusted their power to. The change that began with the leader’s decision was splitting the future of the entire kin.

The Draenei were not the people who defeated the Legion and reclaimed Argus. They were the people who refused it and escaped. If one remembers this difference, the long exile that follows can also be understood. They were not yet a liberation army with the power to topple an overwhelming enemy, nor had they obtained a safe new home.

Kil’jaeden took Velen’s defection as a betrayal and vowed to hunt them to the ends of the universe. A close companion who once led civilization together becomes an inescapable pursuer. The scale of the war expanded between stars, but within it remained the relationships of people who once stood together.

In this section, there is no need to bring the later reunion of Velen and Kil’jaeden as if it were the conclusion. Many worlds and countless other lives enter the story before that reunion. The act of chasing those who defected does not end with the story of the two leaders, but also affects the inhabitants of the new worlds the refugees would seek.

It cannot be said that everyone who remained on Argus disappeared into a single fate. The official Argus expedition guide explains that there were those who resisted the Legion’s conquest but could not escape. In the future, they appear as a force seeking to reclaim their home by meeting new allies. The history of those who left and the history of those who stayed and endured walk different paths before meeting again.

Therefore, behind the statement that a star became a fortress of the Legion, the time of those who knew that place as home remains. The name of the victorious Legion alone cannot replace that entire history.

Chapter 6 · What Must Be Protected Together in Place of a Home

The exile between the stars made the Draenei a new community. They did not abandon all the power their civilization possessed. Instead, the direction in which they had to use that power changed. The belief that they must respect the Light and uphold its ideals, following the teachings of the Naaru, became the standard for living together even outside their lost home.

When a home exists, it is easy for people to think that the place will hold their memories. The same streets, the same buildings, and familiar names tell them who they are. For the refugees, that place was no longer by their side. The act of those who boarded the Genedar not losing sight of each other, and the principles they had to keep in the next place, filled that void. This is not a scene fabricated about a specific family, but a commentary reading the meaning of community in the official history of the exodus.

The long pursuit makes one feel the size of the universe differently. Just because there are many stars does not mean one can stay safely anywhere. While the Draenei were looking for a place to live, the Legion could make even the possibilities they found dangerous again. Someone who departed to avoid an enemy might have to prepare for the next departure.

Even so, the choice to follow the Light does not stop at merely waiting for a signal to show the way. Unlike their kin who were promised power and joined the Legion, the Draenei tried to survive while holding onto different ideals. For the refusal on Argus to have meaning in their subsequent lives, that difference had to remain within the way they survived.

Velen remained the leader of that long journey. Having the ability to see the future does not mean he could eliminate everyone’s loss or make the price of every decision disappear. This is why later official short stories deal with his long-standing regrets and the responsibilities of a leader together. However, we do not move all the countless possible futures of that short story into actual history.

Time added the name of Prophet to Velen, but beneath that name remained the choices of the people who left their home. The reason the story of the Draenei does not feel like just a setting of a distant universe is because their history keeps returning to the question of whom they will protect.

Chapter 7 · The World That Accepted the New Name of the Refugees

Finally, the Draenei settled on a remote world. The Orcs they met there were not an army belonging to the Legion from the start. There was a world of people who followed spirits and ancestors. If one only remembers the war that would happen later, one misses the other possibilities of the time when the two races first encountered each other.

The Draenei called that world Draenor, the refuge of the exiled. The name contains both the past of having lost a home and the future of wanting to stay. People who had left Argus were able to start a new life under a different sky.

The name 'refuge' is beautiful, but giving it that name does not make external threats disappear. Kil’jaeden’s pursuit did not end either. He eventually learns about Draenor and its inhabitants. Now, what the Legion can use is not just the method of attacking the refugees directly. A path has opened to turn the relationships of people living in the same world in a different direction.

Here, the story moves to the next part. What kind of civilization and life did the inhabitants of Draenor have? How do those who followed spirits come to believe in the words of a different power? For whose purpose is what they called an army to protect them used? The pursuit that began on Argus now seeks to change the history of the Orcs and the new home of the Draenei together.

Those who left on the Genedar survived. It was not a meaningless flight. A community that did not entrust its future to the Legion remained, and the possibility that one could find a different path by following the Light remained. However, the fact that they survived does not guarantee safety in the next era.

The lights of Argus grew distant, but the history of the people who split there continued under other stars.

Glossary and Name Search

Argus: The homeworld of the Eredar civilization. We do not merge the civilization before the fall and the state after it became a Legion fortress into the same point in time.

Eredar: The race that developed knowledge and magic on Argus. We do not explain that all Eredar were demons from the beginning.

Velen: The leader and Prophet who refused Sargeras’s offer and led those who shared his intent. He chose a different path from his close companion, Kil’jaeden.

Kil’jaeden & Archimonde: Leaders who led civilization together with Velen. After accepting Sargeras’s offer, they lead into the history of the Legion.

K’ure & L’ura: Naaru who helped the evacuation. K’ure is the being who delivered the path of salvation to Velen, and L’ura remained on Argus to buy time for the escape. They are roles of different beings.

Ata’mal crystal & Talgath: Artifacts and an old companion entangled in Velen’s prophecy and evacuation. We distinguish the results shown by the crystal and the betrayal revealed by Talgath from the separate reunions that occur in the Legion era.

Draenei: The exiled ones. Refers to the community of Eredar who refused the Legion’s corruption and left with Velen.

Genedar: The evacuation ship leaving Argus. We do not merge the later Army of the Light’s ship Xenedar, the Exodar departing from Tempest Keep, and the Vindicaar returning to Argus as different names for the same ship.

Draenor: The world the Draenei made their new refuge. It is a world different from Azeroth, and we distinguish the events before and after the later destroyed Outland.

History to Read Together

The powers of the universe and the path of destruction chosen by Sargeras are in Parts 1 and 2, and the danger permeating the power of the Guardian of Azeroth continues in Part 21. The origins of Draenor, its races, the birth of the Horde, and the deeper stories of Velen, Kil’jaeden, and the Naaru continue in the connected main story and character/setting sections. We do not connect unreleased parts as if they were published pages.

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Official Materials and Scope of Verification

Verification Date: October 8, 2026 (UTC). Written based on settings and events confirmed in the official public materials below. Public samples and setting introductions were checked only for their respective public scope, and we do not indicate that the entire books were read. Illustrations are AI reconstructions, not official images.

Patch 7.3 Preview: The Campaign for Argus — Updated Sept. 12

Dungeon Preview: Seat of the Triumvirate

World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume I — publisher-authorized Google Books preview/search

World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde — Authorized Public Preview

Velen: Prophet’s Lesson — Marc Hutcheson

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade — official manual, Legacy of the Blood Elves

Burning Crusade Classic: The Story So Far