Wakeners

The Wakeners were an order of eredar magi led by the sorcerer Thal'kiel several years before Sargeras' arrival on Argus. They were eventually destroyed by the eredar leadership for consorting with demons and attempting to install Thal'kiel as dictator of Argus.

The symbol of the Wakeners is the Scythe-like object seen on the draenei banners.

History
Specialists in the arts of conjuration and binding, the Wakeners were renowned for their clever arcane constructs — which helped build the Argussian capital's wondrous architecture — and their exploration of new frontiers in summoning.

However, their leader Thal'kiel thirsted for ever more power, and one day he made contact with a dark presence in the Great Dark Beyond who showed him visions of power beyond imagining and gave him the ability to summon lesser demons — knowledge he then immediately spread to his Wakeners. Believing this to be the start of a new era for Argus, Thal'kiel conducted a demonstration of this new knowledge before the eyes of Kil'jaeden and Velen, the rulers of Argus, by summoning a storm of infernals to destroy his old arcane constructs as a symbolic display of the new age. However, the demonstration did not garner him the approval he had expected, for Velen harshly condemned his actions and forbade Thal'kiel from ever summoning demons again.

After the disastrous demonstration, Thal'kiel withdrew to his chambers for weeks, neither eating nor sleeping, his only companions being the demons he summoned and then banished in rage. When he emerged, having become twisted as if aged by centuries, he summoned his Wakeners (who loved him like a father), told them that "The new era begins" and ordered them to resume their demonic experiments. Using powerful spells to hide their operations from the eyes of Velen and Kil'jaeden, the Wakeners began summoning increasingly powerful demons with the sole purpose of installing Thal'kiel as dictator of Argus. However, Thal'kiel's ambitious young apprentice, Archimonde, was eager to prove himself to Argus' leadership, and so slipped away the night before the planned coup to inform Velen and Kil'jaeden of his master's plans.

Archimonde himself broke the wards hiding Thal'kiel's army and led a contingent of magi to storm the Wakeners' secret training grounds. The Wakeners were caught off guard and easily defeated, and the demons were quickly slaughtered when they found themselves leaderless. As Thal'kiel tried to summon in more reinforcements, Archimonde decapitated his former master with a single stroke of his blade. The eredar now known as Talixae Flamewreath, another student, escaped the raid as she was mysteriously missing at the time.

After they crushed Thal'kiel's rebellion, the eredar rulers' magi burned the Wakeners' bodies so their fel taint would not spread, and they destroyed the rebels' writings to suppress the knowledge of their foul arts. Archimonde oversaw the effort, and when it was done, he was hailed as a hero, and would years later rise to rule Argus alongside Velen and Kil'jaeden.

After Thal'kiel's fall, the Wakeners were taken over by High Wakener Aargon. Under him they delved into the mysteries of soulbinding and invented Vigilants.

It might be notable that all known members were either corrupted by fel magic or eventually joined the Burning Legion.

Members



 * Unnamed