Army of the Light

The Grand Army of the Light, also called the Golden Army, the Army of Light, and the Lightforged, is a faction of enlightened races that the naaru said would one day combat the ravages of the Burning Legion. After the fall of Argus, the draenei's finest warriors followed the prime naaru Xe'ra across the cosmos in an eternal war to bring about the Legion's end. Since then, other survivors of the Burning Crusade have joined the ranks of the Lightforged.

After finally achieving victory on Argus, High Exarch Turalyon believed that it was time to take up arms alongside their brothers and sisters of the Alliance and pledged their forces to High King Anduin Wrynn.

History
When the naaru came to the Prophet Velen and rescued the draenei from the fury of Kil'jaeden, they promised that the Exiled Ones would one day be part of a grand force. The Army of the Light arose from the survivors of worlds destroyed by the Burning Legion and had been battling the demonic army for thousands of years. The Genedar then split into two different ships, the Genedar and Xenedar. The draenei who boarded the Xenedar would become the Lightforged, and went their separate ways to fight the demonic Legion. After the crash of the Genedar, the draenei on Draenor tried to contact the Army.

The draenei awaited the day when the Army would emerge for more than twenty millennia. One of the Prophet Velen's many visions was of the Army of the Light: a grand coalition of humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves, worgen, orcs, tauren, trolls, goblins — and even the undead. The draenei themselves are foretold as the backbone of this mighty army, with many naaru joining the fray against the darkness, along with an innumerable amount of dragons and naaru. The leader of this great coalition, clad in Light-imbued armor with a matching blade, is a human of unclear identity. The vision met its end after a great and terrible shadow cast its darkness over the defenders of the Light, though the army only charged to meet it in battle.

Right before the invasion of Outland began, Khadgar and Velen reached out to the naaru independently, both seeking aid against the dark forces amassing on Outland. The Army of the Light heard their pleas but the Army's battles with the Legion were costly and ceaseless, so they could not spare soldiers to protect Outland. Instead A'dal, M'uru, and O'ros volunteered to help the people of Outland and arrived with Tempest Keep.

In World of Warcraft: Illidan, an "elder naaru" shows a possible future in which Illidan Stormrage is one of the leaders of the Army of the Light, fighting the Burning Legion and the Void with other champions. His Warglaives of Azzinoth glow with the Light. His features are described as "calm and strong and at peace. His face was filled with confidence, shorn of all suffering."

At some point, the dreadlord Lothraxion was infused with the Light and joined the Army of the Light to fight against the Legion as its High Commander. During the Burning Legion's third invasion of Azeroth, Lothraxion was sent by High Exarch Turalyon to protect it.

The Army of the Light has been at war with the Legion on the ruined draenei homeworld of Argus for centuries, engaging in tactical guerilla strikes using their warship, the Xenedar. While outnumbered, they continue to fight with cunning, striking at points of opportunity quickly and moving on. According to the Prime Naaru Xe'ra they are losing, however, and as such have sent Light's Heart, the core of Xe'ra, as a last resort to Azeroth for it to be handed to Prophet Velen. Xe'ra is seeking the "child of Light and Shadow", Illidan Stormrage, to bring the battle to an end.

For millennia, the Army of the Light waged battles, skirmishes, and sabotage against the Burning Legion. They all knew they might not survive their final assault on Argus. The Army of the Light's flagship, the Xenedar, crashed on Argus's surface and the resident Krokul saved Turalyon's life. More members of the Army of the Light are encountered at the crash site of the Xenedar and they proceed to aid Azeroth's forces on Argus.

After the Legion's defeat during the Argus Campaign, the Army of the Light traveled to Azeroth abroad their new home and base of operations the Vindicaar, itself orbiting around Azeroth, and reunited with the other draenei. Foreseeing the upcoming war between the Alliance and the Horde, the Lightforged and Captain Fareeya decided to stand alongside their brothers and sisters of the Alliance, even accepting new recruits from their Exodar kin, such as T'paartos. The Lightforged draenei and Turalyon thus pledged to defend the Alliance and seek to spread the Light's justice across the land.

They subsequently participated in the Fourth War, sending the Purified along with some of their technology to protect civilians in Drustvar, and Blademaster Telaamon later willingly sacrificed his life to help the Alliance win the Siege of Dazar'alor, the latter arguing that if the Horde under Sylvanas Windrunner was not stopped, Azeroth would eventually suffer the same fate as Argus.

Types

 * Ground troops
 * Imperial Juggernaut
 * Lightforged Battery
 * Lightforged Warframe
 * Damaged Warframe
 * Assistant Wrangler
 * Fallen Soldier
 * Guardian of the Light
 * Lightforged Artificer
 * Lightforged Battlemage
 * Lightforged Bulwark
 * Lightforged Dragoon
 * Lightforged Sharpshooter
 * Lightforged Warpriest

Dimensional ships
Current
 * Vindicaar - Current ship of the Army and main base of operations
 * Aurobos, Lothraxion's ship used to reach the Netherlight Temple in order to stop Balnazzar's assault

Former
 * The Xenedar (destroyed)
 * Tempest Keep and satellites (formerly)

Faction description
''After the fall of Argus, the draenei's finest warriors followed the prime naaru Xe'ra across the cosmos in an eternal war to bring about the Legion's end. Since then, other survivors of the Burning Crusade have joined the ranks of the Lightforged.''

Notes and trivia

 * Lightforged Draenei members of the Army of the Light have golden eyes. Turalyon had golden eyes when in the presence of Xe'ra.
 * Few draenei among the army wield "true magic" anymore after seeing what tempted their brethren.
 * Draenei members of the Army of the Light sent by Aurobos with Lothraxion were originally simply shown as heavily armored draenei.
 * The Army of the Light's elekk mounts were introduced to them by Alleria and Turalyon, who had spent time on the elekk homeworld, Draenor. The Army also tried to save some of Argus' native species.
 * Lightforged members of the Army of the Light are empowered and immortal.
 * Archmage Y'mera says "Give me a hundred Lightforged. Barring that, a thousand regular troops", which is a reference to the  Space Marines. The Lightforged also make use of drop pod-style bunkers.
 * Legends say that the Army of the Light use pylons to transport their troops to distant worlds.
 * The Army of the Light was told about Tempest Keep by Xe'ra, but none have ever seen it themselves.
 * Xe'ra never told the army that naaru can fall to the Void, as she did not want them to know about that.
 * The Army's technology is powered by argunite, which was also used by the ancient eredar of Argus.
 * The Grand Army's lightforged armor is honed to protect their vindicators from the Legion's fel magic.
 * The Army of the Light uses Empyrium, described as "the finest material on Argus", in the creation of their armors. Master Blacksmith Khamir create breastplates and other pieces from it aboard the Vindicaar.
 * The Army has its own Council of Exarchs.
 * Lightforged draenei have normal draenei children, as shown in the allied race Vindicaar.
 * The Caretaker for these children refers to herself as part of the same group as the Lightforged, showing that not all draenei within the group are Lightforged.
 * At BlizzCon 2011, Chris Metzen discussed various high-concept ideas he had about the cosmology of Warcraft, many of which would later be realized in Legion. One of these ideas was that of a "shining fleet of draenei" somewhere in the cosmos which Velen didn't know about, which largely matches Legion ' s depiction of the Army of the Light.
 * As with Velen, the Army of the Light may be a reference to a similar faction called "The Army of Light" from the sci-fi television series . Both factions were prophesied by a higher race of beings of light (naaru/Vorlons) to lead the battle against the shadow. Both factions are led by a human (Turalyon/John Sheridan), and both factions have a spaceship (the Xenedar/Babylon 5) serving as their headquarters.

Speculation

 * In a distant future, High King Anduin Wrynn and Prophet Velen are seen preparing for a final battle, presumably as a part of the Army.
 * It is highly plausible that the "elder naaru" Illidan met is the Prime Naaru Xe'ra.
 * In the novel Beyond the Dark Portal a naaru appeared to Turalyon and encouraged him to proceed with his decision to stop the Horde from finding new worlds to conquer. It is possible that the naaru was Xe'ra and that she knew that one day Turalyon would join the Golden Army, perhaps even inciting him to do so.
 * It is unclear why the Army seemingly never recruited races beyond those of Argus and Azeroth during the millennia they spent fighting the Burning Crusade (Lothraxion being the single known exception), although it is possible that Xe'ra and the other naaru believed only peoples from worlds with titan world-souls would be formidable to stand alongside them against the Legion for an extended period of time.
 * As Lothraxion has departed the Vindicaar and previously mentioned that remnants of the Legion yet remained after Sargeras's defeat, it is possible that some of the Army of the Light led by Lothraxion and others are still engaging their forces throughout the cosmos.