Ancient battles of the elemental lords

The apocalyptic battles between the elemental lords raged for untold millennia. Dominion over Azeroth constantly shifted between factions, each striving to remake the world in their own image. Yet to the elementals the victory was secondary as they wished to continue their endless cycle of chaos.

Prelude
As Azeroth formed, elemental spirits roamed its surface. As the vast, burgeoning world-soul was consuming much of the fifth element, Spirit, the elemental spirits descended into chaos. Without this primordial force to create balance, they became more violent and erratic.

Fire, earth, air, and water reveled in unending strife, keeping the face of Azeroth in constant elemental flux. Four elemental lords reigned supreme over the innumerable lesser spirits.

Tactics
Of the elemental lords, none could match the ruthless cunning of Al'Akir the Windlord. He often sent his elusive tempest minions to spy on his enemies and sow distrust among their ranks. Using feints and ruses, he would pit the other elementals against each other, only later to unleash the full fury of his servants on his weakened foes. The winds would howl and the skies would darken with storms at his approach. As lightning blasted the world's surface, Al'Akir's whirlwind elementals would come screaming from the heavens, enveloping his foes in monstrous cyclones.

Ragnaros the Firelord despised Al'Akir's cowardly ways. Compulsive and brash, the Firelord embraced brute force to annihilate his enemies. Wherever he went, volcanoes would burst through the world's crust, spewing forth rivers of fire and destruction. Ragnaros longed for nothing more than to boil the seas, reduce the mountains to slag, and choke the skies with ember and ash. The other elemental lords fostered a deep hatred of Ragnaros for his brazen and devastating assaults.

Therazane the Stonemother was the most reclusive elemental ruler. Ever protective of her children, she raised towering mountain ranges to ward off her enemies' assaults. Only after they had worn themselves thin against her impenetrable fortifications would the Stonemother emerge, wrenching open giant chasms in the earth and swallowing entire elemental armies whole. Those who survived would meet oblivion at the fists of Therazane's most powerful servants: walking mountains of unforgiving crystal and stone.

The wise Neptulon the Tidehunter was careful not to fall for Al'Akir's schemes or to commit, his minions to fruitless attacks against Therazane's citadels. As the armies of fire, air, and earth clashed across the face of Azeroth, the Tidchunter and his elementals would divide and conquer their rivals in brilliant routs. When his foes fled, Neptulon would crush them beneath tidal waves that dwarfed even Therazane's highest mountain holdings.

Aftermath
Once defeated and united under servitude by the Old Gods, the elemental lords later participated in the war between the titans and their new masters. Then they were defeated again and imprisoned in the Elemental Plane, where they could at last resume their endless, chaotic civil war in the form of the Elemental Sundering.