Fandral Staghelm

Fandral Staghelm was formerly the Archdruid of Darnassus, succeeding Malfurion Stormrage after he was lost in the Emerald Nightmare. He was one of the architects of the plan to create Teldrassil. Fandral believed that the future of the night elves demanded more expansionism and military planning. His radical beliefs and aggressive demeanor often led him to quarrel openly with the High Priestess, Tyrande Whisperwind. After it was revealed that he had been corrupted by the Nightmare himself and had prolonged Malfurion's absence, Fandral eventually descended into madness and was to be imprisoned by the Cenarion Circle. He was captured when he was being moved to Moonglade from Mount Hyjal and turned into the first Druid of the Flame, becoming the new Majordomo of the Firelands, until he is killed during the final battle against Ragnaros.

Early life
All druids must sleep in the Emerald Dream from time to time, including Fandral. However, Fandral still managed to sire a son, Valstann. Fandral, though often abrasive and hot-tempered, truly loved his son and took a paternal interest in him even as he reached adulthood and married. Valstann's wife was a night elf named Leyara. Fandral's mate died giving birth to Valstann, meaning that the young man and his wife were effectively the only family Fandral had.

Fandral was present for the founding of the Cenarion Circle.

Creation of the Emerald Nightmare
4,500 years before the First War, Fandral took branches from Nordrassil, the World Tree, and planted them over saronite that had begun to appear across the world, including a particularly large source of saronite in the Grizzly Hills. Five of these became the Great Trees, and he named the World Tree he planted in the Grizzly Hills Andrassil, or "Crown of the Snow". Malfurion Stormrage and the rest of the Cenarion Circle became furious upon learning that these branches had been planted without their approval. They did, however, agree that the plan seemed to have worked. For several decades, Andrassil towered over Northrend, and all seemed well. Yet in time, circumstances changed. Bloody battles erupted between the taunka and the forest nymphs of Northrend, two races not known for their warring ways. The fighting was sudden and shockingly vicious, filled with barbarism and unspeakably vile acts. Word slowly reached the druids, and the Cenarion Circle launched an expedition to investigate the source of the violence.

What the druids found chilled them to their marrow. Andrassil's roots had reached so deep into the earth that they had touched Yogg-Saron's subterranean prison. The Old God had infused the tree with its foul energies, and thus all living creatures in the area were slowly being driven to madness. The Cenarion Circle knew that, without the blessing of the Aspects, Andrassil was vulnerable to corruption. They were also aware that there was no way to spare the World Tree or ease its suffering. The Cenarion Circle decided that the only recourse was to destroy Andrassil. It was renamed Vordrassil, or "Broken Crown."

Although killing Andrassil had been a heartbreaking task, the Cenarion Circle was pleased it had stopped the growth of saronite. Yet unbeknownst to the druids, something dark had taken root in the Emerald Dream. Yogg-Saron had used the trees planted by Fandral as a doorway into the Dream - a doorway through which the other Old Gods could grasp the ethereal domain and well. Small seeds of corruption were spread throughout Ysera's realm. In time, these seeds polluted the dreamways. This marked the beginning of what would become known as the Emerald Nightmare.

The War of the Shifting Sands
A thousand or so years before the First War, Fandral would come to know personal loss on a scale most of his people had not experienced since the Sundering. It began in Silithus, the furthest southern extent of the night elves' territory at that time. For thousands of years, the qiraji had to rebuild their forces in the name of their dread god C'Thun. It fell to the night elves to give battle, and it fell to Fandral to lead the kaldorei against the qiraji. With his son Valstann at his side, Fandral proved an able and creative general. He was in fact so talented that the qiraji even gave him a name: Kar'sis, or Hand of Earth in their native language. Try as they might, the qiraji could not beat him and the night elves under his command. Although the qiraji General Rajaxx believed that the night elf defense was untenable and that they would eventually fall, his twin emperors Vek'nilash and Vek'lor were not willing to wait for a victory of attrition. They ordered Rajaxx to find a way around the Hand of Earth. And after a time, Rajaxx perceived that Fandral only allowed himself one weakness, one deviation from his otherwise iron control of himself: his son was his one weak point.

A diversionary attack on Southwind Village lured the eager Valstann into a defense that proved to be a cunning trap. Valstann's forces were slain and the younger Staghelm brought to the front lines by Rajaxx. The General of the qiraji proceeded to brutally murder Valstann in front of his father. Stunned, Fandral lost the will to fight, and soon, the night elves were forced to retreat through Un'Goro and into Tanaris, where the arrogant qiraji forces staged an attack on the Caverns of Time just as the Bronze Dragonflight was in fact refusing to aid the night elves. This one attack would bring the remaining dragonflights together for the first time since Deathwing's betrayal, ultimately ending in the sealing of Ahn'Qiraj by the Scepter of the Shifting Sands.

Victory could not console Fandral, of course. The loss of Valstann was a blow he was wholly unprepared for, one he could not absorb. He smashed the Scepter against the walls of the qiraji city and stormed away, disgusted with the entire world.

Creation of Teldrassil
After the Third War, the night elves lost along with the world tree Nordrassil, their immortality. Shortly after that, Malfurion entered a deep coma, when Fandral Staghelm ambushed him in his barrow den. No one knew why, and no one knew how to wake him. His absence left the leadership of the druids to Fandral Staghelm, who became the new archdruid. Fandral was the primary contact between the druids and the High Priestess during the period when Malfurion was in the Emerald Dream.

Before his coma, Malfurion opposed Fandral's plan to grow a new World Tree. After Malfurion fell into his coma, Fandral met with the other druids from the Circle of the Ancients and Cenarion Circle and, without Malfurion to argue against him, convinced them of the wisdom of creating the new World Tree. Together, the druids, most believing Fandral's claims, created Teldrassil. Through these druids’ efforts, Teldrassil was planted off the coast of northern Kalimdor, and the bulk of night elven society took up residence atop the new World Tree's mighty boughs. This act, however, was not blessed by the Dragon Aspects the way Nordrassil was. Fandral personally asked Nozdormu and Alexstrasza but they refused. Teldrassil grew rapidly into a massive and majestic tree that towered over the northern shores of Kalimdor and became the new home of the Kaldorei, but all was not right with Fandral's new world tree. The night elves did not regain their immortality, and corruption soon began to spread through Teldrassil. Satyrs, grells, and several other foul creatures made their homes in it.

Fandral, as the leader of the Cenarion Circle, soon proved an even more contentious and abrasive leader than would have been apparent from his past behavior. He clashed regularly with Tyrande Whisperwind, the chief priestess of Elune and leader of the Sentinels, the de facto military of the night elves. Believing in night elven superiority and the need for an aggressive military action against the invading orcs of Durotar, Fandral seemed almost to be regaining his old vigor and drive lost at Valstann's death. However, he also displayed a distressing sense of egotism and even outright disgust towards the tauren druids taught by Hamuul Runetotem, one of Malfurion's students.

World of Warcraft
Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm was a level ?? quest giver located at the Cenarion Enclave in the night elf city of Darnassus, leading the Cenarion Circle. A vision from the past was shown during A Pawn on the Eternal Board.

When the character responds to the archdruid's call for aid, they are first asked to bring a number of samples of the soil of Un'Goro back to an assistant. The archdruid then explains their program for researching morrowgrain, which they know little about. By growing morrowgrain for the Cenarion Circle, the character is given a bag of various goodies - food, water, some potions, and elixirs. And the need of the circle for more morrowgrain for research is endless - provide them more, and they will give more of these goody bags.

Quintis Jonespyre, a druid found in Feathermoon Stronghold, was concerned with why Fandral was using the name of the Cenarion Circle, as well as the Circle's resources, to procure vast amounts of morrowgrain. Quintis had heard that morrowgrain, under the right conditions, exuded qualities like other herbs used in primitive curses. Fandral himself, however, claimed to be researching the properties of the grain when grown in the soil found in Un'Goro Crater. Fandral seemed to regard his collegues in Moonglade in low regards, calling them fools. Mathrengyl Bearwalker, his second, explained that there was a mistrust between Fandral and Remulos.

Fandral also ordered the elimination of trolls from the Alterac Valley because of their claims that night elves evolved from trolls.

World of Warcraft: The Comic
Recently, Fandral met the druid and his human companion. Broll had returned to Darnassus to report the cleansing of the Idol of Remulos. Staghelm suggested that since Broll planned further quests with his friends, the Idol would be safer with the archdruid. Bearmantle agreed, though Lo'Gosh expressed doubts about Fandral's trustworthiness.

Later on, using the idol he summoned Broll through visions back to Darnassus.

The return of Malfurion Stormrage
At some point in the months following the Lich King's defeat, Fandral gathered many druids to Teldrassil, unfolding a master plan to heal the giant tree. , and  were among those he called. He intended to use the Idol of Remulos to achieve this, against Bearmantle's better judgment. Before the ritual could be completed, however, Tyrande arrived, having been warned by Elune that Malfurion's life was in greater danger than before. It was discovered that rather than purifying the tree, Fandral was, in fact, responsible for its being corrupted in the first place. He was the one responsible for grafting a branch of the Nightmare Lord onto Teldrassil and he was the one who led the Cenarion Circle in feeding their powers to the World Tree, thus feeding its corruption. Fandral however, was no longer in control of his own actions. Rather, he was an unwitting pawn and puppet of the father of all satyrs, Xavius, who had been transformed into a tree by Malfurion during the War of the Ancients.

Xavius, in his guise as the Nightmare Lord, servant of the entities behind the Emerald Nightmare's encroachment on the dream, had appeared to Fandral in the form of his son Valstann. Fandral had never been able to reconcile his failure to save his son, and the visitations played on his guilt and rage, eventually driving him to a kind of madness that blinded him to the truth. He chose to believe that Valstann had returned and that all of his actions at "Valstann's" urging were for the greater good. Using morrowgrain to keep Malfurion trapped in the dream, grafting a branch of Xavius' nightmare form onto the young Teldrassil, anything and everything Fandral did he did believing it would fully restore his son to life.

Though Naralex, Shandris Feathermoon, and Hamuul Runetotem had discovered Fandral´s betrayal, Fandral silenced the three and had them imprisoned in the Cenarion Enclave. Only after Malfurion returned to free them was the truth finally revealed.

During the War Against the Nightmare Fandral's delusion ended up being forcibly shattered, as the image of Valstann was destroyed and he fell into a state of near-catatonia. Malfurion managed to defeat Xavius, but Fandral was left a broken husk, forced to endure the loss of his beloved son for a second time. After the Nightmare's defeat, the druids brought Staghelm to Illidan Stormrage's former prison in Mount Hyjal in the hope that he would recover, though many suspected that his mind was permanently broken.

Cataclysm
Although he was initially said to be moved to Moonglade, he was imprisoned in the Barrow Dens of Hyjal.

When the forces of Ragnaros began their assault the green dragon Alysra, fearing that the Twilight's Hammer would wish to use him and his knowledge of the night elves for nefarious purposes, decided to have him moved to Moonglade for security. Ysera was concerned with this action, believing it to be a poor idea. Ysera's fears were not unfounded. As it turned out, Alysra herself was an agent of Ragnaros, and delivered Fandral straight into the hands of the Firelord and the Twilight's Hammer cult. Somehow, they managed to restore Fandral to a state somewhat resembling sanity, and Fandral's fury over his beloved son's demise is reinvigorated - and Fandral sets out for revenge.

His vision appears in a series of flashbacks with his daughter-in-law Leyara and granddaughter Istaria, such as visiting Valstann's grave near Astranaar in Ashenvale. As the Horde's assault into Ashenvale increased in ferocity, Leyara lost her and Valstann's child during the Horde onslaught. Fandral approached Leyara, herself disillusioned by Malfurion's neutrality with the Horde, and she accepts his invitation into the new order of corrupted druids serving Ragnaros - the Druids of the Flame. He has acquired a number of powerful fire-based druid abilities, including various new forms.

Fandral himself became the newest chief lieutenant of Ragnaros, and has replaced Executus as the Firelord's Majordomo. Fandral later reappears before his former mentor, and attacks Thrall after he and Aggra arrive to assist the Guardians of Hyjal. Having deemed that the "Twilight Prophet" had declared Thrall a great obstacle, though unable to kill him, Fandral corrupts his bonds with the elements, shattering Thrall's essence into several raw emotions.

Now empowered by Ragnaros as the new Majordomo of the Firelands and the Archdruid of the treacherous Druids of the Flame, Fandral seeks to bring ruin to Azeroth rather than live in a world without his beloved child. During his time in the Firelands, Fandral would often grow bored and work shaping magic on the local flora and fauna.

Ultimately, Fandral makes his final stand in the Firelands. Enraged, he demands that his followers bring Malfurion to him - alive - though Fandral falls before the heroes of the Guardians of Hyjal, closing the final chapter of the Staghelm dynasty.

Quests

 * Teldrassil (quest)
 * Grove of the Ancients (quest)
 * Crown of the Earth (6)
 * Assisting Arch Druid Staghelm
 * Un'Goro Soil (Alliance)
 * Morrowgrain Research (Alliance, 1)
 * The New Frontier (1)
 * The New Frontier (2)
 * The Crystal of Zin-Malor
 * Wildkin of Elune

Attacks and abilities

 * (Radius: 25 yards)

Tactics
One of the most difficult Alliance faction leaders, he appears to be a powerful Balance druid, using a 1 sec Wrath (1100-1300 Nature damage), Force of Nature (summons treants), and his most powerful ability: casts AoE Entangling Roots followed by an extremely potent Hurricane. Players who do not escape it as soon as possible will need serious healing to stay alive.

In the RPG
Archdruid Fandral Staghelm is among the most ancient of the remaining night elves, having been born about a thousand years after the Sundering (making him over 9,000 years old). Despite his relative youth compared to other night elves such as Shandris Feathermoon, Jarod Shadowsong or Tyrande and Malfurion, Fandral rose to prominence in the Cenarion Circle. His enormous physical stature (standing well over 8 feet tall) and quick temper marked him as a physically dangerous, powerful druid, and while he often clashed with his mentor, he was considered one of Malfurion's most gifted students and top lieutenants.

Quotes
If you are here to waste my time, then you are wasting the time of the Cenarion Circle as a whole. For your sake, let us hope that you are not foolish enough to be doing just that.


 * Greeting
 * Speak quickly, young one. I have urgent matters to attend.
 * Tyrande has no idea how to lead our people.
 * I have vision that she lacks.

In Hearthstone
Fandral appears as HS Fandral Staghelm (a legendary card) for the druid class in the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion for Hearthstone. His flavor text reads: "Always manages to mention "Back when I was creating the World Tree…" in EVERY conversation. Sheesh! Enough already."

Notes and trivia

 * Mathrengyl Bearwalker was his direct assistant.
 * During the Elemental Bonds questline, he first appeared as Mysterious Stranger.
 * Fandral Staghelm's Silver Coin can be fished from the Dalaran fountain.
 * After his son's death, he wrote a journal from the War of the Satyr to make Malfurion's failure public.
 * He was referred to as "Khar'sis", or "hand of the earth", in the native qiraji tongue.
 * Fandral's unapproved creation of Aldrassil/Vordrassil led to the creation of the Emerald Nightmare, and ultimately his own corruption and downfall.
 * Though Tyrande was the official leader (for lore and certain quests) of the night elves, Staghelm was designated as a faction leader in-game, and killing him granted players an Honorable Kill. The reasons for this were unknown. This was later corrected.
 * Fandral was voiced by Cam Clarke in patch 4.2. He was voiced by Kurt Kelly prior to 4.2.

Speculation

 * Fandral may be the one responsible for the hostile actions of the Sentinel spies in Quel'Thalas.
 * He may be related to Melithar Staghelm.