Sunfury

The Sunfury (also referred to as Kael'thas' forces  and Kael'thas' army  ) were the armies under Kael'thas Sunstrider's command after he departed from Azeroth and joined the Illidan's forces. The army consisted mostly of blood elves, but also included some fel orcs and demons making their numbers into thousands. . Some pilgrims from Quel'Thalas also voluntarily joined their group. The bulk of their army had been established both in the Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley, while several of their members left the main contingent to follow other pursuits; mainly, the Scryers and the blood elven forces loyal to Illidan Stormrage.

Although Kael'thas was supposedly allied with Illidan, in truth he had joined the Burning Legion, the enemies of Illidan, because of his hunger for magic. According to various discussions between Dawnblade agents however, it seems that the rank and file soldiers were not really loyal to the Legion and its goals, being more interested into saving the sin'dorei from the addiction that bound them or monetary matters, believing themselves the true masters of the demons.

In the waning moments of Prince Kael'thas' ill-fated assault on the Sunwell Plateau, the prince recalled his loyal servitors on Outland to his side at Quel'Danas. Though some remnants of his army would heed this call, and become known as the Dawnblade, others did not: a number of the Sunfury forces broke away from the prince's increasingly damning path, and instead reaffirmed their loyalty to their homeland of Quel'Thalas and its acting regent, Lor'themar Theron. Though little is known of the organization's current status, their presence has ensured the Farstriders to become less strained with protecting the nation's borders.

Formation of the army
Prince Kael'thas led a group of his healthiest fighters to join the battlefront, where they hoped to fight the Scourge alongside Alliance resistance forces in the aftermath of the Third War, but his commander,, despised elves. Despite this, the blood elves proved themselves and seized large swaths of land in Silverpine Forest and worked their way to the ruins of Dalaran. While there, the elves tried to draw on city's convergence of ley lines, but they could not gather enough power to satisfy their cravings.

Later, Garithos put him in an almost impossible mission which forced Kael'thas to get help from Illidan's Naga. This act, however, was considered as treason, and Kael'thas was sentenced to death. With no other choice he joined Illidan's forces and went to Outland to find his master.

Servitude to Illidan's forces


Around 15% of the blood elves followed him, there the combined forces of blood elves and naga defeated the Watchers, led by. After defeating the night elves Illidan was reunited with his forces and prepared to defeat, the Lord of Outland, after some battles, Illidan's forces defeated Magtheridon but appeared and ordered Illidan to destroy the. Kael'thas was optimistic that they would destroy the Frozen Throne. Kael'thas' forces established across Northrend and were in war against the Scourge, then one day arrived and destroyed a settlement, after the battle Kael and Arthas had a discussion, where Kael'thas was confident that the vast armies of Illidan would destroy the Scourge once and for all. Arthas, with the help of, managed to emerge in Icecrown after taking a shortcut and confronted to , , and their armies. However Arthas defeated Illidan in single combat and Kael'thas was forced to leave. felt that Illidan's agenda was shortsighted and made a new alliance with his previous enemy, the Burning Legion.

Exodar
With Outland serving as the strategic battlefront in the ongoing Burning Crusade, the naaru recently used Tempest Keep to reach the shattered land. However, when the naaru set out from their stronghold, Kael'thas and his blood elves quickly raided the dimensional fortress and assumed control over its satellite structures. Though Kael'thas and his minions maintain a tight hold on the keep, a band of draenei, led by Velen, hijacked one of its satellite structures, the Exodar, and used it to escape Outland, but the blood elves managed to sabotage the Exodar, and, while it managed to reach Azeroth, it crashed. A group of Sunfury agents called the Sunhawks followed the draenei to Azeroth to reclaim the Exodar and seemed to want to turn the draenei into man'ari eredar. They have since been disbanded by adventurers sent by the Hand of Argus.

Kirin'Var Village
Kael'thas wasn't part of the Kirin Tor anymore, and found out that they held a settlement called Kirin'Var Village in the Netherstorm. One night he attacked the village, it began with an explosion of a mana bomb in the officer quarters at the northwest of the village. Thousands of blood elves attacked, even bringing Dimensional Ships with them, and Archmage casted a protective ward on the tower.

led the attack as commander of the Sunfury blood elves and fought in the front lines, killing many Kirin Tor mages although the overall army was led by himself. During the attack looted the Heliotrope Oculus,  claimed Glacius as his trophy,  betrayed the Kirin Tor and handed the blood elves the secrets of the Violet Tower's defenses that Vargoth had casted before, leading Kirin'var to defeat.

Kael'thas' forces murdered all of the village inhabitants with the exception of, which was imprisoned in the Violet Tower by Kael'thas, and Ravandwyr, who fled with the Archmage Vargoth's Staff in hope to rescue his master later. Vargoth was sealed with a magic that forbids passage to anyone of the Kirin Tor, but also Kael'thas took the Sigil of Krasus from him and gave it to, finally he left Ar'kelos as a guardian to guard Vargoth's prison. After the destruction of the village the blood elves withdrew to Sunfury Hold, where some Sunfury were left stationed, including. After that, mana surges and arcane wraiths started to appear because the mana bomb had caused a rift in the nether.

Scryers and the Azerothian blood elves' betrayal
One day Kael'thas sent out a regiment of blood elves, led by to destroy Shattrath City. When the draenei prepared to defend the naaru from the invaders, the blood elves dropped their weapons and pledged allegiance to the Sha'tar. That day Kael'thas forces suffered the most losses from ever before; many of the best and brightest amongst Kael's scholars and magisters were convinced by Voren'thal to join the naaru. They called themselves the Scryers and became an enemy of Kael'thas' forces.

When the Dark Portal was reopened and the forces of the Alliance and Horde began pouring into Outland, Kael'thas and his followers originally accepted the new blood elven pilgrims coming from Azeroth. However, these new arrivals were given menial tasks and treated little better than slaves, until Voren'thal's Scryers discovered that Kael'thas had entered into an alliance with the Burning Legion through the revelations of Sunfury deserters. Despite this revelation some other elves still decided to join their prince, prompting a recruitment war between Kael's forces and the Scryers. Eventually the majority of blood elves assisted the Alliance and Horde in fighting the Sunfury.

Experiments
Kael'thas was conducting several experiments across Outland. One of them was creating and dropping red crystals that summon colossi and drive them mad. After that experiment failed because of the intervention of the Cenarion Expedition, he used an artifact created at the project at Firewing Point to destroy the Cenarion Thicket as an act of vengeance—the mana bomb. He used the Bonechewer clan as a distraction, but nevertheless, the project was destroyed by the Alliance and Horde and the Bonechewer clan was defeated.

In Netherstorm the manaforges of the blood elves are threatening the region and may blow it up within a few months, probably taking much of Outland with the explosion.

Kael's magisters also experimented on mana crystals, combined with Bloodgem Shards, greatly increasing their potency at the cost of augmenting the user's innate addiction to magic. Many, if not all of Kael's followers were using this method; believes that Kael's forces are too drunk on it to question him.

Discovery
The Sunfury army holds control over four manaforges. The Scryers were sent to investigate them and the Aldor went as well as they couldn't ignore the threat that they present. They were sent by High Priestess Ishanah. The manaforges threatened the region with blowing up within a few months, probably taking much of Outland with the explosion.

, leader of a ballista team outside of Manaforge B'naar, held the. The Aldor defeated their magisters and bloodwarders while the Scryers kill Arathyn and managed to obtain it. With this information, the Scryer began to assassinate Sunfury blood elves, but not any blood elf that could be easily replaced. They targeted the brains of the operation: the Sunfury Warp-Engineer and the Sunfury Warp-Master who oversaw the retrieval of a so-called "warp-energy" by the manaforge and its delivery to a remote destination via a system of underground pipes and the Sunfury Geologist. Meanwhile the Aldor went to investigate if the manaforges were made with naaru technology. They discovered that it was a modified technology of Tempest Keep, and that the warp were highly dangerous as the naaru technology wasn't supposed to be used so close to the land. However, as most naaru constructs, the manaforges had a safeguard that allows them to be permanently disabled in case of emergency. This information was shared with the Scryer.

Manaforge B'naar
Manaforge B'naar was protected by blood elves and even, with in possession of one access crystal used to deactivate Manaforge B'naar. Both Aldor and Scryer went and killed Theredis and shut it down.

Manaforge Coruu
was the leader of Manaforge Coruu, but held control over the access crystal.

By this time Manaforge Duro went under heavy attack by arcane wraiths, the same mana creatures they lured with their mana bomb, because they wanted the harvested energy and the situation went out of control. and took many troops from Manaforge Coruu, even when it had very few blood elves to defend themselves, to go and defend Duro. Caledis Brightdawn managed to infiltrate Manaforge Coruu, and the Scryers managed to overhear the information of Manaforge Duro, and gave that information to the Aldor.

The blood elves activities in Coruu sent waves of mana elementals to Kirin'Var Village, although adventurers helped the ghosts of Kirin'Var more waves continued to appear, this creatures were also attacking the Sunfury blood elves, so they began to develop techniques to destroy them.

Finally Kirin'Var was saved as they activated a shield with the Sunfury's stolen technology and destroyed the new mana creatures who tried to enter the village.

Then the attack commenced against the Manaforge Coruu: The Aldor attacked the arcanists and researchers. Meanwhile other Aldor and Scryer adventurers used the distraction of the Sunfury caused by the mana creatures and managed to destroyed the manaforge, killing Overseer Seylanna alongside. During the battle it was discovered that the Sunfury had received outside assistance to understand the naaru technology.

Sunfury Hold
At that time, other adventurers sent by Custodian Dieworth attacked Sunfury Hold, where they killed their archers, flamekeepers, their leader Master Daellis Dawnstrike, Spellreaver Marathelle, and burned up their ballistae and tents.

Betrayal of the Consortium
The Consortium gave the Sunfury blood elves a shipment of Box of Surveying Equipment to Manaforge Duro but the blood elves refused to pay, but during the confusion of the attack of mana creatures adventurers sent by the ethereals managed to repossess the shipment. After this events, it was unofficially ended the dealings between both organizations.

They were also allied with with the Zaxxis ethereals, but the ethereals cut off relations with the Sunfury and went into business for themselves.

Some time later, was sent by Kael'thas Sunstrider to Nexus-Prince Haramad asking for Spirit's Song, but decided to give the crystal to the naaru instead and end the dealings with the Sunfury. For this actions Solannas and his guards attacked the ethereals but were killed by Haramad himself.

Manaforge Duro
Spymaster Thalodien and Anchorite Karja were worried because of the lost of control in Manaforge Duro, as the explotion of the manaforge could threaten all of Outland. The Scryers used the mana beasts' attack to Manaforge Duro and fought against the Sunfury at the same time, slaughering many blood elves. And then, both factions sent adventurers to deactivate the manaforge, they killed. During the battle was also killed at Archmage Vargoth's request. After this Archmage Vargoth obtained all the necesary items to release from his prison he just needed to defeat, an arcane guardian left by Kael'thas, with help from adventurers he managed to defeat the golem, but still needed a key held by a Bloodwarder commander. By destroying Manaforge Duro just one manaforge was left.

Manaforge Ara
Manaforge Ara was the last manaforge active, it was oversaw by, they recruited blood elves from Quel'Thalas and reincorporated them into their ranks. betrayed the Sunfury and offered assistance to the Scryers, who sent adventurers to check if Theledorn wasn't a double agent, but the contrary happened, thanks to him they were able to obtain evidence of the alliance between Kael'thas' forces and the Burning Legion. The Scryers shared the information with the Aldor, who sent ten troops to attack the Manaforge, but only one survived, the survivor was reinforced and managed to kill some shivarras and mo'args. Nether-Stalker Oazul, an ethereal of The Consortium, went to attack the blood elves because they were destroying the land with the manaforges, targeting the nethermancers, who stabilize the flow of power.

The Sunfury had also a mine below Manaforge Ara, the Trelleum Mine; since the destruction of Manaforge Ultris, that was attacked by mana creatures, this was their last source of materials to run the manaforges. As the ethereals of the Consortium wanted to take the mine for themselves, they sent adventurers to defeat the foreman, but when he was found he revealed that he had been demoted, and, in truth, held control over the mine and the foreman was no longer an enemy of the ethereals. The overmaster was defeated and the ethereals learned that the Sunfury were allied with the Burning Legion and that there were some blood elf defectors.

Meanwhile, the Scryers didn't know about the alliance with the Legion thinking that the overseer of Manaforge Ara was a blood elf. They went to deactivate it but, when they proceeded, they found out that the overseer was, in truth, a wrathguard and that the Sunfury were working with the Burning Legion, a very bad news to the thousands of blood elves traveling from Azeroth. Even with the demons protecting the manaforge, both Aldor and Scryers managed to deactivate the last manaforge, saving Netherstorm and all of Outland from a possible explosion.

The Scryers sent word from this alliance between Kael'thas and the Burning Legion to Voren'thal the Seer.

Downfall
The adventurers from Azeroth, guided by the naaru, not only stopped the dark plans of Kael'thas' forces in Netherstorm but also launched a successful invasion of Tempest Keep which nearly killed their leader Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider.

Though nearly destroyed in Outland, Kael'thas and what remained of his forces not only launched an invasion of Silvermoon City and captured the naaru, but were able to begin the summoning of into Azeroth.

His army entered Sunwell from the portals at the Throne of Kil'jaeden.

Despite this victory, the proud heroes of the Alliance and Horde, with the aid of the Shattered Sun Offensive, boldly challenged and defeated the last remnants of Kael'thas's forces, and finally killed the Sun King.

Return to Quel'Thalas
Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron mentioned that a number of the Sunfury had recently returned to Quel'Thalas from Outland, and that their input had ensured the Farstriders have become a little less strained with protecting Quel'Thalas' borders. Though their return was a surprise to some, it serves as a reminder that not all of the sin'dorei within Kael'thas' forces were willing to share in the prince's dark fate.

Members

 * Bloodwarder
 * Crimson Hand
 * Dawnblade
 * Firewing
 * Bonechewer clan
 * San'layn (formerly)
 * Scryers (formerly)
 * Shadowsword
 * Sunblade
 * Zaxxis (as allies; formerly)
 * Sunhawk
 * Sunseekers
 * Nethervine
 * Wretched

Notes and trivia

 * The San'layn was originally a group of Kael'thas' greatest followers led by Lana'thel, raised into undeath by the Lich King after their defeat at Icecrown.
 * Sunfury Runeseekers were initially planned to appear in Kun-Lai Summit as a part of the Horde during the events of Landfall.
 * In Heroes of the Storm, one of the skins for Valeera Sanguinar is "".

Speculation
The group may have been named after Sunfury Spire in Silvermoon City.