Burning Crusade

For the World of Warcraft expansion, see World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

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The invasion begins.

“Images of innumerable dead worlds flickered through his mind. He saw gigantic ruins, toppled buildings that had once reached the sky, lakes of glass where proud cities had once stood, endless plains of rubble. He saw the lights of life in the universe winking slowly out until only a few remained.”

— The demon hunter Vandel, witnessing the destruction left in the wake of the Burning Crusade.

The Burning Crusade is a vast war of destruction across the cosmos led by the Burning Legion. It was launched with the goal of razing every world and all life in existence, in order to prevent their corruption by the Void and to purge the universe from potential influence from the void lords.

In the RPG

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

It is a great war that rages beyond the ken of normal mortals. The universe houses innumerable worlds, and the Burning Legion currently invades a handful of them. Most mortals are blind to this secret conflict, but the wisest and strongest know of it - and some are heroes and leaders in this war. Champions from Azeroth and many other worlds battle across the cosmos, attempting to drive back the Burning Legion and keep the embattled planets safe from demonic corruption. Theirs is a desperate, epic war, and they welcome any who would join them. Beings of all sorts join forces - humans and draenei fight alongside orcs, high elves alongside night elves. Old rivalries are thrown aside in the face of the ominous legion. All who fight this secret war know that, despite the posturing and ambition of individual demon lords, Kil'jaeden was always Sargeras' second. He is the Legion's true leader. Out in the Great Dark Beyond, Kil'jaeden waits as demons and mortals die, biding his time for his minions to grow strong once again. With the end of the Third War, the Burning Legion's existence is no longer a secret, but now a well known fact by the populace of Azeroth.

Battlefields

• Azeroth, often attacked, but never taken by the Legion.
• Draenor-Outland, conquered by the Legion, lost to Illidan and later to the Alliance and Horde.
• Alternate Draenor, saved by the heroes of Azeroth.
• Fanlin'Deskor, a world destroyed by the Legion.
• Xoroth, enslaved by the Legion.
• Xerrath, destroyed as a sign of power by the Legion.
• Xandros, destroyed by the annihilan Mongrethod.
• Countless other worlds destroyed or occupied by the Legion.

Notes

• When Sargeras approached the eredar on Argus, he presented himself as a benevolent entity and the goal of his Burning Crusade was to unify all the races of the universe, asking the eredar to spread his universal union with every world they touched.
• In the now outdated Warcraft Encyclopedia the purpose of the Burning Crusade was described as to destroy all life and magic to remake the universe in order for 'true order' to be achieved. The Ultimate Visual Guide then later said that the Legion particularly targeted worlds that had been ordered and shaped by the ancient titans. Finally, Chronicle Volume 2 changed the Legion's goal to destroying all life, and every planet, in order to stop the corruption of the Void.