World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

The expansion's central story is the return of the corrupted dragon aspect Deathwing the Destroyer — once Neltharion the Earth-Warder. Last seen decades earlier in Warcraft II, Deathwing has spent that time healing and plotting his fiery return from the elemental plane of Deepholm. When he at last bursts back into Azeroth, he tears through the dimensional barrier, unleashing a world-shattering cataclysm that reshapes much of the planet's surface. Amid the disaster, old hostilities flare anew between the Alliance and a Horde now led by the war-hungry Garrosh Hellscream, while chaotic elemental lords and the nihilistic Twilight's Hammer cult rally to the Destroyer's cause to bring about the Hour of Twilight — the end of all life on Azeroth. The Cataclysm reshapes the factions as much as the land: the orc shaman Thrall steps down as Warchief to tend to a wounded world, handing the Horde to Garrosh, who eagerly embraces open war with the Alliance, storming the Southern Barrens and Stonetalon Mountains as King Varian Wrynn rallies his forces against him. Across the reshaped world, heroes confront a series of mounting threats: the troll Zandalari tribe's bid to rebuild their ancient empire and wage war on all of Azeroth, halted by Vol'jin and champions of both factions; the Firelord Ragnaros, who must be assailed in his own blazing realm, the Firelands, with the aid of Malfurion Stormrage; and finally Deathwing himself. To stop the Destroyer's descent into twilight, the Dragon Aspects send heroes racing back through time to recover the long-lost Dragon Soul — the one weapon capable of truly destroying him — fending off the Infinite Dragonflight along the way. Delivered to Thrall, the artifact is turned against Deathwing in a cataclysmic battle that rages from Azeroth's skies into the churning heart of the Maelstrom, where, through the combined might of the Aspects and their allies, his madness is finally ended. In victory, the surviving Aspects sacrifice their powers to fuel the Dragon Soul — content that their age as guardians has passed, and that the heroes of the Horde and Alliance have proven ready to protect Azeroth themselves.