If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Something massive just happened in World of Warcraft lore

Spoilers within.

Ahead of this month's Legion expansion launch, World of Warcraft is being hit by a huge demon invasion.

Over the next three weeks, the Burning Legion will sweep across Azeroth, with a new questline being made available for all players over level 10. Yup. Good stuff. We've seen similar things happen with the Scourge invasions in the past, but...

Something REAL BIG happened today, as the event kicked off in earnest. Be warned, major lore spoilers below.


The pre-expansion questline begins with a new scenario in the Broken Shore. Here, the Horde and Alliance forces, led by Varian Wrynn and Vol'jin respectively, unite to fight back against the initial invasion.

If you complete this scenario - which looks like a lot of fun, by the way - you'll get to watch one of the following cinematics (thanks MMO Champion). In both cases, we see the leaders of both factions being killed by the Burning Legion: Varian and Vol'jin are no more.

Cover image for YouTube videoLegion - Alliance Broken Shore Cinematic
Cover image for YouTube videoLegion - Horde Broken Shore Cinematic

Well, actually, Vol'jin doesn't die right away. There's a second cinematic for Horde players, that also sees the new Warchief being named.

Cover image for YouTube videoLegion - Sylvanas and Vol'jin Cinematic

Poor Vol'jin. He's only been leading the Horde for about five minutes.

No word on what's happening with the Alliance leadership just yet, although Anduin is the heir to the throne of Stormwind. Is that how that works? He's certainly been getting a lot more screentime in recent expansions.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of big pre-expansion events and it looks like Blizzard is going all in with this one. That's me restarting my subscription this evening, I guess.