Fandral Staghelm

Fandral Staghelm was formerly the Archdruid of Darnassus, succeeding after he was lost in the Emerald Nightmare. He was in a constant power struggle with, High Priestess of Elune, for leadership of the night elf people, and was one of the architects of the plan to create Teldrassil. 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 Hyjal and turned into the first Druid of the Flame becoming the new Majordomo of the Firelands.

Biography
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.

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.

The War of the Shifting Sands
Fandral's mate died giving birth to Valstann, meaning that the young man and his wife were effectively the only family Fandral had. 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 rebuilding 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 with the world tree Nordrassil their immortality. Shortly after that, Malfurion entered a deep coma, and slept in his base in Moonglade. No one knew why, and no one knew how to wake him. His absence left leadership of the druids to Fandral Staghelm, who became the new archdruid. 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 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. This act, however, was not blessed by the dragon aspects the way Nordrassil was. 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 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 racism towards the tauren druids taught by Hamuul Runetotem, one of Malfurion's students. , the druid NPC found in Feathermoon Stronghold, raised concerns over the fact that Fandral Staghelm had been procuring vast amounts of the herb morrowgrain in the name of the Cenarion Circle. Fandral himself however claimed to be researching the properties of the grain when grown in the soil found in Un'Goro Crater.

The Idol of Remulos


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.

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 judgement. 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. Fandral was no longer in control of his own actions. Rather, he was an unwitting pawn 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.

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 Illidans former prison in Hyjal in the hope that he would recover, though many suspected that his mind was permanently broken.

Cataclysm
While Fandral himself lay shattered in Moonglade, his daughter-in-law Leyara and granddaughter Astaria were living in the ancestral night elf territory of Ashenvale. While the druids of Moonglade eventually concluded that they lacked the ability to help so powerful and damaged a mind as Fandral's, the orcish Horde attacked Ashenvale, burned Astranaar, and killed Valstann Staghelm's daughter, the last living link Fandral had to his son.

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.

As the Horde's assault into Ashenvale increased in ferocity, Fandral's daughter in-law Leyara lost her and Valstann's child during the Horde onslaught. Fandral approaches 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 (replacing the deceased Majordomo Executus) 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.

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.

In World of Warcraft
Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm was a level ?? quest giver located at the Cenarion Enclave in the night elf city of Darnassus. 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, though it may have something to do with the secret power struggle going on between him and Tyrande

Quests
He formerly started the following quests:

He formerly ended the following quests:


 * He was shown during

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.

Quotes

 * 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.

Fandral Staghelm's Silver Coin can be fished from the Dalaran fountain. It reads "The War of the Shifting Sands... I wish I could forget it ever happened."