User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme/Soldier in the Nexus War

The Nexus War has begun, and once again, Saavedro of Stratholme answers the call to duty. Though he did investigate the Blue Dragonflight's activities in the Dragonblight, he did not become embroiled in the conflict until his return to the Borean Tundra following the battle for the Undercity.

Malygos the Spellweaver, Aspect of the Blue Dragonflight, had begun a campaign to siphon the world's magic and dominate or destroy all mortal spellcasters. To that end, he has employed his minions - both blue dragons and mages who swore allegiance to him in exchange for untold power - to further his goals and accelerate the campaign. Seeking to avert a potential bloodbath, Saavedro travelled to Amber Ridge, a Dalaran encampment in the Borean Tundra, and placed himself at the beck and call of the Kirin Tor.

Freeing the Captives
Upon arrival, Saavedro was sent to Beryl Point, a Blue Dragonflight encampment near Amber Ridge, to free prisoners taken by Malygos. Later they learned than an archmage named Evanor, an expert on draconic lore, had also been captured. In order to find her, Saavedro captured a Beryl sorcerer and brought him back to Amber Ridge. In order to extract the information, Saavedro reluctantly used a neural needler - crafted in Dalaran - to torture the Beryl sorcerer until he revealed what he knew. The sorcerer said that an inquisitor named Salrand held the key in a lockbox.

Travelling back to Beryl Point, Saavedro found Salrand already dead, but her lockbox unclaimed. Opening it, he was dismayed to find the key broken. He was tasked with taking the broken key to the red dragon lord Surristrasz, who seemed none too pleased with the conduct of the Dalaran mages. With the key restored, Saavedro rode a drake to the top of a surge needler and opened the prison containing Lady Evanor, returning her to Amber Ridge. Evanor sent him back to Surristrasz, who sent him across the Westrift...to the island of Coldarra.

Coldarra: The Sanctum of the Spellweaver
Saavedro landed at a Kirin Tor encampment called the Transitus Shield, set within walking distance of a massive fortress - the Nexus, the sanctum of Malygos.

Upon his arrival, Saavedro was sent to do battle with Malygos' dragons - and destroying the blue dragons' eggs. He also collected geological readings from all around Coldarra, as well as samples from the woodland ancients on the island.

Upon slaying a Kirin Tor traitor serving as a spellbinder in Malygos' army, Saavedro found a crystal fragment that he brought to Raelorasz, a dragon serving alongside the Kirin Tor. Raelorasz determined that this crystal was part of an arcane prison, and that two of Malygos' lieutenants - General Cerulean and Warbringer Goredrak, the Azure-Lord of the Blue Dragonflight - held the other portions of the prison. Defeating the two dragons, Saavedro opened the arcane prison and discovered that it held a red dragon, Keristrasza.

Keristrasza had been captured by Saragosa, the Prime Consort to the Lord of Magic, and the red dragon sought revenge - and also to strike a blow against Malygos. To that end, she tasked Saavedro with collecting crystalline mana fragments littered around the Nexus, to serve as the perfect bait...an arcane focus. Evidently, Saragosa was much more attracted to magic than even the most thirsting blood elf...and this would be too great to resist.

Flown up to Saragosa's Landing on Keristrasza's back, Saavedro set the focus that attracted Saragosa. Instead of replenishing her power, it greatly diminished it - and Saavedro slew Malygos' consort on the spot, taking her body back to Keristrasza. After rallying the reds to battle the Spellweaver while he was distracted, Keristrasza took Saavedro high above Coldarra, near the top of the Nexus, where they would observe the battle. Upon landing, however, Malygos came before them and captured Keristrasza, imprisoning her within the Nexus...as his new consort.

The Battle of the Nexus


Raelorasz sent Saavedro deep into the Nexus itself in order to free Keristrasza. In addition, he received other tasks from the Kirin Tor.

Within the Nexus itself was an interdimensional rift opened by the redirection of the ley lines. Saavedro had taken geological readings of Coldarra on the surface and determined that the instability of the island was being caused by that rift. The influx of arcane magic was tearing the island - and most of western Borean Tundra - apart. It could not be stopped, but it could be slowed enough to prevent further geologic instability. In addition, some vital information pertaining to the Arcanomicon - the map to the ley lines - had been stolen by the Horde and smuggled into the Nexus...only none of the Horde ever came out. Lastly, in the crystalline glade guarded by Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, were the crystalline ancients; arcane samples were needed from them as well.

With Ormorok defeated, the samples were easy to obtain. From there, he and his party defeated Anomalus, the arcane voidwraith that guarded the rift. Taking the interdimensional refabricator he had been given at the Transitus Shield, Saavedro managed to stall the rift within the Nexus...for the time being. As they made their way out, he entered a chamber containing projections of the Arcanomicon, and the Grand Magus Telestra who guarded it. In the end, she fell dead.

Entering the Hall of Stasis, Saavedro saw the frozen prisons that held the Horde thieves, and - in groups of one or two - destroyed them. He found the book containing the info on the Arcanomicon lying on the floor and picked it up before finishing off the remainder of the Horde troops and taking the path back into the Axis of Alignment - the central entrance chamber of the cavern - and approaching the icy prison that contained Keristrasza.

Keristrasza was contained by three orbs - one for each of the three lieutenants of the Spellweaver who were destroyed earlier - and once unleashed, the party had to remain quick on their feet in order to defeat her. Eventually, their greater strength prevailed and Keristrasza was laid to rest...leaving Saavedro more than a little saddened at the loss, having fought alongside her through the battle in Coldarra.

The Siege of the Oculus


Months later, Saavedro returned to Coldarra and met with Raelorasz, who sent him to find the red dragon Belgaristrasz and his companions, the green dragon Verdisa and the bronze dragon Eternos. They were being held inside the Oculus, the gigantic floating rings of the Nexus structure, by the blue dragonflight.

Entering the Oculus via a portal above the entrance to the Nexus proper, Saavedro and his companions walked across the Band of Variance, fighting through the groups of mages and dragons to reach a portal to where the three Wyrmrest dragons were held.

Battle in the Clouds
Guarding the prisoners to discover their plans was Drakos the Interrogator, a massive dragonspawn with a short temper and access to high explosives. As the dragon fell, the cages opened, and they were taunted by a figure on a higher platform - Varos Cloudstrider, the replacement for the late Warbringer Goredrak, who had been killed by Saavedro shortly before his first entry into the Nexus. The dragons offered drakes of their flights to continue higher into the Oculus; Saavedro chose a bronze drake named Paranormu. The bronze dragonflight's powers over time came in handy in the battle against the blue dragonflight's ring guardians, which they fought through to reach another of the Oculus' rings, the Band of Acceleration. On a platform near the Band was where Cloudstrider stood, protected by a shield generated by ten centrifuge constructs - four on the band itself and three each on two platforms near Cloudstrider's. With the shield down, the dragons transported them to Cloudstrider's platform.



Cloudstrider controlled the ring guardians, and defeating him would clear the skies. But the new Azure-Lord was not making it easy, as he called upon ring captains to defend him from the air. In the end, however, he fell just as quickly as the Interrogator. Belgaristrasz appeared in image-form after the drakonid fell, informing them that a human conjurer named Urom - who had betrayed the Kirin Tor to join Malygos - was the next opponent.

Urom proved to be a frustrating enemy for Saavedro and his comrades. When they confronted him, he would summon a menagerie of enemies and disappear to another platform. When he ran out of platforms, he teleported to the center ring - where he could tap the power flowing through the Nexus rings to bolster his attacks, and setting off frostbombs to slow and harm his opponents. When he fell, Saavedro took special pleasure in kicking his body down the length of the Nexus to splatter on the ground of Coldarra. Their final opponent was Ley-Guardian Eregos, a great blue dragon who guarded the conduit that ran through the Nexus. With Urom dead, the drakes they had called on from Belgaristrasz were at full strength, so Saavedro and company attacked from dragonback and finally destroyed him.

The Oculus had been taken from the blue dragonflight, leaving Malygos cornered in his lair. Saavedro was not particularly looking forward to that confrontation, but knew it was inevitable...

End of Eternity: The Final Battle


Months later, during his sojourn in Naxxramas, Saavedro claimed a powerful item from the frost wyrm Sapphiron, the guardian of Kel'Thuzad's inner sanctum - a jewel shaped like a blue dragon's eye. Taking it to Wyrmrest Temple, Saavedro delivered the artifact to Alexstrasza, who identified it as a key to the focusing iris of the Eye of Eternity, the inner sanctum of Malygos. Alexstrasza enchanted the key in order to access the focusing iris enough to draw Malygos' ire. With the key enchanted, Saavedro received the final order from Alexstrasza's prime consort, Korialstrasz: Malygos must be slain. Saavedro, though hesitant to kill the guardian of magic, saw as Alexstrasza and Korialstrasz did: There was no alternative.



Returning to Stormwind to work on some engineering projects for the Valiance Expedition, Saavedro received a communique from his friend Admiral Ilmater, the second-in-command of the First Fleet, which Saavedro had been a part of since the war in Outland. The Admiral was rallying a group of warriors to enter the Eye of Eternity and end the Spellweaver's menace once and for all. Preparing himself for the final battle, Saavedro boarded the Kraken in Stormwind Harbor and set sail for the Borean Tundra. With his flying machine, the Legacy of Lordaeron, waiting for him at Valiance Keep, Saavedro took off and headed northwest to Coldarra, meeting Ilmater outside the Nexus. Once the others were summoned, Saavedro followed them inside.

What he saw amazed him - they stood upon a platform in an endless sea of stars, making the Regent wonder if they were still on their own world. Flying around them, preparing rifts to unleash sparks of power, was the Spellweaver. Upon seeing the party, Malygos began to taunt them for having the nerve to enter his domain, and warned them that Alexstrasza had sent them to their deaths. This was not the wise guardian that Saavedro had heard about; this was an arrogant power-mongering monster on the same level as the late Prince Kael'thas, thinking nothing for the benefit of anyone but himself. Ilmater stepped forward with the key to the focusing iris that the First Fleet had claimed from Sapphiron in Naxxramas, and the final battle of the Nexus War began.



The rifts that Malygos had been manipulating earlier came open and unleashed their power sparks. After some effort, the raiders were able to manipulate the power of the sparks for themselves and avoid their use by Malygos. After several minutes, the Spellweaver lifted off the ground, and in came his mortal servants - the Nexus Lords and the Scions of Eternity, riding hovering discs. Slaying a Nexus Lord, Saavedro claimed his disc and took to the air to battle the Scions, swooping in and killing one himself. After they were dead, Malygos unleashed his full fury, and for a moment Saavedro feared the worst as the incredible power of the Spellweaver completely destroyed the platform they had been standing on. But waiting below them were reinforcements from Alexstrasza - red drakes. The one that carried Saavedro was named Zaranastrasz, who had been the messenger between Saavedro and Alexstrasza since the beginnings of the war in Northrend (whenever Saavedro was unable to come to the Wyrmrest Temple directly).

After several agonizing minutes under constant assault from the First Fleet and their dragon allies, Malygos suddenly plummeted into the endless void of the Eye of Eternity, his super-charged strength having finally failed him. Alexstrasza came herself to mourn her brother Aspect and to reward the raiding party for putting an end to Malygos. As he hovered before Alexstrasza, Saavedro's mind was racing: The Spellweaver was dead, the blue dragonflight was leaderless, and magic was now without a protector. So many questions answered, and so many answers questioned...but one thing was crystal-clear to Saavedro of Stratholme, as he left the Nexus behind.

The Nexus War was over.