Ascendant

Not to be confused with Elemental ascendant.

Ascendant in The Dragonflight Codex.

Ascendants were created in service to the Dragonmaw clan of Shadowmoon Valley. Produced by siphoning the essence of the Netherwing dragons into the bodies of fel-infused orcs, the resulting hulks served as the defenders and taskmasters of the clan's mining and dragon training operation at Netherwing Ledge near the Black Temple. Considering the Dragonmaw's long alliance with Sinestra and the inclusion of netherwing essence in her experiments, Archmage Khadgar theorizes that the twilight dragonflight owes its existence to the dark ascendant rituals of the orcs. This seems plausible as Corla of the Twilight's Hammer drained the essence of a nether dragon corpse and channeled its essence into Twilight Zealots, creating evolved minions.

While the exact ritual used to create ascendants remains unknown, the process is believed to follow the arcane principle of transference, in which the essence of one unfortunate creature is siphoned and redirected into another. Since such dark magic exists primarily within the spell work of warlocks, it is likely that either Fel or Void energies are required in its casting. Due to the ethical considerations of sacrificing one life to enhance another, this practice is forbidden within the dragonflights and throughout most learned societies of Azeroth.

Notable examples of orc ascendants include Zuluhed the Whacked, Or'kaos the Insane, and Dragonmaw Ascendants. Shadowsworn Drakonid may or may not be.

Notes

• The only tome known to outline the process in full is Forbidden Rites and other Rituals Necromantic, which was destroyed by a band of heroes who infiltrated Scholomance.
• Another type of ascendants has been made in times of war by forces with little concern for the sanctity of life, as seen with the Twilight's Hammer siphoning the energy of elementals into its most powerful cultists, creating elemental ascendants.
• In World of Warcraft, the model was reused by Wyrmrest Protectors, Warbringer Goredrak, and Baltharus the Warborn.
• While they look like drakonid, ascendants are categorized in The Dragonflight Codex as a separate creature of dragonkin, together next to dracthyr, drakonid, or tarasek.
  • The drakonid section does mention drakonid in service of nether dragons, but ascendants are described as serving the Dragonmaw clan while being created from the nether dragons.

Gallery

There are two variants of the ascendant model in WoW:

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  One variant.

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  Second variant.