Darnassus
The expansion “Battle for Azeroth” began with a real bang. Under Sylvanas’ leadership, the Horde went to war. At first, it was thought that she was leading the Horde to Silithus to take over the Azerite – but halfway through, she redirected her forces north and swiftly conquered the night elf forests and even besieged their home, Teldrassil.
Since most of the Alliance’s forces were in Silithus, where no battle was taking place, the war was essentially over before it had truly begun.
Instead of capturing Teldrassil and taking its inhabitants prisoner, Sylvanas made a fateful order: The tree was to be set on fire.
Fiery projectiles rained down on the tree and quickly ignited it. Although the priesthood and the shield guards tried to evacuate as many night elves as possible through portals, the destruction was gigantic.
The vast majority of night elves on Teldrassil died a painfully fiery death. The fact that a large part of them were simply civilians makes this act even worse.
The destruction of Darnassus is considered the greatest war crime ever committed in the history of World of Warcraft. Here, a people was nearly completely wiped out – it is estimated that about 90% of the night elf population was killed in the incident.
Even though the night elves now have a new home with Amirdrassil and Bel’ameth, their numbers have significantly shrunk. Their military strength has been greatly diminished, and it may take many decades or even centuries for them to recover even slightly from this setback.
