2nd Place Sargeras (21%)
Sargeras is the villain we last imprisoned in Antorus, the Burning Throne. The dark titan is known for his Burning Crusade and the Burning Legion, with which he has already destroyed dozens of worlds.
Who is Sargeras?
Sargeras was one of the first beings in the universe, one of the Titans. The Titans are god-like creatures that slumber as World Souls in worlds until they awaken as Titans. Aman’thul, the probably first awakened Titan, set out to find others of his kind and formed the Pantheon, Titans who search the entire universe for their kind.
In their search, the Titans found that another force, the Nether, was stretching into their universe and was tainted with demons. Sargeras was sent as their mightiest warrior to deal with this plague.
Only after slaying thousands of demons did he find out that they do not die but return to the Nether. To prevent this, he created Mardum, a pocket dimension where he imprisoned the souls of slain demons.
How did Sargeras become a villain?
During his battles against the demons, Sargeras encountered a World Soul that was completely corrupted by dark gods, the Lords of the Void. Sargeras saw no other option but to slay the World Soul to eliminate the corruption there.
He immediately reported his dreadful discovery to the Pantheon. Sargeras believed that the only way to counter the Void Lords was to destroy all World Souls and thereby deny them. A universe without life is still better than one where Void Lords can exist.
Outraged by this suggestion, the Pantheon Titans rejected him, which angered Sargeras. He realized that the Pantheon would never agree with him and took matters into his own hands.
To achieve what he saw as the only right goal, he tore apart the pocket dimension Mardum, which had by now been fully corrupted and defiled by the imprisoned demon souls. The unleashed power transformed him into the demonic being we know today.
The freed demons were given the choice of either being slain by him permanently or serving him. For the demons, the decision was clear, and thus Sargeras received his Burning Legion, with which he could begin his crusade to cleanse the universe.
What are his greatest crimes?
A greater crime than destroying countless worlds can hardly be committed, even by a divine being. However, the worlds destroyed by the Legion are barely tangible for the inhabitants of Azeroth and probably nothing they would associate with Sargeras at first glance.
The World Soul Azeroth itself has always been of particular interest to Sargeras due to the power prophesied by the Pantheon. Thus, he made the destruction of it a special goal and worked on it several times – and failed. He has already made three attempts to destroy Azeroth with his Legion.
In the first attempt, he corrupted Xavius, the advisor of the night elf queen Azshara. Through him, he led the highborne to open themselves to the demonic forces and let them into their world. Only through the resistance of Cenarius, the dragon aspects, and rebellious night elves was he able to be repulsed, leading to the destruction of the Well of Eternity.
In the second attempt, he proceeded more cleverly. Again and again, he attacked Azeroth with small skirmishes, which were repelled by the Guardian Aegwynn. He eventually confronted her personally in the form of an avatar into which he planted a part of his soul.
He was defeated, which happened intentionally, as this allowed him to implant a piece of himself into Aegwynn’s body. This influence was eventually passed on to her son Medivh, who, together with Gul’dan, opened the Dark Portal, enabling the orc invasion of Azeroth. However, Medivh was killed by his student Khadgar and his friends before Sargeras’s plan could be completed.
Sargeras finally made his last attempt together with Gul’dan in the Night Fortress. His soul was to be planted in the body of Illidan, which a group of heroes was able to prevent.
However, as he had not yet been defeated and his influence was too great, Illidan opened the hunt for him. In the battle against the titan Argus, who was corrupted by Sargeras, he is drawn out and imprisoned by the Pantheon. In one last desperate act, he drove his sword into the heart of the World Soul Azeroth.
