With World of Warcraft Dragonflight, a supervillain returns to World of Warcraft. Creepy, as he might want to awaken the greatest monster of all time.
Actually, Hearthstone mainly draws from the world of World of Warcraft. However, in recent years, Blizzard’s card game has developed increasingly independently, established its own world, and sometimes even given back a bit to WoW.
With Dragonflight, WoW seems to bring one of the biggest supervillains into the world that the card game Hearthstone has ever seen. To help you understand what the terrible Rafaam is up to and what his plan in Dragonflight might be, we will introduce you to the rhyming rogue in more detail.
What has been discovered? First of all, the occasion. The colleagues at wowhead discovered a character named “Rafaam” during the data mining of the Dragonflight Alpha. He is an Astral who wears a turban on his head. So far, the model appears a bit strange, but it is clear who he is supposed to be.
Rafaam is not a newly invented character, but one who has already been established in another game – namely in Hearthstone.
First, it must be said that Hearthstone actually exists independently of World of Warcraft. It is a world whose story cannot be directly translated into that of WoW. Often, Hearthstone is a bit quirker, more bizarre, or simply sillier, and sometimes even flips characters into their complete opposite.
However, WoW has also repeatedly adopted exciting aspects from Hearthstone and established them as a fixed part of the lore. This might also be the case with Rafaam.
Who was Rafaam in Hearthstone? Rafaam was the antagonist of several expansions in Hearthstone and dominated the story of the card game for almost 2 years. He is an Astral who searches the worlds of the cosmos for powerful relics and artifacts.
He gathered various villains from WoW – such as Dr. Boom, King Toggwaggle, or Madame Lazul – and formed a League of Evil. In his greatest stroke of genius, he conquered the city of Dalaran, brought it completely under his control, and flew it to Uldum to unleash the various plagues that were buried deep in the titanic chambers.
These plagues could indeed be stopped by the heroes of the Explorer’s League – all except one. The “Plague of Undeath” Rafaam took with him and traveled to the Dragon Isles in Northrend. There he awoke the original dragon Galakrond – one of the most powerful beings Azeroth has ever seen.
Galakrond is practically the progenitor of all dragons and was so massive that he could completely swallow even the largest other dragons. In his lifetime, he threatened to devour all life, which is why the other great dragons – from which the aspects later emerged – banded together and killed Galakrond. His skeleton is so enormous that it still exists even after many millennia.
Why is Rafaam so popular? The answer is quite simple: He is just well-written and entertaining, has clear, understandable motives, and offers great entertainment value. He simply reminds one of the classic “cartoon villains” of the past, who were always evil, but one also hoped that they could carry out their sinister plan because they were just so darn cool.
How does this fit into Dragonflight? Basically, Rafaam’s greatest coup has covered quite a bit of story that is now becoming relevant in World of Warcraft. After all, the story of Galakrond is also the origin story of the aspects and is strongly intertwined with the proto-dragons and primalists that are now becoming relevant in Dragonflight. Because there, too, it is strongly about the origin of the aspects and the once-great threat that Galakrond posed.
Additionally, there have been hints in the game files for years that Blizzard is making a change to the Dragon Isles – namely, the skeleton of Galakrond is disappearing. This change has been in the game data for several expansions, but could now receive fresh context and be brought together with the emergence of Rafaam.
It is therefore quite possible that Rafaam wants to pursue his sinister plan in World of Warcraft as well and resurrect Galakrond or at least attempt to. Even if he doesn’t succeed, it might still be an exciting story for the “Adventure Time” feature, in which even Murlocs become the dominant species on Azeroth.
That some characters from Hearthstone are taken over by World of Warcraft is not a completely new thing. In the past, for example, the Murloc “Sir Finley Mrrglton” was brought into WoW as a quest giver after he became so popular in Hearthstone. He can be found in Stormheim (Legion) and investigates various relics during a quest chain there.
Whether Rafaam will also receive such a small “sidekick” appearance or will be built up as a serious threat remains to be seen. After all, he could also simply become a “silly” villain again, who brings a bit more comedy into World of Warcraft.
What would you wish for Rafaam? Should he be a permanent part of the story, or just a small “joke character” on the side?
