Illidan Stormrage was the first Demon Hunter, 10,000 years ago during the War of the Ancients he sought to outdo his brother, Malfurion, and show him and Tyrande (the woman he was crushing on) that he was worthy of their praise. Even though he was the most powerful sorcerer the Night Elves had, his attitude and his recklessness were what turned people off to him, not his lack of skill, which he never recognized. So he went in secret to the leaders of the Demon invasion, where he spoke with Sargeras himself through a portal (as Sargeras was too powerful to enter the world just then), where Illidan swore allegiance to him in exchange for power. Sargeras tricked Illidan though, and burned out his eyes with fel energy, granting him the power he sought, but at a terrible price. Illidan then went on to double-cross the demons and help the heroes save the world, which involved destroying the Night Elves' source of magic and immortality: the Well of Eternity. Illidan is called the Betrayer since he took some of the waters of the well, and created a new Well after the demons were defeated, potentially providing another way for them to return. Illidan, seeing how vast and powerful the Burning Legion really was after his encounter with Sargeras, saw that the methods the Azerothians were using to 'defeat' them were pointless, and so he took it upon himself to take the fight to them, using their own power against them. He recruited more elves, both Night Elves and Blood Elves, who would see the Legion destroyed at any cost, and trained them in the ways of the Demon Hunter. They would kill a demon, cut out it's heart, and eat it, granting them power, but also exposing themselves to the temptation to go full demon and join the Legion. They needed great mental and physical fortitude to withstand this, but if they did, they would be the Demons' bane. The ritual blinding provides the Demon Hunter with sight beyond sight, able to 'see' the world in terms of it's magical energies, so in some ways they can see better than they could before. They also inscribe fel tattoos on their bodies to enhance their strength, and they can use many fel abilities the demons use in order to fight them. Illidan is a very 'ends justify the means' type of person, which is why he's an anti-villain. He has a noble goal: the eradication of the Legion, but the methods he uses to get there are questionable at best. BUT, since the Army of the Light has been fighting the Legion for millennia and haven't really gotten anywhere... you kind of have to judge for yourself whether his methods are worth it over being dominated the Legion forever :P I highly recommend you check out the "Rejection of the Gift" cinematic, it's extremely good.

Most of the back story of Illidan is in warcraft 3 so your play through will teach you more about him. He is a super chad that does what is needed, not what is right.

Illidan is very much an, "the ends justify the means," type, so he does some pretty bad stuff along the way even though his ultimate goal is saving Azeroth from the Legion. That's why he's seen as a bad guy by most people. They don't know what he's trying to do.

Nice Grogu shirt. And those are the Illidari Demon Hunters. Night Elves and Blood Elves that have survived the deadly training and changes that most do not make it through. Many go mad through the purpose. Many die. They eat the heart of a demon to take on its soul and become part demon themselves in order to better hunt their prey. And the best part is, you can play one in game. :)

The first time I saw this and Illidan said "You are prepared." I felt chills. Blizzard does this to me ^_^

Yea, Warlods of Draenor has also animated series called: Lords of War. Illidan is a pure contrast of doing bad for good purpose. Or at least, he believe that he did necessary for good. In a War, its very hard to define good or bad. That is up to to decide on everyone by self. The best warriors/legends in war were born from tragedy. There is a ritual to became a demon hunter. One of the requirement is kill the demon and drink his blood. And, also, sacrifice your eyes. Only 1 of 5 survive this ritual.

there's a full compilation of Illidans story from the all the games he was in - you should really watch that. The Life of Illidan Stormrage - All Cinematics

I love how you end nearly every one of these cinematics with “OK, OK!!!l”. It’s great.

Big suggestion! React to Nixxiom's true story of... . He is one of the biggest WoW youtubers. And in those videos he explains stories of character with humor. It will help you learn even more.

Warlords has some pretty great cinematic. In particular there is one with Illidan that is my favorite. *Edit from future not exhausted me*: While warlords does have some great cinematics the one I was thinking of with Illidan is from Legion. My bad!

Great reaction beauty ^^

Warlord of draenor's animations are called ''Lords of War '' there is also the Pandaria animations !

Illidan is a ruthless character. He will do whatever is necessary to defeat The Burning Legion. Including such as breeding Fel Orc's from those that previously willingly stod with the legion, to use as a mindless army. And using the people of allied leaders that distrust him as slaves for this same purpose(because he knew he was planning to betray him). He first pretended to betray his race in order to infiltrate them and stop the original summoning of Sargeras(The Dark Titan, and leader of the burning legion. Known for destroying worlds with a swing of his sword). His true form is literally larger than Azeroth itself. He kept his plans very tight to his chest, so to speak. He didn't even start telling his own Demon Hunters until towards the very end, when the Alliance and Horde caught up to him, killed him, and set his body in crystal jail for Demon Hunters(Long story short, he eventually gets it back). Another example is sacrficing some of his own mage underlings(the moonguard) to stop the legions first invasion attempt at Ravencrest's fortress. And finally ofc, sacrificing his eyes, in tricking Sargeras himself to give him power(his demon vision, and the demonic runes/tattoo on his chest). Something he later figures out how to do for others. And bit by bit basically sacrificing his mental stability to gain more power to stop the legion(Fel energy is corrupting. And reinforces violent instincts). Not to mention that the demonic side they've locked away within, constantly fights them for control. Quite literally in the case of those he taught, as they literally ate some essential part of a demon in a ritual, to lock their essence within them. And lot of them didn't survive, going completely insane and killing themselves. With cases that kept pushing needles into themselves, sucking their own blood, never stop clawing at their eyes after the visions the ritual showed them of the legion. And since they can no longer completely shut down their demon vision, which shows a lot of hidden things, not just demons. It'd almost be more accurate to call it magic vision. As it can see through most illusions. Because of his methods, nobody trusted him. And a lot thought he was actually still on the legions side, in spite of being the one to actually stop the ritual. It all spirals into misunderstanding between Illidan and some Highborne(followers of Aszhara, of which these were ones who turned on her when she started to summon demons. But he didn't know that) - Which results in them attacking him for trying to create a new well(with vials from the well of eternity), to give magic and immortality back to his people. They think he's trying to repeat the summoning ritual. So Illidan, who thinks the same of them - As they are Highborne of who the vast majority stod with Aszhara - Kills them all. And when his brother and their mutual love interest find him alongside the other elves, they imprison him after a sham of a trial for 10 000 years. Yet for some reason she still breaks him out when the legion returns - Which kinda shows they didn't really believe he wanted to summon anything. They just didn't trust him(hence why I hate those 2 characters, pretty cheap excuses for imprisoning family in a shitty prison for 10 000 years on suspicions alone. If you play the game, it's clear there were torture chambers as well. And he personally was put in a cell that used magic to keep him alive, and his magic suppressed so they didn't have to feed him. But that ofc didn't stop him from feeling hunger. So basically he was more like tortured for 10 000 years).

''they just stab themselves in the eyes!?'' the highpoint of demon hunters: how they get their blindness

To understand this short video i recommend the book "Illidan" by William King.

Fun Fact: You can watch the expansions separately as movies for the last 4 or so. For example, Xal (a youtube creator) has the entire legion story in movie format. Just search 'WOW LEGION MOVIE' here on youtube. There are a lot of great content creators that combine the in game playing with the 2D animation and the cinematics in chronological order to tell the stories of the expansion. Might be worth checking into.

Sweetheart, ya are trying to understand a story/game that started in 1994. I was 19 when I played Warcraft 2, and I've stayed glued to the Legendary Epic tale ever since.

I’d totally suggest you check out the broken shore cinematics, if you haven’t yet. Didn’t see it at the time of posting this

You should eventually watch the patch trailers and cinematics as close to in order as you can. Will help clear things up a bit. The "themed" patch trailers really are the only ones that matter and they didn't really start with those until the Naxxramas one from original WoW which was kind of the last major patch of original WoW and then the Burning Crusade onwards. As for in game cinematics they didn't really have those until 2008 Wrath of the Lich King starting with the Wrathgate cinematic which shows Bolivar and Saurfang Jr. About Illidan, he was a night elf 10,000 years before Warcraft 3. He joined the Legion with the intent to gain intel on them and betray them from within. Sargeras burned his eyes out through a portal and gave him spectral sight which the Illidari demon hunters trained by Illidan himself way later during Warcraft 3-WoW Burning Crusade also get by doing the ritual with demon blood in the eyes (not the same as orcs drinking Mannoroth's blood if you're familar with that). By the time of WoW he's consumed enough fel energy to be considered a demon fully. It's revealed in one of the books that when he died at the Black Temple his spirit kind of wandered the Twisting Nether until Khadgar summoned it back into his body in Legion after the first raid of that expansion. (alternate reality Gul'dan wanted to shove Sargeras in there and Khadar was like "Rather have Illidan....") Illidan was our enemy in Burning Crusade in 2007 for a numbers of reasons. He was slightly rewritten in Legion. They didn't exactly change anything that I know of, just explained things from the Illidari army's perspective. He was meant to be the main boss of BC but they were new to making MMOs still and since it was the first expansion they kind of fucked up and released The Black Temple patch too soon while we still had a whole year or so before Wrath of the Lich King would come out. It was SUPPOSED to be the final main raid of that expansion as a level 70 (cap in BC) Tier 6 raid alongside Hyjal Summit. In the end they had to fill the expansion and we got patch 2.4 in 2008 Fury of the Sunwell with a 5 man dungeon called Magister's Terrace and the Sunwell Plateau raid itself which was kind like a tier 6.5 as Wrath of the Lich King's raid tiers were mostly already planned out. Tier 7/8/9/10 gear which would come from the respective raids. Odd but that's why we refer to the gear sets from Sunwell as tier 6.5. It's worth noting the downscaling from 40 man raids of vanilla WoW in BC as everything became either a 10 man or a 25 man raid. Then in Wrath of the Lich King at level 80 they decided on every raid added from then on would be 10/25 players. Bringing you up to current WoW where raid finder, normal and heroic now scales 10-25 or 10-30 I think. Anyways, I'm done rambling. Liked the vid. :D

They are elf versions of sam from supernatural. Drink the soul of a demon, use that power to kill many more demons.

To understand the weight of what you're hearing Illidan say, you need to go back and watch the Burning Crusade trailer. Picture it - you've been playing World of Warcraft for a year or so, and it's completely taken over your life. You know the next expansion is coming out, and all of a sudden, there's a video on Blizzard's official KZfaq account, the Burning Crusade cinematic trailer. Illidan Stormrage snarks bitterly at the viewer: "And now you dare enter MY realm? You are not prepared." A sizzle reel plays, followed by Illidan spreading his wings, looking like the most dangerous, most badass thing ever, and repeats "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!"

The "Illidari" are night elves and blood elves trained by Illidan to be demon hunters. They use the power of the demons against them. They absorb the demons' souls into themselves to gain their power, ritualistically blind themselves to gain "spectral sight", and fight using a pair of warglaives. Theyre just all round badasses. Also, yes. There was a series of these for WoD as well. It was called Lords of War. First one is about Kargath.

Hey, Galaxy. Usually a lurker, but wanted to explain the Demon Hunters as succinctly as I can. First off, you're right; they're elves, specifically ones who experienced a loss or a tragedy at the hands of the Burning Legion. Unsurprisingly, these would-be hunters hold a grudge. Second, part of their entire shtick is basically "Fighting fire with fire". They undergo rituals that mimic Illidan's own unique transformation into a Demon Hunter. For a backgrounder, Illidan was a Night Elf sorcerer who once cast his lot in with the Legion during Queen Azshara's time. He was given magical sight by the Legion's master, Sargeras, in order to better serve their purposes. Through Sargeras' sight, he was able to see the full breadth and scope of the Legion as a cosmos-spanning threat that couldn't just be stopped by being idle and waiting for them to arrive. Demon Hunters ritualistically blind themselves. Why? Because part of the ritual they undergo is consuming the heart and blood of a chosen demonic entity, and that gives them a similar sight to what Illidan saw but in a way that's overwhelming. They blind themselves to stop seeing the scope of the Legion's armies and to keep themselves from going insane from the vision. Once they've recovered, they're afforded the ability to see demons, magical entities and just traces of magic in general with unerring clarity, often at the cost of their own normal sight. Aside from their unique sight, Demon Hunters are able to use Fel magic, which is the same sort used by the Burning Legion, which is what I mean about fighting fire with fire. Basically, they sacrifice and condemned themselves to an existence of hunting and fighting demons (as well as wrestling with their now-demonic natures within themselves) so that others don't have to. Hope that explains some things :)

If no one has suggested it, you should take a look at Lords of War. It's, for the most part (besides some intro stuff) done in this art style. There are five vides: Kargath, Grommash, Durotan, Kilrogg, then Maraad. There's also a Mists of Pandaria set, but it's done differently.

WoW FTW :)

There is a renowned WoW-Lore KZfaqr called Nobbel87 he has hundreds or thousands of lore videos about Warcraft and i highly recommend you to react to them. Im sure he is fine with that. One is the whole story of Illidan. If the video has subtitles it would be great if you can enable them since he speaks with accent and sometimes i find it hard to understand. Illidan was a good guy in the very past then became evil and corrupted with fel and was fought in WoW: The Burning Crusade in the raid The Black Temple and then with legion he returned as a good guy.

During the ritual to become a Demon Hunter, you have to slay a powerful demon and eat its heart. That way the demon's essence will flow through your veins, slowly corrupting your physical body to reflect the demon within. The demon within also shows visions and illusions which is why Demon Hunters take out their own eyes and develop the Spectral Sight which allows them to see anything and everyone even through walls. Demon Hunters learn to feed on the souls of those they slay, and if said soul belongs to a demon they can steal some of its powers. Demon Hunter training is said to be extremely demanding, so much that it was deemed only elven physiques were strong enough to survive it, even them most of the aspirants die during training - this turned out to be false as there were some humans and a murloc who succeeded too :p

How the Demon Hunters specifically get demonic is they trained with Illidan, and when they become strong enough, the Illidari find the specific demon who traumatized the demon hunter, the demon hunter fights the demon and eats their heart, I think, making it part of them, forever whispering and trying to corrupt thier minds, and preventing the demon reincarnating in the Twisting Nether, the dimension they live in. As the playable demon hunter, you are essentially the strongest besides Illidan himself, and your soul has changed to become "an Immortal Demon's Soul." Oh, and though you only see Night Elves in this, the Demon Hunters are made of Blood Elves and Night Elves both, but the Blood Elves joined later, so you'll only see NIght Elf ones in Warcraft 3

They were elfs, but have taken in a ton of Fel magic turning themselves into demons, but they are on the good side rather than the bad side.

Demon Hunters in WoW are THE Edgelords that even Death Knights can't compare to. The DK is dark and edgy with tragedy that has it forced on them while the DH is just hardcore edge as they choose to become demons.

The greatest character of Warcraft Ever......

No cinematic could do illidan justice I highly recommend nobbels video on illidans sorry