Gul'dan



Gul'dan, known also as "Darkness Incarnate" and "The Destroyer of Dreams", is a principal antagonist from the Warcraft universe. Originally a shaman, he became the first orcish warlock as well as the de facto founder of the Orcish Horde. He was the honored apprentice to the elder shaman Ner'zhul.

As Ner'zhul rallied the orcs for a war against the draenei at the behest of Kil'jaeden (hiding behind the facade of a powerful ancestor referred to as "The Beautiful One"), Gul'dan supported Ner'zhul fully. However, when Ner'zhul began to notice that they could no longer call upon the power of the elements or the ancestors, the shaman began to sense something was amiss. He discovered at Oshu'gun that he had been duped by Kil'jaeden and attempted to back out.

Abandoning the ways of shamanism and betraying both his people and his mentor to the demonlord Kil'jaeden for personal gain and power, Gul'dan was directly responsible for the orcs' fall to demonic enslavement as well as for the Horde's invasion of Azeroth.As a test of the Horde's strength, Gul'dan and the Shadow Council guided the orcs into murdering every single Draenei they could find on their homeworld. Tutored by the lord of the Burning Legion, he became the founder and master of the Shadow Council as well as the creator of the necromantic terrors known as death knights. Gul'dan is considered by many to have been the most cunning and powerful mortal warlock to ever have existed.

Ultimately, Gul'dan's thirst for power proved to be the Horde's undoing. On the eve of Doomhammer's attack on Lordaeron's capital, Gul'dan took the Stormreaver and Twilight's Hammer clans and set out to sea to locate the Tomb of Sargeras. With nearly half of his standing forces suddenly gone, Doomhammer was forced to retreat and hunt down the traitorous warlock. This reprieve would ultimately give the Alliance time to regroup and retaliate. The remainder of his clans were slaughtered upon Doomhammer's arrival. In those last moments, Gul'dan realized that he, like his former mentor, had just been Sargeras' pawn, lured by promises of power to facilitate the Dark Titan's agenda. After his death, his skull became a powerful arcane relic until its powers were absorbed by Illidan Stormrage.

Chronciles of Great New Empire
Gul'dan was quickened by Giygas.