In World of Warcraft Dragonflight's newest patch, Guardians of the Dream, we will finally be traveling to the realm of the Emerald Dream, a plane of reality teeming with flourishing life.

In this realm, the protectors of nature are cultivating the new World Tree of Amirdrassil. And this World Tree is just one of many that have grown over the years.

Let's discuss the fascinating history behind these flourishing beacons of nature, which have close ties to the Dragon Aspects.

Nordrassil

One of the most ancient World Trees is Nordrassil, which means "Crown of the Heavens."

The tree was born 10,000 years ago when Alexstrasza placed a single acorn within the recently reborn Well of Eternity. The massive tree was then blessed by the Dragon Aspects. Alexstrasza blessed it with strength and vitality. Ysera bound the tree and the night elves to the Emerald Dream. And most importantly, Nozdormu blessed the tree to grant the Kaldorei immortality.

Nordrassil, and the forests around it, would be the night elves' main place of residence for the next 10,000 years.

During the Third War, there was a massive invasion by the Burning Legion, led by Archimonde the Defiler. The night elves had to team up with the Horde and the Alliance to defend the tree from the relentless onslaught of Scourge and demonic forces.

And tragically, at the end of the battle, Archimonde had reached the sacred tree. The demonic overlord had been planning for this moment for a millennia and had trained his herbalism skill to 300 in order to rip the tree from the earth and claim the endless energy of the Well of Eternity.

That was until Malfurion blew the Horn of Cenarius and placed a skull raid marker on Archimonde, sending his entire raid team of wisps who popped Bloodlust and blew all of their cooldowns and focused down Archimonde and banished him.

Unfortunately, this DPS check heavily damaged Nordrassil and disenchanted the Dragon Aspects' enchantments, which meant the night elves were now no longer immortal. This marked the end of the Third War, and shortly after, Malfurion took a very long nap, where he hung out in the Emerald Dream doing, Druid stuff.

Meanwhile, in our reality, the night elf Druids were led by a new leader, Fandral Staghelm, who wanted to grow a new World Tree so the night elves could regain their immortality.

Andrassil

The thing is, Fandral really didn't have the best track record when it came to growing World Trees.

Around 4,500 years ago, Fandral traveled to Northrend and discovered a concerning amount of saronite spreading across the region. This is a metal that is the literal blood of the Old God Yogg-Saron.

So, without the approval of the Cenarion Circle or Malfurion, Fandral took matters into his own hands and took branches from Nordrassil and planted them in Grizzly Hills, creating the World Tree of Andrassil, meaning "Crown of the Snow."

The tree was planted to stop the spread of saronite, and when the rest of the Druids found out that a new tree was created without their permission, they were rightfully upset. But there was no denying that Fandral's plan had worked, and the corruptive ore stopped spreading in the region, for a time.

Decades later, the humongous roots of the tree grew so long that they touched Yogg-Saron's prison, and since Andrassil wasn't blessed by the Dragon Aspects, it was susceptible to corruption.

And this corruption of the World Tree was the very first time the influence of the Old Gods found its way into the Emerald Dream, which led to the manifestation of the Emerald Nightmare. The Cenarion Circle realized that there was no way to spare the World Tree, and they would have to chop it down.

Shaladrassil

If they didn't, it would manifest into something like Shaladrassil, a World Tree in Val'sharah whose name is speculated to mean "Crown of Shadow" and was fully corrupted by the Nightmare.

So, in order to stop the spread of corruption, they chopped down Andrassil, leaving a giant stump in the middle of Grizzly Hills. And the former World Tree was renamed to Vordrassil, meaning "Broken Crown."

The point is, Fandral didn't have the best track record when it came to growing humungous trees. But somehow, he managed to convince the Circle of Ancients in Darkshore to make a new World Tree and regain their immortality.

The Ancients and the wise Druids joined together on an island off the coast of Kalimdor and funneled their Druidic energies together to grow a new massive World Tree that the Kaldorei could call home.

Teldrassil

This new World Tree was named Teldrassil, meaning "Crown of the Earth," and it became the new home of the night elves.

But when they asked the Dragons for their blessings, they said no. Nozdormu blessing them with immortality by altering the time waves was a big deal, and now they wanted him to do it again. The Time Lord thought they were pretty arrogant for asking that.

Despite this, Teldrassil was still a natural paradise, but after some time, the Kaldorei realized that something was wrong. There was corruption brewing within the tree, a corruption that was driving the furbolgs and grell mad, attracting satyrs, and causing giant turtles and sea monsters to beach themselves on the shores of Darkshore in an attempt to flee from the madness.

The source of this corruption is the main reason why low-level night elf players have to defeat animals that have been driven mad, turn satyrs into frogs, and also get lost in the maze that is that one furbolg den.

The root of the corruption was not discovered until Malfurion woke up and began his investigation. What he found is that, while the tree was growing, Fandral Staghelm was secretly convinced to attach a corrupted branch by the soon-to-be Nightmare Lord, Xavius, who was pretending to be Fandral's dead son.

Malfurion discovers this truth, cleanses Teldrassil of its corruption, and throws Fandral in a prison under Mount Hyjal. Fandral goes a bit bananas during his imprisonment and later becomes the leader of the corrupted Druids of the Flame, during the Cataclysm expansion, and is defeated in the Firelands raid.

But remember the Druids of the Flame. They're going to be important later on in our story.

So, after Teldrassil was cleansed of its corruption, Alexstrasza was impressed the tree had really survived this long without the blessing of the Aspects. And during the wedding of Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, Alexstrasza and Ysera would finally put their blessings on the tree, which caused the World Tree to flourish with life, and they all lived happily ever after.

Of course, we all know that a few years later, during the War of Thorns, the World Tree of Teldrassil was burnt to a husk by Sylvanas Windrunner and her Horde armies. And we can thank the Banshee Queen for continuing the legacy of Warcraft villains just really hating nature.

The souls of the night elves who lost their lives during the burning of Teldrassil were funneled directly into the cursed realm of the Maw in the Shadowlands. At this time, Tyrande was filled with the vengeance of the Night Warrior and goes on a killing spree to rescue the souls of her people.

Amirdrassil

Later on in Shadowlands, Elune and the Winter Queen bestowed Tyrande with the Sisters' Tear, which is filled with the souls of dead night elves and serves as the seed for the new World Tree of Amirdrassil.

This World Tree seed is then transported to the Emerald Dream for safekeeping, where it can grow peacefully and will later serve as the night elves' new home in Azeroth. But, of course, this is the World of Warcraft, where nothing is peaceful for long.

Now, the primal incarnate Fyrakk has teamed up with the Druids of the Flame to corrupt this new World Tree with Primal Fire and consume all of Azeroth in Living Flame.

Of course, we can't let that happen. So, in Patch 10.2, Guardians of the Dream, the heroes of Azeroth must finally delve into the mysterious realm of the Emerald Dream and stop it from being burned to ash. If you want to better face the challenges, then use WoW Dragonflight Gold to equip your characters!

And trust me, it's going to take more than a few buckets of water to deal with the impending doom raging across the Dream.