Kil'jaeden, the Deceiver, is a major antagonist of the Warcraft franchise.
He is an eredar demon lord in the Burning Legion. He along with Archimonde are the two most powerful individuals in Sargeras' demonic army, with only Sargeras himself having more power than them. He is also the archenemy of Prophet Velen.
His was voiced by an unknown voice actor in Warcraft 3, by Fred Tatasciore in The Burning Crusade expansion and by Lex Lang (Who also voices Suguru Geto in Jujutsu Kaisen) in The Legion expansion.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- He, Archimonde and Velen were the three rulers of the Eredar race on the planet Argus. They ruled their people peacefully until one day Sargeras manages to contact them from across the stars and promises them power and positions in his Burning Legion in exchange for them allowing him to corrupt their whole race into bloodthirsty monsters who would serve the Burning Legion and allowing him to transform the three of them into his highest-ranking lieutenants who would help him eradicate all life across the cosmos. While Velen refuses and manages to escape with a relatively small number of Eredar, thus, saving them from being corrupted into demons, Kil'jaden and Archimonde willingly join the Burning Legion and allow their race to be corrupted and transformed into demons. Aside from allowing his people to be corrupted, his and Archimonde's betrayal also caused their whole planet to be twisted by demonic energies, turning it into a devastated wasteland.
- As one of the highest-ranking demons in the Burning Legion, Kil'jaeden is responsible for the genocide of countless beings on numerous planets in his quest to help Sargeras purge the cosmos of all life. He has exterminated all life on countless worlds over the course of many millennia and has corrupted some of the beings he has encountered to serve the Burning Legion.
- He has tried to kill his former friend Velen and all of the Eredar who had followed him who have called themselves Draenei ever since leaving their home world. Kil'jaeden relentlessly chases after them, sending his demonic armies against any planet the Draenei decide to inhabit. The Draenei always manage to escape from him which angers Kil'jaeden and he soothes his anger by slaughtering all life he encounters on the planet in question with a sadistic relish.
- When Kil'jaeden discovers that the Draenei have landed on the planet Draenor, he decides to try a new plan to kill them. He learns that the planet is also inhabited by an honorable but savage race with shamanistic practices called the Orcs who live in peace with the Draenei and decides to use them for his purposes. After learning that the Orc shamans worship the spirits of their dead and listen to them, he appears in the dreams of the Orc shaman Ner'zhul who is the most respected member of his race and pretends to be the spirit of Ner'zhul's deceased wife. He speaks with Ner'zhul in that guise and manipulates the Orc into believing the Draenei are evil and they plot to kill the Orcs and harm the whole planet and lies to Ner'zhul that the ancestors of the Orcs wish for the Draenei to be killed, so the Orc race would be saved from their threat. He sends similar dreams to all the other Orc shamans which convinces all the Orc clans that they need to unite under the leadership of Ner'zhul and kill all Draenei before they can harm them. This course of action still affects Azeroth to its day due to the Orcs forming the Horde and the Draenei allying themselves with the Alliance, their enemies.
- When Ner'zhul discovers the trickery and tries to do something about it, Kil'jaeden strips him of his power, appoints Ner'zhul's apprentice Gul'dan, who knows about it but doesn't care, as the new leader of the Horde and forces him to continue the manipulation of his people. Ner'zhul wants to save them from Kil'jaeden's influence but is unable to resist him and do anything which amuses Kil'jaeden.
- He empowers Gul'dan with demonic powers and gives him full control of the Horde as long as he fulfills Kil'jaeden's wishes and kills all the Draenei. He allows Gul'dan to abuse his power over the other Orcs and commit atrocities in his own quest for power so long as he serves Kil'jaden, some of which include rounding up female Draenei to be raped by Orcs for Gul'dan's breeding experiments, artificially aging many Orc children to use as canon fodder and send into battle, killing or punishing any Orc who disagrees with his decisions and his abuse and experiments on the half-Orc Garona to mold her into an assassin for him.
- He gives demon blood to Gul'dan to make the Orcs drink from it which enslaves their bodies and minds to the demonic Burning Legion and turns them into warmongers with uncontrollable bloodlust. Because of his manipulations, the Orcs have also lost their connection to their ancestors and the elements of nature which forces them to rely on the demonic powers he has taught them and they can no longer practice shamanism both because the elements don't answer them and out of fear of punishment if they attempt to do it.
- Kil'jaeden's actions ultimately cause the corruption of the Orcs, the almost complete genocide of the Draenei as well as the slaughter of many other races on Draenor including the Arakkoa. Furthermore, the demonic powers he has taught the Orc warlocks corrupt the nature around them and turn most of the planet into an uninhabitable wasteland that can barely sustain any life.
- Under Sargeras' orders, Kil'jaeden stops communication with Gul'dan which drives the corrupted Orcs to desparation as there is barely any food or water left on the planet. This allows his master Sargeras to convince the desperate Orcs to open a portal to the world of Azeroth and invade it. They are instructed to wipe out any race which can resist the Burning Legion's eventual invasion of Azeroth which fails in the end when the Orcs are defeated by the Alliance. This makes Kil'jaeden responsible for all the conflicts between the Orcs and the races of Azeroth and all the atrocities the first Orcish Horde has committed against the people of Azeroth including the destruction of the human kingdom of Stormwind and the devastation the Orcs have inflicted on the human kingdom of Lordaeron as well as on the elf kingdom of Quel'thalas.
- He punished the Orcish shaman Ner'zhul for defying him in the past by slowly torturing him and destroying his physical body piece by piece until nothing remains of Ner'zhul but his tortured spirit. He then trapped Ner'zhul's soul inside the Frozen Throne on Azeroth's icy continent of Northrend where he would remained trapped and immobilized and would rule over the newly created Undead Scourge, thus becoming the first Lich King. Kil'jaeden plans to keep him like that for the rest of eternity.
- Kil'jaeden's plan when he created the Lich King and gave him the powers to raise and control undead creatures was to create the Undead Scourge whose purpose was to replace the Orcs as the ones who are supposed to pave the way for the demons' arrival and wipe out any race on Azeroth which could stop another invasion of the Burning Legion and open a portal so the demons could invade Azeroth and destroy all life on the planet. This makes Kil'jaeden responsible for many atrocities committed by the Undead Scourge including the destruction of the Nerubian empire of Azjol-Nerub, the destruction of the human kingdom of Lordaeron, the destruction of the elven kingdom of Quel'thalas and the slaughter of most of the High Elves living there, the destruction of the wizzard city of Dalaran and the second invasion of the Burning Legion on Azeroth when the Lich Kel'thuzad successfully opens a portal through which Kil'jaeden's companion, Archimonde, and his demonic legions manage to enter into Azeroth and Archimonde tries to destroy the World Tree which would doom the whole planet. The demonic invasion is only stopped when the mortal races of Azeroth, including the now redeemed Orcs, unite against the Burning Legion and the Undead Scourge and manage to trick Archimonde into approaching the World Tree where they set a trap for him and destroy him. Kil'jaeden's actions of creating the Lich King and the Undead Scourge also make him indirectly responsible for Ner'zhul corrupting the Lordaeron Prince Arthas Menethil into his personal champion and Death Knight with the sword Frostmourne as well as for Sylvanas Windrunner being corrupted into a banshee after she is killed and tortured by Arthas.
- After the defeat of the Burning Legion on Azeroth, Kil'jaeden realizes that the Lich King Ner'zhul has betrayed the Burning Legion by informing Illidan Stormrage that he could defeat one of the mightiest demon leaders called Tichondrius by consuming the powers of the skull of Gul'dan to become more powerful and killing him which, ultimately, causes Archimonde's death and the Burning Legion's defeat on Azeroth. This angers him and he decides to exact revenge on Ner'zhul for his betrayal. He contacts Illidan Stormrage and, despite the role Illidan himself has played in the Burning Legion's defeat, offers to reward him if he manages to destroy the Lich King. This causes Illidan to ally with an army of Naga, commit a number of crimes to leave the shores of Kalimdor including the destruction of several Night elf villages to take a ship. Illidan tries to use the Eye of Sargeras to melt away the polar icecaps surrounding the Icecrown Glacier to kill the Lich King and destroy the Undead Scourge, but is stopped by his brother Malfurion, Maiev and an army of Night Elves who stop the ritual in time because it could break the balance of the whole world.
- Afterwards, Illidan is so horrified of what Kil'jaeden would do to him that he decides to hide on the devastated planet of Draenor, now called Outland, from him along with his forces. When Kil'jaeden finds him, he gives Illidan a second chance to destroy the Lich King and threatens he would inflict a horrific punishment on him if he fails him again. This causes Illidan to go back to Azeroth with Kael'thas, Prince of the Blood Elves, and Lady Vashj, leader of the Naga who follow Illidan, and invade Icecrown Citadel to kill the Lich King. This results in the deaths of many Naga and Blood Elves when Arthas Menethil, who defends his master Ner'zhul, faces them in battle with his own army of Undead, and kills many of them and even fatally wounds Illidan who only survives because his allies drag him away.
- He manipulated Prince Kael'thas into betraying his master Illidan with promises to save his people. He made him travel back to Azeroth, to the devastated Elven kingdom of Quel'thalas and visit the Sunwell. Kael'thas's mission was to use the energies of the Sunwell to open a portal through which Kil'jaeden could enter Azeroth and launch another invasion against the planet.
- For the ritual to work, Kil'jaeden had Anveena and M'uru captured and their powers slowly drained to empower the portal which would be fatal to them. He also used the Scepter of Sargeras to aid in the opening of the portal even though the usage of this weapon risked tearing apart the very fabric of reality. Kil'jaeden's plan is only stopped when Anveena sacrifices herself to weaken him.
- When Illidan and his followers, now called the Illidari, launched an assault against the demon-infested world of Argus, and the Alliance and the Horde also launched an assault of their own, Kil'jaeden manipulated his enemies into fighting and killing each other instead of uniting against him.
- He brutally tortured the soul of the deceased demon hunter Varedis Felsoul, manipulating him that his fellow Illidari had betrayed him and, thus, had been responsible for his death, which convinces Varedis to join the Burning Legion and become a demon. Kil'jaeden conducts an agonizing ritual and imbues a small part of his own soul into Varedis's spirit.
- In an alternative timeline, where a timetravelling Garrosh Hellscream convinces the Orcs not to drink demon blood and become corrupted, Kil'jaeden changes his plans and instead guides Gul'dan to the Tomb of Sargeras where he opens a portal through which the Burning Legion is able to launch another destructive invasion against Azeroth.
- Kil'jaeden sends several Legion ships against the city of Dalaran and orders them to burn it to ash.
- When Kil'jaeden's former friend Velen along with a group of heroes from Azeroth invade his command ship, Kil'jaeden tries to kill them all and even mocks Velen over the death of his son, whom Kil'jaeden had previously corrupted, forcing Velen to kill him.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- In his final moments, he shows too much remorse to be Near Pure Evil. He confesses sorrowfully that he never believed his master Sargeras could be stopped and expresses hope that Velen could prove him wrong. When Velen sees his former friend like that, he gently taps his forehead and gives him forgiveness before teleporting away. Even before his final moments, there are a few hints that he might feel remorse. For example, when he watches a vision of Velen talking about him and Velen calls him a "monster", Kil'jaeden looks a little saddened, before he angrily stops the vision.
- Despite trying to kill his former friend Velen, he still has some care for him. While he is dying and Velen approaches him, Kil'jaeden admits with sorrow he had always been envious of Velen for his gift, his faith and his vision.
- His final moments are played for sympathy with a dramatic music as he makes his confession to Velen and then he accepts his fate and closes his eyes moments before he explodes.
- Unlike Archimonde, he is shown to be willing for forgive his minions for failing him.
External Links[]
- Kil'jaeden on the Villains Wiki
- Kil'jaeden on the Warcraft Wiki
- Kil'jaeden on the Heroes of the Storm Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Video Games Starcraft | ||
 Inconsistently Heinous
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Arthas Menethil | Sylvanas Windrunner | Ner'zhul | Kil'jaeden | ||