Phoenix
Art by Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Phoenixes were powerful, bird-like elementals that were native to the Firelands as they were spawned from the raw essence of primal fire. They were predatory hunters that drifted on the ever-present rising heat of the elemental plane, and they spent almost the entirety of their lives in the air due to their lack of legs.
History
Phoenixes were a native denizen of the Firelands for the entirety of its known history. While keen and capable of obeying orders when trained, they were ultimately animalistic in intelligence, thus had no true intrinsic loyalty barring that created through conditioning. The Firelord Ragnaros used such creatures as trained artillery and mounts for his forces, as their mastery over fire allowed them to rain destruction on their enemies.
Through the practice of arcane magics that resulted in the delving into the elemental planes, phoenixes were discovered by mortal races. Their beauty and majesty were a particular draw to the elves, as those that worshipped the sun god Belore saw them as a representation of the sun. Over time, they eventually found their way onto the heraldry of the Sunstrider dynasty and became a royal symbol for the thalassian elves.
Description
Phoenixes were solid manifestations of elemental fire and naturally radiated an intense heat that they had full dominion over. They could restrain this heat to a gentle warmth for the safety of riders or handlers, but there was always a risk that a phoenix could blaze into an inferno when startled or aggressed, which made them notably dangerous even when tamed. They were covered in feathers that glowed with brilliant, fiery colors such as gold, orange, red, and magenta, and they naturally dropped these feathers over time much like a typical bird. Their longest feathers were those that made up their magnificent tail, which were adorned with fiery patterns and were particularly desirable due to their size and rarity.
Phoenixes lacked legs and thus spent most of their time in the air where they hunted on naturally warm updrafts. In many instances, they hunted prey that they could readily consume in a few bites, but they were capable of carefully roosting if they took down larger prey or needed to rest—many of their roost locations were rocky alcoves or volcanos, where they simply rested their body upon the ground and used their wings to shift and their natural affinity for fire to create bursts of heat to allow them to take to the sky.
Abilities
Phoenixes had full control over the elemental fire they were birthed from, and they could increase the temperatures around their bodies to scalding, unbearable temperatures or release streams of devastating fire from their beaks. Their most iconic ability, however, was their natural ability to reincarnate. Whenever a phoenix died, it burst into an explosion of ash and flame that manifested back into a fiery egg which, in time, would hatch into a hatchling form of the phoenix from whence it would born. While a phoenix could be permanently killed if their egg was destroyed, phoenixes were otherwise functionally immortal.
Organization
Phoenixes were largely solitary creatures that reigned over massive expanses of territory. However, they were capable of reproducing and eventually sought out a mate in the unforgiving infernos of the Firelands. Phoenixes mated for "life" in the sense that they would remain as a mated pair until one of them reincarnated, at which point the phoenix that remained returned to its solitary lifestyle until it felt the desire to mate again.
Brooding was the only period in a phoenix's life where it spent a large majority of its time on the ground. The responsibility of caring for phoenix eggs and new hatchlings was shared between the parents, as adult phoenixes used their natural heat to "spark" the flames of their young. While reincarnated phoenixes hatched with an inferno and grew rapidly, newly birthed phoenixes were weak, feeble, and heavily reliant on the care of their parents lest their new embers simply burn out.
Known
Named
Statblocks
| Warcraft Creature Types |
|---|
| Aberration • Beast • Celestial • Construct • Demon • Dragonkin • Elemental • Fey • Giant • Humanoid • Monstrosity • Ooze • Plant • Undead |
| Elemental Creatures | ||
|---|---|---|
| Elements | Pure | Air (Air Revenant • Djinn • Lightning Elemental) • Earth (Azerite Elemental • Earth Revenant • Gemstone Colossus • Geode • Gyreworm • Mercury Elemental • Shale Spider) • Fire (Cinder Wolf • Core Hound • Fire Hawk • Fire Revenant • Fire Spider • Fire Turtle • Flamewaker • Hell Hound • Lava Worm • Phoenix) • Water (Sea Elemental • Water Revenant) • Arcane (Arcane Wraith • Mana Wyrm) • Death (Death Revenant) • Holy |
| Conglomerate | Dual (Dust • Smoke • Ice • Magma • Mud • Steam) • Triumvirate (Geyser • Pyroclastic • Sandstorm • Volcanic) • Complete (Primal) | |
| Other | Ancient Spirits • Algan • Broker • Elemental Ascendant • Ethereal • Dark Phoenix | |
