Who is Arator, the elf at the center of the next World of Warcraft expansion?

With each World of Warcraft expansion, some characters will rotate out while new faces come to the forefront. In Dragonflight, we were hanging out with the Dragon Aspects on the Dragon Isles. The War Within had players primarily traveling with Anduin Wrynn and Alleria Windrunner – although Thrall and Jaina appeared for a few quests as well. In Midnight, one of the characters we’ll be spending the most time with is Arator Windrunner, a blood elf with a sweet new haircut, sick tattoos, and some serious family drama.

We first met Arator in The Burning Crusade expansion, all the way back in 2007. The heroes of Azeroth went through the Dark Portal, a massive structure that leads to the shattered world of Outland. Arator is the child of two legendary Alliance heroes: the elven ranger Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon, one of the first paladins to form the Silver Hand. But with the way the narrative is developing, I have to admit, I’m much more interested in Arator than his parents.

See, Alleria and Turalyon ended up lost beyond the Dark Portal, fighting demons in the Twisting Nether, a tragic fate that left Arator essentially orphaned. He was raised by his aunt, Vereesa, and trained to become a paladin. Dubbed Arator the Redeemer by his paladin pals, he showed up with the rest of the heroes exploring Outland to see if he could find his parents. 

Unfortunately for him, that narrative seed wouldn’t properly pay off for another decade. In Legion, we meet Alleria and Turalyon over the desolate demon world of Argus. Since time is weird outside of the material plane, they have been fighting for a thousand years. Turalyon isn’t just a paladin anymore; he’s a High Exarch of the Army of Light, infused to the bone with holy energy. Alleria is an elf that has consumed the powers of the Void, and is continually haunted by their whispers. They’re both cosmically infused superheroes, living legends. Arator is ... not, and that’s what makes him interesting. He’s essentially Azeroth’s biggest nepo baby, and he needs to forge his own story.

This story begins with a pre-Midnight patch, where Vereesa is haunted by visions of an attack on Silvermoon City, the home of the Blood Elves. Arator tries to convince his mother Alleria to come back and defend the Sunwell, but she can’t — the whole Void thing means that she’s anathema to the Sunwell, and besides, she has important business hunting down Xal’atath’s generals. Arator tries to convince his aunt Sylvanas to return from her penance in the Maw, but she also declines. 

Every expansion receives a tie-in novel, and with Midnight, we got the book Blood Ties by Christie Golden. Golden’s last novel, Sylvanas, was tasked with creating a singular narrative out of a string of retcons, plot twists, and bad decisions. Blood Ties doesn’t have to deal with any of that baggage, so it’s a much more enjoyable read. In Blood Ties, Arator sets out on a mission to investigate a dormant Legion base that is showing signs of activity. His parents join the expedition, and Arator is forced to reconcile his parents’ legend with the reality of who they are as people.

Most people go through a similar phase of realizing that our parents are fallible, so this is a relatable story. Of course, the stakes are elevated by the fantasy setting — Alleria and Turaylon are veterans of a thousand-year campaign, capable of summoning cosmic forces and fighting off dozens of attackers. But they also kind of suck at being parents since they never actually raised Arator, and they have their own deep-set personality flaws. Blood Ties is the first book where I actually connected to the characters because we get to learn little wrinkles of their personality, like the fact that Turalyon hates the nose on his iconic statue of Stormwind. 

This family doesn’t slot together neatly; Arator has abandonment issues, Turalyon is kind of a hard-ass, and Alleria is a fussbudget over Arator’s safety in battle. Arator is a legacy character who has remained untouched over the years, and there’s a lot of potential in seeing him take center stage in Midnight. He’ll be taking the player on a story campaign across Azeroth that will unfurl over time, so we’ll get some more one-on-one time with Arator, and we’ll get to see how that story unfolds. I’ll admit, after The War Within managed to make me care about Magni Bronzebeard, I’m interested to see how Midnight builds on the conflicts built in Blood Ties.