The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj are the ruined part of Ahn'Qiraj, the qiraji fortress city that lies behind the Scarab Wall in the south of Silithus. At the close of the War of the Shifting Sands, a thousand years ago, night elves and dragons of four flights fought their way to the city gates, where they met the largest silithid swarm yet. The qiraji and their silithid were not beaten but locked behind a magical barrier, and the fighting left the city in ruins.
Anachronos of the bronze dragonflight and the night elf leader Fandral Staghelm raised that barrier, the Scarab Wall, but Fandral, grieving his son, shattered the scepter Anachronos made to open it. A thousand years later, a new army has swarmed from the hives and some qiraji have slipped past the wall. A champion of the bronze dragonflight rebuilt the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, and the Horde and Alliance gathered supplies for a joint army, the Might of Kalimdor. When that champion struck the Scarab Gong with the scepter, the gates opened, General Rajaxx led the qiraji out, and the armies under High Overlord Saurfang drove them back into the ruins.
Ossirian the Unscarred, an anubisath champion of the Twin Emperors, rules the ruins. General Rajaxx, who commanded the first qiraji assault on Silithus in the old war, leads waves of qiraji warriors and taunts Fandral Staghelm with the death of his son. Kurinnaxx, Moam, Buru the Gorger and Ayamiss the Hunter guard other parts of the ruins. The qiraji mean to break out of their walls and take revenge for their defeat a thousand years ago.
Cenarion Circle druids have watched the desert from Cenarion Hold since the old war and back the assault on the ruins. Inside, Lieutenant General Andorov and his night elf bodyguards, the Kaldorei Elites, arrive with orders to destroy Rajaxx and promise to tell Commander Mar'alith at Cenarion Hold who helped them. Ossirian's head goes to Mar'alith, who announces the victory to the soldiers of Kalimdor. The Circle trades rings, cloaks and weapons for the idols, scarabs and qiraji relics that raiders bring back, once they have earned enough standing with it.
In the War of the Shifting Sands, Ossirian was the only anubisath to strike back at the bronze dragons. He threw his obsidian sword through the wing of the dragon Grakkarond, the qiraji swarmed the fallen dragon, and its bones became a sacred site for the anubisath. Ossirian survived his wounds, and his life is now bound to a set of crystals that make him nearly invulnerable but will kill him if he strays too far from them. The anubisath have called him the Unscarred ever since.
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