| “ | Grommash: And what, Gul'dan, must we give in return? Gul'dan: Everything... |
„ |
| ~ The famous exchange between Grommash Hellscream and Gul'dan. |
Gul'dan is a major antagonist in the Warcraft franchise. He appears as the main antagonist in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness, and a major antagonist in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne and the Warcraft universe.
An alternate version of Gul'dan appears as the main antagonist in World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor and as a major antagonist in World of Warcraft: Legion.
Originally a shaman, he became the first orcish warlock, as well as the de facto founder of the Orcish Horde.
He was voiced by Paul Eiding in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. In World of Warcraft, the alternate version of Gul'dan is voiced by Troy Baker, who also voiced Shinnok in Mortal Kombat, Kul Teska in Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, Van Kleiss in Generator Rex, the Joker in the Arkhamverse and the Tomorrowverse and Simon Krieger in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Biography[]
This section is too long. Visit here for more details: Gul'dan's Synopsis on the Villains Wiki.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- His backstory of being abused by fellow orcs is tragic and understandable, but the mass genocide he committed is proved to be far worse than those who caused it, and his revenge towards orcs are purely for selfish reasons, so this freudian excuse doesn't hold.
- Additionally, the elder saw potential in him and had hope Gul'Dan would be able to become great. He unfortunately was not spared from his genocide, despite being the only one kind to Gul'Dan.
- Pretended to be Ner'zhul's devoted student, but secretly appealed to his dark side ever since he met him. Nerz’hul himself would later decide that Gul’dan has gone too far despite being power hungry himself.
- Sold his soul to the Burning Legion and corrupted his fellow orcs for power by giving them to drink demon blood which turned the previously honorable Orcs into bloodthirsty savages that desire mass slaughter, resulting in them still being considered to be evil by the Alliance even after their redemption and affecting Azeroth’s history to its present.
- Ordered the genocide of the Draenei in order to test his ability to unite the clans.
- He orders many Draenei women to be rounded up and used for breeding experiments where they are raped and impregnated by his Orcs, so that Gul'dan can test what children they give birth to.
- After a female draenei was raped, which led to the birth of Garona Halforcen, Gul'dan took her in and proceeded to be brutally emotionally and physically abusive to her, personally training her to be his personal assassin, and forcing her to assassinate King Llane Wrynn against her will. In addition, he used his magic to both age her up quickly and tortured her for his own amusement. In addition, Gul'dan had Garona assassinate any orcs who either expressed doubt about the Horde's actions which frequently led to clans turning on each other and allowing Gul'dan to manipulate them even more for his own amusement.
- He artificially aged up many Orc children, so they would be able to serve as soldiers and be used as cannon fodder against Gul'dan's enemies.
- Used Medivh's fragile mental state to open the dark portal to Azeroth, which led to the main conflict in the Warcraft franchise. As a result, he created a situation where Medivh had to be killed by his close friend Anduin Lothar for the greater good.
- Abandoned his people for his quest to gain Sargeras' powers, which ultimately led to the Horde's defeat to the Alliance.
- After gaining Sargeras' power, he was planning to become a god and use his newfound power to wipe to whole world of Azeroth out, remake it in his own image and replace the Orc race with a superior race of his own making, further proving he doesn't care about his fellow Orcs.
- In both timelines (as Chronicles Volume 2 revealed that prime universe Gul'dan and alternate universe Gul'dan have the same backstory), Gul'dan grew up as an outcast, abused by most of his clan. However, his Freudian Excuse doesn't justify the fact he murdered his whole clan, because among the victims was also a good shaman who showed him kindness.
- Threatened the Nightborne to help his cause, or else he would massacre them like he did with the Draenei.
- Executed King Varian Wrynn, taunting him about his sacrifice was for nothing.
- Hated paladins and other honest people because he couldn't bare the thought that anyone, much less a human, could be too moral for his manipulations.
- Took over control of the Hellfire Citadel, and later considered the option to become the new god of Azeroth, with or without the Burning Legion, showing he was never truly loyal to his demon masters.
- Revealed to Grommash that Garrosh was his son while also revealing Garrosh was dead as a sadistic form of mockery.
- Used an entire boat full of children as human shields to keep Khadgar off while he searched for the Broken Isles, then upon landing, burned all of the children alive just to spite Khadgar.
- His Shadow Orb brainwashed Cordana Felsong and forced her to commit terrible atrocities, all just for Gul'dan's amusement.
- Stormed the Warden Vaults and massacred both wardens and prisoners while he searched for Illidan's corpse, and later on, captured Maiev and forced her into slavery very briefly before she was rescued.
- During the final battle in the Nighthold, he attempted to make Illidan Stormrage Sargeras's avatar on Azeroth, an event which would allow Sargeras to walk on Azeroth again, while also destroying Illidan's soul and leaving his body a husk.
- In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, during Maiev's journey through the Tomb of Sargeras, Gul'dan gains a brief moment of pity as he is dying and realizing he won't claim Sargeras's eye for his own, while Maiev expresses brief sympathy for Gul'dan dying alone in the Tomb and torn to shreds. However, this is not depicted as redeeming, as Gul'dan proceeds to throw the blame on his failure to claim the power of Sargeras on his servants for abandoning him, when in reality, the Tomb's guardians are heavily implied to have killed his followers, and Maiev is explicitly expressing sympathy for the method of how Gul'dan died, alone and torn apart by demons, while she makes it very clear throughout the campaign that she is disgusted with Gul'dan's lust for power and sickened with his desire for godhood.
- Despite his death in the main timeline, his evil lived on in his skull, which finally corrupted Ner'zhul completely and destroyed any remaining good qualities that remained in the shaman, which led to Ner'zhul opening the Dimensional Gates and the destruction of Draenor, making Gul'dan partially responsible for the destruction of the orcs homeworld.
- Gul'dan introduced the use of fel magic among the orcs, which slowly sapped the life out of Draenor due to the heavy overuse of the evil magic. Despite knowing that it was the fel magic, Gul'dan encouraged the orcs to blame the Draenei for the decline of their home, further increasing the Draenei genocide.
- Despite swearing loyalty to Orgrim Doomhammer and promising to serve the Horde, Gul'dan had no intention of honoring this oath and planned to betray Orgrim the second he got an opportunity. In doing so, he finally showed his true colors, as Gul'dan had managed to paint all of his prior awful actions as in the name of the Horde, but the second it was no longer under his control, he had no further use for it.
Trivia[]
- He is currently the only Warcraft villain to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Gul'dan on the Villains Wiki