Top 10 Evil Women of Warcraft
This week, we are back with my top 10 evil ladies in WoW. These women just plain had it out for people, killed a bunch of folks, or were just plain evil. And I loved them for it! Here are my favorite morally questionable women of warcraft.
The ranking is based on a combination of how much of their “evil” goal the character achieved, how powerful they are in combat, how much I like them, and their presence in the story.
The list makes no statement as to the character’s current standing as good or evil, but these characters have come into conflict with our heroes (us?) throughout the story of wow, either as dungeon/raid bosses or unfriendly NPC’s, signifying direct opposition. Some of these characters low-key had a point, some of them are just evil because they can be! Without further ado, onward:
imagine looking this good as a BANDIT
10. Vanessa VanCleef
In an unforgettable heroic dungeon bonus encounter, Vanessa VanCleef steps out of the shadows and fights the “heroes” who killed her father. Vanessa possesses the standard abilities of a Rogue, but has extra strength in poisons, especially hallucinogenics. Years after her dungeon encounter, she returns as a follower in the Rogue order hall, maintaining a pretty good level of strength as an order champion.
Vanessa’s got an absolutely fabulous design, a mostly well-written story, and a wildly sharp intellect. Her boss encounter is notable for just how many failsafes she has in place to try and corner the heroes, especially having a backup plan if the heroes succeeded in defeating her. She has a backup plan for her backup plan, but actually. She’s also one of few antagonists to catch the adventurer off guard, surprising them with the nightmare elixir before combat starts.
For those of you who haven’t played Vanilla and Cata Westfall, the Defias Brotherhood was actually founded for an admirable reason. The nobles of Stormwind famously suck and hoard wealth, and while Elwynn flourished, Westfall scraped by. The Defias were founded to take back lives and money from a heavy-handed ruling class, with the red on their bandannas symbolizing the citizens who died under the nobility.
Vanessa not only carried on this goal (her father’s founding principle), but succeeded in making major territorial gains in Westfall. Later on, she furthered her goals by weeding out Defias members who were simply interested in thieving and stealing, not justice. She earns a spot on my list for sure. Multiple redeeming qualities, less evil now than she was before.
my queens maximizing their joint slay
9. Helya
We talked about Helya a bit last week with Odyn, but she’s definitely earned a spot on this list. After a formidable dungeon encounter where she only hits 66% HP, Helya proves to be a formidable raid boss foe for the heroes of Azeroth with their artifact weapons. Most importantly, she’s full of personality and snarky voice lines-a must. When hitting the players with her tentacles she famously says “touchy touchy.” Iconic.
Helya is one of the people on this list who I sympathize with deeply. Odyn sucks and forced Helya into awful situations that she didn’t ask for. Of course, she eventually decides that we also have to die, so we inevitably fight, but she definitely has a point.
Helya accomplishes some remarkable things related to her “villain” goals: she successfully recreates the spell used to create the Elemental Plane and locks Odyn, the Prime Designate, in the Halls of Valor, which is a pretty sick move. She then lays claim to a significant number of souls using Odyn’s magic and techniques and has a pretty steady stream of soldiers for awhile, all while advancing her work with the Jailer to control the Shadowlands. Her power grows in tandem with his, much like Sylvanas, so she’s pretty scary.
I’m still mad we didn’t get to properly fight her again during SL, as she was banished during a campaign quest, but at least she’s still around for future appearances. Multiple redeeming qualities before forced transformation, pretty evil afterwards. I’d still side with her to beat up Odyn though.
did u know i like naga
8. Lady Vashj
Naga in general are pretty excellent bad guys, but Lady Vashj is in another league. Originally one of Azshara’s favored handmaidens, she would eventually support Illidan in his conquest of Outland. She and her Naga aided Illidan due to the wishes of the Old Gods (and thereby Azshara) and came up with a truly diabolical plan to enslave Outland: control the water. Most of Outland’s water was in Zangarmash, Nagrand, and Terokkar Forest, and the Naga maintained nearly full control of Zangarmash’s water through Coilfang Reservoir. I commend her level of evil on this concept-controlling the water is ambitious and would definitely work. Unfortunately, we killed her before she could complete the plan. Darn!
Vashj is scary enough in combat on her own, but is aided in Outland by an army of marsh creatures. A warrior and a sorceress, she wields all kinds of power. She was a loyal soldier, a master of warfare, and an accomplished lieutenant for both Azshara and Illidan, earning her place in Maldraxxus in the afterlife. She was on the definitely evil side but she stuck to her guns, and I gotta respect that.
Also, she’s just really sassy. One of the best parts of Shadowlands is her constant roast of Kael’thas. Everyone should roast Kael’thas. Multiple redeeming qualities, generally evil until the afterlife.
DEEP! BREATH!
7. Onyxia/Lady Katrana Prestor
The original “it was a dragon in disguise” herself, the broodmother, Onyxia! The star of one of the only moments of actual plot in Vanilla, Onyxia perfectly executed a years-long conspiracy to take control of Stormwind. She is responsible for the death of Tiffin Wrynn (Anduin’s mom), Varian’s imprisonment, and controlled Stormwind nobility through the Drakefire Amulet. She accomplished her goals and managed to hold on to them for quite awhile before adventurers revealed her true form.
Onyxia is an iconic boss fight, originally requiring 40 adventurers to defeat her. She was a formidable force in combat, though she was far from the strongest Black dragon we’ve faced. She served as a highly impactful villain, casting a shadow over events for the Wrynn family for years after her eventual demise, and the de-stabilization of Stormwind was keenly felt across the Eastern Kingdoms. She has one of my favorite villain lines of dialogue to the players, verbatim suggesting they “seek out a new career” since the world has enough heroes.
Underrated: Onyxia is one of the original LGBTQ+ allies in wow! Chronormu sought Onyxia’s wisdom when choosing a visage form, eventually settling on transitioning to a female Gnome. Onyxia gave a nod of approval at the dragon’s selected visage. We love an evil lady who respects gender identity! Redeeming quality!
6. Lady Waycrest
This lady is just the worst. As her daughter said, her mother had a “cruel streak” about her. When she learned her daughter was marrying a commoner, she hired an assassin to kill him. Yikes!
Meredith Waycrest is a classical “in charge and will stay in power by any means necessary” archetype. While the Waycrests were never the most important family in Kul Tiras, they were still nobility, playing a part in the island’s politics. Meredith took a much larger interest in the country’s affairs after her husband became ill. When she begged for someone to save him, the ancient lord of Drustvar, Gorak Tul, answered her call.
And then she started a coven!
YOU WISH YOU COULD PLAY THE ORGAN MID-BOSS!
Absolutely legendary evil behavior from Lady Waycrest: her ailing husband becomes a rotting abomination, she mind controls at least half of the Drustvar region, and she manages to stay in power by maintaining appearances in her human form while outside the manor. She’s actually pretty scary herself: 10% of her health bar is equivalent to Lord Waycrest’s full health bar and she wields part of Gorak Tul’s death magic as a matron. The coven’s mind control proved extremely potent, only breaking on death for some of those under her spell. While nothing came of her aspirations, I commend her for accomplishing a pretty significant part of her agenda by building a coven in the first place (that’s no easy task).
Lady Waycrest earns a spot for her absolutely foul behavior, hiring someone to kill her daughter’s fiancée in the name of class manners, spreading a coven across an entire zone, destabilizing Kul Tiras, and unintentionally aiding the return of the Drust. She’s got great dialogue, my favorite being “oh dear, it appears you’ve slaughtered my entire household.” That’s camp. No redeeming qualities, extremely evil. It’s also impossible to not love her campy organ-playing during Waycrest Manor (one of many reasons it’s my favorite dungeon).
idk guys her outfits slay
5. Lady Ashvane
Rounding out our triad of Lecherous Ladies is the only person more evil than Meredith Waycrest on Kul Tiras: Priscilla Ashvane! Take unfettered capitalism, combine it with Krakens, add a dash of treason and some Azshara magic as a bonus. That’s Lady Ashvane. It takes a special kind of evil to lie to someone for over 20 years about how you consider them a dear friend and trust their judgment, and Priscilla possesses the required amount of evil. Secretly conspiring against the Proudmoores ever since Jaina let Daelin’s men die, Lady Ashvane seeks to maximize profits, no matter who she has to partner with.
Priscilla drives events on Kul Tiras to run the country into the ground, all as part of her coup attempt against the Proudmoores. She works directly with many enemies of the kingdom in order to further her aspirations, such as various pirate crews, treasonous tidesages, Sylvanas, and literal actual Azshara herself. But hey, war’s good for the economy!
maybe it's maybelline
As one of the businesswomen most invested in Azerite, the Ashvane company is responsible for many deaths by weapons production. She laid siege to Boralus and was taken prisoner, but had plenty of backup plans ready for her escape. Eventually, Ashvane fled to her most expensive backer’s side: Nazjatar. Even though the Naga were widely understood enemies of most mortal races, Priscilla didn’t care: she would make money, remain a commander, and eventually receive a direct power-up from Azshara. Of course, as we all know, that buff turned out to be quite different from what she expected, turning her into a hideous monster that took 20 Azerite-buffed players to take down. Gross. She’s super evil, no redeeming qualities. Well done, Priscilla.
she entered the world pissed and stayed pissed
4. Magatha Grimtotem
One of the best to ever do it, The Elder Crone is one of the most selfish, sinister, and competent people in Azeroth. Originally, Magatha contested Cairne Bloodhoof for leadership of all the Tauren tribes. When it became clear that she would lose the leadership contest to Cairne, she began a long con to take control of Thunder Bluff. Magatha was notable for spreading her influence in any corner where she sensed Cairne was weak, such as being an early ally of the Forsaken when the rest of the Horde was hesitant to trust them.
Her ambitions truly came to a head with Garrosh, in whom she saw an easy opportunity to deal with Cairne once and for all. Garrosh was easily manipulated and underinformed, especially since he had weak support in the early days of his rule as Warchief. Magatha put the Grimtotem behind Garrosh, knowing Cairne would not approve of Hellscream’s leadership. Thus, when Magatha offered to bless Garrosh’s weapon before his Mak’gora with Cairne, he genuinely had no idea she would poison the blade. Cairne dies in the duel due to the poison, and like a good antagonist who actually wants to win, Magatha immediately launches an attack on Thunder Bluff. Unfortunately for her, Garrosh valued honor more than he valued her, and he did not support the Grimtotem’s attempted coup.
most productive imprisonment of all time
The Elder Crone was then exiled and later taken prisoner by the Twilight’s Hammer during Cataclysm. She’s involved in one of my favorite quest chains in the game at Darkcloud Pinnacle in the updated Thousand Needles, in which she reveals how good at the game she really is. The Twilight cultists made a pretty severe mistake when they captured Magatha, in that they were unaware she would listen to everything they said while she was imprisoned. She gained better understanding of the Doomstone, an artifact the Hammer was in possession of that was extremely powerful (somewhere near the Dragon Soul we think). Through covert manipulation of the adventurer, Magatha breaks out, cleans up the Grimtotem by having the player eliminate her less-capable soldiers, and then attacks the Hammer, ending the zone in possession of the Doomstone and free of captivity.
Later, she joined the Farseer at the Shaman order hall, but claimed her presence was mostly to watch over the Doomstone. I have to respect Magatha for this: she knows that if the Legion destroys Azeroth, there’s no one left to manipulate, no Thunder Bluff left for seizing. Only redeeming quality: defense of Azeroth, even with bad intentions. Absolutely fabulous villain.
body horror xal is my favorite xal
3. Xal’atath
We’ve talked a lot about Xal’atath on here already (see my recent posts about TWW) so I’ll keep it brief. While her story isn’t done and we have lots to learn about her origin, Xal’atath has already proven that she is competent, scary, sassy, and extremely powerful. She’s been a favorite of mine since she was introduced, and I can’t wait to see what else she does.
if there's one thing she never did wrong, it's her outfits
2. Sylvanas
The greatest divisive character of our game, Ms. Windrunner herself. As I’ve said before, I am a Sylvanas fan through and through, and I hate her writing from BFA-SL. Sadly, that does include her sharper villainous turn, even if she was morally questionable before then, so we’ll be talking about it.
In life, Sylvanas is pretty chaotic good, but in Undeath, she is much more neutral evil, eventually veering on lawful evil. She is willing to go to any length to carve out a place for the Forsaken in Azeroth, especially when it comes to the question of their inability to procreate. Her most questionable moments prior to BFA include use of Val’kyr to create new Forsaken from long-dead corpses, deployment of the Blight to secure Forsaken lands, double-crossing leaders when needed, and her war tactics in Andorhal. She was a very interesting character who was definitely questionable, but would show up and have your back at the most dire moments, such as the Darkspear Rebellion and the Legion’s third invasion.
Obviously, that took a turn in BFA when someone decided she had been secretly serving the Jailer the entire time. While her motive to overhaul the afterlife makes sense in character, she begins to lose the plot a little bit. I don’t need to cover Teldrassil (again) or discuss the Fourth War as abject evil, but the only saving grace her later depiction gets is that she maintains an internal sense of justice: she genuinely thinks she is on the right side.
iconic. invented Mother. first bow-wielder ever i fear.
Both before and after BFA, Sylvanas is very efficient at accomplishing her goals. She successfully aids in killing Arthas, finding a way to create new Forsaken, funneling souls to the Maw, and even after the Jailer deceives her, she fulfills her original goal of the afterlife receiving a rework. Due to the war she started and the events of Shadowlands, no soul will ever be sent to the Maw again, and they will have a voice in which realm they go to. Like her or not, she did end up causing a much-needed change in the Shadowlands.
In combat, Sylvanas is terrifying. At her maximum power level in story, a full raid could only whittle her down to 45-50% HP with covenant buffs. The full-power Sylvanas depicted in Shadowlands is extremely strong and will be quite a force when she inevitably returns to help us fight the Void. My personal favorite ability of hers is still the fuck-off-instant-death laser she uses on Saurfang to kill him in BFA. That’s genuinely iconic behavior.
Many redeeming qualities before BFA. Pretty mustache-twirling comic book evil during BFA, a bit less in Shadowlands, but has other problems. Always my queen though like that’s the original Mother in WoW. We fought her in a boss encounter, so for the purposes of the list, she definitely counts as evil, but y’all can debate amongst yourselves about how “evil” you think she is.
if they ever let me switch sides to team Azshara it's actually over
1. Azshara
And then there’s the actual queen, my fave, Azshara. Azshara is the best because she’s just evil, there’s no two ways about it. She has no selfless motivation for being queen, no secret goal she hides behind like Sylvanas, she’s just after as much power as she can possibly get.
Azshara’s actions have had long-lasting consequences in Warcraft. She is maybe the person most directly responsible for the Legion’s first invasion of Azeroth, which has chained into most events of the franchise. Her visage can be found all across Kalimdor in ancient statues, a testament to how fervently her Kaldorei subjects adored her. Later, as queen of the Naga, she would command multiple missions that had large effects. Her forces were responsible for kidnapping the Tidehunter from the plane of water, stealing the Tidestone of Golganneth (twice lol), luring Alliance and Horde fleets to their deaths, and freeing N’Zoth for realsies. She hasn’t been seen since 8.3, after claiming she’d pursue more true power, but it’s safe to assume that she left through a void tear leading straight to Xal’atath. We’ll see her during the Saga for sure.
she's so funny like why is she posing with the Legion invasion like it's for instagram
This woman has no redeeming qualities: you don’t earn an epithet like “the Vainglorious” if you’re a good person. Azshara is often noted as the most powerful sorceress who has ever lived on Azeroth, surpassing Aegwynn, the fully-buffed Jaina Proudmoore, and Archmage Khadgar in the Arcane arts. Combine that with a N’Zoth blessing, an army of Naga, and a menagerie of undersea creatures, and Azshara is quite a formidable foe. Her boss encounter consists of a full Azerite-powered raid, Jaina Proudmoore, Lor’themar, Shandris, and Thalyssra all barely holding on. And she still kind of wins! I am looking forward to her next appearance and she is by far my favorite evil lady in Warcraft.
In service to our queens listed above,
-Ily
