A World of Warcraft fan and streamer shared a heartfelt story about her late brother and his special connection with a major NPC in Dragonflight. She shared the story to celebrate the release of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight and to honor the memory of her brother.The story was shared by Halyonix, a World of Warcraft Twitch streamer with a humble and dedicated following. The launch of Dragonflight on November 28 coincided with the four-year anniversary since the death of her brother, Cade. Cade was not a World of Warcraft player, but was a major part of an international toy-collecting community. For decades, Cade had used the username “Ebonhorn.” When World of Warcraft: Legion came out, Halyonix informed Cade about the black dragon Ebyssian, who went by the name Ebonhorn in his tauren visage form. Charmed by the shared name, Cade immediately bought the game, rushed to Highmountain, and eagerly sought out any and all quests with Ebonhorn in them.
Though Ebonhorn played a major role in Legion, he faded into obscurity for some time after. Cade eventually let his subscription lapse, having consumed all the Ebonhorn content in the game at the time. Despite this, he would frequently ask Halyonix about what “his NPC” was up to, hoping he would show up again.
Unfortunately, Cade died from cancer four years ago. Shortly after his death, Halyonix went to Cade’s toy-collecting community to let them know, but found they had already learned the news. Instead, she found pages upon pages of loving stories about her brother, each of them ending with the mantra, “Long live Ebonhorn.”
In Dragonflight, Ebyssian plays a pivotal role in rescuing the dracthyr–the new playable race in World of Warcraft–and introducing them to the Horde. Halyonix was happy to see Ebonhorn take the stage once again, and knew her brother would have loved to see “his NPC” guiding people to their next adventures on the anniversary of his death.
Halyonix’s heart-warming story evoked tears from many World of Warcraft fans, with hundreds of comments and thousands of likes on the Twitter post. Several Blizzard developers and content creators were among the crowd. WoW bestselling author Christie Golden also thanked Halyonix for sharing her story, and even the official World of Warcraft Twitter account posted a tribute to the beautiful memory.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is available now on PC.