Dark Seduction: Lady Hederine

As you may have noticed, some creatures become rare mobs more often than others. In World of Warcraft you can often notice a gradient of what kind of mobs are used, and how often their respective models show up is dependant on that. For example, in the original game you generally only encountered Dreadlords as bosses or very tough endgame mobs, and thus you would not see a dreadlord rarespawn in a lower-level zone. Also, some models are just not used as often as others. For example the wight model is very rarely seen, and was even more so in classic WoW. Today we spotlight a rarespawn that is the only one of its kind in the entire game.

This post spotlights Lady Hederine.



Who is Lady Hederine and where can I find her?

Lady Hederine is an elite rare mob succubus found in Darkwhisper Gorge in Winterspring, on Kalimdor.



Darkwhisper Gorge is a demon-haunted and corrupted region of Winterspring where Archimonde's forces staged their campaign to assault the world tree at Mount Hyjal. Interestingly the gorge also houses an errant high elf ghost and a greedy imp merchant. Within this accursed region, Lady Hederine can be found standing in one of several spots within the many canyons of the area. She does not seem to wander, and is thus fairly easy to spot among the many patroling succubi in the area. Despite not being the focus of many quests, the area is still sometimes farmed for Thorium, and thus finding Lady Hederine alive may be somewhat tricky depending on the population of your server. Her respawn timer is also quite long.

Temptresses of the Nether

Succubi are one of many demonic species forming the Burning Legion. Their proper species name is "Sayaad", although it is used in only one instance in the game. Presumably, "succubus" is a human or elven word for the creatures, which seemingly are quite well-known to the mortal races of Azeroth. Due to their seductive appearance and dangerous powers over the mind, they are often enslaved by warlocks, and used when a more subtle approach is needed. Succubi do not seem to rise into positions of power within the Legion very often, although they have leaders among their own kind known under titles such as "Queen of Suffering".



As mentioned in the introduction, Lady Hederine is (so far) the only rarespawn Succubus in the game. This is not a common thing, and she shares this honor with only a few other creature types. She does not have an uncommon coloration or any other remarkable features, but the succubus model is well-designed and animated, and thus looks quite good. The "monster" version of the succubus is identical to the warlock pet, which was revised rather early during classic WoW to be less scantily clad. However, this revision also made the model less angular and more detailed, so is overall an improvement in my mind.



The demons of Darkwhisper Gorge are all elite, and were never demoted to regular mobs at the time when most other world elites were. During classic WoW it was a dangerous zone to enter, even for a well-geared level 60. True to form, Lady Hederine is very dangerous in combat for adventurers around her level. She cannot be stunned, has a mind control ability that lets her take over both players and pets, likes to use fear on things she cannot control, and has a very strong Shadow Word: Pain. In addition to this her physical attacks are quite powerful. Take this into careful account before engaging her.



Although she has no unique drops, if defeated she has a good chance to drop Felcloth and Demonic Runes, very much in keeping with her demonic nature.

Demonic royalty?

The demon forces in Darkwhisper Gorge stubbornly remained even after the death of Archimonde and the dispersal of most of the Legion forces. Interestingly enough one can infer a bit about Lady Hederine as well. Tellingly, all types of demons inside the gorge have "Hederine" before their name (IE "Hederine Slayer"), so it seems almost certain that she is the leader of the remaining forces. This is also backed up by her personal power.



Interestingly, as I said earlier succubi are almost never seen in command of Legion forces. I am theorizing that possibly Lady Hederine was second-in-command or a lower-rank commander of the demonic forces stationed there, and that the higher ranking demons were all wiped out during the disastrous attack on Nordrassil. As the remnants of the forces withdrew, Lady Hederine decided that her time had come and seized control of the demons. Her epithet of "lady" may even be self-proclaimed.



Why aren't there more rarespawn succubi? I have no idea, honestly. They look more detailed and better animated than many of the creatures of which there are half a dozen rarespawn. Maybe Blizzard think that not making the various types of demons too common helps in making them feel more unique and more of a threat when encountered? As we will see, demons are not very commonly used as rarespawns overall.

Since Mount Hyjal will open as a zone with the release of Cataclysm and since Darkwhisper Gorge will gain an all-new focus as a quest area, the future fate of Lady Hederine and her demons looks uncertain. However she is an interesting and unique rare, with a nice place in lore, and thus deserves to be remembered.

Until next time.
~Dragonshade