World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 2 (World of Warcraft: Chronicle)

by Blizzard

  The Gurubashi’s objective was clear: burn Stormwind City to the ground. King Barathen recalled all forces to the stronghold’s gates. His kingdom’s survival would depend on one colossal battle.

  As the Gurubashi warbands approached, Llane told his father what he and his friends had done in Stranglethorn. Barathen was more disappointed than angry at his son. He did not punish the three young men. There was no need. The trolls would see to that soon enough.

  When the Gurubashi arrived at the city walls, the soldiers of Stormwind trembled at the trolls’ numbers. Zan’non had learned some of his father’s forbidden tricks. He’d used them to transform a few Gurubashi into hulking berserkers possessed of otherworldly strength. These mutated giants climbed Stormwind’s walls and proceeded to rip its soldiers to pieces.

  The death toll on both sides mounted quickly. King Barathen knew that it would take a miracle to break the Gurubashi siege, so the old leader mounted a desperate counterattack with his personal guards. He stormed directly into the hellish front lines, seeking Zan’non’s head. He almost succeeded, but the odds were against him. King Barathen died on the field of battle.

  Llane mourned his father’s death, overcome with guilt about his foolish mission into Stranglethorn. Yet he knew that the city was now looking to him for guidance. Stormwind’s forces had fallen into disarray. All seemed lost. Llane pleaded with Medivh to unleash his power as he had done before, believing it was the only way to spare the city.

  Medivh agreed. The thought of calling on his full might frightened him…but, in a strange way, it also excited him.

  MEDIVH DESTROYS THE GURUBASHI SIEGE

  STORMWIND’S ISOLATION

  Barathen made no attempt to call on the northern human nations for help against the Gurubashi. The trolls were moving so quickly that reinforcements would never arrive in time. Yet even under different circumstances, the king would have been loath to ask for aid. Years ago, Stormwind had requested assistance from the other human nations to fend off attacks by gnolls, but it had received none. Ever since then, Barathen and his people had become more isolationist, believing that they could deal with any threat on their own.

  He stood upon Stormwind City’s ramparts and rained fire and ice upon the Gurubashi. He froze them in their tracks; he incinerated them from within; he blasted them to pieces with pure arcane force. Their screams of pain drowned out the sounds of battle.

  Medivh soon realized that he was making sure their deaths were excruciating. He was even more horrified to discover that he enjoyed it.

  When Medivh called off his arcane barrage, Stormwind City still stood. The Gurubashi and their leader were dead. Only a handful of trolls had escaped the maelstrom of magic.

  The people of Stormwind mourned their dead and lauded their heroes. Medivh was seen as the realm’s greatest defender. The kingdom welcomed Llane Wrynn as its new ruler. When Anduin Lothar was raised as one of the military’s top commanders, there was nothing but approval from the citizens.

  The secret mission that had sparked the war was not known to the public, but the consequences of it weighed heavily upon Medivh and his friends. Many innocents had died due to their recklessness.

  Medivh understood that he did not have the will—the mental fortitude—to control his Guardian birthright. The woman in his dreams continued beckoning him to Karazhan in order to refine his powers. He now obeyed her; he was too terrified of what he might do if he didn’t.

  When Medivh arrived at the tower of Karazhan, the woman in his dreams was waiting for him. It was Aegwynn, the mother he had never known.

  And she was furious. He had taken too long to answer her call, and he had nearly destroyed a kingdom for it. Medivh accepted Aegwynn’s ire; he was in no position to disagree with her.

  For over a year, mother and son made up for the time they’d been apart. Aegwynn took this opportunity to teach Medivh what it meant to be a true Guardian. Her first lesson was to convince him of the need for secrecy. He could not trust anyone, particularly the Council of Tirisfal. The secret order’s original purpose had been to safeguard Azeroth against the Legion and empower a Guardian to confront demons directly. Over the centuries, its focus had drifted. The council now seemed more concerned with self-perpetuation than with Azeroth’s preservation.

  The council also loathed Aegwynn. It had given her the power of the Guardian; she had refused to give it back and instead had passed it to her son. Aegwynn knew that the council would eventually learn that Medivh now held her power. Its members would undoubtedly be suspicious of him, the first person to receive such power without their permission.

  One of Aegwynn’s closest friends, Moroes, agreed to stay with Medivh and help maintain the tower of Karazhan. Apart from interacting with this caretaker, she strongly urged her son to distance himself from the outside world. Other sorcerers would not understand his burden. In her view, not even the Kirin Tor, the magocrats of Dalaran, would have any knowledge that he needed.

  Medivh told his mother about the strange darkness that seemed to dwell within him. It had shown itself multiple times now, and he was afraid. Aegwynn dismissed his concerns. She had felt the same thing during her tenure as Guardian. She had come to believe it was simply the burden of power and the weight of responsibility. She did not know the truth, that Sargeras’s dark presence had influenced her mind and was now twisting Medivh’s thoughts.

  Aegwynn eventually returned to her exile. It was difficult to part from her son, but she knew the Council of Tirisfal would never leave Medivh alone if the magi believed she was still at his side.

  Medivh retreated into the libraries of Karazhan and immersed himself in study. The responsibilities of a Guardian were many; the techniques, unlimited. He tried to make up for lost time as best he could.

  As Aegwynn had suspected, the Council of Tirisfal discovered that Medivh was the new Guardian. The order had heard of the mage’s exploits in Stormwind. After some investigation, they had tracked him to Karazhan. By this time, the council had abandoned any thought of creating a second Guardian. Aegwynn’s rebellion had taught them that they could not control such an individual, no matter how hard they tried. The council also knew that trying to force its control over Medivh might only anger him, as it had his mother.

  The council sent missives to Karazhan, politely asking Medivh for a meeting. He never replied. The council then tried something else: they convinced various mage orders and schools to send young magi to study under Medivh. None of these aspiring apprentices would know that their new mentor was the Guardian.

  Medivh was not a friendly mentor, and none of these first would-be students stayed for longer than a day. He felt the darkness within him growing, and he thought his isolation was the cause. Moroes understood—he had always disapproved of the way Aegwynn insisted on detaching herself from the world. He suggested that, if Medivh could not trust the Kirin Tor or the Council of Tirisfal, he could invite people from surrounding regions for a banquet instead. Surely they would not have ulterior motives other than curiosity, and the company would do him good. Medivh allowed it. There was a great feast, and the guests were awed by the wonders of the enchanted tower. A grand time was had by all, and their happiness even lifted the Guardian’s mood.

  In the years that followed, Karazhan would host many more galas. Nobles from around Stormwind would come to regard Medivh’s parties as exclusive high-society events. The Council of Tirisfal snuck a few agents into these festivities, but the magi were thoroughly confused by what their spies reported. By all accounts, Medivh was using his power and prominence to live a shallow life of luxury. It was not what they’d expected from the son of Aegwynn.

  More potential apprentices showed up on Medivh’s doorstep. He no longer made it a point to drive them away, but he accepted nothing less than excellence from them. If they made a single mistake, Medivh dismissed them. Few of these trainees remained in the tower for more than a week.

  Medivh was no longer alone, but his inner darkness soon e
ngulfed every corner of his soul. Any fleeting moments of happiness seemed to disappear beneath the weight of crushing depression.

  Between parties and galas, Medivh continued his studies. Aegwynn’s words had a tremendous effect on him. He had fully embraced his destiny as the Guardian, and he was determined to learn how best to protect Azeroth.

  His libraries were filled with books about demonic lore, tactics, and powers. He devoured these writings as fast as he could. Then he turned his attention to Azeroth’s own rich history.

  Medivh was inspired by the tales of the Legion’s last invasion of Azeroth, the War of the Ancients. Different races and powerful creatures had come together to resist the unstoppable Burning Legion. He couldn’t help but think of that war as the high-water mark for his world. Perhaps Azeroth would not—could not—match that glory again. The peoples of this world had spent millennia growing apart. Where once there had been purpose and unity, now there were only petty squabbles and bickering.

  His own experience had shown him that much. Trolls and humans had gone to war for insignificant reasons. The tribes, nations, and clans of Azeroth were happy to spill one another’s blood for meaningless gains. It was as if no one on this world remembered that the Legion had not been destroyed in the War of the Ancients; it had only been temporarily defeated.

  If the demons invaded again, Azeroth would be too weak to throw them back. And they would invade again. Medivh had no doubts about that. Something radical needed to be done to prepare the world for their return.

  Had Medivh known what dark force was leading him down this road of despair—had he known that Sargeras had once had a similar crisis of faith—he might have resisted. Instead, he embraced a final conclusion that mirrored Sargeras’s own solution to the question of encroaching evil: Azeroth was fundamentally flawed. It would never change on its own. Never.

  Someone needed to break everything that created divisions in the world—nations, cultures, governments, and kings. Azeroth was plagued with disorder. It needed a firm hand to change things. Medivh, the Guardian, would do what nobody else could.

  Medivh concluded that he needed allies to accomplish his mission. He needed an army.

  Medivh used his Guardian powers to venture beyond Azeroth and into the cosmos. He visited new worlds and unseen corners of the Twisting Nether. At first, he searched for signs of an imminent Legion invasion of Azeroth. He was relieved to find none. Azeroth would have some time to prepare, at least.

  Sargeras subtly influenced Medivh to focus on a particular world: Draenor. Upon observing this place, the Guardian discovered a mighty and warlike people known as the orcs. They were truly fearsome to behold in battle, and they were under the Burning Legion’s control.

  For a number of years, Medivh watched the orcs. He took on the form of a raven to travel across the land. A few orcs noticed this strange, small bird, but it caused no alarm. Medivh saw how effectively the orcs defeated the draenei, and then he saw how the Legion suddenly discarded them. He saw how their world shriveled and died due to the effects of their fel power, and he saw how desperate they had become.

  The Horde had been easily manipulated by the Burning Legion. Medivh knew he could do the same. The orcs would serve as the perfect army to transform Azeroth forever.

  And even better, it would delight Medivh to use the Legion’s own puppets against it.

  As Medivh worked toward this purpose, he collected his thoughts in writing, documenting his most powerful discoveries and magical techniques in a volume that would come to be known as the Book of Medivh.

  While Medivh was watching Draenor, the Horde edged closer to self-destruction. Blackhand continued pressuring Gul’dan for a way to save their people. The warlock had no answer. He knew the day would soon come when Blackhand would reach the limits of his patience and kill Gul’dan.

  But that day never came. Medivh was ready to put his plan into effect. He showed himself to Gul’dan and the Shadow Council, disguised as a hooded stranger.

  Gul’dan bristled at the intrusion, and he lashed out at the stranger with the full might of his fel powers. The hooded figure did not fall. He turned Gul’dan’s powers back on the orc. Medivh made it a painful event; he knew the warlock had sold his entire race to the Burning Legion, and the Guardian saw no reason to treat such a creature gently.

  Gul’dan’s pride was severely wounded that day. The Shadow Council had watched him kneel before this mysterious stranger. It was an insult Gul’dan would never forget or forgive.

  Medivh didn’t care. He told the orcs he could help them escape from Draenor if they built a vast magical portal. This gateway would take them to a new world, a bountiful realm that the Horde could conquer for its own. Visions of this world appeared in the minds of Gul’dan and his Shadow Council. It was glorious to behold, a place brimming with game, pristine rivers, and verdant grasslands.

  Its name was Azeroth. It was ripe for the taking, Medivh said.

  Gul’dan sensed something demonic in the hooded figure. He believed that this visitor was a demon who spoke on behalf of Sargeras. This, Gul’dan realized, was the reason for Kil’jaeden’s sudden absence. The Legion had been preparing to send another messenger to advise him about what to do.

  In this instance, Gul’dan was correct. Medivh believed that he was laying the foundation to defeat the Legion once and for all, but he was instead bringing doom to his world.

  Yet even with the knowledge that the Legion was working through the stranger, even with the orcs teetering on the brink of oblivion, Gul’dan demanded payment for his assistance. What would he personally receive for helping this stranger build a portal to conquer Azeroth?

  If it was power Gul’dan wanted, Medivh would offer it to him. A new vision flared bright in the warlock’s mind. It depicted ancient underwater ruins—a place known as the Tomb of Sargeras. Medivh had no compunction about telling Gul’dan of this location. The tomb was at the bottom of the sea, and Aegwynn had reinforced it with a Guardian’s power. There was no chance, in Medivh’s mind, that Gul’dan would ever be capable of finding it or entering it. Nonetheless, he told the warlock that if the Horde conquered Azeroth, he would reveal the exact location of the tomb and grant him access to its extraordinary power.

  Gul’dan had little choice but to trust the stranger. He told Blackhand that he had found a new world for the orcs to conquer, one where they could find sustenance and also sate their battle lust. Yet to reach this place, they would need to create a massive gateway.

  To begin this process, Gul’dan sought out a convergence of Draenor’s magical ley lines. He settled on a region at the eastern edge of Hellfire Peninsula. There, he and Blackhand ordered the orcs to construct an enchanted stone frame. It would become known as the Dark Portal, and it would help stabilize the magical gateway between Azeroth and Draenor.

  Medivh made occasional trips to Draenor to observe the orcs’ progress in building the Dark Portal. His absences were noticed. At first, they resulted in complaints from the nobles and entertainers who had come to Karazhan for various festivities. When the host was not there, the night was seen as a disappointment.

  Word of his disappearances eventually reached the Council of Tirisfal. Medivh was still a mystery to them. Years ago, they’d been concerned that he would be an enemy of the council, as Aegwynn was. Then he’d seemed to withdraw from the world, only emerging for parties and revelry. An immature young man who wanted to live a life of luxury and excess was not exactly who the council had hoped would be the Guardian, but it was far from the worst possible outcome. The order had called on the Kirin Tor’s accomplished magi to keep watch over the world in the absence of an official Guardian.

  But if he had no true interest in the materialistic lifestyle he had cultivated, what were his real intentions? Where was the Guardian spending his time and energy? The council was no longer content to wait and see what Medivh intended to do with his astonishing power.

  At the council’s behest, Kirin Tor magi covertly inf
iltrated Karazhan to find answers. Some disguised themselves as guests at Medivh’s parties. Others sought ways to open portals directly into his libraries. Neither approach had any success. Medivh made sure that every one of their attempts failed and that the magi responsible returned home safe but disappointed.

  Though these intruders were from the Kirin Tor, Medivh knew that the Council of Tirisfal was guiding their actions. He needed to stop the council’s meddling, for he believed it would never approve of his plan to “save” Azeroth.

  In the span of a week, four members of the Council of Tirisfal were found dead. There was no evidence of Medivh’s involvement, no sign that arcane power had been used at all. In fact, during that week, the Guardian had made appearances at Karazhan’s parties every night. It did not seem possible for him to have committed the murders.

  The council’s remaining members had suspicions, but they couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone else was targeting them. In truth, they found it hard to imagine that Medivh could have fallen so far as to murder fellow magi. They ceased their spying on Karazhan and focused their efforts on discovering who was slaughtering them like lambs.

  Medivh was free to act once again.

  As the Dark Portal took shape on Draenor, Gul’dan urged Blackhand to strengthen the clans. The warchief staged mock battles and duels between the orcs to give them an outlet for their bloodlust. The Horde had grown feeble, and it needed every fighter at its disposal for the coming invasion of Azeroth.

  Though many orcs reveled in combat, Durotan saw it as a disgrace to tradition. The Frostwolf chieftain could no longer stay silent about what was happening to his people. His world was dying. He had seen the orcs become bloodthirsty savages. Durotan began speaking out against Gul’dan and the use of fel magic. He urged the orcs to seek ways to heal their world. Most clans saw this as an act of treason and cowardice, and they lashed out at the Frostwolves.