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

by Blizzard

  Gul’dan kept a careful watch on Durotan, but his efforts were focused on other things. He and Blackhand convinced the clans that conquering Azeroth was the only way their people would survive. Most orcs, especially those who had drunk Mannoroth’s blood, were delighted at the opportunity to slaughter once again. Draenor was dying; none could deny that. If the Horde did not take this chance to build a new home, everyone would perish.

  Once the Dark Portal was built, Gul’dan worked with Medivh to open it. The warlock would conduct a ritual with his counterpart on Azeroth to tear a rift in the fabric of reality. The amount of raw power needed to do so was astonishing. It would require Gul’dan and Medivh to pool their magic together…but even that would not be enough on its own.

  Nearly every draenei prisoner who still lived was brought to the base of the Dark Portal. At the moment the ritual began, Gul’dan drained all of their life essences in an instant. That massive spike of power created the spark needed to cross such a large distance.

  Meanwhile, Medivh conducted his own spellwork on Azeroth. In an isolated swamp east of Karazhan known as the Black Morass, he called upon the full might of his Guardian energies to rip open a gateway. Due to his and Gul’dan’s combined efforts, the Dark Portal shimmered and activated, forming a bridge between the two worlds.

  Through the portal, Gul’dan and the orcs glimpsed Azeroth for the first time. The world that the hooded stranger had promised him was real.

  Blackhand sent his most trusted scouts—members of the Bleeding Hollow and the Black Tooth Grin clans—to survey the other side of the portal. They emerged in the Black Morass and quickly established a camp. A number of warlocks accompanied these scouts. They oversaw the effort to build an enchanted stone frame around the portal on the Azeroth side, which would stabilize the gateway and allow it to stay open for extended periods.

  As construction progressed, the orcs scouted more and more territory.

  The sheer scale of magical power required to open the Dark Portal made the event impossible to hide. Medivh had concealed his activities as much as possible, but almost every creature attuned to magic on Azeroth felt ripples when the gateway roared to life.

  Most could not detect where the disturbance had come from. One person could. Aegwynn immediately set out to investigate the source.

  She was shocked to discover the Dark Portal and the green-skinned beings who had established a war camp in the Black Morass. They were clearly hostile, and they were laced with traces of the Burning Legion’s fel power. Aegwynn had never seen orcs, nor had she heard of Draenor, but she was able to sense the bridge between the two worlds.

  And then, in a moment that shook her to her core, she recognized that a Guardian’s magic had been used to make this possible. There was no mistaking it: the only person on Azeroth who was capable of using this power in this way was her son, Medivh.

  She also sensed the presence of fel magic intertwined with his. Aegwynn could not fathom what had happened, but she could only conclude that Medivh had somehow allied himself with the Legion.

  With a heavy heart, she set out to stop him.

  Accompanied by a blue dragon named Arcanagos—one of the few allies she had made during her long years of exile—she traveled to Karazhan to confront Medivh. The tower was crowded, filled with nobles who were expecting another exciting gala.

  Aegwynn entered the tower alone at first, hoping she could convince Medivh to give up his power peacefully. It was not to be. The creature she fought that day was not Medivh but Sargeras. The lord of the Burning Legion seized full control of the Guardian’s mind, suppressing his thoughts and memories, controlling his every action.

  Sargeras revealed to Aegwynn that the darkness within her son was the same darkness she had felt as Guardian. It had nothing to do with her power or her burden. Sargeras had transferred a portion of his spirit into her when they’d fought long ago in Northrend, and he had remained hidden within the mage until she gave birth to her son.

  Aegwynn was stunned as the truth set in. She had not bested Sargeras all those years ago; he had bested her. The darkness that had plagued her was not from the burden of Guardianship, but from her greatest nemesis lurking in her soul. Had she doomed her son to a life as a Legion slave? Had her entire tenure as Guardian been meaningless? These revelations might have broken a lesser human, but not Aegwynn. She did not lose herself to despair. No, she became angry. She would defeat Sargeras here and now, even if it meant striking down her beloved boy.

  And with that, Aegwynn and Sargeras went to battle once again. The opening blows of the fight shook the tower to its foundations. The would-be revelers tried to flee. Arcanagos leaped into the fray just as one of Sargeras’s spells temporarily incapacitated Aegwynn.

  Despite being a dragon, Arcanagos was severely outmatched. Sargeras struck him down, burning the creature from the inside out, until all that remained was bone.

  The loss of her friend sent Aegwynn even further into the depths of rage, and she drew on her anger to break free of Sargeras’s spell. The Legion’s ruler might have had the full weight of a Guardian’s power under his control, but she had centuries of experience. As the great duel continued raging through the tower, Aegwynn slowly gained the upper hand.

  Sargeras grew desperate. He reached out to power one final assault. In the same way that Gul’dan had drained the life from the draenei prisoners to activate the Dark Portal, Sargeras ripped the life out of the hundreds of humans who were fleeing Karazhan. Only one person, Moroes, was spared.

  Sargeras pushed Medivh to destroy Aegwynn once and for all. A small part of the Guardian’s mind resisted the command. His power, brimming with the life force of hundreds of people, instead banished Aegwynn from Karazhan and hurled her elsewhere. Medivh didn’t know where he had sent her, but he could not sense her presence anywhere on Azeroth.

  With the battle over, confusion rippled through Medivh’s mind. At the moment of Aegwynn’s defeat, Sargeras had retreated into the depths of the Guardian’s soul. Medivh had no memory that the demon lord had controlled him, but he knew he had clashed with his mother. He feared that he had lost control of his power again, as he had all those years ago before he slipped into a coma. This time, instead of only killing his father, he had slaughtered some of the most important nobles in the kingdom of Stormwind.

  The only survivor within Karazhan, Moroes, seemed to be driven half-mad by what he had witnessed. Medivh tried to ease his suffering by purging the memories of that day from Moroes’s mind. Even so, the poor man was never the same.

  Neither was Karazhan. It had grown darker, haunted. The spirits of many of the slain humans would wander its halls and grounds for years to come.

  While Aegwynn battled Sargeras, more Horde forces poured through the Dark Portal.

  Garona had accompanied the first scouts who’d gone through the gateway, and she reported back to Gul’dan that the hooded stranger was nowhere to be found.

  The warlock was furious. He had hoped to gain some clues as to Medivh’s true nature; he still believed the mysterious figure was a demon in disguise.

  As orcs fanned out across the Black Morass, they encountered a few human hunters and traders, but they offered little resistance to the Horde. Most of the humans were killed, but a handful were captured alive. There wasn’t much reason for the Horde to question them at first; the orcs could not understand the human tongue.

  But Garona had a talent for learning new languages, and she spent much of her time speaking with these prisoners. She did not ask them about Stormwind’s patrol routes or other military secrets—questions the humans might have resisted answering. However, most of the prisoners were happy to teach their strange captor a few words in exchange for food and water.

  Still, there was valuable information to be gleaned. One prisoner cursed at the orcs endlessly, telling them they were all doomed to die. He warned that Stormwind had a great mage champion who had single-handedly annihilated a troll army, and that he would make quick
work of the green-skinned “beasts” who had taken over the Black Morass.

  Garona listened to his furious ravings, and she came away with a name and a location: Medivh, who lived in the tower of Karazhan. The Shadow Council assassin set out alone, moving quickly, hoping to inspect the tower without being spotted. She could not have picked a worse time.

  After the deadly battle inside Karazhan, Medivh was in a dark mood and was extra vigilant for intruders. He captured Garona the moment she stepped within sight of the tower.

  Garona believed her captor would destroy her, especially when she laid eyes upon Medivh. She did not know that this was the stranger who had visited Draenor to make a pact with the Horde, but she recognized that there was a great darkness stirring within him.

  Yet Medivh did not kill her. She had no information he needed, and she was a curiosity. He had not seen her during his visits to Draenor, and he made no mention of those sojourns to her. She was neither truly orc nor truly draenei. Garona was an outcast, and he sympathized with that. What was more, she was remarkably intelligent. Garona could already speak the human tongue fairly well. Medivh taught her new words and phrases. She picked them up quickly.

  It was clear that Garona was no threat to him, and thanks to Gul’dan’s endless cruelty, she had no real love for the Horde. Medivh decided that it would be more valuable to have an ally—or even a friend—among the orcs than another spirit haunting his home. He freed Garona, but he also extended an invitation to her: she could return to Karazhan whenever she liked.

  Upon reaching the Dark Portal in the Black Morass, Garona told Gul’dan what she had learned. Unbeknownst to her, the warlock already knew what she had seen. Gul’dan had a firm grip on his assassin’s mind, and he had been watching through her eyes when she had met Medivh. He had recognized what she had not: Medivh was none other than the mysterious stranger who had come to Draenor. He was a human? That was all? Gul’dan had expected something…more. A disguised Burning Legion commander, perhaps.

  Gul’dan decided that once Medivh’s usefulness had ended, he would kill the mage himself.

  First, he needed to know the location of the Tomb of Sargeras. He told Garona that Medivh might be holding useful information in his lair. The warlock ordered his assassin to dig up whatever knowledge she could from the mage’s tower.

  As more and more orcs streamed into Azeroth, reports reached Stormwind of mysterious creatures lurking around the Black Morass. Rumors spread through the streets. Were they vengeful spirits? Trolls, armed with some new breed of power? Had some strange race from across the Great Sea launched a war upon humans? Nothing seemed to make sense.

  King Llane dispatched Commander Lothar to uncover the truth. He led a small force of knights and scouted out the Black Morass. It was not long before Lothar ran across the Horde. For the first time, orcs clashed with Stormwind’s knights, engaging in a series of bloody skirmishes.

  Lothar’s soldiers scored a number of small victories over their foes. Yet for every orc they killed, two more seemed to take their place. The humans found themselves more outnumbered in each subsequent battle, and Lothar was eventually forced to pull back. It shouldn’t have been possible. How could the enemy replenish its troops so fast?

  Lothar and his forces had not yet ventured deep enough into the Black Morass to find the Dark Portal. The region was heavily guarded by their foes. Lothar sent word back to King Llane that the invaders were bringing in reinforcements from somewhere. The kingdom needed to ready itself for a full-scale war.

  Meanwhile, the orcs reported to Warchief Blackhand, telling him that the region’s humans were now aware of their presence. The time for preparation and scouting had ended.

  The First War was about to begin in earnest.

  The battle between Aegwynn and Medivh had gone unnoticed by the rest of the world—a fact that surprised the Guardian.

  No witnesses had survived with their memories intact, and the deaths of so many nobles had not caused the stir that Medivh had expected. By now, all of the kingdom of Stormwind had heard stories about the barbaric “orcs” flooding out of the Black Morass. Karazhan was not far away; the mysterious disappearance of the nobles was easily laid at the orcs’ feet.

  The Horde’s attacks on human settlements had thoroughly occupied the attention of the Council of Tirisfal and the Kirin Tor. The appearance of creatures never seen on this world—corrupted by demonic energies, no less—far outweighed their concerns about someone they saw as a childish, spoiled playboy.

  Still, the council had not forgotten about the Guardian. Now, more than ever, they wanted him as an ally. They tried to make contact yet again by asking the Kirin Tor to send him one of their own mage apprentices.

  The young trainee was named Khadgar. He had shown considerable promise in his studies with the Kirin Tor, but the last thing he wanted was to serve under an angry, isolated mage who had thus far driven away all other apprentices. Nevertheless, it was not his choice. The Kirin Tor commanded, and so Khadgar obeyed.

  Upon starting his apprenticeship, Khadgar had his worst fears confirmed. Karazhan seemed to languish under a shadow of morbidity, and Medivh was subject to frightening mood swings. Worse, the tower appeared to be cursed in some way. Khadgar often caught glimpses of wandering spirits and disturbing visions of the past, present, and future.

  Yet while other apprentices had failed Medivh’s tests, Khadgar did not. The young mage kept his wits about him, even when faced with dangerous tasks.

  Medivh decided not to reject this new apprentice. It was a risk to keep the young man around, certainly. But Medivh was more alone now than he had ever been, and Khadgar was smart, clever, and hungry to learn.

  Medivh revealed to Khadgar what his Kirin Tor masters had not: Medivh was the Guardian. The Council of Tirisfal was worried about him. That was why the Kirin Tor had sent Khadgar as an unwitting spy.

  Khadgar was surprised but not deterred. In fact, he was intrigued. He had no intention of abandoning his apprenticeship now, not when he could study under a Guardian, the most powerful mage in the world.

  Not long after arriving in Karazhan, Khadgar received a strange and foreboding vision. He saw himself as an old, white-haired man, leading troops into battle against green-skinned enemies. He had heard of the orc incursion, but like most others, he didn’t know what was true and what was rumor. Yet those creatures in his vision matched the descriptions of orcs that he’d heard.

  Khadgar told Medivh what he had seen. The Guardian feigned ignorance, saying he knew little about the orcs. He claimed that he had been cooped up in Karazhan for so long that he hadn’t heard much about the violence to the south. It was time to remedy that. The two magi rode gryphons over the Black Morass to scout out the region. The sight of the orcs gathering there stunned Khadgar. Their army was immense, and it was growing larger by the minute.

  An orc warlock spotted the two magi from the ground and unleashed his fel powers on them. Medivh urged Khadgar to destroy their enemy. Khadgar struggled to defeat his foe, and only with the Guardian’s help did he finally succeed.

  Medivh and Khadgar also crossed paths with Lothar. The knight was leading his soldiers on a scouting mission in the region, battling any orcs they came across. Lothar knew that Medivh had been rattled by the power he’d unleashed against the Gurubashi years ago, but he urged the Guardian to rejoin the fray. Stormwind needed him to defeat the orcs. Medivh played along with his old friend’s assumptions, telling Lothar he was concerned about tapping into his unwieldy magical powers. The Guardian’s true motive was to buy time for the Horde to gain strength, nothing more.

  Lothar spoke to Khadgar as well, telling him of Medivh’s troubled past. He asked the young mage to act not only as his master’s apprentice but also as his caretaker.

  Khadgar did his best, but he quickly became frustrated. After the meeting with Lothar, Medivh became even more erratic than usual. For hours or days at a time, the Guardian would disappear from Karazhan. When he finally returned,
he would be exhausted.

  What troubled Khadgar even more was when a strange guest arrived at the tower: Garona. The young mage immediately regarded her as an enemy, but Medivh greeted her warmly. He insisted that Khadgar treat Garona with respect.

  In the days that followed, Khadgar and Garona frequently sparred with words, but they soon developed a bond of friendship. The human came to believe, as Medivh did, that the half-orc was truly willing to turn her back on the Horde.

  Yet Khadgar eventually realized something deeply troubling. Before their visit to the Black Morass, the Guardian had claimed he didn’t know much about the invading orcs. And yet…it was clear he had befriended Garona long before Khadgar began his apprenticeship.

  Medivh had lied.

  That small breach of trust would widen over time.

  THE TWISTED REALITY OF KARAZHAN

  The orcs had begun moving through the Dark Portal en masse. Yet not all clans came to Azeroth.

  In the years after the Horde conquered the draenei, several clans had lost themselves to bloodlust and madness. These included the mighty Warsongs, the Shattered Hand, and the Bonechewers. Warchief Blackhand had sequestered the overly aggressive clans in different parts of Hellfire Peninsula, where they could do no harm to the rest of the Horde.

  Blackhand believed that these clans would become liabilities if he allowed them to take part in the invasion of Azeroth. The last thing the Horde needed on a strange new world was to have its own allies attacking other orcs from behind.

  Blackhand ordered the troublesome clans to remain on Draenor. He knew the idle days would weigh heavy on them. That was good. They would receive only stories of this lush new world, and see only scraps of its spoils. A few months of waiting would force these orcs to be on their best behavior. If they were still uncontrollable, they could stay on Draenor and rot, for all Blackhand cared.