Soon Lei Shen desired answers his intellect and reason could no longer provide. He set off in search of the mogu’s long-absent master, Highkeeper Ra.
In recent centuries, the highkeeper had become known as Ra-den, meaning “Master Ra” in the new mogu tongue. Few of Lei Shen’s kind even believed he still lived. Why would their ancient creator have allowed them to suffer from the curse of flesh? Lei Shen believed Ra-den had a plan, a master purpose, and that the current trials of the mogu were merely a test. Perhaps it was even the will of the titans themselves. After all, Ra-den was their living instrument.
After years of searching, Lei Shen located the entrance to the hidden vaults beneath the land north of the vale, sacred chambers that the mogu had all but forgotten due to their ceaseless warring. There he found the highkeeper, sitting quietly in the stillness beneath the earth. Ra-den showed no reaction to the young mogu’s intrusion. The highkeeper said nothing, even as Lei Shen began to ask him questions about the mogu’s true purpose.
THE MADNESS OF LEI SHEN
The decision to abandon any claim to his father’s power had spared Lei Shen’s life. When a clan’s leader was killed, it was customary for rivals to immediately murder his family and thus exterminate the clan lineage forever. Lei Shen’s meditations were seen as a sign of despair and madness. Most assumed he would never be a threat to any mogu ever again.
Days and weeks passed, and Lei Shen grew frustrated with his master’s silence. Finally the mogu realized that Ra was not contemplating some subtle plan, was not engrossed in the work of the titans … The highkeeper had simply given up. The suffering of the mogu had been the result of an absentee master and nothing more.
Lei Shen unleashed his anger on Ra, accusing him of abandoning the titans and their purpose. His harsh words roused the highkeeper from his stupor. Ra took Lei Shen to the nearby Thundering Mountain, where unending storms roared and split the heavens. No mogu had dared scale its slopes before, for the mountain was believed to be a forbidden place. Inside a massive, ornate vault, Ra-den summoned the lingering power of Aman’Thul and showed Lei Shen the answers he wanted: the titans of the Pantheon were dead, murdered by one of their own. Their final hope was the world of Azeroth itself, but it was already infested with creatures of the Void.
The highkeeper had assumed that this knowledge would shatter Lei Shen’s soul as it had his own. Yet the mogu reacted in a way Ra-den never expected.
Lei Shen decided that if his master had no interest in continuing the titans’ purpose, he would do it himself. Without warning, he struck out and incapacitated Ra-den. Lei Shen then bound the mighty being in enchanted iron bands. He stole not only Ra-den’s incredible power, but also the contained power of Aman’Thul.
Might beyond understanding flooded through Lei Shen’s soul. He imprisoned Ra-den within the Thundering Mountain, ignoring the highkeeper’s rage and confusion at the betrayal. When Lei Shen descended the mountain and met with his remaining armsmen, they were in awe of him. Rumors of Lei Shen’s newfound might spread among the mogu clans. Some believed he had torn out the heart of a god and eaten it. A few claimed he had harnessed the ancient powers of the vale itself. Still others whispered that he was a titan reborn.
Yet all of the stories had one fact in common: this “Thunder King” had demanded that all mogu bow before him. He claimed the birthright of the titans, and he would destroy all those who refused to yield to his will.
Thereafter, Lei Shen set out to unify the mogu and forge them a new destiny as the masters of Azeroth and guardians of its world-soul. The petty squabbling and warfare that had plagued their kind would no longer be tolerated. With lightning and thunder at his command, Lei Shen crushed all opposition. The fortunate ones were killed quickly; the unfortunate ones were kept in chains for centuries.
Initially, most of the mogu rallied to him out of fear, but his “miracles” soon inspired devotion. The Thunder King had mastered the enchanted tools of the keepers. One of these was the Engine of Nalak’sha, a powerful device that Lei Shen had discovered beneath the land north of the vale. Using this extraordinary machine, the mogu began shaping flesh and stone into new living creatures. They even found a way to reverse the curse of flesh among themselves.
Under Lei Shen, a period of prosperity and brutality gripped the vale. For the mogu, it was the beginning of a glorious new empire. Yet for the region’s other races, it marked the start of an age of tyranny.
As Lei Shen’s empire expanded in scope and power, he soon regarded all living creatures within his domain as his servants. The curse of flesh was a weakness, he reasoned, and although not all of the mogu might ever be fully cleansed of the flaw, other beings of flesh would always be beneath them.
The Thunder King began a campaign of enslavement in the lands surrounding the vale. The wise jinyu had established a small empire of their own. Though they fought valiantly, the jinyu ultimately crumbled before the might of Lei Shen. The mogu sacked their towns and left their entire civilization in ruins.
Upon learning of the jinyu’s fate, the pandaren fled to Kun-Lai Summit, north of the vale. There, they sought the protection of Xuen, the White Tiger. When Lei Shen brought his armies to the foothills, he challenged Xuen to a duel that would decide the fate of the pandaren. Xuen accepted, and for many days the great battle between the White Tiger and the Thunder King shook the skies over Kun-Lai. In the end, Xuen could not match Lei Shen’s stolen titan power. Lei Shen chained Xuen near the peak of the mount, forcing the August Celestial to watch as the mogu bound the pandaren to slavery. Fearing that the pandaren’s peaceful philosophies would undermine his rule, Lei Shen forbade them from learning how to read or write, or even how to speak any language other than the mogu tongue. To disobey was to be killed in slow, brutal fashion.
The mogu forged their greatest palaces and monuments with the blood and sweat of their subjugated races. Soon, the empire boasted a unified language, an established system of weights and measurements, and the first set of written laws in Azeroth—brutal codes that enshrined the mogu’s place above the other creatures. Lei Shen also forced his slaves to act as soldiers or to expand the crude fortifications once used to defend the vale from the mantid. Thus was born the Serpent’s Spine, a massive stone wall separating the mogu from the insectoid lands. When existing slaves perished or proved inefficient, Lei Shen shaped new ones with the power of the Engine of Nalak’sha. This led to the creation of myriad beings, such as the diminutive yet resilient grummles and the barbaric, reptilian saurok.
THE HOZEN BETRAYAL
At the height of their empire, the jinyu held close ties with the hozen. Both agreed to help the other withstand the onslaught of the mogu. Yet on the eve of the jinyu’s final stand against Lei Shen, the hozen betrayed them. The jinyu’s so-called allies had secretly pledged their loyalties to the Thunder King in exchange for preferential treatment (a promise that was never kept). This act of treachery ensured the jinyu’s defeat and ignited a bitter racial feud between them and the hozen that would last for generations.
FATE OF THE AUGUST CELESTIALS
After Lei Shen imprisoned the White Tiger, the other celestials came to the aid of the pandaren. Yet like Xuen, they all succumbed to the Thunder King. Thereafter, Lei Shen prohibited worship of the celestials on pain of death. The pandaren lost many of their ties to the Wild Gods, but not all. A few fearless slaves, in secret, carried on the teachings of the celestials.
The mogu empire quickly drew notice from other civilizations on Azeroth. The Zandalari trolls, in particular, were amazed at the otherworldly powers wielded by the Thunder King. One of the Zandalari’s leaders, a revered high priest named Zulathra, saw in the mogu a golden opportunity. He and a retinue of trolls journeyed to the Thunder King’s domain with a simple proposition: the mogu might hold the power of this world, but the trolls held the knowledge of the land. The two empires would make each other great and teach each other their secrets. Once they were allied, nothing on Azeroth would dare oppose t
hem.
The offer intrigued Lei Shen. For the first time, he had met other living creatures who sought to master their environment rather than live in peace with it. The mogu rarely ventured far from their lands; superstitions and the deep-seated duty of protecting the vale still influenced their actions. They could explore the world from a position of ignorance, or they could ally with the trolls and learn its mysteries quickly.
In truth, both leaders plotted betrayal. Zulathra believed the Zandalari could steal Lei Shen’s godlike powers once they learned the mogu’s secrets, and the Thunder King schemed to enslave the Zandalari the moment they ceased being useful. Yet they kept their plans concealed, even from their own people, and publicly brokered an agreement. In exchange for the Zandalari’s knowledge, the mogu would train them in the ways of arcane magic. They also promised the Zandalari a swath of fertile land near the vale.
Lei Shen even made a secret agreement with Zulathra. The Thunder King had devised a method to fully revive his spirit if he was ever killed, but he did not trust his own servants with such knowledge. The mogu were a power-hungry people, and they would likely try to claim the empire for themselves if Lei Shen fell. Only the Zandalari would hold the key to resurrecting Lei Shen. Without him, the trolls knew they would never fully learn the secrets of the arcane—nor would they be able to claim his awesome power.
Though both leaders continued scheming, their betrayals would never come to fruition. Indeed, they found each other to be invaluable allies, and their pact endured for many years.
THE THUNDER KING BATTLES XUEN, THE WHITE TIGER
While Lei Shen consolidated his empire, the tol’vir guarding Uldum struggled to endure the curse of flesh. The malady had spread throughout their ranks, slowly weakening the titan-forged. All the while, the tol’vir waited patiently for word from Highkeeper Ra or his mogu servants in the east.
Eventually the tol’vir received a summons from a mogu leader calling himself the Thunder King. They had heard nothing about the rise of the mogu empire. Curious, the tol’vir dispatched ambassadors to the east. When they reached the edges of the Thunder King’s domain, they were stunned to see how advanced their mogu cousins had become. In some instances, the mogu had even managed to reverse the curse of flesh.
Lei Shen warmly greeted the tol’vir and showed them the wonders of his empire, from the immense Serpent’s Spine wall to the gilded imperial palaces of the vale. The tol’vir were shocked at the deplorable treatment of the mortal races that had been enslaved by the mogu. Even so, the tol’vir were not stirred to action. Their prime concern was the protection of the keeper-wrought machineries in Uldum.
The Thunder King wholeheartedly agreed. The works of the keepers, such as the Forge of Origination in Uldum, were of utmost importance … and so Lei Shen announced he was claiming them as part of his empire.
He revealed that he had defeated Ra-den and taken his power. Therefore, Lei Shen claimed that he now held dominion over the keepers’ instruments. With the Engine of Nalak’sha and the Forge of Origination at his command, he could remake Azeroth as he saw fit. As fellow titan-forged, the tol’vir would ascend to a place of honor in the mogu empire, but Lei Shen would be at its head, now and forever.
Upon learning that Lei Shen had betrayed Highkeeper Ra, the tol’vir grew furious. They refused the Thunder King’s offer, vowing never to serve a traitor, and stormed out of his tyrannical empire. Lei Shen allowed the ambassadors to leave but warned them he would take what he wanted by force. Their armies could not possibly stand against his.
So confident was the Thunder King that he invited Zulathra to witness what he claimed would be the mogu empire’s greatest victory yet. The elderly Zandalari leader agreed—Lei Shen had artificially extended the troll’s life, but once all of the keepers’ works were under mogu control, they would unlock the secrets of immortality. Almost all of the highest-ranking Zandalari leaders accompanied Zulathra as an honor guard, also expecting to return to their capital of Zuldazar with the gift of eternal life.
Lei Shen led his mogu host and the trolls to the west. The Zandalari had heard tales of the lands near Uldum, but they had never seen them with their own eyes. Pristine lakes and waterfalls dotted the region’s lush jungles. It was a paradise, teeming with undiscovered life and wonders as far as the eye could see.
The full might of Lei Shen’s empire trampled over the land, stopping just short of the monolithic pyramids that composed the keepers’ bastion of Uldum. Only a small group of tol’vir emerged from the fortress to resist the mogu. Lei Shen mocked their numbers, for he knew that he alone could crush them.
Indeed, the tol’vir had known that defeating the Thunder King’s forces in battle was impossible. As Lei Shen had marched toward Uldum, the titan-forged had prepared a final defense: the Forge of Origination locked beneath the fortress. Rather than using it to its full potential—which would eradicate all life on Azeroth—the tol’vir had configured the Forge of Origination to scour only the nearby land.
THE TITAN-FORGED STRONGHOLD OF ULDUM
As Lei Shen led the charge, gloating in his impending victory, the tol’vir activated the weapon. Deep within the earth, the device rumbled to life. The earth heaved and buckled as waves of force erupted from Uldum, bathing the surrounding land in the energies of uncreation. The tol’vir defenders and nearly every other creature on the surface of Uldum that day died instantly.
Creatures all across Kalimdor witnessed the flash on the southern horizon. When it subsided, Lei Shen and his allies were no more. The unleashed power had also purged the area around Uldum of almost all life, leaving only a cracked and barren desert behind. Pockets of plant and animal life would slowly return over the millennia, but the vast jungle would never fully regain its vibrancy.
The surviving tol’vir within Uldum worked to ensure that no one would ever again attempt to claim such power. They shrouded the few mountain passes that led into the region with magic. In doing so, the tol’vir effectively sealed Uldum off from the eyes of mortals.
The tol’vir’s noble sacrifice had kept the Forge of Origination out of Lei Shen’s hands and prevented any other mogu emperor from daring to follow in his footsteps. The deaths of Lei Shen and the upper caste of the Zandalari left massive power vacuums in both empires. Before the tol’vir shrouded Uldum in their grand illusion, a handful of Thunder King loyalists recovered Lei Shen’s corpse from the region. They brought it back to the empire and enshrined it within the Tomb of Conquerors. Yet with most of the Zandalari leadership dead, there was no one to revive the Thunder King.
A succession of emperors followed Lei Shen, but none would ever wield as much power as he had. The Zandalari, too, spent generations attempting to recover from the losses at Uldum. The catastrophic event had struck a mortal blow to both empires. Neither would ever regain its former glory.
And in time, both would crumble and fall.
The Thunder King’s death weakened the mogu, but their civilization continued lording over the vale. The empire’s slaves suffered greatly under Lei Shen’s barbarous successors, each ruler seemingly crueler than the last.
The final mogu emperor, Lao-Fe, earned the title “Slavebinder” early in his tenure. He lived a life of decadence, confident that his supply of cowed slaves would never diminish. To earn their compliance, Lao-Fe would tear apart slave families for even mild transgressions. Parents were separated; children were dispatched to the Serpent’s Spine to die as fodder before the mantid swarm.
It was this very fate that befell the family of a pandaren brewmaster named Kang—his son was sent to the mantid, and his wife died trying to stop it. After the mogu left his home and his life in ruins, Kang nearly succumbed to despair. But soon his thoughts circled around a particular question: why? Why did the mogu inflict such pain?
Kang meditated on the slavery of his people, and he reached a radical conclusion. The extreme cruelty toward slaves was not a sign of the mogu’s strength. It was a symptom of their weakness. They had grow
n dependent on their servants; without them, they were nothing.
Kang devoted his life to exposing the mogu’s vulnerability. Apart from those who were sent to defend the Serpent’s Spine, no slave was ever permitted to touch a weapon (a crime punishable by death). Thus Kang taught himself to use his own body as one. To elude the ever-watchful eyes of the mogu, he learned to disguise his attacks as an artistic dance.
When he had finally mastered his techniques, he challenged his fellow slaves to strike him. None could. His “dancing,” his flowing movements, kept him free of harm. The slaves begged Kang to teach them how to fight unarmed. Kang did, and word of this strange new combat method spread quickly among the oppressed peoples of the mogu empire.
Hundreds of slaves adopted Kang’s teachings and devoted themselves to learning this newfound art, known thereafter as the way of the monk. When rumors of the movement reached mogu ears, Kang relocated his followers to Kun-Lai Summit, fully aware that his apprentices were not yet strong enough to topple their oppressors. In secret, the pandaren rebels built a monastery among the wind-lashed peaks and began to further train themselves as instruments of justice.
It was at Kun-Lai Summit that Kang found something utterly unexpected: the prison of Xuen, the White Tiger. Kang communed often with the August Celestial, learning the secrets of inner strength that lay within every heart. The pandaren master passed along Xuen’s wisdom to his followers. At last, the pandaren monks were ready to fight.
Their first major victory came at the Mogu’shan Vaults, the sacred chambers that housed the Engine of Nalak’sha. There, the rebels successfully drove the mogu away from the source of their flesh-shaping power. The pandaren’s devastating attack prevented the mogu from creating any new twisted soldiers.
World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 Page 9
