BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT
Written by CHRIS METZEN, MATT BURNS, and ROBERT BROOKS Additional Story ALEX AFRASIABI, STEVE DANUSER, KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO, EVELYN FREDERICKSEN, CHRISTIE GOLDEN, JEFF GRUBB, WILLIAM KING, RICHARD A. KNAAK, DAVE KOSAK, MICKY NEILSON, BILL ROPER, AARON S. ROSENBERG, LOUISE SIMONSON, WALTER SIMONSON, JAMES WAUGH • Creative Direction and Design ELY CANNON, DOUG GREGORY, GLENN RANE, CHRIS ROBINSON • Editors CATE GARY, ALLISON MONAHAN, ROBERT SIMPSON • Lore SEAN COPELAND, EVELYN FREDERICKSEN, CHRISTI KUGLER, JUSTIN PARKER • Production PHILLIP HILLENBRAND, BRIANNE M LOFTIS, JEFFREY WONG, MICHAEL BYBEE • Licensing MATT BEECHER, BYRON PARNELL
Special thanks to: the World of Warcraft game team, Frank Mummert, Tommy Newcomer, Max Ximenez
Maps, cosmology chart, borders, and spot art by JOSEPH LACROIX
Paintings by ARTHUR BOZONNET (here, here, here) • COLE EASTBURN (here, here)
STANTON FENG (here, here, here, here) • ROMAN KENNEY (here, here)
PETER C. LEE (here, here, here, here, here, here, here)
DARYL MANDRYK (here) • YEWON PARK (here, here) • DAN SCOTT (here)
ROBERT SEVILLA (here, here) • ABE TARAKY (here, here)
KONSTANTIN TUROVEC (here, here, here) • BAYARD WU (here, here, here, here)
DARK HORSE BOOKS
Publisher MIKE RICHARDSON • Editor DAVE MARSHALL • Assistant Editor RACHEL
ROBERTS • Designer DAVID NESTELLE • Digital Art Technician CHRIS HORN
World of Warcraft® Chronicle: Volume III
© 2018 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. World of Warcraft is a registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Dark Horse Books® and the Dark Horse logo are trademarks of Dark Horse Comics, Inc., registered in various categories and countries. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of Dark Horse Comics, Inc.
Published by
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First Edition: March 2018
Ebook ISBN 9781630089948
BLIZZARD.COM
v5.2
a
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter I: The Rising Darkness
Chapter II: The Third War
Chapter III: The Frozen Throne
Chapter IV: Old Hatreds
Chapter V: The Burning Crusade
Chapter VI: Wrath of the Lich King
Chapter VII: Cataclysm
Index
SOLDIERS FROM THE SONS OF LOTHAR OVERLOOK HELLFIRE PENINSULA FROM HONOR HOLD
Long ago, across the vast expanses of the Great Dark Beyond, a powerful race known as the titans protected the cosmos from the forces of corruption and chaos. They searched for worlds that harbored nascent titan spirits, and they nurtured them. Once these world-souls had matured, the titans raised them into the order of the Pantheon.
The mightiest among the titans of the Pantheon, Sargeras, was once their greatest champion. He fought tirelessly to defend the cosmos from savage beings called demons. These creatures originated from a warped realm known as the Twisting Nether, where they reveled in fel magic, a destructive and highly addictive force.
And yet, after repelling countless invasions by demons, Sargeras became convinced that it was for naught. He had learned of a threat even greater than demons: void lords. These beings hungered to corrupt one of the defenseless world-souls, hoping to raise it as a champion of their own. Such a creature would shroud the entire cosmos in Void energies, laying waste to all creation.
Sargeras refused to let that happen. He refused even to allow it as a possibility. He embraced fel magic and enslaved demons to his will, forging them into an army called the Burning Legion. Sargeras’s decision to ally with his ancient enemies was extreme, but he believed it was necessary. Demons were the only creatures in existence who he was certain would join his Burning Crusade, a campaign to burn all life from the cosmos. It was the only way Sargeras imagined he could spare the denizens of the Great Dark Beyond from the void lords.
In his eyes, a dead universe was better than one that had fallen to darkness.
No civilization was strong enough to oppose Sargeras and his fiery army. Even the other titans of the Pantheon fell before the might of their former champion. It seemed that nothing in all the universe would be able to stop him.
Eventually, Sargeras learned of a world that the other titans had once visited and shaped with their own hands. Its name was Azeroth, and it contained a world-soul with more potential power than any titan spirit the Pantheon had ever known. It also harbored a darker presence. When the titans had discovered Azeroth, they had found it infested with physical manifestations of the Void known as the Old Gods. These massive entities had forged a civilization called the Black Empire on the world’s surface.
The titans and their servants later shattered the Black Empire, but they did not destroy the Old Gods. They feared that doing so would harm Azeroth itself, and they instead imprisoned the vile entities deep below the ground.
Sargeras could not ignore Azeroth’s potential, nor could he ignore the presence of the Old Gods.
Ten thousand years ago, he sent his army to corrupt and destroy the creatures of Azeroth. After that, he planned to conquer the world-soul before the powers of the Void could. But an unlikely alliance of night elves, ancient spirits of the wilds, mighty guardians called the Dragon Aspects, and other brave races repelled the demons’ invasion.
This brutal conflict, the War of the Ancients, was the Legion’s first true defeat.
Yet Sargeras did not abandon his crusade. He took his time preparing for another assault. His most powerful lieutenants, Archimonde the Defiler and Kil’jaeden the Deceiver, led these efforts. In time, they found a way to attack Azeroth from another world—a place known as Draenor.
Kil’jaeden manipulated the proud orcs of Draenor into embracing fel magic and drinking demon blood. This last act cursed them and shackled their wills to the Legion. United as a war-hungry army called the Horde, the orcs invaded Azeroth. This force of destruction had one purpose: to weaken the world in preparation for a full-scale Legion invasion. The Horde nearly succeeded. Only by the courage of Azeroth’s heroes were the orcs defeated.
The Legion had failed again. But the demons did not rest. These setbacks only proved how powerful Azeroth was. Sargeras commanded Kil’jaeden and Archimonde to seek out fresh allies and plan new methods of attack.
For a time, the races of Azeroth allowed themselves to believe that the worst had passed. They had certainly earned a respite. The past eight years had been filled with horrors.
The First War against the Horde had seen the human kingdom of Stormwind betrayed and razed to the ground. Its greatest champion, a mage known as Guardian Medivh, had been possessed by Sargeras. It was Medivh who had opened the Dark Portal, the gateway to Draenor that had exposed Azeroth to the Horde’s wrath. The Guardian was slain, yet Stormwind could not be saved.
The Second War ended with the Horde’s defeat—but just barely. The nations of the Eastern Kingdoms had joined together in the Alliance of Lordaeron and successfully rebuffed the orcs’ invasion. Victory had come a
t great cost, requiring the sacrifice of countless heroes.
Most of the Horde’s soldiers were either killed or captured. Some of the survivors had fled back to Draenor, but they knew there was no future there. When they had accepted the dark power of fel magic, they had unwittingly doomed the cycle of life and the balance of the elements. Draenor was dying. The orcs would not survive for long.
Their leader, Ner’zhul, engineered a desperate escape plan. He would open rifts to new worlds, new places to conquer. Perhaps somewhere in the cosmos, there was another realm his people could call home.
Azeroth’s champions had no intention of letting the Horde harm other lands. An expedition of Alliance heroes, the Sons of Lothar, invaded Draenor through the Dark Portal, aiming to stop Ner’zhul. They were led by some of Azeroth’s greatest defenders: Archmage Khadgar; Turalyon, the high general of the Sons of Lothar; Alleria Windrunner, the ranger-captain of Silvermoon City; Danath Trollbane, a seasoned warrior; and Kurdran Wildhammer, thane of the Wildhammer dwarves.
The brave endeavor forced Ner’zhul to act too recklessly. His spellwork caused unimaginable chaos, and his unstable rifts ripped apart the fabric of reality on his world. The Sons of Lothar tore down the Dark Portal before the destruction unfolding on Draenor could spread to Azeroth. Nearly all of the expedition’s members were trapped in the apocalypse.
Azeroth could not regain contact with those left on Draenor. Presumably, all had perished. They were enshrined as heroes who had died to protect their world.
It would be many years before Azeroth learned their true fate.
In the chaos of Draenor’s collapse, Khadgar and his comrades fled through one of the volatile rifts to evade the brunt of the cataclysmic energies. When the destruction had finally come to an end, they returned to what was left of the world.
They discovered a shattered realm. The barriers between Draenor and the Twisting Nether had collapsed. The shredded reality had left open paths to all the various corners of the cosmos. This twisted place would be known thereafter as Outland.
Fortunately, some parts of old Draenor had survived. The Sons of Lothar established a permanent base at their main outpost—Honor Hold—and launched search missions for their missing allies.
Two of the highest-ranking members of the expedition were never found. They were feared dead, but in truth, fate simply had different plans for them.
Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon had been trapped in the Twisting Nether following the Dark Portal’s destruction. They were unable to find a way back to Draenor or Azeroth on their own, but they were rescued by an unexpected force: Xe’ra, the naaru prime.
The naaru were creatures of Light who often tried to guide and cultivate mortal life. Xe’ra was one of the most powerful among her kind, and she had gathered a holy army—the Army of the Light—dedicated to fighting back against the Burning Legion’s crusade. Most of Xe’ra’s loyal soldiers were draenei, the sworn enemies of demons.
The draenei had a long and violent history with the Legion. They once were members of a highly intelligent race known as the eredar. Long ago, Sargeras had discovered their world, Argus, and transformed it into the Legion’s seat of power. In the process, he had corrupted the eredar into demons. Those who escaped Argus took on the name draenei, meaning “exiled ones,” and fled across the stars. The Legion never stopped hunting them in retribution for defying Sargeras. Some of the draenei, led by the wise Prophet Velen, had eventually settled on Draenor. Others found refuge with the Army of the Light.
The Army of the Light was always outnumbered and outgunned, but its soldiers waged their war against the Legion for thousands upon thousands of years. They did not despair. Xe’ra had foreseen that the demons’ crusade would one day be brought low by those of mortal birth.
When Alleria and Turalyon had left their world to make war upon another, Xe’ra had received another glimpse of destiny from the Light: those two children of Azeroth would be the key to unveiling the Burning Legion’s weakness.
Xe’ra told Alleria and Turalyon everything she could. They discussed the prophecy, the threat of the Burning Legion, and even the Horde, which had been corrupted as an instrument of the demons’ will. She asked them to join the Army of the Light and the ongoing war against the Legion.
It was a difficult decision. Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon had a child, Arator, on Azeroth. It would be crushing to leave him—to say nothing of all their friends and family—behind. But they had come to Draenor knowing it was likely a one-way trip. They had been willing to make the ultimate sacrifice if it meant protecting Azeroth and their son’s future.
Xe’ra told them that the Horde was not the last threat Azeroth would face, and thus, their war needed to continue. They left Outland and joined the Army of the Light. They would not be heard from again for quite some time.
When the dust settled on Outland, the survivors slowly realized that this battered realm had become one of the most important strategic places in all the cosmos. Many of Ner’zhul’s portals were permanently open. The world was now a crossroads for any force that wished to travel quickly from one end of the universe to the other.
The Legion saw Outland as the perfect staging ground to launch assaults against other worlds. The demons dispatched a pit lord named Magtheridon, a cruel and powerful commander, to seize the location and its inhabitants. He hunted down the remnants of the Horde, enslaving those who surrendered and butchering those who still had the will to resist. The orcs who died opposing him had the easier fate.
Those who surrendered were forced to drink Magtheridon’s demonic blood. For most, it was the second time they had been subjected to the Legion’s corruption. But unlike what happened more than a decade ago, the Legion’s intention was not merely to bend their wills but to shatter them entirely. The orcs were transformed into crimson-skinned, barbaric creatures, and their minds could do little else but obey the Burning Legion.
Magtheridon’s new “Fel Horde” established its home in Hellfire Citadel and then struck out to claim other locations with important confluences of power. Foremost among them was the Black Temple.
Once a sacred house of worship for the draenei, the Black Temple had fallen to corruption under the Horde’s control, but it still held residual power. Ner’zhul had chosen it as the site of the ill-fated ritual that had destroyed Draenor. Built at the end of a peninsula, the Black Temple was approachable from only one direction, and thus it was easily defensible. It proved to be an excellent staging ground for Magtheridon’s campaign of conquest against the remnants of Outland.
OUTLAND FOLLOWING DRAENOR’S DESTRUCTION
The pit lord’s actions did not go unnoticed. The survivors of the Sons of Lothar mustered what soldiers they could to oppose the demons’ incursion. Khadgar, Kurdran Wildhammer, and Danath Trollbane quickly realized they would never be able to defeat this Legion strike force on their own, but they could slow it down. Whenever Magtheridon sent his armies deep into Outland, the Alliance was there to carve up their flanks and pick off any stragglers. The two forces would skirmish intermittently for years.
The draenei who had survived Draenor’s destruction could do little to aid the Alliance in these battles. Prophet Velen knew that the Legion would go to tremendous lengths to exterminate any draenei the demons found—a suspicion that was confirmed by the few unfortunate souls who had crossed their path and lived to tell of it.
Scouring the draenei was a personal quest for Kil’jaeden. He hated Velen and his followers, and he had hunted them throughout the cosmos ever since they had fled Argus. Every demon knew they would be rewarded for each draenei head they collected. Velen kept his followers hidden in small, isolated enclaves so that if one was discovered, it would not mean doom for his entire people.
Velen’s followers lived a meager existence, but they were the lucky ones. The draenei had suffered terrible losses from the Horde’s rise
to power on Draenor. During the destruction of their grandest city, Shattrath, a fel plague had been unleashed upon their people.
Not every draenei afflicted with the Horde’s corrupting magic had died. Many had survived, but they had undergone horrific mutations.
These draenei became known as Krokul—“Broken.” Riddled with painful deformities and no longer able to access the power of the Holy Light, most of them lived in small, scattered tribes far from the rest of the draenei. Some fell to violence and despair, and there were brutal skirmishes between the tribes.
The former leader of the draenei’s holy warriors, Akama, took command of the Ashtongue tribe. As one of the Broken, he, too, had lost his ability to call on the Light. Though he nurtured a small nugget of hope that he and his fellow outcasts would one day rise to their former glory, he first had to lead his people through a period of darkness and disturbing alliances.
The last notable faction on Outland was the Sethekk arakkoa. The once-proud creatures had been brought to ruin by the Horde, and the survivors had been thrown into the corrupting pools of Sethekk Hollow, an ordeal that robbed them of their ability to fly and weighed down their minds with an oppressive sense of darkness. The few who had survived the destruction of Draenor took refuge in the draenei mausoleum of Auchindoun. Dark forces had claimed the area years ago, and the arakkoa spent their time studying them, worshipping them, and eventually falling under their sway.
These factions would battle for years, their hidden war locked behind the destroyed Dark Portal. The denizens of Azeroth knew nothing of this struggle for control, and they would soon be occupied with their own troubles.
When the Horde was defeated in the Second War, the Legion’s plan to conquer Azeroth had fallen apart. But the demons were not deterred. To the contrary, Kil’jaeden had learned an extremely valuable lesson.
World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 3 Page 1
