As Deathwing was wreaking havoc on the world, he ordered Cho’gall and the Twilight’s Hammer to emerge from the shadows. Most of the cultists had remained in hiding for years, but they had not been idle. Their numbers had grown, and their ranks included powerful individuals such as Archbishop Benedictus, leader of the Church of the Holy Light.
Cho’gall took many of the cultists to the Highlands, an idyllic coastal region north of Ironforge. A large population of Wildhammer dwarves inhabited these hills and mountains, yet they were not the sole power in the Highlands. After the Battle of Grim Batol, what was left of the Dragonmaw orc clan had fled to the area and established a crude fortress on the coast.
Neither the dwarves nor the Dragonmaw were prepared for the Twilight’s Hammer. The cult’s attack was sudden and brutal. Its members made war on the peoples of the Highlands and carved out a fortress in the heart of the region. Cho’gall named this stronghold the Bastion of Twilight, and he fashioned it into the cult’s base of operations and a place for its members to worship their unseen gods. Void energies gradually bled from the spire, creeping across the terrain and mutating all life that passed beneath its shadow. The land itself warped and darkened, and the region soon became known as the Twilight Highlands.
Far to the south, other cultists established a foothold in Blackrock Mountain and used it as a place to mold new weapons. They recovered the broken corpses of Nefarian and Sintharia, then reanimated them with Void magics. The dragons retained a sliver of their former personalities, but they were now obedient servants of the Twilight’s Hammer. It was not their strength that the cult sought, but their knowledge of how to craft monsters. Sintharia continued her work building an entire flight of twilight dragons, while Nefarian returned to his own experiments and forged a new generation of chromatic dragons.
THE BURNING OF STORMWIND CITY
Following his catastrophic emergence from Deepholm, Deathwing descended on Stormwind and burned parts of the city to the ground. Soldiers gathered to face the black Dragon Aspect in battle, but they never had a chance to draw his blood. Almost as quickly as he had appeared, Deathwing vanished from Stormwind.
Stormwind had been at Deathwing’s mercy, but destroying it was never his intention. The people of the city were worth more to him alive than dead. His true goal had been to break them so that they could be remade into his servants.
This fate befell many of Stormwind’s citizens as the fearful populace sought counsel from Archbishop Benedictus, not knowing that the holy leader was secretly a member of the Twilight’s Hammer. He preyed on these desperate people and subtly guided them into the cult’s embrace.
For the Horde and the Alliance, enemies were appearing on all sides. Yet even as the world crumbled around them, they seemed determined to destroy each other.
As the Cataclysm unfolded, Thrall found himself at a crossroads. The Horde needed his guidance as warchief, but the world also needed his help as a shaman. Aggra was right: he couldn’t divide his attention between both responsibilities. He had to choose. In his heart, he knew that the path of healing the world was the right one. If Azeroth was destroyed as Draenor had been, there would be no Horde left.
Thrall and Aggra gathered with the Earthen Ring, a neutral faction of shaman dedicated to maintaining the balance between the elements. It included shaman from the Horde and the Alliance, individuals who had put aside old rivalries for the good of the world.
Thrall, Aggra, and many of the Earthen Ring journeyed to the place where Deathwing had burst into Azeroth: the Maelstrom, a churning whirlpool in the Great Sea.
At this specific location, the black Dragon Aspect’s return had left a scar between the surface of Azeroth and the Elemental Plane. The instability at the Maelstrom cascaded over the world, stirring the elemental spirits into an even greater frenzy. If the Earthen Ring could not heal the rift Deathwing had made, destruction would continue to unfold across Azeroth.
With Thrall at the Maelstrom, Warchief Garrosh Hellscream had free rein. The Cataclysm had not deterred him from war with the Alliance. He believed the Horde would need every advantage to survive. He desperately wanted to expand the Horde’s holdings in the Eastern Kingdoms to gather more resources and strengthen the faction’s presence on the continent.
The Cataclysm had presented him with the perfect target: Gilneas, a highly defensible nation with strategic ports.
Gilneas had escaped invasion from outside forces due to the massive Greymane Wall on its northern border. But that had changed with the Cataclysm. Earthquakes had shattered part of the wall, leaving Gilneas vulnerable.
Garrosh Hellscream was not the only member of the Horde who desired Gilneas. Sylvanas Windrunner was eager to bring the kingdom under her dominion. She convinced Garrosh to give her control over the invasion force, and she led the Horde’s rampage through the isolated nation.
The Horde’s incursion could not have come at a worse time for Gilneas. A civil war, the Northgate Rebellion, had chipped away at Gilneas’s strength. So, too, had a much darker internal struggle. For years, the worgen curse had ravaged the kingdom, transforming many of its citizens into feral wolf-beasts. These creatures became slaves to their own rage, unable to tell friend from foe. King Genn Greymane himself was a victim of the curse.
The worgen curse had first originated long ago among the night elves. Some of them had sensed Archmage Arugal’s spell pulling the wolf-beasts from the Emerald Dream, and they had set out to Gilneas to investigate. The night elves felt it was their responsibility to help the human nation deal with the curse. As the Horde’s invasion was under way, they performed a ceremony called the Ritual of Balance to bring harmony to many of the worgen. It did not purge the curse from their veins, but it tempered the fury in their hearts and eased their bloodlust.
The Ritual of Balance also brought peace to Gilneas’s divided population. Genn Greymane rallied worgen and human alike, reminding them that they were all Gilneans. They were not a people who would give up. Not ever. The Gilnean army valiantly fought the Horde with sword and claw.
Losses were heavy on all sides, especially for Gilneas’s king. Sylvanas nearly struck him dead with a poisoned arrow, but it never reached its target. Genn Greymane’s only son, Liam Greymane, shielded his father from the attack. The arrow took the prince’s life instead.
The fierce resistance pushed Sylvanas Windrunner to desperate measures. She loosed the plague on Gilneas City, forcing Genn and his people to retreat. They had suffered too many losses to mount a counterattack, and they found themselves trapped within their own kingdom.
It seemed that all was lost for the Gilneans, until a fleet of night elven ships appeared on the coast. Once again, the strangers from across the sea had come to help Genn Greymane and his people.
The decision to abandon the land of his ancestors was one of the hardest Genn had ever made, but it was his only option. Staying in Gilneas would have meant certain death for himself, what remained of his family, and his loyal subjects. He ordered his people to board the ships, and they set sail for the distant night elf capital, Darnassus.
Even if it took him years, even if it cost him his own life, Genn Greymane vowed to return one day and restore Gilneas to its former glory.
KING GENN GREYMANE GRIEVES AFTER HIS SON, LIAM, WAS STRUCK DOWN BY SYLVANAS WINDRUNNER
Gilneas was not the only independent nation to suffer from the Cataclysm. The devastation pushed the savvy goblins of the Bilgewater Cartel to the verge of extinction.
For many years, they had lived on the Isle of Kezan, the central hub of a vast mercantile empire. The goblins were gifted engineers and accomplished seafarers, but they were best known for their unabashed avarice. They rarely picked a side in the wars between the Horde and the Alliance. Remaining neutral allowed them to trade with both factions and maximize their profits.
However, this neutrality left them with
no reliable allies to call on in times of need. The Cataclysm sparked the eruption of Mount Kajaro, a massive volcano on Kezan. Molten rock rained down on the island, blasting apart the Bilgewater Cartel’s factories, warehouses, and ships. A tide of lava swept down from the volcano, consuming everything left standing.
The goblins had no choice but to flee. Their home was doomed.
The Bilgewater Cartel’s vainglorious leader, Trade Prince Jastor Gallywix, preyed on the desperate goblins. His gaudy pleasure yacht was the only remaining ship in Kezan, and he forced his people into slavery in exchange for safe passage aboard the vessel.
If the goblins were hoping that the danger had passed, they were disappointed. The currents carried them straight into the conflict brewing between the Horde and the Alliance.
Amid a naval battle, Alliance vessels sank the goblins’ ship. This unwarranted hostility eventually propelled the goblins into the arms of the Horde. It wasn’t easy for the Bilgewater Cartel to forgo their cherished neutrality, but Gallywix knew the value of adapting to the times, and he was determined to turn these unfortunate events into a profit.
The goblins officially joined the Horde and later settled in the region of Azshara. Gallywix was forced to release his people from slavery, but he managed to stay in control of the cartel. Few had his connections and charisma, and he soon proved why he was the best goblin to lead. Under his supervision, the cartel reshaped Azshara and raised a new city on its shores. Bilgewater Harbor was as much a strategic Horde port as it was a monument to vice. Gambling dens, pleasure houses, and other luxuries filled the city’s streets.
Garrosh Hellscream loathed the goblins’ naked greed and decadence, but he saw great promise in their war machines and other technologically advanced weaponry. At his command, the goblins deployed their iron-skinned shredders into Ashenvale and cut down vast swaths of the forest. Clearing away the woodlands gave the Horde a steady supply of timber, and it allowed Garrosh to expand his influence into night elven lands.
He would not stop until the Horde’s crimson banners hung over every corner of the woodlands.
The Horde’s encroachment in Ashenvale came at a time of great uncertainty for the night elves. At the end of the Third War, they had lost the enchantments that bound them to the World Tree Nordrassil. Their immortality and protection from disease and aging were gone. They now had to face their own inevitable mortality.
Night elf culture and traditions were also in upheaval. The Highborne Shen’dralar sorcerers from Dire Maul had settled in Darnassus along with the Gilneans. Many night elves were wary of their guests. Both sets of newcomers dredged up painful memories from the past. The Highborne in particular were treated with suspicion and open hostility. During the War of the Ancients, their obsession with arcane magic had brought the Legion to Azeroth. That was not a sin easily forgotten or forgiven, even after ten thousand years.
Tyrande Whisperwind did her best to ease her people’s fears and convince them of the necessity for having more allies. The night elves were in a fragile state, and with the Horde on a warpath, they needed help wherever they could find it. Now was not the time for isolation; it was the time for making new friends and reaffirming the night elves’ commitment to the Alliance.
Tyrande believed that adding the worgen to the Alliance would strengthen the faction. Yet that was not a decision she could make on her own. She called a meeting of the Alliance nations in Darnassus to induct the worgen into their ranks.
As the event unfolded, it seemed it was doomed to fail.
King Varian Wrynn had no love for King Genn Greymane, and he soundly rejected an alliance with the worgen. He despised the Gilnean ruler for his decision to abandon the Alliance and close off his nation from the rest of the world. However, Varian’s anger was also a product of his own internal strife. Ever since he’d been made whole again after Onyxia’s spell was broken, he had suffered from bouts of uncontrollable rage. His anger had slowly pushed away his friends, his confidants, and even his own son, Anduin. Now it threatened to tear apart the Alliance.
Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage subtly mended ties between the human kings. He arranged for them to embark on a hunting excursion, where they would be forced to work together. The more Varian learned of Genn, the more he saw him as an honorable and courageous ruler. He even reached out to the Gilnean king for help tempering the fury in his heart. Genn led Varian through the same Ritual of Balance that he and other worgen had used to control their rage.
It worked. For the first time in years, Varian Wrynn felt at peace with himself.
Meanwhile, Garrosh Hellscream continued his encroachment on Ashenvale and launched the Horde deeper into the woodlands. His troops besieged the night elves’ strongholds, but their brutal offensive was short-lived.
Varian Wrynn, Genn Greymane, and the worgen joined the night elves in the defense of their homeland. The combined Alliance force crashed against the Horde lines and halted their advance. The worgen proved themselves as fearsome warriors in battle. They tore through the Horde’s soldiers with primal ferocity, sending their enemies fleeing in terror.
Though the Alliance reclaimed some of its holdings in Ashenvale, Garrosh stubbornly clung to much of the land he had conquered. The forest would remain a bitterly contested territory.
Following the battle in Ashenvale, the Alliance held another vote to induct Gilneas into its ranks. This time it was Varian who stood as the kingdom’s most vocal supporter. The decision was unanimous. The leaders welcomed Genn Greymane and his people into the Alliance. In turn, the Gilneans vowed to fight for their faction. They vowed to die for it if need be.
Following the events in Ashenvale, sporadic battles erupted between the Horde and the Alliance in other regions. With the factions spread thin, Deathwing unleashed the Old Gods’ minions on the world.
Far to the south of Kalimdor, Al’Akir and his elementals emerged from their domain in the Elemental Plane, the Skywall, through a rift in the ancient land of Uldum. Thousands of years ago, the servants of the titans had magically shrouded the region from sight, but the elemental unrest had destroyed this enchanted barrier. Uldum was now exposed to the world, and so were its deadly secrets.
Deep within Uldum lay the Forge of Origination. The keepers had built this machine to help fortify Azeroth and protect it from corruption. The Forge of Origination could release incredible energies to purge the flora and fauna of the world, allowing life to start anew. It was this ability—the power to scour every creature from Azeroth—that Al’Akir sought to harness.
Beneath the waves, another servant of N’Zoth stirred. She was called Queen Azshara, and she had ruled the ancient night elf empire before falling under the will of the Old Gods. She sent her loyal naga to an underwater region known as Vashj’ir, where there was a rift to the elemental realm of Neptulon the Tidehunter. The water elementals had defied N’Zoth’s command, and for that they would suffer. Yet Azshara and her naga sought more than just to destroy Neptulon. The elemental lord held the power to control the world’s seas, and it was this that N’Zoth demanded. With it, the naga could cut off all sea travel between the continents, splintering the world’s nations into isolated enclaves.
N’Zoth was confident that even if the Horde and the Alliance managed to stop some of its servants, they could never stop all of them. If one of the Old God’s campaigns succeeded, it would usher in the Hour of Twilight.
Bogged down in their own conflict, the Alliance and the Horde were ill prepared to deal with these new enemies. Fortunately, these factions were not Azeroth’s only defenders.
Neutral factions rallied to stand against Deathwing and his followers. The first were the shaman of the Earthen Ring, who gathered in areas of elemental unrest to restore balance to the world. They called for help from the Horde and the Alliance, from anyone wise enough to put aside their warmongering and focus on sparing Azeroth from destruction.
The
same heroes who had fought in Northrend, Outland, and Ahn’Qiraj answered the Earthen Ring’s call. They came from different lands. They held different beliefs. Some were even sworn enemies. Yet what they shared was a common desire to protect Azeroth—their home.
These heroes spearheaded missions across the world. In Deepholm, they destroyed the Twilight’s Hammer’s presence, allowing the Earthen Ring to repair the damage caused to the realm by Deathwing’s emergence into Azeroth.
Campaigns in Vashj’ir and Uldum met similar success. Alliance and Horde strike forces ventured beneath the waves and broke the strength of the naga and their allies. In Uldum, they secured the ancient Forge of Origination before the Twilight’s Hammer could harness its energies. It was there that Azeroth’s defenders delivered a crushing blow to N’Zoth’s elemental minions—through a gateway in Uldum, they infiltrated the lofty domain of the Skywall and vanquished Al’Akir the Windlord.
Al’Akir’s defeat gave the world’s defenders a glimmer of hope. They would need it for what was to come.
THE DEFENDERS OF HYJAL BATTLE AGAINST THE ELEMENTAL FORCES OF RAGNAROS
As conflict shook Vashj’ir and Uldum, another battlefront unfolded on Mount Hyjal.
Shortly after the Cataclysm, Deathwing and a force of Twilight’s Hammer cultists had gathered near the mountain’s summit. The corrupted Dragon Aspect led a great ritual that tore a rift into the Firelands, Ragnaros’s domain in the Elemental Plane. From it emerged thousands of fire-wreathed beings. At the head of this army was Ragnaros himself.
The elementals reveled in their release. They were more than pleased to set the woodlands aflame, but Ragnaros gave them another purpose. He whipped his servants into a frenzy and dispatched them up the mountain’s slopes, toward the World Tree Nordrassil.
World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 3 Page 24
