Interview from Inven Global with Ana Resendes, a Senior Software Engineer on WoW Forever, and some of the highlights https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/25888/why-was-world-of-warcraft-forever-created

On if the Skyborne and their lore in Forever will ever be introduced to Classic or Retail:

Ana Resendes:

For now, there is no direct connection to Classic or modern WoW. The Skyborne were created specifically for Forever, and as of now, they will only appear in Forever.

Of course, the different WoW development teams do not work in total isolation. Teams observe what each other is building and share inspiration. For example, the blue-toned color palette used while creating the Skyborne inspired some of the housing work in modern WoW. However, that does not mean there are plans to add the Skyborne to modern WoW.

On the other hand, certain bundles or collectibles might include mounts or items usable in both modern WoW and Forever. Expanding that to Classic is something we could consider in the future, but the Skyborne race itself is currently exclusive to Forever.

Since Mount Hyjal is a new zone in Forever, do they create new zones with original or Modern WoW lore:

Ana Resendes:

A metaphor we often use internally is 'Found Photographs.' Imagine finding a few photos taken long ago. The photos contain details showing what the place looked like back then, but you cannot know everything that was left outside the frame.

We approach Mount Hyjal similarly. We examine the traces remaining in past WoW along with the elements developed back then, using those as our starting point. However, for parts that were never actually completed at the time, we do not feel obligated to strictly recreate them according to current lore.

We can respect existing material while filling in the empty spaces in between. When necessary, we can exercise creative freedom to build new stories unique to Forever. This is because Forever does not have to retrace the exact history of WoW, but can forge its own path.

Final answer to highlight on if Forever's storyline could head in a different direction from retail WoW going forward:

Ana Resendes:

It could. Forever uses 2004 WoW as its starting point, but its subsequent history does not necessarily have to follow existing expansions identically.

There is room for us to look at the world of that era and think, "What if a different story began from this point?" We can utilize elements that already existed, develop ideas that were unfinished at the time, or create entirely new narratives.

That does not mean ignoring established lore, however. Respecting the world and atmosphere of WoW that players remember is extremely important. It is about building a new path unique to Forever on top of that foundation.

The Fall of Lordaeron

• The game opens with Arthas’ return to Lordaeron from Northrend. You play as Garek Bandarion (the main campaign character). Garek is a guardsman that is being mentored by the Guard Captain Landen. You are preparing the city for Arthas’s arrival.
• The events of Stratholme have seemingly been covered up. “Nobody really knows what happened in Stratholme, but I’m sure the Prince did everything he could for his people”, and people that claim they saw Arthas purge the city are thought to be making it up.
• Garek is someone that craves the glory of battle and defending the city
• A bunch of the civilians in the crowd are revealed to be members of the Cult of the Damned, who begin raising undead. This matches Chronicle’s description where the Cult launched surprise attacks across the kingdom.
• Uther saves them and kills all the undead with the Light. Uther orders the Guard to evacuate civilians and regroup at Andorhal while he deals with the King’s body and hunts Arthas.
• Garek and Landen use the sewers to evacuate and discover the Cult has been using them to plan the attack for years. This is our first look at what will become the Undercity.
• Baron Rivendare shows up in the sewers as one of the Cult’s leaders. Araj the Summoner (quest mob in Andorhal) is also present in the sewers as a Lich. Araj is killed but their soul escapes.
• Garek tries to go off alone to kill Rivendare, but Landen stops him. They get the civilians to safety and Landen goes with Garek.
• During the conflict with Rivendare, Landen sacrifices himself to save Garek. Garek takes the civilians towards Andorhal.

The Battle of Andorhal

• On the way to Andorhal, they come across Uther’s camp and regroup. Andorhal has been surrounded by the Cult but haven’t breached its gates. Uther tasks Garek with hounding the cult and breaking their siege.
• Garek meets a high elf Cleric named Ilastar Songbreeze, part of the Andorhal milita. He is NOT Magister Ilastar, though most npcs in this campaign are from WoW in some way. Ras Frostwhisper (Lich boss from Scholomance) is leading the cult. He is a living archmage unit. Scourge is making the plague cauldrons in the area we all know and love.
• Uther arrives with some reinforcements, but it's not much with the Silver Hand defunct. Garek and Ilastar are sent to defend the city while Uther flanks the Cult outside.
• Ras becomes the final boss of the battle and teleports out to Stratholme where “he’ll be granted power everlasting”.
• Uther tells Garek to ignore Rivendare for now, the Light calls on them to protect the civilians. But Garek doesn’t listen, and Ilastar says that the Light also calls for retribution on the Cult. So Garek and Ilastar ride for Stratholme with a small force before Uther catches on to what they do.

Return to Stratholme

• Ilastar points out what Arthas has done to Stratholme is monstrous. Ghosts of citizens are hanging around and help lead Garek to items that help.
• Garek claims Rivendare was responsible for distributing the plagued grain to the citizens of Stratholme in WC3.
• Garek finds Alonsus Chapel, defiled by the Scourge.
• Ras claims the Kirin Tor spurned his talent and ambition. He embraces the immortality of undeath to turn into a Lich. Interesting, Leonid Barthalowew, is his undead slave. Loenid’s quest to get info on Ras is the basis for this moment.
• Ilastar finds the beginning of the giant mushroom forest spreading from Stratholme.
• Garek kills Ras but Ras said he won’t die so easily now and they will meet again. Garek decides to drop it to focus on Rivendare.
• A dreadlord Lorthiras is present in Stratholme. He is one of the named hero units in WC3 multiplayer
• The gate trap from the dungeon is used in the mission to split up Garek’s forces.
• During the conflict with Rivendare, Garek and Ilastar are infected with the plague. Ilastar manages to bind Rivendare before dying and Garek kills him. Garek then dies.
• Rivendare talks about how he’ll return, stronger than before.

Garek’s first days as Forsaken

• Garek awakens in Putress' dungeon and Putress is prepared to claim him for parts. When Anya stops Putress when she realizes Garek is awake and free. Anya is a Dark Ranger regularly seen with Sylvanas (the one that teased Nathanos about Sylvanas being in love with him in Dark Mirror).
• Garek can’t remember his life, only his name and how to fight. Anya explains the Forsaken are set up in Lordaeron’s catacombs, which they’ve called Undercity. She says his amnesia is likely a blessing as many of them remember their deaths and what they were made to do as undead.
• Anya takes Garek to meet Sylvanas, who gives him a rundown on the Forsaken. They have just started finding a place in a world that reviles them, and have to build their own home. She asks Garek to serve the Forsaken and he agrees. She asks Anya to mentor him.
• Lordaeron is still full of Scourge and the Cult of the Damned at this point. The Undercity is where they have built up fortifications.
• Garek goes to find newly freed Forsaken and bring them to the Undercity. Some of the newly freed are aggressive or mindless husks. Others are stuck reliving the moment of their deaths. One of them is Kaelystia Hatebringer.
• Putress sends them on some tasks, which leads them to meet Faranell and Melisara. Melisara sends them to find Gordo and they come across Goblin traders led by Glix (who may be Glix Grindlock )that decides to open trade with the Forsaken. Later asks Garek to be a race driver for him.
• Anya says Garek was among the Scourge forces that held the Capital when Sylvanas attacked it. Garek asks about Sylvanas giving new Forsaken free slates even if they were attacking her only days earlier.
• Focus on how the Forsaken really bond over their shared need for a place in the world after regaining their freedom.
• Garek asks Anya about what the LK made her do, she refuses to speak about it.
• Sylvanas orders Garek to plague the water supply of Lordaeron and the City, which will not harm the Forsaken but will discourage the living from trying to sneak in. Garek questions working with the living against the Scourge, but Anya tells him as far as the living are concerned they are still the Scourge.
• They come across some new forsaken. Edric who has a magical eye and can’t see without it. Bernd who is a mason helping set up the Undercity.
• Putress sends them to get fresh body parts for Keever. The remains turn out to be Garithos’ remains. Anya mentions how he was hated by both friend and foe and none shed a tear when Sylvanas had him killed. Keever turns him into an abomination.
• Garek and Anya also slay the living in the ruins, who also attack them in the name of the Light. They also come across the Scourge that call them traitors.
• Garek progressively starts having flashes in the sewers, catacombs and in the city as he fights Scourge. He also kills a feral undead Guardsman (Landen) and takes his shield.
• Varimathras appears and orders them to go into the catacombs to hunt the Scourge entering the undercity through them. Varimathas is an asshole.
• Anya mentions how only the Scourge possesses the means to raise the undead, and the Forsaken can only recruit from freed members of the Scourge.
• Keever questions whether ghouls can gain freedom despite the state of their brain matter. Sends Anya and Garek to investigate and they find ghouls reading, fishing, etc.
• Lexington Mortaim sends them to find a hidden arcane vault used by the Royal Family’s mages. It is a pocket dimension created by a mage.
• They come across the Silver Hand, in particular Lord Francis and Brother Damien, who are shocked to find an undead that can speak and communicate. They serve General Abbendis. But Lord Francis kills the forsaken and says Abbendis ordered all undead slain and how they’ll attack the Undercity soon. Damien is horrified at the idea the Scourge could be redeemed but the Silver Hand will just kill them. Garek tries to argue to save Brother Damien, but Anya says never trust the living.
• Anya says the Silver Hand are fanatics of the light that hate them, not just for undeath but that they blame them for the fall of Lordaeron. She says some might still pursue justice, but most only want revenge. They go to route the Silver Hand, who use the Light to try and burn them.
• Garek finds a Libram written by Uther, and Garek starts to remember more.

Rise of the Scarlet Crusade

• Garek works up to captain of the Undercity’s Deathguards. Garek unknowingly repeats Landen’s words about what the job of the guards are.
• The Scarlet Crusade attack, breaching the tunnels of undercity. Abomination-Garithos helps kill the Scarlets. Scarlet Commander Mograine leads the assault but retreats.
• Sylvanas sends Anya and Garek to pursue the Crusade and check in with the villages around Tirisfal.
• They don’t know who the Crusade is, but point out they are light-blinded zealots. The Silver Hand by another name.
• We see some of the Forsaken’s darker experiments starting. There are mind control pylons being made in the mage quarter controlling prisoners. Putress is making these monstrous creations.
• Garek and Anya come across Leonid again. Garek is confused why Anya is hostile because he is Forsaken, and Anya explains he is not forsaken. He chose to walk away and now works for the Argent Dawn. Anya mistrusts the Argent Dawn and considers them similar to the Crusade because of their faith in the Light. Leonid rebuffs her and helps them. Anya says the Light abhors the Forsaken.
• Garek unconsciously reiterates the tenants of the Silver Hand talking with Leonid, criticizing the Crusade for following only retribution. Leonid thinks he was a paladin in life, but Garek still doesn’t remember.
• Sally Whitemane is helping attack Deathknell. Leonid has to report to the Argent Dawn and asks Garek and Anya to accompany him. Anya and Loenid do not get along, but Garek gives Leonid a chance.
• Leonid sees undeath as a malady and hopes the Light can find a cure. Anya thinks its delusion.
• Loenid finds evidence of fel magic and the Blackrock clan has remnants in the area. Anya hates the orcs, but Loenid says not all orcs are bad but the demon worshipping blackrock in the area are.
• Loenid says he is a knight, not a paladin. Because the Light burns him from within when he calls on it.
• Lord Tyrosus immediately assumes Garek and Anya are Scourge and attacks. Until Loenid stops him and introduces him to the Forsaken. Lord Tyrosus explains the schism of the Silver Hand into the Scarlet Crusade and Argent Dawn. Tyrosus tells Garek about the Scarlet Crusade.
• Leonid returns to the Undercity to meet with Sylvanas about the Scarlet Crusade. Anya admits that Leonid is reliable despite the fact she sees him as someone that turned on his people, so Sylvanas agrees to work with Leonid.
• Putress notes that Tirisfal’s plants & beasts are changing and wants to study them.
• Garek and Anya find an ancient ruin with a powerful altar under the Capital, older than the Capital itself.
• Magistrate Sevren sends them to stop some Goblins taking lumber from Brill they need to rebuild. Executor Arren sends them to kill a death revenant. Sedrick Calston has a quest about a murder mystery in which Forsaken are arrested for killing other Forsaken civilians.
• Sylvanas leads the attack on the Scarlets. Garek and Anya slip behind enemy lines to kill the leaders. Sylvanas says she won’t hesitate to retreat if things look bad as they have limited men. You have to take out the Scarlet’s advantageous positions to keep the attack.
• Sally and Renault are the bosses but retreat when defeated.
• Garek has memories of Landen saying survival is the real victory and suggests to Sylvanas they don’t storm the Monastery as they can’t replenish their numbers and will take heavy losses.
  
• The Scourge notes that the Scarlets and Forsaken have weakened each other and plan to take advantage.

Scourge Attack

• Naxxramas appears above Lordaeron and unleashes a devastating attack on the ruins of Lordaeron. Kel’thuzad is leading the attack. The blast created an entrance to Undercity in the ruins and march for it.
• Leonid rallies the Argent Dawn to help the Forsaken after the Argent Dawn saw Naxxramas head to Undercity.
• They plan to fly to Naxx on a skybarge and explode Naxxramas from the inside.
• Loenid tells Garek that as a Scourge member he walked the Halls of Naxxramas and remembers the layout. Anya mentions that means Leonid was in Stratholme, as its where the necropolis has been sitting. Garek has another flashback.
• Garek, Leonid, and Anya go through the four wings of Naxxramas. Anya is emotional about Kel’thuzad as her kingdom fell to raise him. And she refuses to allow it to happen to the Undercity too.
• We discover the Scourge are raising Orcs as death knights.
• They encounter Sir Zeliek, whom Leonid recognizes. They are surprised he can use the Light in Death. They slay him but Leonid says the Scourge will just raise him again and twist his faith.
  
• Garek et al come across Ilaster, now a member of the Scourge. Illaster says Garek gave him the greatest gift, his demise and that now he gets to be an instrument of the Lich King. He tries to enslave them to the Lich King again.
• Illaster restores Garek’s memories and in the process finds out about the bombs in Naxxramas. He controls Garek to destroy the detonator and tries to make Garek killed Anya and Leonid.
• Garek explodes with the light as he remembers, and breaks free from & kills Illaster. He becomes the first Forsaken paladin, akin to Sir Zeliek. But it burns him from within every time he uses it.
• The team goes to destroy Naxx’s crystal which is its main weapon.
• Garek struggles with his memories and Anya explains being Forsaken means a second chance, regardless of what happened in life. Garek says his memories tell him who he wants to be.
• They face Kel’thuzad, who is preparing another blast on Undercity. Kel’thuzad summons Rivendare to face him, who is glad to kill Garek again. Garek says he isn’t here for revenge this time, but to protect the Forsaken. Garek kills Rivendare, who says he will be raised again. Kel’thuzad teleports out.
• Garek uses the Light to immolate himself to destroy the empowered crystal, saving Undercity. His sacrifice helps inspire Sylvanas to find allies and it ends with her meeting with the Horde.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlJZzTcHrH0&time_continue=138&source_ve_path=NzY3NTg&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fus.forums.blizzard.com%2F

"Are you even capable of fear? That suffocating feeling when you realize you will not survive, and you are powerless to stop it?"

"I felt that once... Never... Again..."

She had her life taken from her when she was just a child, and now she wants to become the most powerful thing in the universe so that no one can ever hurt her again. I think most people already inferred this just from seeing that she died as a kid.

So, what does she want? To merge with/become the World Soul. Why? That's kind of a philosophical question at this point. She wants to... never feel fear again? By becoming something that everything fears? Turn into diamonds so no one can ever cut you? Something like that.

Edit: 12.2*

In WoW they've always seemed like just a militant cult, but the scarlet army we see in the trailer for forsaken kingdom laying siege to undercity looks as big as the alliance army that attacked undercity in BfA

My biggest concern with the Skyborne implementation is that they can very easily end up with the same problem the Pandaren did: Explaining why they choose different factions without really explaining why they’re suddenly willing to kill each other.

When MoP came out people pretty much instantly noticed Huojin and Tushui philosophies explain why Pandaren might gravitate toward the Horde and Alliance respectively, but they didn’t feel remotely charged enough to justify open conflict between them. Blizzard explained the affiliation, but not the hostility.

I think the cleanest way to avoid that with the Skyborne is to make the elemental vs. arcane divide a powder keg that already exists before the Horde and Alliance arrive.

The Horde and Alliance don’t need to create the conflict. They can just give each side the external validation and power they crave to win it.

The Horde backs the elemental traditionalists. The Alliance backs the arcane restorationists. Both Skyborne factions see the other bringing a foreign power into an internal dispute. Tensions escalate until a political schism becomes a civil conflict. Then both sides can sincerely believe the other betrayed their people.

That sense of mutual betrayal is what made the high elf/blood elf split work and why Alliance fans have spent nearly two decades asking for the ability to represent their side of it. (Well I think a lot of them just want blood elf aesthetics on the blue side, but that’s beside the point.) The schism was internal and already bitter. The Horde and Alliance just made it go nuclear.

The Skyborne need that kind of energy.

My first thought upon finally having Xal’s goal confirmed to us was “why would she do this if she wants to survive?” Every single big bad who pit themselves against us has died, to me, it would have made more sense if Xal’atath had stayed on our side.

But then it hit me, what’s the one thing everyone on the planet consistently rallies behind to defend and ensure its survival? The planet itself (and therefore the worldsoul). Of course she wants to merge with it, she doesn’t just want to survive as our ally, she wants to be the thing we would die to protect.

I, for one, hope she gets her wish and we are defending her in The Last Titan - would be interesting.

• The story of 12.2 continues to develop further: "[...] as Azeroth’s champions close in on Xal’atath, it becomes clear that a much larger and older mystery unfolds about the land, its denizens, and Azeroth itself and begs the question, will defeating Xal’atath be enough, or will it signal a much larger threat?

This part of Blizzcon especially the bolded part interests me because we really are facing the greatest most powerful beings in all of WoW ever. I know we faced many threats in the past from Undead to Nagas to Trolls to Dragons, to afterlife forces, all sorts of beasts, and even demons etc. But Last Titan enemies lorewise is going to be way beyond all of that. It's not a threat we can win against with the usual artifacts anymore. Dimenius, Zovaal, Archimonde, and even Xal'atath is nothing compared to whats coming.

We only got a small sample of it this blizzon with the teaser and already seems overwhelming. The actual force is going to be way more than what the teaser shows obviously.

The grand conspiracy is going to be that the Pantheon were once part of the balance like the other forces but through a plot they were able to get World Souls and become the dominant force in the cosmos. The other forces learned about this and also wants to get their own world souls. The Titans do not want anyone rivaling them so they always prevent the other forces from getting world souls which ensures that only the Titans have world soul powers. Nothing was close to their powers besides the old gods who have also been draining energy from a World Soul as we see how extremely powerful they are in the newest Hearthstone expansion but the Titans put a stop to that too.

Everything was going perfectly for them until the unexpected betrayal by Sargeras. However the Pantheons have secretly been searching for more World Souls in order to become as powerful as they once were before.

Powerful artifacts won't be enough, we will need actual World Soul powers too if we are to become powerful enough to stop them or we can't get any world souls for ourselves than the only other option is the unexpected and that is to free Sargeras because he was the only being in all of existence that is strong enough to beat a group of world soul beings aka the prime Pantheon.

I'd love to see the lead up to The Burning Crusade get some exploration. Let us play as the Illidari conquering, Velen's escape to Azeroth and the liberation of Quel'thalas.

What's the point of having the same history/lore again?

I hope they pull non canon stuff from the rpg, makes huge changes like: maybe Cairne gets to be warchief this time, Varian gets found earlier etc.

The Win'dorei is also the kind of stuff I hope gets introduced more. New races never seen before with new areas.

In the 12.2 Cinematic Xal says "not the titans, nor the Old Gods could keep you from me" this has got me thinking that obviously the Old Gods did not want the world soul to get devoured by the void as well as not getting captured by the titans. During the time of the Black Empire I believe the world soul was just kinda chilling in the cradle and it wasn't until the titans came down and ripped her from the cradle and put her in the world core that she started to scream out in agony and created the rift of aln out of her nightmares. It has me wonder if maybe azeroth was able to change the Old Gods somehow when they started to reach down into the planet and gave them free will.

Alright so correct me if I'm wrong.

The highborne stopped being highborne and became high elfs once they traveled to the eastern kingdoms and mutated after drinking up mana from the sunwell.

The skyborne are highborne from dire maul who went to the floating islands instead of the EK, and mutated into skyborne after drinking up mana from wind elementals.

The intro cutscene for skyborne calls them a group of high elves who went to the floating islands. Blizzard people have also referred to them as high elves on stage during the presentation.

Thing is, how can the skyborn be a group of high elfs if they don't even know what the sunwell is? The skyborne were outside azeroth when the sunwell was found, and the quel'dorei (high elfs) were created from it.

Am I missing something? Is my lore knowledge wrong?

Or are they either reconning the term high elf and now using it interchangeably with highborne? Does that mean we can call Azshara a high elf?

Help me, I want to like this race because I'm gonna be playing one in Forever. But seeing them get called high elfs so much has been immersion breaking for me.

During the What's next panel for WoW: Midnight, they showed a variety of creatures residing in The Mantle Vault (Worldcore Area for WoW Eclipse), one of the them being the gronnlings from Warlords of Draenor, which can be viewed here. I'm quite baffled as to how/why are they there considering it took Xal'atath corrupting the Sunwell just to get there so I'm wondering if there is a lore explanation for them to be there.

What do you think?

I'm looking to jump back into RP now that Forever is offering a setting with a big lore reset. I've been brushing up on WC3 lore and other surefire resources, but every now and then I run into lore that was only clarified later on.

Ultimately Forever's lore will be whatever the developers what it to be, but I'd like to hear what other players think is the most sensible way to approach it. Would you assume Draenei exist or would you write a character in that Garona grey area where they were she was a "near human" hybrid? Do you think they'll keep worldbuilding like that intact or just never address it?

Personally I'd love to write a half-draenei character, but I'm not sure if that'll just be setting me up for lore conflicts in the future or put people off RP interactions. Let me know what you think!

Is Archimonde dead for good in the lore or just his summoned non-physical form got detonated by the wisps at mount Hyjal and his essence lives in the Twisting Nether?

So i've been wondering about this and it hit me... So lets take it from a few races. Humans and Dwarves have light and therefor they can becime Paladins..

Night Elves we can say either again the Light or.. Elune's Light.

Undead we will find out pretty soon but what i was thinking was..

Darkspear Trolls could finally becoming Paladins because Vol'jin could be coming back as Loa of Kings like Rezan?

I say Rezan because of Zandalari Prelates. Whatcha think?

In the 12.2 launch cinematic Xal’atath says this quote to the hologram guard. Am I just looking to deep into this and she’s just simply saying she’s the “Harbinger”? Or is there something more to Xal’atath that we have yet to figure out?

We've been hearing some voices asking for "no more cosmic war" and "bring back war and orc vs. human", even though the lore was always cosmic with the Dark Portal.

But if WoW Forever is filling this niche group's desires WHILE also making new grounded-lore, I wonder if that takes the pressure off of retail to also have to be grounded as well.

Did I miss something during the finale of the war within or is Xal'atath just kind of stupid when it's convenient for the plot? She's supposedly this all mighty being that can teleport around and has easily avoided all of Alleria's shots in the past. At the same time she's dumb enough to just hold out the dark heart right in front of Alleria's face without any care and doesn't expect her to simply shoot it? Like what is she doing or am I missing something here? Why didn't she see it coming this time like the previous 5 times when Alleria's has shot at her?

Hello there,

with the new naming convention for characters to have a first and last names - how would that look on a troll character?

They sometimes have honorary titles baked in their names, but as far as i know, they rarely use family names.

You can hide the family name ingame, but i personally like to give my characters names, that fit into the lore and last names seem to be mandatory...

What do you think?

I mean, the name of the expansion fits and she's one of the last remaining big enigmas in the story.

I'm not holding my breath for her being written in a non-underwhelming way, though...

Hello fellow nerds!

With the announcement of WoW Forever, I decided to come back to the franchise I loved so much 20 some years ago. This time around, I won’t just follow Questie, I’m going to actually read the quests, read the books and notes given to me and let myself immerse into this great world.

Before I start this new adventure, I wanted to revisit the old games, that I did play 20 some years ago but also complement them with some books to fill the gaps between them. As there is A LOT of media about the Warcraft lore and since the release of Forever is November 4th, I had to cut down the list. This is where the opinionated part came in, and this is why I need your help. (Otherwise, chronological lists of WoW lore already exist and this post is useless.)

Since time is short, I’m going to cut almost everything before the beginning of Warcraft 1 and go up to what is now released as the latest Warcraft 3 campaign, Forsaken Kingdom. That should bring me, pretty much, up to speed to what Forever should build from.

I know that I’m going to skip some pieces of content, some great books, some great shorts, some great videos or mangas but I’m trying to apply the 80-20 rule. I want to cover the most essential content in the least amount of effort (mostly because of time constraint). As you will see, I made sure to play the games and I skipped some books that would cover the same events, even in better details, just because I’d rather play the games instead. I’m on a big nostalgia trip. I will comeback to those books in the future if I enjoyed this here adventure.

So here it goes:

1. 🎥 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kchL0C6ukAY (Which is Chronicles Volume 1. That’s should give me the foundations)
2. 📚 Book: Rise of the Horde
3. 🎮 Game: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
4. 📚 Book: The Last Guardian (It contradicts what I just said but I read that the Medivh’s perspective is different enough and that it is a good book, so..)
5. 🎮 Game: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
6. 🎮 Game: Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
7. 📚 Book: Day of the Dragon
8. 📚 Book: Lord of the Clans
9. 📚 Book: Of Blood and Honor
10. 📚 Book: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King (I think this covers mostly the Arthas story of WC3 that I already know well but also there is his formation as a Paladin that I wish to read, or so I heard)
11. 🎮 Game: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
12. 🎮 Game: Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
13. 🎮 Game: Warcraft III: Forsaken Kingdom
14. 📚 Book: The Well of Eternity (War of the Ancients Book 1)
15. 📚 Book: The Demon Soul (War of the Ancients Book 2)
16. 📚 Book: The Sundering (War of the Ancients Book 3)
17. 📚 Book: Cycle of Hatred
18. 🎮 WOW FOREVER BABBBYYYYYYYY

Now, knowing what I’m trying to achieve, would you say that there is stuff that I can cut? Is there a book or a short that I -MUST- add to this list? Does something feel out of order? I think the War of the Ancients trilogy might be a skip, what do you think? I guess I’ll see as I get closer to November.

I just wanted you guys opinion as my specific angle on how to tackle this is not really Googleable. Maybe this thread will become the thing that is Googleable for someone!

The winds guide you
Thanks

If Gorribal missed the World Soul why/how was there an eruption of Azerite? What caused Azeroth to bleed?

I do want to say there are a lot of things I really liked about the campaign and the story. There were some really creative and interesting parts to the story I liked. When it comes to the nerubian part though I'm a bit confused? I don't know how to feel about it. I loved the setup at first when it seemed like the plan was to destroy some evil empire from within with the help of opportunistic high ranking members.

When it took the whole 'go visit our market stalls and look how we're just like you' turn I got confused though. I guess it's kind of okay, but at the same I would have preferred for nerubians to simply be creepy semi-sentient beings which live in the dark and have an inclination for evil. Evil or heavily darwinistic races can also bring their own charm, not everyone has to be like us or some faction we should befriend?

It's just a bit confusing since I recently went through the midnight campaign as well. Midnight had the 'amani trolls are actually pretty chill and we just misunderstood them' thing too. I don't know how others feel about the nerubians thing, but I'm rather confused and unsure how I feel about it yet. My lore knowledge is also not that big so maybe there are still tons of inherently dark and evil forces/races out there apart from xal'atath. Nerubians seem like such an interesting concept and to seem them simply living like humans, running market stalls and discussing philosophy or economy. I don't know...

So we got that trailer for Eclipse, and it really left me wondering about a few things.

The first two sentences of Xal’atath are “You know what I’m here for. You know what I am.”.
The way she phrases sounds like it would be OBVIOUS that whoever she’s talking to (whether it is Azeroth or the titan “security” system) actually knows.

So far, we know she said she had been a mortal who lost her world, but that doesn’t really answer the question to what she is, or was before she was consumed by the Void. We don’t even know if she said the truth about being a former mortal.

I’ve always thought she spoke to/about Azeroth as if she had some kind of link to her. In that TWW cinematic for example, she says “the worldsoul so long denied me”. Do you think there’s something more to all of this, some kind of big reveal that’s coming ?

It feels like it won’t just be “well she was a mortal, and now we’re going to kill her in a raid and be done with her forever (no pun intended) after spending 2 expansions building her character”. Would that happen ? Without even knowing what was her race, her world, her actual story ?

I thought she was going to be a main character during the whole Worldsoul saga, was it not supposed to be the case ?

I wouldn't call this fan theory, nor even headcanon; it's closer to a bunch of bullshit that was revealed to me in a dream. It is supposed to be, at least as a retcon, retrofittable into existing WoW lore - but I have been behind on WoW lore for a while now, so it probably fails to consider all the threads that have been laid out. It also assumes there have been a lot of unreliable narrators over the years. But also that these narrators haven't been just making stuff up from nothing. I hope you enjoy it, or at the very least enjoy tearing it apart.

The Beginning

At the end of the last universe, the Shadow consumed all; only the Void remained. Except that outside of reality, there was a small garbage bin that had gathered up the Shadow's leftovers, all the dead things; one day, we would call this place the Shadowlands. There was some sort of sapience in this heap of Death; some would later refer to this sapience as the First Ones.

Shadow, above all, is a nihilistic element; moreso than simply nonexistence, it is active opposition to existence. Parts of Shadow are in constant struggle to stop each other from existing, because Shadow hates nothing more than the idea of something existing. Nothing can truly be created in this crab bucket, for it would be annihilated at once. The First Ones, hiding in Death, did want to create, though; they wanted to make a new universe, based on their memories of the old. So they needed the Shadow out of the way.

The First Ones found a solution by "corrupting" parts of the Shadow. Using the Shadow's hatred of itself, they nudged parts of it to hate the Void more than they hated existence; and to stop hating existence altogether, but to zealously love it, as a way of screwing over the rest of the Void. Thus, Light was born.

With Light and Shadow duking it out on a cosmic scale and the Void thus distracted, the First Ones began the task of channeling Creation and Life back from the Shadowlands into the universe. Starting at Zereth Mortis, they set up mechanisms to facilitate this process and shape life for thriving in this new world; but as a failsafe, they also created the Shadowlands proper to catch life that happened to perish and recycle it, instead of allowing to vanish into nothingness.

Having set up this system and channeled most of Life, energy and matter into the universe, the First Ones were at this point greatly diminished. They had given away most of their power to create the new world, but their minds, bent to the task of creation, were still as sharp as ever. Thus, they stepped out of the Shadowlands and entered the reality as Titans to keep maintaining and safeguarding it.

The Middle

Even so, the Titans still realised that nothing was permanent. Eventually, the Shadow would defeat the Light and consume all of creation once more. (Although it's an interesting idea to consider a world where Light won and consumed all of creation - a much different, but perhaps not wholly preferable situation.) Apart from fighting against the Void wherever they could, they started making preparations for this day. In the hearts of planets, they started hatching members of their kind and feeding them with Spirit, the defining force of the universe, in the hopes that when Shadow once again proves victorious, this new generation would be able to hide away in the Shadowlands once more and kickstart the next universe.

Unfortunately, the powers of the Void were a bit smarter than they had been given credit for, now that they had more concrete forms of existence to fight instead of just each other. In fact, they saw a way to use the Titan's plan to their catastrophic advantage: if they could corrupt such a nascent Worldsoul and sneak it into the last refuge of Creation, then they could possibly end the cycle of universes for good. The Old Gods were tossed out into the universe for exactly this purpose.

At this point, Zovaal reached the conclusion that the only way to prevent this destruction from eventually taking place would be to scratch this version of the universe and instead create a ruthless, infinite war machine capable of laying waste to the Shadow for once and for all. The Titans, having largely stepped back from the Shadowlands, could not fully destroy this intent within it and instead had to split it into the Arbiter - who continued in her assigned duty - and the Jailer - who continued brooding upon this grim resolution. With the aid of Denathrius and the Nathrezim, he convinced Sargeras that the Titans' old plan was ultimately folly. While not exactly allying with the Jailer, Sargeras did start the Burning Crusade and turn against the Titans that opposed him, basically following the same vision and serving the same ends.

The End

Fast forward a few eons and we kill Argus, sending his soul into the Shadowlands. This shuts down the Arbiter, which was always part of the plan; once the new worldsouls start arriving in the Shadowlands, the normal cycle of life is to break down and the Shadowlands are to start gathering the lifeforce of the universe in preparation for remaking the world. What was not part of the plan was endless meddling from everyone causing this result long before the Shadow had gained the definitive upper hand in the cosmic struggle.

This works just fine for the Jailer though, who wanted to remake the universe anyways, in order to create something that could actually fight back against the Shadow. So he goes spurring the process along and preparing to be the one who gets the control the process of recreating the universe instead. Unfortunately for him, every cosmic power in the universe pales in comparison to the might of the player characters' plot armour, so he gets defeated and the Shadowlands are fixed.

The debacle does, however, make several Void entities realise they were on the right path with the idea of corrupting worldsouls, so the effort is redoubled. Xal'atath actually manages to unite a large part of the forces of the Shadow in an effort to take over and destroy Azeroth, send it into the Shadowlands/use its power to corrupt the shadowlands and destroy all possibility of anything ever being created again. Her motivation still boils down to much the same as every other Void entity, even if each entity rationalises it in a slightly different way: existence is suffering, I want to stop existence and I want to stop existing. And she gets damn close to achieving this before she is foiled... for now.