Its Lore-tastic!Follow

Ok, I know the basic lore of the warcraft world and such(off of WoW story site, and the games themselves).

One of the things that constaintly troubles me is...how did the world of WoW come into place after the happenings of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne?

I havent played through the entire TFT game(3rd campaign on undead so far), but it doesn't seem like it would affect some of the things im wondering about.

For instance, how have the orcs returned to war with the humans? It would seem that with the pact with Jaina would probably still hold true over the time, and would seem like it would of brought peace to the orc/human feud even with the ever present human bigotry. Although I guess this could easily be explained by the acts of the humans in the bonus campaign seeing as how even with the pact between the orcs and humans of kalimdor the humans of lordaeron still wanted to kill the orcs(Don't know if I disagree with them, afterall, the orcs were a savage race under the curse.)

Next, it would seem like with Lady Sylvanas gaining free will, she would be more likely to side with the alliance than the horde. Although im guessing that Something might be explained in the 3rd campaign which I have yet to play, but it doesnt seem likely seeing as how I don't believe theyd allow a playable race under the control of demons.

Lastly, and I think the biggest unexplained peice of lore is what happened to Kil'jeaden. It would seem like with Illidans failure to kill Arthas in northrend Illidan would be slain by now and a new attempt at arthas' life would already be in progress. It seems like Kil'jeaden has all but been forgotten about.

Arthas is probable just in Northrend strenghtening his army/defenses because if he was take on the forces of the other races(which probobly weren't as weak as they were portrayed seeing as how theres no real evidence of how the rebuilding is going other than a short glimpse at the human lands) it would require all of his forces and leave him defensless to the wrath of the demons.

Not to mention the damage inflicted on northrend due to illidan would require some time to repair.

WARNING!!!!!111!!! SPOILERS!!!!11!!!98!

















- Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos

The Frozen Throne in Northren is home to the Lick King Ner'zuel, a orc who was corrupted by the Burning Legion but was sealed off in the tower due to his actions to further his own power rather then serving the Burning Legion. The Frozen Throne is in Northrend, which is the area where Prince Arthas of Lordaeron chased a demon for corrupting the food supply of Lordaeron, causing the people to become undead slaves. Arthas obtains the cursed sword Frostmoure, hoping that it is the only way to kill the demon. While Arthas succeeded with his goal, the sword turns out to be connected to the Lich King. Now corrupted, Arthas returns to Lordaeron and burns the kingdom down, claiming it as his own.

The remaining surviving humans, lead by the young witch Jaina Proudmoure, meet out with the orcs and night elves in Kalimdor. They all struggle to defeat Archimode, the ancient demon warlock who was summoned by Arthas and his servent, the necromancer turned lich Kel'Thuzad, under orders of the Burning Legion. Illidan, the brother of Malfurion Stormrage forsaken night elf prisoned for the illegal use of magic, managed to weaken Archimode's forces by stealing the skull of Gul'dan, a artifact that contained large demonic energy, thanks to the information given by Arthas. For illegally using magic again, Malfurion banished Illidan from the night elf race.

After fleeing to Kalimdor, Thrall, leader of the orcs, teamed up with the Tauren after saving their race. The leader of the Tauren, Cairne Bloodhoof, befriend the orcs and helped them with Thrall's mission, which was to meet with the prophet Mavieh, a human who was originally responsible from opening the gates to the orcish world and causing war on the lands. Seeking to regain his honor, Mavieh helps the humans, lead by the young witch Jaina Proudmoure and orcs to stop the coming of the Burning Legion. While away from Thrall, Grom Hellscream, said to be the greatest orc warrior, was tricked by the orc's former demon master, Mannaroth, into drinking his blood and killing the Night elf demigod, Cenerius. Thrall, Jaina and Cairne acted quickly to break Grom from the demon's curse in a grand battle against corrupted orcs and demons. Seeing that the ties between demons and orcs will not die until their former master is dead, Thrall and Grom attacks Mannaroth but both are overwhelmed. In a last ditch effort, Grom sacrifice his life using what's left of the demon energy in his blood to deal the death blow to Mannaroth.

Archimode, an ancient demon warlock, was summoned by Arthas and his servent, the necromancer turned lich Kel'Thuzad, under orders of the Burning Legion. Archimode managed to travel to Kalimdor along with his demon generals for one goal: destroy the World Tree, which is the thread that holds the world together. Sensing the evil, Tyrande and Malfurion Stormrage acted to summon the sleeping druids that hold power over Kalimdor. In the process, Illidan, the brother of Malfurion Stormrage forsaken night elf prisoned for the illegal use of magic, was freed by Tyrande and managed to weaken Archimode's forces by stealing the skull of Gul'dan, a artifact that contained large demonic energy, thanks to the information given by Arthas. For illegally using magic again, Malfurion banished Illidan from the night elf race.

In order to finally defeat Archmode, the human, orc and night elf forces teamed up and stalled Archimode, allowing the spirits around the World Tree to gather enough power to finally destroy the evil warlock. The plan was successful, leaving Archimode and his forces defeated.

-The Frozen Throne (Warcraft 3 Expansion)

Illidan, now a corrupted and forsaken night elf thanks to the skull of Gul'dan, meets up with the Naga, a race of underwater corrupted night elves, to gain a ancient demon eye found in a sunken island. Maiev, Illidan's former jailer, seeks out Illidan and tries to return him to the prison he escaped from thanks to Tyrande, a priestess and Illidan's brother's wife.

Catching up with Illidan in a underwater temple where the demon eye is found, Maiev quickly escapes death and calls for the aid of Tyrande and Malfurion, Illidan's brother, so they can follow Illidan to his final destination, the corrupted lands of Lordaeron. Upon arriving to Lordaeron, Malfurion seperates from Maiev and Tyrande to speak to the lands through his druid powers. Tyrande and Maiev continue the hunt and meets with a young Blood elf named Kael'thas, who is trying to get the remaining survivors of Lordaeron away from masses of undead that follow. Tyrande agreed to help Kael with this task while Maiev was angered at the thought of not continuing the hunt for Illidan. Though they succeeded in leading Kael and his people, Tyrande was seperated from Kael and Maiev by falling in a river during a battle with the undead. Fueled by her obbession with capturing Illidan, Maiev lied to Malfurion after his return, stating that Tyrande was torn apart at the hands of the undead. Sadden by the events, Malfurion pledged that Illidan will be sentanced to death.

Malfurion and Maiev finally catch up with Illidan, who through the demon eye is trying to destroy the Frozen Throne, the source of the Undead Scourge, through a ceremony in the wizard city of Dalaran. Since this ceremony almost torn the world apart and since Tyrande has fallen, Malfurion sentances Illidan to death. Before Maiev could complete the order, Malfurion mentions the fall of Tyrande. Illidan, who is actually in love with Tyrande, gains information from his naga that Tyrande is actually alived and surrounded by the undead. Surprised that Tyrande is actually alive, Malfurion turns his attention away from his brother and confronts Maiev on her lie. Stating that time is short, Illidan offers his services to save Tyrande. The two brothers unite and save Tyrande from the horde of undead. Saving his love, Malfurion forgived his brother and allowed Illidan to go free. Angered by this decision, Maiev continued her hunt, swearing that she will see Illidan dead. Weary of travels, Malfurion and Tyrande heads back home to return to their lives.

Kael, the blood elf who recieved aid from Tyrande previously, manages to return to his human commanders and carries out operations against the undead. Unfortunatly, his human superior didn't trust Kael and his Blood Elf people and assigns them to various "suicide missions". Whenever he is on these missions, Kael would suddenly recieve help from the naga lead by Lady Vashj, the naga's leader, and succeed. This ended when a human soldier found Kael with the naga. Kael's superior sentanced Kael and his people to death for siding with the enemy but was rescued yet again thanks to Lady Vashj and her naga. They soon escaped to the outlands, promising Kael and his people survival thanks to the help of Illidan.

Upon entering Outland, it is discovered that Maiev, Illidan's hunter, managed to defeat Illidan and was taking him away to be sentanced. Kael and Lady Vashj managed to free Illidan and defeat Maiev, driving her forces away. Illidan, now freed, stated that it is no longer safe since he has did not managed to destroy the Frozen Throne and failed his demon master Kil'jaeden, who assigned him to this mission. After destroying the gates to Azeroth and killing the demon in power of Outland, Illidan still did not manage to escaped Kil'jaeden, who offered Illidan one last chance to destroy the Frozen Throne.

Back in Lordaeron, Arthas now controls the area, resisting the orders given by the Burning Legion. Lady Sylvanas, a high elf who was killed by Arthas during his rise of power and now is under Arthas and the Lich King's powers, managed to break away from the control since the Lich King and Arthas is becoming weaker as time passes on. Setting up a coup, Sylvanas claimed Lordaeron as her own, driving Athas away in his weaken state. Hearing the calls of his master, Arthas flees to Northren so he can protect the Lich King. Kel'Thuzad remains in Lordaeron, promising Arthas that he will lead his armies to control Lordaeron again.

Arthas manages to make it to Northren weaken by the loss of power. He is met at the Frozen Throne by Illidan, who is trying to achieve his goal to destroy the Throne. Both Illidan and Arthas clash but as the dust settles, Arthas leaves the winner. Along with Kael and Lady Vashj, Illidan manages to escape to the Outlands, wounded yet alive. Arthas walks up the steps of the Frozen Throne and comes upon the Lich King's frozen remains. Shattering the ice prison which holds the Lich King, Arthas merges with the lich, making Arthas the new Lich King.

World of Warcraft begins 3 years after the merging of Arthas and the Lich King. What happens next is up to us.....once the freakin' game is release!!11!!!111!

That was rather long and took me 2 hours at 6 am in the morning so if I missed something or made a mistake, post and I'll fix. Now, I need some sleep.... (ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz)

BTW, no complaining about grammar errors. I know they're there but I'll fix when I'm better rested ;P

Edited, Sat Oct 23 06:36:13 2004 by Redmoonxl

Well that was very well thought out *clap* and a rate up for all the effort but I don't think you looked at his questions. I'll answer the easier question first. :P

Sylvannas at least originally had no qualms with the humans but I'm assuming with her rise to power she's gotten a bit more greedy. She knew the Alliance would never trust someone of the Undead so she went to Thrall and gave him the story of we're just a demonic people that finally broke free. Thrall being the understanding orc he is believes her and created the alliance between them. If you read the WoW site it also says Sylvannas cares bothing about an alliance at all she just needs backing because she is creating some virus that can wipe out the living and the dead.

Long story short Sylvannas probably wouldnt of been able to forge anything with the alliance especially seein how predjudiced a lot of the humans are.


As for the war between the orcs. Refer to up top the humans are extremely predjudiced. If you have played the special orc campaign you will notice this there is in fact two different sides to the humans now the ones that stayed behind in Lorderon to fight off the Scourge. And the group of humans that came to Kalimdor with Jaina. Jaina and her people live in some island stronghold she built on an island off the coast of I think Western Kalimdor. While her father General Proudmore pretty much leads the last pockets of humans in Lordearon.

Her father in the special orc campaing led an attack against Thrall and Jaina helped defend Thrall and his new nation. So basically that is why the humans and orcs are still at war. Too many humans still hate them. The real question is where is Jaina and her people in WoW since the humans we will be playing as are actually in a way one of the bad guys.

Hope that answered your questions better.

The Forsaken are hemmed in by the Scourge and Scarlet Crusade. Because they're fighting a war on essentially 2 fronts, they don't have the resources to wage an offensive campaign against the Alliance who is, for the most part, leaving them alone. They are, however, quite busy with their research to create a new plague and wipe out all Human and Scourge life on Azeroth... it's a combination of jealousy and a burning desire for revenge. Much of the rest of the Horde doesn't trust them, and there're quite a few events to make us suspicious of their motivations despite their seemingly helpful attitudes.

General Proudmore led an attack on the Orcs in violation of a treaty; despite Jaina's siding with the Orcs, General Proudmore's actions served to tear apart the fragile treaty. The fact that his Theramore Marines and Lieutenant Benedict are still in Durotar doesn't help. While the Alliance and Horde in general are not actively at war as far as we've seen, they are still spying and sabotaging one another.

While it doesn't answer all your questions, Chapter 5 is about all the information we have on the main storyline right now. Much of it is being held back for release, I think, and it will be some time before we find out what's really going on with Illidan, Kil'jaeden, and Arthas.

Jaina was the leader of some Lordaeron survivors. It was her treaty with the Horde that led to the victory at Mount Hyjal. However, the Scourge didn't really penetrate into the southern or central parts of the Eastern continent, namely Khaz Modan and Azeroth. Those kingdoms never had any agreement of any sort with the Orcs; complicating matters was the betrayal of Jaina's treaty by her father, Lord Admiral Proudmoore of Kul Tiras. With Jaina's implicit aid and explicit permission, the Horde slew Admiral Proudmoore, and so retains a VERY uneasy truce with her forces on the island of Theramore. There are still problems with those other kingdoms, though... also note: on the PvP server, a massive Horde raid group succeeded in slaying Jaina. Though, naturally, this isn't anything permanent (the Alliance killed Thrall at one point) it's very noteworthy.

The Undead still want to destroy humanity. That's what they were created to do, and even though they have broken free they still retain some of that imprinting, especially since they used to be human themselves. They're very jealous of the living. Besides, the remaining human kingdoms can't easily differentiate between Scourge undead and Forsaken undead (one rotting, moving corpse looks like another, right?) and so despise them all equally. The rest of the Horde isn't exactly happy with their Forsaken allies, either; it's more of a enemy-of-my-enemy type deal. Since the majority of the Forsaken's energies are tied down clashing with the Scourge in the Plaguelands, it would make strategic sense for the greater Horde to buffer the Forsaken's strength to keep the Scourge bottled up. It's not as if Sylvanas can twist Thrall around her finger or easily manipulate him or anything; it's just convenient to have each other around.

As for Kil'Jaeden, there's a reason we won't see him in-game. Kil'Jaeden was an Eredar warlock with about the same power level as Archimonde. It required vast amounts of magical energy and the most potent spells in existence to bring Archimonde into Dalaran, and none of the remaining forces in the world are keen on seeing anyone from the Legion showing up. Kil'Jaeden may yet play a role... but as a behind-the-scenes guy ONLY.
A better question would be: is Kel'Thuzad still hanging on to the Last Spellbook of Medivh? Now there's a happy thought...