Ask a Lore Nerd: Cenarius, C'Thun, and the Titans

Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week Alex Ziebart answers your quests about the lore in the World of Warcraft. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small they might be, ask them in the comments section below and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.

Last week on Ask a Lore Nerd, I answered a question about sports. In short, does Azeroth have sports? I, foolishly, looked at it in a pretty narrow way. I was thinking baseball, basketball, things like that. However, it was quickly pointed out that not all sports are things like those. That's very true! Azeroth definitely has things like hunting, racing, fishing and the arena circuit. There's also a reference to Battle Ball but who knows what that is. So there's that! And with that out of the way...

XvampyrexrisingX asked...

My friend and I have been arguing recently over the death of the demigod Cenarius. I was hoping for some clarification. I (a diehard Nelf) say that Cenarius was only protecting the forest the orcs were cutting, while she (a Nelf turned Hordie) says that Cenarius attacked the Orcs for no reason and their only choice was to kill him. Which one of us gets the bragging rights?

It's a little bit of both. Deities like gods and demigods operate in a different way than mortals in WoW. The gods are almost a bit primordial. They have a very clear, defined purpose, and they serve that purpose. Cenarius did what he thought was right. He did what his nature told him to do. He is a guardian of the forest, and someone was damaging it. His instinct is to stop what is happening to it, immediately. So yes, he was definitely protecting the forest.

Cenarius didn't necessarily go about it the right way in the eyes of mortal men, but in the realm of the demigods what he did was right on. That was his duty. His sole purpose. His existence was to protect the forests, so that's what he went out to do. It definitely wasn't for "no reason" but to us, it was probably not the best choice of action. Cenarius is/was a force of nature, not a diplomat, though. You can only expect him to act as a force of nature would act.

Even the Orcs should understand that, being so close to Shamanism. The elements are forces of nature, obviously, and they act in much the same way. If you do a quest for a Fire Elemental, they're not going to ask you to do a rain dance. They're going to ask you to burn some stuff.

Skree wrote in to ask...

Now, when the Titans imprisoned the Old Gods, it was because they knew that if they killed them, Azeroth would suffer. So why hasn't anything horrible happened due to C'thun's death? Or is he just slumbering until the next time, when the stars are right?

C'Thun really may not be dead at all. What we fought in Ahn'Qiraj was one eyeball, some tentacles, and occasionally he would swallow you and you'd need to escape his stomach which could easily hold multiple 40 man raids. There is probably more to his body than that. Squishing the massive exposed eyeball was progress against him, and probably a really impressive move considering it was done by mortals.

There's a very good chance C'Thun is still alive and well. He'll just be wearing a really big eyepatch next time we see him, and be missing a few tentacles.

Doxa of Silver Hand wrote in to ask...

I'm a lore noob. Where would a lore noob go for a complete overview of the WoW lore and storyline? I'd like to start at the beginning and not have to dig through piles and piles of websites and articles for both the "big picture" and the "small details."

WowWiki is going to be your best resource if you want to keep it to one place. Be warned that it's a wiki, so you'll occasionally run into inaccuracies, but usually they're pretty good. If in doubt about something, check and make sure they have a source cited. If you want to start at the beginning of the Orc/Human (Horde/Alliance) conflict, start at the First War and then let your mind roam from there.

Yarr, there be spoilers beyond this line! Turn back if ye want to be surprised in Wrath o' the Lich King!

Dennis wrote in to ask...

Who built the three crystalline spires in the east, west, and north of Un'Goro Crater? It must have been done AFTER Un'Goro was created, of course, but far enough back that noone knows of the origins.

Those were built by the Titans. Un'goro Crater was one of two major areas of experimentation for them. Those were the places were they toyed around with creating new species and forms of life and things like that.

The pylons were built to keep out "the bad guys" to put it simply. Things that would go against life, and the Titans' creations. Things that would screw up th habitat they put there. For example, the pylons would keep out things like the Burning Legion and the Scourge since they are very anti-Titan and anti-Life.

It might have been those pylons that stopped the Qiraji from chasing the Night Elves into Un'goro at the War of the Shifting Sands, but that's still just a guess. It's a fairly decent guess, because the Silithid are in southern Un'goro where there is no pylon. They burrowed in around the back rather than getting near the pylons.

Ask a Lore Nerd is here to answer all of your questions about the lore and story of the Warcraft universe. From the religions of the universe to the 'evils' of Azeroth, everything is fair game. If you want more in-depth answers to some of your questions, you may find what you're looking for in Know Your Lore or the WoW Insider Directory.