Ask a Lore Nerd: Which came first, the Lich King or the Egg?

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.

It's another beautiful Sunday, and it's time for another edition of Ask a Lore Nerd! Let's jump righ tin with realmreaver's question...

If the humans turned their back on the Forsaken due to their undead condition. Why are they all lovely dovey towards the Death Knights? Are not an army of undead LOVED ONES a necessary evil too?

The Death Knight questline explains their return to the Horde/Alliance, and supplies some reasoning for why their factions are okay with them. Forsaken, on the other hand, are painted by the game to be very anti-Human. Why in the world would Humans accept them, former loved ones or not? One of their battle cries is, "Death to the living!" and they say such things consciously aware of their words. It's a completely different situation.

If a group of Forsaken went through the same thing our Death Knights did and atoned the same way our Death Knights are, they'd potentially have a shot of joining the fold, at least for awhile. As it stands, the Forsaken reject Humanity just as much as Humans reject the Forsaken. Sylvanas is their Queen, Varian Wrynn is not their King.

Siona asked...

Why is it that Arthas is known as the Lich King? From all of what I understand, Ner'zhul is really the spirit now in Arthas' body, or is at least the major presence in it. So, in reality, shouldn't we all be going "ARGH, NER'ZHUL!!" instead of "ARGH, ARTHAS!!"

What the hell is a Ner'zhul? Is that like, a sneeze? Did you sneeze? Do you need a tissue?

As other readers said, that's what most of the population of Azeroth would say if you called the Lich King Ner'zhul. He's significant to the Orcs, but not to anybody else. The name Ner'zhul holds no meaning. Prince Arthas Menethil, however, was Azeroth's celebrity. Everyone across the Eastern Kingdoms knew his name, and a fair chunk of Kalimdor came to know him during and after his fall.

To Azeroth, Ner'zhul does not exist. That name has no meaning. To Azeroth, there is only the Lich King and Prince Arthas. Only the Orcs would really care about Ner'zhul.

Hypo asked...

Why aren't the Night Elves and the Tauren allied or at least neutral towards another? I know that the Tauren have sworn allegiance to Thrall, but the two races have so much in common: They're crazy about Earthen balance, Druidism, preserving nature. They have the Cenarion Circle in which they ally, but why not besides that?

Politics are a complicated thing. Even people with very similar backgrounds and lifestyles can be at war. Territory, trade, whatever. Right now, I imagine the Tauren being allied with the Orcs is enough to split the two, but they haven't had a very good history, either. Old hatreds die hard and all that. There are a lot of little things under the surface that push groups away. You would think the Gnomes and Goblins would be best friends as well, but that's obviously not the case.

The Cenarion Circle is an entity seperate from both Darnassus and Thunder Bluff, so they're neutral in the whole deal.

Malix had two questions for us...

This has two parts about the Naga. I was wondering if the Naga might ever decide to join the Horde, as they don't have any racial enemies on that side and have actually felt kinship with the blood elves.

The Horde hate the Naga just as much as anybody else. The Blood Elves don't particularly like them either. Kael'thas and his lackies were the only ones to ally with them. Kael has a history of allying with groups that the Blood Elves at large would find horrifying. Vashj, Illidan, the Burning Legion. The Blood Elves have no real affinity to the Naga. They hate them all the same. And Naga hate everything that isn't in the water (and some things that are), so there's that, too.

The second question is how powerful could Azshara be now? She was stronger than Mannoroth 10,000+ years ago. Now that she's naga-fied and immortal, could she be on equal footing as, say Kil'jaeden or even Sargeras?

We don't really know, honestly. I have severe doubts that she's on equal footing with Sargeras, because if that were the case she wouldn't be sitting at the bottom of the ocean. She would probably be eating Kalimdor whole. Kil'jaeden? Eh, it's a stretch. But it's possible, I suppose. We fought Kil'jaeden in Sunwell, but we didn't kill him. Not nearly. We just kinda bopped him on the head and pushed him back into a portal. Only time will tell which of the two is more powerful, we haven't seen much of Azshara in a very long time. She's supposedly pretty strong, but for all we know she's just sat on a couch for hte last 10,000 years and the Naga only serve her because man, she's the freaking Queen!

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.