Ask a Lore Nerd: It's the end of the world as we know it

Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.

Good morning, everyone! My apologies for missing last week's Ask a Lore Nerd, I am apparently very, very bad at time management and I lost track of things while trying to finish furnishing my apartment. We're back in action this week though, so it's all good!

Before we get started, I also wanted to remind people that Tokyopop is letting us read Warcraft: Legends for free until the 17th. I know Daniel mentioned it already this morning, but seeing as this is the lore column of the day, I just wanted to mention it again. Just imagine me as the hammer trying to drive this nail into your head. You can read it for free. And now we get the show on the road!

naixdra asked...

Why do the Orcs call Draenor, Draenor? Didn't the Draenei show up out of nowhere and call it that, so why would the native Orcs adopt the name given to it by outsiders (and still refer to it after their attempted annihilation of said outsiders)?

The Orcs never gave Draenor a name. It was just where they lived. It was home. Giving their planet a name never even crossed their minds. The Draenei gave it a name, and it became the accepted norm when that information became important. When they started interacting with beings from other worlds, that's when they needed a name for where they come from. The Draenei called it Draenor, and it just stuck.

Even outside of the game, sentient species don't have a very interesting track record for naming their home planet. We named our planet Earth (or Terra if you prefer). We are basically calling it 'big floaty rock.' If by some miracle we met another sentient species and we shared the same language, they'd be all, "What the hell, that's what you named your planet? Really?"

AlexW573 asked...

On the east edge of the Sons of Hodir town, there is a big frozen giant in a throne. Who is/was he?

That's Arngrim, a former King of the Sons. He gives the quest Feeding Arngrim at Revered with the Sons of Hodir. He is very hungry.

Siona asked...

It seems like generally all, if not most, of the Argent Dawn/Crusade members are paladins, or at least worship the Light in some way. And given that a lot of non-Paladin-class races -- Orcs, Gnomes, Trolls -- etc are also part of them, could it then be conceived that we'll someday see an Orc Paladin or something like that in that group's future? Is it even feasibly possible for non Human/Dwarf/Draenei/Blood Elf races to be able to use the Light? I know Forsaken are out of the picture, due to their Scourge-i-ness, but how about the other races?

More and more Blizzard has been pushing the point that anybody can wield the Light if they're faithful. The Light doesn't know racial barriers. There can certainly be Orcish Paladins, but most Orcs simply don't put faith in the Light. There could be Troll Paladins, but again, it would be rare because that's simply not their culture. Blizzard always makes it a point to show that there are exceptions, though.

The Arakkoa, overall, are a pretty grim race. Most of them worship dark gods and all of that, but what do you see in and around Shattrath? Light-worshiping Arakkoa like Rilak the Redeemed.. The Trolls are Shamanistic and are also steeped in voodoo. Despite that, we see Zabra Hexx in the Ashbringer comic series, a Troll Priest that has converted to the Light. Those are just two examples of this. The Light does not judge you by the color of your skin or the size of your tusks. You just need to accept it and stay (mostly) faithful to its tenets.

The Argent Crusade probably has Light-worshiping Priests and Paladins of various abnormal races in its ranks already. Players probably won't be able to play Orc Paladins and such since racial classes are determined by what's most indicative of the race's culture, and Light worship is most definitely not widespread among Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Night Elves, et cetera. It would be a very rare thing, but certainly possible from a lore point of view.

Ken asked...

The Tribunal of Ages in Halls of Stone revealed that the reason the Titans didn't destroy the Old Gods. If they did, that would destroy all of Azeroth, so they just locked them away. However, in the game we've already killed C'thun and Yogg-Saron is likely to be the final boss of Ulduar. If the trend of mortal races killing Old Gods keeps up, isn't it likely that Azeroth would be destroyed?

There's one advantage we have over the Titans: We are tiny and can fit in small spaces. Do you think a Titan could've snuck inside C'Thun's stomach and taken him down from the inside out? Probably not. Killing C'Thun would've been some long, drawn out, catastrophic uprooting with all kinds of lasers and explosions. We're small enough that our kills can be a bit more surgical... and accidental. Poor C'Thun, undone by his afternoon snack.

It's that, or the world is going to collapse when their corpses start to rot away and we're friggin' screwed. It was nice knowing you, Azeroth.

That's all of the questions we're going to cover today, but I have a special secret for those of you that read this all the way through. Very, very soon, Michael Sacco and I are bringing sexy back. Are you excited? I'm excited.

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.