Know Your Lore: Med'an, Cho'gall and the Prophecy, page 3
Meanwhile, in Ahn'Qiraj, Garona continued to listen to Cho'gall's rantings and ravings, interrupted by the arrival of Meryl, who wanted to know why Garona had never told him of Med'an's father. Garona told him to shut up, as Cho'gall was finally saying what she and everyone else was waiting to hear -- the mysterious prophecy that involved her son.
"When the child of three realms becomes as Light, the ancient power will be released. The earth will tremble, the seas will rise up in answer, and all will be madness. A new day will dawn, bringing with it chaos or peace ..."
Cho'gall sought to bring forth the chaos foretold in the prophecy, to weaken the barrier between Azeroth and the elemental plane and allow his master to reclaim its former elemental servants and send them to rampage across the world. Elemental plane, that sounds familiar ... Oh yeah, isn't Deathwing supposed to rip that thing wide open when he causes the Cataclysm and unleash Ragnaros on Hyjal? Right ... Cho'gall unleashed four elementals to attack Theramore, to bring Med'an to him.
But Meryl had a plan -- somewhere in Ahn'Qiraj was the base of Medivh's staff, Atiesh. Tainted by fel magic, the base could still theoretically be used against Cho'gall. He sent Garona to find it -- in the belly of the corpse of C'thun. While she searched for the base, he teleported back to Theramore to warn the newly formed Council of the elementals' approach.
Med'an arrived in Karazhan to be met by an avatar of Medivh, the vessel of his remaining power, who had been waiting for years to deliver the message Medivh left for Med'an before his final departure from Azeroth. The message is a history lesson.
Years ago, Aegwynn refused to surrender her borrowed power as guardian and end her tenure. In an act of defiance, she seduced the mage Nielas Aran and bore his son. In her pride and arrogance, she believed her son would save the world, and after he was born, she gave him to Nielas to raise. What Aegwynn didn't know was that before Medivh was born, she'd been possessed by Sargeras, who laid dormant within her, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Sargeras found that opportunity in the unborn child and moved within him.
Medivh grew up like any normal child, until at the age of 14 he came into his power, and Sargeras awoke within him. One night, after a series of horrific nightmares, he stumbled into his father's room in a cold sweat. When Aran touched his brow, the power his mother had passed on to him fully awoke. The backlash killed Aran and caused Medivh to go into a 20-year coma. By the time he awoke from the coma, Medivh was no longer a 14-year-old boy but a 34-year-old man, and Sargeras had taken him over completely. It was Sargeras that made him approach the orcs and open the Dark Portal.
It was during this time that he met Garona, who was sent to him as an emissary for Gul'dan and the rest of the orcs. During their association, they grew to care for each other -- and in a stolen moment of defiance, while Sargeras' attention was turned elsewhere, Medivh fathered Med'an. Shortly after, Khadgar and Garona learned of Medivh's possession and returned to Karazhan to put an end to Medivh and Sargeras once and for all. Lothar cut off Medivh's head, destroying what was left of the piece of Sargeras within Medivh and freeing Medivh at last.
Medivh returned, becoming a true guardian of Tirisfal, and used his remaining powers to forge the union between the Alliance and Horde to defeat the Burning Legion in the Third War. After the war, Medivh faded away, leaving only the last echo of himself for Med'an to find, some day. Med'an's power was his birthright, Medivh explained, and while Garona and Medivh's destinies were fixed before they were born, Med'an's was not. His destiny would be of his own choosing -- and that was the greatest gift that Medivh could bestow. The history lesson ended, and the echo of Medivh vanished, leaving Med'an to teleport back to Theramore.
He arrived in the middle of an elemental attack. Theramore was being bombarded by the four elementals Cho'gall had summoned, and the assembled members of the new council were doing their best to fight them off. In a moment of illumination, Meryl told Jaina to feed Med'an her power using the ritual of sharing that was commonly used when creating a guardian. Jaina began it, and the others joined in, giving Med'an enough power to cast a blast that weakened the elements considerably. The drawback was that Med'an, unlike others before him, was neither trained nor prepared to use the powers of the guardian, and the feedback from the spell knocked him out. Broll Bearmantle arrived back in Theramore just in time to finish off the last of the elementals, and Med'an was taken inside to recuperate.
Med'an awoke with Aegwynn at his side and immediately identified her as his grandmother. Surprised, Aegwynn asked how he knew -- and Med'an told her of his trip to Karazhan and what the message of his father had shown of his past, that Medivh wanted him to understand where he'd come from and to give him choices where Medivh had none. Aegwynn interrupted him and said that it was her fault, that Medivh had been given no choices due to her own selfish actions. She asked him if he would like to be the next guardian, and Med'an agreed -- but only if the council knew who he was, who his father was, and accepted him. The council was surprised to hear of his heritage, but asked him to become the guardian anyway, because his unique heritage was his strength.
Med'an and new council teleported to a pocket outside of time and space where the ceremony to create the new guardian was to be performed. Meryl and Valeera prepared to return to Ahn'Qiraj and find Garona -- and Aegwynn asked to go with them, wanting to help with the fight in any way she could. The Council of Tirisfal gave their powers to Med'an, and he teleported to Ahn'Qiraj, to defeat Cho'gall once and for all.
Garona found the base of Atiesh within the corpse of C'thun and brought it back to the surface just in time to narrowly avoid death by elemental, thanks to the help of Valeera. While Med'an's powers were truly phenomenal, it looked as though they would not be enough to defeat Cho'gall -- now a horrifyingly deformed avatar for the Old God -- and desperation set in. Cho'gall began the spell that would summon the Old God to Azeroth and signal the world's destruction.
In a desperate gambit, Meryl channeled the fel energy that tainted Atiesh's base to Med'an, who used his powers to cleanse it and strengthened himself further. Aegwynn was struck down and noticed that the base of the staff was now cleansed, but still glowed with power -- power left by her son Medivh for Med'an to use. She told Garona to get the base to Med'an, and as she lay weakened and dying, Aegwynn had one final request -- she asked Meryl to funnel the last of her power to her grandson.
Meryl did so, and Aegwynn, one of the greatest guardians of Azeroth, died. Her power fueled Med'an even further, and when he touched the base of Atiesh, it reformed. With the combined powers of the Council, Meryl, Aegwynn and the staff of Atiesh, Med'an destroyed Cho'gall.
Azeroth was saved, but Aegwynn was dead. The council took her body to the graveyard west of Karazhan, Morgan's Plot, and buried her there, near her son. Garona was now a fugitive from Stormwind, as Varian still wanted her head, so she couldn't stay -- and so she left with Meryl, to hunt down and destroy the remaining members of the Twilight's Hammer. But Cho'gall, the last being on Azeroth who held any sway over her, was no more. For now, it seemed, they'd won.
And that's the end of the run for the Warcraft comics, or at least for the series involving the characters we've seen in Azeroth so far. The series was cancelled after the conclusion, and future comics will be released as graphic novels. I'd recommend picking up the comics -- the story is interesting, and the artwork over the course of the series is fabulous. I also recommend picking up The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb for the full story behind Medivh's rise to power and his defeat at the hands of Lothar, Khadgar and Garona. It's an excellent read.
But while the comics state that Cho'gall has been destroyed, the questline on the PTR indicates a different story. Is Cho'gall dead? Will Med'an make an appearance as the Guardian in World of Warcraft? How about Garona -- if Cho'gall was the only being that held any control over her, will we see her in the upcoming expansion? The quest line on the PTR is no longer available, but check back tomorrow for more details on what it covered.
