Know Your Lore: Velen and the Light of the naaru
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.
What must it be like, to be a Prophet? Well for starters, something like the events of Warlords of Draenor is likely far less confusing to comprehend. When you're used to staring at the myriad, intertwining paths of fate, a hiccup here or there along the path of destiny is likely an easy thing to identify. Unlike the bronze dragonflight, Velen has no way to go back and alter history or change the threads of fate. But what he does have may be more powerful -- the ability to see the threads of the future, where they lead, and to choose which will eventually lead to a future where the Light prevails.
And unlike the bronze dragonflight, Velen hasn't lost this power. It wasn't a gift or task from the Titans, it is simply what Velen has become. Velen doesn't lead his people in the conventional manner that we're used to. He doesn't declare wars, he doesn't pour over tactical plans, he doesn't order his people from one place to the next, one task to the next. He is the unique shepherd of the draenei race. Velen sees where the future will lead, and he gently guides his people back and forth between the threads of fate, tracing each line in the hopes of reaching that fateful day when the Legion, when all darkness is brought to an end.
Please note: The following Know Your Lore contains several spoilers for Warlords of Draenor, including the spoiler cinematics. If you are avoiding spoilers for the next expansion, turn away now.
The Prophets Velen
We don't meet the Prophet Velen in Warlords of Draenor -- we meet a Prophet Velen, one of a myriad versions. Prophets of Velen that exist on these slightly altered timelines, these fractured universes of might-have-beens. Velen doesn't know us, but neither is he surprised at our arrival. To Velen, we are merely visitors from a faraway land, stranded on Draenor and here with the purpose of bringing down the Iron Horde. It's a purpose that we share with the draenei, so of course Velen and his people are welcoming, of course they are willing to offer us land on which to settle.
Yet there might be more to it than just common interests. After all, our people include draenei -- and to Velen's knowledge, to the knowledge of any draenei with a reasonable grasp of history, the only draenei in existence are the draenei that fled from Argus and took the name draenei to indicate what they were. Exiles. Anyone who remained on Argus became part of the Burning Legion, man'ari, demons, twisted by the evil corruption of Sargeras. And yet despite this knowledge, there is no surprise, there are no questions from the native draenei. They are surprisingly silent on the matter.
While one could look at it as simply an oversight on the part of the writers, or just a point that isn't particularly relevant to the story at hand, one could look at it from a different direction entirely. The Prophet Velen sees the threads of fate as they unfold. It is entirely likely he already knew of our arrival before we'd even crossed through the Dark Portal. If this is in fact the case, then our arrival wouldn't be much of a surprise at all, provided we actually survived the disruption in Tanaan and made our way to Shadowmoon.
Destiny unfolds
If this is in fact the case, then it's no wonder Velen wasn't at all shocked to see us suddenly show up. In Warlords of Draenor, the Prophet Velen plays much the same role he does on Azeroth -- it's a quiet role, it's a role of guidance. It's the kind of role that has you acting at Velen's side rather than as some kind of errand-runner for hire like many quest givers we've seen over the years. You aren't doing favors for Velen, he's taking you along on his journey, and in his own way, showing exactly how he leads his people in the process.
It's a much closer and more intimate look at a character that we haven't exactly seen in action -- not for want of action, but because being in the thick of the action isn't quite where Velen fits. He knows where those threads of fate lead, and he doesn't have to barge down a particular path, he can simply take his people by the hand and take them along on the journey. Sometimes that journey winds along forks of heartbreaking sadness and loss -- but the ultimate destination of that journey is a universe of peace and eternal Light. To Velen, that makes it worth the struggle, worth the cost.
So here we have the Prophet Velen, asking for our help and taking us along on one of his visions so we can see just the tiniest fraction of what he sees on a daily basis. In this vision, Karabor falls, no matter what the draenei do. Velen is naturally distraught at the idea of his people being crushed beneath the armies of the Iron Horde, so he immediately sets out to put in motion a turn of events that will prevent that particular thread of fate from coming to pass.
The naaru and the Light
There's an interesting dynamic that comes into play, and while the exact origins of the naaru aren't revealed, we get another glimpse at their life cycle in Warlords of Draenor. As we've seen before, the naaru live in a cycle of Light and void -- a dying naaru enters this void state and is either snuffed out of existence entirely, or eventually brought back to the Light so that the cycle may begin anew. We really don't know a lot about this process, but we've seen a few separate representations of how this works.
First, we have K'ure, the naaru in Oshu'gun on Outland. K'ure is darkened, and has attracted the attention of souls in the area. Unfortunately, while K'ure may have made friends at one point in time with the nearby spirits of orc ancestors, those ancestors are now in jeopardy. This is because as K'ure bleeds the energies of the Light, they are displaced by the energies of the void, which consume these orc souls. K'ure seems resigned to his fate.
In Auchindoun, the naaru D'ore has a different story to tell. While darkened, D'ore's body has become that shadowy void that K'ure is also in the midst of experiencing, attracting and consuming the souls of the dead. But D'ore is regenerating power from the Light, and will at some point supposedly be restored. D'ore mentions that this process is nearly complete.
And then we have M'uru, who was captured by the blood elves, taken to Silvermoon City and subsequently drained of his powers to the point that he has entered a darkened state when we encounter him in Sunwell Plateau. As we fight M'uru, he transforms into Entropius, a creature composed wholly of the void.
Darkness and Light
There are a few conclusions we can draw here. First, the reason that M'uru transformed into Entropius was because he was never allowed the chance to regenerate his Light-born energies like D'ore. Any ounce of Light that M'uru possessed was drained by the Blood Knights, and judging from the darkened state in which we encounter him in the Sunwell, drained even further by the felblood elves and Kael'thas, or perhaps corrupted beyond the point of no return by the fel energies of the Legion with which Kael'thas had allied. Once darkened, after he had taken enough damage he simply succumbed entirely to the void, bringing about Entropius.
But what about K'ure and D'ore? One of these naaru was convinced they were on the brink of regeneration, the other convinced they were well on the way to eventual death. The only real indicator or clue we have lies in their respective locations. While K'ure is in Oshu'gun, far from draenei civilization, D'ore is interred in Auchindoun, where the souls of draenei dead rest. It's also where the priest of the Auchenai once roamed and presumably practiced the magic of the Light. That's the biggest difference between the two naaru -- proximity to the draenei, and through them, the Light.
And it may be why there's a difference in the process. While D'ore was being continually exposed to the energies of the Light, perhaps enough to offset that descent into darkness, K'ure had no such exposure. All K'ure had were the souls of orcs long dead, orcs that had never actually practiced the Light at all. Thus, he had no way to prevent his slow slide into eventual darkness and decay. If this is in fact the case, then naaru regeneration depends on the Light -- without the Light to offset the void, they will simply cease to be, transformed into darker versions of themselves, and eventually the void itself.
The Dark Star
In Warlords of Draenor, we are introduced to another naaru, one we've never seen or heard of before -- K'ara. K'ara is also known by other name, given to her by the Shadowmoon orcs -- the Dark Star. K'ara was one of the naaru accompanying the draenei on their journey, but had fallen in much the same way as D'ore and K'ure -- however, she was jettisoned from the ship before it crashed, left adrift in space. And in the black emptiness of space, there was no Light to reach her, no spirits to feed the darkness, simply a slow decay into the shadowy void.
It was this void that the Shadowmoon touched so long ago, when the draenei first arrived on the world. It was this void that was expressly forbidden to the Shadowmoon after a clan member was discovered defiling the ancestral spirits, as mentioned in the annals of their history. But when push came to shove and Ner'zhul needed to show Grommash Hellscream some kind of definitive power in return for the continued safety of his clan, he reached out to touch the powers of the Dark Star once more -- and promptly started gathering the souls of the dead. K'ara had been in space for hundreds of years at this point, with nothing but the hungry void to surround her, bereft of any souls to consume.
And Velen knew this. He was there when K'ara was originally jettisoned and left to float adrift in space. That "Dark Star" of the Shadowmoon likely caused the Prophet just a little more sadness and a little more pain every time he spotted it in the skies above the valley in which his people had settled -- skies that were eternally dark and thus always provided a view of the Dark Star, the naaru the draenei had failed to protect. Velen's vision of Karabor's fall made Ner'zhul's plans crystal clear -- he intended to bring K'ara from the heavens in which she faded to Draenor's surface, harness and use her dark energies to crush Karabor and bring a resounding victory to the Iron Horde.
The path was clear -- prevent Ner'zhul from bringing K'ara to the surface of the world. In that final confrontation between Ner'zhul and Velen, it was clear that the Prophet was too late. Of those twisting threads of fate that only Velen could truly see, only one option remained.
Rebirth
Prophet Velen knew exactly what he was doing, and he was prepared to do it should the need arise. K'ara, floating in the dark beyond for hundreds of years, only had two options available to her -- descend into darkness, as all fallen naaru eventually do, or regenerate, something she had never been given a chance to accomplish. And so Velen made the ultimate sacrifice and fed himself and all of his Light-granted powers to the darkened naaru, with extraordinary results. K'ara was reborn, and with her, the hope and strength of the draenei.
Let me be clear: this is not and has never been an every day occurrence. It is rare that a naaru falls, it is rarer still that they come back from that fall, and the fact that one sacrifice by one draenei was enough to instantaneously jump-start a process that by all rights, according to the naaru themselves, should have taken hundreds of years to complete? That is nigh-impossible. Why did it work? Because this is the Prophet Velen, a draenei who is thousands upon thousands of years old. A draenei who has, apparently, been so devoted to the Light, so unshakable, so unwavering from the Light's ideals that he holds in himself enough energy, enough life-force to bring a naaru back from the brink of death.
And that is a testament to who this leader really is. He's not just a Prophet that sees the future. He's not just a shepherd, guiding his people along the way. Prophet Velen is powerful in a way that is almost beyond comprehension. Yet even with all that power, all that strength, Velen is so dedicated to his people that he will gladly give up all of it, even his very life if it means that on that web of interwoven paths only he can see, doing so will get us one step closer to not just saving the draenei, but ridding the universe itself of the darkness that plagues it. Not only will he do it, he will do it with no fear, no regret, no doubt, and no hesitation what so ever.
Thus ended the impossibly long life of the Prophet Velen.
Yet although Velen of this Draenor has been lost, our Prophet Velen lives on, on Azeroth. There, he quietly leads the draenei, lending his people's aid to the Alliance, and even teaching Anduin Wrynn the ways of the Light. Almost unnoticed by his fellow leaders of the Alliance, barely acknowledged by any who aren't of his people. And maybe that's the second part of Velen's sacrifice on Draenor -- a lesson not for his people, but for we members of the Alliance to learn. A glimpse into the world and heart of a Prophet we scarcely understand, and a hint of what lies down the road in whatever thread of fate we choose to pursue. The Prophet's eyes have been opened on Azeroth, his gaze expanded to include us all, and he lives -- and if necessary, will die -- for each and every one of us, with all the Light and love he holds in his ancient heart.
While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore.
