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Know Your Lore: The future of the Horde
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. It's been an interesting couple of expansions for the Horde. Cataclysm saw Warchief Thrall step down from the leadership role that players were accustomed to, and appoint Garrosh Hellscream as Warchief in his stead. Mists of Pandaria saw Hellscream take that leadership role to an extreme that resulted in all-out war between Alliance and Horde, with the pandaren and the continent of Pandaria unceremoniously chucked into the middle of it all. Hellscream's reign has been brought to an end in patch 5.4 -- but where does this leave the Horde? Warchief Hellscream's notorious visions of a new future ended up dividing the Horde, and his caustic treatment of the non-orc races drove a wedge into the faction that ultimately culminated in the events of 5.4. The end of his stint as Warchief brought about a new leader ... but what comes after the dust has settled? Will the Horde recover from the damage done by Hellscream? And what does the future of the Horde hold, now that Hellscream's reign is over? Please note: There are spoilers for patch 5.4 immediately following the break. If you are avoiding spoiler content for the Siege of Orgrimmar, run away!
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 1 - Horde
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. Things are about to get much worse. - Deathbringer Saurfang On the surface of things, it seems like we may be about to turn the corner. Garrosh Hellscream's True Horde is about to face its enemies and the Warchief has alienated so many of his former allies that the Horde itself has erupted in civil war. But once we start thinking about the aftermath, it all starts to seem a little murkier. After all, even though we know that there will apparently be a new warchief appointed after the fall of Hellscream, that won't immediately fix the tensions that led to the Horde making war on itself. Hellscream's former supporters won't just vanish - with the vast majority of orcs behind him, Hellscream's legacy is bound to continue and any new warchief is going to have to face those orcs who took up arms for the True Horde and come up with a way to re-integrate them into the Horde as a whole. Meanwhile, it's likely that those who supported the Darkspear Rebellion are going to want to see substantial changes made to the way the Horde functions - the orcish ideals of Lok'tar Ogar, of unquestioning loyalty to the warchief are by necessity broken now. The Horde of the future is a Horde that has survived a mutiny, has seen a leader deposed - it cannot be bound by tight-knit expectations of loyalty and honor. The blood elves and forsaken, tauren and goblins and trolls who had a hand in making the new warchief possible will have demands, and they're not all going to be possible to meet. Meanwhile, the Alliance will have found itself in the position of kingmaker for its enemy. What does the future hold for Alliance/Horde relations? Will the Alliance forget the past several years of Horde aggression or will it demand concessions from its weakened enemy? And if Varian Wrynn doesn't take advantage of this moment to reclaim Azshara and Ashenvale, or Gilneas, what backlash will he have to face from within his own faction? Thanks in no small part to the threat of the Horde, Wrynn has found himself rising to the position of war-leader for the Alliance as a whole. But can he maintain that position with a much less threatening Horde, especially if he doesn't move to take advantage of its weakness? Let's look at potential threats to any return to stability. This week, we'll discuss the forces at play within the Horde.
Know Your Lore: Current Horde politics, the Trolls
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. The trolls of Warcraft have a history that spans back further than any other playable race currently in the game, with the exception of the draenei. This makes it difficult to trace the entirety of their history, but fortunately the Darkspear of the Horde are one small fraction of what is a gigantic race as a whole. While the orcs, blood elves, Forsaken and tauren are all dealing with their own issues, the trolls of the Darkspear tribe are working quietly and largely by themselves to deal with a few major problems of their own. The troll races of Warcraft were originally largely part of two major empires -- the Gurubashi of southeastern Kalimdor, and the Amani in the middle regions of the continent. There were other tribes scattered here and there, notably the trolls of Gundrak to the north, but by and large, all troll tribes fell under either the Gurubashi or the Amani empires. Prior to the Sundering, the trolls comprised a gigantic portion of the world's population, and while the Gurubashi and Amani didn't really like each other, they rarely warred, instead choosing to fight against a third empire, that of the Aqir. The two races fought relentlessly for thousands of years, and eventually the Aqir Empire split into two city-states, Azjol-Nerub to the north, and Ahn'Qiraj to the south. With the Aqir driven into exile, the trolls returned to their normal lives, though neither empire expanded much further than their original boundaries.
WoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue!
Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic -- Byron the Tauren Rogue! A quick break in the story to see what a few other people are up to. Wait, what's this? Is Gruuka...worried? Naaaaahhhh. Check out the full version right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page! You can also check out all the previous pages in the gallery below. %Gallery-77825%
Operation Echo Isles: Transcripts and details
WARNING: This post is chock full of spoilers. Spoilers like you would not believe. If you'd like to be surprised about anything involving the Echo Isles and what is contained within, I wouldn't recommend continuing onward. If, however, you are clamoring for more information, read on! There is a lot of great information about upcoming world events in the current patch 3.3.3 PTR. We've already posted about some of the story inside the Ruby Sanctum as well as what is being referred to as "Operation Gnomeregan". However, the trolls have their own operation underway in trying to take back the Echo Isles from the evil hex master Zalazane. There are lots and lots of spoilers about the quest line and the story behind it. Please note that this is just an assembly of transcripts from all of the sound files put in what appears to be a proper order. Dere be some dark voodoo inside. Do ye have what it takes?
Ask a Faction Leader: Vol'Jin
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to High-Shaman Rakjak, leader of the Frenzyheart wolvar tribe, and he shed light on several key issues, including dumb fat-tongues, carnivorous mailboxes, visitor permits, wolvar fertility, and jarred urine. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Vol'Jin, leader of the Darkspear trolls. Our first reader question: Dea' Vol'Jin, W'at possesed ya ta train raptors fer ridin'? If ya hadn' noticed, we trolls be da tallest race of da Horde, and ridin' on da raptors only makes us even talla'! I can't fit though any of da doors in any of da major cities. Couldn' ya figure out how ta ride Crocklisks, instead? Dey be short 'nuff so I could git though da door into da Undacity elevator! So could ya give us some options? Would be nice... ~Fellow troll raptor rider De way I see it, dis issue be about one t'ing and one t'ing alone. Feddas.
Ask a Lore Nerd: Trollin'
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.Hello, hello! In this week's edition of Ask a Lore Nerd, some of our questions are followups to our Fallout edition. If you find yourself confused by the premise of any of these questions, you might want to go back and read that one so you understand what caused these questions to come up.Sweet Sweet SoulShards asked..."Why is the undead all over Northrend glowing orange? Is there more of an answer than the lame 'It's a new plague?' "
