Know Your Lore: Med'an, Cho'gall and the Prophecy, page 2
Jaina and Aegwynn both were astounded by the depth of the mental blocks placed on Garona to keep her from remembering anything. Between Jaina's magic and Garona's sheer strength of will, the assassin managed to scream the words "Ahn'Qiraj" before passing out entirely. Meanwhile, Meryl -- remember him? The guy who was supposed to be keeping Med'an out of trouble? He'd traced Med'an's path to Theramore and arrived with the Scourge at his heels only to find Garona knocked out on a table. But what was surprising was what happened next: Aegwynn recognized Meryl. Apparently while he was alive, he was one of the founding members of the Council of Tirisfal, the same Council that appointed Aegwynn as Guardian back in the day.
Med'an in the meantime woke up in Ahn'Qiraj to the dulcet tones of Cho'gall, who was berating Stasia for her failure in bringing Garona back, to Stasia's protests. After Stasia admitted she was just trying to get Garona killed, Med'an tried to attack them both and got himself flung across the room for his troubles -- landing right on top of the corpse of C'thun. Despite being a corpse, the thing immediately starting whispering sweet nothings of chaos and destruction in Med'an's horrified ears.
While Jaina, Aegwynn and the soldiers of Theramore fought off the Scourge forces that had followed Meryl and attacked, Meryl teleported himself and Valeera into Ahn'Qiraj and right into the middle of a very surprised and very angry group of Twilight's Hammer, who were none too happy to see the two of them. After a long battle in which Med'an was rescued and Valeera managed to get herself fully possessed by the spirit of a dreadlord, they got out. The dreadlord's name was Kathra'natir, and Meryl had seen him before -- in fact, Meryl had banished the dreadlord from Azeroth more than 3,000 years before. Rather than let Valeera remain possessed, Meryl took the demon's spirit within himself and teleported everyone back to Theramore.
Aegwynn finally got to set her eyes on Med'an and was absolutely floored to discover that the kid was the spitting image of her son Medivh -- well, Medivh if he'd been a half-orc. Meryl spoke with her about it, and the two decided to keep Med'an's heritage a secret for the time being -- but the revelation of who exactly his father was certainly did a lot to explain the sheer amount of power and magical prowess Med'an possessed. Jaina took Med'an to see Garona down in the prisons, but to her dismay discovered that Garona had somehow managed to come out of the coma she was in and escape.
Only Garona hadn't really escaped; she'd been taken away. In the now-empty cavern of Onyxia's former lair, not too far from Theramore, Garona was awakened by a draenei paladin named Maraad, who identified himself as Garona's uncle. Apparently, the whole bit about Garona being half-human was incorrect; Garona was actually half-draenei, an experiment of Gul'dan who'd been "bred" specifically to be an easily controlled killing machine. Maraad told Garona that he could help her break the bonds that she'd been programmed with her entire life, but it would take time, and Garona decided the best course of action would be instead to go kill Cho'gall. If Chog'all died, his hold on her would also die -- and if she failed and died, at least she would no longer be a danger to anyone.
Med'an overheard Aegwynn and Meryl talking about his mother, as did Valeera, and both set out to go find Garona. Valeera got there first and was immediately attacked by Maraad, who thought that Valeera was there to harm Garona. Garona slipped away on Valeera's mount and was met in mid-air by her son, who demanded to know just what had been going on. Garona explained that she had to leave, that she was too much of a danger to keep around, and told Med'an to go speak to Maraad -- his great-uncle -- and stop him from killing Valeera down below. Then she left for Ahn'qiraj, to confront Cho'gall and either kill him or be killed in the process.
Med'an broke up Valeera and Maraad's squabble with an impressive display of shamanic magic. But he was overcome with a sudden attack -- the whispers of C'thun drove into his mind, and Maraad helped him by using the power of the Holy Light to heal the kid. Med'an was awfully impressed by the show and asked Maraad if he'd teach him how to use it. Though the Light took years to master, Maraad said, if Med'an was willing to learn, Maraad would gladly teach him.
This is where everything starts to pull together -- Maraad had been looking for his niece for years, and a recent vision pointed him to Theramore. The vision itself involved Garona, that she would somehow be instrumental in the salvation of Azeroth and her actions would avert an upcoming "catastrophe." Sounds familiar, huh? Right.
Unfortunately, when everyone sits down to try and piece it all together, they're stuck. Cho'gall is obviously planning something of epic proportions, but the armies of Azeroth are already focused on Northrend due to the Scourge's attacks. Which is when Meryl comes up with an idea ... Three thousand years before, a group of magi in Dalaran secretly formed the Council of Tirisfal to combat the influx of demons in the world. It was time, Meryl suggested, for a new Council of Tirisfal.
The suggestion was a good one, but Jaina pointed out a flaw in the plan: While the original Council was made up entirely of mages, there was something funny going on with Malygos up in Northrend, something that was weakening the power of mages all across Azeroth. Aegwynn came up with the idea of creating a council made up of all schools of magic disciplines: shaman and druid, priest and paladin, working together as one. With that thought in mind, Jaina decided to ask Maraad to be on the Council and ask if he'd travel to Outland and seek Khadgar to join as well. In addition, she decided to ask Thrall if he would join. Meryl suggested a dwarven priest he was acquainted with, and Aegwynn made the unlikely suggestion of a gnomish inventor. The choices made, Jaina left to go speak with Thrall.
While Thrall was flattered by Jaina's offer, he couldn't very well leave while the Horde were tied up in the war against the Scourge in Northrend, and he suggested Jaina take Rehgar as a replacement. He told her to seek out Archdruid Hammul Runetotem as well, since he and Rehgar were well acquainted. Jaina thanked him for his help and left with Rehgar.
Meanwhile, Garona reached Ahn'Qiraj, only to witness the terrifying transformation of Cho'gall as he was twisted into a monstrous mockery of the ogre he'd once been by his "master." Said master demanded Med'an's immediate recapture and gave Cho'gall the power to summon something to help him -- a Faceless One, the same ones we see in Ahn'kahet and Ulduar. It rose forth from the oceans near Theramore to attack.
Back in Theramore, Maraad, who had been teaching Med'an the ways of the Holy Light, prepared to leave for Outland. Med'an expressed a wish to go along, but Maraad told him to stay behind and keep practicing, as he was showing an astounding aptitude for the magic of the Light. Just then, the voices began to whisper to Med'an again, and the Faceless One burst forth from the water. Everyone tried to fight the thing back, but it was Med'an who managed to kill it with an impressive blast of arcane and shamanic magic woven together. Rehgar and Jaina returned just in time to witness it. Rehgar, Jaina, Meryl and Aegwynn were astounded by the way the boy seemed to effortlessly use magic in a way no one had ever seen before. Med'an told the group that he'd heard the voices again and that the Light had shown him that the being that was haunting him was old, as old as the world itself -- an Old God.
In Ahn'Qiraj, Chogall's "master" showed his displeasure at Cho'gall's failure by warping his body even further. Cho'gall decided since the boy couldn't be captured and bent, he would simply have to be sacrificed -- and with proper engineering, his death would accomplish what Cho'gall had wanted all along. The energy discharged upon Med'an's death would break the bonds that imprisoned his master and free him to unleash chaos onto Azeroth. Cho'gall's plan all along was to release an Old God.
The Twilight's Hammer are kind of nuts.
Meanwhile, Maraad and the others decided to allow Med'an to travel to Outland in order to get him away from Azeroth and out of the Old God's reach. Meryl and Aegwynn had a quiet conversation about Med'an's father, and Meryl insisted that Aegwynn needed to tell Med'an about Medivh, but Aegwynn refused. This time, her reasoning was that due to the power he was demonstrating, if people found out he was the son of the guardian who had unleashed the Horde upon Azeroth and nearly destroyed the world in the process, Med'an would find himself shunned, outcast, feared. All of the potential he'd been showing would be absolutely wasted. Meryl insisted that there had been enough mysteries surrounding the boy's parentage -- and told her if she didn't spill it to Med'an, he would. Aegwynn turned right around and threatened him back.
It turned out the threats were wasted breath. That night, as Med'an slept, he was suddenly visited by a vision that called himself "Medivh the accursed." Medivh informed Med'an that he was the boy's father and told him to come to him and visit his tower, Karazhan, if he wished to know more. Med'an was horrified -- apparently though he knew virtually nothing of Garona, he knew of Medivh and what he had done. The thought of telling his newly found great-uncle that he was descended from the monster who'd opened the Dark Portal and brought death to the races of Azeroth and Draenor repulsed him, and he vowed to himself that Karazhan would be the last place he would ever, ever go.
Everyone brought together the new members of the Council -- Rehgar and Valeera sought out Hammul, Meryl traveled to Ironforge to speak with the dwarf priest he'd suggested and find the gnome inventor that Aegwynn had suggested as well. Maraad and Med'an reached Shattrath and met with Khadgar.
Khadgar is an interesting character. You can find him in Shattrath, hanging out with A'dal. He has the appearance of an old man, but in reality he's only in his late 30s, maybe early 40s. When he was only 17 years old, he was sent by the Kirin Tor to be an apprentice to Medivh, and over the course of his time there discovered that Medivh was possessed by Sargeras and responsible for opening the Dark Portal and opening the way for the Horde to invade Azeroth. While trying to defeat Medivh with the help of Garona and Anduin Lothar, Medivh cursed the boy with frailty and old age.
Needless to say, the second Khadgar saw Med'an he knew who his father was. After telling Maraad that he was unable to join the council himself, he suggested an alternate mage from the Scryers and told Maraad to go speak to her while he had a word with Med'an. Khadgar told the boy about his father, and Med'an explained that Garona had been a product of a breeding experiment by Gul'dan -- an instrument under his control. Khadgar told Med'an about Medivh's possession and that he always suspected that Medivh tried his hardest to fight that possession, just as much as Garona tried to fight Gul'dan's control. A'dal chose that moment to speak to the boy directly.
"Meditate carefully on your decisions, Med'an. For the Light has given you great gifts and greater opportunity. Choose wisely, and you will become one of Azeroth's greatest weapons against evil. But the wrong choice could lead to that world's doom."
Maraad, the mage he'd recruited for the council and Med'an returned to Azeroth, where Med'an made his choice. He told Maraad he would meet him in Theramore and promptly teleported to Karazhan and whatever awaited him there.
