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The Story of the War Within with Nobbel87 (Spoiler Free)
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Geposted
07.07.2024 um 17:00
von
DiscordianKitty
A brand new expansion,
The War Within
, looms on the Horizon, part one of three expansions that are going to tell the
World Soul Saga
. Some of you dipped out with the Shadowlands or Dragonflight or haven't played Warcraft at all, but are ready to jump in with this saga... With that in mind, Nobbel87 has made this video to give a general understanding of the story going into the War Within. A spoiler-free need-to-know video which hopefully will improve your experience and make you go, ‘Oh right, so that's how it's connected”.
Let's begin, shall we?
Azeroth - The World Soul
A good foundation to know, a good place to start, is that we've been told that, in the Warcraft universe, there are six cosmic forces constantly fighting with each other over dominance - like an eternal tug of war. While it's in their nature to compete, to constantly vie for power over each other, one must never be allowed to fall - or all worlds would fall into chaos.
The forces are:
Order and Disorder - You might know the Titans for team Order and the Titan Sargeras and demons for team Disorder, meaning that you can swap sides and alignments.
Death and Life - Death was a big subject of the expansion
Shadowlands
, whereas its counterpart of Life was a bit touched upon with the Emerald Dream, but has a lot more room to explore.
And then the big one they mentioned during the Blizzcon presentation as the theme for
The War Within
and the
World Soul Saga
... Light and Shadow. Light vs the darkness, but not as simple as good vs evil.
These forces are competing and Azeroth, the world that we live on, houses a powerful entity within - and some of these cosmic forces have been trying to claim her for one reason or another.
The Burning Legion is probably the most well known, constantly making portals and shooting out their fel with ultimately their leader Sargeras getting real close at getting the job done. Plunging his sword into Azeroth and nearly wiping us all out. Just in time, we managed to pull him back and save the day, ending the Burning Legion's Burning Crusade, but, of course, the threat of the demons is still out there.
More recently we saw the domain of Death with the Jailer announcing to all that,
Death has come for this world.
Another we put in their place and saved the day. Now, it's the Void's turn again - who once upon a time tried to claim Azeroth by infecting it with the Old Gods. The days that they ruled the planet are known as the days of the Black Empire, and life was pretty good for the Old Gods. We've traveled through time and got a peek as to what Azeroth looked like back then. Old Gods revelled in chaos, and pitched the enslaved elemental lords - Ragnaros, Al'akir, Therezane, and Neptulon against each other. Enjoyed the carnage while corrupting the soul within the world.
Organic matter seeped from the Old Gods' blighted forms, giving rise to two distinct races. The first were the cunning and intelligent N'raqi, also known as the Faceless Ones. The second were the aqir, insectoids of incredible resilience and strength. As the physical manifestations of the Old Gods' will, both of these races would serve their masters with fanatical loyalty. In time, centuries later, the aqir would evolve under the influence of the Old Gods. The Old God C'thun would morph them into Qiraji, Y'shaarj had them evolve into the mantid, whereas Yogg-Saron's influence turned them into the Nerubians.
The end of days is finally upon you, and all who inhabit this miserable little seedling.
So the Black Empire was having a good time ruling the world of Azeroth - that is until the Titans came, until the domain of Order defeated and imprisoned them. Not directly, Titans are kinda big and powerful. Doing it themselves would have done more harm than good to the planet and the soul within, so they crafted Titan Keepers who'd fight the war for them.
In turn, those Keepers would craft Titan-forged to help them out, help carve out and bring Order to the planet. Titan-forged like the Vrykul, Mogu, Mechagnomes, and Earthen. First, the elemental lords were defeated and sent to their elemental planes. Ragnaros to the Firelands, Therazane to Deepholm, Neptulon to the Abyssal Maw, and Al'akir to Skywall. Then, the Old Gods went down and were imprisoned as well, as getting completely rid of the Old Gods was not possible - their tentacles had buried too deep. Machines were slammed into the surface of the planet, which we've been told was to help her grow and mature...
Chris Metzen
And really the big question for all the marbles, what have the Titans actually been doing since the dawn of civilization? What is the real purpose of all of their cute little installations slammed into the side of the planet? Do we know everything we need to know about their real intentions for our world?
But perhaps this was more the Titans doing what the other cosmic forces have been trying to do: lay claim to the soul of the world.
Time will reveal what their true intentions were, but for now legends speak of the time of the Titans bringing Order to Azeroth, and among them we have Titan Eonar the Lifebinder. Seeking to bring hope and healing, she carried a gift given to her by Elune - and Elune is still extremely mysterious, a goddess entity connected domain of Life... more to be revealed…
The gift was a branch of G’Hanir, the Mother World Tree. The Titan believed that the influence of Life would drive the darkness away, and so she planted it and the branch swiftly grew into a tree, its roots extending deep below the surface. Eonar smiled, for everywhere the roots stretched, new life emerged. She called the tree Elun'Ahir, in honor of her great love.
Seeing how she’s the Lifebinder, perhaps not that strange that she feels drawn to Elune - a being connected to the domain of Life once again showing that even though the Titans are connected to the domain of Order, they can branch out. Not Aman’Thul though, their leader, who saw what she had done and decreed it to not be Order - and so she had infected this world with uncontrolled chaos. The Highfather took hold of the World Tree’s trunk and tore it from the earth. Eonar wept bitter tears that rained down upon the resulting crater. But as she peered down upon the sundered earth, the Titan realized a truth she did not share with the Highfather. Though he had destroyed the tree, its winding roots still held firm beneath the soil, feeding upon her tears. It is said that much later, as the world entered a new age, mysterious guardians arrived who dedicated their lives to protecting the roots...
We’ll hopefully learn more about said guardians and while Aman'Thul’s actions here might have caused Eonar a lot of grief and were perhaps a bit over the top... make no mistake... Life and Light have shown to be capable of being just as aggressive and devastating as the other cosmic forces.
Xal'atath
Balance is important, but there are always those seeking to tip the scales. Beginning with the ever smirking Xal'atath...
Xal'atath
For so long, I've watched you all.
We don't know where she comes from.
We don't know how long she's been around.
We don't know what it actually is, but she seems to be part of team Shadow.
For all we know, she might look like a beautiful faceless one, as the body that's she's parading around in is not her own.
A lot of unknowns for someone who's been around for such a long time.
We met Xal'atath for the first time during the expansion
Legion
, where Shadow Priests picked up the blade in which she was contained, and had her whisper to them while fighting off the biggest and last Legion invasion as of yet. Sargeras managed to stick his sword into the world, but total devastation was prevented by us - by Shadow Priests wielding Xal'atath. Then they sacrificed their power earned to cleanse the blade left behind, but this was by no means the end of Xal'atath's involvement. We'd find her again, reunite, get her that body that I mentioned - until she handed us over the Old God N'zoth and, per their deal, was liberated from her blade.
Xal'atath says: A fair exchange. Shadows guide you, my dear friend.
While the heroes would go on saving Azeroth and cleanse her from the Old Gods' infection, Xal'atath stayed in the shadows. We had to miss her for a few years until Dragonflight, where she has the Primal Incarnate Iridikron working with her. Iridikron has no love for the Titans, or the Order they forced upon the world, so he trusts the Void's hunger to see them extinguished. Providing Xal'atath with a powerful trinket called the Dark Heart which has the ability to absorb magical power and converting it to shadow. Iridikron promised that we won't see him again until the Titans face their reckoning while Xal'atath guides us into the next expansion.
Manipulating events from the Shadows, a Harbinger... but for what? Well, turns out that Xal'atath is not just known to those on the planet of Azeroth. Locus-Walker – an ethereal who has trained many including Alleria Windrunner on how to control and use the Void as a weapon – from him we learn that he knows about Xal'atath and finds that her going by the name of Harbinger is fitting. Once upon a time, his people on the planet of K'aresh heard a similar song that's currently ringing out on Azeroth. Radiant visions that warned them before their world was consumed by the Void Lord Dimensius the All-Devouring. History tells us that it was the K'areshi that summoned Dimensius into our domain, but is that all there is to it, or did Xal'atath play some role in this?
I long for the day our masters can truly pass into this realm. You have only seen fragments, shadows; the faintest of echoes. Ask the Ethereals what one of these manifestations are capable of.
The war between K'aresh and Dimensius would see their people try to hold the line and be transformed into the ethereals. You might remember fighting with them all the way back during the Burning Crusade, teaming up and taking on Dimensius. While millions of ethereals cheered for our victory, apparently Dimensius is still out there - so perhaps a minor change to the story, perhaps all we faced back then was just a small portion of Dimensius' power.
She loves to manipulate after all, even when her form was imprisoned within a dagger - as we learn from Azeroth's history.
This way, she had trolls make blood sacrifices to resurrect Kith'ix, who was slain again at great sacrifice by the trolls, the survivors establishing a settlement atop the site where they had killed it - you know it today as Zul'Aman.
She offered the Dark Iron queen Modgud power during the War of the Three Hammers. A war in which the three dwarven clans who once lived together in Ironforge under their high king Modimus Anvilmar, now went at at each other. At the most critical moment, once Modgud had released darkness upon Grim Batol, history tells us that Xal'atath abandoned her - and as she lay dying, she repeated one phrase over and over again... “You promised”. The darkness unleashed upon Grim Batol would make the place uninhabitable for the Wildhammer Dwarves, and its corruption would mutate those stuck inside into the
skardyn
. In turn, the death of his beloved wife Modgud would influence Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan, leader of the Dark Iron clan, and influence his spellwork - causing him to accidentally summon Ragnaros into Azeroth. This created the Blackrock Mountain, and would lead to the enslavement of the Dark Iron clan to the Firelord.
And the last history record that we have speaks about Natalie Seline who, through Xala'tath's whispers, dove deeper into the powers of Shadow. In the ebb and flow between these two forces, once can find power and knowledge beyond anything the Church of the Holy Light has ever revealed. Of course, there were consequences, but we brought her back during
Legion
while her teachings would go on to influence the Forsaken and the rise of the Cult of Forgotten Shadows. Spreading the influence of the Void amongst both the Alliance and the Horde.
There might be more moments,
perhaps even some time travel involved
- point being... Xal'atath has dipped her claws into plenty of moments in history - kind of like the ring from Lord of the Rings, or the Jailer, but on a much smaller scale. What she wants to accomplish is to be revealed, but her actions do not appear to be random - while the Locus-Walker thinks that she wants to repeat what happened to K'aresh right here on Azeroth.
The Void, Dimensius the All-Devouring, might be coming for the soul within this world...
That's the War Within - the War over what's within Azeroth - but the title and theme goes deeper than that as there are plenty of wars going on within some of our main characters along for the journey.
Alleria Windrunner
Alleria Windrunner, that student of the Locus-Walker, was not always the incredibly powerful Void wielder we see her as today. Once, she was an incredibly powerful ranger, part of the Alliance of Lordaeron as they rallied to defend the world against the first invasion of the orcish Horde - the story where it all began, Warcraft 1 and 2. A war Azeroth would win, closing the Dark Portal which the orcs had used to teleport from their home world of Draenor. But the Dark Portal would re-open, the orcs would return, and this time the Sons of Lothar, named in honor of their fallen leader Anduin Lothar, stepped through the portal themselves to stop the Horde once and for all. Resulting in closing the Dark Portal from Draenor's side as the planet blew up and transformed into Outland as we know it as today.
Our heroes did manage to survive the catastrophic destruction, but Azeroth didn't know this. Not until the Dark Portal opened up again and we reunited during the Burning Crusade.
All this time their fate had been unknown, great statues in front of Stormwind honoring their sacrifice, but here they were in the flesh. Khadgar, Kurdran Wildhammer, and Danath Trollbane. All that was missing were Alleria and her beloved Turalyon. Their son Arator, left behind as a baby before they stepped through the portal, had come all this way to find them, as Arator is haunted by dreams that do not change.
Arator the Redeemer
A crimson skyline envelops me as Legion, numbering beyond comprehension, battle in the distance. I kneel before the body of a man, presumably my father, and weep. As he is gasping for air, his body wholly crushed, he whispers something. Despite every effort, I am unable to hear what he is trying to tell me.
Nowhere on Outland were they to be found, and wouldn't show up for a very long time. Not until the expansion
Legion
.
You see, Alleria and Turalyon were picked up the Army of theLlight. This army, led by the holy naaru Xe'ra, was fighting against Disorder, a massive long war against the Burning Legion. Turalyon felt right at home amongst all these Light wielders. The Light was strong within the human Paladin, and through Xe'ra's blessing, his lifespan was extended far beyond what a regular human would have. A good thing too, as where they were fighting, time didn't exactly work the same as it did on Azeroth.
To us, they've been gone for around 25 years. To them, it's been thousands.
Our Alleria tried to fit in and use the Light as well, but it didn't feel right. The Light did not hold the answers she needed, nor the power to keep those she cared for safe. It was the Void that offered that path, and so Alleria went searching for the Locus-Walker. Proving herself worthy of his teachings, as there was a touch of destiny upon her...
A Thousand Years of War
Perhaps one day she would fall to madness. Perhaps one day she would betray her allies, she was capable of it. But she would never, not in any possibility, not in any circumstance, harm her son.
She would never lift a finger against Arator. Even if he killed her for what she had become, she would accept it gladly. The weight of that truth kept her afloat. And she could feel the Shadow's confusion. It did not understand the bonds between mortals. It did not understand that there were some things that could not be corrupted.
That time may come one day, but for now, Turalyon and Alleria have been incredibly powerful allies. They helped stop Sargeras and the Burning Legion. On Azeroth,they returned to the side of the Alliance, but Alleria hadn't visited her home of Quel'Thalas for quite a few centuries. In that time, the High Elves turned into the Blood Elves, but their beloved Sunwell still stands even though it now has a core of a naaru in it. Alleria felt the call to visit her old home, but the Void is not always easy to keep under control...
“I did not intend for my presence too...
Enough. We need to cleanse this corruption before the well is lost.
Something seeks to open a rift into the chamber. If it comes through, we may lose the Sunwell.”
Alleria Windrunner says: I did not intend for my presence to...
Lor'themar Theron says: Enough! We need to cleanse this corruption before the well is lost!
Grand Magister Rommath says: Something seeks to open a rift into the chamber. If it comes through, we may lose the Sunwell.
She's a bad-ass Voidwielder, but those whispers constantly assault her mind and, as we can see, sometimes the Void gets out of control. That's Alleria's War Within. She has gone on this path in an attempt to secure a future for her loved ones like Arathor and Turalyon, but the more she dives into the Void, the further the rift becomes between her and her two Paladins. The things that keep her anchored and capable of controlling the Void are also the things that drift further away the more she dives into it. Arathor has had visions, what would happen to Alleria if those visions would come true?
Xal'atath
Your mortal struggles. Your proud defiance. The loneliness you pretend not to feel.
Anduin Wrynn
From powerful Void wielder, let's move on to someone with an incredibly powerful connection to the Light - or well, he used to - Anduin Wrynn.
Named Anduin in honor of the great Anduin Lothar who lost his life defending the world against the first orcish horde, Lothar came from a long line of humans going all the way back to the time in which they still lived in separate tribes - but one man could see that humans separated are weak. Humans stronger together. Thoradin of Arathor went to work uniting the human tribes through politics, religion, and sometimes violence - setting up the Empire of Arathor lead by King Thoradin. Their might would be recognised by their neighbours, the high elves of Quel'Thalas, who were warring it out with the local Amani trolls - the same ones who had set up Zul'Aman.
The trolls would become a massive threat for both sides if they didn't take care of this, so the humans and elves worked together, the elves even teaching the humans of magic. Together, they ended the troll wars, and dealt a devastating defeat, one the Amani trolls would never truly really recover from. For many days and nights, the humans and high elves would celebrate their victory.
In time, this mighty Arathi Empire would spread out and form new city states like Lordaeron or Dalaran. The human kingdom became vast, but their allegiance with the elves would last throughout the ages. If and when the line of Arathor would ever be in need of their aid, the high elves of Quel'Thalas would be there for them. That's how Lothar managed to get their aid in the war against the Horde as Anduin Lothar served in the kingdom of Stormwind. The kingdom who was closest to the Dark Portal and fell to the might of the Horde. Its survivors set sail to Lordaeron and formed the Alliance of Lordaeron, reusing the lesson of the past, stronger together.
Anduin Lothar would not make it to see the end of the war, but the Sons of Lothar would honor his memory and his charge - now King Varian Wrynn - would name his son Anduin in honor of the man who meant the world to him, who had saved him and his kingdom.
Anduin's journey would see him take over from his father as he lost his life at the start of the expansion
Legion
. Leading the Alliance through great trials, even managing to get an armistice going with the Horde, peace between the factions that is still standing strong to this day. With Shadowlands, Anduin was kidnapped by Sylvanas and the Jailer. Dominated and forced to serve. We do not know every moment Anduin was forced to spend with the jailer, forced to spend in the Shadowlands, but the aftermath is clear...
The boy king does not know if the thrill he felt inflicting death and mayhem was that of his own, or merely the Jailer's. The line between the two is unclear. The man he thought he once was has shown to be corruptible, and so he has lost all faith in himself, his ability to lead, his ability to call upon the Light. That's why he left others in charge, like Turalyon, to lead his kingdom, while he's been on a quest of self-reflection and discovery. Trying to deal with his trauma. That is his War Within, and despite the ghosts of the past still haunting him, he still answers the call of the voice. Azeroth calling him back into action. Will he manage to find the Light at the end of the tunnel, or is the darkness going to swallow him whole?
Xal'atath
You cling to hollow faith that can't sustain you.
Magni (& Moira) Bronzebeard
Not the first time that the voice of Azeroth has called out, but understanding what she's trying to say is a little bit hard for regular mortal ears. Luckily, she has provided us with a speaker, Magni Bronzebeard, former king of Ironforge and the dwarves who, during the Cataclysm went through an ancient Titan ritual to communicate with the land. Back then the the Cataclysm was approaching. A lot of people were dying, and they had no clue what was going on. Communicating with the land was not the only thing that happened, Magni actually became one with it. The King of Diamonds, meaning that the throne of Ironforge was now empty. The perfect time for Magni's daughter Moira to come back home.
She'd been kidnapped by the Dark Iron dwarves, the same that had been enslaved to Ragnaros at the Blackrock Mountain. All her life, Magni had treated Moira like she was less, all for the crime of being born a woman instead of a man. Dagran Thaurissan, current leader of the Dark Irons, treated her in ways she'd never experienced before, and love grew between them. Love and a child still in her belly when so-called heroes of the world had been recruited by her father to go into the mountain and save his daughter. Murdering the father of her child, and breaking her heart.
After manipulating events during Classic to have heroes come in to the mountain to take care of Ragnaros and anyone else that might stand in the way of the Dark Iron's freedom, Moira returned to the empty throne in Ironforge expecting to just take it from her father, but that was not going to happen. Too many political problems and history to simply have her take the throne. Instead, the council of Three Hammers was formed - Dark Iron, Bronzebeard and Wildhammer all represented. All had a leader and a voice for the future, and perhaps one day, when her child would come of age, he could claim the throne and lead all of them.
At first, Moira was a bit sneaky and tried to manipulate things, but soon enough she ruled honestly. Showing the others that they could trust each other, which was no small feat considering their history, but she would show them that the clans could all live under one roof. They carved out a future in the mountain while her son grew and her father remained silent underneath the ground until the expansion
Legion
...
Azeroth called out, warning not of the coming of Dimensius, but the coming of Sargeras. Magni was released and transformed, able to hear her voice and try to interpret what she was trying to tell us. There would be no drama over who gets to run Ironforge, as he had a higher calling now. A journey that would take us beyond Azeroth into space where we saw the return of the Titans and the imprisonment of Sargeras. Not before the Dark Titan managed to stab her, and those wounds needed healing. The speaker could not lose her, and so we were recruited to help him out, eventually getting rid of the entire Old God infection that had been plaguing her since the time that the Titans imprisoned them and brought Order to the planet. While the Old Gods may be gone, their aftermath still linger, of course. Their blood, creatures of the Void, eldritch horrors abound to assault our minds, but the day was saved and job complete, so now what? What about Magni Bronzebeard? He's still stuck in his diamond form, can't even feel the touch of his kin, and while he was brilliant at healing Azeroth's wounds, the rift with his daughter grows ever deeper, and his grandchild is quickly coming of age. What once seemed like a higher purpose and great destiny, now lingers as a punishment for a job well done. Is this his fate, or will the War Within reforge his family ties and bring back purpose?
Xal'atath
You convince yourselves that you are of purpose, that your great deeds can make a difference.
Thrall
Another that followed the voice and traveled to Silithus is Thrall, former Warchief of the Horde, who passed on that title to Garrosh Hellscream with the Cataclysm, but Garrosh in charge caused quite a bit of rukus amongst the Horde and for Azeroth as a whole. So much so that the world had to rise up against him and kick him out of the mantle of Warchief. It would be Thrall to execute Hellscream for his crimes, but doing so has caused quite the emotional turmoil within the World Shaman. Garrosh had never asked to become the Warchief and felt like he had to pick up Thrall's pieces. Meanwhile, Thrall had never wanted for Garrosh to become an end boss for an expansion. He landed the death blow, but took no joy from it, and that turmoil has caused him trouble connecting to the elements. If he's going to have a war within to deal with them, that could be it.
Xal'atath
But deep down, you know the truth. That when all your illusions are burned away... all that is left... is your fury.
That is to say, if they’re going to give Thrall a "war within" - or perhaps his role will be more to guide the next generation, considering his vast amount of experience and wars he already fought both inside and out.
Jaina Proudmoore
A similar question can be asked for Jaina Proudmoore.
Xal'atath
You revel in power that cannot withstand what is to come.
Like Thrall, she too is a powerhouse, has a lot of experience, and fought her wars already. She even became the leader of the Kirin Tor for a while, set up in their floating magical city of Dalaran. That position is now in the hands of Archmage Khadgar while Jaina returned home and has become Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras.
Perhaps it's time for new characters to get the spotlight and have the older generation share their wisdom and insights during the War Within...
Xal'atath
And in the end... your glorious fury... will be mine.
Hopefully you now have the relevant story that came before, which I hope will work out for those jumping into the War Within. The story is ever-growing and evolving. Chronicles Volume 4 is around the corner. More will be revealed and, of course, more will be covered, but for now than you very much for watching everyone!
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