Filed under: Lore

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.

We've covered almost all of the dragonflights here on Know Your Lore; check out the articles on the Red, Black, Green, Blue, Bronze, Netherwing and Twilight flights for more information on each respective flight. The dragonflights of Azeroth are all intricately tied together as you can see from the articles -- what one flight does tends to directly affect or somehow involve the others. Today we're going to look at the one exception to that general rule: the Plagued Dragonflight.

What? Plagued? There's a plagued dragonflight? Why yes, there is -- small in numbers, mostly died out, but it exists and can count as a flight of its own. Where can we find these dragons, and where did they originate? To answer that question, we have to go back to the opening days of the Third War and visit with a charming group of individuals called the Cult of the Damned.

Once upon a time, there was an entity known as the Lich King, formed out of the spirit of a former orc leader as a servant for the Burning Legion. At this point, the Lich King still lacked a body, imprisoned within the Frozen Throne, so he commanded his forces telepathically. After gaining a foothold in Northrend, the Lich King used these powers to search telepathically for individuals around the world who would make suitable minions to help spread the plague across Azeroth.

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble!

The Thunderdome's no Bartertown, Krick and Ick are no Master Blaster ... and as many expected, Scourgelord Tyrannus dominated this week's Two Bosses fantasy deathmatch. More than three-quarters of the spectators anointed the Scourgelord with the victor's crown. The judges tied it up for Tyrannus as well, leaving the path clear for what's shaping up to be an intriguing match, Falric vs. Argent Confessor Paletress. (By the way, if you're a fan of the cage match genre, check out last week's match on Suvudu: Jaime Lannister vs. Hermione Granger -- yeah, it's so one-sided it's just mean, but sometimes those are the train wrecks we love to watch go down. George R.R. Martin himself weighs in, too; get back to writing, bud. )

Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in Falric vs. Paletress. For in the words of Dr. Dealgood: "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here."

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.

There are quite a lot of dragonflights all told. So far we've covered the red, black, blue, green, twilight and nether dragonflights. This time, we'll be talking about the Bronze Dragonflight, who are the shepherds and guardians of time itself. Whether it's monitoring anomalies in Andorhal, sending players back to prevent Thrall from running into packs of elites as if he expected motherly hugs and affection rather than fire and pain, or having you plant an hourglass in their dragonshrine and team up with yourself from the future, these guys are all about time. Nozdormu, their leader and father figure, is the Aspect of Time given his powers by Norgannon the Titan and also given certain knowledge of exactly when and where he's going to die to keep him humble. That sounds like a great plan, huh?

And it is indeed their time to be profiled. So suck it up, Anarchronos, we're going in. (I actually still have my Signet Ring of the Bronze Dragonflight and Band of the Eternal Defender in the bank. If nothing else, the Bronze Dragonflight used to be a reliable source for your ring needs.)

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.

For those that have been following along over the past couple of weeks, I've been following a certain order of progression with the dragon flights. Originally, there were the proto-drakes. The largest of these was Galakrond, from whom the Aspects of the dragon flights were created. Next, the Black dragonflight and its leader, Deathwing -- created from Galakrond himself, fought to achieve supremacy over Azeroth. From Deathwing's eggs, the Netherwing were born, or rather, evolved due to exposure to the energies of the Twisting Nether. Today we follow that order with the latest addition to the dragons of Azeroth -- the Twilight dragonflight.

The Twilight dragons don't really have a lot of 'history' to speak of, as they've only been recently developed, but there's enough to go into as far as their origins go. The Black dragonflight, intent on breeding a superior race of dragons that would overtake and control Azeroth, has spent several years trying to create this dominant race, with little success.

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble!

Despite heaving all the saronite he could muster at the Devourer of Souls, Forgemaster Garfrost found himself devoured whole in this week's cage match. Three out of four Thunderdome judges handed the match to the Devourer, bolstered by 55.5% of the spectators. Judge Sky Paladin bore the banner for the dissenters, with a spirited account of the two bosses' meeting that delights (despite perhaps not actually swaying the vote).

Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in the next battle of the season: Krick and Ick vs. Scourgelord Tyrannus. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.

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.

Each flight of dragons is vouchsafed with an aspect of creation itself to supervise. The five Dragon Aspects were granted their powers and dominion over Azeroth's life, magic, earth, time and more by the Titans who created them from the massive proto-dragon Galakrond in long vanished times past. In the past few KYL's we've covered Alexstrasza's Red Dragonflight, Deathwing's Black Dragonflight and its offshoot the Netherwing, and deceased Malygos' Blue Dragonflight.

This time we look at what might be the strangest dragons of them all. The servants of Ysera, the dragons of the Emerald Dream, the Green Dragonflight. In order to truly understand the green dragons, one would have to be able to understand the dream they all dream, but who can do that? How can one tell the dreamers from the dream?

Easy. The dreamers are great honking green dragons that will kill you. It's relatively simple. If you doubt their power or their resolve, go to the Temple of Atal'Hakkar and ask the Atali, trapped in a complex smashed into the water by the fury and might of Ysera herself. Even when they themselves fall victim to corruption, the green dragons are fearsome opponents. While Alexstrasza and her brood concern themselves with life and living things, Ysera is effectively the shepherd of what Dylan Thomas called 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower' - effectively, that which makes life itself possible.

This is also what often gets them in trouble with old gods, blasphemous troll deities of bloodlust, and the loathsome Scourge and its malefic master. (I have been waiting to use 'malefic' in a sentence for so long now.)

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.

In Azeroth's history, there's a distinct path that dragon evolution follows. First, there are the proto-drakes of Northrend. From these drakes came the other drakes of lower Azeroth, and the five flights that were developed to watch over the world; red, blue, green, bronze and black. The more the game is played out and the longer the story runs, the more we learn about the dragons -- why they're around, what their purpose is on Azeroth. Today, we're going to focus on one of the new flights of dragons, one that didn't see its creation on Azeroth, and instead finds its origins on the planet of Draenor: The Netherwing.

The genesis of the Netherwing is an odd story, some of which was explained in the article covering the Black Dragonflight last week. Deathwing the Destroyer, the by-now insane leader of the black flight had made a deal with Teron Gorefiend shortly after the orcs were defeated in the Second War. Gorefiend had been ordered by Ner'zhul to go to Azeroth and retrieve several artifacts of power that Ner'zhul needed to open dimensional gateways to other worlds. By doing this, Ner'zhul hoped to escape Draenor, and the influence of the Burning Legion, for good -- and take his people to another land in which they could begin to rebuild after the staggering losses from the wars, and the orcs corruption.

The gist of Deathwing's deal was this -- Deathwing and his black drakes would help Gorefiend find the artifacts he was looking for. In exchange, Deathwing wanted access to the Dark Portal so that he, some of his drakes, and some cargo he had could be transported to Draenor. They would continue assisting the orcs on the other side of the portal as long as the orcs left the drakes, and the cargo, alone. While Gorefiend wasn't sure he trusted Deathwing's motives entirely, the addition of drakes to their fighting forces would make things much, much easier -- and so he agreed.

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?

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 past few KYL's have been focusing on dragonflights, and this one's no different. This week, we cover the Blue Dragonflight, Azeroth's masters of magic. Before we do, though, we should go back and link my Red Dragonflight post and Anne's Black Dragonflight one, because a lot of the same ground is about to be covered.

In some ways, the blue dragons are the ones players may be most familiar with. From Azuregos wandering about Azshara to Sapphiron in Naxxramas and Sindragosa in Icecrown Citadel, with appearances by Kalecgos in the Sunwell, Arygos in Ahn'Qiraj, and of course two 5 man instances and a raid in Coldarra, players have plenty of opportunity to run into a member of the Blue Dragonflight.

The Blue Dragonflight has been involved in many of the important events of Azeroth's history despite suffering unimaginably from those events. From the War of the Ancients and the Sundering to the Third War and to the present with the Nexus War, blue dragons have attempted to hold to their ancient charge to shepherd the world's magics no matter what it costs them. And it has cost them very, very dearly. For thousands of years, the blue dragons were almost extinct, nearly wiped out by Deathwing and the Dragon Soul. Their leader and father, Malygos the Aspect of Magic, was driven mad by the loss of so many of his children and the betrayal of his best friend and most trusted confidant, Neltharion.

A lot of new sound bites have popped up in the latest PTR patch build for 3.3.3. After some digging, listening, and arranging, we've figured out the basic script of the Operation Gnomeregan event. There's a lot of good gnomish humor in there as well as an explanation of events to come. 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.

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble!

The very first match of the ICC-5/ToC-5 season of Two Bosses Enter started off in knots, with Thunderdome spectators surging in to break a split decision in the judges' box. As it turns out, 'twas only a flesh wound for the Black Knight, who smashed competitor Bronjahm with 61.7% of the spectators' approval. Things weren't quite so clear in the judges' box, however, as all four judges found their feet tempted by the undeniable groove of the Godfather of Souls.

Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in the next battle of the season: the Devourer of Souls versus Forgemaster Garfrost. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.

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 history of Azeroth, as well as its origins, is often confusing and lacking in solid information. However, there are a few facts that are well known – once upon a time somewhere in the universe, there were great creatures known as the Titans. The Titans were an odd race of beings that were obsessed with creating order out of chaos. They traveled from world to world, setting things up so that life would progress in an orderly, structured fashion. Sort of like those people you can hire to organize your kitchens and closets.

Enter Azeroth. The Titans came to Azeroth and muddled with it, creating order out of the races that existed on it and tidying everything up, but there was a larger problem that took some intensive cleaning. Ancient creatures known as the Old Gods decided they'd really like to take over the nice chunk of rock -- and where the Titans were concerned with creating order and structure, the Old Gods wanted just the opposite. The Old Gods wanted chaos and destruction where the Titans wanted order and structure, and there was a great war between the two. In the end the Titans prevailed, but they discovered something that was more than a little disturbing – they couldn't simply kill the Old Gods. The Old Gods had integrated themselves too deeply into Azeroth, and destroying the Old Gods meant destroying Azeroth itself.

This presented a problem, but the Titans had a solution that they decided would work – they imprisoned the Old Gods deep beneath the earth, leaving them there to rot. After all of this, the Titans decided to put in some safeguards to make sure the planet would remain running smoothly, orderly, and without any grabby tentacled interference from below.

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble!

Welcome, welcome, please take your seats ... We're so glad to see you back in the stands at the Two Bosses Thunderdome! The judges have already taken their seats, down in the covered box -- that's right, the one with the red awning. They imported that monstrosity from Silvermoon, you know. The Consortium was in an uproar when they found out the tournament directors had ordered directly from the Sin'dorei. All that brocade ... Such a shame it'll inevitably be marred with the blood and gore of the gladiators. Oh, yes, the judges will get more than their fill of the messy glory; you didn't think those are their best robes, did you? How positively droll of you to assume -- Oh look, here's Dr. Dealgood now, come along to introduce the judges' panel.

Ladies and gentlemen, gnomes and ghouls, welcome to a brand new season inside the Thunderdome ... Where Two Bosses Enter, but only One Boss Leaves! We present for your bloodthirsty pleasure fresh foes from the inner reaches of the five-man instances of Icecrown Citadel, along with seasoned gladiators from the Trial of the Champion. These ferocious combatants will be evaluated by the distinguished panel of judges you see before you, just beneath the blood-red awning in the box below. Let's meet them now.

Before we begin, in the interest of full disclosure, we will make it clear that Simon and Schuster did forward us free copies of Stormrage for this review. They did not, however, dictate any of the opinions held in this review. In addition, our network has a policy against keeping 'giveaways' sent to us, so our copies of the novel will be given away on our site sometime in the future. With that out of the way, let's get to the review.

The last book we reviewed here on WoW.com was Arthas: Rise of the Lich King. It was written by Christie Golden and was a little over three hundred pages of Prince Arthas Menethil's personal history, from his childhood to his fall to the Scourge. If that's what you're expecting out of Richard A. Knaak's Stormrage, drop those expectations. All of that can be found in the War of the Ancients trilogy. Despite the similar naming scheme, Stormrage is a novel that takes place at the same time as the events going on in Wrath of the Lich King. It's specifically stated that the Wrath Gate incident has already happened by the time the events in this novel begin. This isn't backstory, this is buildup to Cataclysm.

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked as someone that's entirely too interested in Warcraft story and lore, is where to go to get story information. How, exactly, do you find all of these story elements when they are literally scattered across several different games, comics, manga and novels? How do you know what should be taken as official lore, and what to throw away as mere speculation? Where, exactly, does someone just starting out with World of Warcraft find story information when they've got no idea where that story actually starts?

It's a difficult question to answer, and you'll see why later in the article. The Warcraft storyline is made up of several different parts, spanning several different games, and the time line is continually changing and developing as these games are released. Here's a brief list of places you can go to get started: