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Fom the
The Drannog WoW FAQ v3.0
*** History ***
The history of the Warcraft universe is long and rich. An entire FAQ could be dedicated to it alone, so I will only give it in brief here, and provide links to the extended versions. If you are not already familiar with the history behind this game, you should take the time to become so. It is an excellent read in its own right and will greatly improve your experience in World of Warcraft.
1. Demons are the force of chaos, and they dwell in the depths of the universe.
2. Titans are the benevolent gods who seek to order all things.
3. A titan named Saergas is assigned to stomp out the demons.
4. If you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you; Saergas goes mad and becomes evil.
5. Saergas enslaves the demons into an army he calls the Burning Legion.
6. Elves awake on Azeroth near the shores of a sea of magic.
7. They live by the sea and start practicing magic.
8. The Burning Legion notices the magic and becomes lustful for the sea of power.
9. Some elves are corrupted by the love for magic and become High Elves.
10. The High Elves come under the sway of Saergas and begin to summon him into the lake of magical power.
11. Two Elven brothers attempt to put an end to this. It appears to mean the destruction of the lake of power.
12. One of the brothers is too addicted to magic to destroy the lake. He secrets a vial of the lake.
13. In the battle to stop the summoning, everything is destroyed. Saergas, the lake of magical power, the Elven nation, and most of it's people. The face of Azeroth is remade.
14. What's left of the lake of magical power becomes the Maelstrom.
15. A few elves live through it, including the two brothers. They form a nation in the new land of Kalimdor.
16. The greedy brother survived and creates a new well of magical power with the sample stolen from the first.
18. The elves are split, some like the well of power and some don't. They ones who don't are exiled. They move to the far side of the world and are known as High Elves.
17. A nature god, Cenarius, and several demi-god dragons grow the World Tree over the well, bind the elves to the night and sway them to become druids. The night elves are created.
18. Much time passes. Dwarves, Humans, Goblins, Gnomes, Tauren, Trolls, etc all appear on Azeroth.
19. On another planet, the Burning Legion corrupts the leader of a shamanistic culture of nobile warriors to do their bidding. These are the Orcs. They are perverted to evil.
20. The Orcs open a dark portal to Azeroth and attack.
21. They loose. (this is highly abbreviated)
22. Back on the Orc homeworld, the Orc leader has second thoughts about serving the Burning Legion. He decides to lead his people to other planets by opening a bunch of world portals. To do so, he needs magical items.
23. The Orc leader stages several raids into Azeroth for these magical items.
24. The people of Azeroth think the Orcs mean to do them ill and counter attack.
25. The Human alliance leads an army into the Orc homeworld to put an end to them.
26. The Orc leader opens his portals.
27. The portals start to tear the Orc world apart. Oops!
28. The Orc leader runs for the exit. He exits into the homeland of the Burning Legion. Oops!
29. The Humans split back to Azeroth.
30. The Orc world is destroyed.
31. The Orcs on Azeroth are rounded up and put in camps.
32. The Orc leader is tortured by the Burning Legion.
33. The Burning Legion offer him a new body and an end to torture if he helps. He agrees.
34. The Orc leader's soul is put in a block of deep-space ice and sent to Azeroth.
35. The Orc leader's power is magnified a billion times by the Burning Legion and his spirit home in the ice. He
becomes able to create undead and control them with his mind alone. He becomes the Lich King.
36. Back in Human lands, the Orcs start to get lazy and loose their will to fight.
37. It is decided that this is because they are feeling withdrawal from the Burning Legion.
38. One Orc is raised by humans and is called Thrall.
39. Thrall visits his people and is saddened. He tours all that is Orc left in Azeroth and is tutored by their best. He becomes a shaman and is appointed leader of all the Orc people.
40. Thrall heals the Orcs of their lament by bringing spirituality to them. He tries to free them.
41. The Lich King starts a death cult in Lordaeron.
42. The prince of the Human kingdom of Lordaeron, Lord Arthas, goes on a butt-stomping crusade to put an end to an apparent Orc uprising.
43. Arthas discovers pretty quick that there is a death cult in Lordaeron that is planning to poison the people and raise them as undead.
44. The cult succeeds. Arthas goes nutty about revenge.
45. Arthas performs various evil activities in his pursuit of revenge.
46. Arthas is warped by his lust for revenge and becomes evil. He becomes a Death Knight in, ironically, the service of the Lich King.
47. Arthas kills his father, the King of Lordaeron and destroys the kingdom.
48. Lordaeron becomes a nation of the dead.
49. The Lich King and his puppets, including Arthas, summon the Burning Legion into Azeroth.
50. Thrall and a small band of humans led by a wizard woman run for the hills! They flee to Kalimdor.
51. The Orcs ally with the local Tauren and Trolls.
52. Everyone on Azeroth decides that the Burning Legion has to go! They're wrecking everything!
53. The Burning Legion is defeated.
