What’s happened so far in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth?
Are you a lapsed World of Warcraft player? Do you want to know what’s gone down in the most recent expansion, Battle for Azeroth? That’s a trickier task than one might think, since the story is spread across two faction campaigns, endgame content, a book, novellas, and comics. Don’t worry — we’ve assembled the facts here, so you can get up to speed in time to go fight Azshara in patch 8.2.
The space drama setup
At the end of Legion, the Horde and Alliance united and teamed up to take out Sargeras, the fallen Titan, and the guy who — up until now — has served as the probable end-boss of Warcraft. We got on a spaceship and fought a planet, which was weird. Along the way, we learned that some planets — including Azeroth — have souls, and when those souls are born, they turn into Titans.
We stopped the Burning Legion, the game’s main villains since Warcraft 3, and then locked Sargeras up in space jail. He is imprisoned in the Seat of the Pantheon with all of the other Titans, and Illidan Stormrage stayed behind to act as a jailor. This will probably never come up again and we can consider the matter fully resolved.
Azeroth, the planet, and Azeroth, the Titan, both share a name. Because the Titan is sleeping, she can’t communicate much, and when she does, it’s through Magni Bronzebeard, the Speaker of Azeroth. It also means the Battle for Azeroth is a Battle for … Azeroth. Makes you think, huh?
However, in his desperation, Sargeras stabbed the planet before we could fully lock him up. That sword is still embedded in Silithus, and it is slowly killing Azeroth. Only by sacrificing our powerful Artifact weapons from Legion were players able to slow the damage. It’s an ongoing issue.
Azeroth is now bleeding Azerite, which is popping up everywhere. It’s a powerful alchemy ingredient that can heal, empower, and, most importantly, be weaponized. The logic and capabilities of Azerite are very vague, but it is essentially able to push warfare to a whole new level.
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The Gathering … of murder!
In the book World of Warcraft: Before the Storm, Sylvanas and Anduin set up a political conference for Forsaken and humans who are related to meet. Sylvanas hopes her people are rejected, making her rule seem all the more benevolent. Anduin is genuinely hoping for peace. He also brings Calia Menethil, the older sister of Arthas. Arthas is the guy who murdered Sylvanas, became the Lich King, and served as a major antagonist up until Wrath of the Lich King, so this wasn’t a great idea.
Why did Anduin bring Calia Menethil to the Gathering? The two of them are both priests, and bonded over their love of the Light. Calia promised to keep everything on the down-low. Finally, after getting hit with a giant magical bell, Anduin’s bones start to hurt any time he starts to do anything bad, and his bones gave him the all clear to bring her along.
Calia is the legal ruler of Lordaeron, but she has abdicated her throne and served as a follower in the Priest campaign back in Legion.
The Forsaken on the field recognize her and ask for her to help them join the Alliance. Sylvanas, in response, murders each Forsaken on the field and kills Calia as well.
Calia was brought back in the Netherlight Temple as a light-infused undead. She has not appeared in the game in this state. She probably will, though!
While this is going down, the Alliance recruit the Lightforged Draenei, Dark Iron Dwarves, and Void Elves. The Horde bring the Highmountain Tauren, Nightborne, and Mag’har Orcs aboard. (The Void Elves are corrupted exiles and the Mag’har Orcs are from another dimension. Don’t ask; it’s a whole thing.)
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Blaze it (it being Darnassus)
Sylvanas, after the events of Before the Storm and Legion, decides that she cannot trust Anduin to rein in the Alliance leaders who hate her. Her solution is to attack Darnassus, the home of the Night Elves. This will remove the biggest Alliance presence on Kalimdor and the only major port they could use to transport Azerite.
She states that her plan is for the Horde to have Kalimdor and live safely there, while the Alliance are stranded in the Eastern Kingdoms. High Overlord Saurfang eventually agrees with this decision, and the two of them coordinate the assault.
While Sylvanas states her only goal is to preserve the Horde, there are also hints in the lore that she has a second, secret motive. She muses about some kind of inevitable threat in A Good War. In a comic where she reunites with her sisters, she plans to kill them because everyone “will serve Death”. We know she made a deal with Helya, the ruler of the underworld, and we also find out that Helya is still alive in Battle for Azeroth despite being a raid boss in Legion … which means the deal is still in play. Otherwise, players are in the dark as to Sylvanas’ ultimate goal.
The Alliance is tricked into thinking Sylvanas will attack Silithus to take all of the Azerite for themselves, and so most of the army is gone by the time the Horde rolls up to Darnassus.
A Night Elf named Delaryn Summermoon does her best to protect her home, but falls back in a way that is suspiciously like Sylvanas’ Warcraft 3 campaign leading up to her death.
Sylvanas pushes all the way to the tree, and gets into a fight with Malfurion Stormrage. She’s about to get murdered when Saurfang throws an axe into his back. Sylvanas, pleased, orders Saurfang to kill Malfurion. His death is one of her main goals, as she believes it will make the Night Elves too hopeless to fight back against the Horde occupation of Darnassus.
Unfortunately for Darnassus, Saurfang refuses to kill Malfurion since he was downed with a “dishonorable” blow. Sylvanas, realizing that the Night Elves will still have hope, pivots and orders Darnassus burnt to the ground. Saurfang is horrified, along with most players, but a good chunk of the Horde celebrate their victory.
The War of Blood begins
Now, both factions are officially in all-out war.
The Alliance retaliate and attack Lordaeron. They succeed and take the city, so Sylvanas Blights the entire city so no one can have it and peaces out. Saurfang is captured by the Alliance, who eventually free him so he can start a revolution within the Horde along with some of the players and his troll friend Zekhan.
Both factions realized they’re tapped out, so they reach out for new potential allies.
The Horde enter the Zandalari Troll empire as unwelcome guests, but find that King Rhastakhan has ignored a major problem in his empire. There are three seals that keep a Titan facility sealed, and that Titan facility has been taken over by a synthetic Old God created during experiments. The Horde can’t stop the seals from being busted, but they do go into Uldir and save the world from being corrupted … even though in the process, both Rhastakhan and the player resort to making a deal with Bwomsandi, the loa of death, a sinister figure who is obsessed with deals and collecting souls.
While both factions got to raid Uldir, the World of Warcraft Chronicle lore books explain that canonically, usually one faction or another actually killed the bosses within. Since there is very little lore leading the Alliance to Uldir, and it’s a very Horde story, we can safely assume that canonically the Horde saved the world from G’huun, which kind of makes up for the war crimes.
Jaina returns home to Kul Tiras, where she receives an icy reception, because she killed the nation’s grand admiral (and her dad) in an attempt to broker peace with the Horde way back in Warcraft 3. The Alliance player spends the campaign reuniting Kul Tiras under the Proudmoore banner, investigating missing gnomes, dealing with the traitorous Lady Ashvane, and freeing Jaina from ghost jail so she can lead her people.
While we achieve this, it becomes clear that the Old Gods have dug deep into the population, and the evil Naga Queen Azshara has struck deals with many powerful figures within the nation.
This includes Ashvane, who runs industry, and Lord Stormsong, who commands the powerful tide sages.
The Alliance sabotage the Horde, stop them from allying with the undead elf vampire San’layn, and eventually attach bombs to a large portion of the Zandalari Navy.
During the hubbub, Vol’jin — the last Horde Warchief, who died during the opening act of Legion — is summoned as a spirit. He reveals that someone deceived him in his last moments and tricked him into making Sylvanas Warchief … but some other power brought him back and empowered him. We don’t know who his trickster or savior is yet.
While the Alliance focus on winning the war against the Horde via traditional methods, Sylvanas tries something else. She and her champion, Nathanos Blightcaller, bring back a few Kul Tirans, including a Tidesage called Thomas Zelling. Zelling chooses to be raised as a Forsaken so that he can be with his family, but when his family reject him — and he’s overcome with rage due to his new nature — he decides to focus on his new job within the Horde.
Zelling proves to be useful. He helps the player acquire a Kul Tiran relic … and the corpse of Derek Proudmoore, Jaina’s older brother and a Kul Tiran war hero. Derek died during Warcraft 2, so he’s been submerged for a couple of decades, but Sylvanas raises him anyway.
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While Alliance and Horde heroes navigate this war, two regions are embroiled in a back-and-forth conflict. The Arathi Highlands is one such point, as the Alliance rebuild Stromgarde. Darkshore is also the site of an ongoing war. The Night Elves are reinvigorated by Tyrande Whisperwind, their high priestess, going through a dangerous ritual that turns her into the Night Warrior, the avatar of Elune’s vengeance. Nathanos and two Val’kyr survive her onslaught long enough raise Delaryn Summermoon, as well as the warden Sira Moonwarden, into undeath under Sylvanas’s orders. Tyrande kills one Val’kyr, and the Horde retreat.
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While Sylvanas schemes, the Alliance interrupt her by raiding Dazar’Alor, the Zandalari capital.
They destroy the troll fleet and kill King Rhastakhan before being forced out by the Horde. The Alliance hope that this will split the Zandalari and Horde apart; after all, the Horde just sunk time and resources in hopes of acquiring a fleet that no longer exists. Sylvanas is gracious and welcomes the Zandalari aboard nonetheless, and their alliance is strengthened. Still, the war is now heavily in the Alliance’s favor, with the Alliance military saying they are set to win within weeks.
Refusing to lose, Sylvanas announces that she plans to condition Derek Proudmoore to become a Manchurian candidate and murder Jaina. Baine Bloodhoof, the Tauren leader, is outraged by this. He was already feeling pretty bad about the whole “genocide” and “Blight bomb” and “leave Saurfang to die at Lordaeron” things, but mind-bending a guy who’s screaming for mercy is a step too far. Bloodhoof frees Derek and takes him home to Jaina, who softens her stance toward the Horde due to this act of mercy.
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Sylvanas, in return, holds a political summit and calls out the traitors in the Horde. She kills Zelling and imprisons Baine in Orgrimmar, an act that bothers most of the assembled Horde leaders.
After the Battle for Dazar’Alor, Naga are suddenly appearing on the coasts and attacking Kul Tiras and Zandalar. While fighting them back, the player finds the Artifact that Shadow Priests used in Legion — Xal’atath, Blade of the Black Empire. Xal’atath explains that they were weakened in the efforts to save the world, and the player restores them and gives them a mortal form. In exchange, they immediately betray us, serve us up to N’Zoth, and then peace out. Players can choose to keep the “Gift of N’Zoth,” which is a third eye. The blade of Xal’atath is left behind.
This sets the stage for World of Warcraft patch 8.2! Players plumb the Crucible of Storms, the place where we encountered N’Zoth and received his gift. There, Horde players find the Blade of the Black Empire left behind when Xal’atah left, and bring it back to Sylvanas. The Alliance find out that Sylvanas has acquired the blade, and realize they must end this war once and for all before she can start a new plot.
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A couple of months ago I wrote a really popular post about the story of Shadowlands. I got a few messages that people would like to see other expansions explained in a similar fashion — so I present to you: The Story of Battle for Azeroth!
As with every expansion, there are a few key events that happen before the main story itself that influence what goes on during the story itself. There are three main events that you should be aware of to properly understand the story of BfA:
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First off, after the Third War but before World of Warcraft takes place, Jaina established Theramore, a faction neutral settlement, on the shores of Dustwallow Marsh.
The Third War taught Jaina a valuable lesson in unity — Horde and Alliance should not be divided, especially when there are greater dangers for both factions, such as the Scourge or the Burning Legion. She maintained good relations with the recently founded Orgrimmar and the Horde leader at the time — Thrall, who she had already gotten close with during the peak of the Third War while defending Hyjal against Archimonde and the Burning Legion. There was an issue here though, as her father, Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, leader of Kul Tiras and Jaina’s father, decided that it was a good time to cut down the Horde before they gained a meaningful foothold in Kalimdor. See, during the Second War, Daelin lost his son — Derek Proudmoore, Jaina’s brother, to the Horde. In his eyes, it was time for revenge. To keep a long story short, Jaina sided with the Horde in this matter, dedicated to keeping the peace. Her father didn’t see it that way and well, he still attacked and was killed. The kingdom of Kul Tiras blamed Jaina, the rest of the Alliance was too busy dealing with the aftermath of the Third War and they promptly left the Alliance and kept themselves isolated.
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The second thing you need to know is something we already talked about in previous videos and that is Sylvanas’ deal with the Jailer. Around the time of Catacylsm, Sylvanas jumped off Icecrown Citadel to her death, seeing as there was no more reason to live with her greatest enemy — Arthas, now gone. She was promptly sent to the Maw by the Arbiter. Here, nine Mawsworn Val’kyr found her and brought her to the Jailer, who promised her that they can break the cycle of life and death together. They both see it as unfair. He was the first Arbiter and saw countless people’s lives and how they are supposed to be judged based on the will of the First Ones, getting separated from families and judged out of context, which made him kinda mad, which is why after locking him up ,the Pantheon of Death put in a mechanical Arbiter in his place. After the Jailer’s servants show Sylvanas how families are separated for all eternity, something she cannot handle as family has been everything for her all her life, she is convinced too.
She lost her parents and brother in the Second War and the thought of being sent to the Shadowlands where she cannot see them ever even though they are out there broke her. She is also angered that the Arbiter sent her to the Maw, the realm where the most unforgivable souls go, for doing bad stuff she was forced to do by Arthas, while sending people like Zul’jin who is responsible for the deaths of her family members and many more, by his own volition no less, to Revendreth, a plane of Shadowlands where souls get penance for their wrongdoings. She decides to side with him, after deliberating it for years though, right around Legion when she became a Warchief. At the end of Legion, we kill Argus. Argus was filled with Death magic by the Dreadlords who are all loyal to Sire Denathrius, their father pretty much, who works for the Jailer, causing Argus to become a creature of Death — meaning when he dies he would be sent to the Shadowlands instead of the Realm of Order where Titans normally go.
That’s why, when we kill Argus, we actually break the Arbiter, sending all souls that die into the Maw, giving more power to the Jailer. Now that the Arbiter was broken it’s feeding time for the Jailer. Sylvanas’ task was to cause maximum death as to empower the Jailer, before she would make a break for it to the Shadowlands where the final part of his plan was supposed to take place. -
The third important thing before the story of BfA takes place is The Gathering — an event taking place after Legion but before BfA where the living relatives from Stormwind were supposed to meet their undead relatives from Undercity. The meeting would take place in Arathi Highlands, with both Sylvanas and Anduin attending. The meeting went well… until a certain point. With Anduin also came Calia Menethil, the only living heir to Lordaeron. Some of the Forsaken relatives started defecting, going over to the Alliance side. It didn’t help that Calia goaded them on as well. Some of the Forsaken saw this and to show their loyalty started running away from the meeting.
Sylvanas got mad and then killed all the defectors and Calia, who was later ressurrected into a strange state of Light-infused undeath by a naaru. But not only that, Sylvanas also killed the Forsaken who were heading back to her. Later on in Undercity, she twisted this into propaganda and the Forsaken populace bought it. As a consequence of this, tensions between the Horde and the Alliance would start to grow and Anduin would send many SI:7 spies into Orgrimmar. Something that would come and bite him in the butt pretty soon…
Okay, so now we can begin to talk about Battle for Azeroth.
As you all know, at the end of Legion, Sargeras stabbed the world with his huge sword. This caused the world soul of Azeroth to bleed Azerite, one of the most powerful substances known in the World of Warcraft. It has many uses, it can be used as an energy source, but also as a really powerful weapon. Either way, both factions didn’t want the other one to get it, causing tensions between the two.
Now, you remember that barely a minute ago I was talking about SI:7 spies in Orgrimmar. Well that’s important, because Sylvanas was aware of these spies. When they were among her ranks, she would pretend that the Horde was planning on taking over Silithus, causing a stronger presence of Allinace, specifically night elves, in Silithus. Sylvanas was, however, playing the long game and she really wanted to break the Alliance with a much more menacing plan. The deal between the Jailer and Sylvanas was to cause as much death as possible to feed the Jailer, which would in turn power up Sylvanas as well. So her plan was to take over Darkshore and Teldrassil, kill a lot of night elves and their leader — Malfurion Stormrage. Together with Varok Saurfang, Sylvanas and Nathanos would lead the charge. They tore through Darkshore and Saurfang even managed to capture Malfurion, but he let him go. Sylvanas, in her rage over this, came up with an even more deadly plan — to burn down Teldrassil. So she did, causing a lot of death and a lot of souls to be sent into the Maw.
The Night Elves, seeing that Elune did not help them, saw this as a sign that their goddess abandoned them. In truth, Elune sensed the anima drought in Ardenweald, the Shadowlands realm of her sister — the Winter Queen, and thought that the souls of the kaldorei from Teldrassil would help the drought. What Elune did not know was that all those souls were rerouted to the Maw. Tyrande, in her rage, does a really dangerous ritual to become the Night Warrior which is basically the darkest aspect of Elune’s power that is known to usually kill the user. With this power, the Horde is succesfully fought back, but not without a lot of night elf death and destruction.
If you needed a declaration of war, I’d say this is as good as any. The Fourth War begins.
The Alliance in return attacks Lordaeron. Oh and Jaina’s back now, being much more chill than we saw her in Mists of Pandaria and Legion and she also has a huge magic ship. Anyways, the Alliance manages to fight their way into Lordaeron.
Before entering the keep, Saurfang, disillusioned with the Horde, decides to surrender to the Alliance. See, Saurfang is an old orc, something that is very rare in Warcraft, and he just wants a warrior’s death. He wants to join his son, who died during Wrath of the Lich King after being used the Arthas. But seeing no honor in this war, he willingly gives himself up to the Alliance. The Alliance breaks into the throne room, we get some nice cinematic parallels with Warcraft 3, Sylvanas runs away and blights the whole city, leaving it uninhabitable for both the living and the dead.
Both sides leave the battlefield, having been sent into a war that neither side is really prepared for. The recent Legion invasion had really taken its toll, and both sides were in need of allies. To this end, they recruit a couple of friends on the side — the Nighborne and Highmountain Tauren join the Horde, while the Void Elves and Lightforged Draenei join the Alliance. A couple of more races would join the fold later throughout the Fourth War.
This was still not enough though, and both sides were in need of a proper fleet. Luckily for Sylvanas, the Stormwind Stockades held Princess Talanji and Propher Zul of the Zandalari Empire as prisoners. The Zandalari Empire had one of the greatest fleets in the world, so it was her reasoning that by freeing them, the Horde could get the Zandalari trolls as allies. Nathanos leads a clandestine operation into the heart of Stormwind and the two prisoners are liberated. Along the way they also come across Saurfang, who refuses to leave the prison. The Alliance go into hot pursuit, but Princess Talanji summons Rezan, the loa of kings, and he gives their ship a nitro boost and they make quick way towards Zandalar, leaving only one Alliance ship remamining. The sailors from this ship tell the Alliance leadership what they have seen. Having learned that the Horde now has a powerful fleet, Jaina promises to go back to Kul Tiras and try to bring them into the fold once again.
Now while the Horde champions were let into Dazar’alor, the capital of Zandalar, with mostly open arms, the Alliance champions and Jaina would get arrested on sight by the order of Katherine Proudmoore, Jaina’s mother and Daelin’s widow.
With her is also Priscilla Ashevane, who holds huge influence over the affairs of Kul Tiras with her Ashvane Trading Company. While the Alliance champions are arrested, an old knight by the name of Cyrus Crestfall sends Flynn Fairwind, a spy, to set us free from Tol Dagor, an island prison off the coast of Kul Tiras. Cyrus allows Alliance ships in the ports of Boralus and The Alliance champions then start trying to earn trust of Katherine Proudmoore with the help of Cyrus, Flynn and a girl named Taelia who was orphaned during the Third War in Lordaeron, never knowing her family. She later turns out to be the daughter of Bolvar Fordragon, the Lich King at the time.
Along the way, it is discovered that Priscilla Ashvane discovered Azerite and has been wanting to use it to overthrow Katherine Proudmoore. We reveal this plot to Katherine, Priscilla tries to take over but fails and is promptly arrested and sent into Tol Dagor, while Jaina is freed from the same prison. During our whole proivng worth to House Proudmoore, we also discover that something bad is happening in the depths of the oceans, as many Tidesages who are basically sea priests in Kul Tiras are falling to void corruption.
There are many hints that N’zoth is up to something, but we don’t know when and we don’t know how.
On the Horde side, the champions are slowly starting to earn the trust of the Zandalari people and their King Rastakhan. The Zandalari, as most other trolls, worship the loa. Thhere are many important loa, but the main one we will be focusing on is the loa of kings — Rezan. Throughout our adventures in Zandalar, we find out that the Propher Zul is not as good guy as we may thing (no surprise there if you’ve played Cataclysm), and he actually is allied with the blood trolls who worship G’huun, which is an Old God created by Titans while they experimented in a facility known as Uldir, located in Nazmir. We chase after Zul to Atal’dazar, which is a resting place for many Zandalari kings, including the first one — Dazar. Now here’s a nice throwback to both Mists of Pandaria and Wrath of the Lich King. Zul’s plan was to ressurrect the loa the same way Drakkari trolls did in Zul’drak, but also in the same techniques as used when reviving Lei Shen in MoP.
The first loa to go through this treatment was Rezan, who got rekt and turned all red and evil. We run away, but not too long after, Zul attacks Dazar’alor. King Rastakhan chooses Bwonsamdi as his next loa, tying his family with the powers of death. This proved to be worth it, as Zul was succesfully fought back and even killed. The victory was won for the day. Throughout Horde adventures on Zandalar, we would occassionaly get accompanied by the spirit of Vol’jin who was trying to find out who actually told him to pick Sylvanas as the next Warchief in Legion. However, he wasn’t able to find the answer. The truth was that it was Mueh’zala who whispered it to him from the Shadowlands by the order of the Jailer. We would find this out later in Shadowlands.
During this time, our player character would slowly heal the wound left in Silithus from Sargeras’ sword, with the help of Magni Bronzebeard. He would gift us with a powerful necklace called the Heart of Azeroth that would grow in power as healed Azeroth further.
Of course, the rest of the world wasn’t feeling as peaceful and so began the next major battle in the Fourth War — The Battle for Stromgarde, which was a battle that was ongoing for most of the Fourth War. Back on Zanadalar and Kul Tiras, the Horde and the Alliance would be involved in an occassional skirmish, and there would be more fighting at sea while exploring islands that had large amounts of Azerite. Both factions would be involved in attacking Uldir and dealing with the artificial old god G’huun.
While these skirmishes I mentioned were taking place, the Horde would accidentally discover the body of Derek Proudmoore, Jaina’s brother that I mentioned earlier. Sylvanas would use his body in the most cruel of ways, hanging him up near Boralus, the capital of Kul Tiras, as bait during a heist, but she had even more sinister plans for him later. The Horde would also free Lady Ashvane from Tol Dagor, while Jaina would be given the title of Lord Admiral, having proven herself worthy to the throne.
With the threat of G’huun gone, it’s time for the next major, but short, faction battle — the Battle of Dazar’alor. This was a strike by the Alliance at the very heart of Zandalari Empire, which was proven to be successful, as King Rastakhan, the leader of the Zandalari, was killed in the assault. The Alliance managed to flee the attack with the help of Jaina’s powers that she learned from watching Frozen, and Princess Talanji became Queen Talanji. This was a huge blow to the Horde, causing their fleet huge damage and giving the Alliance an upper hand so far.
In response to this, Sylvanas started working on a little twisted project to torture the very leadership of Kul Tiras — raising Derek Proudmoore as a Forsaken and using him as a cruel weapon against the Alliance. Baine could not stand by this, and with a little bit of help, he freed Derek and brought him to the Ruins of Theramore, where he asked to meet Jaina. Jaina was hesitant at meeting her brother as a Forsaken, but when she realized he was still of his own mind and volition she quickly chilled out.
Knowing that Kul Tiras would never accept him like this, Jaina introduces Derek to Calia Menethil, one of the rare people who could understand what he was going through. Back on mainland, in Kalimdor a new battle would break out — Battle for Darkshore that would, like the battle for Stromgarde, last the majority of the Fourth War.
At this time, naga would suddenly start to appear on the shores of Zandalar and Kul Tiras. A tortollan named Collector Kojo would be walking along the shores of Stormsong Valley, where he would come across a dagger near a makeshift altar. He would give this dagger to a Horde champion. This dagger was none other than Xal’atath, the shadow priest artifact weapon from Legion. The thing with Xal’athat is that no one is sure what it is. Some say it’s a forgotten Old God, some say it’s a part of Y’shaarj, but no one knows for sure. When we come across Xal’athat in BfA, it tells us that the naga are seraching for three artifacts so that they could summon a huge storm and take over Azeroth.
We go in search of these three artifacts and come across a high elf trying to take one. The high elf meets a bitter end and Xal’athat takes over her corpse. We find the other two artifacts and Xal’athat takes us to a place called the Crucible of Storms where it is revealed that Xal’athat true master is N’zoth and we finally get our first proper in-game look at the Old God. Xal’athat offers the three artifacts in exchange for freedom, which N’zoth accepts. Xal’athat departs and N’zoth then lets the champion go as well, but not before giving them a «gift» which is pretty much a little eye on your forehead that will be there until you decide to remove it. Anyway, the Horde champion then gives this dark blade to Sylvanas Windrunner, who has a special plan for it later down the line.
Back in Stormwind, Anduin was slowly building up trust with Varok Saurfang. Seeing as neither of them really believed in the war that they were caught up in, Anduin’s thoughts were that the two of them could end the war by uniting Alliance the Horde against Sylvanas and her part of the Horde.
So Anduin let Saurfang go. Sylvanas would send assassins after him, but they were succesfully fought off. Zekhan, the troll known as Zappyboi, would find Saurfang, who instructed Zekhan to look for people among the Horde who would join the cause. Saurfang would then go on to Nagrand to get Thrall back into the game.
Genn Greymane has spies keeping a look at the Horde fleet in Zandalar, waiting for them to get out at sea once again so that it can be destroyed once and for all. No Horde fleet would mean an assured victory for the Alliance. The thing is, Alliance spies suck so hard that the Horde is once again aware of them. Not only that, they are counting on it. With Nathanos Blightcaller at the helm. Unbeknownst to the Alliance, Nathanos is carrying the vacant blade of Xal’athat and is using it as a compass of sorts. He has it because Sylvanas had made a deal with none other than Queen Azshara — the plan being that Azshara would take care of the pesky Alliance while Sylvanas would give her Xal’athat’s blade.
For those of you that don’t know, N’zoth created the naga after Azshara accepted a deal at the end of the War of the Anicents that would save the Night Elves that would have died during the Sundering and corrupting them into the naga we know and love today. That being said, she wasn’t too happy with N’zoth. N’zoth was kept in a Titan Prison underneath the seas. Her plan was to open this prison and then kill N’zoth with Xal’athat.
Anyways, the Alliance follows the Horde fleet, the seas open up to Nazjatar with the powers of the Tidestone, one of the Pillars of Creations, a powerful artifact that we used to defeat the Legion and that we just left at the Tomb of Sargeras after taking care of them, that no one watched out for and now the naga stole, and we all fall down there, into Nazjatar. Nathanos says he has to go somewhere secret, meaning he is gonna give the blade to Azshara, and the Horde and the Alliance do what they do best — they start fighting, making allies, fighting some more, until they realize they have a common evil to deal with.
So, y’all remember that thing when Baine freed Derek? Well that came back to bite him in the butt, as now he was arrested for treason and kept under Orgrimmar, awaiting exectuion. A tauren Spiritwalker saw this in a vision, who informed Lor’themar, who then sent a Horde champion to meet with Thrall and Saurfang. Alliance, its spies finally being good for something, figured this out as well and sent an Alliance champion together with Jaina and Mathias Shaw, the leader of SI:7. The two groups would meet under Orgrimmar by accident, but decided to work together to free Baine. They face some trouble, but they are ultimately successful.
We would also pay a visit to the newly-discovered Mechagon Isle where, with the united powers of gnomes and goblins, we would help overthrow King Mechagon who wanted to turn all fleshy life mechanical.
Seeing as how they can work together, the Alliance and Horde forces decide to storm the Eternal Palace, Azshara’s crib, together, while Zappyboi sows doubt upon Sylvanas’ leadership back in Orgrimmar.
The plan was to start a revolution within the Horde (once again) after the joint forces of the Horde and the Alliance take care of Queen Azshara. Many in the Horde didn’t want this war, so it wouldn’t have been a particularly hard task, but the results would be bloody nonetheless, something Saurfang was painfully aware of.
We storm the Eternal Palace and face Queen Azshara’s minions, including the horribly mutated Priscilla Ashvane who we deal with for good. We make our way to Queen Azshara and manage to defeat her while she was opening N’zoth’s prison with the intent on killing him. However, as no one gave us the memo that she was going to murder him, all we manage to do is to free N’zoth who yeets Queen Azshara somewhere all shadowy and then promply leaves, leaving us with our weenie in our hands. The true threat to Azeroth was now apparent — it was N’zoth. Lor’themar and Jaina pretty much decide that the whole war is indeed stupid, so Lor’themar is going to help Thrall and Saurfang with the revolution.
Some time passes, more and more Horde joins the cause and the united forces of the Alliance and Horde rebels decide that it’s time to strike at Orgrimmar and finish this war once and for all. They make their way through Durotar and reach the gates of Orgrimmar. Saurfang, realizing how bloody this battle will be and how many Horde lives will be lost, decides to challenge Sylvanas to a mak’gora — a duel to the death where no magic is allowed, only physical strenght. Sylvanas accepts this duel. Saurfang is given Thrall’s sweet new axe and the Wrynn sword Shalamayne. They fight and Saurfang does seem to get an upper hand but then Sylvanas uses her sweet new Maw powers and promply rekts him, but not before telling everyone how the Horde is nothing and how she sees them as toy soldiers in tin plate — basically telling them that all that they are doing does not matter. And that does make sense, considering she went to the Shadowlands. See, while Sylvanas did a lot of horrific things during BfA, it all had a purpose as I said.
She allied herself with the Jailer and believes that what she is doing is for the greater good. In her eyes, the ends justify the means, the ends being destroying the flawed cycle the First Ones have created in the Shadowlands. Anyways, after killing Saurfang, she does her banshee flying thing and runs off, while the gates of Orgrimmar are opened and a funeral ceremony is held for Saurfang, marking the end of the Fourth War.
The ongoing battles in Stromgarde and Darkshore are over, with Alliance claiming victory in both. Alliance would relinquish all territory held in Zandalar, while the Horde would do the same for territorries in Kul Tiras. All fighting ceased and peace was at last achieved between the two factions.
Sylvanas’ job in BfA was done — she did cause as much death as possible. Soon, it would be time to head into the Shadowlands herself and go into the final phase of the Jailer’s plan — more on that in my Shadowlands post!
Before Shadowlands though, there is a big looming threat on the now united forces of Alliance and Horde, and that is N’zoth who can strike at about any moment.
During the Fourth War, Magni managed to gather quite a crowd at the Chamber of the Heart, from where he was healing the world soul of Azeroth. Among the gathered was Ebonhorn, also known as Ebyssian, one of the last uncorrupted Black Dragons besides Wrathion. Ebonhorn started to hear the whispers of N’zoth, slowly falling into corruption. Kalecgos then sends us to find a cure for him. He thoguht that Wrathion may have something like that. While we seek for Wrathion, we discover that he’s actually in the Dragon Isles! But anyways, we find a potion that cures Ebonhorn. This is the first hint of a big character that’s about to come back — Wrathion. Wrathion reaches out to Magni and together they make their way to Stormwind Keep to meet with Anduin, who has no idea that Wrathion is coming back after pretty much causing a couple of insanely huge wars and being the cause for Legion’s return. Anduin is not too thrilled about it, but there’s no one else who understands the Old Gods better.
Wrathion explains that N’zoth doesn’t attack as you’d expect. It’s important to remember that N’zoth is the weakest Old God — thus his attacks are more physchological and maddening. He attacks the mind. N’zoth’s plan was to bring about Ny’alotha — a vision of Azeroth taken back by the Black Empire — into reality.
N’zoth would then invade, attacking Uldum to take over the Forge of Origination and attacking Vale of Eternal Blossoms to take over the Engine of Nalak’sha, two powerful pieces of Titan machinery. The Forge of Origination is supposed to be used if Azeroth became overwhelmed with corruption. It’s basically a big reset button for all life. A taste of such power can be seen in Uldum, which was originally a jungle but is now a desert because the Forge was once used to defeat Lei Shen. The Engine of Nalak’sha is a Titan Device that can be used for fleshcrafting. Seeing as the Void is all about fleshy creatures, who knows what N’zoth wanted to do with the engine. The Titan Keeper Ra-den was now chilling in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, after being defeated in Mists of Pandaria.
Sadly, N’zoth managed to get to Ra’den and completely corrupt him.
The champions of Azeroth attack Ny’alotha, here we fight against what seems to be corrupted Wrathion, we defeat him and it turns out that it was a Faceless One showing us a vision of «what will be» and «what was» according to N’zoth. We also fight Ra’den but sadly he was too far gone and had to be killed in battle. Along the way, the champions of Azeroth would come across Queen Azshara getting interrogated by Dark Inquisitor Xanesh. We free her and she gives us Xal’athat’s blade and then decides to go looking for what she calls the true throne. Wrathion leads the way further into Ny’alotha by breaking the carapace of N’zoth with the dark blade of Xal’athat — seemingly destroying the blade in the process. We find N’zoth itself at the heart of it all. With the energies of the Heart of Azeroth and the Engine of Nalak’sha, the Forge of Origination is empowered and rerouted to strike at the very heart of Ny’alotha — N’zoth itself, which finally seemingly destroys the Old God and destroying any possibility of Ny’alotha coming to pass.
With this event, the true Battle for Azeroth has come to an end, with the forces of Azeroth claiming victory. However, the damage of the Fourth War was immense and Sylvanas was ready to enact the next part of the Jailer’s plan — releasing him from his chains which would allow him to consume the worldsoul of Azeroth. However, as of this moment no one really knows what she wants to do, so there is a worldwide manhunt for Sylvanas and Nathanos. Nathanos would hide in his family home and would just chill here before being totally rekt by Tyrande. Here, Nathanos would reveal to Tyrande that Sylvanas is going beyond the veil, before she promptly beheaded Nathanos. Sylvanas would make her way to Icecrown to battle against Bolvar, the current Lich King, with her greatly empowered Maw abilities. But more on that in the Shadowlands post.
I hope I managed to clear some things up about the story of BFA. If you would like to listen to this post instead of reading — it’s also available in video form!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try to clear it up 🙂
Battle for Azeroth —
Story and Events
December 30, 2019
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Battle for Azeroth begins when Silithus is destroyed by the sword of Sargeras.
Due to severe damage, the planet Azeroth begins to bleed, and the most valuable resource, Azerite, comes to its surface. The goblins of the Horde are the first to know about this, they tell Sylvanas, and she tries with all her might to prevent the Alliance from getting Azerite, guided by the following plan. Whoever has the most Azerite will win the war. And war, one way or another, will be inevitable, even in 10 or 100 years. No one will forgive anyone for old grievances. nine0005
This is followed by the War of Thorns, in which the Horde burns down Teldrassil. The Alliance, in utter resentment, united as never before, makes a counterattack and almost completely destroys Tirisfal along with the Undercity. During the siege of Undercity, the Alliance captures Saurfang.
At the same time, Princess Talanji goes to the Horde to enlist her support. But he does not have time to swim to his destination and is captured by the Alliance. During a special operation, the heroes of the Horde manage to rescue Talanji from captivity, and the Horde changes course to Zandalar.
Sylvanas believes that with the help of the Zandalari fleet, the Horde will be able to destroy Stormwind and resurrect all its inhabitants as undead, so this opportunity should not be missed. nine0005
Kul Tiras
At the same time, the Alliance is also forced to act. And there is no other choice but to send Jaina to Kul Tiras, her homeland. Jaina is not welcome in Kul Tiras, because after the Third War, her father, Daelin Proudmoore, died because of her. Jaina goes through a difficult path of purification and becoming in order to regain the trust of the Kul Tirans and her mother Katherine Proudmoore. She succeeds, and at the end of the campaign, Jaina becomes Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras. The Alliance has a valuable ally. nine0005
Zandalar
At the same time, Zandalar is bursting at the seams. Once-full of life locations fade, the people are dissatisfied, Rastakhan loses his grip. The heroes of the Horde are forced to solve all these problems in order to enlist the support of the Zandalari.
During the story campaign, we learn that the top of the Zandalari government has long been rotten, and the entire continent is about to be captured by blood trolls. General Jakra’zet is responsible for summoning Mythrax the Unraveler, who broke the last seal holding back the spawn of the Old Gods, G’huun. Rastakhan, in a fit of fear of losing everything he once had, makes a deal with Bwomsamdi’s Loa of death and curses his entire family. Prophet Zul and Yazma also betray the king and swear allegiance to G’huun. nine0005
To prevent this madness, the heroes of the Horde travel to Uldir, an ancient titan compound where experiments on the creatures of the Old Gods took place. The heroes manage to defeat G’huun.
Continuation of the war
At the same time, the factions continue the war among themselves. The Horde raids the Brennadam in Stormsong Valley, Kul Tiras’ main food base. After that, he attacks Norwington Manor and is already preparing to attack Kul Tiras itself.
But thanks to the efforts of Jaina and the heroes of the Alliance, the Horde fails to win and is forced to retreat. nine0005
At the same time, the Horde sets out to sea to find the missing body of Derek Proudmoore, finds it and delivers it to Sylvanas.
A full-scale war between the Horde and the Alliance is unfolding in the Arathi Basin.
Tyrande also asks Anduin for help in the battle on Darkshore. But the king of the Alliance has to refuse the High Priestess, and in the future this will have its consequences. Tyrande will turn to Elune’s help and become a Night Warrior.
Anduin sees that this whole war is pointless, goes and releases Saurfang from captivity, who in turn goes to the Dustwallow Marsh, where he organizes a gathering of rebels. nine0005
The Alliance prepares to attack Dazar’alor. And before that, Matthias Shaw, Flynn Fairwind and an Alliance hero sneak into the Zandalari treasury to steal the Abyssal Scepter, recently stolen by the Horde from Kul Tiras.
They also mine a large number of Zandalari ships in the port of Zuldazar.
The Alliance warlords feint and lure most of the Horde troops into Nazmir. Meanwhile, another part of the Alliance forces blows up the Zandalari fleet and kills King Rastakhan. The Horde fails to catch up with the retreating Kul Tiran fleet. They are stopped by Jaina, who also manages to escape. nine0005
Resurrection of Derek Proudmoore and capture of Bane
Funeral held by trolls, Talanji becomes queen. But Sylvanas is not entirely happy with the state of affairs. She decides to resurrect Derek Proudmoore, the one who was recently found in the ocean. Sylvanas’ plan was to recruit Derek and use him against Katherine Proudmoore. Derek was supposed to kill Katherine and destroy the power of Kul Tiras. But this plan did not work, as Bane Bloodhoof interfered with the events. Bane managed to free Derek and hand him over to Jaina. nine0005
This was followed by a turning point in the Horde. Sylvanas approached everyone with suspicion of betrayal.
Bane Zelling’s assistant was killed on the spot, while Bloodhoof himself was taken to Garrosh’s underground dungeons.
Previously, a Horde hero managed to find the blade of the Dark Empire — Xal’atath. The Blade took us to Gornio Tempest and let us know that the apocalypse was coming soon. After Xal’atath separated from the blade, the sheath was kindly provided to Sylvanas. Having learned the coordinates of the destination, Sylvanas, commanding the remnants of the fleet, will go to the ocean. The Alliance fleet will follow. As a result, everyone falls into Azshara’s trap and is trapped in Nazjatar. nine0005
Azshara’s Return
The Alliance and Horde succeed in enlisting the support of new allies — the frogs and Ankoa, who help them get to Azshara’s Eternal Palace. The heroes of Azeroth manage to make their way to the platform on which Azshara sat. After defeating the queen, it turns out that this whole path was just a big trap aimed at freeing N’Zoth.
The power of the Heart of Azeroth, an artifact around the hero’s neck, was enough to loosen the titans’ chains and release N’Zoth from prison.
A dark future lies ahead for Azeroth. nine0005
Thrall Returns
At the same time, Saurfang travels to Outland, where he finds Thrall. He tells him that dark times have come in the Horde, and the help of the old leader is needed. Thrall agrees to help.
After some time they go to help Bane out of captivity and cross paths with the Alliance on the way. It turns out that Anduin asked the hero, Jaina and Matthias to help free his old friend. Together, they manage to rescue Bane from captivity. They teleport to Thunder Bluff and there they already understand that the final battle must take place. All or nothing. nine0005
Saurfang and Sylvanas’ Mak’gora
Horde Rebels join forces with Alliance forces and advance towards Orgrimmar, where Mak’gora occurs between Saurfang and Sylvanas. During the duel, Sylvanas wins, but the Horde warriors realize that it is not a leader standing in front of them, but some kind of dark entity, a creature that manipulates their minds.
Sylvanas retreats.
Alliance and Horde manage to strike a truce with only one death in the final battle. But this truce is also necessary in order to repel a terrible threat, because N’Zoth broke out of his prison, and now he wants to take over all of Azeroth. nine0005
N’Zoth’s Awakening (spoilers)
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To stop him, the hero needs to adjust all the generators of the Forge of Creation, get close to N’Zoth, set up a beacon and strike at the right moment. Generators can be configured, power can be connected. Now it’s time to dive into N’alotha and overthrow N’Zoth.
Having gone through a series of nightmarish trials, the heroes manage to get close to N’Zoth, direct the flow of energy from the Heart of Azeroth right into the heart of N’Zoth, and… we will be able to find out the legendary end of the expansion itself on January 22. nine0005
History of Warcraft
Battle for Azeroth — the plot of the new expansion