Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Burning Crusade, Lore, Know your 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.
If you were here last week, you know the drill. If not, here it is - we're covering the entire lore of the game, expansion by expansion.
Let's do this.
A world unlike our own
Were we prepared for what we'd find beyond the Dark Portal? The realm of Outland had a long and storied history, but it was a history no one on Azeroth had seen since Illidan went back following his battle with Arthas at the base of the Frozen Throne, where the Death Knight had proven the stronger and assumed the mantle of the Lich King. In defeat, Illidan had gone mad, or so the shade of his brother Malfurion had informed Remulos - mad and stewing in his humiliation, Illidan daily fought the battle again, and in his fevered rage was the victor, not the defeated. But this was all we knew, and it second-hand from Malfurion's trapped spirit. No one had seen Outland since the Third War, and the Dark Portal had squatted in the crater created by Khadgar's attempt to destroy it, seemingly inert since that time.
Then it opened. And demons poured out of it.
Dealing with the flood of demons was a momentary respite - both the Horde and the Alliance realized that their own squabbles were meaningless if the Burning Legion possessed a doorway to invade Azeroth. So both factions put together expeditions and seized control of the portal's Outland side, and for the first time since the end of the Second War, the Alliance and the Horde stepped foot onto the shattered world once known as Draenor.
But before they did, each side gained new allies.
Continue reading Know Your Lore: Lore summed up part 2 - The Burning Crusade
Know Your Lore: Lore summed up part 2 - The Burning Crusade originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 26 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.