With Khadgar’s aid, Lothar slew Medivh and banished the spirit of Sargeras within him to the Nether. Meanwhile, Medivh’s apprentice Khadgar confided in King Llane and Anduin Lothar, revealing that his master had been corrupted by dark forces and had unleashed the Horde upon Azeroth.
Though their first attack was repelled by the King’s Commander Anduin Lothar, the Horde retreated to regroup and decide how best to land a decisive blow against the human kingdom. Three years after the Dark Portal was opened, the Horde marched on Stormwind City. For years, orcs and humans clashed in savage skirmishes, each side biding their time and surveying the enemy with the intent to launch a full-force strike when the hour was right. The orcish Horde assailed the humans’ heartlands, razing entire towns and leaving ruin in their wake. Thus, the Dark Portal was first opened, and the Horde flooded through to clash with the humans of Azeroth. Medivh struck a deal with his new ally: in exchange for the promise of godhood, Gul’dan would create a gateway between the human homeworld of Azeroth and his own planet, Draenor. The fiend’s blood poisoned their minds, transforming the orcs into an army consumed by bloodlust and controlled from the shadows by Gul’dan and his puppet Warchief, Blackhand. His influence over the orcs came to a head when he convinced them to drink the blood of the demon Mannoroth, promising them invincibility in exchange for their compliance. Wielding heretical magic, this nefarious orc taught his brethren to channel demonic energy. He found in the far-off world of Draenor a kindred spirit-the powerful warlock Gul’dan. After a failed attack on Azeroth 10,000 years ago, Sargeras saw an opportunity to once again strike at the world, and possessed the magus Medivh, intending to use his power to foment a war between worlds that would force Azeroth to buckle upon itself.Ĭorrupted by the malignant magics of Sargeras, Medivh, the last of an ancient line of powerful magi and friend to the throne of Stormwind, worked to orchestrate Azeroth’s downfall. To this end, he forged the demonic Burning Legion. Convinced that the only way to spare the universe from the Nether’s demonic entities was to purge it, he soon turned his power on the cosmos, seeking to cleanse all life in existence. Once the greatest warrior of the godlike Titans-the assemblage of cosmic entities responsible for the shaping and ordering of the universe-Sargeras succumbed to the all-consuming corruption of the Twisting Nether, a plane between worlds composed of chaotic magics, and its resident fiends while attempting to shield his brethren from its depravity. Read on to relive the history of Warcraft and prepare yourself to take up arms in Warcraft III: Reforged.
This universe-spanning conflict helped forge Azeroth into the world we know it as today. When a fallen titan possessed of untold power and a desire to scour all life ordered the corruption of the orcs, they were set on a path that would end in an inevitable clash with a nation of humans enjoying a prosperous existence. But battles of good versus evil are never straightforward when cosmic deities meddle in the matters of mortals.
Conflict is, in a series called Warcraft, an arguable necessity.