Blizzard Lore Posts - Forums/Twitter/Reddit

[Beltharean]

So this is where I'm gonna be posting a list of all the interesting things that I find and have found while I'm going through the official Blizzard Forum GM Posts, and Twitter feed (@Loreology as well as a couple other 'Historians'' feeds, as they're so called). There's so cool stuff that really adds a lot to the lore. People ask the Devs these questions, and get answers straight from them! Clears up a lot of lore, but also brings up a lot of questions.

"It is said that in the beginning there was Light and there was Void and in a time long ago, the two collided in the abyss of the Great Dark. As a result, infinite worlds spiraled out into the newly forming cosmos."
Warcraft Magazine, Issue 5

"The Draenei you know are corrupted through their portal travels..."
Date 26 September 2005 Wow Forums by Caydiem

“The souls of the undead (Forsaken, PC death knights, ghouls, etc.) are imperfectly attached to their bodies; the dark magic that sustains them is a buffer that prevents their souls from properly joining with their bodies. This is why undead feel only faint sensations of pain or discomfort from most physical stimuli, and why the Light is so painful to their existence. The primary exception to this rule are liches, as liches bind their souls to a phylactery and then use the phylactery to generate a physical form; this process is why lich bodies look nothing like their mortal bodies, and also why you have to destroy a lich’s phylactery to truly kill them.”
Date: 09 February 2012 WoW Forums post by Nyorloth

""@MickyNeilson so what about Elunites, or are they just the light as well? Is that another lost thematic"
"Historian input - the power would come from Elune."
(This to me pretty much disproves the Elune-is-a-Naaru-theory)

"@MickyNeilson Rise of the Horde and the WoW Comic said that the Draenei arrived to Draenor 200 years before W1. That's still accurated?"
"Yep, Historians confirmed."
(Server timeline is wrong, says it's 960 years ago)

"@MickyNeilson What's the deal with goblin priests? Do they believe in the Light?"
"They use willpower to wield the Light, driven by greed."
(This sounds a LOT like the way the Forsaken use the Shadow. And considering what we heard earlier, with the universe being formed by Shadow and Light coming together... Has some interesting implications.)

"@Loreology This part of the Wc3 manual did I mean: "...common ancestry with gryphons and dragons..." Still true?"
"AFAIK, there hasn't been any ruling that contradicts this. I believe it's safe to assume that this lore still holds true."

"@Loreology Are Blood Knights and Sunwalkers true Paladins or is it just for gameplay purposes? They seem different"
"They have the same in-game abilities for gameplay sake. IIRC, we intentionally avoid referring to Sunwalkers as "paladins". "

"Are demons the source of Fel magic?"

"They contain fel magic, but they aren't "the" source. The nature of this magic is created from destroying something else. "
(WHAT, BLIZZARD? TELL US WHAT's BEING DESTROYED)

[3/23/14, 1:05:33 AM] Beltharean: "Got a question about Illidan if you can. When he was "Defeated" in Black Temple is he dead or heading to the nether??"
[3/23/14, 1:05:46 AM] Beltharean: "@ChristMetzen has understood that folks would like to see this villain once again... "
(Blizzard... Plz... Don't do it...)

"Alteraci" "Lordaeronian" "Stromic" Dalaranian" "Stormwindian"
- Official way to pronounce the nationalities- I don't care, because Stromic and Alteraci sound ridiculous.

"Ama Noral'arkhana era endal dracon" Officially translated from Thalassian as "Saved by magic and by the breath of the dragon"

"Arcane magic is canonically white and/ore violet in the lore"



-----

Now, the most interesting thing that I found for me personally, is the relationship between all the classes and the Void.

After the First War, Bishop Seline investigated the dark magic used by the orc necrolytes to raise their deads. Her studies became obsessed as she tried to discover why such energy existed at all and why she began to see the ebb and flow of it in the world around her. She began preaching about the necessity of balance between dark and light, but after her death, her books were locked away in the Kirin Tor's vaults in Dalaran.

Her teachings, rediscovered by Forsaken priests during the capture of the Undercity, served as the theological base for the Cult of Forgotten Shadow. This cult uses the term Shadow to refer to reality and believes that there must be balance between the wielders of holy and dark energies; because of that, they mostly manipulate the dark energies "discovered" by Natalie Seline.
World of Warcraft the Magazine, Issue 4

We also know that:

@Loreology @johnpatrickz Real answer: Void is different from nether. We consider voidwalkers "demons" for gameplay but different origins!

It's said that they come from the Void, which is the same source of magic that Priests use for Shadow Magic, as well as Necromancers for their shadowy spells- As well as to gain access to the souls of the dead. All three classes are drawing on the Shadow Plane in some way or another. My personal interpretation of that is the -way- a person access the Void determines how they use it. Priests use it in the most 'pure' way so they have the most control. Necromancers use the arcane, and the arcane ends up twisting or corrupting it into a form where they can't have as much control over it. Warlocks have Fel taint in their spells which distorts it even further, which is why they have the least control over their shadow spells.

If anyone else knows any official Lore Posts with information that doesn't appear in-game, feel free to post them, or to discuss any of the lore (or my opinions on it) above.

[c0rzilla]

"@Loreology Are Blood Knights and Sunwalkers true Paladins or is it just for gameplay purposes? They seem different"
"They have the same in-game abilities for gameplay sake. IIRC, we intentionally avoid referring to Sunwalkers as "paladins". "

This is my favorite part.

[Reigen]

...The stuff about the void and Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is pretty interesting. It means all shadow spells come from the same place, but the method of drawing it makes it different. Also makes the cult less...cackling evil and more neutral in my eyes. Shame what they do to the forsaken in cata/MoP.

As for the 200 years ago thing, I'll look into updating that.

[Beltharean]

...The stuff about the void and Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is pretty interesting. It means all shadow spells come from the same place, but the method of drawing it makes it different. Also makes the cult less...cackling evil and more neutral in my eyes. Shame what they do to the forsaken in cata/MoP.

As for the 200 years ago thing, I'll look into updating that.

Yeah, the shadow stuff seemed like it had the greatest implications! All shadow spells come from the same place, and the Light and Shadow are both arguably the oldest sources of power in the Universe! Plus the part about Goblins and Light just goes to show that the Cult's view on Divine Humanism is right, it's all about inner willpower: Even for the Light!

[Mathias]

"@MickyNeilson Rise of the Horde and the WoW Comic said that the Draenei arrived to Draenor 200 years before W1. That's still accurated?"
"Yep, Historians confirmed."
(Server timeline is wrong, says it's 960 years ago)

That was probably known when the new timeline was being made, it was just Blizzard timeline being so wonky and silly that things were changed. For example, Rise of the Horde would have had the orcs change from a shamanistic people to genocidal maniacs in less than a year (always less than a year for Blizzard). There's also the fact that the Draenei expanded their civilization across Draenor (Come on, now, Draenor is bigger than the game says), and that Oshu'gun became something spiritual for the orcs. 200 years is not that long, especially for a low populated race that has all the time in the world to expand from Nagrand to Shadowmoon Valley.

I raise my banner in support of 960 years ago.

[Beltharean]

America is only 237 years old, to put the perspectives of the rise and fall of a civilization into perspective. This is also a nomadic race that's mastered implanting their civilization onto a new planet through trial and error for thousands of years. As for the Horde turning to Genocide, if you read Rise of the Horde it all makes quite a bit of sense for it happening in such a short amount of time. I'd rather we stick to the lore on something as large as the coming and going of an entire race, even if I am for custom lore in other places.

[Mathias]

America is populated by humans. Currently over 300 million humans. Humans, to overuse a common fantasy cliche, expand quickly because they don't live very long. The draenei don't have a known "old age" because none have died from old age, with Velen living for more than 25,000 years. The draenei were already small when they left Argus, and they only got smaller, meaning they didn't have much reason to expand, unless they had plenty of years to repopulate themselves. 200 years doesn't seem like plenty of time to suddenly need to expand quickly. Let's also look at Draenei and childbirth, with children being rare enough that Velen can be there for every child, and twins and above being rarer than human twins. Comparing the expansion of America and the draenei, I don't see it working.

[Beltharean]

Americans didn't expand West based on any need for property or land to support population. It was part of Manifest Destiny, and the belief that they were entitled to the rest of the continent. Your argument, based on population size and the longevity of the Draenei, wouldn't give them a reason to expand over the course of 900 years either, there still just wouldn't be enough of them to warrant spreading across all of Draenor. I think Blizzard having them expand across the planet was silly in the first place since a band of refugees would generally stick together and not spread out: If the Legion were to come back, they should all be in one place so they could get out of dodge.

Anyway, since that was kinda scattered the tl;dr is that 200 years or 900 years, they shouldn't have spread that far in the first place. They did however, and since becoming a world power is more than possible in 200 years it doesn't matter whether it was 200 or 900 so instead of changing Blizzard's lore which we've obviously avoided in the past, we should just stick with it.

[Mathias]

I know about the Manifest Destiny, and the draenei don't seem the type to say "It's our destiny to expand across this land". Draenor has a specific name for the draenei, "Exile's Refuge". The draenei had been to other planets before, and unless they kept calling those planets Draenor and saying "Okay, this time, we found the right spot", they had to feel very safe and very secure on Draenor to call it that. 200 years is nothing for a draenei. A group like the Draenei would not expand, being a band of refugees, as you said, unless they felt safe on their planet. Again, don't see that after 200 years.

So 200 years is not: enough time for the draenei to feel safe enough to expand and to be populated enough to expand. Sticking to Blizzard lore in this sense doesn't make sense.

A side-note on sticking to Blizzard lore: http://wowpedia.org/Timeline_%28Ultimate...l_Guide%29

We would have to use that timeline if we gonna be faithful to Blizzard lore, and that timeline ignores its own lore in the game. Plus, it would probably require another hard reset, since it would throw plenty of profiles out of whack. If we switch to 200 years before the First War (230 years currently, or 228 if we go with the Visual Guide), then I'll just shrug and go along with it. I just think 200 years does not work for a race like the Draenei.

[CappnRob]

To support Mathias: in game quest text also supports Draenor being populated for 900+ years. Auchindoun is over 500 years old. So yeah!

[Dae]

Will Blizz just PLEASE explain the Light a little more? Honestly, I feel like there's such a human-centric focus on the Holy Light that it distorts the few available lore tidbits that accurately explain its nature.
I mean, is there different "types" of Light? Between the Holy light, the celestial light of the sun walkers (which is yellow to red abd more fire-like) and Elune priests to the Loa blessing the trolls with a degree of Light (their racial regeneration is confirmed to be loa-gifted, and the explicitly healing Loa uses a sort of Light-like power, if not the light) and now goblins confirmed to use the Light through Willpower, and the Blood Knights using the light like any other form of magic...

Seriously, I think it's overrated as a singular force of pure good or what-not. We don't even have any confirmation of the Titans being in any way associated with it, despite the fact that their pining for order lends itself to their mission.
It's gotta be less altruistic than people think, IMHO. At least to the degree that we have natural, benevolent Shadow the form of the horde's ancestral spirits.

Also, between Bwonsamedi being cool with the trolls ( and whom is the source of trolling undead smiting powers) and their being "Light" loa who give troll "holy priests" their powers, there's no damn reason we shouldn't have troll paladins.

[Beltharean]

"@Loreology Are Blood Knights and Sunwalkers true Paladins or is it just for gameplay purposes? They seem different"
"They have the same in-game abilities for gameplay sake. IIRC, we intentionally avoid referring to Sunwalkers as "paladins". "

They say there that there's a difference between Sunwalkers and Paladins, so it wouldn't be a stretch to assume they're getting their powers from a deity in the same way Elune is:

""@MickyNeilson so what about Elunites, or are they just the light as well? Is that another lost thematic"
"Historian input - the power would come from Elune."

And with that, if you've read Vol'jin's origin story there's a point where they come in contact with Loa. They're definitely their own beings, spirits of deceased Trolls and have no connection to the Light whatsoever. If we're to take a bit of inspiration from the RPGs on Loa since that's really our only source, the Loa of Healing you're talking about Lukou, has powers very distinct from the Light.

She can heal, and she has some parallels to Light magic, but when you read further into her abilities it says any spells granted by her have no greater effect on the undead than any other spell. If you want to strike down the undead you need to use spells stemming from Bwon Samedi.

The only reason everything is so similar in game, as the first quote says, is for gameplay reasons and the sake of consistency and balance between classes.



EDIT: Missed the part about Troll Paladins- The reason we don't have Troll Paladins is really for cultural reasons more than anything. A human paladin is to the Light what a Priestess of the Moon is to Elune. In the same way a Shadow Hunter basically acts as the Troll equivalent of a paladin: A combat centric, specifically melee, Holy Warrior. Their religion is different though, and isn't solely light based. A real Shadow Hunter would be able to use healing spells from Nature Loa and Lukou in a more light-oriented way because he would have a connection with all of them on some level.

[CappnRob]

Reminder that Light is divine magic, but not all divine magic is the Light :P