Even these answers bring up lore I know nothing about (Maw? Drogbar? Other “aspects?”). I suspect it’s because there is so much lore being revealed only in raids, which is problematic for the non-raiding community (always the one’s getting screwed; like the raid is the pinnacle of WoW play for all players), as well as there being so much lore to remember. Well-established lore is well-established for the players who got it. New players, especially non-raiders) jumping to BfA, at lvl 10, have no chance. For example, Rag: Vanilla? Raid. Cata? Raid. Now we have new expansions built heavily on this ancient lore. What does Blizzard think the result is going to be? Confusion like this leads to loss of players. Everything (except for the f’ing raid requirements) was fine in Legion. BfA hit the scene, and it’s been nothing but a nightmare ever since. I never even heard of Neltharion (just Deathwing ) until now, and Wrathion is a total mystery, along with his history with Anduin. No matter what lore I am looking for, I am just having to go back farther and farther to try and get answers but finding mass new questions. I am so frustrated with WoW these days that I’m not excited to play it at all. Oh, I could go on, but why? It’s history, and I’m set back years of play having to try and pick it all up. End of story. Right? Having to leave expansions half way through to try and keep current with the next one (game pace issue) does not help matters either. I’ve just had to accept that I cannot be current anymore.
…Just go on a few hour long reading binge of wowpedia. That will give you all the information you need to know, as it is very well kept. Reading is your friend.
I don’t raid. I just quest and look stuff up I don’t know and thats been pretty effective. I still end up learning new stuff about Warcraft despite having played since the end of WotLK, and its actually fun that wow can stills surprise me.
You can very easily be updated in SL because it’s all new. We know absolutely nothing about the SL prior to this. We’re going in as blind as you to discover a whole new section of lore. Being generally familiar with Sylvanas and the Lich King/Scourge helps though. And the abduction happens in the pre-patch in the first quest talking to Genn/Lor’themar, they showed you the cinematic of it.
I think new players can understand WoW’s a very big long running game. It’s not something you’ll ever learn overnight. There’s a lot of in game content, the first WC games, and outside novels like the Chronicles and prequel books supplementing its history. Wowpedia’s also a great source to search anything you want. Learning is a journey! 
That’s also kind of why Blizz requires new players to level through BfA on their first character. So they get on most recent lore leading into Shadowlands. Not being confused by previous expansions which are completely irrelevant right now. Like it’s not important that they know who Deathwing is in the context of the SL. It’s just something to go back and explore later.
I gurantee you 95%(or more) of warcraft’s lore is outside the raids. The thing is Warcraft’s lore is now so massive it could easily be several books long. If you have the money to spare, grabe the Chronicles, those books condense most of Warcraft lore into an easily digestible format.
WoW has a lot of lore. Some good, some bad, but you can’t really expect anything different from a franchise based on 11 video games (not including WC RTS Expansions) and dozens of books as well as other media. It’s also malleable as all hell, with Blizzard handing out retcons like fries out of a McDonalds. Maybe us frequents on the Story Forums have “professor syndrome”, wherein we’ve seen something so many times we forgot how hard it was to learn, but I remember it taking me…
Basically what’s been suggested above. Just diving into the Wiki for hours on end and reading to get a decent understanding of the lore. And, even then, I still don’t know a ton of it.
Fortunately, Blizzard’s in-game storytelling and world-building has really improved. Raids have never been a huge source of lore. Most of the bossess are throwaways, save maybe the last one or two. I think anyone who watches the cinematics (which are available on YouTube) and does the quests will have a pretty good idea of what’s happening. Basically the whole of Zandalar and Kul Tiras were new lore (save some lip service to previously referenced locations and characters), but I got the gist just playing casually. Fine-granularity detail I get from the Wiki.
To understand the current story, just pay attention to what characters are saying. They voice-act the critical pieces now, which is nice, and most super important moments have some modicum of a cut scene. If you have further questions, go to the Wiki, or feel free to ask them here.
I posted a highlight of the story since WoW started here. Additionally, there are YouTube Channels devoted to WoW lore, such as Nobbel87 or Platinum WoW. These cover anything from specific topics (such as Arthas or Nerzhul) to summaries of entire expansions.
But, on the whole, WoW lore is just large in volume, but you don’t need to know a ton of the finer details to figure out what’s happening. A brief stop to the Wiki, YouTube, or the Story Forums will usually clear up whatever questions you might have.
Platinum WoW imo is the best lore videos for new people. His videos are on the shorter side for wow lore vids and he balances information with more entertainment. He’s good for a taste of lore, but might not be as in depth.
I like him a lot. Nobbel can be a little dry, but that’s his shtick: an academic presentation of WoW lore.
Yeah I prefer Platinum. A few years of history classes taught by bad professors ground down my patience for academics.
This has to be a troll post.
Everything involving Deathwing is literally ancient WoW history since Vanilla and Wrathion was a main focal point in both Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. In quest text, more than anything.
Dude chill, just sit down and read through wowpedia. Of course WoW Lore is complicated, it’s a nearly 2 decade old story involving dozens of races each with their own specific histories that overlap or don’t with dozens of characters per race with narrative relevancy.
There is plenty of material to find if you are looking for answers to these kinds of questions, and the history of characters such as Deathwing goes back way before WOW even started. If you’re curious, go check.
You don’t know about the abduction because the pre patch quests are the first time this comes up. Our characters were not with the NPCs when they were abducted, but it is explained through a cinematic and the dialogue of the NPCs
Probably 20 minute videos that can bring you up to speed on current lore for shadowlands.
I disagree, as someone who took a huge break at the end of Mists and only coming back a few months ago, I wasn’t really confused by the story, either Alliance or Horde: Factions are at war, that’s it. As soon as you go further into BFA and start questing, you jump into some zones with their own individual and fresh stories, which I personally loved playing through.
Wow Lore was always confusing. There are dozens of written books that take place before the game existed, as well as several other games. All with lore that carry over into WoW. If having to catch up on existing lore is a problem, how did you ever get started?
All that I’m hearing here is go outside the game for information. What the heck? I want to play the damned thing; not research it, and cinematics are an absolutely a no go. I learned the hard way - way too emotionally charged.
Then take the stories as they come- if you don’t want to research the game, then just take the stories as they come. You can find a lot of enjoyment through the individual stories of each expansion, or even each zone, without dealing with the overarching story.
The stories of each zone in Kul Tiras and Zandalar were incredibly fun, and none of them tied to the overarching plot of the faction war. Probably won’t be entirely the same with the Shadowlands zones, but I’m betting each zone will have their own flavor and stories that will be fun to play through.
I’m sorry to hear that 
Blizzard has put together some amazing cinematics. And if you choose to skip them, you might indeed miss bits of the story.
However you decide to go about it, I wish you good luck, and hope you have fun playing.
I started by playing it. That’s it. Lore interest came a short time later. I had no idea that there was lore previous to WoW that transfers over. That’s not really fair, imo. Lore was never a problem for me until BfA. I couldn’t play during MoP and WoD, and only half of Legion, so that’s surely part of the problem, and frankly I went from Northrend to Pandaria. I didn’t even know that there was an in-depth story-line to Cata - thought it was just a geographic change. I want to play the expansions. That’s why I buy them and not books or do research for free fun on-line. I mean, why play if I have to go do research anyway?
Because this is an RPG and that’s how RPGs work.
You can do every quest in the game and get the same result as well. It just takes more time.
The cinematics are amazing - that’s the problem; way too charged. I got so stuck on those, so quickly, that I had to just tear away completely, so I could play the game. Yeah, there’s lots of lore, there, but at what cost? I want to play the lore, not watch it. I am not happy at all being set back years of play, but it’s a whole lot better than research. The over-arching story is what I am talking about missing. It sounds like I have to research the game even though I am playing it. Now, that’s a problem. But, if Imma hang in with WoW, then what choice do I have? I really am disgusted.
That has been the case since the entire start of WoW, none of the books since the start of WoW have really ever been portrayed in detail in-game, nor explained in detail in quests.
You’re complaining about something that has always been present.
What is it that you want blizzard to do then, to change your attitude away from being “disgusted?” Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what you have written, you want catch up on the lore of the game. Fair enough. And your choices seem to be between being set back years of game time or doing a little bit of research. But I don’t see how this is a problem.
Is a bit of research going to be so very painful? After all, if you are interested in the lore, why is it so painful to learn about it? Besides as mentioned, a video can get you caught up to the current lore and ready for shadowlands in about twenty minutes, all the research you will need to be “current”. It’s just going to establish the setting and the reasons for people being there: what more do you need to know for the story to be compelling? You don’t need to know the history of each character to be interested in them, nor the significance of every place you visit. The old characters you will come to know through your interactions, as people who didn’t know Thrall’s history before WoW still came to know him in WoW. New characters, of course, are new characters and will need to be discovered in their entirety as the story flows forward. That’s part of experiencing the story, and will happen as the game moves forward patch by patch, expansion by expansion.
But, assuming that you have to experience all the content of the previous expansions for the overarching story to make sense and that having that is setting you back years, then you are in an even better place: It means you have years worth of story content to experience and enjoy! If you are interested in the lore, don’t rush through it just to stay current- take your time and have fun the ride! If you find the lore interesting, then be thorough with it and get everything you need out of it! Play the game, enjoy the journey, and don’t worry about the destination. You’ll get there in time.
If these options don’t sound good to you, then maybe this game simply isn’t for you, and there isn’t a whole lot Blizzard can do. The story of what came before is there to be played, if you want to experience it, and the answers for the current story are there too, if you want to look for them. If you find that a reason to be “disgusted,” once again this game is probably not for you.
I am not complaining. I am seeking clarity. I didn’t even know about any books until about 6 months ago. I was taught, when new (no rpg experience) that quests were not important to read and were just side entertainment (xp was the goal), so I did what I was taught. Now I know different. I have been reading the quests for about 4-5 months and find that they open up a whole new dimension to the game for me. I am, indeed, finding bits a pieces of lore, now. I’ll just quest. That’s no problem for me - just sets me back. Someone else here mentioned Genn as the Alliance giver of the first pre-launch quest, so I can still get that (missed the abduction piece when doing it Horde somehow) with my lvl 50 (almost embarrassing to say after being a lvl 120) Alliance toon. That’s good to know. Overall, I am feeling hopeful, now, to still be able to play SL as well as pick up old lore by playing it. I can do that. I was feeling trapped behind the veil of SL unable to get in and that I had to hurry up and catch old lore in order to do so. It sounds like SL is kind of a re-boot of the game - a restart sort of. Purchasing new expansions beyond SL, however, shall be quite delayed, and that sucks. Still, I’m feeling a whole lot better. Thanks mate.
Yeah, Platinum is basically Oversimplified while Nobbel is History Matters.
One mixes entertainment with fact, while the other one does have a few jokes here and there (mostly in the background), but is mostly just straight info.
The closet was Jaina: Tides of War and we all know how those two scenarios basically just butchered it. Next would be part 3 of the WotA trilogy with the WoE dungeon.