Thanks to Dread I realized that the staff Medivh was using during Warcraft 3 was not the real one:
Following the assassination of Medivh, the staff was found by the Kirin Tor and brought to Dalaran. This was followed by a series of tragic events, leading to the death of every Kirin Tor mage that came into contact with Atiesh. The staff was put behind impenetrable barriers of magic and mage Angela Dosantos was appointed to watch over it.[2]
The staff was lost and shattered, presumably due the failsafe system of the magical barrier, during the destruction of Dalaran by Archimonde.[1][2]
I mean, he made the original. Pretty sure he can make as many as he wants?
Granted, for all we know the one he had in WC3 could just be a similar staff going by a different name.
Would make for an interesting potential legendary staff sometime in the future, although when, I don’t know. We’re heading to Quel’Thalas in the next expansion, so I’d hope to see a legendary staff there.
Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian is a powerful staff passed down through the line of the Guardians of Tirisfal up until and including Medivh, the Last Guardian.[1]
I’m a bit sad it’s not the caster legendary for this expansion. I thought it would be when we saw it conspicuously broken (again) when Xal was fighting Khadgar. Like we’d retrieve the pieces, purge the void corruption and reforge it or what have you.
Even if it was in Dalaran, couldn’t Medivh have just gone and taken it back? He’s the Guardian, who coulda stopped him from teleporting in, taking it, and poofing out or something?
I assume an entire city that had magical wards to make sure a dangerous(and cursed) artifact like Atiesh wouldnt end up in the wrong hands. Not to mention the Atiesh the players got was broken.
Forgery would require an intent to have people believe it was the original. There is no evidence that is what was going on. He never told anyone he was using Atiesh. More likely it was that he no longer had access to Atiesh and felt he needed at least some of the tools Atiesh provided. So, he made a new staff that functioned and looked very similar. It was a replacement for Atiesh, not a forgery.
It would be kind of like if you had a painting of the Grand Canyon that was stolen and so you had a painter create a new painting of the Grand Canyon for you to hang on the wall. The new painting will look a lot like the original and will serve the same function in your decorations. But it would be a replacement, not a forgery.
The crux of this entire thing was due to Dread somehow thinking Terenas was stupid for not suddenly realizing the random stranger that pop up in his court was Medivh.
I saw the argument you had. But, I think that is separate from the question of it being a ‘Forgery.’
I chock most of that up to plot convenience. The writers wanted a warning that was ignored so they made one.
But, if you want an in lore explanation:
Medivh was traumatized during his time as the Guardian. So much so that he feared being put back in the role. So, he was unwilling to tell people who he was. But he needed to get the warning out. So, he took the role of wandering prophet.
And I agree, there is no reason Terenas would have known it was Medivh. He believed Medivh dead. So, even if he saw some similarity in appearance/dress/speech/etc. he would likely just have choked it up as someone who was similar to Medivh, especially as there is no reason to believe Terenas had much if any interaction with Medivh in the past.
Dread just likes to stir up things and he is quick to jump to conclusions and then stubbornly hold onto them despite all evidence to the contrary.
But, I still argue Medivh was not using a forgery of Atiesh. He was using a replacement for Atiesh.
Well sure, we have seen two that use ravens. Doesn’t mean that there are only two. And other mages know transformation magic as well. Polymorph type magic was not exactly unheard of.
From Terenas point of view, what would have been more likely?
Medivh was a recluse who lived in a tower, in another kingdom, on the other side of the continent. It’s not like they have TV news, either. How could Terenas possibly be expected to know what he looked like?
