So, I’m super grateful that Blizzard included a cinematic recap of what has happened so far. But I still have a ton of questions. When did Sargeras stab Azeroth with the sword? Why is Magni made of diamonds? Who is Xal’atath? What are Xal’atath’s goals and motive? What is the Dark Heart artifact? Who is Alleria? What happened to Sylvanas? What happened to the Dragonflight characters? Why are Thrall and Anduin working together? Why are they so sad? Who was that sword aimed at? Why was Dalaran attacked and destroyed? What is taking Thrall and Jaina so long to bring reinforcements? Who are these stone dwarves we are helping? How does that relate to any of the bad guys?
I’m only halfway through Ringing Deeps trying my best to follow along, but I’m hoping they will answer some of these lingering questions eventually.
I wanted to test my WoW lore knowledge and take a stab at your questions from the top of my head. I’m sure there’s more resources on YouTube or Wowhead or other sites.
When did Sargeras stab Azeroth with the sword? After the Legion expansion, it’s his last gasp effort to mess with Azeroth and stick it to the players / Titans.
Why is Magni made of diamonds? During the Battle for Azeroth expansion, he becomes the Speaker of Azeroth and is imbued with a new form. The end of the Ringing Deeps questline provides a reason why.
Who is Xal’atath? She is an ancient void being. She was imprisoned in a dagger. During the events of Battle for Azeroth she comes to possess the body of a dead blood elf.
What are Xal’atath’s goals and motive? Kinda still up for debate. Mostly she seems interested in accumulating power, manipulating people, and I think the suspicion is that she wants to bring a powerful void being to Azeroth to destroy the world soul and the planet.
What is the Dark Heart artifact? If you play through the Dawn of the Infinite dungeon it’s something Iridikron travels back in the past to get. It’s powered by Galakrond and his insatiable hunger. Playing through the quests will reveal a little more about it, but it’s mostly a powerful artifact tied to the void.
Who is Alleria? One of the OG warcraft heroes from way back in the 1990s and Warcraft 2. She’s the sister of Sylvanas and was trapped in the void because of the events of Warcraft 2 and blowing up the Dark Portal.
What happened to Sylvanas? The Shadowlands expansion happened. She’s currently trapped in purgatory in the Maw.
What happened to the Dragonflight characters? They’re hanging out on the Dragon Isles.
Why are Thrall and Anduin working together? Because Thrall likes Anduin.
Why are they so sad? Anduin is recovering from trauma that happened in the Shadowlands expansion when he was controlled by the Jailor and became evil. I don’t think Thrall is sad, he’s just maybe older and tired of this saving the world crap.
Who was that sword aimed at? Azeroth’s world soul.
Why was Dalaran attacked and destroyed? The Kirin Tor are a threat to Xal’atath, so she took them out.
What is taking Thrall and Jaina so long to bring reinforcements? If you continue the quest line, they show back up. In “real time” it didn’t take that long.
Who are these stone dwarves we are helping? They are Titan constructs placed on the Isle of Dorn to guard the world soul.
How does that relate to any of the bad guys? The War Within is all about the conflict over Azeroth’s world soul. The Titans want the world soul because they believe it will birth into the most powerful Titan, the Void wants to corrupt or destroy it, and Iridikron wants to lure the Titans to Azeroth so he can kill them.
And the end of the Legion expansion, which was roughly 5-10 years ago in-game by now.
Between Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm (the second and third expansions), Magni tried this ancient Dwarven ritual to communicate with Azeroth and Azeroth decided to turn him into a diamond. He was awakened with Battle for Azeroth, after Sargeras stabbed the planet with this sword.
She is an ancient void being. In Legion, she was a dagger and it was the Priest artifact weapon. During BfA, we helped break her out of her dagger for reasons I don’t remember. She took control of a dead elf’s body and here we are.
For Azeroth to be conquered by the Void.
An artifact of immense power that was charged with the dead body of Galakrond and given to Xal’atah by her biggest fanboi, Iridikron. We don’t really know much at the moment.
She is the eldest of the 3 Windrunner sisters. She was meant to become the Ranger General of Silvermoon but abdicated in order to join the Alliance Expedition to Draenor in Warcraft 2. She, and her husband, Turalyon, went missing when Draenor exploded into Outland. They reappeared in Legion.
They still exist, and are probably on the Dragon Isles working on rebuilding their civilization. We probably won’t see them until Xal’atath is more of a entire world threat, and not an isolated threat to Khaz Algar. I mean, she is a big world threat, but the Dragonflights had spotlight in Dragonflight, so we won’t see them again in a major capacity for awhile.
Because they are friendly with each other. Thrall and Anduin have always fought for the Alliance and the Horde to work together.
Thrall is sad because reasons. Anduin is sad because he was tortured and mindcontrolled in Shadowlands to do terrible things, including attacking his friends and innocents in order to further the Jailer’s plans.
The Worldsoul of Azeroth, which we also call Azeroth.
Dramatic effect. To make us feel a sense of loss and to perceive Xal’atath as a threat.
They didn’t? They show up at the start of the max level campaign with the Alliance and Horde forces. It took a few weeks to muster the forces and sail to Khaz Algar.
They are Earthen. Play through the first two zones and you’ll learn all about them.
We’ve only see the first part of the story, I’m sure it will make more sense once we’re through the expansion.
I’m not sure which site is the best for wow lore anymore. But sites like wowwiki and wowpedia have literally all the lore on them. Just pick any one of places or characters you’re interested in knowing more about and read their page. From there, click the links to other pages about the people and places related to your first choice and go from there. It’s how I started learning WoW lore back in the Burning Crusade.
End of Legion when we brought the Titans back to stop him from destroying the planet.
Because he futzed around in Cata with stuff under Ironforge and was turned to diamond.
A Void entity that was in the Shadow Priest artifact weapon in Legion and then some stupid people let her out.
We have no idea.
Some random MacGuffin they came up with in Dragonflight.
One of the Windrunner sisters who went through the Dark Portal the first time the Horde came through, got caught on the others side, joined the Army of the Light, found the Void and took its power.
Banished to the Maw after she destroyed an entire continent and a city.
Some joined us out here. The dragons are chillin’ on their islands trying to get everything in order with their new power.
Because Anduin isn’t a waarmonger, never was, understood what needed to happen the end of BfA.
Anduin was used as a puppet of Domination magic to try to kill people and immortal beings and it caused PTSD. He’s also still feeling guilty for what happened during BfA.
The world soul.
Xal’atath playing 4D chess.
The seas are precarious and they didn’t set up portals to the place for fear of Xal taking them over, I guess.
The Earthen, who existed before Dwarves.
This is where we found them?
Also, the Warcraft Wiki is a tremendous amount of knowledge if you’re interested. It’s all referenced and cited, so it’s not made up stuff.
It was a result of a ritual to protect Khaz Modan from the Cataclysm
A void entity that was trapped in a knife since the time of the Black Empire. What she is exactly, or her goals/motives are still mostly unknown
An artifact imbued with the essence of Galakrond, apparently for the purpose of absorbing power (which is what Xal’atath appeared to be doing in Dalaran and again at the Priory)
The former ranger-general of Quel’thalas who became the first void elf in Legion
Banished to the Maw until she saves every single night elf she killed in the Burning of Teldrassil
Which ones? The Aspects? Taking a break I guess.
The world soul of Azeroth
To drive a war between the Nerubians and the survivors of Dalaran
Mobilization and mustering of an army takes a long time
Earthen created by the Titans to protect Khaz Algar
He casted an ancient spell to speak with Azeroth during the Cataclysm, which turned him into diamond.
We don’t know for sure, but she’s affiliated with the Void, Black Empire, and Old Gods.
Again, we don’t know for sure. She’s amassing vast amounts of magic using the Dark Heart (absorbed Arcane from Dalaran, then Holy Fire from the Priory in Hallowfall).
I think it’s a similar artifact to the Dragon/Demon Soul that Neltharion created. Iridikron stole it from one of the vaults in the Forbidden Reach, used the Infinite Dragonflight to return to the moment of Galakrond’s defeat to absorb his Void or Death magic, then handed it off to Xal’atath.
A High Elven ranger that joined the Alliance during the Second War against the Orcish Horde. She went through the Dark Portal to shut it down from the other side with Turalyon, Khadgar, and the other members of the Sons of Lothar. She then joined the Army of Light, fighting the Legion across the cosmos until absorbing a Void Naaru, becoming the first Void Elf (and substantially different from the playable race called Void Elf).
She’s in the Maw, collecting the lost souls from the burning of Teldrassil to make up for her various war crimes during the Battle for Azeroth expansion. One of Tyrande’s watcher owls is keeping an eye on her.
Which ones? The Dragon Aspects are still on the Dragon Isles, watching over the addition of Infinite and Primalists to their ranks as well as protecting Bel’ameth, the newest world tree.
Why wouldn’t they? They both heard Azeroth’s cry for help - the Radiant Song - and both live on this world. The Alliance and Horde have agreed to peace at the end of the Battle for Azeroth, and that was over five years ago in-universe time.
This is slipping into disingenuous takes…
Azeroth, and Sargeras hit his mark.
For the aforementioned Arcane magic draining for the Dark Heart.
They already arrived with them. Have you not finished the campaign?
The Earthen. Did you not pay attention to the quests?
I find it improbable and unlikely that you’ve both played the current content and know enough about the game to know to ask about where Sylvanas is and the name of the Dark Heart and still don’t know like half of this stuff.
Who the stone dwarves are is literally explained by the current questing. So are the “what’s happened to Dalaran” questions.
I can’t think of a possible configuration of which expansions you would have entirely skipped, including the current one, to have these specific holes in what you supposedly don’t know.