I find it interesting to mention that Dalaran contributed a lot to the Alliance and Azeroth. One of the events that I like to remember most about the positive contribution is when the Second War ended.
Antonidas was one of those responsible for preventing the extermination of the orcs. And as time went by, he studied the orcs and wrote a book called “Lethargy of the Orcs.” In this book, he raised important questions about what could have caused the orcs’ extreme violence when they invaded Azeroth and why they became less violent over time.
It is possible to say that Antonidas contributed greatly to the members of the Alliance starting to see the orcs not just as invading monsters.
Excellent essay.
Someone in another thread, which was unfortunately deleted for off-topic stuff, once discussed the conflict between arcane as magic of order and its unstable, chaotic nature. He had provided a very good explanation, particularly regarding the mage as a disruptive force in an ordered universe. I think that was you. Is there any more information about that?
I don’t remember this thread very well and since it was deleted, I won’t be able to find it either. But regarding your question, what I understand is the following.
The Order is the force responsible for guaranteeing the entire physical organization of the universe, manifesting itself as arcane magic. Arcane magic, therefore, is naturally the glue that holds all things together and stable in physical reality.
When a wizard tries to manipulate it, he is seeking to distort the natural role of arcane magic so that it works according to his will, instead of properly fulfilling the role established by the force of the Order. From that moment on I believe that arcane magic becomes highly unstable, volatile and dangerous, because it is being used to do the opposite of what it was created to do.
A good deal of the blame can be attributed to the high elves, who did not warn the humans of Dalaran about one of the dangers of careless manipulation of arcane magic: the attraction of creatures from the Twisting Nether.
When the high elves warned the humans, the Council of Tirisfal was created.
Did the lore change on this? I thought the Elves specifically taught the humans to use arcane magic responsibly for this exact reason. Did the elves not teach them? Or did the humans forget over time?
I mained an arcane draenei mage on an rp server (before Chronicles), so my perception of arcane magic is based on the RTS games, vanilla WoW and the RPG that Chris Metzan helped write.
In all of these projects, arcane is a force of Chaos, not Order. It was magic from the Twisting Nether. Mages tried to control chaos, while warlocks unleash it in its most corrupt form as fel magic. In vanilla, mages are described as controlling the forces of the Twisting Nether. The human warlock in Ratchet literally refers to his magic as “arcane” and says it only corrupts the weak.
This was why arcane magic attracted demons, and why Archimonde claimed Dalaran was stealing the “fire” of demons.
It’s also why the Nexus dungeon from WoTLK looks so chaotic. Especially around “The Rift”. That entire sub-zone is what arcane magic was supposed to be for most of Warcraft’s history. Of particular note is the arcane wraith boss “Anomalous” who literally shouts about “CHAOS”. This wasn’t even the Arcane being manipulated in some way. It was arcane magic leaking from a Rift in the Twisting Nether. It seemed to be arcane in its “natural state”.
So when Chronicles claimed fel and arcane were opposites, and that arcane is “Order Magic”, it ruined my entire perception of my character. I thought my mage was mastering the forces that corrupted his kin. I thought the Draenei’s mastery of the arcane, despite its chaotic nature, was a testament to their intelligence and moral fiber.
Turns out none of that was true XD
Or at least, I don’t think it’s true anymore.
Here’s a question: is arcane LITERALLY Order magic? Or is it what happens when you try to control Chaos?
When the descendants of the original hundred human mages founded Dalaran, they began to practice using arcane magic carelessly. And the irresponsibility of these mages ended up attracting the attention of the Legion’s demons, resulting in a series of attacks against Dalaran.
Because they were unaware of the nature of these invading creatures, the humans of Dalaran asked the high elves of Quel’thalas for help, which was when they became aware that the use of arcane magic can attract creatures from the Twisting Nether.
From this, the high elves of Quel’thalas and the humans of Dalaran formed the Council of Tirisfal, with the aim of hunting down the demons that had already arrived on the planet and preventing the arrival of others.
I understand that arcane magic, as an expression of Order in our reality, is responsible for dealing with the chaos of creation and organizing all physical things. She, therefore, is the one who stabilizes all matter and prevents the presence of its opposite force, Disorder.
But if your role in the universe is to bring order to chaos, it makes sense that a mage who manipulates this type of magic can accomplish the opposite, which would be to distort its nature to act precisely as its opposite force, bringing disorder to the universe.
If we think of something organized as something that is in conformity with its creator or in conformity with the nature of things, every action made by a mage is a distortion of the natural order of the universe and, therefore, is a disordered use of the magic of Order.
The mage, despite controlling the Order’s magic, uses it in a chaotic manner. And because it is not performing its natural role, the Order’s magic can also be seen as chaotic magic whenever it is being controlled. I say “chaotic magic” not in the sense of a new magic, but rather as a magic distorted in its nature, similar to the magic opposite it.
The peculiarity of arcane magic makes it highly unstable because of this, because any interference from us completely distorts it from its nature and puts it on the same level as its opposite magic, as it no longer forms part of the order that was established for the universe.
Furthermore, this may justify why demons are attracted to the unruly use of arcane magic, because it is a disorder of magic that would be responsible for avoiding it.
For this reason I do not see that Chronicles distanced itself from ancient tradition when it established cosmology. I liked what was created and I found it consistent with what was in the WoW universe until then.
So, how do we explain the Rift in the Nexus? Or Anomalous? Or the warlocks claiming to use “arcane” magic and boasting that it doesn’t corrupt them?
Or what about Netherstorm? The entire zone is clearly arcane-themed, and look how chaotic it is. The Burning Crusade promotional website directly stated The Netherstorm is a place of arcane magic. Tempest Keep has arcane mage characters called “nethermancers”. The Mana-Forges are clearly absorbing arcane magic from the Chaotic Nether above.
So how is arcane, in its natural state, a force of Order?
This is where it gets confusing for me. I really don’t understand what arcane magic is in light of all this.
In my understanding, the Order’s domain, through arcane magic, only applies in physical reality. This domain does not apply to other spaces of existence, such as the Twisting Nether.
The Twisting Nether is described as an astral plane of unstable magic that lies between the worlds. One of the magic found there is arcane magic, but in a completely chaotic and distorted form.
That dimension does not exist physically, without form and totally unstable. Any magic there, therefore, might behave this way.
One example I can cite of magic that has been distorted is blood magic.
This magic is a form of tortured life magic, ceasing to align naturally with this cosmic force and even becoming one of the domains of the Death force, being precisely one of the magics used by death knights.
I always found this very fascinating. Blood magic being torture life magic… the fact that the Emerald Dream turns red and becomes the Emerald Nightmare kinda match up perfectly with this!
Hmmm now that I think about it, I never read on this but I think this might be the reason Venthyr anima looks red? Their method of extracting anima from souls seems like a type of torture to expunge the sins right?
Maybe its just an artistic design but it does line well with the exponation on Blood Magic in WoW. (IMO)
I’m not sure how it answers the questions of all the times arcane has been explicitly shown to be chaotic throughout pre-chronicles lore, why the vanilla mage description claims they harness the power of the twisting nether, or why warlocks claimed to be using arcane magic and boasting about how it only corrupts the weak.
It seems like a pretty hard retcon.
Sure, we can try to retroactively explain it, but that’s what a retcon is
So if Arcane is Order magic, how can chaotic Arcane magic exist at all? If Order magic becomes disordered, by definition it cant be order magic, right?
I just cant square this with all the pre-Chronicles lore. It feels like a different magic system entirely.
I can think of a dozen more examples of arcane magic being implicitly or explicitly chaotic from WC1 until Legion. That’s when things started to shift, but honestly even the arcane mage’s artifact weapon seemed anything but orderly to me.
So how can Order be chaotic? How can arcane still be arcane when its being “distorted” as you describe?
This stuff is so confusing to me, lol! It’s hard to keep it all straight in my head.
According to Danuser in an interview, they thought about having the Venthyr manipulate blood magic:
A natural conclusion to that conversation was vampirism and blood magic, pulling inspiration from classic tales like Dracula . This also explains parts of Azeroth we’ve seen before, from the blood trolls of Nazmir to Blood Queen Lana’thel and her servants in Icecrown Citadel. We’ve seen the powers of the Venthyr before; now we get to meet them up close.
I think this idea was not taken into the game, as we see the Venthyr only manipulating anima. But it is possible that its red color has something to do with a tortured form of anima, just as we see in nature magic when subjected to this type of situation.
It’s a good justification and it really makes sense.
In my understanding, whenever arcane magic is manipulated it will be chaotic, as its user is taking it away from its cosmic purpose of maintaining the physical structure of the universe. So much so that the magician’s ability to control arcane magic is precisely to manipulate physical reality, distorting time and space.
As for the effects of arcane magic, one of them is that it corrupts.
In the past, when we had to learn our talents from class trainers, we would receive a letter from Khelden Bremen, a mage trainer found in Northshire Abbey. In that letter it was said that:
There are four rules to magic:
Magic is powerful.
Magic is corrupting.
Magic is addicting.
Magic draws the denizens of the Twisting Nether to those who wield the arcane.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Glyphic_Letter
But unlike what we see with fel magic, which corrupts the user and the entire environment around them, arcane magic apparently corrupts only the user’s body.
I understand that arcane magic, following the example we see with blood magic, can be subverted and used to accomplish the opposite of what it was created to do.
As I mentioned previously, the magician’s ability is precisely to distort physical reality, therefore his conjurations theoretically go against the purpose of the Order. And if Order is capable of organizing all physical things, I think that if we are capable of using it, it is possible that we will use it to disorganize those same things.
Outside of its natural role of stabilizing matter, arcane magic proves to be highly chaotic, as we see in the Spiral Ethereal and as we see in the warnings wizards receive.
I understand that arcane magic, therefore, is the expression of a cosmic force naturally responsible for the organization of things within physical reality, with this magic behaving like a glue to bind all things together. And due to its organizing nature, when this magic is removed from its natural purpose, it becomes highly chaotic and unstable. So whenever we find it outside of its purpose of stabilizing things, it will be chaotic.
I think this is where the difference lies in our perception.
I think it’s the exact opposite. I think what we call “arcane magic” is what happens when you APPLY ORDER to what would OTHERWISE BE CHAOS. It is not a pure expression of Order.
Then, by definition, once it’s taken out of its natural state it is no longer Order magic. By the logic of Chronicles, if you were to make Order magic, disorderly, it would by definition be Fel magic. Or is Fel not considered Disorder magic in the new canon?
Anyway, what you’re describing feels like kind of a shroedinger’s magic situation. If it’s harnessed and observed by mortals, it’s chaotic. When it’s not doing anything immediately visible, it’s orderly. I don’t think that’s how this works.
What I’m arguing is that what we call “arcane” magic is what happens when you take raw magic from the Nether and apply logic and order to it in the form of runes, formulae, etc. It’s the methods USED in Arcane magic that are associated with Order, not the raw magic itself
After all: what is Order without something disorderly to organize?
Again, I think it’s too simple to say arcane magic is simply “order magic” when there is so much evidence that seems to suggest that:
The natural “home” of arcane is the Twisting Nether (this was explicitly the case in pre-Chronicles lore)
Arcane is always shown to be chaotic until it’s harnessed, and it becomes chaotic again when used incorrectly.
Every time I’ve ever seen arcane in its supposed “natural state” it’s chaotic and mutagenic. It’s like fantasy radiation. When an arcane sanctum breaks down, the magics within are unleashed in a chaotic fashion. We see this in Eversong and Ghostlands. In Netherstorm, chaotic arcane magics are drawn from their supposed source: the Twisting Nether. It’s only the mana forges that turn it into something “stable”. Wherever “natural” arcane magic goes, reality destabilizes around it.
If I were to try and make sense of Chronicles and square it with the pre-Chronicles lore, I would compromise by saying that “arcane” is “order” in the sense that you’re applying an orderly mindset onto raw magic from the Twisting Nether. Perhaps it’s not truly considered “arcane” until order is applied to this raw nether-magic.
Left to its own devices, the magic we call “Arcane” is chaotic. I can’t reconcile any other explanation for this. It just doesn’t make sense to me otherwise. The evidence doesn’t add up.
What we have as canonical is that there is a cosmic force responsible for organizing all things in physical reality, expressing itself in the form of arcane magic. And this force has another that is opposite to it, expressing itself in the form of vile magic. Therefore, arcane magic will always make reference to the cosmic force of the Order.
I understand that the magic of Order has its function in the universe, as does the magic of Disorder. However, as we see with wizards, it is possible to use the Order’s magic to do the exact opposite of what it exists to do.
This does not make it a Disorder magic, as structurally this cosmic force already exists and manifests itself through a distinct magic, vile magic.
The fruit of arcane magic is everything we can see and touch in reality. It is what keeps space and time functioning and stabilizes everything that has a body within the physical universe.
Arcane magic is one of the most valuable energies for physical reality, as without it everything would be undone and returned to the chaos of creation.
As for its plane of existence, arcane magic is present in the Twisting Nether, but it is not its home. It is possible that there is a specific plane of existence for the Order, as would be the case for all other cosmic forces. Danuser himself has already suggested that the titans would return to the Order’s plane when they were killed:
It has been hinted that when titans die, their souls would return to their own Order plane.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Titan
We also have Order entities like Aluneth coming from an unknown location, which may indicate this plane of existence.
