I was reading back stories of player characters and many of them referenced the first, second, third and/or fourth war(s). How many years separated each war? Or how many years from the beginning of the first war until the end of the fourth war? Additionally, what was each war?
I know for many this is common lore knowledge, but I’m not up to speed any many Warcraft details.
First War: Gul’dan corrupts the Orcs with Fel. Medivh opens portal for the Horde to enter Azeroth. Blackhand leads to Orcs and destroys the Kingdom of Azeroth (Aka Stormwind)
Second War: Refugees from Azeroth travel north to Lordaeron who form the Alliance with all the other Human Nations, Dwarves and some Elves. Doomhammer doesn’t like that Blackhand is being manipulated by Gul’dan so kills Blackhand and takes charge of the Horde. Knowing that the humans are coming and Draenor is being destroyed, Doomhammer gambles on blitzkrieging north to take out Lordaeron. He’s betrayed by Gul’dan and doesn’t have enough forces to take Lordaeron when he gets there, forcing him to retreat to Blackrock Mountain where he’s defeated (after killing the Alliance leader Lothar).
Third War: Arthas stuff… Orcs escape imprisonment and sail to Kalimdor under the leadership of Thrall. Arthas turns evil, Scourge happens, Lordaeron is destroyed etc. Illidan gets beat up and runs away.
Fourth War: BfA
There’s a general timeline guide here to get a rough idea. The Dark Portal opening is marked as year 0 and it’s been almost 34 years since then at the present day right now.
The First War is when the Dark Portal opened and the orcs invaded the kingdom of Stormwind. Total orc victory, kingdom destroyed. The Second War happened almost immediately afterwards as the Horde pressed north and attacked the rest of the kingdoms who banded together and formed the first Alliance of Lordaeron. The Horde were eventually forced back and defeated.
The Third War was the races of Azeroth, both Alliance and Horde, against the Scourge and the Burning Legion. It was collectively a chaotic time. The Lich King led Scourge obliterated the human and high elf kingdoms followed by the summoning of Archimonde and an invasion by the Burning Legion. It ended at a final battle on Mt. Hyjal where Archimonde was killed.
The Fourth War happened just now in BfA. Sylvanas led the Horde to invade the night elf lands and sparked a renewed war between the Alliance and Horde.
How long do time between them? Years? Decades? Or do these characters not age?
My theory is that time is completely borked in Azeroth and that our mortal minds simply can’t comprehend the true scale of the chaos the world crumbling around us.
(But it’s not a widely held theory)
Year 0 - 3 - First War, lasted four years.
Year 4 - 6 - Second War, lasted three years. There was a couple years of additional conflict in Outland afterwards.
Year 20 - Third War. Happens thirteen years after the end of the Second.
Year 33 - Fourth War.
And characters do age. If someone’s RPing a veteran from these wars they totally can. It’s only been over a few decades so it’s long enough for even the shorter lived races to have been through it.
Case in point… Saurfang and Eitrigg were already a grizzled veterans before the first war and they fought in every war (or survived… Eitrigg was in hiding during the Third War).