Was saurfang the player character from wc1?

I keep hearing people say he led the Old Horde to its warcraft 1 victories, including defeating and sacking stormwind, but I can’t seem to find a solid source on that. Is it true? or just a rumor/headcannon?

Warcraft is an RTS. There is no player character. There is only the hand in the sky that chooses who goes where.

Saurfang didn’t appear in any games until the original WoW.

3 Likes

The Old Horde was led by Blackhand first and then Ogrim Doomhammer, if I remember correctly.

So any mention of Saurfang isn’t so much headcanon as just sort of wrong.

I’ve always considered the “hand in the sky” to be the visual representation of the commander leading its troops.

If Orgrim Doomhammer was leading the troops in Warcraft 1, and you drag to select your troops and then click on where you want them to go, then it’s Doomhammer commanding them to go there.

2 Likes

I think the OP is asking if Saurfang is the equivalent of the ‘Commander’ in Starcraft 1. The guy Raynor talks to or the executor of the Protoss, etc.

Which is a nice thought, but I don’t think there is a clear answer. Rumors attributing him to that are probably just people saying ‘Itd be cool if…’

6 Likes

Yeah topsail thats exactly what I’m asking:

Unless I’m mistaken blackhand and doomhammer actually talk directly to the player a few times, during the pre-mission dialogue. Its been a while since I watched a playthrough so I may be misremembering it, but if thats the case I’d say there is a “commander” character who goes unnamed in the games, and who is neither blackhand nor doomhammer.

I heard a rumor that this was retroactively stated somehow to be Saurfang, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was just someone’s headcannon.

1 Like

There’s no actual dialogue in the O&H pre-mission vignettes, just an unnamed narrator talking about what “you” have been assigned to do, are going to do, ect. Blackhand is mentioned by name as giving “you” orders in the Orcish one, and “you” eventually assassinate Blackhand and take over leadership of the Horde.

So basically, the PC (such as it is) in the O&H Orc campaign is Orgrim Doomhammer.

A big chunk of the Human campaign is an AU where the humans won the First War, so the “you” in those missions mostly doesn’t exist; the things that “you” accomplished that later became canon are mostly attributed to Lothar.

EDIT: A transcription of the pre-mission narration.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Warcraft:_Orcs_%26_Humans_missions

7 Likes

I can definitely see this being someone’s headcanon - not that I would put it past the devs to not try to make this real as a whooooa we shocked you! moment - if only because as far as I recall, Saurfang was never originally intended to be anything more than “guy you turned in your dragon head to.” After fan memeage took off he became the leader of the Might of Kalimdor and kind of blossomed from there.

That said, it’s their universe and their lore and if they want to make it so, it will be so, no matter how ham-fisted.

I always liked to pretend my orc warrior in WoW was one of those grunts running alongside Thrall in the first Orc campaign while his cohort whined about only having pigmen to fight.

warcraft 2’s manual implied that lothar was the protagonist from any human missions in wc1, & doomhammer was the protagonist from any of the orcish missions

saurfang would be a good argument as the PC in wc2 when you play as the blackrock clan, since they retconned him in as one of doomhammer’s main lieutenants

This is actually SUPER old. I remember reading about it before I even moved to this realm.

The rumor(?) was that Orgrim was retconned as the nameless PC in WC1, and Saurfang was retconned as the nameless PC in WC2.
I believe the first was true, but I can’t remember if the second was. Though both rumors have existed a long time now.

The answer is obviously Ukor the Peon.

“I have been chosen by the Big Metal Hand in the sky!”

1 Like