With quarantine and social distancing still enforced in my area, I’ve found myself with some spare time, and recently used it to read through the World of Warcraft: Chronicles series.
Just this morning I had finished book 2, the last chapter dealing with the events of “Beyond the Dark Portal”, and was quite confused as to a discrepancy in lore.
Chronicles states that the skull tattoos symbolized being an outcast from orcish Draenor society, and that Ner’zul tattooed himself with the symbol in the time between the first war and the invasion of Draenor by the Sons of Lothar, due to his despair and guilt for his part in the corruption of the orcs (being manipulated by Gul’dan, etc.)
On AU Draenor, however, we see Ner’zul’s Warlords counterpart also possessing a skull tattoo. This makes no sense to me, as not only do the AU Draenor events occur far before the events of Beyond the Dark Portal, but Ner’zul’s wife is also alive in this universe, and as such her spirit couldn’t have been used by Kil’Jaeden to manipulate him into siding with Gul’dan, and as such he wouldn’t have succumbed to the same despair as his main-timeline counterpart. Also, he is one of the seven warlords and chieftain of the shadow moon clan, so he is by no means an outcast or “dead” to orcish society or the Iron Horde.
I did quite a bit of research before coming here, but nothing on either Wowpedia or Wowwiki, or any third-party forums I could find really had any detail on this issue, so as a last resort to answer the question I figured I’d reach out to the other lore-savvy members of the WoW community.
What do you all think? Is this a retcon? An oversight? Is there another possible explanation we can jointly come up with to answer this question? I’m looking forward to seeing where our discussion leads.
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I don’t think the person or people who scripted AU Ner’zhul did ANY meaningful research into MU Ner’zhul’s character, honestly. It’s such a gross bastardization.
So I would chalk it up to WoD being WoD.
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because he still became obsessed with death. the void of the darkened naaru corrupted his mind, and for some reason it drove him into deeper obsession with death.
since he was an alternate soul, he is intrinsically linked to the MU soul and it’s possible that with all that happened to MU ner’zhul, and the shadowlands being singular, there could have been reverberations of some kind to all of the “threads” of the ner’zhul soul-rope(using danuser’s analogy), altering all AU ner’zhul personalities to be more obsessed with death than they would have been otherwise.
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That is an interesting question. It made me curious, so I googled. Reading the info on Gamepedia was enlightening. I will admit, a lot of WoD lore escapes me.
My understanding after reading the information is that the Shadowmoon Clan had a history of Necromancy rooted in the Dark Star event, and their clan eventually sought to stop the practice. But when Garrosh came to the AU and manipulated AU Grom, the Iron Horde threatened the Shadowmoon’s existence if they didn’t join in. They were a relatively peaceful and studious clan, so they had litte to offer. AU Nerzhul tapped into old forbidden magics to show the Iron Horde his clan had power and could be of use, to spare them from the Iron Horde’s wrath.
It is interesting that in the AU, he still has a deep connection with death. And it raises questions. I wonder if the MU Shadowmoon Clan was retconned into having the same history? Were his skeletal tattoos retconned into being an ancient forbidden aspect of their culture in both the MU and AU? It would make sense for Nerzhul to have those tattoos in both the MU and AU if the Shadowmoon Clan had some ancient forbidden tie to Necromancy that the skeletal tattoos reflected, and Nerzhul brings them back into fashion when the Iron Horde forced him.
Idk. Again, it is kind of confusing to me, yet very interesting, but not interesting enough for me to try to quest through there and figure it all out. As someone posted earlier:
Eventually, I figuratively slam my book, close my eyes, and just say: “Eh. That’s just WoD.”
Prior to Chronicle Volume 2, the Beyond the Dark Portal novel had Ner’zhul tattooed himself with a skull due to receiving visions of death. He took it as Teron Gorefiend coming to his village and getting him that second wind to get the Horde of Draenor going, though it most likely was referred to his upcoming transformation into the Lich King.
Anyways so it’s very possible that this Ner’zhul also received visions of death with the Iron Horde and Grom’s “Join or Die” policy. And tattooed himself in response or after Rulkan split with others orcs to make the Shadowmoon Exiles.
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I was really disappointed Ner’Zul didn’t get a better end. He was done dirty twice, in both versions and deserved better the second time.
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Just realized the implications of AU Ner’zhul dying in the Shadowlands AKA the place where Death for Mortals is permanent unless they have First One Tech or a weapon like Remornia preserving them.
Killing any version of someone’s self in the Cosmic Realm they are bound to dooms the Souls of each Self to being consumed by that Cosmic Realm…
Socrethar the Eternal found his Soul consumed by the Nether once he died due to his MU Self dying in Netherstorm which was where the Twisting Nether bled into Outland which was on the edge of the Great Dark Beyond(like Mardum nowadays).
Ner’zhul should be deader than dead and having each AU Self’s Soul consumed by the Edge of Reality in the Shadowlands.
I think it did him justice. Remember Ner’zhul was always a shaman who was committed in helping his people. He also outcast his wife in the AU version and at that moment outcast a part of himself. Thus explaining his skull tattoo. I wish they made him into a raid boss instead of a zone antagonist ending in a dungeon… Ugh… that was perhaps the most difficult pill of WoD. So much potential wasted, but then again dare I mention AU Ogrim Doomhammer? Blizzard just failed so hard in their development of WoD and changing the story so many times. I’m glad they’re delaying Shadowlands. Get the story correct than build on everything else.
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I was thinking about mentioning that. But I was like… I think I said enough. That’s a whole 'nother can of worms I didn’t want to open. But I am glad someone mentioned it.
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Alternate Universe Draenor is a mess, and as a lore-fan it really cheesed me off because alternate-universe aside there was heaps of a massive discord between established lore / circumstances that should had been part of it - especially terrain wise (Such as no Farahlon, or the Evergrowth jungles being larger than ingame - that aside from the carnivorous flora, it also spiraled with vicious raptors and other savage carnivores referenced in Outland quests when they discussed prior-sundering of their world).
WoD was the expansion where raiders, PVPers, and lore-nerds united in the accordance to all agree that the expansion was bottomline - straight up, disappointing and rather frustratingly so. I mean they even made the famous Ner’Zhul a pleb dungeon boss with boring lore + meaning, and made all of the orcs of the planet seem so trivial / meh of a gigantic pushover it made you wonder how they were considered a ‘threat’ in the first invasion. I mean, they barely invaded Azeroth.
WoD AU Orc invasion in a nutshell: They poked Azeroth with a stick - we tore the stick bloodily from their hands whilst laughing, threw it aside & crushed it under out boot - took out a long spiked club, looked at them deadset in the eyes and bludgeoned them to death with it, then some more mutilating their pathetic corpses.
From what I understand, in the AU, Ner’zul still thought of himself as a sort of a sellout. When Velen pleas with Ner’zul to stop what he is doing, Ner’zul says that he had already given up his soul to the darkness.
Ner’zul and his Shadowmoon void/necro homeboys didn’t actually want to be doing what they were doing- using the void to force the spirits of their ancestors and consume them. That wasn’t the Shadowmoon way.
Rulkhan taking off with her Shadowmoon Exiles puts Ner’zul in a similar sad position to the MU Ner’zul. She even says “we are the true Shadowmoon”… maybe Ner’zul thought in a way that he and his followers were the real exiles.
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To be honest, AU Ner’zhul banishing his own wife is what bothers me most. It was so out of character for him.
I can appreciate this idea that maybe he thought he was protecting her, but I refuse to believe Blizzard actually thought of it themselves.
I think they just wanted him and the other big orcs as villains in reference to WC2, and didn’t really bother to fill in the rest of the blanks.
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Ner’zhul didn’t banish her, she left him.