Medivh in Warcraft 3

[Deleted]

Hi guys,

I was once a selfproclaimed huge lorefreak of Warcraft... well atleast until it got retconned so much that I lost track of many things...
and there was always one thing that bothered me and after watching the Movie and rewatching all the Warcraft Cinematics (again) it came back to me:

Why did literally NO ONE recognize the prophet as Medivh? He wore his typical robe, held Atiesh, flew in with his typical raven form and Terenas should have known (about) Medivh back then when he was still the Guardian. What bothers me even more is that ANTONIDAS didnt recognize him. This leads me to another thing:

Why didn't he introduce himself as Medivh when preaching to the Council of Terenas? Sure, many ppl would distrust him most likely, but still when the most powerful mage to date would warn the entire humanity that the burning legion was attacking it would have had more impact than doing so as a random prophet of doom.

[Qualia]

Why did literally NO ONE recognize the prophet as Medivh? He wore his typical robe, held Atiesh, flew in with his typical raven form and Terenas should have known (about) Medivh back then when he was still the Guardian. What bothers me even more is that ANTONIDAS didnt recognize him. This leads me to another thing:

The most likely explanation was that back then, Medivh's lore wasn't as established. All players knew about him were from WC1. In Blizzard's mind back then, he might not be as recognizable as he is now, assuming that he is even recognizable in lore at the present - both his cloak and Atiesh seem to be rather normal, in compared to the other artifacts.

If you are interested in an explanation in lore, however, then we'd have to make some guesses since it was never explained. Although, keep in mind that every details in the movie isn't applicable to non-movie WC-verse lore discussion, as Blizzard themselves said the movie isn't canon and follows its own lore. A guess about Antonidas' inability to recognize Medivh was that he never knew how Medivh looked like. From "The Last Guardian" and "Tides of Darkness", Medivh was a rather secluded mage, only kept in contact with his friends (Lothar and Llane) / apprentice (Khadgar plus those before him) / Moroes & Cook and the Council of Tirifal. Antonidas isn't part of either and there wasn't any mention about any meeting between the two before Medivh was killed originally. Thus, there is a chance that Antonidas simply doesn't know, or doesn't remember Medivh's appearance. Medivh's ability to turn into a bird / raven means little, as pretty much everyone who practiced druidism to a certain extend can do so as well. Also, he apparently looked slightly different after being revived, as pointed out by Khadgar in "The Last Guardian" - “Your form is different than when I last saw you, you are younger, and calmer, but yes, I know"

Why didn't he introduce himself as Medivh when preaching to the Council of Terenas? Sure, many ppl would distrust him most likely, but still when the most powerful mage to date would warn the entire humanity that the burning legion was attacking it would have had more impact than doing so as a random prophet of doom.

Because they'd likely to be even less inclined to believe him if he did so. "Medivh" back then wasn't known as just "the most powerful mage to date". He was known as the most powerful mage to date who betrayed entire humanity, manipulated / controlled by the spirit of Sargeras - lord of the demons - in order to free Sargeras' body (well, his avatar's), gave no damn to human race's fate, murdered the members of Council of Tirisfal and then killed by Khadgar & Lothar around 20 years before. People would either distrust him just as much, or did their best to get rid of him.
Imagine if one day, some guy turns up in front of Obama and claims that he's Bin Laden, and that ISIS / aQ is going to wipe out America and your only hope is to move West. Fat chance anyone is going to take that seriously.

[Smallfruitbat]

I believe that the general populace were not aware that Medivh was the Guardian of Tirisfal -IIRC Khadgar discovered it in the Last Guardian but didn't tell the Council the whole story. He was one of a long line of mages sent to Medivh under the guise of would be apprentice primarily to spy on him and report back to the Kirin Tor*.

We're looking at the story from a wider perspective and have access to more information than characters in game. In the movie, the guardian is a well known local superhero with a successor in the background training to take over whereas in the books its a much more clandestine figure. Mages were viewed with suspicion.

Also, Khadgar and Lothar had already killed Medivh so most people who knew he existed believed him dead.

Edit *because the Kirin Tor wanted to control and monitor the use of magic and what individual mages were doing.

[Highwhale]

Medivh = Khadgar in WoD/Legion

[Deleted]

I have read most of the books. Need to clarify i am not looking at Medivh of the movie. The movie just reminded me of the thing with Medivh.

And while I agree that coming out as Medivh would make many ppl suspicious he seemed to realize thatcoming as a mere prophet didn't work either. So why not just name himself as Medivh and try anyway. At least terenas should be shaken up by that revelation.

[Aquamonkey]

The whole point of the Council of Tirisfal was to be a secret sect.

[Rathbourne]

You have to realise that the Gaurdian was extremely secretive to the point where even the Kirin-Tor didnt know much about him.Thats the reason they sent Khadgar in the first place.I'm talking about the Original lore not the movie lore.

Also the King doesnt summon the Gaurdian,as the movie showed.A Gaurdian is above the power of Kings.The only reason Medhiv directly helped Llane was because they were childhood friends.

He didnt introduce himself as Medhiv because by that point Medhiv was known to be the infamous Last Gaurdian, who used his powers to let the Orcs enter this world and had that whole business with Sargeras.

[Deleted]

Kings would still know about the term guardian. And infamous > random doomsayer imo

[Selastan]

Even if Medivh wasn't known to Terenas and Antonidas, one would think that Atiesh would be. The Kirin Tor knew of the Guardians, and almost every one wielded Atiesh.

[Leodok]

Even if Medivh wasn't known to Terenas and Antonidas, one would think that Atiesh would be. The Kirin Tor knew of the Guardians, and almost every one wielded Atiesh.

When you think about it, it's just a wooden staff with a raven carved in one end.

[Deleted]

And still they should have thought "could this be Atiesh?"
Well what irks me isn't that nobody listened to him but he should have been recognized by terenas or Antonidas even if they never saw him personally what i doubt in case of terenas. One would think that at least kings should have seen him once.

[Qualia]

And still they should have thought "could this be Atiesh?"

Well what irks me isn't that nobody listened to him but he should have been recognized by terenas or Antonidas even if they never saw him personally what i doubt in case of terenas. One would think that at least kings should have seen him once.

Going with current lore (not using the lore back then because Atiesh wasn't a thing in lore during that event yet), Atiesh was being guarded inside Dalaran by impenetrable barriers of magic after Medivh was killed by Khadgar & Lothar (it was only shattered after Archimonde destroyed Dalaran). Thus, there was no reason for Antonidas to think Medivh's staff was Atiesh. He might have thought that it was a look-alike, at best. Although while we are at it, I wonder if Medivh still canonically was holding Atiesh in that cinematic. While Atiesh give the user ability to transform into a raven, one can do that without Atiesh (i.e: druids ability). It's possible that Medivh was just holding some replica - either that, or Medivh somehow plucked it from some AU.

Also, Medivh (or the Guardians in general) had little to do with politics. If the leader of Dalaran didn't meet him face to face, I doubt kings did (other than Llane, but it was because he was Medivh's friend). That is not to mention that he (Medivh) looked differently as well.

[Deleted]

Well you do have a point but that still doesn't explain why he didn't introduce himself as the former guardian after realizing that terenas and the council wouldn't listen to a random prophet. Couldn't make it worse trying to use the title of former guardian. At least i would have tried it.
Would love to see him back on screen. And we may do so since legion is a fanservice expac anyway

Edit: druids wouldn't have been known to the Humans at that point since they had not yet met the night elves and Tauren.

[Selastan]

Well you do have a point but that still doesn't explain why he didn't introduce himself as the former guardian after realizing that terenas and the council wouldn't listen to a random prophet. Couldn't make it worse trying to use the title of former guardian. At least i would have tried it.
Would love to see him back on screen. And we may do so since legion is a fanservice expac anyway

Edit: druids wouldn't have been known to the Humans at that point since they had not yet met the night elves and Tauren.

Humans have a history of Druidism.

[Aquamonkey]

Well you do have a point but that still doesn't explain why he didn't introduce himself as the former guardian after realizing that terenas and the council wouldn't listen to a random prophet. Couldn't make it worse trying to use the title of former guardian. At least i would have tried it.

Yea it could. They could immediately try to kill/capture him, thinking he's the one behind the present calamity.

[Selastan]

Yea it could. They could immediately try to kill/capture him, thinking he's the one behind the present calamity.

He was last seen being decapitated by Anduin and Khadgar while being possessed by the lord of all evil, after all.