Chronicle Volume 2 Retcons [SPOILERS]

[SammyCat203]

After reading the book, I noticed a few changes to the story. I know there are probably more, but these are the ones i found.

These first two may not be retcons, but simply small bits of information that wasn't worth adding.

-The story where the orcs met with Velen to discuss why they were attacking wasn't mentioned. Basically Velen met with the orcs at Oshu'gun to discuss why they were attacking. The meeting ended abruptly when Velen informed the orcs that Oshu'gun was the ship they came in and that it was absorbing the spirits of the ancestors.

-The second was the siege of Telmor. Basically some Draenei saved young Orgrim and Durotan and took them to Telmor. The orcs learned of the cities location and how to disable its cloaking field later using it to siege the temple. In the book it was mentioned that they were rescued and brought to the city but it never mentioned the siege of it later.

-The last one I noticed, was how long the Alliance was on Draenor before the planet exploded. In the chronicles, it took only like a week or so. Before chronicles, it was assumed that they were there longer. Both the Expedition Armory and the town of Kirin'var would have had to be constructed before the planet blew up, because they had docks which means there were still oceans when they were built. Also, the armory was built, destroyed, and replaced with honor hold all before the planet blew up. Lastly, Ner'zul, in the chronicle, just randomly opened rifts to different planets all across draenor, but in the old cannon, they took time to build frames for all of these portals, and you can still find a few of them in outland.

Did you notice any other changes to the story? I'm sure I missed some because I am not an expert on lore from the RTS games.

[Aquamonkey]

Omissions in Chronicle don't mean those events didn't happen.

aww I was expecting the Second War to be more like World War II, and instead we got a few skirmishes that were all lost by orcs
Dalaran/Stromgarde/Gilneas/Stratholme/Tyr's Hand/Kul Tiras/Caer Darrow not attacked, Alterac not destroyed but it's ruins in WoW
I think some of that still could have happened. We are just presenting things from very high up. (Burnzerker)

[Aucald]

"Chronicle Vol. 2" didn't really do much in the way of retcons - it filled in missing pieces of relevant info between "Rise of the Horde" and "Beyond the Dark Portal" as well as the games and books in between. They seem to be at pains not to directly invalidate any of the previous books, they simply (and subtly) expanded their scopes by adding relevant details, extra settings, and what-have-you. When I first read "Rise of the Horde" I was under the impression that it all happened within the bounds of Nagrand - it was never stated but seemed to be implied that that was where the Frostwolves made their home (Frostfire Ridge not really existing as a thing at this point).

[Kralljin]

They most certainly went back and forth with Blackhands backstory.

Thanks to the chronicle we have information in the actual game that's noncanon, which was even introduced in Legion.

The artifact backstory book in the Shaman Class Order Hall basically retells the story of the Blackhand comic, thereby making it canon for the AU and MU.

Chronicle Volume 2 however features a Blackhand artwork based on his movie appearance, no stone fist, no scars, just a Black tattoo on his hand.

[Aucald]

Chronicle Volume 2 however features a Blackhand artwork based on his movie appearance, no stone fist, no scars, just a Black tattoo on his hand.

The image is from the Ogre Wars on Draenor and it may depict a time before the events of retrieving the Doomhammer occurred (as that was near the end of the Ogre Wars). Since he's not wielding the Doomhammer in the picture, as he did at the close of the Ogre Wars before returning it to Orgrim, I'm thinking it's before his hand is amputated.

[Kralljin]

The image is from the Ogre Wars on Draenor and it may depict a time before the events of retrieving the Doomhammer occurred (as that was near the end of the Ogre Wars). Since he's not wielding the Doomhammer in the picture, as he did at the close of the Ogre Wars before returning it to Orgrim, I'm thinking it's before his hand is amputated.

http://wow.gamepedia.com/Blackhand

Matt Burns on Twitter confirmed that they intentionally went back, apparantly the part of Blackhand being consumed by Fire is noncanon for the MU.

Quite strange considering the scene must've then played out a bit different and Blackhand must've earned his name somehow.

[Aucald]

http://wow.gamepedia.com/Blackhand

Matt Burns on Twitter confirmed that they intentionally went back, apparantly the part of Blackhand being consumed by Fire is noncanon for the MU.

Quite strange considering the scene must've then played out a bit different and Blackhand must've earned his name somehow.

Perhaps the tattoo itself, or else some appellation we'll never know the origins of now.

[Kralljin]

Perhaps the tattoo itself, or else some appellation we'll never know the origins of now.

Doesn't exactly matter at this point.

Fact is, ingame sources tell that Blackhand earned his due his Stonefist he received after taking a bath in Lava, which is now retconned.

So MU Blackhand just happens to somehow to have the same name that his AU version earns via a rather unfortunate event, which also applies to the MU except for the most crucial part of the story.

In other words, this is fucked up, i mean they just wanted to use make him look like the Movie Blackhand and try to somehow now fiddle these two versions together, with not much success in my opinion.

[Aucald]

Doesn't exactly matter at this point.

Fact is, ingame sources tell that Blackhand earned his due his Stonefist he received after taking a bath in Lava, which is now retconned.

So MU Blackhand just happens to somehow to have the same name that his AU version earns via a rather unfortunate event, which also applies to the MU except for the most crucial part of the story.

In other words, this is fucked up, i mean they just wanted to use make him look like the Movie Blackhand and try to somehow now fiddle these two versions together, with not much success in my opinion.

It's not that big of an issue - having or not having a stone prosthetic hand doesn't change anything about Blackhand's origin, his place in the plot, or his eventual fate. His image in the "Doomhammer" comic looks like his WoD depiction and the picture of him in "Chronicle Vol. 2" looks closer to his depiction in the movie. I don't think changes in how a character is portrayed in art really constitutes a retcon unless it changes the very nature of the character somehow. Blackhand's story in "Chronicle Vol. 2" is the same as it always was - and the brief Doomhammer sequence with Orgrim doesn't change anything of note whether it happened in the MU or not.

[Kralljin]

It's not that big of an issue - having or not having a stone prosthetic hand doesn't change anything about Blackhand's origin, his place in the plot, or his eventual fate.

By that logic you can ditch the whole Blackhand comic.

The comic has absolutely no meaning for the plot as a whole, the sole thing that this comic does is to give an explanation why Blackhand looks the way he does and explain why he's actually called Blackhand.

The comic basically explains things that are no longer canon in the MU, because his appearance has changed and he earned his name somehow else.

Is it a major retcon? Fuck no, Blackhands story is done.

But it bothers me that Blizzard declares a story non canon that's been retold ingame already within the current expansion.

If this comic was from Warcraft 1 / 2 i couldn't give a shit, but the references made by Khadgar during WoD and later in Shaman Class Order Hall book made said comic also canon for the MU.

So they decided rewrite something which they wrote just ~2 years ago, kinda short sighted in my view, especially since in my opinion the background story of AU Blackhand was better, now we're back at the start and have to ask ourselves why MU Blackhand has a Black Tattoo on his entire hand and adapted this as his actual name.

[MikeBogina]

Using Blackhand's story from AU, for the MU's is the problem, not the chronicle.

In the Maraad stories of the Horde, they show Kilrogg's vision of being killed by the Alliance and Horde, despite his death being by a single person(trollbane i think). WoD fucked up the stories, sadly some of them are making their way into MU canon, like Gul'dan's background of meeting KJ before either spoke to Ner'zhul(RETCON) and now Gul'dan didn't raise a volcano, but the firelord did.

WoD's lore was cool, just not when it turned out to be MU's new lore too. Blackhand in AU has more honor, MU Blackhand is a scumbag. Lets keep them different imo.

They need to fire some people on the lore team imo.

[Aquamonkey]

In the Maraad stories of the Horde, they show Kilrogg's vision of being killed by the Alliance and Horde, despite his death being by a single person(trollbane i think). WoD fucked up the stories, sadly some of them are making their way into MU canon

Maraad doesn't know what Kilrogg saw. We showed viewers the Horde/Alliance vision as a nod to players. (MickyNeilson)

[MikeBogina]

Maraad doesn't know what Kilrogg saw. We showed viewers the Horde/Alliance vision as a nod to players. (MickyNeilson)

sadly i dont believe that shit, since there's a consistency throughout WoD of people knowing the wrong things.

[Kralljin]

Using Blackhand's story from AU, for the MU's is the problem, not the chronicle.

Still kinda leaves the question open how / why Blackhand earned his name.

I somehow doubt that he just made the decision to tattoo his entire hand and then demanded everyone to call him by this.

In the Maraad stories of the Horde, they show Kilrogg's vision of being killed by the Alliance and Horde, despite his death being by a single person(trollbane i think).

The vision is neither true for AU and MU, because the vision shows Kilrogg and a battlefield between Alliance and Horde standards, which wasn't the case in both versions.

WoD's lore was cool, just not when it turned out to be MU's new lore too. Blackhand in AU has more honor, MU Blackhand is a scumbag. Lets keep them different imo.

I think it's fine when it fits the lore, the comic applying to MU and AU was fine in my eyes because it gave Blackhand a decent backstory.

AU Blackhand turned out to be an asshole anyway, his appearance in WoD itself wasn't that much different from his MU version.

[Traveler Voltin]

Doomhammmer research story says that blackhand got his name when he pulled the doomhammer from lava and used it to forge weapons

[Selastan]

I think we are missing the biggest retcon of all. Medivh and Garona didn't seem too lovey-dovey in Chronicle, which means Med'an can't exist anymore!

[Mormolyce]

The last one I noticed, was how long the Alliance was on Draenor before the planet exploded. In the chronicles, it took only like a week or so. Before chronicles, it was assumed that they were there longer. Both the Expedition Armory and the town of Kirin'var would have had to be constructed before the planet blew up, because they had docks which means there were still oceans when they were built. Also, the armory was built, destroyed, and replaced with honor hold all before the planet blew up. Lastly, Ner'zul, in the chronicle, just randomly opened rifts to different planets all across draenor, but in the old cannon, they took time to build frames for all of these portals, and you can still find a few of them in outland.

Goblin town-in-a-box

http://wow.gamepedia.com/Town-In-A-Box

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In the Maraad stories of the Horde, they show Kilrogg's vision of being killed by the Alliance and Horde, despite his death being by a single person(trollbane i think). WoD fucked up the stories, sadly some of them are making their way into MU canon, like Gul'dan's background of meeting KJ before either spoke to Ner'zhul(RETCON) and now Gul'dan didn't raise a volcano, but the firelord did.

Not the first time Deadeye's fate has been retconned, I think. IIRC he originally made it through to Azeroth with Grom and was put into an internment camp, the Beyond the Dark Portal novel you're quoting contradicted that by having him die in Auchindoun.

- - - Updated - - -

Doesn't exactly matter at this point.

Fact is, ingame sources tell that Blackhand earned his due his Stonefist he received after taking a bath in Lava, which is now retconned.

So MU Blackhand just happens to somehow to have the same name that his AU version earns via a rather unfortunate event, which also applies to the MU except for the most crucial part of the story.

In other words, this is fucked up, i mean they just wanted to use make him look like the Movie Blackhand and try to somehow now fiddle these two versions together, with not much success in my opinion.

Not the first time a retcon has required you to swallow a massive coincidence.

Due to a retcon from the original RTS era, the Blackrock clan had the name way back in Draenor before they wound up taking over Blackrock Mountain. So they eventually invented Blackrock Ore to explain that, meaning that by an astonishing coincidence the Blackrock clan just happened to make a mountain called Blackrock their base when they invaded Azeroth.

P.S. Why do they hate that antlered helmet so much?

[Radeghost]

Can anyone tell me why can't Sargeras just destroy Azeroth? Instead of silly invasions?

[Deleted]

Can anyone tell me why can't Sargeras just destroy Azeroth? Instead of silly invasions?

Because he is far far away from Azeroth and actually wants to convert her to his side.

[Kralljin]

Due to a retcon from the original RTS era, the Blackrock clan had the name way back in Draenor before they wound up taking over Blackrock Mountain. So they eventually invented Blackrock Ore to explain that, meaning that by an astonishing coincidence the Blackrock clan just happened to make a mountain called Blackrock their base when they invaded Azeroth.

As explained above, if this comic would have originated from the Warcraft 1 / 2 era, i'd be fine.

Shit is over 20 years old, heck it's older than some people that are playing WoW currently.

But the comic was published shortly before WoD release, which was roughly two years ago, the comic itself was pretty much made canon for the MU with Legion release.

This is not some kind bogus that Metzen made up nearly two decades ago and then had somehow fit into current state of lore.

They also retconned the Twilight's Hammer origin, it was supposed to be an orcish clan which defied Gul'dan, then Cho'gall was placed in charge and then turned into this apocalypse cult by him, i'm fine with that, see no complaints there because it's super old lore written so long ago.