If you are good a lore, i test you with 2 questions.

[Kavoo]

You guys forgot about the Troll Wars:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Troll_Wars

[Deleted]

i thought the humans lost the first war because stormwind was destroyed

We all did.

[Kavoo]

Well, I don't really know what you're talking about. There's been more than four wars.

The war between the Titans and the Old Gods, won by the Titans
The war between the Trolls and Aqir, won by the Trolls
The War of the Ancients, won by the Night Elves
The First War of the Shifting Sands, won by the Night Elves
The Troll Wars, won by the High Elves
The War of the Three Hammers, won by the Bronzebeard Clan
The First War, won by Humans
The Second War, won by the Alliance
The Third War, won by the mortal races
The Second War of the Shifting Sands, won by the mortal races
The war against the Scourge, won by the mortal races

This is, of course, just off the top of my head. I could be wrong on who won some of them, on their names, and I'm definitely missing some. But there's more than four.

nvm, taen got it all covered

[barrsftw]

So when osoma brought down the World Trade Centers we lost that war? And then we bomb iraq and won THAT war? meaning we lost the first and won the second? Or did we just win "the war" in general.. Similar to this Warcraft lore situation. Regardless... Horde>Alliance so Horde won.

[Deleted]

So when osoma brought down the World Trade Centers we lost that war? And then we bomb iraq and won THAT war? meaning we lost the first and won the second? Or did we just win "the war" in general.. Similar to this Warcraft lore situation. Regardless... Horde>Alliance so Horde won.

Don't use real world examples please, and in any case, the conflicts are labeled as two wars. You can't win the first one retrospectively.

[Gungtah]

This thread gave me cancer.

Seriously, it was horrible until Taen salvaged it, although he/she technically missed the Nexus War and the War In Outland.

[Russelcoight]

It was over because in the first war the Horde fought Stormwind while in the second they fought the Alliance. They might not have killed off all the people of Stormwind, but they did take their lands. They defeated the only enemy they were at war with. Sounds like a victory to me.

Im not a huge lore nutter but i thought the horde and alliance have never actually signed a peace treaty.

Its a bit like saying ww2 ended at winter because hostilities slowed down dramatically. And a few months later when it goes back to full scale war it becomes ww3 !!!!!!.

Thats my 2 cents. Its hard to follow what blizzard actually intend on the matter. I think they DO in fact refer to the 2 campaigns as separate wars. But things get changed all the time for some reason..... If i were a role player though , i would see the events as one constant war.

Luckily im not one.

[The10thacc]

1: warr of the ancient , The basic is : Sargeres came to destroy the world helped by Azshara leader of the highborns , the night elfs + dragon fought them and finaly they destroyed the well of eternity to destroy sargeras and splited the world in 3 . Than some gay writer came and added 100x lore character in this war , 100x pages about deathwing and the dragon soul and alot of shits that im to lazy to find out

2 : First war - Well after 10k years the remaining highborns that werent exiled or turned into naga were liveing in the other continent (estern kindgdom ) togheder with the human's . The human's were controling the lower part of the continent ( up to Arathian Highlands ) and the rest was controled by dwarf's or elves. The legion plan was to invade azeorth once more so they sent the orc's to break there defense's. And so they did , they destoryed stormwind and powned the humans.

3- The 2nd warr: The human retreated into the north where they formed alliance with the elves and dwarfs powned the orcs and even sent some expedition into there homworld ( outland ). Then i dont remember why the portal was closed and the expedition traped. Ohh we also kicked Medhiv ass for opening the portal

4- The 3rd warr , Remaining orc's fight with the human's. The cult of the damed comes with the plague. Arthas is the one to stop the undead he kill's alot of plague infected ppl in Stratholem so that they dont turn into zombies ...etc etc you know the story up to the point where the Nelf sacrifice there imortality to end the legion invasion..

[SobeBauxite]

It's called warcraft for a reason. The world's pretty much been at war with either each other or one thing or another for a very long time.

The only way to seperate the first and second wars are the events of the games, since to the horde there was just one big war that they lost: they came to azeroth, killed a bunch of pinkies, and then had to build boats to get at the others, but then the pinkies all banded together and kicked them off of their planet, after sending an army to theirs through the portal. The first game ended with the destruction of Stormwind by the horde, and it's agreed that the first war ended there.

To be honest, if you're really interested in lore, you're best off starting at the "beginning" and just going through the events. You start with the war of the ancients and the events leading up to it, and go all the way to the death of the lich king. There really won't be anything left untouched upon in the lore if you cover all of the events, just a few side things.

[Deleted]

Im not a huge lore nutter but i thought the horde and alliance have never actually signed a peace treaty.

Its a bit like saying ww2 ended at winter because hostilities slowed down dramatically. And a few months later when it goes back to full scale war it becomes ww3 !!!!!!.

Thats my 2 cents. Its hard to follow what blizzard actually intend on the matter. I think they DO in fact refer to the 2 campaigns as separate wars. But things get changed all the time for some reason..... If i were a role player though , i would see the events as one constant war.

Luckily im not one.

It doesn't really matter, because the conflicts are labeled as wars as you said. And if people label them here as seperate wars too, it's obvious that the Horde won the first one by defeating all their enemies.

[Vongimi]

In Warcraft Lore the First War is considered the horde vs Stormwind. The Second War is the horde vs the alliance. The first war, the humans lost. They came back to win it back in the second war. I could post a real life example, but im tired and not really up to looking through history books right now. But basically think Poland, it disappeared off the map many times throughout history. No, it didnt win those wars where they were counquered just because they have it back now.

[Shroud]

War of the Ancients took place 10,000 years before Warcraft 1 had to deal with the first Invansion of the burning Legion that were drawn by the powers of the Well of Eternity night elves won thanks to ther demi-gods and malfurion,Illidan and Tyranda

Major Events
Azshara falls for Sargeras and beleives to be his lover
Many Night Elves not loyal to Azshara rebel mainly the ones not part of her higher sect known as the highborne not to be confused with there ancestors the High Elves.
the portal is closed and Azshara is casted into the maelstrom via the impolsion of the Well of Eternity.
Night Elves take on a more Nature oriented society.

First War: a plot to used the orcs to try and take over Azeroth Stormwind razed and King Llane assinated by his close friend Gorana Halforcen.
Orcish Horde won with the humans fleeing otthe kindom of Loradaeron

Major Events:
King Liane is Killed and Humans flee there Destoryed kingdom
Medivh betrayed the alliance ushering in the first war.

Second War:Retaliation to the Orcish Horde the Alliance of Lordaeron is born the human kingdoms of Stromgarde,Gilneas,Lordaeron,Kul'Tiras,Aterac along with the dwarves of Ironforge,Wildhammers and the High Elves of Quel'Thelas help in beating back the horde.

List of improtant events

Lothar murdered by Orgrim Doom Hammer
Doom Hammer is murdered by a Spear through his back
gilneas ducts out of the Alliance after the Second War.

Third War

Burning legion Second invasion.

Major events:
Archimonde is summoned
Malorne and Cenarius are killed
Archimonde is destroyed by the combned efforst of the Alliance and Horde along with every wisp in Hyjal along with the sacrifice ofthe World Tree and Night Elves immortality lost.

[willjones410]

Dear God, please tell me that people aren't actually trying to circle jerk the lore and say that humans won the first war because the second war and it was really all the same thing.

*sigh*

The first war was Stormwind vs. The Horde. The Horde won, Stormwind lost, the end result being Stromwind being burned to the ground and Lothar having to lead everyone north to escape. They were thoroughly trampled. This was detailed in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, and the officially recognized result was explained thoroughly in the instruction manuals for the next game.

The second war was the newly formed Alliance of Lordaeron vs. The Horde. The result was that the Alliance won and either drove the orcs back to the Dark Portal or captured them all and stuffed them into internment camps. This was covered in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

The third war was pretty much Everyone vs. The Scourge and the Burning Legion. I could go into details about the result but it's complicated and let's just say that the world was saved from demonic destruction.

Now for those of you who are trying to nipple twist your way into saying that the humans really won the first war, stop. It's not going to work. Whatever version that might exist in your brain does not in any way coincide with the truth nor will it change official lore, which says that humans lost the first war, and orcs won. Get over it and move on.

Honestly, this is even more pathetic than people who say "Oh yeah we totally didn't need to have Jaina or Thrall on Hyjal because Malfurion and the night elves could have done it all by themselves."

:P

EDIT: In regards to the original post, the three wars above and take your pick on the 4th war because there are now lots of them. I guess we'll pick War of Ancients because that seems to be a popular answer.

[Greandal]

The war between the Titans and the Old Gods, won by the Titans
The war between the Trolls and Aqir, won by the Trolls
The War of the Ancients, won by the Night Elves
The First War of the Shifting Sands, won by the Night Elves
The Troll Wars, won by the High Elves
The War of the Three Hammers, won by the Bronzebeard Clan
The First War, won by Humans
The Second War, won by the Alliance
The Third War, won by the mortal races
The Second War of the Shifting Sands, won by the mortal races
The war against the Scourge, won by the mortal races

You actually forgot the War of the Spider between Ner'zhul and the Nerubians :P

[Gungtah]

You actually forgot the War of the Spider between Ner'zhul and the Nerubians :P

He/she did better than the OP

[Negrido]

You actually forgot the War of the Spider between Ner'zhul and the Nerubians :P

And if we want to be real assholes we could point out the Gilnean civil war.

[Deleted]

Second War:Retaliation to the Orcish Horde the Alliance of Lordaeron is born the human kingdoms of Stromgarde,Gilneas,Lordaeron,Kul'Tiras,Aterac along with the dwarves of Ironforge,Wildhammers and the High Elves of Quel'Thelas help in beating back the horde.

List of improtant events

Lothar murdered by Orgrim Doom Hammer
Doom Hammer is murdered by a Spear through his back

Third War

Burning legion Second invasion.

Major events:
Archimonde is summoned
Malorne and Cenarius are killed

First its Doomhammer in one word.
Second Doomhammer did die due to a spear in his back tho that was not in warcraft 2. But in the libraration of the orcs.
And Apa'ro (Malorne) didnt die in warcraft 3 along with Cenarius but in War of the Ancients

[Shroud]

And if we want to be real assholes we could point out the Gilnean civil war.

How could you foreget the War of the Three Hammers....come on i thought you guys were better than that :\