Sylvanas (World of Warcraft Novel) by Christie Golden - Spoilers

[OwenBurton]

I just finished reading the Sylvanas novel very recently, and I have to admit, it was a very well-written novel. I have always mostly enjoyed Christie Golden's novels and writing (I very strongly dislike the direction Blizzard has taken the story in general, but I do not think it is fair to blame that on her, a new employee; in fact, I kind of feel sorry for Golden, as she has actually been threatened online for some of the story's unfavorable lore developments), and I actually liked it much better than the Shadows Rising novel.

I strongly recommend giving the book at least a chance, as well as listening to the audiobook, voiced by Sylvanas's voice actress:
https://www.amazon.com/Sylvanas-Worl.../dp/B08ZXZDNVS

I do NOT wish to spoil most of the content, but I do wish to provide some very few basic points to anyone who does not want to or cannot yet purchase the novel, but who are curious as to what it contains:

- Sylvanas's early years and childhood are heavily featured in the first part of the novel.
- Lady Lireesa, the Windrunner sisters' mother and Ranger-General of Silvermoon, is portrayed as a very overbearing and strict parent, in contrast with Lord Verath, their father, who is one of Anasterian's chief advisors. She also heavily favors Alleria over Sylvanas, and is very upset when she is forced to name her younger daughter as her successor, with Alleria shirking from the role and preferring to join the Farstriders.
- The bond between Sylvanas and Lirath, her little brother, is implied to be the strongest of all the Windrunner family's relationships, and plays a major role throughout the novel, including its ending. She loves, and has always loved, Lirath far, far more than she ever loved Alleria or Vereesa or her parents.
- Vereesa was actually shockingly indirectly responsible for Lirath's death - and this created a deep rift between her and Sylvanas. His death, and that of their parents all in quick succession, had a very serious emotional impact on all of the three sisters, and all the high elves.
- Sylvanas did indeed try very hard at first to reach out to Varian and the Alliance, even sending barely deteriorated Forsaken representatives who came from Stormwind, Southshore and Lordaeron with living family members to sway them, but they were killed as soon as they stepped close to Stormwind.
- Lor'themar and the blood elves were at first VERY wary of the Horde's overtures. While the blood elves were grateful for Sylvanas's gestures of aid, the Horde had done too much harm for Lor'themar's people to see them as allies. Only after several months did he finally agree to allow a small group of representatives, including the Horde leaders and Sylvanas, to visit Silvermoon.
- Sylvanas did not intend for the Wrath Gate incident to occur as it did, and did indeed narrowly escape from the Undercity with her life, BUT she still would have considered the attack worth it, if Arthas was killed. She also never really trusted the orcs, and never forgot or forgave them for her brother's death, merely using them as a means to an end after the Alliance rejected her people.
- Sylvanas's goals of raising the Forsaken by enslaving Eyir, and convincing Saurfang that war between the factions was inevitable, were basically mostly falsehoods - her overeaching major goal after the Legion attacked was to help the Jailer destroy the cycle of life and death, and that meant feeding more souls to him. The faction war, and even raising more Forsaken, meant very little to her in reality.
- Nathanos knew of Sylvanas's plans to bring Vereesa into the Undercity and part of the Jailer's plans, but opposed them, telling Sylvanas that Vereesa still had joy and laughter in her, but agreed to support Sylvanas if she really wanted to go through with her plans; Vereesa's rejection hurt her deeply.
- The Alliance and Horde leaders met briefly in Dalaran after Khadgar's warning before the Battle for Broken Shore, and Anduin told the others that it was wrong for them to initially reject Sylvanas and her people. "The Forsaken were once members of the Alliance. Friends and kin to so many in Stormwind. And yet, you rejected them when they sought help simply to survive. That was a grievous wrong."
- Sylvanas considered Genn's victory over her a hollow and empty one, as she considered his future stolen as well by his destruction of the Soulcage. She reasoned that by "defeating" her at Stormheim, it was therefore unlikely Genn and Liam would be reunited in the broken Shadowlands, and by setting her back, he had, in fact, further driven himself apart from his family in the long run. She called him an "old, sad fool."
- Sylvanas (very much hardened at this point) was planning to assess and then kill Alleria and Vereesa all along in the reunion of the Three Sisters, but agreed to the meeting to purge herself of the "softness" and sentimentality of her lingering past. She was not able to do so, however, and visited Lirath's grave one last time after their reunion. She silently realized then and there that though she would never openly admit it, she did not want any of her siblings, especially not Lirath, to become one of the Forsaken as she had.
- Sylvanas spoke with Saurfang regarding her actions during the "Gathering" in Arathi (Before the Storm). Saurfang told her that they should not have fled the battlefield, and that he deemed it appropriate for the Warchief to execute traitors, but he also then told her that he did not necessarily approve of killing those who tried to return to her. "You cannot execute people for what you think they will do, Warchief."
- Sylvanas's telling Delaryn as she smiled, "You'll see your loved ones soon" was actually a genuine and compassionate statement, not a derisive or cruel one. She agreed to join the Jailer because his valkyr showed her afterlives in which no families were ever reunited, thereby making her realize that the cycle of life and death was flawed, indifferent and cruel; she was too afraid to even learn where Lirath went in death. She believed that the night elf souls suffering briefly in the Maw would be "worth it", for she and the Jailer would remake all of reality and permanently erase all suffering thereafter (or so she thought). Her later raising of Delaryn and Sira, however, is not covered.
- Nathanos is portrayed quite...neutrally compared to his game portrayal. He genuinely cares for and loves Sylvanas, and even told her to leave Orgrimmar before the mak'gora, for they could then be happy together. He is the ONLY person who Sylvanas really told her full secrets and encounter with the Jailer to all this time.
- The night elves for the most part are NOT featured in the novel, and neither is Elune. I don't think either Tyrande and Malfurion had a single speaking quote in the book, in fact.
- With the exception of the Jailer and the Arbiter, the Pantheon of Death and the First Ones are not really mentioned either, other than I think Sire Denathrius. The closest hint to the greater cosmology and the cosmic war is when Mal'Ganis appears to Sylvanas and tells her that the nathrezim were the ones who manipulated Sargeras into allowing them to infuse Argus with the "magic of Death" to much more quickly replenish his considerable armies, ensuring that after he perished, he would automatically enter the Shadowlands and disable the Arbiter.
- Sylvanas very nearly broke apart during her next-to-last meeting with Anduin. This emphasizes the novel's point - that no matter what Sylvanas tries her very best to constantly tell herself and project to everyone else, she is capable of deep and real love, even after joining the Jailer. She loves her sisters, and her family, and even the Forsaken and the blood elves, but she believes that her end goals are worth hurting innocents, for in her mind, ultimately, all families unjustly torn apart and cruelly separated would be at last "reunited" in the new cosmos that would be forged.
- The novel ends on a cliffhanger, but it is hinted that Sylvanas will NOT face her fate and her future in the Shadowlands alone, and ends on actually a positive, or at least a hopeful, note.

She did a careful evaluation of possible emissaries and eventually sent a small group of four, selecting only the most intact, those who could almost pass for the living but for the faint sickly eye glow that betrayed the magic animating their cold flesh. They were all former soldiers, one from Southshore, two from the capital city, and one from Stormwind, Sarias Colton, who had a relative there. All of them had been noteworthy and admirable in life; hopefully their living reputations would give the humans pause. It was a delicate and dangerous mission, and Sylvanas knew they would need every advantage going in. She did have some shred of hope that these courageous individuals could at least open the door for discussion…provided they were even granted a chance to speak.

“Your challenges are myriad,” Sylvanas warned them. They stood at attention, their spines as straight as they could make them, and she walked back and forth in front of them as she spoke. “The Alliance, especially humans, are quite right to fear and hate the Scourge. So do we. Everything hinges upon your convincing King Varian that the Forsaken are different. We have suffered, terribly. Despite our appearances, we are more like the inhabitants of Stormwind than we are Scourge, and anyone in Stormwind could have suffered the same fate as we.”

She paused, looking at each of them in turn. “You are the finest emissaries I could find among our people. I know you will represent us well and truthfully. Do not shy away from who and what we are—but make them understand we are more than that, that we will be powerful allies.”

They saluted her. Sarias said, “My lady, it is an honor. But the greatest gift of this charge you have laid upon us is the chance for me to see my sister again.”

Sarias spoke earnestly, and Sylvanas hoped he would not regret the words. It was a reckless thing, to put one’s hope in the living. But it was her only option.

(Sylvanas carefully choosing Forsaken representatives to seek an alliance with King Varian in Stormwind)

“Lord Saltheril,” she said, suddenly. Lor’themar stopped mid-chew and looked at her sharply.

“What about him?” Halduron asked.

“Did he survive?”

“He did,” Lor’themar said. “Not even Arthas Menethil could halt his parties for long. He still holds forth, pouring—and drinking—Suntouched with reckless abandon. I wonder if that is his way of clinging to sanity—or, perhaps, avoiding it.”

“Well,” Sylvanas said, “I suppose it is good that some things never change.
For a moment, just a moment, a tiny splinter of time, there was warmth among the three of them; shared memories of music, wine, and soft summer days sweet as spun sugar, and as fragile.
Then the moment was gone, and it did not come again."

(Sylvanas reuniting with Lor'themar and Haldurion for the first time she returned to Silvermoon)

"In choosing to accept the mantle of warchief, Sylvanas Windrunner had also accepted Zovaal’s offer…and, more important, his cause. She had always been a woman fueled by purpose, be it to protect her people, or win her freedom, or take her revenge. In retrospect, those “purposes” seemed laughably small. Even for those with long life spans, life was short and fraught with pain, fear, and desolation. And after life? Stagnation. Rigidity. Even the name Arbiter was cold and impersonal."

She turned her face up to the sun, closing her eyes, remembering those bygone moments. “I met with our sisters today. We all wanted to see, I think, if we could salvage anything from the early days. I needed to know. In some ways, things felt the same. But in most, they did not. Alleria wields power now, as I do, in a way—hers is the power of the Void. Mine—” She lifted a gloved hand, opening her eyes and watching the purple-black smoke twine about it like an insubstantial snake. “—is death. Vereesa’s only power is the one she has always had—that of the peacemaker. She is…harder, now, but she still wants the family to have some semblance of happiness.” Sylvanas pressed her lips together for a moment. “It is no longer possible.”

She reached to touch the base of her throat, where the sapphire had once lain. “We stood on the balcony above the ocean and gave our necklaces to the sea.”

Sylvanas felt again the burst of fury, frustration, and resentment she had felt outside the gates of Orgrimmar. From almost every moment of her existence, she had been trying to help. To save. Alleria and the springpaw. Lirath, from naïveté and idealization that became lethal to him. The quel’dorei, the Forsaken. And now she was trying to save every last ignorant, pathetic creature that walked, swam, flew, or crawled on any world that ever existed.

They would have called her mad. Accused her of lying. At best, accused her of gullibility. But they had not seen what Sylvanas had, or knew what she knew.

(I guess this novel essentially answers this question which I pondered a while ago:
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...her-real-plans)

And this was one of the reviews of the book that I found was quite spot on:

"Great insight into her upbringing and where her decisions came from, It took my back to when I was a child and things were so peaceful, before becoming a man, a dad , and a husband. It brought up fond memories of my own childhood and it is greatly written and the audible version with patty mathson narration it brought it to life. Definitely recommend not only for the lore and the beautiful writing but also because of the empathy that I found for sylvanas as a character. Not excused for the Terrible genocide she did of her free will and surprisingly they didn't write this as a redemption story but a great insight into what changed her along way. I know the lore is in a rough spot but this is well worth a read especially for elf people."

[Triceron]

I get the revelation of her and the Forsaken being denied by the Alliance for being undead, but do they ever clarify how and why they join the Horde?

If Sylvanas was that close yo Lirath, it would make even less sense why she would join the Horde, which comprises some of the same Orcs who caused his death. Sure, Thrall wasn't Doomhammer, but he's wearing his fucking platemail after all.

The sensible thing would gave been for Forsaken to stay independent.

[Feanoro]

So as expected, massive whitewashing retcons.

[Nraktja]

The sensible thing would gave been for Forsaken to stay independent.

I don't know where I read it first but I completely agree that the Forsaken and Night Elves should have stayed on their own as playable races outside of the factions instead of forcing them to either as part of game mechanics.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I get the revelation of her and the Forsaken being denied by the Alliance for being undead, but do they ever clarify how and why they join the Horde?

If Sylvanas was that close yo Lirath, it would make even less sense why she would join the Horde, which comprises some of the same Orcs who caused his death. Sure, Thrall wasn't Doomhammer, but he's wearing his fucking platemail after all.

The sensible thing would gave been for Forsaken to stay independent.

They do explain it, pretty much the he forsaken couldn’t stand alone so she had to join with some one.

At first she rejects the horde and try’s to join the alliance but her forsaken were killed and right outside there borders and she doesn’t even think varian knew the envoys existed.

Then she sends spy’s to the horde and after they come back with reports of them not being huge dicks she still doesn’t want to join them but sees that she has no other choices so sets up a meeting with Carine even though she still deeply hates the orcs.

[Triceron]

Then she sends spy’s to the horde and after they come back with reports of them not being huge dicks she still doesn’t want to join them but sees that she has no other choices so sets up a meeting with Carine even though she still deeply hates the orcs.

So in other words, 'Gameplay reasons'.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

So in other words, 'Gameplay reasons'.

More so practicality reasons. The forsaken couldn’t defend them selfs against the living if they were on there own yet alone take on the scourge which was sylvanas’s only Goal in unlife.

[Triceron]

Yeah, not buying that considering how OP she was left off at TFT.

She manipulated the Alliance that attacked her, including Garithos. She mindcontrolled Ogres and Bandits along her way. She had a freakin Dreadlord under her service, who could have served to manipulate her enemies even further. None of these were really ever utilized when she was part of the Horde. Well, at least not until she became straight up villain.

Their inclusion into the Horde was gameplay reasons, and they very likely ignored the hatred the Elves had against the Orcs when considering the decision. I'd figure it was a designer or team decision over lore, much like the decision to have Taurens be Druids.

I could see the Sylvanas simping happening pretty early on. Otherwise, if Forsaken kept their independence Sylvanas would probably have ended up some run-of-the-mill world boss or a final raid boss for a 'Lordaeron' raid.

But I guess this novel couldn't really do anything about this. Having the Alliance kill her messengers is pretty much all they can do to make sense of things.

[Aucald]

This novel is a bit of a slog for me personally - the level of retconning makes for a high degree of dissonance when reading, and the forced recontextualization of most of Sylvanas' key moments in WoW is difficult to reconcile. I would only recommend this for anyone who wants to keep an up-to-date record of WoW lore for academic purposes. It's not a fun read by any means, and while I found the window on Sylvanas and the other Windrunner daughters' childhood to be interesting new information at least, it's probably the only good portion of the book to be had.

I'm only 3/4's of the way through at the moment, but unless the book's climax and denouement can somehow save this exercise from itself I'm not thinking it's going to end up great.

[Smallfruitbat]

While I don't generally mind Christie Goldens writing, I've got the book on Audible purely for Patty Mattson's performance. I've not started it yet, but hear good things on that front.

[Grazrug]

Yes Queen slay.

[voidox]

Sylvanas's telling Delaryn as she smiled, "You'll see your loved ones soon" was actually a genuine and compassionate statement, not a derisive or cruel one.

then why did she raise Delaryn after and deny her from "seeing your loved ones"?

"Her later raising of Delaryn and Sira, however, is not covered."

LOL, and there it is. Another garbage piece of writing and blizzard's answer to the question that points out how that plot point is stupid, well it's to ignore it as usual xD

"The Forsaken were once members of the Alliance. Friends and kin to so many in Stormwind. And yet, you rejected them when
they sought help simply to survive. That was a grievous wrong."

ah yes Anduin, cause it makes sense to trust the undead walking up to you claiming to be free and not a threat. Just easy for people who have been facing hordes of the same exact looking undead killing and spreading the plague right.

This logic never makes sense to me, sure Sylvanus could find the least rotting undead to approach the alliance, but it's a tall ask for people to trust and accept them. Heck, even letting in some undead could end up ravaging a city, so that alone is a risk.

also boy, the whitewashing and retcons in this novel just make my head hurt. And the fact the sylvanus is getting any form of a positive end is so stupid and basically sums up the whitewashing done to her (jesus the amount of "all about family" that she is now).

We all know she's happy going into the maw cause it's a "goal" for her, we know she will be with Danuser Nathanos while doing her daily quests... community service is totally a fitting "punishment" for a genocide and all her other evil actions as an undead right -_-

[TickTickTick]

They could change the name Sylvanas to any other name and that book would be more believable. It's one thing to use external media to make a character more fulfilling. But this book is basically describing an entirely different person. I'll give a pass to the parts of Sylvanas' past, but things like "this was presented in game like this, but ACTUALLY THE REAL TRUTH WAS..." are lame.

Either write the game story like it is or realize an MMO is not the kind of genre where grandour stories fit and abandon it. This book might as well be non canon with so much retconned, "ACTUALLY", or not ever pointed at stuff.

[Soon-TM]

The book would have been fine if its purpose (lul) was to establish the framework of a brand new story. However, it clashes so often with established facts that by the end, I was completely apathetic to the sheer amount AND extent of Golden's retcons. In this regard, it's even worse than freaking BtS, it reads as some half assed attempt at rewriting the game's story on some random fanfiction website.

[Aucald]

The book would have been fine if its purpose (lul) was to establish the framework of a brand new story. However, it clashes so often with established facts that by the end, I was completely apathetic to the sheer amount AND extent of Golden's retcons. In this regard, it's even worse than freaking BtS, it reads as some half assed attempt at rewriting the game's story on some random fanfiction website.

It's written better on a technical level than most fanfiction is, and if you knew nothing of previous WoW lore it'd probably be quite an engaging story. The problem is that it tries to do so much recontextualization and outright reconning of previous lore that having any knowledge of said lore renders the book a chore - the weight of disbelief is simply too heavy to engage with the prose. This book also has a marked tendency to simply not address the multiplying elephants in the proverbial room, leaving the most obvious questions (like many of those addressed above) unanswered as it plows on ahead with its narrative. It's bewildering and more than a little exhausting.

I liken it to the ending of War Crimes, which was a great story but had a terrible ending that made the rest of the novel an exercise in futility - except in this one, you're getting that treatment multiple times.

[Varodoc]

First of all, Thank you for this.

Secondly, let's see if I got this right:

- Alleria was the favourite child of the Windrunner family;

- Lireesa Windrunner (the Mother) loved Alleria as her favourite child;

- Lireesa preferred Alleria over Sylvanas and was very severe towards Sylvanas;

- Lireesa would have preferred if Alleria got the Ranger-General role instead of the worse daughter Sylvanas;

- Pretty much no one in the family really cared about Sylvanas, which is why the only one she had left was the useless little brother Lirath.

Eh, all in all it's what I expected

[bloodmoth13]

Its nice that it wraps up loose ends and frames the story, but so much of this needed to be seeded in the actual game. Nobody knew sylvanas cared about her brother, this isnt even an interesting reveal its an important piece of framing that is essential to get us to care about the story and its absence for the past 3 expansions just makes everything seem disjointed.
I really hope they stop with the 'tune in next week for the big reveal!' style story telling they have been doing. They are fucking over the story by trying to hide it too much, they dont want people guessing the ending and thats fine but the lengths they go to to ensure that nobody can guess what is coming next is hurting the narrative because everything is told without a frame of reference, its just a random series of events with a novel at the end boasting about how it was all totally planned but anyone invested in the story are just as likely to presume it was written retroactively and it cheapens everything.

I think the macro story beats for wow are fine and even a lot of the narrative is okay but the way its told is an absolute nightmare.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

First of all, Thank you for this.

Secondly, let's see if I got this right:

- Alleria was the favourite child of the Windrunner family;

- Lireesa Windrunner (the Mother) loved Alleria as her favourite child;

- Lireesa preferred Alleria over Sylvanas and was very severe towards Sylvanas;

- Lireesa would have preferred if Alleria got the Ranger-General role instead of the worse daughter Sylvanas;

- Pretty much no one in the family really cared about Sylvanas, which is why the only one she had left was the useless little brother Lirath.

Eh, all in all it's what I expected

ya all of this is wrong.

There son Lirath was the favorite Child of every one in the family.

Lireesa Windrunner's Favorite he was also Lirath the only one she kind to as he wasn't a ranger.

Lireesa was very severe to all of her Daughters almost getting Alleria killed with her first ranger test which she failed.

Lireesa would have preferred if Alleria became Ranger General only for the sake of tradition and before Alleria leaves they both admit that Sylvanas is the Better ranger between the two.

Every one in the windrunner family Cared about Sylvanas her father gave her diplomatic lessons, her mother was Stern but caring in her own way and treated all of the sisters more or less the same, Veressa Thought she was the ideal big sister, Alleria vouches for her as both the better archer to there mother and the better ranger general to the farstriders, and Lirath is closest to her.

[Niwes]

until a point, where they dived wow’s whole story into an absurd stupidity, i read all the books (~15-20).

but tbh, after SL i for 100% sure will never ever again read or buy any warcraft book. and for 1000% not, if Blizz earns even 1 cent with it. and same will keep true, till the day i die, or even when it got the nobel prize of literature.

i can safely say: i am done with that. sad Christie Golden, i am sorry for her, tbh.

[TrueHorde]

This novel is a bit of a slog for me personally - the level of retconning makes for a high degree of dissonance when reading, and the forced recontextualization of most of Sylvanas' key moments in WoW is difficult to reconcile. I would only recommend this for anyone who wants to keep an up-to-date record of WoW lore for academic purposes. It's not a fun read by any means, and while I found the window on Sylvanas and the other Windrunner daughters' childhood to be interesting new information at least, it's probably the only good portion of the book to be had.

I'm only 3/4's of the way through at the moment, but unless the book's climax and denouement can somehow save this exercise from itself I'm not thinking it's going to end up great.

Thank OP and Thank you for sharing. I always like to read your comments. You are a very thoughtful person.Many guys in this lore-forum are like you too.