"World of Warcraft: Exploring Azeroth - Kalimdor" Lore and Updates [Spoilers]

[OwenBurton]

The "World of Warcraft: Exploring Kalimdor" has finally been released this week! Here are some of the major lore updates, which I found personally very vague, limited and underwhelming compared to the previous book, and I had much higher expectations, honestly.

HORDE:
- Azshara's pollution from goblin industrialization has tainted Durotar's natural water supplies, perhaps permanently, resulting in regular water shipments from the tauren in Mulgore.

- Gallywix's Pleasure Palace still remains, Gallywix is still gone and nowhere to be found seemingly.

- Misha (the bear) enjoys riding the cars on the rocket tracks sometimes.

- There is a new dock at the Echo Isles supporting travel to Zulduzar, further connecting the two troll factions of the Horde.

- The Shatterspear trolls signed a peace treaty before the Cataclysm with the night elves (non-aggression pact), broke it afterwards, and now have renewed their peace treaty after the Battle of Darkshore, but remain within the Horde, providing them with a strategic base deep in night elf territory.

There is also a brand-new Shatterspear troll character and chieftain, Ohseso, loyal to the Horde and its interests.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ohseso

- Some of the Horde honestly think they should not be forgiven for the Burning of Teldrassil, and silently contemplated its ruins for a very long time.

- The Earthen Ring is still active and open to both factions' members.

ALLIANCE:
The humans:
- Control Tirisgarde Keep in Durotar, the Northwatch Expeditionary Unit remains posted there.
- Controls and has reinforced Honor's Stand in the neighboring Barrens.

The night elves:
- The Alliance has retaken (most of) Darkshore, except for Shatterspear Vale, but has abandoned Bashal'Aran, its base of operations after the Battle of Darkshore. Ameth'Aran, the other Highborne city in Darkshore, is also in ruins. The Night Warrior, or the “Avatar of the New Moon" empowered the Kaldorei Empire against the trolls in pre-Sundering times, and there are other avatars also, but undescribed, for each different phase of Mu'sha. The night elves still somewhat patrol Darkshore's roads, but seem to have their forces and attentions diverted elsewhere (perhaps other parts of Kalimdor). However, post-Battle of Darkshore, most life in Darkshore is seemingly gone, or essentially dead, and much of the land seems abandoned or uninhabitable. Onu, the Ancient of Lore in Darkshore, welcomed the Horde representatives to the Grove of the Ancients, and even shared some of his ancient wisdom with them.

- Ashenvale remains heavily contested between the Alliance and the Horde, or rather the night elves and the Horde. The night elves control Astranaar, Stardust Spire, the Howling Vale, and the Shrine of Mel'Thrandis, and successfully reclaimed the Mor'shan Ramparts (the Horde outpost entrance into southern Ashenvale). The night elves and Horde are still fighting fiercely over other bases, such as the Splintertree Post and the Warsong Lumber Camp.

- Azshara, or at least some parts, is also a point of perpetual conflict - with the night elves of Talrendis Point constantly attacking the Horde base of Valormok, and it is feared by some in the Horde that they might seize control of the base, the Horde Council is to be contacted for reinforcements.

- Mount Hyjal and Nordrassil are not really mentioned (other than an ancient owl creature Ban'thalas being Malorne's ally and having stood together in the War of the Ancients) but the Cenarion Circle is confirmed to still accept druids from both factions. No new capital of the night elves is discussed.

- The Cenarion Hold has been re-established in Silithus, Staghelm Point is also restored, with a new Sentinel Tree planted by the druids like they did against Ragnaros in the Cataclysm.

The draenei:
- The Exodar is successfully repaired and capable of travel, Velen is still leading the draenei! But their people favored the Vindicaar to include all of Azeroth's forces against the Legion during the last war.

- They are on cordial (if not friendly) terms with the Horde, and several draenei, Ya'rika and Kea'ton, gave the Horde representatives a tour guide of the Exodar.

- They have tried to purge the radiation on Azuremyst Isles resulting from the crash (the Isles are called "View of Unending Stars" or Nar'valas in Darnassian), but to little avail.

P.S. I know we can also discuss the specific characters, etc., but I ask that most people try to focus on the content and the lore, such as the locations and the political changes, first and foremost, other things can be discussed in great detail on other threads.

"The husk of the tree still smolders from the fire the Horde rained down on it that day. What was destroyed may never be regrown—what we did, never forgiven. Though it be a harsh thing to say, maybe we shouldn’t be forgiven. Some soldiers lean on their duty, their pride, their faith in the Horde... like that could make sense of what happened here. Seems to be a brave face to hide behind.

Even in its ruin, I can still see how Teldrassil was easily tall enough to reach the sky. The clouds that caressed its crown now cling to the charred bark of the hollowed-out tree, as if wrapping arms around a friend to grieve its passing. The Horde broke the crown of the heavens and replaced it with one of cinders. Time and the elements’ll reclaim the tree, but I hope they take their time. I made a quick offering to Akunda for the night elves. I hope that one day they can find new beginnings again.*

*Hope hurts. He’ll learn."

Active Thread Warnings:

Let's drop the "racism" cards and derailing tangents into real-world racial and identity politics, as these are not permitted topics in the first place. Keep the discussions centered on the fantasy races of Warcraft.

[Combatbutler]

It was even more status quo than I was expecting, the entire conflict was utterly pointless XD

[Super Dickmann]

We're on our third or fourth status of the Exodar and given that the next expansion will be on Azeroth this one also won't last long.

The amount of status quo in this is massive, but the illogic of having an Alliance outpost literally outside the Horde capital is balanced by the Shatterspear Tribe inexplicably comin back from being eliminated and also being in Darkshore. Also, I do appreciate that it's a consistent throughline that the Night Elves don't follow the treaty. The Azshara lore is as old as the Cataclysm Baine story and doesn't constitute any new information. Silithus being restored seems the most dubious of all. Seems mostly an inoffensive recap of the post-Cataclysm status quo with some references to the night elves being outside the armistice.

The highlight is probably the bit with the bear riding the Rocketway cars. Bears are cute.

[Maljinwo]

It's amazing how many pages of this book were written just to state nothing has really changed

[Combatbutler]

It's amazing how many pages of this book were written just to state nothing has really changed

Pretty much like the exploring the eastern Kingdoms, 90% of it was nothing new as well. Gotta try to milk some money without putting any real effort in I guess.

[Extrakt]

Any info about the Furbolgs in Ashzara, Darkshore and Ashenvale?

[Raetary]

Lol.
They wrote a whole fucking book just to do absolutely fucking nothing.

[Arrashi]

Its amazing how night elves can lose like 90% of their population and yet there is absolutely no consequence to that.

[florclorbromiod]

How in the world are Night Elves fighting for Ashenvale and Azshara alone?

In Vanilla Lore it was stated the Night Elves are almost extinct. They went through another extinction event and yet they can fight the combined might of the Kalimdor Horde?

The Warsong Clan alone was beating back the Sentinels, how the hell is all Orckind + Trolls + Tauren + Forsaken + Goblins not able to take control of Ashenvale and hold it?

I know Blizzard wants to kiss the asses of the 25 Night Elf players left but this is ridiculous. They'd have no supply chains ( all their civilians got evacuated to another continent ), they are massively outnumbered, they have bows and glaives against tanks and guns. It makes no sense.

[Loreth88]

- The Shatterspear trolls signed a peace treaty before the Cataclysm with the night elves (non-aggression pact), broke it afterwards, and now have renewed their peace treaty after the Battle of Darkshore, but remain within the Horde, providing them with a strategic base deep in night elf territory.

There is also a brand-new Shatterspear troll character and chieftain, Ohseso, loyal to the Horde and its interests.
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Ohseso

WTF, how many times they need to put down? ppl say the nigh elfs have no army etc anymore because to many of them died, but this troll village killed in cata, and they still there, how?

[Tanaria]

So many pages to basically tell us:
"Yeah - nothing's happened since Cataclysm."

[Loreth88]

How in the world are Night Elves fighting for Ashenvale and Azshara alone?

In Vanilla Lore it was stated the Night Elves are almost extinct. They went through another extinction event and yet they can fight the combined might of the Kalimdor Horde?

The Warsong Clan alone was beating back the Sentinels, how the hell is all Orckind + Trolls + Tauren + Forsaken + Goblins not able to take control of Ashenvale and hold it?

I know Blizzard wants to kiss the asses of the 25 Night Elf players left but this is ridiculous. They'd have no supply chains ( all their civilians got evacuated to another continent ), they are massively outnumbered, they have bows and glaives against tanks and guns. It makes no sense.

what are you talking about? if the night elfs extinct in vanilla, then the horde does it to, handfull of trolls from an island, tauren survivours from a barrens (u know centaur wars), forsakens dosen't matter in kalimdor back then, orcs maybe but they are still low on population (humans killed and break them). After that they fight agains the Legion to, just like elfs they have losses to.

[florclorbromiod]

what are you talking about? if the night elfs extinct in vanilla, then the horde does it to, handfull of trolls from an island, tauren survivours from a barrens (u know centaur wars), forsakens dosen't matter in kalimdor back then, orcs maybe but they are still low on population (humans killed and break them). After that they fight agains the Legion to, just like elfs they have losses to.

1. The Darkspear were almost extinct. The Horde has more than 1 troll tribe.

2. The Bloodhoof tribe was almost extinct. The Tauren have far more than just the Bloodhoof in WoW.

3. The Orcs were never anywhere near extinct. They're probably the most numerous race in Azeroth and they reach adulthood when they're 12. The Second War was 25 years ago in WoW. That's enough for 2 generations of orcs.

4. The Night Elves have kids very rarely and have gone through -4- extinction events: The Sundering, The Scarab War, The Third War, The Fourth War. They should be in no position to fight the Horde. They have no supply lines, no civilians, no city, no Alliance support.

5. The Forsaken should be fine considering Sylvanas knew about the Lordaeron attack and evacuated them.

It makes fuckall sense.

if the night elfs extinct in vanilla

There's no if. Go start up WoW Classic and make a Night Elf. The Narrator says you're one of the few remaining Night Elves. And that's before the tree burned.

[Tanaria]

There's no if. Go start up WoW Classic and make a Night Elf. The Narrator says you're one of the few remaining Night Elves. And that's before the tree burned.

The problem we've got is contradiction.

Some could say that the return of the night elf mages could have helped the night elf numbers, but even before that - we had night elves everywhere across the continents.
We had night elves in Quel'Thalas, Outland, Northrend, Azuremyst Isle.

[Loreth88]

The problem we've got is contradiction.

Some could say that the return of the night elf mages could have helped the night elf numbers, but even before that - we had night elves everywhere across the continents.
We had night elves in Quel'Thalas, Outland, Northrend, Azuremyst Isle.

Yes, PPL at blizzard can't count they never would, even blood elfs died in W3 almost all of them, and in TBC u can see them everywhere, even if u killed half of them (outland).

[Khaza-R]

Its amazing how night elves can lose like 90% of their population and yet there is absolutely no consequence to that.

Like High Elves?

Who were like 90% purged by Arthas
Then were used as fodder by Garithos
Then had sacrifice more troops to help Illidan retake the Black Temple
Then a disastrous march on Icecrown and a failed attempt to destroy the Lich King
Then had a coup / civil war against their monarch
Then were used as fodder again by Garrosh
Then splintered again into another new faction of shady elves

There should be like 100 elves left at this point. But WarCraft's writing has no consequences so it doesn't matter for them and won't matter for the Night Elves either.

[Raetary]

There's no if. Go start up WoW Classic and make a Night Elf. The Narrator says you're one of the few remaining Night Elves. And that's before the tree burned.

Lets not pretend that Blizzard ever gave a single fuck about population numbers.

[DatToffer]

Most astounding argument against a world revamp.

They made the lore look like what's currently in game.

[Aucald]

I didn't really expect anything major to happen since the current in-game focus is elsewhere. Interesting to see how the political fallout is unfurling, though. I would've expected a bit more concession from the Horde given the givens. And per usual the non-Kaldorei part of the Alliance is being too conciliatory.

[Jastall]

Lets not pretend that Blizzard ever gave a single fuck about population numbers.

At this point the only races that should still be in fighting shape are the Dwarves, who have never been invaded and participated in relatively few conflicts, and the Forsaken who can replenish their losses from warfare. Everyone else has suffered catastrophic losses and constant attrition that should make their -at best- Renaissance-era societies completely collapse multiple times over.


As for the book, apparently the BFA war was completely pointless and we're back to literally Cataclysm, except Darkshore is now a shittier place. Ain't constant status quo grand.