History of Warcraft

The History of Warcraft, also known as the Warcraft universe, is a comprehensive account of lore created by Blizzard as background information to the World of Warcraft universe, and is made up of the entirety of Blizzard's published record so far.^[1] The full text is available on the official World of Warcraft site. Additionally, most (perhaps all?) of this material can be read within the game itself as in-game books.

Want to know more about the lore of World of Warcraft? Although the game doesn't require any prior knowledge of Warcraft lore to enjoy, you may appreciate the broader understanding of the setting and characters in the game that you will gain from learning about the lore. Here are some resources that are available:

History of Warcraft

Note: Certain parts of the History section are outdated and may therefore conflict with other pieces of lore or stories. They plan on updating this section someday to bring it up to date.^[1]

Timeline

• Timeline (from official site)

Creation

Speculative Pre-History

• Creation myth
  • God- A singular supreme god revered by the Clerics of Northshire who created Angels and all that existed, possibly including the Titans and Old Gods themselves. Very relevant to notions of a Judeo-Christian/Islamic God in real life, and Church of the Holy Light have changed to a non-theistic notion to reduce to relevance to not interfere with religious beliefs of individual gamers in real life, hence in-personalizing him. God is now absently noted in Warcraft, in fact Humans themselves were revealed to be instead from the Vrykul (and possibly the Titans created the Vrykul from Apes, which is noted to the Anunnaki theory of hypothetical genetic engineering of apes to create humans, supposedly linking the Titans to the Anunnaki presented in conspiracy theories. However some of the Anunnaki had slight dim-wittedness and regret against Human Beings as most Titans did not regret and many were wise )
  • Old Gods- Old Gods created the Universe
  • Titans- Titans shaped the universe, their origins unknown.
  • See:creation myth other theories from war-craft races claiming who created the universe.

Beginning of Evil - (The Beginning of Evil in the universe is largely gaped in Warcraft history

Origin of Evil

• Explaining the origin of Evil in the Universe that corrupted later beings such as Sargeras and the Tyranny of the Old Gods
  • Devil- A hypothetical Satanic equivalent of the WoW universe, first to go astray, possibly resides in the Abyss of Twisting Nether or the Dark Below, beings from his army that corrupted other races deep in space such as the Eredar and possibly Doomguards of Argus,Nathrezim and other beings that would gain status as Demons, or Daemons. If the Old Clerics of North-shire were right, 99.99% of the Warcraft Characters have been tricked by a Satanic figure, even good beings practicing idolatry

Known History

Chapter I: Mythos

• The Titans and the Shaping of the Universe (in-game Mythology of the Titans)
• Sargeras and the Betrayal
• The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth
• Charge of the Dragonflights
• The Waking World and the Well of Eternity
• The War of the Ancients
• The Sundering of the World
• Mount Hyjal and Illidan's Gift
• The World Tree and the Emerald Dream
• Exile of the High Elves
• The Sentinels and the Long Vigil

Chapter II: The New World

• The Founding of Quel'Thalas
• Arathor and the Troll Wars
• The Guardians of Tirisfal
• Ironforge - the Awakening of the Dwarves
• The Seven Kingdoms
• Aegwynn and the Dragon Hunt
• War of the Three Hammers
• The Last Guardian

Chapter III: The Doom of Draenor

• Kil'jaeden and the Shadow Pact
• Rise of the Horde

Chapter IV: Alliance And Horde

• The Dark Portal and the Fall of Stormwind
• The Alliance of Lordaeron
• The Invasion of Draenor
• The Birth of the Lich King
• Icecrown and the Frozen Throne
• The Battle of Grim Batol
• Lethargy of the Orcs
• The New Horde
• War of the Spider
• Kel'Thuzad and the Forming of the Scourge
• The Alliance Splinters

Chapter V: Return of the Burning Legion

• The Scourge of Lordaeron
• Sunwell - The Fall of Quel'Thalas
• Archimonde's Return and the Flight to Kalimdor
• The Battle of Mount Hyjal
• The Betrayer Ascendant
• Rise of the Blood Elves
• Civil War in the Plaguelands
• The Lich King Triumphant
• Old Hatreds - The Colonization of Kalimdor

Official Web Site

Samples of online official World of Warcraft lore for one's reading enjoyment.

EncyclopediaWarcraft Encyclopedia

Since the release of the first Warcraft game, the lore of the Warcraft universe has been evolving and expanding at an incredible rate. Today, Warcraft lore is spread across four games and three expansions as well as a number of novels, a pen-and-paper roleplaying game, and even a manga series. Now you can find all there is to know about Warcraft in one official source of all things Warcraft: The Warcraft Encyclopedia. In time we hope it will grow to be the ultimate resource for all your Warcraft story and lore needs.

Lack of recent update activity (as of early 2008) seems to indicate that Blizzard has either put this project on hold or temporarily removed resources committed to expanding it.

World of Warcraft

This section concerns content exclusive to World of Warcraft.

• The Murlocs
• The War of the Shifting Sands
• The Road to Damnation
• Troll Compendium^{[2] [3]}
• The Undead Plague^{[4] [5]}

The Burning Crusade

This section concerns content exclusive to The Burning Crusade.

• Unbroken^{[6] [7]}
• The Story So Far (Then and Now: Conflict and Triumph in the World of Warcraft)^{[8] [9]}
• Shamans and Paladins^{[10] [11]}
• Blood Elf History^{[12] [13] [14] [15] [16]}
• Draenei History^{[17] [18]}

Wrath of the Lich King

This section concerns content exclusive to Wrath of the Lich King.

• Rise of the Lich King^{[19] [20]}

Previous Warcraft games

The single-player Warcraft III campaigns and the accompanying game manuals provide a wealth of information about events in the world of Azeroth.

• Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
• Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (Expansion Pack)
• Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (Expansion Pack)

Novels

• World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon
• World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal
• World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness
• World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde
• World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred
• World of Warcraft: Rise of the Lich King
• World of Warcraft: stormrage
• World of Warcraft: the shattering: prelude to cataclysm
• Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy, Book Three: The Sundering
• Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy, Book Two: The Demon Soul
• Warcraft: War of the Ancients Trilogy, Book One: The Well of Eternity
• Warcraft: The Last Guardian
• Warcraft: Lord of the Clans
• Warcraft: Day of the Dragon