Spooncraft

Loregasm is another section I will update as much as possible. I am a major freakishly obsessed lore buff with the Warcraft universe; whenever my friends or guild mates have a question they refer to me as the “Rickipedia” of warcraft lore and I oblige with joy to answer them.

Patch 2.4 is upon us and it revolves around the Burning crusade story line’s climactic ending and the Sunwell.

There are many different resources you could check in order to get more information about what exactly is going on in patch 2.4 lore wise. But for the sake of people not getting lost in the lag that is the wow-wiki, I’ll sum up best i can. I went ahead and quoted the wiki with links directly for some of the backstory stuff.

Let’s begin with the Burning Crusade’s story and why we’re going to the Sunwell in the first place. If you’ve spent any time playing the expansion and ever visited Shattrath city, then you know about the Aldor and the Scryers. The Aldor are a faction of draenei formerly led by the Prophet Velen and now led by High Priestess Ishanah. They are an ancient order of priests who revere the naaru and who remained in Outland following the departure of Velen and his followers for Azeroth aboard the Exodar. Like their rivals the Scryers, they are dedicated to assisting the naaru known as the Sha’tar in rebuilding Shattrath City and defeating the Burning Legion.

The Scryers are a faction of blood elves led by Voren’thal the Seer. The group broke away from Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider, heir to the throne of Quel’Thalas and ruler of the blood elven race, and offered to assist the naaru in rebuilding Shattrath City. They are at odds with the Aldor, and compete with them for power within Shattrath and for the naaru’s favor.

You are forced to pick one faction or the other and eventually will do multiple quests for your chosen side. Both factions have different quests but as things progress you both end up doing the exact same thing. Both sides take down the Mana Forges in Netherstorm, both factions fight the demon lords in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon valley, and both factions send you to Akama to start the Black Temple storyline. Remember, both factions are chasing the same goals. They are on the same coin, just different sides of it.

Eventually you fight Kael’thas himself in the heart of the 25 man riad, Tempest Keep: The Eye. When you defeat him he will drop a quest item that sends you to Shattrath city and asks you speak to A’dal. When you turn in the quest you see a large flaming icon of the bloodelves (the hawk wings spread upward) and Kael’thas speaks from the flaming bird sign. In short he mocks you and A’dal saying how he is abandoning Illidan and plans to be Kil’Jaden’s harbinger and how he has already reignited the Sunwell (with demonic and arcane energy)

One thing leads to another and the Aldor and Scryers call a truce and form a new faction called The Shattered Sun Offensive. This army serves only one purpose, to stop Kil’Jaden from entering our world and pretty much screwing us all to hell. This is where we come in and bolster the forces of the SSO. We’ll go into the 5 man instance (Magister’s Terrace) and fight a barely living Kael’thas (with nasty leprosy and green shard of crystal jabbed in his chest to keep him alive) and bare witness to the summoning via a scrying orb. Then we hit the Sunwell Plateau itself (25 man instance) and race to the actual Sunwell to fight Kil’Jaden mid-summon.As for the Sunwell itself and the vast history surrounding it:

Within Sunwell Grove, located on the southern point of the island, lies the cherished Sunwell, a fountain of holy water with magical powers that sadly became corrupted by the act of Arthas‘ raising of the dead necromancer Kel’Thuzad into his lich form following the Fall of Silvermoon.

The Sunwell was a fount of mystical power at a convergence of powerful ley energies in Quel’Thalas, created by the high elves who used a vial of sacred water stolen from the Well of Eternity. The fountain is currently not in the game, but is rumored to be added in a later patch or in an entirely new expansion, along with the entire Sunwell Plateau.

The well’s potent arcane magic fed and strengthened all high elves on Azeroth. Thus, the city of Silvermoon was established. The power of the high elves grew, and they cast an enchantment on the Eversong Woods that would keep them bathed in eternal springtime. Elven magi crafted monolithic Runestones along the borders of Quel’Thalas; these massive stones powered a magical shield intended to mask the elves’ magic from extra-dimensional threats and protect the land from invasion. The hard-won peace of Quel’Thalas would endure for roughly four thousand years.

During the Third War, the evil prince Arthas Menethil laid waste to Quel’Thalas, wiping out most of its population and reducing large tracts of the mighty kingdom to ash in his quest to reach the Sunwell.

As the undead armies closed in on the Sunwell, a high elf named Dar’khan Drathir (who hoped to gain the favor of the Lich King) aided Arthas by lowering the shields surrounding the Sunwell. Dar’Khan’s treachery resulted in an explosion that knocked him unconscious and scattered most of the Sunwell’s powers. The wizard Borel (one of the guises of the red dragon Korialstrasz) sensed the mystical energy being unleashed and succeeded in trapping a portion of it inside an avatar disguised as a young human girl, Anveena Teague.

Unaware of Borel’s deed, Arthas immersed the bones of the Lich King’s head necromancer, Kel’Thuzad into the remaining energies in the Sunwell. A font of powerful energies being all that the Lich King needed, he was able to resurrect Kel’Thuzad as his head lich, fulfilling the promise of immortality that he had made to him.

In the aftermath of the battle, King Anasterian lay dead along with the members of the Convocation of Silvermoon, the high elves’ ruling body. Lor’themar Theron, Sylvanas Windrunner’s second–in–command, assumed temporary leadership of the high elves. This was because the true heir to the throne, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider, was still in Dalaran. The few remaining high elves to survive the Scourge’s invasion quickly grew ill and apathetic. It became clear that the high elves had become addicted to the Sunwell’s arcane energies. Being constantly suffused in magic had fundamentally changed their race. Now that the source of their magic was gone, they were suffering acute pangs of withdrawal.

Prince Kael’thas was the last of the royal line and a member of Dalaran’s ruling council, the Kirin Tor. When the Sunwell was defiled, he was studying magic in Dalaran. He returned to find his homeland in ruins and most of his people dead. He realized that the surviving high elves were all suffering from the same lethargy, which had been brought on by their loss of magic. Determined to salvage what he could, Kael’thas rallied the survivors and renamed them the sin’dorei, or “blood elves“, in honor of those who had fallen to the Scourge.

Thirsting for vengeance, Prince Kael’thas and the healthiest of his warriors immediately joined the campaign against the Scourge in Lordaeron while Lor’themar and a ranger named Halduron Brightwing remained behind to safeguard the land and seek a cure for their people. Kael’thas and his warriors followed the naga through the portal and into the shattered realm of Outland. There, the elves met the one being capable of putting an end to their painful hunger: the renegade demon/night elf, Illidan Stormrage. Most of Kael’thas’ group chose to stay in Outland, but Rommath was sent back to carry a message of hope to those blood elves remaining in Quel’Thalas. Rommath accomplished his mission: relaying tales of a glorious promised land, spreading the teachings of Illidan (teachings which Rommath smoothly attributed to Prince Kael’thas), and planting the notion that Kael’thas might one day return to lead his people to paradise. Rommath has since remained in Quel’Thalas to help rebuild and await the prince’s return.

Months later, the traitor Dar’Khan – now a powerful agent of the Scourge – returned to Quel’Thalas. There he battled the avatar of the Sunwell, Anveena, and a band of heroes aided by blue dragons. Despite the magics he wielded, Dar’Khan was destroyed in the end. Under the watchful protection of Lor’themar and Halduron, Anveena has decided to stay in the ruined city and begin the process of renewal.

Only a handful of individuals know that Anveena is actually the avatar of the Sunwell’s power. Lor’themar and his people keep this secret tightly guarded. Meanwhile, Rommath and the new order of elven magi made great progress in tutoring their brethren to manipulate arcane energies. Soon the spires of Silvermoon rose skyward once again, powered by volatile magics. The blood elves have even begun retaking portions of Eversong Forest. Emboldened by the promise of Kael’thas’ return, the prince’s weary people now focus on regaining their strength and forging a new path into an uncertain future.

According to the RPG books, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, the immensely powerful red dragon aspect, believes the Sunwell can be rejuvenated. She is involved with other affairs in Grim Batol, however, and doesn’t have time to do it. To recreate the Sunwell, she believes various items must be gathered from around the world: a vial of Well of Eternity water from Kalimdor; three crushed gems from Pandaria; a titan-made chalice held by the goblin trade princes in Undermine; and the skull of Anasterian Sunstrider, the last King of Quel’Thalas, which the blood elves took to Outland. Also needed are at least 300 living high elves. Gathering them together would require rounding up refugees from Zul’Aman, scouring the world for the few high elves left in various cities and/or forcing blood elves to repent.

(all of this eludes to another expansion in the south seas where the island of Panderia YAY PANDAS! and the goblin capital of Undermine can be implemented. More on that in another Loregasm though.)

The Sunwell Trilogy comics tell the story of the energies of the Sunwell lost in the fall of Quel’thalas when the high elven traitor to the Scourge, Dar’khan Drathir, tried to claim them as his own. The lost energies, when found, were shaped into an avatar in the form of the human girl, Anveena Teague, by Krasus the dragon mage. She was to be kept hidden until the time would be right to strike back at the Lich King, however, the power began to manifest prematurely, drawing unwanted attention from Dar’khan. With the aid of the blue dragon Kalecgos and others, she was able to defeat Dar’khan and release the Sunwell’s energy, in the process restoring a grove once destroyed by the Scourge. She currently resides in that grove with Kalecgos, protected by a magical shield and watched over by Lor’themar Theron[1] As well it has been confirmed that there are spells in the game files that refrence Anveena herself and so it can be safely assumed that she will aid you in your final boss fight against Kil’Jaden like Akama and Maiev and other lore icons (Hyjal) have helped in major boss fights before.