Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, the column that answers your questions about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe. Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!

skoll asks...

Whats your speculation about the Burning Legion in the new expansion, since Kil'jaeden has been killed/defeated? IF he is dead.. will it that be the end of Burning Legion? If not, what you think their role will be?

Answer: Well, Kil'jaeden isn't dead. Not at all. In the Sunwell Plateau, Kil'jaeden is being summoned but never fully makes it through the portal. We bop him on the head and he just falls back in. What presence will they have in Wrath? Well, it will probably be minimal. I am sure they'll have some presence, the Legion doesn't really have any love for the Scourge, but it won't be anything like what we've seen in The Burning Crusade. Kil'jaeden is alive and well, but I think they'll scale way back on demons just because we've seen so many lately. They will probably want to step away from thrusting the same thing on us for another entire expansion.

AndiIM asks...

Any ideas - lorewise - whom or what we might encounter in the "Chamber of the Aspects" in Northrend? I can't imagine Blizzard giving us a second raid dealing with the blue dragon flight. The only other flight which there is really a point to fighting with would be Deathwing's brood, right? But for Deathwing a one boss dungeon would seem to be rather odd.

Answer: I quite honestly have no idea. I doubt Deathwing himself will be a boss in Wrath of the Lich King, but I guess it's possible. More likely it would be a different black dragon, if it is a black at all. The best that we can do is guess and speculate, because we really don't have any hints at all except that it is probably dragon-related.

Avonar asks...

Perhaps a strange question... but Lady Jaina is incredibly whiney in the Battle for Mount Hyjal (CoT). From all I've read about her, she's supposed to be one of the strongest mages on the face of the earth, friends with Thrall, was strong enough to step away from Arthas when necessary.... so it just doesn't make sense to me that she sounds so whiney. It's not so much what she's saying but how she says it. Is there anything in the lore that justifies this?

Answer: In lore? No. Her voice actor just doesn't seem to quite know how to do distress while still sounding dignified. You gotta admit, even the most powerful people in the world probably get nervous and a little wigged out when undead and demons are washing over their army. It makes sense for Jaina to be a little on edge. Her VA just lays it on a little too thick. Instead of sounding a little nervous, she sounds like she's going to break down and cry. There's really no lore justification. The voice actor was just too over the top.

Jason asks a couple of questions...

Question: WotLK expansion clearly indicates Stormwind City will be expanded with a huge harbor. My question therefore is, did SW have a harbor all along in lore?

Answer: Well, there really isn't anything I've seen that says "yes, there was a harbor," but it is safe to assume a few things. First, Stormwind is coastal, geographically. There's some terrain in the way, but it's pretty solidly near the coastline. It would be silly for them to have never built a harbor before. However, we see in the 2.4.3 PTR that they're just now building the harbor for Wrath.

Because of this we can assume one of the following is true:

1. When Stormwind was razed and rebuilt, they never bothered to rebuild the Harbor, or never found the opportunity to do so.
2. Stormwind is dumb and didn't utilize their coastal placement for anything until now.
3. Stormwind has always had a Harbor, but Blizzard decided to have some fun with the addition by actually building it up in-game, rather than having it appear fully formed since it wasn't represented in the game world yet.
   

Personally, I'm leaning towards that last one because really, a coastal kingdom sort of needs a bustling harbor to keep trade and the like alive. Of course, it could be that second one. Paranoia might be a pretty good reason to just throw up some walls as a substitute for being landlocked from your enemies.

Question: Alterac Valley contains/contained both dwarvish Stormpike and Wildhammer clan, orcish Frostwolf clan and Alterac nation. How is it they never collided before, until recently in WoW?

Answer: Well, the Kingdom of Alterac is pretty much in ruins. The only remnants are the Syndicate, which were in league with Alterac's rulers. They may still be in league with them, but Alterac as a nation is pretty much done for.

Neither the Frostwolf or the Stormpike have any real claim on Alterac. Both of them are relatively new to the area. The Frostwolf claim to the land is based on two decades or so of living there, and no matter what world you live in, twenty years does not make a kingdom. Orcs being Orcs, they certainly had no interest in negotiating with the Dwarves when they showed up. Except for Thrall, you will probably never see an orc in negotiations. Gotta love the thick-skulled, bloodthirsty brutes.

Of course, the Stormpike claim isn't much better. They're brand new to the area, and dwarves being dwarves, they think the land is already theirs. There are just some orcs in the way. Ah yes, the racist, imperialistic bastards of the Alliance. Isn't it grand?

So basically, both of them have set up shop rather recently, compared to all of the other kingdoms and nations in Azeroth. Neither of them have a very strong claim to the land at all, but they fight a bloody war over it regardless. Such is the nature of greed.

Siona asks...

Why don't the Draenei care for the Broken? They aren't as aggressive or crazy as the Lost Ones, but they don't seem to care that they're enslaved all over Outland, and Nobundo and his followers still seem to be treated with some ill will with the exception of Velen, even though he helped get them the Exodar. Why the hate?

Answer: Probably paranoia and a lack of understanding. The Draenei have been based in the Light for thousands and thousands of years. The Broken were forcibly cut off from the Light, and mutated into hideous beasts. It's a relatively new occurance, when you think about just how long Draenei live.

For a society that places your connection to the Light on a very high pedestal, it must be shocking to see many of your brethren suddenly have that connection completely severed. That can very easily inspire fear in people, and fear is the number one thing that causes you to shove those that are different away. Plus, the Draenei have been running from the Legion for their entire lifetimes. Your brethren losing their connection to the Light could easily be an indication of the Legion seeping into your ranks. However, we can see that the Broken are gaining some ground back amongst the Draenei. Shamanism is a part of their society, even if many of the Draenei find it strange or unusual. Shaman have an entire portion of the Exodar to teach others, and Broken class trainers generally stand right alongside the other class trainers. It will be awhile before they're equals, but we can see progress happening.

Think about it. If a chunk of the population near you got assaulted, and then afterwards they mutated and shriveled like raisins... most of us wouldn't run up and hug them and ask if they wanted to play baseball. It's a terrible thought for sure, but most of us would probably feel pity for them and be a little stand-offish until we understood what happened or how we could help. There are some people that would have no problem running up and hanging out with those folk, but most of us would want to understand things first.

That's all for today, folks. If I didn't get to your question this week, never fear! Ask a Lore Nerd will be back next week Sunday, answering as many of your questions as possible. Remember, don't be afraid to ask us your questions, no matter how large or small. Post them in the Comments field below, and I'll get to them as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!

Tags: 2.4.3, alterac-valley, arthas, broken, burning-legion, chamber-of-the-aspects, deathwing, draenei, exodar, frostwolf, jaina, jaina-proudmoore, joystiqfeatures, kiljaeden, lost-ones, northrend, scourge, shamanism, stormpike, stormwind, stormwind-harbor, sunwell-plateau, syndicate, tweet-this, wrath

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King, Ask a Lore Nerd