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 (or e-mail us!), ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!

Mizunie asks a couple of questions...

On the WotLK website, the designers talk about the "Scarlet Onslaught." Who are they and where did they come from?

The Scarlet Onslaught is the refounding of the Scarlet Crusade. Sometime after the events in Stratholme, Abbendis has taken complete command of the Crusade with a new band of lackies. She believes the Light has beckoned her to Northrend, so she rounds up every Crusader she has left and loads them on boats under the flag of the Scarlet Onslaught. There's other details to accompany this in Wrath, but they're way too cool for me to spoil this early.

Do we know anything on good ol' Deathwing?

Nope, not yet. I haven't seen much yet. It's possible we'll learn more in the Chamber of the Aspects raid zone coming in Wrath. It's been revealed that a Black Dragon is the boss inside there, though we don't know the details surrounding it yet.

Eternalpayn asks...

If Blood Elves are mana-addicted High Elves, then how do Blood Elf Rogues fit into lore?

Hey, even their Rogues have Mana Tap. They still eat mana up with a spoon. They just don't use it for spellcasting, no big deal.

Hunshin asked...

Does Thori'dal have any lore background (such as the Blades of Azzinoth, Atiesh, Sulfuras or Thunderfury) or was it just added to please cheap hunters?

We don't really know! It's possible Thori'dal is the Sunstrider Longbow that was a Sunstrider heirloom for quite awhile, but that was supposedly gifted to Sylvanas. I still say it's possible they're the same weapon, perhaps Sylvanas lost it after she became a Dark Ranger, but that's purely guesswork on my part. I just think they fit because of the Elven design of the bow and the name "The Star's Fury." That sounds pretty in line with the Sunstrider motif, but that's pretty much the entire motif of the Sunwell Plateau.

Most likely, there's no real lore for it. I just happen to like my near-baseless theory. It's a shame if there's no story for it, though. There's some pretty cool bows in the lore they could've used, like Frostfathom.

Greta asks...

What's the story behind the Undead fellow in the secret room of the Scarlet Monastery Cathedral?

That's High Inquisitor Fairbanks. He was there with Highlord Alexandros Mograine when the Highlord's son betrayed him and handed him over to the Scourge. Fairbanks 'survived' the attack, and 'hid' beneath a pile of rotting corpses to 'live' another day. He found his way back to the Monastery after all was said and done, to warn everyone of Renault Mograine's betrayal. The Scarlets cut him down and threw him in a closet so nobody would know. Turns out he became Undead and has been locked in there this whole time! Poor fellow.

jedunster asks...

Whatever happened to Mannoroth? I know he was sucked back into the portal during the Sundering, but what happened to him after that?

Oh, not much, really. He let some Orcs drink his blood and they turned into a fel-tainted army that stormed Azeroth, pillaged their towns, killed some babies, razed some place called Stormwind. Then a fella named Grom Hellscream killed him. Everyday stuff, really.

J.A.S. asks...

So if the Elves evolved from Trolls, and the Dwarves and Gnomes evolved from Earthen, then where did Humans come from?

The Vrykul.

PimpyMcPimp (sigh) asks...

What is that slug thing(the thing spewing green gunk into the Apothecary place) in Undercity and where did the Forsaken get it?

I have no idea but it freaks me the hell out.

gameleon asks...

How did the Burning Steppes/Searing Gorge look before it was burned down by Ragnaros? What was it called?

Those were all part of the Redridge Mountains. It was, of course, mountainous with a heaping helping of lush forests. Ragnaros' arrival actually completely melted some mountains, and naturally all of the forests were torched utterly. Blackrock Mountain wasn't a volcano until Ragnaros came around, either.

I've heard that Duskwood was a part of Elwynn Forest in the past. Why has it turned into such a dark and scary place?

It seems that there are a few things at work here, and we don't really know just how related they are. The one thing we are sure of is the origin of the worgen, which you can read about in our Know Your Lore on the Scythe of Elune. There are other things like Necromancers at work at Raven Hill, and a pedophile (with a totally overrated questline) hanging out in the hills.

The Necromancer Morbent Fel seems to be the source of most, if not all, of the undead in Duskwood. He doesn't seem to be Scourge-aligned (though his name was a random name for the Lich unit in Warcraft III), there's really nothing that states such, but it's definitely a possibility. It just seems likely that after the disasters at Karazhan and the summoning of the Worgen, things took a crap and the doom and gloom types took over.

Nicholas wrote in to ask...

I stop by Nighthaven in Moonglade fairly often, and over the last two days it seems like the area has been in chaos. There are a ton of elite guards running patrols, and yesterday, I even ported in to see a very nasty looking dragon named Eranikus floating overhead while a bunch of Nightmares did battle with the guards. What's the deal?

That's a quest event for the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. Its a server-wide, player-triggered event to purify Eranikus, a Green Dragon, and retrieve a shard of the Scepter from him. He needs to be purified because he has been overtaken by the Nightmare, a vague evil thing within the Emerald Dream. It's an awesome event if you have enough people there for it, and people aren't being jerks and killing Remulos.

Leoto of Eitrigg asks...

I am an altoholic. I recently created an Orc Rogue and I noticed that the organization that give him his class quests is called the Shattered Hand. While leveling my Warlock alt in Hellfire Peninsula I noticed that the majority of the Fel Orcs there are called the Shattered Hand. Are these two organizations in fact one in the same or just a happy coincidence? Also with Magtheridon and Illidan dead what does that mean for the Fel Orcs of Outland? Will they eventually be cured of their curse like Azerothian Orcs or did they basically get wiped out along with those bosses?

Both Shattered Hands are more or less the same organization, except it branched at some point in time. The Orcs have a tendency to uphold their 'hero' worship to extreme lengths, even long after they've come to realize their 'hero' was not heroic whatsoever. The Shattered Hand was an Orc clan led by Kargath Bladefist that earned its name through its practices of self-mutilation. They quite literally shattered their hands and removed it. Why? To attach something like the Bladefist to themselves.

There are still places named after Kargath Bladefist, such as... well, Kargath and Bladefist Bay. Most orcs seems pretty content to continue regarding him and the Shattered Hand as heroes despite the fact that the Bladefist himself and most of his kin went running back to gorge themselves on Demon Blood. Heck, the guy that asks you to kill him sounds like he regrets killing the guy that would love to hand them all over to a demon of some sort again.

Whether the current Fel Orcs will be free now that Magtheridon is dead... who knows, really. They certainly can't make any more of them, but from wandering around the Blood Furnace it looks like they might be making new Fel Orcs from the ground up with demon blood, rather than making them drink it. That's just my thought, though. It's possible that in the storyline the Fel Orcs have died or became 'pure.'

That's all for today, folks. I'll be back next week to answer more of your questions, so if you've got 'em, post em!

Tags: ashbringer, chamber-of-the-aspects, deathwing, duskwood, eranikus, fel-orcs, frostfathom, grom-hellscream, joystiqfeatures, kargath-bladefist, magtheridon, mana-tap, mannoroth, mograine, ragnaros, redridge-mountains, scarlet-crusade, scarlet-onslaught, scythe-of-elune, shattered-hand, sunstrider, sunwell-plateau, sylvanas, thoridal, tweet-this, vrykul, what-the-hell-is-that-slug-thing, worgen

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