Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week Alex Ziebart answers your quests about the lore in the World of Warcraft. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small they might be, ask them in the comments section below and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.

Last week on Ask a Lore Nerd, Offsprnge (one of your fellow readers) asked me to write this week's edition with some Eye of the Tiger playing. I guess I came across a little tired last week, so I'm going to do just that. To fit the groove, I ask all of you guys one favor: Read the questions and answers in the voice of Rocky Balboa. If it will help you get in the mood, go ahead and read it out loud in that voice.

And since we're already talking about it, Offsprnge asked...

Right, I think I got a good one by the way, perhaps it is so obvious I should slap myself, but the whole battle for Mount Hyjal features the Burning Legion invading with it's commander Archimonde, however, why are there hordes of ghouls, liches, necromancers, frost wyrms and "all that kind of thing!" (find the reference).

Again, like another reader mentioned, at the time the Lich King was still feigning allegiance to the Burning Legion. It doesn't pay to make the Legion suspicious too early. At the same time, the Lich King played a role in weakening Archimonde's forces: He used Illidan to destroy Tichondrius and his forces, which were to play support for Archimonde. The Scourge that were at the Battle of Mount Hyjal were sacrifices, pawns to keep Archimonde overconfident.

Chupathingy asked...

What exactly is the Venture Co? There in several place and from what I can sorta tell they're based in STV, but what are their goals?

Their goals are to make lots and lots of money, as is typical of Goblins. Like the Steamwheedle Cartel, they're another branch of the massive Trade War that is Goblin society, and they pull in their profits by tapping and controlling natural resources. They have a habit of going overboard and completely clear cutting/strip mining an entire region. Their HQ is actually in the Undermine, the home of all Goblins. Stranglethorn Vale is just one of their mining operations.

You'll be seeing a little bit more of these guys in Northrend. Just a little, though.

Sesquame asked...

What's the story behind the Warglaives of Azzinoth? Where did they come from? Why are they special? How did Illidan get them? All the other legendaries seem to have huge lore storylines...

It's safe to say that most of the fame these blades carry is due to Illidan. According to the RPG books, they originally belonged to the demon Azzinoth, who Illidan destroyed. Illibeans took up his weapons as his own and trained himself to use them. Azzinoth was a generic doomguard commander of the Legion, nothing terribly special story-wise. The Warglaives are what they are because Illidan has been using them for so long, and has accomplished so much with them. If you look at other Demon Hunters nowadays, most of them are using similar glaives, so Illidan's expertise with his Warglaives probably inspired others to use them, whether they serve Illidan or not.

So through Illidan, warglaives have become the iconic demon hunter weapons, and the Warglaives of Azzinoth are the 'original' warglaives. All those that came after are mimicking them.

That's all we're going to cover for today, because I think people are running out of questions about current content! We're getting a lot of repeat questions, and I think that's going to be the case for another couple of weeks until Wrath is in our nerdy little hands. That's quite alright, though. In the meantime, if you haven't seen it yet, you can bop over to Know Your Lore for the Wrath prep guide I put together.

Tags: archimonde, azzinoth, burning-legion, illidan, joystiqfeatures, lich-king, scourge, steamwheedle-cartel, tichondrius, tweet-this, undermine, warglaives-of-azzinoth

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