The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

We've talked about the tol'vir before Cataclysm launched. While what we learned about them then was tantalizing, what we've learned about them since has helped develop our understanding of them quite a bit. Proud, ritualistic, formal, feral, the tol'vir are a race bound by their ancient task and pinned between their duty and their desire to return to a state of existence they see as more perfect than the one they currently inhabit.

The last remaining bastion of free tol'vir on the surface of Azeroth is the mysterious land of Uldum. Created eons ago by the Titans, Uldum is part of the planetary monitoring system that once girdled the ancient continent of Kalimdor alongside Ulduar and Uldaman. While Ulduar seems to have been intended to imprison the ancient Old God Yogg-Saron, and Uldaman perhaps served as a manufacturing center for earthen (although it may also have served other purposes), Uldum's purpose was linked to Ulduar in a very real and direct way. Ulduar was where Algalon would come to make his judgment about the fitness of the Azeroth experiment if the prime designate Loken was destroyed. And Uldum?

If one thinks of Algalon as the means by which a world is judged, then think of Uldum as the executor of his will. Ulduar is where Azeroth would have been condemned, and Uldum is how the sentence would have been carried out. The tol'vir of Uldum, therefore, have the most important task of all the Titan's creations, as they maintain the world-destroying engines and keep their power out of the hands of those who might otherwise use them. Unfortunately for the tol'vir, those who would undo the Titan's work for their own ends have often subverted or corrupted these last guardians of Titanic secrets in order to gain access to what they guard.

Accursed Flesh

Once, the tol'vir guarded Titan sites throughout the world. Alongside the mechagnomes, earthen, vrykul and giants, the tol'vir performed as maintenance and protection to lore repositories and ancient secrets. It seems likely that they were creations of Norgannon the Lorekeeper (the same one who left the Discs of Norgannon in Uldaman that pointed to Uldum's location, which makes one wonder if there were once tol'vir in Uldaman, and if so, where they went). It's interesting that there are prowling panthers in Ulduar when one considers that there are no cats anywhere else in the Storm Peaks. Since we know the tol'vir were susceptible to the curse of flesh, were these cats their descendants?


It's interesting that our first introduction to the tol'vir is the enslaved Prince Nadum, brother to Phaoris, who is captured by the Neferset when he is betrayed by members of his own people who seek a return to a stone form. There are clearly those among the tol'vir (including the majority of the Neferset) who see the stone body of the ancient tol'vir as a perfect state. Whether or not they would be willing or able to become obsidian destroyers is unknown, although among the stony tol'vir of the Neferset, we see figures like General Husam who have either grown or regained wings similar to those of Moam and other obsidian destroyers. Strangely enough, although Siamat is clearly seen altering the three Ramkahen traitors in exchange for their betrayal, the Neferset of the Lost City seem to have the djinn imprisoned somehow. It's not clear why these willing servants of Deathwing would need to hold one of his servants captive.

The tol'vir of Ramkahen are surprisingly polite to complete strangers, even beings like orcs and draenei who they could barely have ever heard of, considering that they resided behind a Titan shield for untold thousands of years. The shield of invisibility that protected Uldum is likely the only reason these tol'vir didn't end up like the ones in Ahn'Qiraj and Azjol-Nerub, which makes the decision of some among their number to willingly submit to a similar fate at Deathwing's talons all the more interesting. Did the tol'vir of Northrend go willingly? Were they, like the vrykul, so fearful of the curse and its degenerating effects that they submitted to the aqir to regain what they saw as perfection? We see it happening in Uldum now, so we can't dismiss the possibility.

The tol'vir are a race greatly diminished, trapped between their ancient duty and the curse that has utterly changed them as a people. Once they lived across the world; now, only a remnant population endures in Uldum. Is this their end or is it a new beginning for them? Is it better to hold fast to your old oaths and die a mortal or live forever as stone by betraying everything you ever held dear?

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While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm