Thrall's return to the Horde and more lore from San Diego Comic-Con
by Mathew McCurley 
Jul 23rd 2011 at 8:00PM
Metzen might have spilled the beans on what we can expect from BlizzCon this year, including some big revelations about the Horde and Thrall's place in it. Around the 51-minute mark of the panel, Metzen muses about how awesome it has been, growing the Warcraft story from its simple beginnings as an RTS and getting to flesh out the world. At one point, Metzen says, "One day, come on, your Warchief is coming back. Right? There's more with Thrall," and emphatically mentions BlizzCon, indicating Blizzard has much to announce on the subject.
Not only that, but Metzen responded to what many people consider a Blizzard bias toward the Horde with the announcement that the next big book in the Warcraft universe will be written by Christie Golden and focus on Jaina Proudmoore. Wolfheart, the next novel by Richard A. Knaak, is also going to focus heavily on the Alliance, according to Metzen. After listening to Metzen's emphatic discussion of the upcoming novel, it appears that it will forever alter Jaina in earth-shattering ways. Metzen even calls it "badass."
Check out the GameSpot video of the Blizzard SDCC 2011 WoW, StarCraft, and Diablo Swag Show panel for the entire, hour-long discussion. The meaty lore bits start about halfway in. Metzen loves Thrall, and his utter adoration of the character and his story just seeps through every word he utters. We may dance around with the Mary Sue comments, but I think it's pretty cool that he loves his character so much.
Now, what will that mean for Garrosh, baddest dude on Kalimdor? Saurfang's old position? Voluntarily leaving politics because politics are awful, and just wanting to run around bashing in people's faces? I bet we'll know by BlizzCon.
Check out the GameSpot SDCC panel video over at BlizzPlanet.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 7)
cloudhopper013 Jul 24th 2011 2:58AM
Male Blood Elves.
Vrykerion Jul 23rd 2011 8:13PM
All I want for Christmas is another Tirion Fordring novel.
No, seriously. I'd love to actual get a novel seeing where that man's head is at during or after the Northrend Campaign. I mean, why bother coming back to start the Argent Crusade? You lost your land, your wife, your order, your kingdom and then when you see a glimpse of light in the redemption of your only son, he gets killed right in front of you. It's a story I would gladly pay to read.
Jaina and Wrynn? Eh, not so much.
blancester Jul 23rd 2011 9:51PM
Most likely another tournament with jousting.
Andrew Jul 23rd 2011 10:25PM
Of all the current WoW characters I think Tirion has the largest potential for literary badassery, partly because his major role in the story is over, Arthas is dead by his hand. We played through it, now you can take him on more guided adventures in books, even bring Darion Mograine and Eitrigg along, and not impact the game in the way Stormrage did.
Not only is Knaak a hack of legendary proportion, Stormrage took a plot thread that players had been following and closed it off-camera, to which most people said "Oh, thanks asshole, I really wanted to play through that, it sounded cool, I've only been paying the subscription for years."
The only story you could tell with Tirion that I would object to not being in the game would be the location of the shards of Frostmourne. Even that isn't as big a deal as the Emerald Nightmare was.
edhatem Jul 24th 2011 1:36AM
Hate.....Tirion....soooo much. Dude builds a tournament on top of a cavern (apparently didn't consult any dwarven engineers) for the sole purpose of training a champion unit to fight the Lich King. When we survive the Demon attack in tournament, he actually says "Alas, you are victorious and must now face the next challenge." like he's disappointed we lived. Then, the champions he took all that time training sit back and do nothing to help us during Forge of Souls then go rushing into Pit of Saron and die about 10 seconds later. How did we win that war? Blind luck? Tirion makes Garrosh look like Alexander the Great. I hate him more then weepy Jaina.
Gobuywow Jul 23rd 2011 8:20PM
Anyway, welcome back Thrall.
A story focus on Jaina Proudmoore? Will there be the love story between her and the two Prince: Arthas and Kael'thas ?
Xantenise Jul 23rd 2011 8:26PM
They're both dead, so probably not.
Arrohon Jul 23rd 2011 8:34PM
Not every book has to focus on the future. It could be a book about her pre-WC3 in more detail than we have now. If so I doubt Arthas will be mentioned much because rewritting that part of Arthas is pretty much a waste. I'm hoping it'll be more about her post-WC3 as she hasn't done too much since Hyjal.
Dinger Jul 23rd 2011 9:17PM
nah its gonna be her killing Aggra so that she can resume her proper place riding Thrall's "Tremor Totem"
Arrohon Jul 23rd 2011 9:23PM
That's wrong on SO many levels. I wish I could honestly say that I didn't find it funny...
Samutz Jul 23rd 2011 8:21PM
Thanks for the spoiler in the title. :(
Amaxe Jul 23rd 2011 8:29PM
Given that that statement could have a wide range of meanings, it could be a mistakeen interpretation.
Right now this is a guess... maybe right, maybe wrong.
Samutz Jul 23rd 2011 8:50PM
I don't know. But I don't want to read the article and risk spoiling something else.
After spoiling myself silly during Cata beta, nothing really surprised me when Cata came out and I got to play it myself. I don't want that to happen again.
Brad Jul 27th 2011 6:43PM
Really? You played Cata beta and didn't think there'd be spoilers in it?! O.o
Tim Jul 23rd 2011 11:38PM
Seriously like you didn't see it coming? Really?
Samutz Jul 23rd 2011 11:51PM
Anyone could have speculated it, but you can't tell me that you knew with 100% certainty that it was going to happen.
Samutz Jul 27th 2011 6:51PM
@Brad
You completely misread what I said. I didn't play the beta, but I watched all the videos and read all the lore spoilers because I wanted to spoil them for myself. But I don't want to do that again for the upcoming content patches and expansions. I want to find out what happens by playing it myself, not reading/watching it on a website.
chaos5061 Jul 23rd 2011 8:22PM
THRALL BACK AS WARCHIEF?!?!?!?!
FOR THE HORDE /SALUTE
Xantenise Jul 23rd 2011 8:26PM
The subplot involves Garrosh and Abesik Campfire teaming up to overthrow him.
Dreyja Jul 23rd 2011 9:51PM
Seriously how could they reconcile that an aspect is running The Horde? I'll keep myself from freaking out about that until after I finish the Thrall book. I'm not sure how that all works out.
Maybe they are going to turn Wrynn into a mortal incarnation of Goldrinn/Lo'gosh? I know that Knaak excerpt hinted as much. Blargh. Somehow that doesn't seem awkward and wrong.
We shall see. I just hope that Thrall takes Garrosh to SCHOOL. I'll swallow anything else if I get to see that in print. XD