Lorehounds are still licking their lips after a heaping serving of The Burdens of Shaohao, the six-part animated series released earlier this month that's earned resounding praise from players and lore fans alike. "The sweeping tale of the last emperor of Pandaria was unlike anything we'd ever seen before from Blizzard -- a stunning, gorgeous piece of animated, narrative storytelling featuring artwork by Laurel Austin," wrote Anne Stickney in our recent interview with the series' creators. "While we've seen narrative tales in the form of cinematic-style storytelling, this is the first time we've seen anything of this nature."

It's not the only new storytelling tool Blizzard has recently introduced. In recent months, we've seen the announcement for a WoW children's book and the cryptic website Project Blackstone, a viral advertising campaign for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

These storytelling experiments come on top of an established collection of official and fan-created out-of-game lore resources that includes novels, graphic novels and comics, webpage resources, leader short stories, and more. (Where to start? We'll show you how to pick your way through chronologically.)

Are you a fan of the many out-of-game story resources for World of Warcraft? Do you enjoy the opportunity to learn more about the world you play in, or do you prefer to absorb the story of Azeroth inside the game itself?

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