Posts with tag exodar

"I failed long ago to turn my brothers from their course. And creation has paid the price."

How must it feel to be ageless? To watch as millennia tick by, each century the span of a breath and gone in an instant? To the draenei, the lives of humans must seem incredibly short-lived. To the Prophet Velen, who is at least 25,000 years old, we must seem like motes of dust, winking in and out of existence so quickly that we can scarcely be recognized as entities before we cease to exist. Velen has led the draenei through terror and triumph, from world to world, always gently spreading the benevolent message of the Light to any who wish to hear.

Yet for a being of such grace, purity and peace, Velen is also a creature of unfathomable sorrow. For Velen has been granted the gift of Sight, and with the gift he can see the infinite paths of futures that may not be, of worlds born and fallen in the blink of an eye. And despite that gift, Velen cannot prevent what is yet to pass. He cannot prevent that which has gone before, and will come again. And he could not prevent the path his friends chose, nor could he persuade them their new ally was in fact a monster so horrific that his hellish grasp would wreak havoc on immeasurable worlds.

For one that treasures life in the way only the Light can teach, it is a heavy burden to bear.

The last of the leader short stories is now available on the official Warcraft website, and it was worth waiting for. Velen: Prophet's Lesson, written by Marc Hutcheson, focuses on Prophet Velen and Anduin Wyrnn, who began studying with Velen in the novel Wolfheart. Also featured is Vindicator Maraad, who not only made his appearance in game on the Alliance ship on Icecrown but has been featured in many other Warcraft products as well. Maraad isn't just a random draenei -- he's also Garona's uncle and has made an appearance in DC Unlimited's series of action figures.

Prophet's Lesson appears to take place just after the Cataclysm as the mortals of Azeroth struggle to recover from the devastation and put an end to Deathwing. The worgen are officially Alliance and Anduin is studying with Velen, so this definitely puts it after Wolfheart in the time line, but Anduin also mentions the rift between himself and his father, which means the story likely takes place before Varian Wrynn: Blood of our Fathers. In Prophet's Lesson, Anduin is studying with Velen as well as helping the draenei take care of sudden group of guests that grows larger by the day, human refugees from the Cataclysm who seek Velen's guidance.

Velen, however, is seeing no one but Prince Anduin -- and this hasn't gone unnoticed by the draenei who are no longer allowed to seek audience with the Prophet. But Anduin has one very pointed question for Prophet Velen: Why didn't he warn the world about the Cataclysm?

Hutcheson did a masterful job with Velen's character, shedding a little light (no pun intended) on what exactly the draenei have been up to during Cataclysm. You can read the full story on Blizzard's newly revamped Expanded Universe site.