History of the Arakkoa

You might have found my history of Draenor posts I made some time ago, but I must tell you something about them – they’re almost entirely fan fiction (albeit based on some actual canon info from the Burning Crusade). With Warlords of Draenor coming up on the horizon, the beta revealed to us the actual course of events. This post is made to summarize everything we learned so far in beta, and that’s a lot, explaining many previously confusing parts. I wasn’t right on many accounts, but I will still sometimes pretend, for hilarity’s sake, that my old fanon version was canon in our original Draenor. From now on, I’ll write in-character as Dawn-Seeker Verroak, the alternate Draenor version of my character. It is only slightly fictionalized, in order to make a cohesive plot. The non-canon parts I made to fill out the gaps are written in italics.

In the beginning, Draenor was wild and untamed, with nothing but the Primals and the Breakers raging in their eternal battle across the world. But then, from the wilderness arose three primal gods – Rukhmar, Anzu and Sethe. All were winged and all sought to dominate the skies, but each of them was different. Rukhmar was beautiful and graceful, Anzu was dark and mysterious and Sethe was the essence of corruption and evil. Each of them was at odds with each other, but Rukhmar and Anzu saw the threat Sethe was becoming and banded together to slay it. A great battle ensued in the place now known as the Broken Spire, and Sethe was slain, but in his dying breath, he cursed any children of Rukhmar or Anzu, saying that wherever his blood falls, corruption and madness will follow.

Rukhmar and Anzu were triumphant, and together they created a new race that would serve them both and embody the traits of both – Rukhmar’s grace and Anzu’s cunning. That race was us, the arakkoa. We expanded across Draenor and as the first race in its history, we tamed the wilderness, we stopped the Primals and the Breakers in their tracks. We created the first civilization – the Apexis. This was the time of our glory and the peak of our power. Great sages enlightened thousands and inventors created amazing technology, although some claim the Apexis stole it from the Titans. But as the old saying goes, when you’re at the peak the only way to proceed is down.

We don’t exactly know what happened to the Apexis and there are many hypotheses, with proof seemingly for all of them and for none at the same time. Some say it was the Breakers, or even ogres specifically, as the Gorian civilization rose soon after the fall of the Apexis. Some say it was our own hubris that led to our downfall and the Apexis constructs turned against us. Some say we abandoned our gods in favor of reason and science and Rukhmar punished us for that. Some say the Apexis found a way to ascend to a higher plane of existence, and left behind only the more vicious individuals. Whichever the case, the Apexis were no more and our people were left to gather the remains of their once glorious civilization.

A schism appeared among our people, left leaderless without the wisdom and knowledge of the Apexis. Some say Rukhmar and Anzu turned on each other, sometimes said to argue over how Rukhmar punished the Apexis. Whatever transpired, Anzu was afflicted with the blood of Sethe and became cursed. Whoever sided with him, was cast down to the blood of Sethe and afflicted with the same curse. That’s how the corrupted, mangled outcast arakkoa came to be – high arakkoa cast down into the Blood of Sethe and afflicted with his curse. Their wings were clipped, their bodies twisted and misshapen, their minds clouded with creeping insanity. The high arakkoa wanted nothing to do with them and persecuted them for generations.

But then came the Talon King, Terokk, once revered by the high arakkoa of the Spires as their great, noble and powerful king. Many legends abound about his rule – wise and strong, he swooped down across Draenor and by himself laid down entire armies. Saberons fled in fear of his presence, orcs huddled in their caves to avoid his gaze, outcasts hid in the shadows in the forests beneath the Spires. He was greatly loved by his subjects, but the Sages grew jealous. In time, they decided the power over the arakkoa must be theirs and decided they must get rid of Terokk. Accusing him of imagined crimes and worship of Anzu, they clipped his wings and cast him down into the Blood of Sethe, together with his daughter Lithic and anyone who’d choose Terokk over them. They thought they got rid of him, but they were mistaken. From then on, the Sun-Sages ruled the Spires as a theocracy, and so they do to this day.

But Terokk survived his fall and there, Anzu truly found him. Knowing he can never return to his former life, Terokk embraced the raven god and took the cursed outcasts under his torn wings. Terokk took to the shadows and looked for every broken soul, an innocent cursed by Sethe and led them all to a place where they could live free from the curse of Sethe and the tyranny of Rukhmar – Skettis. Some say Terokk built it himself, and some say it was an ancient Apexis fortress. He erected wayshrines between the Spires, to lead the outcasts to Skettis. In his new capital, Terokk gave the outcasts the same wisdom and power he once possessed as a worshiper of Rukhmar. The Adherents of Rukhmar knew he was alive and leading the outcasts now, but could do little about it and just hoped the outcasts would die, wallowing in filth.

But the Curse of Sethe was wrestling with Terokk’s mind, leading him deeper into madness with every day. He tried with all his might to stop it, but he was becoming darker and darker. Finally, his Talonpriests decided to stop this descent. Although they could not stop it permanently or free their King from his curse, they decided to hide him away until such time they learn the means to do that. The Talonpriests bound Terokk in the shadows to wait until the stars are right and he can return, his mind free of the Curse of Sethe and his body free to soar again.

The Adherents of Rukhmar could not stand the outcasts’ continued existence. They continued to look for means to destroy them once and forever, and continuously looked for lost Apexis knowledge. Finally, one day, their cursed slaves dug through the ground and recovered ancient crypts of the Apexis, full of inactive constructs and a focusing lens – a great lens that focused light of Rukhmar and created a destructive beam that ravaged everything it touched. And here we stand now. The Adherents have started to purge the lower races with what they deem the holy fire of Rukhmar. The outcasts flee the Spires in droves, for there is no place left where they could hide. And Order of the Awakened… they seek to reclaim the glory of the Apexis, for all of us – cursed or winged, because back then, there was no schism.