Raelia’s Penance

It was an early evening on the Lehba Island. Sun has already set thanks to Anzulekk’s twin world, hanging in the sky right on the horizon. Despite that, it still wasn’t too dark. With his office awash in the twilight, Menrim was preparing to leave for his quarters when the doors opened. It was Raelia Sunspear, his felblood elf assistant. She was still calm and somewhat happy, not knowing what Verroak would soon want of her.

“Raelia,” Menrim said to welcome her, “I see you’re back from the mainland.” She spent most of the day commanding the Ivarindian peasants who were building the village where they would live together with the refugees Anzulekk would invite to flee from Azeroth’s certain and urgent doom.

“Yes. If you do not mind, I will just leave the documents and go back to my quarters.” She calmly walked to her desk, but before she could do what she planned, Menrim interrupted her.

“Actually,” he said, “boss wanted to talk to you.”

She sneered snidely. “What does the old coot want this time? Ran out of bird seed?”

Menrim wasn’t laughing at her jokes. He does not often joke, and he got tired of the bird jokes as well. “You’ll have to talk to him.”

“Fine,” she said putting down her paper stack, “I’ll go to his study right away.”

“Not his study,” Menrim said, pointing through the window. “He’s waiting for you at the world tree. Come.” He came out from behind the desk and grabbed his bag, putting it across his shoulder.

She chuckled. “You’ll be escorting me? My knight in shining armor. Only without the armor…” She looked across Menrim’s leonine centauric lower body. “But you got the horse parts alright.” They exchanged concerned looks after that last remark. “Not what I meant.”

“I know,” the tol’vir responded and came over to the door, waving to the felblood. “Come.”

Planet Aman’thul

Our boss’s latest project caused some consternation. After Jhuuton announced he found a way to the Titan Pantheon, we thought it would be something best to remain far away from. Alas, Verroak had to insist on actually going through it. He was giddy with anticipation of the things he could learn from the Titans. He was sure nothing could go wrong – that even if the Titans would prove hostile to us, we could just get away quickly and close the gate behind us and pray – his exact word – they do not follow. He was always possessed with the idea of gaining more knowledge but many of us thought knocking directly on the Pantheon’s doorstep was too dangerous. As it would turn out, all of us – those expecting the Titans to be hostile and those expecting them to be friendly – were proven wrong.

The Belore System – Azeroth’s Solar System

Belore – The Sun

Most Azerothians know very little about their sun. To a grand majority, it’s only an object of worship, or a source of light, without putting much thought to what it actually is, at best coming up with “magic”. Contrary to that belief, there is very little magic involved with the Sun. It’s a typical yellow dwarf star in the middle of its life, differing little from most stars with life-bearing planets. Like most stars, it is in truth a ball of super-heaten hydrogen and helium, underoing thermonuclear reactions due to the pressure its own mass exacts on it. Some cultures believe the Sun to be a god, similar to Elune, but as most of those cultures also believe the Sun was born of Azeroth (and not the reverse, as it was in truth) few astronomers pay it any heed.

Azeroth’s Sun has no formal scientific name. Azerothians call it just “the Sun”. Astronomers on Azeroth have taken to using the elven name “Belore” which fittingly means still just “the Sun”.

Green Sun

One would expect that when someone says “impossible”, it would send a pretty clear message – something that’s impossible cannot happen, ever. Unfortunately, people have come to use the word rather frivolously, and therefore there is a plenty of things that are apparently impossible, but still happen quite frequently. For instance, it’s impossible to grab a glass by just wishing it happened… but we have magic for that. On a more further out range of “impossible”, it’s impossible to kill an Old God – but it appears the Titans actually did kill at least one. Frequently, the real meaning of “impossible” is “it cannot happen, unless you throw enough magic at it”. And even that has limits – because some feats require such incredibly large amounts of magic constantly defying a persistent force of nature that it appears truly impossible. No one would have that kind of power, and if he did he would have more important things to do with it. One such truly impossible feat is what one of our Eyes of Terokk discovered – a ruined, uninhabitable world with a green sun.

A peek at the Dream

Not many people get to see the Emerald Dream. Or at least, not with their waking eyes or with a capacity to truly remember it. I remember reading that a few adventurers were briefly sent into it to retrieve some items for powerful entities like Keeper Remulos but most of us, underpowered mortals can only dream of seeing it, no pun intended. So when I got the chance to take a peek at its true form I jumped at the occasion, even though I knew I was getting into a combat situation. The fabled Emerald Dream is one of the legendary places that you hear stories about. There are even various theories about its true purpose. Some say it’s a Titanic blueprint, and even that one causes certain confusion. Is it a blueprint to be used in case of reorigination, or is it just an old plan that is no longer relevant with the world’s original ordering completed?

History of Azeroth: The Quilboar Intercession

Little is commonly known about quilboar history. In popular knowledge, they’re known as simply one of the numerous “primitive” native races of Kalimdor that were displaced by the Horde during its initial campaign in that continent. They appear as little less in the public consciousness, as simply the minor villains and roadblocks in the road to Horde’s supremacy. Few people realize they have a rich, unique culture and a whole body of legends and histories about their past. Even less people realize that at one point in time they had a chance to claim their place on Azeroth as one of the dominant races of our world. For those with even cursory knowledge of ancient history, their once powerful role should come as no surprise, given their role in War of the Ancients and their place in the world of that era. However, it’s what came after that shaped their current position the world.

The Titanic Mystery

We were recently contacted by a pirate from K’aresh, who promised to tell us about a world containing an untouched Titanic vault, in exchange for some goods. We of course suspected this offer from the very start. Not only there’s a question of why didn’t he open and plunder it himself, but also if it really is as good as he claimed. In the end, I was sent off to meet him on Darfell with a crate of potions that only Azeroth produces. To my surprise, it wasn’t an ethereal but an emaciated humanoid in your typical pirate gear, with some kind of raccoon/monkey hybrid on his shoulder (I’m told it’s called a chattur). Apparently one of the few fleshy survivors of the cataclysm that ruined K’aresh, this “corporeal” claimed he’s only giving us the address because getting to the loot is too expensive for him. I decided it would be worth to at least check out, paid our due and left with the necessary information.

Prophet Isas

Many modern humans when asked how did they come to worship the concept of Holy Light will answer that it just came naturally, or maybe even that humans always worshiped it. It couldn’t be further from truth, as some other groups would tell you. While the Church of the Holy Light doesn’t stress mythology to the degree some other religions do, there is a canon regarding the origins of the religion and its founder. Even though some priests would still tell you that humans always worshiped the Light and the prophet just gave the religion a form and canon, but as far as we can tell, there was little religious consensus among early humans. The concept of the Holy Light is very old, but it remained an abstract concept not directly tied to any major religions for thousands of years.

Kingdom of Caer Darrow

Caer Darrow has always been a little different from the rest of Lordaeron, but few people know how much. Population from the capital has always seen it as part of the generalized “eastern lands” – strange realms with strange accents and strange habits that only marginally count as Lordaeronians. Most of them did not realize that the genesis of Caer Darrow and those eastern lands was completely separate. Five thousand years ago, when the human civilization was beginning to form, most of the continent of Lordaeron was populated by a disparate selection of tribes of greatly varying languages and cultures. Only when the Arathi united humanity and began to unify language, religion and law most of the human lands fell in line. But one small piece retained its unique, isolated culture – and that was Caer Darrow.

Balor

Balor is an island familiar to most for being an important battleground during the Second War and for nothing else. However, it took a much greater part in early human history – one that is rarely spoken of these days, for various reasons. Subject of one of the earliest human myths, like most of pre-Light human beliefs it has been conveniently forgotten or written out. When the Holy Light took over the old human faiths and replaced the myths of their gods with moralizing stories teaching people how to behave according to the virtues of the Light, many of those old stories were dismissed as simply stories sown by malicious spirits that would seek to lead the mortal men astray, away from the purifying Light. What those early priests did not consider was that in many of those stories, there was a grain of truth.