World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 (36 page)

T
hroughout the Eastern Kingdoms, the disparate
human nations flourished. The smallest and most isolated of these kingdoms was
Stormwind. Over the years, it found prosperity through the farmsteads that dotted the surrounding fertile region. As Stormwind’s population grew, small towns sprang up in nearby Elwynn Forest, the Redridge Mountains,
Brightwood, and the breadbasket of the kingdom, Westfall.

Although the land was relatively peaceful, threats soon emerged. Packs of ferocious but simple-minded gnolls saw their human neighbors as easy prey. These brutish creatures launched raiding parties against Stormwind’s convoys, farmsteads, and even small towns. In response, Stormwind sent its valiant knights and other soldiers to diligently patrol the land.

Stormwind City became a sanctuary for the beleaguered refugees driven from their homes. The fortified heart of the kingdom offered not just safety, but spiritual guidance. Over the decades, devout clerics from the emergent
Church of the Holy
Light had ventured south from
Lordaeron to spread their faith. Upon reaching Stormwind, these pious individuals founded the
Holy Order of Northshire Clerics. The kingdom looked to these clerics as a source of wisdom and comfort in hard times.

While the devout clerics used the powers of the Light to soothe the hearts and minds of Stormwind’s citizens, military forces patrolled the kingdom’s borders. Although their vigilance prevented major bloodshed in the outer territories, the gnolls would remain a danger.

During the reign of King
Barathen Wrynn, this lurking threat spiraled out of control. The gnolls began launching brazen attacks on Stormwind City itself. It quickly became clear that these assaults were merely distractions—while soldiers defended the city, Westfall farmsteads would burn. The gnolls assailed the city in such numbers that few soldiers could be spared to protect the agricultural lands.

This was no ordinary tactic for the crude gnolls, and for good reason: never before had an intelligent leader emerged among their kind. Packlord
Garfang, a cunning gnoll alpha of the Redridge pack, had spent years conquering other packs in the surrounding regions. Now he had an army of vicious raiders at his command and the tactical wherewithal to use them efficiently. Within a year of the first attack, his gnolls had raided almost a third of all human settlements outside of the city.

King Barathen sent envoys to beseech Lordaeron,
Gilneas, and the other human kingdoms for aid. But they would not send assistance, seeing no advantage in helping the smaller, rural nation end the threat. Stormwind was self-sufficient, so trade with the other kingdoms was rare, and its spiritual tendencies were seen as quaint. The humans of Stormwind would have to fend for themselves.

The reluctance of the other nations to send aid infuriated King Barathen, and he resolved to take matters into his own hands. The gnoll packlord had been bold in attacking Stormwind City. Barathen decided equally bold tactics were needed to defeat him.

The king and a small, elite party of armored knights left the city under cover of darkness and waited for the next gnoll assault to hit the city walls. When the raiding parties attacked, the king and his forces made their move—riding hard
away
from Stormwind City and toward the Redridge Mountains. Barathen’s gambit paid off: the packlord had held nothing back for this raid, but he had not accompanied his warriors himself. Like most gnolls, Garfang loved to let others do the hard work for him.

But with all of his armies away, the packlord’s camp in Redridge was left exposed and undefended.

Barathen’s party battled Garfang and his personal guards for a full day and night. In the end, it was King Barathen himself who sank a blade into the packlord’s neck. Half of his knights had died, and the survivors had all been wounded, but Barathen had finally ended Garfang’s reign.

When the gnoll forces learned that their leader was dead, they turned on each other. Several would-be packlords battled to take Garfang’s place. Yet none had his cunning or guile, and the gnolls thinned their own numbers, leaving them unable to push deep into human lands anymore. King Barathen took advantage of the infighting. He rallied his soldiers and launched his forces into the Redridge Mountains. There they decimated what remained of the gnolls. Although pockets of the hostile creatures would continue dwelling in the region, they would never again threaten Stormwind as they once had.

King Barathen Wrynn, known thereafter as the Adamant, was celebrated as a hero, and the kingdom of Stormwind entered a time of great prosperity. The victory had given Stormwind’s people confidence that they could handle any threat that might arise, even if they had to face it without the aid of the other human nations. In the years that followed, Stormwind would become even more distant from the northern kingdoms.

Yet unbeknownst to the greater world, events would soon take place in Stormwind that would change the fate of Azeroth forever.

F
ar from Stormwind, the
Council of Tirisfal continued its tireless hunt for the renegade Guardian
Aegwynn. Waves of unflagging
Tirisgarde scoured the world to find Aegwynn and hold her accountable for her defiance.

Aegwynn, however, remained safe in her sanctum, deep within the sunken ruins of ancient
Suramar. Only rarely did she emerge to walk the outside world. At times, she would contact the Council of Tirisfal and observe its activities. Much to her dismay, she found that its practice of interfering with politics had become more overt and troublesome. Now, the Council of Tirisfal was actively practicing statecraft.

It was during one of these sojourns that Aegwynn crossed paths with
Nielas Aran, one of the most dogged and unrelenting Tirisgarde ever. He hounded the Guardian for months, using the enchanted artifacts at his command to nullify her magic and hamper her attempts to escape his grasp.

These fierce encounters became like a game of wills and wits between Nielas and Aegwynn. During their protracted duels, the opponents bantered back and forth, seeking insights into each other’s strengths and weaknesses. To Aegwynn’s surprise, she discovered that Nielas harbored misgivings about the Council of Tirisfal. He was well aware of the order’s political machinations—activities that he did not condone.

Nielas realized that Aegwynn was not the traitorous rebel that the Council of Tirisfal had made her out to be. As he discerned more about the Guardian’s own motivations, he began to sympathize with her plight. Nielas also sensed that Aegwynn was wrestling with some unseen darkness in her soul. But for all of his brilliance, he would never know that this darkness was actually the lingering presence of
Sargeras. Hoping to help Aegwynn overcome her struggle, Nielas laid down his arms and abandoned his hunt.

Before long, an unexpected love blossomed between the two former enemies. They agreed that they would work together to prevent the Council of Tirisfal from ever having control over another Guardian. Knowing she could not maintain her mantle of Guardianship forever, Aegwynn proposed a solution to Nielas. They would bear a child capable of inheriting Aegwynn’s
Tirisfalen
powers. Only then could a new Guardian arise free from the Council of Tirisfal’s manipulation.

Nielas readily agreed, seeing this plan as a redemptive act for Aegwynn. If she could not purge the darkness within herself, then perhaps she could create an heir who would be free from her own personal burdens.

In time, Aegwynn gave birth to a son. She named him
Medivh, or “Keeper of Secrets” in the high elven tongue. The infant possessed an incredible affinity for magic, a natural gift passed down from his parents. Aegwynn also locked her powers away within the boy’s spirit, where they would linger until Medivh reached maturity.

There was, however, something much darker in Medivh: the lurking spirit of Sargeras stirred in the child’s soul. Though Aegwynn did not know it, the demon lord had possessed the infant while he formed in her womb.

Aegwynn and Nielas searched far and wide for a safe place where Medivh could be raised. They ultimately settled on Stormwind due to its isolated location and tenuous ties with
Dalaran and the other northern nations. There, Nielas became the official conjurer of Stormwind’s royal court.

Having secured a future for her son, Aegwynn left Medivh in the care of Nielas. He would educate and tutor the boy in the ways of the arcane arts until the time came when Medivh assumed the role of Guardian. Aegwynn herself departed Stormwind, retiring from her duties as Guardian. The long centuries had taken their toll on her, and she could bear no more. She disappeared from sight, but always, she would watch her beloved son from afar.

Nielas’s role as official court conjurer meant that the young Medivh was also a part of the royal court. As the boy grew older, he spent much of his time in the company of two other notable children:
Anduin Lothar, a descendant of the Arathi bloodline, and
Llane Wrynn, the prince of Stormwind. Despite their penchant for mischief and adventure, the three children were adored by the kingdom’s populace.

Medivh cherished his friendship with Anduin and Llane, for their activities were often an escape from Nielas’s intensive tutoring. Although Medivh excelled in the arcane arts, his father rarely gave him praise. He was a cold and mirthless mentor, constantly pushing his son to achieve more. Nielas eventually revealed why he placed such a burden on Medivh. He told his son of the Council of Tirisfal, the line of the Guardians, and Medivh’s own secret heritage. Nielas claimed that one day the boy would assume the role of Guardian. The fate of the entire world would then rest squarely on his shoulders.

The pressures of his destiny and his exhausting studies tormented Medivh’s thoughts. The mounting anxiety led to disastrous consequences when the boy finally came of age. On the eve of his fourteenth birthday, the stress building within Medivh ignited his dormant Guardian powers. Fevered dreams assaulted the youth as the
Tirisfalen
energies howled to be unleashed.

Nielas struggled desperately to help his son, but the incredible powers within Medivh lashed out, killing his father. Thereafter the boy fell into a deep coma. For many years, he lay unconscious in Stormwind’s Northshire Abbey, tended to by clerics and watched over by his faithful friends Anduin and Llane.

When Medivh finally awoke, he found the world had changed around him. Llane was poised to succeed his father, Barathen, as the king of Stormwind. Anduin Lothar had become a knight in Stormwind’s military. As Medivh gradually acclimated to his new life, he recognized the awesome power at his fingertips and resolved to use it to protect the world from evil. Despite his strange coma, he appeared normal, and he assured the clerics that nothing was amiss.

Even Medivh himself was unaware that Sargeras was still hiding within his soul, subtly twisting his every thought and action to a much darker end. At long last, the fallen titan had found the perfect instrument with which to begin the Legion’s next invasion of Azeroth.

TO BE CONTINUED …

THE TOWER OF
KARAZHAN, FUTURE HOME OF THE GUARDIAN
MEDIVH