Lore Recap: All the Lore of Classic World of Warcraft

This video covers the events of Vanilla World of Warcraft (aka "Classic WoW") from the basic story lines of the Alliance and Horde to the plot of the end game raids. This video covers everything you need to know in the context of Classic WoW. Eventually things explained in this video get retconned with the adding of new characters and whatever- but this is the plot of it all prior to any retcons.
All cards were created on www.hearthcards.net using photos from either Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, Frozen Throne, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, or art acquired from wow.gamepedia.com/Wowpedia. If any of the artists or owners of any images used would like their art removed please feel free to contact me and I'll swap it out.
All footage and music used was taken from the properties created and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. Including World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Mists of Pandaria, Legion, and Battle for Azeroth, Hearthstone, and World of Warcraft TCG.
#Classic #Warcraft #Lore

[@Lawllin]

Thanks for watching! If you liked the video, please share it around (it'll really help out)!

[@jdmayor9060]

Bro, is it okay to create one for Shadowlands :) I have so many questions about it ahahaaha hope you can check this

[@sacrament182]

Stop saying Windsor like that.

[@WorldhopperSterbb]

These are top tier works. Just what as I need on my long journey to become a lore nerd

[@m33tballa]

How has nobody made a video on the lore like this? And how have these not blown up?

[@Lawllin]

ty for the nice words and hopefully you're enjoying the videos! i think the vids are blowing up just fine, i only had 14 subscribers when i made the first one- and now I got quite a few more than that lol :D

[@Torgall]

I love the visual aid of the Hearthstone cards, it made everything way easier to follow. Thanks for the great content, even though it seems unappreciated by view count, it's hidden gem that makes wow YT better.

[@WoW4Hunter]

Varian Wrynn was totally in Vanilla. I found him in the dungeons of Alcaz Isle while exploring one day :D The Naga were holding him prisoner.

[@michaelbowman6684]

At least, up until Patch 1.10.0 in which he was removed for some reason, I can't recall why though.

[@KurozenNishi]

​@@michaelbowman6684they wrote a book about it, i think he escaped and wound up on the shores of Durotar, then made to fight in the fighting pit in Orgrimmar, he also had amnesia.

[@literallynobody9769]

@@KurozenNishi I'm pretty sure in vanilla, before the book about it, there was a huge amount of quest related plot points that would point you towards this all happening. Starting really early, but I couldn't for the life of me remember every quest. I know a bunch of context involving the whole big scale Onyxia / Defias / Corrupt Nobles of stormwind stuff is in the rogue quest lines, but there are so many more that tie into it all over the place. Heck, I know there are even horde quests around that point out this happening. I think both a cool but sadly pretty hard to follow part of vanilla WoW's story telling (to a lesser extent TBC and Wrath too) is that a bigger plot point will have strands all over the whole fricken world. With that said, vanilla was so huge, and took so long to make that.. sadly a lot of these plot points that start all over the place early on, literally just never got finished. For Varian specifically, I know there's lots of elusion ofc to the defias having connections with the stormwind court and stuff, loads of money coming in from all over ect. But with Varian specifically, there's the "missing diplomat" chain after you've already done a whole bunch of stuff, even faught defias literally in the castle, if you're a human rogue you've hunted down plot points of the defias having a huge ring of connections all over.. But the missing diplomat chain has you actually trying to follow the trial of how Varian got kidnapped, bringing you to dustwallow which THEN connects into the Kul-Tiras loyalists and Jaina and alllll of this lore.. And i'm pretty sure that just kinda never gets brought up again. Dustwallow is notoriously unfinished, and sadly that whole plot point seems to go there to die. In fact, wasn't Arkatraz pretty much devoid of quests outside of the scepter stuff from the AQ event? It's sad that all these plot points that are huge and go around the whole world, usually just ended up totally unfinished, and even if they are actually finished.. Well, how many people are going to have played through all of these points to put them together, especially when some of them are class quest specific? Ever wonder why there are undead in deadmines? Yeah, that's from Zanzil's poisons from down in Stranglethorn. You know, the one random exiled troll that found out he could undead people. I couldn't even tell you what all quests actually figure that out cause it's that all over the place, but I know a bunch of them are the rogue quests. I think the human areas got this the worst.. Hell, the Dark Riders plot line just never got done, and the scythe of elune wasn't braught up until Legion or something.

[@charlylmaoo5953]

@@literallynobody9769The Missing Diplomat quest chain is all about following Varian’s tracks i believe

[@literallynobody9769]

@@charlylmaoo5953 yeah and doesn't it just end randomly at that? Never actually goes past that and.. iirc doesn't even actually figure out who got him, just that there were traitors in there more that helped them?

[@bol3iz]

The more I watch these lores the more I appreciate the dungeons/raids and the quality of work put behind the writing.

[@randalthor6872]

man I'm only just now getting around to trying WOW haha. I debated about whether to go in blind or try to grasp the lore first. I decided to at least playthrough Warcraft 3 first. I'm halfway through and then I'm onto WOW classic!! Kinda overwhelming

[@MiaMulder]

This video is so damn good, it's so useful and so much more digestable than any lore summary of any other alternative. It's great for me since I wanna play "chronologically" but playing all of TBC is rough and classic doesn't even exist in retail anymore

[@Lawllin]

ty glad you liked it

[@Maikel098]

I'm doing the same! At the moment at the end of TBC, but need to come back to thes video's every now and then to remind myself of all the lore haha

[@AdriaanPretorius]

Finally. You don't know how many videos and forums I have read through to try and piece it together and you just told the whole thing in 17 minutes. You show the 'main' arc that goes through the parts of the countries, how the dungeons and raids fit into the story, it's brilliant! Now I'm off to dump 100+ hours into classic!

[@blujay2282]

Dude your videos are so good and high quality, i love the use of bootleg hearthstone cards aswell! it is a crime that you don't have more subscribers, likes and views. Love ya dude!

[@Lawllin]

lol ty ty thanks for watching! and i've got this quoted on one if these videos- but im happy with the views and stuff i have now- when i made my first lore video i had 14 subscribers lol so i'll take what i can get :D

[@rondog069]

@@Lawllin oo

[@ominemon]

Fantastic work man, as a kid I always wanted to get into the game but never had the money, it's nice to be able to experience it through your videos, please keep up this brilliant presentation

[@Lawllin]

thanks for the kind words, they mean a lot! im glad you enjoy the videos and are digging the warcraft stories

[@Kurus-pq7xw]

Come play classic man.

[@sandcrawlerstudios2013]

You’re the only voice covering wow which I can stand to listen to

[@jdmayor9060]

hahahahaha I know what this means XD

[@asmrtpop2676]

LMAO

[@decaygrim8943]

This is so cool. I played wow as a young teen back in burning crusade through cataclysm. A decade later I finally learn the lore.

[@bigbitehood1353]

3:38 I love that.. "magically enhanced depression" lol that's what I have

[@vaniellys]

Thanks a lot for this video. I grew up with Warcraft 3, but I was too young for WoW, so I missed all the lore that followed.

[@rolfskytte]

Incredible playing card format. So many memories of old wow.

[@tomhapje]

Varian was actually in classic (but might have been removed at some point?). I remember finding him in the sewers on Alcaz Island and being so stoked about having found the king of SW.

[@MadAtreides1]

correct, he was removed from the island in patch 1.9

[@yoyosup4292]

This video deserves way more likes and clicks - great job man i love it!

[@huub245]

Honestly the most comprehensive videos ever made. Thanks you so so much. Please keep it up!!!!

[@rlwrgh]

Editing is top notch and very well explained script..subbed

[@WhositzGaming]

Thanks for making these! Getting into WoW more I really liked listening to these and learning about the past I didn't get to experience first hand

[@Lawllin]

awesome! im glad you enjoyed the videos !!

[@Birdbear-qm9lf]

I really like your use of the hearthstone cards in the last video to show characters etc. well done.

[@illeagle666]

This is definitely the best video on the subject, thank you so much!

[@OrbitalSonar]

Hey I just wanted to leave a comment and say that all 3 of your Warcraft lore videos are great! Wish I found them sooner, I would love to see you explore the possibilities of explaining the lore of the Warcraft expansions!

[@Lawllin]

hey- thanks a lot! and no spoilers but maybe you'd really enjoy the next video im releasing :D

[@Holyniwa]

OMG, THIS IS SO GOOOOD!!! I CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE!!!

[@SalemGamorrah]

These videos are about to get real busy with the announcement of the worldsoul saga. thanks so much!

[@spencer5819]

Dang man that video was just what I needed. Every thing makes sense now lol. Thanks bro.

[@justincarbonera6114]

Eyyy, been long waiting for this! Awesome vids as ever. 🔥

[@TheGayRepublicanIcon]

Incredibly cool. Thanks for this! Very interesting.

[@dominickkhan7554]

From classic, BC, To Wrath it all just came to an amazing conclusion especially…until Cataclysm

[@zacks9375]

thank you so much for your videos, they've been so awesome

[@krzysztofkoodziej4330]

Great job, that's some real quality content here. Crossing fingers your channel gets much more views.

[@Lawllin]

ty! i really appreciate the nice words and the crossed fingers lol

[@nicholi8933]

This is really good. I have general knowledge of this stuff having play wow from vanilla through wraith, but your in depth knowledge is great.

[@christianboustani8284]

Dang, if you never did the ST Egg quest. you'd never know what the deal with ZG is. (I never did the quest myself) Shame you don't get to kill the quest giver in ZG I also didn't know the Varion questline wasn't in the game until Wrath. I played Horde in Classic so I had no idea he was MIA until then

[@jdmayor9060]

The warchief of the Horde, the normal horde, the "horde horde" Thrall. HAHAHAHA my favorite part whenever I listen to it

[@BIacklce]

Alliance Leveling Lore: A vast conspiracy of subterfuge, corruption, and betrayal, leading to a twist and the first raiding boss of the game. Horde Leveling Lore: there's some demons under the city, oh good you solved it.

[@FeldWebelJN]

You do good videos, top. But the lost King Varian at least one half is represented by the old model in the Prison on Alcaz Island in classic with the NPC ID 11699 . Classic rerelease ran on a later patch tho

[@itsprudhvirazz]

amazing summary. love you brother :)

[@denisdemeter722]

Very good work indeed, you deserve more views, but I feel like the lore before WOW was more interesting, the story after that seems to be repeating key points, I got pretty bored, but maybe it picks up with the lich king and burning legion expansions? Anyway, I'm looking forward to your videos about the rest of the lore, you have a great talent for this keep it up!

[@Lawllin]

classic WoW is a bit of weird thing storywise for 2 big reasons imo. (1)because it doesnt really have 1 big story thread. like, the burning crusade is all about illidan, wotlk is all about arthas, cata deathwing, etc. (2) the main characters in WoW are the player characters not the NPCs. so while characters like Jaina and Thrall do have stories and character moments- they never do anything super impactful anymore b/c that's what the player characters are suppose to do. idk lol, thats how i feel anyway. but im with ya- WoW lore starts getting wonkier than the previous games that had singleplayer

[@defenderofthenorth52]

Such an underrated channel

[@Minikoollol]

Just seen your stuff- less than 400 subs dude thats wack- Love these lore videos mango, keep it up.

[@Lawllin]

yoo thanks, glad you're liking the videos! ty for the nice words and for watchin the videos

[@teonwhite3547]

I just want to say that I, teon white played on the Mannoroth server, and ended up doing something I don't remember, but I had an item called "Eye of sargaras" in my inventory. It really happened and I didn't imagine it, and I didn't know who sargaras was at the time.

[@yankomirov4290]

You earned a new sub!

[@wintersease7821]

Holy shit this man is good. You deserve so much more!

[@vertigo7082]

Technically you can find Varian in Vanilla WoW in Dustwallow Marsh on the Naga Island.

[@96moliveira]

love your lor man, thanks

[@ismailkutayaksungur5431]

such a well done video. I hope we'll see more of wow lore?

[@Lawllin]

i have a burning crusade video up! and there will eventually be more wow lore stuff later this year

[@javelinmaster2]

You forgot to mention the day that Doomlord Kazzak had a very enthusiastic walk in Stormwind!

[@Faustusful]

those cards animation are cool

[@VeedddeeR]

Thanks for the content, iv wanted something to explain the lore and why things are happening for which reason,

[@Scatman1701]

Hey thanks for the video I definitely learned a lot and plan to check out more. One bit of feedback I have is that I was very confused by the adventurers that knocked down various raids. I had to look them up for example Blademistress Lyss, Toshley, the night elf rogue. All I could really find is that they are TCG characters but I don't find evidence they were involved in these adventures. Similarly I couldn't validate that Rokhan etc was involved in blackrock mountain. I think if these are stand-ins for a random champion it might be better to make those cards more generic if there is no canon established for who did these things. By contrast there are places where the stack of cards did represent characters that were involved, for example the remaining paladins or the AQ forces. Great vid thanks again

[@Appleseedcast0]

Liked and subbed!

[@Lawllin]

ty, much appreciated! glad you liked the video

[@isthisbadcivilization3262]

Please keep doing these stuffs abt wow lore!

[@edorpostma2074]

You deserve more subs

[@Mairou2]

Back when the story made sense. Screw the Jailor and all the space dudes who came in later expansions

[@rushangpujara5229]

card caption: Horde Champion, and refuses to roll resto. Brilliant xD

[@Min-vd2ed]

Love your work just one question for a year old video :) Don't we players face Alex Mograine in Naxx? How is he there when his son has defeated him as 15:05 in the video was this a retcon? Anyway keep up the good work!

[@Lawllin]

yeah, kinda. it's like how the onyxia quest chain was retconned so she was killed by varian wrynn. Vanilla nax (or at least the military wing) was completed by Darion in the comics / lore

[@Kmodal]

Subbed!

[@modranklob5085]

Where does Leeroy Jenkins come into story? (Obvious joke, but this is a very helpful and cool video, thank you for taking your time to make it!)

[@channel_lurker]

Mulgore didnt used too be grassy when the tauren lived there. they build a bunch of norias during the construction of ogrimmar too make it so :)

[@kenhammscousin4716]

Random adventures be killing Gods on the regular in Azeroth. You'd think the Gods would stop messing with mortals, if they value their lives 😎

[@stevenrosario3178]

Criminally underrated channel. Can you do Overwatch please

[@michaelthomas1916]

I wonder if that high priest was one of the Nethrazim. They already infiltrated and controlled the Scarlet Crusade. I'm sure they were trying the same with the Argent Dawn.

[@nutted1840]

good vid dud

[@RHelenius]

Warsong Gultch. Love it...

[@tnaxpw]

Tbh I never cared that much about what was going on in Vanilla and I thought that Onyxia storyline was before we did anything. Time to replay some questlines and actually give a care.

[@rlwrgh]

I think it is interesting how similar the non human naming conventions are to lotr.

[@user-qi7nn3qe2t]

great job like the two previous, but the cards are moving too fast. had to play this on 0.75 speed.

[@Lawllin]

ty for the feedback, it's un-ironically useful. i'll work on makin the next ones slower

[@Jordancameron88]

I loved the style of WoW but sadly never really had the time to play the MMO and really wanted to know the story and why people loved it. I want to get into it but the fact that there are so many expansions and that because that I feel I’d never catch up and my understanding is that Vanilla or retail isn’t the same anymore due to the expansions. I wish that they would make it into a cartoon or comic but sadly they haven’t arthas story is so cool and sylvana is a crazy bitch lol so much drama between her and the linch king that part of the story I KmOw but the rest I sadly don’t thank you for these videos

[@croft.]

I feel like WoW would have had a better story if the timeline of the war of scarabs or whatever the fuck it was called and naxxramus switched and c'thun was the final boss, leaving just enough time to make wrath of the lich king the first expansion.

[@jrsdt2ndaccount30]

Wait, are the Horde, one of the good guys now? Lore wise

[@jrsdt2ndaccount30]

Since they are usually the vanguard

[@Lawllin]

the horde havent really been the bad guys since warcraft 2. Thrall's horde are good

[@noyou6216]

2 year necro but basically yeah, the Alliance started the war on both continents and the Horde are pretty much the good guys. The Night Elves refused to come to any agreement regarding lumber in Ashenvale and are generally aggressive and territorial despite what Thrall's done to fight the Legion in Kalimdor. Then the Stormwind Humans decided that the Forsaken are evil and don't care if they are sentient, free willed and the original people of Lordaren only Undead against their will in the Eastern Kingdoms. The Horde are often more concerned with cultivating their territory in Kalimdor and dealing with bigger or more immediate threats than they are the Alliance. Even Jaina is either ignorant or complicit in Theramore breaking it's truce with the Horde, largely over misunderstanding or ignorance on the part of the Humans' she rules and ends up siding with the Alliance during the time of vanilla WoW. Not to mention the Defias Brotherhood was created from downright foolishness by Stormwind nobles and Varian being unable to come to agreements on paying the Stonemasons who built those massive walls, which while manipulated by Lady Prestor aka Onyxia was still a massive failing on his part as king. Resulting in riots that killed the Queen and the formation of the Defias Brotherhood. Or that the Leper Gnomes were the result of Gnomes being Gnomes and doing dumb experiments and one malicious leader basically nuked the whole city and made it uninhabitable. tl;dr the Alliance are basically the bad guys until Cataclysm when Blizzard decided to make all of the Horde leaders stupid and/or evil

[@ExelArts]

Completely inconsistent hate wowa lore which was something i used to love about it

[@ivoivic2448]

lol so they basically retconned the KT kill just to rehash naxx in WotLK because content drought was real. rich.

[@caualongshanks]

Who else is here looking for thr corrupted blood plague after hearing blizzard made it canon-ish

[@Animaster89]

Sargeras is no demon lord

[@mariomarques775]

Screw the books the game is my canon

[@lorinctoth9402]

The more I think about the lore the less sense it makes. Why are the Horde is fighting against the night elves? They were allies 10(?) years ago. Why the night elves didn't ally themselves with the Horde in the first place, when again, they were allied recently. The Horde cleaning up so many threaths in the Eastern Kingdom is just weird, how did they get anywhere near those places so easily. What was the Alliance doing, especially with the Dark Horde, that was one of the major threats to them? Less objective part comes now, so be prepared! I also can't really make much sense how someones dead relatives turn out they aren't exactly dead, and they are still pretty much around, but everyone is just like "nope, you don't exist anymore, I hate you and you need to leave from the place you and I both lived". The fact that the Alliance straight up denies the undead's claim to Lordaeron is just weird, and it is depicted with barely any nuance. I think the first time both sides wanted to make up with each other was before BfA when Calia Menethil died. Also how many good and well intentioned people just straight up turn evil after they have been raised as Forsaken. They started off really strong with at the begining, the player character has to come into terms with them being undead, but then they just all go around turning other's undead (this is Cataclysm lore mostly, but they were using the plague before that as well). There was such an interesting way to bring their story, but they were just Scourge 2.0.

[@BIacklce]

trees are why they are fighting

[@sapespianwonderfield4408]

so it's not all the lore. misleading title

[@bobertcop6886]

too bad hakkar caused the corrupted blood plague

[@Nolsie]

17 minutes wasted not talking about mankrik’s wife

[@DanTheTanned]

Watching this video made me realise wow lore has gone to shit. Classic lore was so good

[@westcoast9285]

You must hate trolls it was the empire of Zul that defeated cthun and split up and broken the Qiraji empire not the night elves. All troll empires came from the zandalari that split up fighting the old gods and their armies. The night elves are literally trolls that evolved from the power of the well of eternity

[@onoxable]

My lore ends in wc 3 , sad :(

[@Micha-qv5uf]

I hate that all this lore is so obviously written for multiplayer dungeons. It doesn't feel like the same universe as warcraft 3 at all. I hope there will be wc4 at some point and that it will completely ignore the existence of WoW.

[@scienceacademynotcangivena7332]

lore zombiecraft racist game is lie propaganda to force players to kill nations. What is nation? Humans born without nationality, born without fascism, nationalization in childhood make them. False value, false enemy, false nation definition make false enemy, destroy value of life. Nationalist kleptocracy created fa, refuse value of life and human rights. Reward for worsening is kleptocracy support, steal reward system. Support nationalists kleptocracy, participate in war crime. Wikipedia false nation definition changed always. They kill for nation, they not know what nation is. Not can distinguish between race and nation. Golden toilet marauder hilterugend science academy economy, kill and loot. Many program errors. Big cost in money and time. Booze narcologist barmen alcohol chemical addiction for children. Killing for religion of peace, priest ten commandments. Sacred satan religion war godless church. False race definition, false nation definition, make players to kill nations, made fa. Overpopulation family values.

[@Fami_Salami]

this isnt interesting :(