Generally speaking, the human race on Azeroth is in a sorry state. Led by a corrupt aristocracy ... manipulated by a dragon ... cheating contractors out of their pay for rebuilding the city ... and the only truly respected human leader is practically in exile due to her friendship with Thrall. How did the noble humans get where they are? What happened to the line of the kings of Stormwind?
Who: Llane Wrynn, Varian Wrynn and Anduin Wrynn.
What: The past three kings of Stormwind.
History: The first known member of the Wrynn dynasty is Landen Wrynn, who ruled the then-kingdom of Azeroth. We know he's a historical footnote simply because his court conjuror -- Nieles Aran, who is not some simple jester -- is a lot more famous than he is. Wrynn was succeeded by Adamant Wrynn III, which shows that the line of Wrynns probably goes back a heck of a lot longer than Landen. Under Adamant's rule, Azeroth was peaceful and wealthy, until the day when it suddenly wasn't. The culprit wasn't a recession, but the invasion of a rather large number of orcs from the Dark Portal. Adamant died of natural causes shortly after the First War began, and his only son, the twenty-year-old Llane Wrynn, inherited the throne.
Llane Wrynn is the first king of Stormwind to be a real part of Warcraft lore. Wrynn was known for his childhood friendships with Anduin Lothar and the court conjuror's son, Medivh. They spent many happy days leveling to adulthood in STV, back when there was only one faction and no one could get ganked. One day, Medivh -- already showing great wizardly prowess along with an uncanny ability to deliver useless, vague premonitions -- gave Llane an hourglass that represented the peace and prosperity of the kingdom. Years later, the hourglass ran out, and the orcish hordes invaded Azeroth. Llane and his mom decamped to Northshire Abbey, where they killed kobolds and took their candles.
When Adamant Wrynn died, Llane took over the throne. He led a fairly successful campaign against the orcs over the next ten year, pinning them into the Swamp of Sorrows and driving them back to near the Dark Portal. However, such luck couldn't last. When Blackhand took over the Horde and started pushing towards Stormwind, Llane prepared for a long siege of the city. However, his stay was cut short when the assassin Garona Halforcen snuck into town and cut out his heart. Mmmm ... heart.
Sometime while conducting the war, Llane took time to father a son, Varian. While still a young child, he saw his father murdered and his city, Stormwind, razed by orcs. Anduin Lothar gathered the city's remaining population into boats, where they set sail for the kingdom of Lordaeron to the north. During his time in Lordaeron, Varian became good friends with Prince Arthas Menethil. Bad idea. No one who is friends with Arthas ever gets to have a quiet life.
After Lothar's death and the retaking of Stormwind, Varian was crowned king. He hired a group of stonemasons to rebuild the city, and the inhabitants of Stormwind gradually resumed their everyday lives. Varian even married and had a child, who he named after his father's best friend -- Anduin. But with no direct threat to unite them, the kingdoms of the Alliance began to splinter away from each other. Varian stated that Stormwind would always be part of the Alliance and would always defend Lordaeron. This was probably a bad decision, given the whole Arthas-crazy-destruction-zombies thing. Varian made the (also poor) decision not to pay the stonemasons who rebuilt the city for their work. Angry at the king and nobles, the stonemasons formed a grudge against all Stormwind citizens. They created a gang called the Defias Brotherhood to rob humans and build awesome ships beneath mountains, however impractical they may be.
One day, while en route to Theramore for a slap fight diplomatic meeting with Jaina Proudmoore, Varian was kidnapped by the Defias. Way to go, Stormwind Secret Service. A questline suggested that the black dragonflight had aided the Defias, and that he was being held on Alcaz Island near Theramore. Before Ahn'Qiraj was added, you could even see the king being held prisoner in the sewers under Alcaz Island. Unfortunately, you were not a bad enough dude to rescue the king, so you probably just got kicked around by level 63 elites.
With Varian missing, Bolvar Fordragon took the reins of Stormwind. His advisor, Lady Katrana Prestor, suggested that he crown Anduin Wrynn and run the city as Regent-Lord until the boy was of age. Weekly, Bolvar discovers that Prestor is the dragon Onyxia and has a huge fight while the boy sits in the middle and smiles blankly, never learning anything. That boy ain't right. (Actually, Anduin is a rather polite young lad who's concerned about his dad. I also can't kill him no matter how many AOEs I rain down upon his general area.)
So what happened to Varian?: This was pretty much a mystery until the WoW comic book came out. Somehow, Varian Wrynn lost his memory and found himself on the shores of the Barrens. He was snatched up by a gang of Horde slavemasters while fighting a crocodile, and made to join a professional arena team with an excessively-RPing night elf druid and a bitchy blonde blood elf rogue who fought constantly.
Varian became a hero to the fighters, known as a tough and fearless man who simply could not remember his past. Eventually, the group headed to Thunder Bluff, where Varian began to have memory flashbacks: his wife and child, the city of Stormwind burning, etc. The druid Hamuul Runetotem renamed Varian Lo'Gosh, after a legendary wolf god, and gave him and the night elf the means to escape. Then Varian and the night elf set off to save the night elf from some corruption of his forms ... or something. I wasn't really paying attention by that point in the comic, as it was all mindless fighting and no Grimtotem lore revelations.
Anyway, it looks like Varian will probably recover his memory at some point and try to go back to Stormwind. Whether Onyxia and the Stormwind nobles will let him, however, remains to be seen. I just hope the night elf and the blood elf don't hook up, and if they do, I hope it's really uncomfortable.
For more information: WoW the comic book, WoWWiki on the rulers of Stormwind.
Questions? Comments? Disagreements? Flames? Post below!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-04-2008 @ 11:53AM
peaglemancer said...
And lo, King Llane shall live forever, as a chess piece in Karazhan .
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4-04-2008 @ 12:06PM
makh said...
Didn't blizzard already do the whole Heir by blood-lost-turned slave-turned Gladiator-returned King (as I'm assuming the end of this story will turn out...) with Thrall?
Don't get me wrong it's a cool story arc and all, but isn't it a bit much to have the same basic structure as the background to the leaders of both the Orc and Human factions?
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4-04-2008 @ 12:21PM
Terrant said...
Storyline innovation is not of Blizzard's strong points. It's like they're a really good band who only plays cover songs. :)
4-04-2008 @ 12:26PM
Nizari said...
I'd say the difference is that Thrall's story is one of a leader rising his people up to throw off an oppressor, sort of a William Wallace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace) figure, except actually being successful at it.
When Varian fully recovers his memory and returns to Stormwind, I expect it to be more like the Lion King, the lost son returning to find that Stormwind is being manipulated and degraded by corruption and evil, and then having one hell of a showdown with Prestor and Fordragon.
4-04-2008 @ 7:06PM
Tiresias1066 said...
The comic's actually written by a guy named Walter Simonson over at DC Comics, so I'm not sure exactly how much direct creative control Blizzard has.
4-04-2008 @ 12:23PM
mortalbound said...
HOLY CRAP! *looks at his book again*
...
...
...
IT'S WRYNN? It looks like JAMES BOND on a bad day!
HOW did JAMES BOND get captured by the DEFIAS?
Blizz needs to think about lore-logic some more. No one can beat james bond.
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4-04-2008 @ 2:41PM
Xioyn said...
Chuck Norris can
4-04-2008 @ 6:15PM
Zali said...
And any Night Elf Mohawk. Not only would they smash James Bond into itty bitty bits, but they would pity the fool as they did.
Then they would use the internet to to destroy his credit cards, empty his bank accounts, put phony arrest warrents out on him and an APB saying that he was "armed and dangerous and to shoot to kill," shut off his electricity and water, and sign him up for every free catalogue that ever existed except for Victoria's Secret. Night Elf Mohawks are pretty handy with computers, you know.
4-04-2008 @ 12:24PM
Brian said...
Well this actually makes a lot of sense. WoW has pulled in the novels and other fiction pretty quick, which I really like. Cycle of Hatred dealt with dissenters and trouble makers in Theramore the echoes of which are now found in quests there. The Thrall storyline was novelised and then brought into the caverns of time. The Sunwell trilogy has a direct impact on the current Sunwell Plateau stuff. Which leaves the comic book.
I'm in two minds about the central hero being the missing King as that would scupper the comic pretty quick. Having said that they may be prepared for it and are ready to write the king out of the book after a year or so.
On the other hand the comic book has just come to the end of it's current cycle with Broll and Lo'gosh headed to Darnassus. My bet is that they will some kind of impact on an area in the game we have yet to hear about like the Emerald Dream. When the Sunwell Trilogy came out I certainly didn't know that they were planning on opening up such a major region in terms of the lore.
The emerald Dream could certainly exist on a Sunwell Isle or Silithus Scale and so could be a post WotLK content patch.
While I don't expect the comic to tie into the Wrynn Dynasty I would expect the King to come back at some point as Bolivar is due to head to Northrend if rumours are true. The only problem with this is that Lady Prestor would need to be moved. But then maybe she will head to Northrend herself. I can't see her and her brother standing by if the other Dragon Aspects are going to have major sanctuaries in Northrend.
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4-04-2008 @ 12:31PM
Juan Shue said...
"and if they do, i hope it's really uncomfortable."
brilliant
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4-04-2008 @ 12:37PM
Skuling said...
I sure hope the king will return, Bolivar is an ass.
And im still not 100% that Lo'gosh (his new name :P) is Varian Wrynn it would be too easy, I bet he is Varian Wrynn twin brother send back through time by the Bronze dragons to stop some big thing, only he bumped his head when he jumped into the current time line and forgot everything..
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4-04-2008 @ 12:53PM
Rich said...
Yeah, we can have the twin brother but he was sent back in time to kill everyone on Azeroth. He hits his head on a rock when he falls from the sky and becomes all cute and nice. He is found by a kindly old warrior named Rijst who then pawns him off on a dirty old perv of a guy to teach him out to fight.
;)
4-04-2008 @ 12:41PM
Skuling said...
Oh! I have a teory, since the fact that no-one likes the current alliance leaders even a little, (staghelm lol) so blizz might wanna try to make the alliance a little more popular by creating a alliance hero as a faction leader, like Varian Wrynn will be if he turns out to be "Crocbait".
It's a briliant conspericy!
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4-04-2008 @ 12:43PM
bendak said...
I used to always visit Varian in his prison on Alcaz Island back in the day. It was fun trying to reach him without getting killed by all those elites. I always figured they would implement a quest to go rescue him or something, but then they just flat out removed him.
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4-04-2008 @ 12:49PM
Marco Polaris said...
I, for one, fully support the idea that the King of Stormwind is both kicking ass and taking names. The humans get enough bad press without the "new faction leader" having to be saved from a dinky island just under a few miles away from Theramore, of all places. When Arthas defected to the Scourge, the idea of humans as anything other than "the bland norm" and "incompetent racists" seemed to get drowned out quickly, despite everything in the two games prior.
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4-04-2008 @ 1:02PM
makh said...
Meh. Seems like a cop-out to me. "Forget about the Defias subplot--- he escaped, lost his memory, arena'd his way to the 2300 bracket, earned a cool tribal nickname, and now he's gonna come back all Aragorn-style to retake the throne... watch out!!"
Miffed opportunity to continue an interesting arc with rich, lore-driven questlines that was replaced with a standard make-him-bad-ass-and-bring-him-back. Here's to hoping the players will be involved in his return somehow.
4-04-2008 @ 2:22PM
Alveredus said...
The WoW comic only runs 12 issues. That gives them 6 months or so to tie everything back into the game.
Personally, I'd like to see the king's return handled as a World Event like the Scourge Invasion or the Shattered Sun Offensive.
As in, maybe we have to help the King fight off Onyxia and reclaim the throne either in the weeks before WotLK or at launch.
And I don't think the similarities between Thrall and Varian are a coincidence or will be ignored. I figure they'll definitely be played as opposites/twins ruled by destiny, etc.
That way, they can both be like, "I want peace but your people screwed me over and enslaved me! What? You think my people suck? Yeah, some of them kinda do..."
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4-04-2008 @ 2:43PM
Reinforcements said...
It would be really nice if Blizzard moved some of the lore forward when Wrath comes out. Onyxia really ought to be dead by now, and it would be well worth not being able to do that quest anymore for Lady Prestor to be gone for good. You wouldn't have to close off Onyxia's Lair or anything - but Varian's triumphant return would be badass.
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4-04-2008 @ 3:56PM
Sl0th said...
You really would think by now that one of the people hanging out near or in the throne room would have noticed the semi-daily fights with black dragons and Lady Prestor morphing and flying off. I love the quest chain, but there has to be some way to move it along without a raid boss eternally holding court next to the human faction leader and the immortal child king.
And by that same note... Why is the young king dressed up in the same peasant garb that every human male child is dressed in? Is that considered high fashion, or just laziness on the part of the model designers who think giving him a scepter to hold is enough to make him look kingly?
In any event, I wouldn't mind either seeing the real king return(Be him the amnesatic gladiator or some other plot twist,) or perhaps Jania take over as main human leader somehow. At least she isn't under the influence of a black dragon or corrupt nobles.
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4-04-2008 @ 4:14PM
Anteia said...
Well, Blizzard has proved with the sunwell that they ARE willing to make some major graphical changes to the game to advance plot (Griftah was a minor example). But Taking Mu'ru out of Silvermoon and filling Shattrath with SSO were some major changes, and showed a progression of plot IN Azeroth. I'm hoping that the King does return. At that point, they can take away the attunement to Onyxia or instead perhaps give Windsor a royal commendation.. at which point, the guards can all turn into dragons and attack again to kill him, to show that Onyxia's not done messing in politics and trying to undermine Stormwind, even if she's not standing at the throne anymore. That way people get to experience the epic walk, Windsor still dies, and you still have a reason to go kill the dragon. (As if you needed one). And while we're at it, maybe they can redesign the throne room so as to have an actual throne for the king. And maybe we'll get to see his queen, or has it been confirmed she's dead?
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