Recaps

Blackhorn revealed to Mela Highmountain that Huln Highmountain was an ordinary soul, not a True God, and that the legend had been maintained to unite the Highmountain Tauren. Mela rejected the evidence and shut herself away, while the next morning Thunder Totem's guards surrounded Blackhorn's residence.

• Mela Highmountain mocked Blackhorn's claim that he could bring their True God ancestor to meet them, but Blackhorn returned from the cliff with Huln Highmountain's soul.
• Huln Highmountain and Blackhorn told Mela that later chieftains had exaggerated Huln's deeds, and Huln showed her a hidden message on the last page of the chieftains' tome declaring him a fabrication.
• Mela refused to believe the message, so Blackhorn took her into the cave where Huln's soul lived and showed her treasures that created the giant horns and the apparent Burning Legion skeletons.
• Blackhorn explained that the Huln Highmountain legend had united the Tauren against their enemies, but that the people had survived through their own strength rather than a True God's protection.
• Mela returned to her room and refused to see anyone, and the next morning Thunder Totem's guards surrounded Blackhorn's residence.

Blackhorn warned the Highmountain Tauren to flee into Neltharion's Lair, but Gray Sky Highmountain had him arrested and apparently burned. Mela Highmountain and her followers abandoned their people and fled to the lair, where they found their family vault empty and triggered a mass teleport.

• Gray Sky Highmountain arrested Blackhorn, who warned the guards that Neltharion's Lair was the Highmountain Tauren's only chance of survival.
• Gray Sky Highmountain ordered Blackhorn burned, but a Fireball rose from the flames and Blackhorn vanished.
• Mela Highmountain and several spiritwalkers escaped to Neltharion's Lair, planning to abandon their people and live in luxury in Pandaria.
• Mela Highmountain opened the secret vault and found it empty, while Gray Sky Highmountain demanded an explanation.
• Mela Highmountain blamed the Black Dragonflight after the group found huge claw marks, then pressed a red button and activated a mass teleport.

Mela Highmountain returned to Thunder Totem during the Orc invasion, blamed General Leiti for allegedly coveting her position, and had him beaten to death. With the Highmountain Tauren’s defenses weakened by her actions, she announced their surrender to the great Savior, leaving Gray Sky Highmountain to defend her decision.

• Mela Highmountain and the others were teleported to Thunder Totem, where General Leiti had repelled several Orc attacks and forced Chen Stormstout to withdraw temporarily.
• Mela Highmountain questioned Leiti about the invasion, then falsely accused him of plotting to seize the chieftain’s position and ordered the guards to beat him nearly to death.
• Chen Stormstout learned from Khadgar that Leiti was a skilled strategist, then heard that Leiti’s corpse had been thrown down from Thunder Totem.
• Some soldiers secretly gathered at a Portal to Neltharion's Lair while Mela Highmountain declared that the Highmountain Tauren would surrender to the great Savior.
• Gray Sky Highmountain answered a soldier’s accusation of betrayal by saying that a chieftain’s actions weren’t betrayal.

After Mela Highmountain submitted to Chen Stormstout, the Highmountain Tauren were slaughtered, and the disaster made Tyrande fear that the Night Elves might face the same fate. Illidan appeared at the Temple of the Moon and warned Malfurion and Tyrande that disaster was coming for the Night Elves.

• Mela Highmountain submitted Thunder Totem to Chen Stormstout, and Chen established a slaughterhouse where countless Highmountain Tauren were killed.
• Tyrande sent priests to Orgrimmar to congratulate Chen Stormstout, then discussed his rise and the Night Elves’ vulnerability with Malfurion.
• Malfurion argued that the Night Elves could not depend on Elune for protection and said he was considering the path of the Flame Druid.
• Illidan infiltrated the Temple of the Moon, told Malfurion and Tyrande that power depended on oneself, and warned that disaster was coming for the Night Elves.

Illidan offered to train a small group of Night Elves as Demon Hunters to help resist the Lightforging Orcs, while Malfurion and Tyrande considered the offer. In Orgrimmar, Thrall warned Chen Stormstout against an all-out war with the Alliance, and Chen decided on a compromise instead.

• Illidan argued with Tyrande and Malfurion that the Night Elves needed stronger fighters to face the Lightforging Orcs, and offered to train a hundred recruits as Demon Hunters.
• After Illidan left, Tyrande told Malfurion that his younger brother was powerful, leaving Malfurion troubled by Illidan’s mysterious origins.
• Chen Stormstout showed the house-arrested Thrall the Horde’s expanded territory and asked whether he should attack the Alliance.
• Thrall advised Chen that an all-out war would defy Azeroth’s Dao, while limited conflict was part of its balance.
• Chen dismissed Mela Highmountain’s call for war and decided to avoid an all-out invasion while seeking a compromise beyond minor skirmishes.

Chen Stormstout sent a Horde army led by Mela Highmountain to seize Val’sharah, while Malfurion struggled to rally the Night Elves against them. The Night Elves abandoned the Temple of the Moon, and Tyrande discovered the Horde had surrounded it.

• Chen Stormstout sent Mela Highmountain and a Horde army toward Val’sharah while he went to Pandaria to avoid the conflict.
• Malfurion tried to rally the Druids, but they refused to oppose the Horde because they revered Thrall as Azeroth’s Savior.
• Malfurion learned Tyrande had sent a hundred Night Elves toward Light’s Hope Chapel only two days earlier, then confronted her as she prepared to pray to Elune.
• Malfurion told the Night Elves they could wait for Elune to destroy the Horde, then left without organizing the Sentinels.
• The Night Elves doubted Elune would protect them and scattered, leaving Tyrande alone in the Temple of the Moon.
• Tyrande finished praying, found the temple empty, and realized the Horde had surrounded it as the ground shook beneath their approach.

Tyrande and Malfurion hid in the Temple of the Moon as Mela Highmountain’s forces ransacked it and destroyed Elune’s statue. Chen Stormstout’s order led the attackers to burn their loot, which transformed into a golden statue of Chen, and the Lightforging Orcs declared him to be Elune.

• Tyrande found her secret passage blocked, and Malfurion revealed that he had come to help her hide from the Horde.
• Malfurion and Tyrande watched from a beam as Mela Highmountain’s forces searched the Temple of the Moon and uncovered their hidden treasures.
• Mela Highmountain ordered the statue of Elune destroyed, and the Lightforging Orcs smashed it while the Tauren hesitated.
• A Lightforging Orc general relayed Chen Thrall Stormstout’s order to burn the seized valuables before the shattered statue.
• The burning treasure transformed into a golden statue resembling Chen Stormstout, and Mela Highmountain and the Orcs proclaimed him Elune.

Chen Stormstout dismissed Khadgar’s concerns about a conspiracy elevating him as Elune and ordered Mela Highmountain to intensify the worship, insulting the Moon Goddess in the process. Thrall learned that his plan to provoke Elune had produced an even more outrageous result and wondered whether Chen had gone mad.

• Malfurion and Tyrande watched the Night Elves accept Chen Stormstout as Elune, and Tyrande chose not to oppose him because history showed that blasphemers could prosper.
• Mela Highmountain presided over a ceremony honoring Chen Elune Thrall Stormstout while Chen relaxed on a beach in the Krasarang Wilds.
• Khadgar warned Chen that someone was raising his reputation to provoke Elune, but Chen rejected Khadgar’s cautious plan and ordered Mela to do more and the Dalaran lead to be pursued.
• Thrall learned from an ally using a Dalaran magic book that Chen had called Elune an inconspicuous maidservant at his side.
• Thrall dropped the book and wondered whether Chen Stormstout had gone mad.

Chen Stormstout summoned the August Celestials to answer for Xuen's role in damaging his martial arts foundation, while the Moon Goddess's Emissary revealed that powerful factions saw him as a tool for harvesting souls. As the Celestials argued over who should face Chen Stormstout's wrath, Illidan appeared and offered them a way to survive.

• Chen Stormstout visited the rebuilding Vermilion Bird Temple and ordered the August Celestials to pay their respects or face the consequences.
• At Mistveil Trestle, the Moon Goddess's Emissary told Medivh that powerful forces intended to use Chen Stormstout to provoke devastating conflict and gather souls.
• On the Timeless Isle, Yu'lon, Chi-Ji, and Niuzao urged Xuen to take the blame for the Celestials' decision to seal Chen Stormstout's strength and damage his foundation.
• Illidan appeared in Demon form, overwhelmed the August Celestials, and warned that Chen Stormstout would be even more brutal than Thrall.
• Illidan told the frightened August Celestials that he had a way to save them.

Chen Stormstout staged a lavish ascension ceremony at the half-finished Vermilion Bird Temple, using a fake Dharma Body and a fabricated expert to convince the crowd that he surpassed the universe’s mightiest beings. The August Celestials arrived to bow before him, but Khadgar realized the spectacle might be falling apart.

• Pandaren and other Azeroth peoples gathered for Chen Stormstout’s ascension ceremony, where Orc beauties’ dance left most spectators and guards unconscious.
• Chen Stormstout ordered Khadgar to record those who left and prepared to boil the kneeling August Celestials into soup.
• Chen Stormstout rose above the platform as a magical Dharma Body appeared, while a fake Zhu Tianjiao and staged questions exaggerated his power.
• The August Celestials entered and prostrated themselves before Chen Stormstout as the Orc beauties removed their makeup nearby.
• Khadgar saw the unconscious guards and the Orc beauties without makeup, then realized something was wrong.

Chen Stormstout’s ascension ceremony failed, and a Demon Hunter exposed and brutalized him before the August Celestials drove the attacker away. The next day, Khadgar reported the growing threat from Demon Hunters, and Chi-Ji suggested the Consortium might know how to train powerful fighters.

• Chen Stormstout’s Magic Circle failed, leaving him stranded in the air without Chi while the Pandaren praised him below.
• A second-generation Demon Hunter killed Zhu Tianjiao and attacked Chen Stormstout, who begged for his life until the August Celestials intervened.
• The Demon Hunter escaped the August Celestials, warning that his fellow Demon Hunters would threaten Chen Stormstout again.
• Chen Stormstout learned that a hundred Demon Hunters served among the Night Elves and that two had wiped out an army in Val'sharah.
• Chi-Ji the Red Crane said that Thrall had told him the Consortium might know how to train supreme masters.

Chen Stormstout investigated Chi-Ji’s claim that the Consortium could create Ironblood Orcs, but Nexus-Prince Bayal denied knowing about them. Nexus-Prince Kritina then offered to make them in exchange for five hundred thousand Kobolds each, leaving Chen Stormstout and Khadgar to consider an impossible price.

• Chi-Ji told Chen Stormstout that Thrall had discussed Ironblood Orcs with the Consortium, and Khadgar warned that the claim might conceal a scheme.
• Chen Stormstout questioned Thrall, who denied knowing about Ironblood Orcs but named Nexus-Prince Bayal as his Consortium contact.
• Chen Stormstout and Khadgar met Bayal, who denied that the Consortium had Ironblood Orcs, leaving them puzzled about Chi-Ji’s story.
• Nexus-Prince Kritina arrived and said her Consortium project had created Ironblood Orcs, but only one in a thousand succeeded.
• Kritina demanded five hundred thousand Kobolds for each Ironblood Orc, and Khadgar refused the price.

Chen Stormstout traded Kobolds for Ironblood Orcs and used Khadgar to breed more, then declared war on Illidan and the Alliance. After one Ironblood Orc exploded, a vast army of Lightforging Kobolds surrounded Orgrimmar.

• Khadgar suspected Christina and Chi-Ji of a hoax, but Chen Stormstout ordered him to bargain for Ironblood Orcs anyway.
• Khadgar traded 150,000 Kobolds for an Ironblood Orc, which proved powerful and fiercely loyal to Chen Stormstout.
• Chen Stormstout demanded more Ironblood Orcs, so Khadgar bred Lightforging Kobolds and exchanged one and a half million of them for ten more.
• Chen Stormstout declared war on Illidan and the Alliance and proclaimed himself Emperor of Azeroth.
• An Ironblood Orc suddenly exploded, and Khadgar discovered the Ironblood Orcs were defective and unstable.
• Guards reported that more than ten million Lightforging Kobolds had surrounded Orgrimmar and blanketed Durotar.

Khadgar and Chen Stormstout struggled to contain the Kobold tide unleashed across Durotar, while Illidan warned Christina and the August Celestials to limit their schemes. After the Horde’s Lightforged Orc breeding efforts failed, Chen called on Thrall and confronted him with a Fel pool.

• Khadgar explained that Christina had released traded Kobolds across Durotar, and Chen Stormstout ordered the Horde to breed Lightforged Orcs to fight them.
• In Ratchet, Illidan restricted Christina’s Kobold ranching plans and warned the August Celestials that Chen would take revenge if he overcame the crisis.
• The first Lightforged Orcs sent to Orgrimmar were overwhelmed, while the Halfhill breeding base was sabotaged and the Barrens base was overrun.
• Khadgar persuaded Chen Stormstout to summon Thrall, whom Chen had escorted to the city wall.
• Chen showed Thrall a pool of Fel energy and asked him what it was for.

Chen Stormstout and Khadgar forced Thrall to reveal how the kobolds might be united, while Aserok refused Illidan’s offer to protect the Crossroads in exchange for a flight point and travelers’ tent. The kobolds surrounded the outpost as Aserok chose loyalty to the Horde over a deal.

• Chen Stormstout repeatedly had Thrall mauled by kobolds and healed with Fel until Thrall revealed that a united kobold king could threaten Orgrimmar.
• Thrall advised Chen Stormstout and Khadgar to control an outsider as king, naming Big Candle Gagg as a suitable candidate.
• At the Crossroads, Aserok learned that kobolds had overrun Durotar and surrounded Orgrimmar, while his orders were to defend the outpost to the death.
• A goblin representing Lord Illidan offered to protect the Crossroads if Aserok established a Flight Point and a tent for travelers.
• Aserok rejected the offer despite the goblins’ warning about the enormous kobold force and the insult to his Warchief, declaring that the Crossroads would rather die than accept.

Aserok rejected the Goblin’s attempt to make the Orcs surrender and led the defenders of the Crossroads into battle against a huge Kobold army. As the fighting turned against the Orcs, Leiluosite led a desperate charge toward the Kobold king, while Aserok watched from the main battle.

• The Goblin warned Aserok and his soldiers that the Crossroads was isolated and that their deaths would serve their leaders, but Aserok rallied the troops to fight for the Horde and the Warchief.
• The Kobolds burned down the Crossroads’ wooden fence, then attacked in force under the direction of a king who used war drums to turn fleeing Kobolds into frenzied fighters.
• Aserok led the Orcs in a charge, but the relentless Kobold attacks caused heavy casualties and left the battle at a stalemate.
• Leiluosite pointed out the Kobold king and proposed leading a squad, including a Tauren, to kill him; Aserok agreed to support the attempt.
• The Tauren charged through the Kobold ranks before collapsing from exhaustion, and Leiluosite’s squad continued toward the king as Aserok watched from the main fight.

Leiluosite killed the Kobold chieftain, giving the Crossroads a short reprieve, while Bolande Caofeng urged Aserok to evacuate the civilians. Aserok insisted on holding the settlement, but when the Kobolds returned with defenses that defeated his tactics, he retreated with his followers to the watchtower, the Crossroads' last stronghold.

• Leiluosite reached the Kobold chieftain, killed him, and the leaderless Kobolds fled while the exhausted Orcs could not pursue.
• Bolande Caofeng urged Aserok to retreat and accused him of sacrificing the Crossroads' people for his own advancement, but Aserok refused and rallied the crowd to defend the settlement.
• Three days later, the Kobolds chose a new king and built crude defenses that trapped Orcs when Aserok sent them into a frenzy.
• After several Orc squads were lost, Aserok retreated with his trusted followers and took refuge in the Crossroads' stone watchtower.

Aserok abandoned the Orcs at The Crossroads and escaped aboard a hired Wyvern, while his soldiers died protecting Leiluosite’s widow and children. In Orgrimmar, Chen Stormstout ignored the truth behind Aserok’s celebrated heroism and recruited Big Candle Gagg for a secret task involving a parasite fish.

• Aserok discovered Leiluosite’s widow and children as Kobolds overwhelmed the watchtower, and his three soldiers resolved to protect them.
• Aserok revealed he had hired the Wyvern to escape, mocked the soldiers’ faith in sacrifice, and left them to die fighting the Kobolds.
• Aserok paid the Goblin pilot and flew to Orgrimmar, where the Horde hailed him as a hero for supposedly killing the Kobold chieftain.
• Chen Stormstout read a scout’s report exposing Aserok’s actions, burned it, and asked Khadgar whether Big Candle Gagg had arrived.
• Chen Stormstout described a parasite fish and its mate to Gagg, then revealed that he held the female; Gagg pledged to do anything for the Warchief.

Chen Stormstout appointed Big Candle Gagg to unite the Lightforging Kobolds, and Gagg warned that Thrall’s plan to arm them could strengthen them and endanger Orgrimmar. Gagg proposed using worship of the Holy Light to keep the Kobolds under control, then staged a prophecy that led the tribes to await a sage from the east.

• Chen Stormstout told Big Candle Gagg he would make him king of the Lightforging Kobolds and ordered him to work with Thrall.
• Thrall proposed faking a heavenly omen and arming Kobold factions, but Gagg warned Chen Stormstout that the Kobolds could multiply, learn to make weapons, and draw in the Alliance.
• Gagg suggested making the Lightforging Kobolds worship the Holy Light and offered to become their Velen, and Chen Stormstout ordered him to prepare a complete plan.
• A staged storm sent a boulder and golden book from the Southfury River, and an Orc captive read the prophecy that a sage would come from the east to decipher the book.
• Kobold tribes fought over the boulder and book until six major tribes remained, then their chieftains agreed to welcome the prophesied sage.
• The six chieftains held a seaside sacrifice, and a golden figure appeared walking across the waves.

Gagg posed as a sage and used the Heavenly Book to manipulate the Kobolds into building him a golden pulpit and accepting his teachings. After the six chiefs were mysteriously killed, Gagg continued preaching to their replacements, then returned to Orgrimmar and found Osaid questioning his life as an assassin.

• Gagg appeared before the Lightforging Kobolds as a sage and persuaded their six chiefs to build him a golden pulpit.
• The chiefs raised enough gold by selling ore from Drywater Valley and tens of thousands of Kobold slaves, then Gagg preached that Kobolds should reject external things and praise the Holy Light.
• After learning Gagg was a swindler, one chief vowed to expose him, but all six chiefs died mysteriously that night, and the Kobolds believed they had been punished for sinning.
• Six new chiefs knelt before Gagg as he preached that Lightforging Kobolds would become Holy Light after death and urged them to convert all Kobolds.
• Back in Orgrimmar, Osaid told Gagg that the sermon had made him feel foolish for believing similar teachings during his assassin training, and Gagg said he had finally matured.

Osaid rejected Kobold bloodline divisions, seized power, and became the Holy Light Great Emperor with Gagg’s support. Chen Stormstout ordered the Kobolds confined to the Valley of Trials while secretly planning to use Osaid to eliminate Kobolds elsewhere, unaware that disaster was brewing.

• Osaid declared that bloodline was a shackle and demanded Gagg help him become Kobold Great Emperor; Gagg pledged his support after Osaid threatened him.
• Osaid assassinated a Kobold chieftain, and Gagg taught the Kobolds laws, a calendar, and the Holy Light faith while keeping the Heavenly Book mysterious.
• Osaid united the Kobolds of Durotar and became emperor, and Gagg crowned him the Holy Light Great Emperor.
• Chen Stormstout questioned Gagg about Osaid, then ordered the Kobolds to withdraw to the Valley of Trials and told Khadgar to keep watching Gagg.
• Chen Stormstout planned to use Osaid to conquer the Kobolds of The Barrens and Mulgore before burying them alive, while Osaid’s Kobolds returned to the Valley of Trials without raising suspicion.

Gagg and Osaid discussed the Lightforging Kobolds’ rule, history, and need for weapons while Gagg claimed his medical book could cure diseases. Christina abducted five thousand Kobolds from Durotar for the interstellar market, and Osaid confronted her aboard her ship.

• Gagg explained to Osaid why the Lightforging Kobolds needed religious teachings while they developed, and Osaid described his plan to arm them with firearms.
• Gagg wrote a medical book and claimed it could treat more than half the diseases the Holy Light could not cure.
• Christina arrived above Durotar and used a levitation spell to take five thousand Kobolds aboard her cloaked ship.
• Christina sedated the Kobolds and sent her subordinates away when she sensed Osaid had arrived.
• Osaid met Christina and learned she was an Ethereal whose physical body had been taken away.

Osaid negotiated with Christina to exchange Kobold captives for Critical Strike Rifles, while Illidan revealed that he wanted to strengthen the Lightforging Kobolds as a third power between the Alliance and the Horde. The chapter ended with Illidan warning that Chen Stormstout would become a dangerous Warchief if he gained power.

• Osaid demanded that Christina release the Kobolds, then agreed to trade five thousand of them for rifles and ammunition.
• Christina accepted Osaid's price of one hundred Kobolds per Critical Strike Rifle with two hundred rounds, and arranged delivery in three days.
• After Osaid left, Christina realized he had lied about his intuition, and Illidan admitted he had told Osaid the price.
• Illidan explained that he wanted the Kobolds to become a third force to complicate the plans of the Burning Legion and the Army of the Light.
• Christina asked who would replace Chen Stormstout, and Illidan said Chen had become like Thrall and would be an even more vicious Warchief.

Osaid used the Southfury River battle to reduce the Kobolds’ surplus population while secretly seeking military and political guidance from Test Subject 335. After Chen Stormstout armed the Durotar Kobolds in exchange for precious ores, they won the battle and began conquering Barrens tribes, prompting troubling news to reach Orgrimmar.

• Osaid sent Kobolds to fight the Barrens tribes at the Southfury River, where both sides used the battle to cull their excess population.
• Osaid learned that the Trogg was Test Subject 335, formerly Emperor Lagrange, and asked him to train Kobolds in Volley Fire Tactics.
• Test Subject 335 advised Osaid to establish a knightly order, use Mushan Beasts as mounts, and discreetly unite Kobolds across the Barrens and Mulgore.
• Chen Stormstout agreed to supply weapons in exchange for precious ores, despite Khadgar’s warnings.
• The armed Durotar Kobolds won the Battle of Southfury River and wiped out several Kobold tribes in the Barrens.
• Troubling news about the Kobolds reached Orgrimmar.

As the Kobold conflict worsened, Chen Stormstout ordered Khadgar to develop a Plague that targeted Lightforging Kobolds. Osaid chose to keep his trained forces underground while the Plague turned tens of millions of Kobolds into Ghouls, and Test Subject 335 declared him a qualified king.

• Chen Stormstout suspected the Diamond Emperor was Magni Bronzebeard, but Khadgar warned him against war with the Alliance and proposed using the Plague against the Kobolds.
• Khadgar revealed that he could use Undead magic and said he needed seven days and enough apothecaries to make a Plague targeting Lightforging Kobolds.
• Test Subject 335 told Osaid that the Horde planned to use the Plague, then urged him to seal the underground caves and abandon the surface Kobolds rather than expose their untrained forces.
• After seven days, Chen Stormstout and Khadgar flew to Razor Hill and dropped barrels of Plague into a church crowded with Kobolds, transforming them into Ghouls.
• The Ghouls spread across Durotar and reached the underground caves, while Osaid watched the slaughter from beneath the earth with his elite Kobolds.
• Osaid vowed to avenge the dead, and Test Subject 335 told him that enduring the sacrifice had made him a qualified king.