Chapter Summaries

Chen Stormstout was driven to the brink of madness after Thrall and Vol'jin convinced him he had betrayed his people, then Thrall used Nomi's grudge against him to threaten his wife and children. Nomi proposed roasting them alive, leaving Chen begging for their lives as the Orcs prepared to carry out the revenge.

• Thrall and Vol'jin broke Chen Stormstout's mind by making him believe he had caused the deaths of his people and the ancient divine turtles.
• After spending a night in a nightmare-filled cell, Chen Stormstout was taken to Thrall's tent and found Nomi waiting there.
• Nomi confronted Chen Stormstout over his past attempt to take Nomi's wife and revealed that Chen had recently sent Nomi's family to the Echo Isles, where Sen'jin killed them.
• Thrall brought in Chen Stormstout's wife and three children, explaining that he had lured them there by imitating Chen's handwriting.
• Chen Stormstout begged Thrall to spare his family, while Nomi refused to use a knife and proposed sealing them in a jar and roasting them slowly.

Nomi overturned Vol'jin and Thrall’s plan to break Chen Stormstout by using his strange powers to kill and eat the Orcs in the golden tent. He rescued Chen Stormstout’s innocent family and left the Pandaren with a glimmer of hope.

• Nomi sealed Chen Stormstout’s wife and children in a clay jar over a fire while Vol'jin and Thrall tried to make Chen submit by feeding him Tauren meat.
• Nomi discovered the jar’s contents had burned to charcoal, and Thrall ordered the guards to seize him, but Nomi defeated them and turned into two identical copies after Saurfang the Great struck him.
• Nomi and his copies killed Saurfang the Great and fought off the Orcs, then skewered and roasted Thrall and hundreds of Orcs before leaving through a Portal.
• Chen Stormstout watched the Legion technicians recover Thrall and Saurfang the Great’s remains for repair and began to hope the Pandaren might still be saved.
• Nomi returned to his villa, where his wife confirmed that Chen Stormstout’s family was safe, and explained that those who kill will be killed and those who eat people will be eaten.

Nomi told his wife how the Burning Legion planned to use Orcs as food and explained that Draenor’s native Orcs would soon be brought to Argus. In Dalaran, he revealed to Archimonde that the Scourge created vast armies by splitting tiny, damaged souls into many parts.

• Nomi told his wife that the Legion had chosen Orcs as food because they could absorb Fel and had enough meat, and said Draenor’s native Orcs would soon be brought to Argus.
• Nomi’s wife asked when the Orcs would become food, and Nomi said the current Orcs were failures who would soon be wiped out.
• Nomi said Archimonde had asked for help with the Scourge and went to Dalaran after lunch.
• Archimonde showed Nomi Scourge prisoners whose bodies fought despite appearing to have no souls.
• Nomi examined a Ghoul and explained that the Scourge used the Soul-Splitting Technique to divide a tiny remnant of a soul into a thousand soldiers.

Archimonde accepted Nomi’s suggestion to seek power at Nordrassil and planned to use the Orcs as cover, while Nomi warned him that Wrath of Nordrassil could kill him. Robbie then arrived in Rag City and discovered the Troggs had built a thriving, heavily defended civilization with an army using volley-fire tactics.

• Nomi told Archimonde that Nordrassil might hold a way to make him stronger and advised him to use the Orcs as cover from the Scourge.
• Archimonde said he would avoid confronting Wrath of Nordrassil directly and hinted that the Legion would rely on schemes to overcome it.
• Nomi worried that Archimonde was prepared to die as the Legion struggled to adapt to changing technology and repeated setbacks.
• Robbie entered the Scarlet Lands and found the prosperous Trogg city of Rag City, which he learned had supplied much of Orgrimmar’s building materials.
• Robbie inspected Emperor Lagrange’s defenses and army, then was astonished to see Trogg soldiers training with volley-fire tactics.

Robbie discovered that Emperor Lagrange had been replaced by Experiment 335, who had armed and trained the Troggs to resist the Orcs. After a failed Orc landing, Saurfang led a new assault on Rag City and faced a small Trogg force advancing toward his troops.

• Robbie learned that Emperor Lagrange had recovered from a grave illness five years earlier, opened Rag City's vault, and built a fifty-thousand-Trogg army with artillery and Centaur cavalry.
• Robbie concluded that Experiment 335 had taken over Lagrange, while the emperor sought allies and grew angry at those who refused to help the Troggs resist the Orcs.
• Eitrigg led ten thousand Orcs and Grom Hellscream toward Rag City aboard Zhen Yuanzi, but the Troggs' cannon barrage frightened the divine turtle into retreating and scattered the Orcs into the sea.
• Thrall executed Zhen Yuanzi, and Chen Stormstout began to doubt that the Orcs were invincible.
• Saurfang led thirty thousand Orcs in a second attack, sending ten thousand toward the beach as a decoy while the rest prepared to flank Rag City.
• Saurfang found only three thousand Troggs and about a thousand Centaurs facing his beach force, then ordered his Orcs to attack as the Troggs advanced in formation.

Experiment 335’s Troggs repelled the Orc assault with disciplined musket volleys, inflicting heavy losses before Saurfang retreated. Afterward, the Ashvanes offered an alliance with Kul Tiras and a way to make Rag City an Anti-Magic City, which Experiment 335 accepted.

• Experiment 335’s Troggs used three-rank volley fire to kill more than three thousand Orcs, while Saurfang’s forces suffered over five thousand dead before retreating.
• Robbie decided to support the Troggs after seeing their tactics delay the Burning Legion’s advance.
• Lord and Lady Ashvane arrived in Rag City and offered an alliance on behalf of Marshal Daelin.
• Lady Ashvane warned that mages could teleport Orcs into Rag City and offered to seal away elemental power to make it an Anti-Magic City.
• Experiment 335 asked what Lady Ashvane would do if Jaina returned to Kul Tiras, and accepted the alliance after she promised to execute her for treason if she aided the Orcs.

Thrall manipulated Saurfang into requesting another chance to fight the Troggs, then sent Eitrigg to enlist Jaina’s help. Jaina agreed to aid the Orcs only if they sent Theramore five Ancient Divine Turtles, leaving Eitrigg shocked by her demand.

• Thrall berated Saurfang for losing to the Troggs, then offered him another chance to defeat them.
• Vol'jin proposed teleporting Orc warriors into the Troggs’ formation, and Thrall sent Eitrigg to Theramore to ask Jaina for help.
• Jaina struggled under Aegwynn’s interference, including a failed attempt to seize Alcaz Island from the Naga.
• Aegwynn advised Jaina to help the Orcs in exchange for five Ancient Divine Turtles.
• Jaina demanded the five turtles from Eitrigg, warning that failure to take Rag City could cost the Orcs their lives.

Jaina learned that Rag City was protected by an Anti-Magic Array, leaving Thrall’s Orc army unable to attack. Varimathras proposed rallying the Night Elves and other Kalimdor races against the Troggs, and identified Doras as the key person to persuade Tyrande.

• Jaina demanded five ancient divine turtles from Eitrigg, while Aegwynn warned her not to go to Rag City because the Troggs had created an Anti-Magic Array.
• Eitrigg told Thrall that Rag City’s defenses had stopped magic, and Thrall rejected Vol’jin’s suggestion that the Orcs negotiate or form an alliance with the Troggs.
• Varimathras advised Thrall to seek an alliance with the Night Elves and other Kalimdor races, arguing that the Troggs threatened the Night Elves’ position as Azeroth’s overlords.
• Thrall and Vol’jin realized that Tyrande and Malfurion might support them to eliminate the Trogg threat, but Varimathras said neither Orc leader was suited to persuade Tyrande.
• Varimathras named Doras, Kalimdor’s queen of commerce and wealthiest woman, as the neutral figure who could win Tyrande’s support, and told Thrall to win her over at any cost.

Thrall admired Doras’s ruthless business empire and arranged to meet the reclusive Wyvern Queen at the Ghost Coast, hoping to court her. He boarded her airship alone with a gift, while Eitrigg waited outside, unaware that the meeting would become a farce.

• Doras built her fortune by cruelly taming Wyverns, monopolizing Kalimdor’s air transport, and driving the Night Elves out of most of the market.
• Doras used Kodo taming, Tauren social pressure, and usurious loans to gain control of Mulgore, leaving Cairne Bloodhoof and nearly all Tauren in debt.
• Thrall asked what Doras looked like, and Varimathras, Vol’jin, and Eitrigg encouraged him to meet her.
• Eitrigg arranged for Thrall to meet Doras at the Ghost Coast, where Thrall arrived by boat and saw her airships waiting offshore.
• Doras allowed only Thrall and Eitrigg aboard; Thrall handed over Doomhammer and his armor, then entered the cabin alone with a gift while Eitrigg waited outside.

Thrall’s attempt to meet Doras ended in humiliation, and he threatened Eitrigg to keep the disaster secret. Eitrigg saved himself by proposing that they use Agna and Garrosh Hellscream to win Doras’s favor, then set off for Nagrand.

• Eitrigg waited outside while Thrall met Doras, but Doras threw Thrall out and insulted him.
• Eitrigg carried the blanket-wrapped Thrall into the forest, where Thrall explained that Doras had more than thirty male consorts, including Tauren and Ogres.
• Thrall threatened to kill Eitrigg for witnessing the meeting, but Eitrigg urged him to preserve their relationship with Doras for the Orcs’ future in Kalimdor.
• Eitrigg persuaded Thrall to keep him alive by suggesting they use Agna’s affection for Thrall and her bond with Garrosh Hellscream to influence Doras.
• Thrall approved the plan, and Eitrigg left for Nagrand.

Garrosh Hellscream gained power through a ritual that bound a Gronn’s heart to him, then became a feared Orc warrior before joining Thrall’s army to follow Agna and learn about his father. After meeting Thrall on the journey to Azeroth, Garrosh suspected he was hiding his true nature and secretly entered Saurfang’s tent.

• An old Shaman transplanted a Gronn’s heart into Garrosh and urged him to sacrifice his clansmen; Garrosh slaughtered nearly everyone in his village.
• Garrosh became feared and worshipped in Nagrand, then grew jealous when Agna fell in love with Thrall after Thrall rescued her.
• When Eitrigg invited Nagrand’s Orcs to join Thrall’s army, Agna signed up and Garrosh followed, learning that his father served under Thrall.
• Garrosh met Thrall aboard the island-sized divine turtle and pretended to be impressed by his humble lifestyle, while suspecting that Thrall secretly ate meat.
• Garrosh concluded that Thrall and Saurfang were rivals, slipped past his guards, and entered Saurfang’s tent.

Garrosh met Saurfang, who showed him his father Grom Hellscream’s humiliating captivity and warned him about Thrall’s power. Saurfang revealed Thrall’s scheme to use Garrosh to win over Doras, leaving Garrosh to consider the political plot surrounding him.

• Garrosh met Saurfang, who questioned his view of Thrall and urged him to seek the truth and control his hatred.
• Saurfang took Garrosh to a guarded tent, where Garrosh saw Grom Hellscream chained, wounded, and abused by Thrall’s followers.
• Garrosh vowed revenge, but Saurfang warned that Thrall had immense power and support from the Burning Legion, Medivh, and the Dragonkin.
• Saurfang told Garrosh that Thrall had arranged Agna’s kidnapping and rescue to draw Garrosh into a scheme.
• Saurfang showed Garrosh a photograph of Doras and explained that Thrall wanted Garrosh to court her so the Orcs could gain her support.

Garrosh secretly allied with Saurfang to undermine Thrall while pretending to admire and learn from him. Thrall’s attempt to recruit Garrosh to court Doras failed, leaving their competing plans in motion.

• Garrosh agreed to work with Saurfang against Thrall and planned to kill Doras, while Saurfang helped him develop a counterstrategy.
• Thrall showed Garrosh the Orc camp and taught him military skills, and Garrosh quickly impressed those around him with his talent.
• Thrall asked Garrosh to meet Doras and win her favor as an intermediary for the Orcs.
• Garrosh refused, claiming he already loved someone, and left without looking back.
• Vol'jin reassured Thrall that Garrosh's refusal was a normal reaction and urged him to be patient.

Garrosh agreed to Thrall and Vol'jin's plan after watching Orc soldiers die in a failed assault on the Troggs, while secretly plotting against Thrall. He prepared for a meeting with Doras, intending to assassinate her and make Thrall take the blame.

• Garrosh rejected the commanders' attempts to change his mind, and Vol'jin decided to exploit his concern for ordinary soldiers.
• Thrall sent trusted guards to Rag City, where Garrosh watched the Troggs kill more than three thousand Orcs during a failed landing.
• Garrosh demanded that the soldiers retreat, then agreed to unite Kalimdor's peoples after Thrall and Vol'jin pressed him to save Azeroth.
• Eitrigg arranged a meeting between Garrosh and Doras at the Ghost Coast, and Doras accepted.
• Garrosh hid a dagger and a teleportation scroll in a secret compartment in a stolen painting, planning to kill Doras and implicate Thrall.

Garrosh traveled to the Ghost Coast to assassinate Queen Doras and frame Thrall, but after killing a lookalike and her consorts, he encountered the real Doras. Doras offered to support him in overthrowing Thrall and rescuing his father, and Garrosh asked what she wanted in return.

• Eitrigg advised Garrosh to win Doras over with cunning, while Garrosh secretly planned to kill her and escape Thrall's pursuit.
• Garrosh entered Doras's cabin carrying a scroll concealing a dagger and found a massive female Orc surrounded by male consorts.
• Garrosh killed the female Orc and more than thirty consorts, then wrote a message blaming Thrall and cut off the female Orc's head.
• The real Queen Doras confronted Garrosh and criticized his attempt to frame Thrall.
• Doras offered her wealth and wisdom to help Garrosh depose Thrall and rescue his father, and Garrosh asked what the price would be.

Garrosh and Doras negotiated an alliance in which she would fund his rise to Warchief and he would protect her, while secretly building his strength to eventually overthrow Thrall. Garrosh left the cabin the next morning, exhausted but confident that their mission had succeeded.

• Doras offered Garrosh her wealth and support in exchange for his protection as Warchief, and Garrosh asked to hear her plan before agreeing.
• Doras advised Garrosh to hide his ambition, build his strength, and wait for the Orcs to tire of Thrall's leadership.
• Garrosh argued that Orcs needed war and slaughter to survive, and Doras proposed that he create a force of iron Orcs.
• Doras told Garrosh to learn from Thrall, keep him entangled in conflict, and sever his connection to Medivh; Garrosh named Jaina as the key.
• Garrosh and Doras negotiated through the night while Eitrigg waited anxiously outside.
• Garrosh emerged exhausted the next morning and told Eitrigg that the mission had succeeded.

Thrall sent Vol'jin to help Doras recruit the Night Elves, but Doras and Garrosh forced him to swear loyalty and support Garrosh's bid to become Warchief. Doras arranged a meeting with Tyrande by funding repairs to the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus.

• Eitrigg sent Garrosh to stay with Doras, and Thrall accepted that his mission had succeeded before dispatching Vol'jin as an envoy.
• Vol'jin boarded Doras's airship and realized Garrosh had become an equal partner to Doras, leaving him afraid for his safety.
• Doras threatened to have Bwonsamdi reclaim Vol'jin's life, and Vol'jin swore to protect Garrosh and help him become Warchief.
• Vol'jin claimed he could persuade the Night Elves to join the campaign against the Troggs, while Doras proposed using money to secure a meeting with Tyrande.
• Doras funded repairs to the Temple of the Moon and sent craftsmen and materials to Darnassus, obliging Tyrande to meet her.

Robbie observed Doras, Garrosh, and Vol'jin in Darnassus while considering the erased history of Rag City and the Troggs. At Tyrande's meeting with the Orc delegation, she provoked Garrosh and Vol'jin, who warned her that a great calamity was about to befall the Night Elves.

• Robbie followed Doras, Garrosh, and Vol'jin into Darnassus and secretly watched their movements.
• Robbie wondered why the history of Rag City and the Troggs had vanished, suspecting Elune might have erased it.
• Tyrande received Doras, Garrosh, and Vol'jin in a bare conference hall and offered them only a little cake and water.
• Tyrande baited Garrosh with questions about Orc honor and Grom Hellscream, leaving him unable to answer without seeming disloyal or unfilial.
• Tyrande taunted Vol'jin about the Darkspear Tribe's losses and his service to Thrall, and Vol'jin warned her that a great calamity threatened the Night Elves.

Vol'jin, Garrosh, and Doras failed to persuade Tyrande to oppose the Troggs, so Vol'jin asked Doras to gather information about Tyrande and Malfurion. Meanwhile, Elune awakened her divine messenger and sent him to convince Tyrande to attack the Troggs, revealing that the Troggs’ rise threatened the course of history and Nordrassil.

• Tyrande rejected Vol'jin and Garrosh's warnings, insisting that the Night Elves could defeat the Troggs and that Elune protected them.
• Doras blamed Vol'jin for their failure, but agreed to help after Garrosh persuaded her to give him another chance; Vol'jin asked her to gather every detail about Tyrande and Malfurion.
• Elune awakened a human man in an ancient tomb and ordered him to go to Darnassus and persuade Tyrande to send troops against the Troggs.
• Elune explained that the Troggs’ unexpected rise had disrupted history, and that without the Orcs’ landing the Burning Legion might withdraw, leaving the Scourge free to threaten Nordrassil.
• The divine messenger recognized the danger and asked Elune for greater authority to carry out his mission.

Elune ordered her divine envoy to go to Darnassus and persuade Tyrande that the Night Elves faced a crisis. The envoy arrived amid Vol'jin and Doras's plot to corrupt Tyrande, defeated Garrosh, and made Vol'jin and Doras swear to obey him.

• Elune commanded her divine envoy to seek Tyrande's help in Darnassus and arrange cooperation with the Guardian of the World Tree.
• The divine envoy disguised himself as an Orc modeled after Gul'dan and traveled to Darnassus.
• Doras delivered information about Malfurion and Tyrande to Vol'jin and Garrosh, who found no faults in the couple's simple lives.
• Vol'jin proposed corrupting Tyrande with luxuries, beginning with ivory chopsticks, while Doras wondered whether Tyrande would accept them.
• The divine envoy interrupted their plotting, defeated Garrosh with supernatural power, and revealed that he served Elune.
• Vol'jin and Doras accepted the envoy's identity and pledged to serve him.