Chapter Summaries

Velen manipulated Blackmoore into raising the infant Thrall as a harsh, powerful leader, while Kel'Thuzad exposed the danger of Thrall’s prophesied future. Cornered by the claim that every choice would make Thrall kill him, Blackmoore seized the baby and slammed him onto the ground.

• Velen told Blackmoore to name the infant Thrall and raise him through hardship, gladiatorial combat, military training, and cruelty.
• Tamis warned Blackmoore against creating an enemy, and Blackmoore questioned what he would gain by raising Thrall cruelly.
• Kel'Thuzad disguised himself as a woodcutter and challenged Velen’s claim that Thrall would be grateful and harmless.
• Kel'Thuzad told Blackmoore that Thrall would kill him and that Thrall’s rise would destroy Lordaeron, Silvermoon City, and Dalaran.
• Velen and Kel'Thuzad insisted that every way Blackmoore raised Thrall would lead to his death, until Blackmoore took the infant and slammed him onto the ground.

After Velen accidentally caused the infant Thrall’s death, Anachronos concluded that Blackmoore would inherit Thrall’s destiny, and the group planned to undermine him in secret. Years later, Blackmoore served at Durnholde, where an Orc recognized him as Warchief before Blackmoore killed him.

• Velen confronted Blackmoore over Thrall’s death, while Kel'Thuzad encouraged Blackmoore to see that he could grow stronger and challenge King Terenas’s rule.
• Rend blamed Velen for Thrall’s death, but Anachronos explained that Blackmoore would inherit Thrall’s destiny and proposed sabotaging his growth in secret.
• By the eleventh year of the Dark Portal, Durnholde held thirty-eight thousand Orcs, and Lieutenant Blackmoore returned there after patrolling.
• An unusually strong Orc broke free of his shackles and charged at Blackmoore, who dodged and killed him with his sword.
• Tamis told Blackmoore that the Orc had shouted, “Warchief, run! I'll cover you,” but Blackmoore denied being the Orcs’ Warchief.

Blackmoore witnessed the Peace Dove execute General Sandru’s family and began considering overthrowing King Terenas, while Drek'Thar received a terrifying omen pointing toward Blackmoore’s territory. The chapter left Drek'Thar’s Frostwolf Clan facing an unexplained threat in the Hillsbrad Foothills.

• Anachronos concluded that Thrall’s fate had shifted onto Blackmoore, and Rend learned that Drek'Thar was hiding with the Frostwolf Clan in the Alterac Mountains.
• Blackmoore learned that the Peace Dove had accused General Sandru of abusing Orcs and that King Terenas had ordered Sandru’s family executed.
• A Peace Dove noble announced Sandru’s sentence, and Blackmoore heard that officers would draw lots to choose the internment camp’s next leader.
• Blackmoore considered overthrowing King Terenas and killing the Orcs, but thought they first needed to defeat Guardian Medivh.
• Drek'Thar saw omens of his clan’s slaughter and learned from his ancestors that the danger pointed toward Blackmoore’s territory in the Hillsbrad Foothills.

Drek'Thar tricked Bront into inheriting his Elemental Power and taking his place, believing his own death was unavoidable. After Bront offered to heal him, Drek'Thar stood at the cliff's edge and prompted him to speak.

• Drek'Thar saw a premonition of his death and decided to pass his abilities and identity to Bront.
• Drek'Thar told Bront that his Elemental Barrier could be broken and that Bront would inherit his Elemental Power.
• Drek'Thar used a circle of four Magic Crystals to transfer his power, restoring Bront's youth.
• Bront offered to heal Drek'Thar's hidden injuries and make him young again.
• Drek'Thar hesitated, reminded himself he had to die, and asked Bront what he wanted to say.

Bront revealed that he had understood Drek'Thar's schemes but remained loyal, then saved his master from a staged death and took on his appearance. When enemies attacked the Frostwolf Clan, Bront defeated their ground fighters and healed the wounded, while Velen and Anachronos realized that something was wrong; a cold gleam flashed behind Bront.

• Bront admitted that he had known Drek'Thar gave him a fake manual and had expected him to push his master off the cliff, but he refused to betray him.
• Drek'Thar told Bront to take his name and appearance, then jumped from the cliff, but Bront pulled him back and offered to heal his hidden injuries.
• An enemy force attacked the Frostwolf Clan, and Bront and Drek'Thar burrowed to the settlement to fight.
• Bront trapped Thrall and Rend with elemental magic, while Velen and Anachronos fled into the air after realizing they could not defeat him.
• Bront healed the wounded Frostwolf Clan members with water magic, and Velen and Anachronos wondered why this world's Drek'Thar was so powerful.
• A cold gleam flashed behind Bront.

Bront killed Drek'Thar while disguised as him, and Robbie and Kel'Thuzad later used Soul Summoning to turn Bront into a resentful spirit. The surviving Drek'Thar was captured by Blackmoore, whose unusual insight left Tamis wondering what had changed.

• Bront let Drek'Thar stab him, then died after Drek'Thar twisted the sword in his heart.
• Drek'Thar escaped underwater, while Anachronos, Velen, and Rend decided to go to Lordaeron and urge King Terenas to kill Blackmoore.
• The four burned the Frostwolf Clan settlement to conceal their identities, and Robbie and Kel'Thuzad emerged afterward.
• Kel'Thuzad gathered the recently slain Frostwolf Clan members' souls and concentrated their resentment in Bront's soul.
• Blackmoore found the wounded Drek'Thar, dragged him behind Blanchy, and ordered him placed in the stables with an anti-magic collar.
• Blackmoore explained his harsh method for winning orc loyalty, and Tamis wondered why his lord had suddenly become so wise.

Drek'Thar wrote down his Elemental Magic while imprisoned, and Blackmoore discussed combining Shaman and Mage magic with a Black-Robed Man who revealed he was Undead. At breakfast, King Terenas learned that eggs had become scarce and that soldiers had killed Orcs who attacked the capital, then ordered the soldiers executed.

• Drek'Thar woke from his coma, was forced to write down the Elemental Magic he knew, and received rotten leftovers in the stable.
• The Black-Robed Man judged Drek'Thar's notes complete and explained to Blackmoore how Shaman magic differed from Mage magic.
• The Black-Robed Man proposed combining Shaman and Mage magic, and revealed he was an Undead creature when Blackmoore suggested they become sworn brothers.
• King Terenas learned that eggs cost fifty gold coins each because the Order of the Silver Hand had taken Lordaeron's chickens to feed the Orcs.
• The palace steward told King Terenas that Orcs from the Brill Internment Camp had attacked the capital and soldiers had killed them.
• King Terenas ordered the soldiers executed, but the palace steward pleaded that they had been protecting Lordaeron.

Velen, Anachronos, Thrall, and Rend sought Uther’s help in meeting King Terenas, but Uther tried to extort them and then ordered his guards to attack. Velen stripped Uther and the Paladins of the Holy Light, and Anachronos exposed and beat Uther, leaving him begging for mercy.

• Velen, Anachronos, Thrall, and Rend traveled toward Lordaeron and discussed its suffering and the courage of the Orcs.
• The four bribed Uther with a golden Dark Troll mask to secure his help in meeting King Terenas.
• Uther demanded that they prove their sincerity by giving up everything they owned, and Anachronos offered him a letter detailing his crimes instead.
• Uther burned the letter and ordered his Paladins to kill the four, calling them demons sent by the Burning Legion.
• Velen forbade the use of the Holy Light, causing Uther and the Paladins to collapse as vengeful spirits surrounded Uther.
• Anachronos beat Uther and revealed that his boasts about defeating the Void Lords and facing Sargeras referred to nicknames he had given two noblewomen.

Anachronos and his companions persuaded King Terenas to punish Aedelas Blackmoore for killing Frostwolf Orcs, while Uther used the court’s response to replenish his personal stash. Thrall then proposed feeding Lordaeron’s starving people to the Orcs, and Terenas agreed, offering his own children as the first victims.

• Uther revealed his hidden treasury in Andorhal to Anachronos, who then helped the group gain an audience with King Terenas.
• Anachronos accused Aedelas Blackmoore of slaughtering Frostwolf Orcs, and Terenas ordered three hundred Silver Hand Paladins to kill Blackmoore and his subjects.
• Uther claimed the Paladins’ horses were too weak to travel, prompting Terenas to pressure the lords into funding the Order of the Silver Hand; Uther diverted the collected gold into his personal stash.
• Terenas lamented that Lordaeron could not feed the Orcs in its internment camps, and Thrall suggested feeding them starving people instead.
• After silencing objections, Terenas approved Thrall’s proposal and said he would feed his son and daughter to the Orcs.

Uther and King Terenas announced that Princess Calia and Prince Arthas would be fed to the Orcs, but the platform collapsed before the children could be lowered. Uther and Terenas fell among the Orcs, who attacked them as the king and the Lightbringer begged for help.

• Uther addressed the gathered lords and ministers, praising the Orcs and presenting Calia and Arthas as food for them.
• King Terenas declared that his love for Calia and Arthas was why he had chosen to give them to the Orcs.
• Guards blindfolded Calia and Arthas and placed them in a basket as Thrall gloated and Rend mocked him.
• Robbie pointed out the boards beneath Uther and Terenas just before the platform broke and both men fell among the Orcs.
• Uther found that his Holy Light had vanished and his armor trapped him, while Terenas's shield held off the Orcs as he screamed for the guards.

King Terenas and Uther were trapped among Orcs while Lordaeron’s guards hesitated to rescue them without harming any Orcs. Both men were finally pulled free after Terenas pardoned the guards, but the Princess and Prince disappeared before the planned ceremony.

• Lordaeron’s guards argued over rescuing King Terenas and Uther because they feared punishment for injuring the Orcs.
• The guards’ first rope rescue failed when an Orc grabbed Terenas’s legs, and Uther was badly mauled while the Silver Hand hesitated to intervene.
• Amnennar proposed seeking Medivh’s help, but Uther ordered the Silver Hand to charge into the enclosure and was refused by a young knight.
• Terenas activated his magical mechanism and ordered the guards to pull him up, then pardoned them when the Orcs broke his shield and attacked his legs.
• Amnennar paralyzed the Orcs with lightning as the guards rescued Terenas; priests treated him, and Uther was rescued after losing all four limbs.
• Terenas insisted that the ceremony continue, but the guards discovered that the Princess and Prince had disappeared.

King Terenas and Uther returned to Lordaeron with severe injuries that the Priests could not heal, while the court struggled to explain the missing princess and Prince. After a stolen shipment and a debate over Uther’s replacement, Terenas appointed Tirion Fordring to lead the Order of the Silver Hand.

• King Terenas received Ghoul legs and Uther was sent to Ironforge for mechanical limbs after the Holy Light failed to heal them.
• Terenas demanded an investigation into his missing children, but his ministers steered suspicion toward Orgrim Doomhammer and persuaded him to drop the matter.
• A Silver Hand officer reported that three hundred Paladins surrendered to refugees because an Orc was among them, and Terenas rewarded him with a promotion.
• Terenas asked the ministers to choose a temporary leader for the Silver Hand after Uther was sent to recover.
• A lord praised Tirion Fordring as a righteous warrior favored by the Holy Light, and Terenas appointed him leader of the Order of the Silver Hand.

Tirion Fordring secured Terenas’s support to lead the Order of the Silver Hand by exploiting the King’s fears about the Orcs and revealing his own treachery. Meanwhile, Blackmoore mastered a powerful new form of magic and named it the Call of All Spirits.

• Tirion Fordring met privately with Terenas, who tasked him with rescuing the prince and princess and implied that he could succeed Uther.
• Tirion Fordring challenged Terenas’s policy toward the Orcs, accused him of endangering humanity, and claimed he had secretly helped the Orcs during the war.
• Tirion Fordring threatened to use his ties to the Orcs to secure his own survival and promised to lead the Order of the Silver Hand better than Uther.
• Blackmoore combined elemental power with Dalaran mage techniques and unleashed sixteen spells that melted a rocky hill.
• Blackmoore named his new magic the Call of All Spirits.

The Black-Robed Man explained how Blackmoore could use Orcs to undermine Terenas, while Blackmoore seized control of Durnholde and began slaughtering its prisoners. The chapter ended with Terenas ordering Tirion Fordring to march against Blackmoore within a week, despite the empty treasury.

• The Black-Robed Man told Blackmoore to use the Orcs to make Terenas appear to be the villain, keeping three thousand Orcs and turning them into undead soldiers.
• Blackmoore became Durnholde's jailer after the previous commander and his family disappeared, then raided the Peace Dove's camp and fed its members to the Orcs.
• Blackmoore used the Undead Elixir to transform three thousand Orcs into monsters and began driving other Orcs into a tent from which none emerged.
• Anachronos warned Terenas that Blackmoore had slaughtered thirty thousand Orcs, and Terenas ordered Tirion Fordring to prepare the Silver Hand to attack.
• Tirion said he needed a month, or half a month with enough money, but Terenas demanded action within a week and an aged minister warned that the treasury was empty.

Terenas ordered the royal tombs looted to fund the war, while Anachronos traced a temporal rift connected to Thrall’s altered history. Orgrim’s starving band was surrounded by an unfamiliar Orc force.

• Terenas rejected a request for three months to raise money and ordered the royal tombs looted for their burial goods.
• Anachronos argued that Aedelas Blackmoore had foreseen the Horde’s future, and Thrall admitted that his fabricated story only needed to be believed.
• Anachronos traced Thrall’s displacement from the first to the eleventh year of the Dark Portal to a time rift in a white boulder, though he found no Infinite Dragonflight aura.
• Orgrim recalled how famine had forced his band to kill humans and eat Orcs who failed their trials, and realized the humans had used him to thin the Internment Camp population.
• A scout warned Orgrim that an unfamiliar Orc force had surrounded his camp.

Aedelas Blackmoore overwhelmed Orgrim Doomhammer's camp with Elemental Magic and enslaved him with a potion. Years later, Grom Hellscream's Warsong Clan survived in the Wilderness by secretly capturing Peace Dove recruits, leaving the recruits facing Grom himself.

• Aedelas Blackmoore destroyed Orgrim Doomhammer's camp and forced a potion down Orgrim's throat, reducing him to a loyal slave.
• Baron Rivendare drove Grom Hellscream's Warsong Clan deeper into the Wilderness but could not discover how they kept obtaining supplies.
• Grom Hellscream led trusted followers into a misty valley, where Orcs had captured people and set aside supplies for him.
• A group of Peace Dove recruits appeared in the valley, and their Dwarf guide falsely assured them that Orcs were merciful and kind.
• The Orcs incapacitated the recruits and dragged them toward their butchering tools, while Grom Hellscream revealed himself to be the chieftain the recruits admired.

Blackmoore and the Black-Robed Man subdued Grommash Hellscream and abandoned the Peace Dove newcomers, while Blackmoore’s campaign against the Orcs expanded. Tirion Fordring agreed to send troops only if King Terenas offered Sylvanas a marriage proposal with Stratholme as the bride price.

• Grommash Hellscream attacked the Peace Dove newcomers until Blackmoore arrived with the Black-Robed Man and the Elixir Orcs.
• The Black-Robed Man revealed the slaughtered Warsong Clan, and Grommash Hellscream surrendered before being given the elixir and made obedient.
• Blackmoore offered the newcomers freedom if they ate Orc meat, but left them in the wilderness when they refused.
• King Terenas confronted Tirion Fordring over delaying the army’s deployment as Blackmoore’s attacks spread toward Silverpine Forest.
• Tirion Fordring demanded that Terenas arrange his marriage to Sylvanas in exchange for sending troops, then named Stratholme as the bride price.

Tirion Fordring forced Terenas to seek Sylvanas's hand in marriage and launched a huge campaign against Blackmoore. After killing refugees and reporting an inflated victory, Tirion encountered seven lost Orc children, whose presence revived his fear of Orcs.

• Tirion Fordring pressured Terenas into offering Sylvanas a betrothal, and Sylvanas agreed to marry him if he defeated Blackmoore.
• Tirion Fordring assembled an army claiming five hundred thousand and marched toward Hillsbrad Foothills, alarming Genn Greymane.
• Tirion Fordring's force killed thirty-five starving refugees, while its report falsely claimed five million rebels had been slain.
• Seven Orc children wandered onto the army's road, and Tirion Fordring went to investigate after his men reported them.
• Tirion Fordring saw the frightened children and remembered the battle in which Orcs had terrified him.

Tirion Fordring’s terror at seven Orc children caused the Silver Hand and a vast army to flee, while King Terenas concealed the disgrace by inventing a heroic history. Blackmoore misread the abandoned supplies as a clever trap, and Tirion Fordring was left short of food before agreeing to meet four Stormwind merchants.

• Tirion Fordring mistook seven Orc children for monstrous heroes, fled with the Silver Hand, and triggered the rout of an army of over a hundred thousand.
• Tirion Fordring told Terenas that the New Seven Heroes of Draenor had defeated him, and Terenas ordered court historians to preserve the story to protect Lordaeron’s reputation.
• Blackmoore and the Black-Robed Man found the abandoned supplies, mistook them for a stratagem, and withdrew to the Hillsbrad Foothills.
• Tirion Fordring regrouped at Brill, discovered more than thirty thousand casualties and dwindling provisions, and asked Terenas for funds.
• Tirion Fordring agreed to meet four Stormwind merchants who claimed they could solve his army’s supply shortage.

Anachronos offered Tirion Fordring a vial of Plague that could create an undead army, and Tirion chose to test it. Believing Sylvanas wanted to marry him, he traveled to Lordaeron, where she and Uther ambushed him, but Velen and Anachronos helped him escape toward an unknown destination.

• Anachronos offered Tirion Fordring a vial of Plague and claimed it could turn his soldiers into powerful, loyal undead who needed no food.
• Thrall warned Tirion Fordring that Blackmoore was moving against the Silverpine Forest Internment Camp, and Tirion decided to experiment with the vial.
• Sylvanas sent Tirion Fordring a letter saying she had come to Lordaeron to marry him, and he hurried there with trusted followers.
• Uther, Sylvanas, and their soldiers trapped Tirion Fordring at Lordaeron's gates, and Sylvanas wounded him with a poisoned arrow.
• Velen shielded Tirion Fordring from Sylvanas's archers while Anachronos opened a spatial passage, allowing Tirion to escape; Uther ordered the others to search Brill.