As time passed, the Kalimdor Continent flourished under the dominant rule of the Night Elves. War seemed to have left this world forever.
In foreign affairs, the Night Elves were the absolute central power, carrying themselves with the superiority of a nation receiving tribute from all lands.
The Tauren living in Highmountain were peaceful by nature and honest, simple folk. The Night Elf Empire established good diplomatic relations with them. Faced with a race that always grinned foolishly before enthusiastically dragging guests around to tour their cities, the elves truly could not muster much hostility.
Oh, the Tauren had built a fortress-city of their own in Highmountain: Thunder Totem Highlands.
Though the city's style was rough, it exuded a natural, rustic charm everywhere.
The wise among the Tauren were called Shamans. They drew upon the power of the earth and the elements, bringing gentle healing and ancestral guidance to their people.
The Tauren worshipped the generous earth. Deep in the distant mountains of Highmountain lay the lair of the Earth-Warder, Neltharion, the Black Dragon Aspect. Thus, black dragons could often be seen howling through the skies over Highmountain.
At first, the Night Elves had been quite curious about how Shamans wielded energy, but they soon lost all interest.
The reason was simple: elves could never worship the earth and the elements with the same sincerity and devotion as a Shaman.
Their only gods were Elune and Sarodar, the God of Magic. The Night Elves utterly disdained all other beings, so Shamans would never appear among the elves.
"We seek to control power, not worship it, borrow it, or pray for it."
Highborne mages always kept those words on their lips when teaching young apprentices.
The Earthlings also maintained peaceful relations with the Night Elves.
Oh, strictly speaking, the Earthlings had not yet formed a unified government or nation. These short yet immensely strong creatures, whose bodies were entirely made of steel, lived a primitive settlement-based existence on the Kalimdor Continent.
It was said that they had escaped from a Titan facility called Uldaman. The Earthlings remained utterly silent on the matter, and no answers could be pried from them. Since they were not particularly interested in interacting with the outside world either, everyone simply left them alone.
The last race living peacefully alongside them was the Pandaren. Boss Hu, who peered into the World of Azeroth from a god's-eye view, felt an affinity for this race because he sensed a strong Eastern flavor from them.
The Mogu Empire that ruled Pandaria had finally collapsed. Its long years of warlord infighting and its brutal oppression and enslavement of the Pandaren, Hozen, and Jinyu all erupted violently soon after Lei Shen's death.
Pandaria, ringed by mountains.
A dark age, ancient and enduring.
Despair ran rampant, terror cast its shadow.
In the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, thunder wailed.
Heaven and earth darkened together, birthing ominous signs.
His name was Lei Shen, King of Thunder and Lightning.
Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the earth withered.
His divine power was boundless, his ways defied all reason.
Beneath the tyrant's iron fist, none could escape.
Palaces and mighty cities rose into the clouds.
The majesty of royal power drew tribute from all directions.
How pitiful the laboring slaves, shackled and chained.
The years wore on, yet even tyrants could not flee their fate.
Seas turned to fields, clouds scattered and smoke vanished.
Thunder slept in the valleys of Kun-Lai Summit.
The heavily oppressed Pandaren were the first to rise in revolt. They organized their own armies and fought desperately against the Mogu race that had enslaved them.
Over generations of slavery, the Pandaren had finally been briefly permitted to study and gain knowledge during the Cao Dynasty. Once that door opened, it could not be stopped, ultimately leading to the Pandaren awakening.
Therefore, among all the Mogu empires, the Pandaren were grateful only to the long-destroyed Cao Mogu Dynasty. After its fall, the Pandaren returned to the dark age in which learning was forbidden.
But once the gates of knowledge had opened, they would never close again.
The Pandaren grew ever wiser and sought every possible way to continue absorbing knowledge. Gradually, they also gained the support of four Wild Demigods of Pandaria.
Xuen the White Tiger, Yu'lon the Jade Serpent, Chi-Ji the Red Crane, Niuzao the Black Ox.
The four Wild Demigods taught the Pandaren to wield the flowing power of chi, and Monks began to emerge among the Pandaren.
After the Pandaren launched their full-scale uprising, their Monks inflicted enormous casualties on the Mogu armies.
At the same time, a group of Pandaren formed an alliance with the Cloud Serpents, unique creatures of Pandaria, and then created an aerial order of knights.
These Cloud Serpents, which closely resembled the dragons of ancient Eastern China, could ride clouds and mist and breathe clouds of lightning capable of inflicting widespread destruction.
The war for freedom intensified. The Jinyu and Hozen also joined the Pandaren ranks. While the Mogu Empire's main forces were locked in a bitter struggle against the Mantid on the Great Wall along the region's border, they successfully captured the core region of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and used it as a base to conquer the surrounding territories.
The Mogu Empire fell apart. The surviving Mogu fled into the remote mountains and wilderness of Pandaria, barely clinging to life and no longer capable of resistance.
The Pandaren had won. They established their own nation, and a new dynasty of freedom was born.
But the burden now fell upon their shoulders. The responsibility of guarding the Great Wall and resisting Mantid invasions belonged to the Pandaren.
The Monks voluntarily formed an organization called the Shadow-Pan and sent their finest members to garrison the Great Wall, taking over from the Mogu and continuing the fight against the Mantid in the wilderness outside the Great Wall.
For nearly a century afterward, the Pandaren Dynasty maintained good relations with the Night Elves, this enormous power from beyond their land. The Night Elves held no ill will toward this naturally tolerant and peace-loving race. In their view, replacing those crude, vicious Mogu who refused to listen to reason with a new ruler in Pandaria was not a bad thing.
By now, the emperor of the Pandaren Dynasty had passed away, and Crown Prince Shaohao had ascended the throne, becoming Pandaria's new ruler.
Emperor Shaohao was exceptionally wise, kindhearted, and personally charismatic. He had even become close friends with King of Monkeys, leader of the Hozen. Since the Pandaren Dynasty had been established, relations between the Pandaren and Hozen had always been lukewarm, with small-scale frictions and conflicts arising one after another.
Ascending the throne during such a prosperous age should have been a wonderful thing, but nine times out of ten, things in this world did not go as one wished. This time was no exception.
According to the rules established by his ancestors, every emperor had to seek the guidance of a wise elder after ascending the throne.
Thus, Shaohao went to meet an elderly Jinyu sage in The Jade Forest and seek his guidance and prophecy.
But the result exceeded everyone's expectations. The Jinyu sage's prophecy was incomparably dark and terrifying.
"Tragedy and disaster are drawing near. Dark green flames will fall from the sky, the world will descend into chaos, and the earth itself will be torn apart..."
Shaohao and his friend, King of Monkeys, fell silent upon hearing this, unable to speak for a long time.
The sage had made it very clear: the Night Elves would bring about a tremendous disaster, one that could neither be avoided nor escaped.
For Pandaria's safety and the peace of his people, Shaohao made a decision: he would set out at once to seek an audience with the August Celestials.
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