Galen Trollbane was taken aback when he saw that fewer than a thousand Dalaran Kirin Tor mages had accompanied Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver to Stromgarde.
He had originally considered all three thousand or so of the Dalaran Kirin Tor mages as good as his.
But after Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver explained the reason, Galen Trollbane understood. This was a contest of interests. On the surface, Archmages Modera and Krasus had stepped in to interfere. In reality, when Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver left the Alterac Mountains for Stromgarde, some of those three thousand Dalaran Kirin Tor mages had already secretly contacted Archmage Modera and Archmage Krasus.
"This isn't your fault, Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver. Since the Dalaran Kirin Tor Council of Six has stripped you of your title as archmage, I, Galen Trollbane, as prince of the Kingdom of Stromgarde, hereby appoint you chief archmage of the Kingdom of Stromgarde. I shall grant you the tallest mage tower in Stromgarde."
"Thank you, Prince Galen Trollbane. I would be honored to serve you," Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver said with immense gratitude. Mage towers were enormously expensive. Even though mages were wealthy, building a mage tower with their own funds was still extraordinarily difficult.
It was a pity that the other two thousand or so Dalaran Kirin Tor mages had not come, but having them all arrive would have posed a problem of its own. Galen Trollbane did not want Stromgarde to become a second Dalaran. Mages who outwardly agreed to obey Stromgarde's restrictions on human mages while secretly causing trouble would have been an even greater headache.
What Archmages Modera and Krasus had done undoubtedly cut off Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver's path back, committing him fully to the Kingdom of Stromgarde. That was worth far more than those two thousand greedy, selfish Dalaran Kirin Tor mages.
Ever since the human mages left Stromgarde to establish Dalaran, the Kingdom of Stromgarde had all but lost its magical tradition. Successive generations of the Trollbane royal family had placed little value on greedy, selfish mages either.
But Galen Trollbane understood the importance of mages. Among Azeroth's many classes, spellcasters played a tremendous role. The Kingdom of Stromgarde's classes lacked diversity; it had neither Lordaeron's tradition of holy clergy nor Dalaran's tradition of mages.
By contrast, the southern Kingdom of Stormwind had done very well in this regard. It had welcomed the Church of the Holy Light and established Northshire Abbey, then welcomed Dalaran Kirin Tor mages and established Stormwind City's Mage Quarter.
The Kingdom of Stormwind's resurgence owed a great deal to its greater openness to the strengths and legacies of other kingdoms.
The Kingdom of Stromgarde was too insular and hidebound. It rejected the Church of the Holy Light and had lost its magical tradition. It could not remain a powerful kingdom by relying solely on its formidable Stromgarde militia.
With Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver and his followers of fewer than a thousand mages joining the Kingdom of Stromgarde, the kingdom would soon be able to restore its magical tradition.
Next, Galen Trollbane would have to find ways to acquire the two powerful classes of paladin and shaman from the fallen Kingdom of Lordaeron and the orcs.
The two classes most characteristic of the Alliance and the Horde were the Alliance's paladins and the Horde's shamans. Early on, each faction had held a near monopoly on its respective powerful class. Only later, with the addition of the Blood Elf Blood Knights and Wildhammer shamans, had that situation changed.
Paladins could heal, fight, and withstand attacks, earning them a reputation as battlefield all-rounders. It was precisely because they had paladins that the Alliance had been able to withstand the ferocious assaults of the Old Horde's bloodthirsty orc warriors on the front lines.
Shamans possessed unparalleled support capabilities. Bloodlust alone could decide the outcome of a battle.
Among the human kingdoms, none had a shamanic tradition except the Kingdom of Kul Tiras, whose faith in the sea had given rise to the Tidesages, a variant of shamans.
Looking across the human kingdoms of the Eastern Kingdoms, Galen Trollbane believed that only the Kingdom of Stromgarde in the Arathi Highlands had the potential to train human shamans.
The Arathi Highlands possessed unique natural advantages. They were home to vast numbers of elementals, as well as stone giants. Beneath them was sealed Myzrael, who called herself the Daughter of the Earth.
After winning the defensive battle for the Arathi Highlands, Galen Trollbane had not taken advantage of the great victory and the Stromgarde militia's soaring morale to wipe out the orcs of Hammerfall. He did not want to make irreconcilable enemies of the orcs, hoping instead to find a way to obtain an authentic shamanic tradition from them.
The teachings of the Holy Light and shamanism differed, and Galen Trollbane had no intention of allowing a single faith to dominate. There was no benefit in that. Over time, they would end up like the Night Elves, whose religious authority had overturned traditional royal authority and caused a great regression.
Returning to the matter at hand, the mage tower Galen Trollbane had promised Archmage Ansirem Runeweaver had yet to be built. Construction had not even begun, because the master designer and architect who would oversee Stromgarde's reconstruction had not yet been chosen.
During this time, master architects, master designers, and professional teams from various races had already arrived in Stromgarde. They were all waiting now. Galen Trollbane had lodged them in Stromgarde's inn, with all expenses covered by the Trollbane royal family.
Now that numerous architects and professional teams had arrived in Stromgarde, hundreds of thousands of refugees had joined the Kingdom of Stromgarde, and the second and third shipments of building materials from Booty Bay had reached Faldir's Cove, the enormous undertaking of rebuilding Stromgarde could begin.
"Varokar, come with me to meet our architects. It's time to select a master architect to oversee the reconstruction." Galen Trollbane had his trusted Lieutenant Varokar accompany him. Lieutenant Varokar was both the cavalry captain and the captain of Galen Trollbane's royal guard.
When Galen Trollbane reached the inn where the architects were staying, he could hear fierce arguing inside before he even stepped through the door.
Stromgarde's inn had a spacious interior. The architects had roughly divided into three major camps: humans, goblins, and dwarves, each gathered around a huge table and shouting at one another.
Of course, the human and dwarven architects were clearly more united, joining forces against the goblin architects.
Their argument was so heated that none of them noticed Galen Trollbane's arrival.
Finally, Lieutenant Varokar could stand it no longer and shouted, "Prince Galen Trollbane is here in person! All of you, quiet!"
As a tier-eight warrior, Lieutenant Varokar delivered a rage-fueled roar to excellent effect. The architects' arguing ceased instantly, and every architect turned to look at Galen Trollbane.
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