Chapter Summaries

Yu Lin Bloodhawk brought Lirath Windrunner to the Hinterlands to entrust his education to Sorens, who could teach him magic and politics. On the way, Lirath peppered Yu Lin with questions and marveled at the Wildhammer Dwarves and a War God Statue.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk decided Sorens was the right person to teach Lirath Windrunner magic and politics.
• Lirath arrived in the Hinterlands and eagerly watched the Wildhammer Dwarves while Yu Lin explained the different kinds of dwarves.
• Lirath asked whether Yu Lin had visited Ironforge and Thaurissan, and Yu Lin answered evasively that he could say he had been there.
• Yu Lin brought Lirath into the Religious District, where Lirath admired a towering door-guardian statue of the War God.
• Lirath asked whether the Religious District statue and the one at the harbor depicted the same person, and Yu Lin said they did.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk brought Lirath Windrunner to the War God Temple, where Lirath learned about the War God and teased Yu Lin for lacking the War God's Will. Yu Lin asked Sorens how to keep the High Elves he had brought from Quel'Thalas in Hinterlands, but Sorens refused to help, leaving Yu Lin to defend his care for the Temple by pointing to his donations.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained the War God and the War God's Will to Lirath Windrunner, who mocked him for not having the blessing himself.
• Yu Lin threatened to hit Lirath, then took him into the War God Temple to see Sorens.
• Yu Lin asked Sorens how to make the High Elves he had secretly brought from Quel'Thalas stay in Hinterlands permanently.
• Sorens told Yu Lin to ask the Council and refused to help, while Lirath admired how Sorens put his brother-in-law in his place.
• Yu Lin asked whether the Temple would send clerics to preach to the new arrivals, and he insisted he cared about the Temple because he gave it money.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk discussed funding, recruitment, and Death Knight research with Sorens, then asked him to develop a way to obtain Death Warhorses and poison effective against undead. Sorens agreed to the poison research, while the Death Knight investigations remained at an early stage.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to direct Quel'Danil's resources toward the magical teleportation calibration point and discussed forming a temple guard with Sorens.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked Sorens to have a cleric take Lirath Windrunner away to hear stories about the War God.
• After Lirath left, Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked about the Death Knight research, and Sorens explained that the captives were uncooperative and his student was studying their use of fel and death energy.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked Sorens to prioritize research into obtaining Death Warhorses, and they haggled over funding for a training method for Living Death Knights before settling on fifty thousand gold coins.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk also asked Sorens to develop poison for undead, explaining that ranger poisons had barely affected Death Knights and their undead forces; Sorens agreed to investigate using light-aspect arcane magic power as a catalyst.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked Sorens to research how to train living death knights and find ways to counter the undead, then showed him a Dragon Soul fragment. Sorens discovered that the fragment could store enormous amounts of magic power and began studying it.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained that rangers needed effective ways to fight death knights and the undead, and Sorens agreed to work on the research.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk gave Sorens a crescent-shaped Dragon Soul fragment to examine.
• Sorens found that the unusual metal absorbed magic power and could potentially be used to craft an epic-grade item.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk discussed the limits of an Artifact Fragment with Sorens and claimed he had won it at the Booty Bay auction house. He left Lirath Windrunner in Sorens’s care until the war in Quel’Thalas ended.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned that the fragment could forge Epic-tier items after enough energy was supplied, though Sorens said it was not limited to that tier.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk concealed the Dragon Soul’s origins and told Sorens that he had won the fragment at the Booty Bay auction house.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk said he had more fragments but wanted the Wildhammer Dwarves to examine them before deciding what to do with them.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked Sorens to teach and protect Lirath Windrunner while war threatened Quel'Thalas.
• Sorens agreed to look after Lirath until the war was over.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Old Charlatan took a Dragon Soul fragment to a Wildhammer Dwarf metals expert, who found that it could improve alloys but needed more study. Yu Lin Bloodhawk then went to Christine's Bowmaking Department, where he was stopped at the entrance while waiting to be announced.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to give Old Charlatan two metal fragments if the Wildhammer Dwarves kept the one they were bringing.
• Old Charlatan instructed a cleric concerning Lirath Windrunner, then led Yu Lin Bloodhawk to an elderly Wildhammer Dwarf in Tinker Town.
• The old dwarf examined the Dragon Soul fragment and said it could greatly improve alloys, though he needed more time to study it.
• Old Charlatan asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk for another fragment, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed before leaving.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk went to Christine's Bowmaking Department and waited at the entrance for someone to announce him.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk visited Christine's growing Bowmaking Department and learned why its production focused on Rare-tier bows, while Christine explained how spider silk affected bowstring performance. Yu Lin promised to approve her materials requests so she could produce more capable bows as Quel'Thalas prepared for a possible war.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked Christine about production, and she said the first six hundred Rare-tier military longbows would take at least three months, with later batches coming faster.
• Christine explained that Uncommon-tier bows took much longer because materials besides lumber were expensive and difficult to procure.
• Christine described how Spinner Spider, Moss-Eating Spider, and Ironweb Spider silk differed and how their stretch and stiffness suited different bows.
• Yu Lin promised to approve Christine's request for spider silk and other materials, urging her to make more Rare-tier and Uncommon-tier longbows.
• Christine said the Bowmaking Department had expanded with migrants from Quel'Thalas and planned to move most workshops to elf villages in Quel'Danil Mountain Valley once its fortress was complete.

Christine planned to move the Bowmaking Department to the Seaside Plain and expand arrow production, but the Quel'Danil Council delayed funding until the Magic Teleportation Calibration Point was complete. Yu Lin Bloodhawk then visited Quel'Danil Mountain Valley to check on the relocated High Elves and found them busy tending a fruit harvest.

• Christine explained to Yu Lin Bloodhawk why he wanted to move the Bowmaking Department and build semiautomated arrowmaking equipment near the War God Armor Production Base.
• The Quel'Danil Council required Christine to prepare a complete design proposal and budget, delaying construction until the Magic Teleportation Calibration Point was finished.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed with the Council's decision and urged Christine to complete the plans while funding remained tied up in the calibration project.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ate lunch, rested, and then rode with Gryphon Rider Bodyguards to Quel'Danil Mountain Valley to check on the relocated High Elves.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk saw the High Elves propping up the heavy, fruit-laden branches of the hybrid Breadfruit Trees, while the busy workers passed without recognizing him.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk realized he had forgotten the original villagers’ request to move into Quel'Danil Mountain Valley, where the Green Dragons had already built ample treehouse villages. The Green Dragons stayed on to keep building while Quel'Danil quietly treated their completed assignment as ongoing, leaving the partnership in place.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk considered investigating the relocated High Elves and remembered that the original villagers had wanted to move into Quel'Danil Mountain Valley.
• Green Dragons used plant magic to build treehouse villages rapidly, leaving enough homes for the relocated civilians and many villages still empty.
• The Quel'Danil Council invited the Green Dragons to add treehouse buildings throughout Quel'Danil City, transforming its appearance and earning the Dragons the High Elves’ respect.
• The Green Dragons stayed in Quel'Danil after their construction work was complete, while the Council and Yu Lin Bloodhawk avoided declaring the assignment finished.
• The Green Dragons continued building villages each day and enjoyed their free time in Quel'Danil, preferring its company to lonely Seradane.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk found that Quel'Danil's City Guard was recruiting rapidly among the new High Elf arrivals. He ordered two regiments formed, including a new Quel'Danil Expeditionary Force, and heard a proposal to recruit a third unit to rotate fortress duty.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned that the Wildhammer Dwarves preferred stone homes while the High Elves settled in the Green Dragons' villages and treehouses.
• Unable to find the longtime villagers, Yu Lin Bloodhawk returned to Quel'Danil City and asked a trusted City Guard officer about recruitment.
• The officer said generous family benefits and relaxed age limits had brought many new High Elves to enlist, while the War God Temple had sent clerics but no guards to recruit.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the officer to recruit two regiments totaling twenty-four hundred men, including the Quel'Danil Expeditionary Force for campaigns away from home.
• The officer proposed recruiting three units so the City Guard could rotate between garrisoning the Valley Entrance Fortress and serving in Quel'Danil City.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk approved an initial City Guard recruitment plan and discussed village militias, equipment, and staffing with his trusted officers. Quel'Danil General Staff then urged him to expand recruitment further by forming a six-thousand-member Second-Class Standing Burning Legion, partly to keep newly arrived High Elf families settled in the Hinterlands.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk approved three City Guard units totaling eighteen hundred men and set recruitment priorities, militia quotas, and deployment arrangements for defending the Valley Entrance Fortress.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk assigned different armor to the City Guard and High Elf armed police, and arranged for replaced standard armor to equip High Elf militia and future troops.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk postponed his visit to longtime villagers and instead met with officers at the Quel'Danil Army General Staff to discuss City Guard recruitment.
• The staff officers supported expanding recruitment and proposed replacing the militia plan with a six-thousand-member Quel'Danil Second-Class Standing Burning Legion equipped with replaced weapons and armor.
• The staff proposed dividing the legion between the Seaside Plain and Quel'Danil Mountain Valley, arguing that military service could encourage newly arrived High Elf families to remain in the Hinterlands.

After his officers warned him that the Seaside Plain’s growing population and lack of visible high elf authority could lead to unrest, Yu Lin Bloodhawk resolved to strengthen the region’s garrison and administration. He concluded that the deeper cause of the Hinterlands’ crises was its shortage of permanent high elf residents, and planned to speak with the newly arrived civilians before addressing the Quel'Danil Council.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s trusted officers warned that the Seaside Plain needed a permanent high elf garrison because its human and troll population might eventually reject high elf authority.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized that the Seaside Plain’s growing importance and the lack of visible high elf power could allow unrest to threaten the Hinterlands.
• After returning to Quel'Danil City, Yu Lin Bloodhawk resolved to establish Quel'Danil's Second-Class Standing Burning Legion and strengthen administration on the Seaside Plain.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk postponed convening the Quel'Danil Council and planned to learn what the newly arrived high elf civilians wanted before seeking their support to remain.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk concluded that the Hinterlands’ chronic shortage of high elves lay behind its military and political crises.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk worried that Stormwind refugees were settling permanently in the Hinterlands, threatening his plans to send them home after the war. He recognized that fear alone might not control them and wondered whether they would obey a restored Kingdom of Stormwind.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk concluded that keeping the newly arrived high elf civilians in the Hinterlands required both incentives and discipline.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk judged the Proudmoore refugees less concerning because Jaina and her mother held their trust and would likely guide them home after the war.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk observed that Stormwind refugees had begun treating the Hinterlands as home by repairing houses, tending yards, marrying, and raising families.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recalled that the refugees had reclaimed farmland and built villages while he collected payments from both them and the Human Alliance.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk remembered suppressing a refugee riot and questioned how long fear would prevent the Stormwind refugees from resisting a return to their former homes.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk struggled to find a way to handle Stormwind’s demands for its refugees without provoking conflict or giving the kingdom an excuse to expand its presence in the Hinterlands. After recognizing the deeper crisis and forming a rough solution, he visited the longtime high elf settlers to learn how to persuade the newly arrived civilians to stay, and the villagers gathered around him to hear why he had come.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk considered the risks of forcing the refugees back to Stormwind or allowing Stormwind’s army into the Hinterlands, and recognized that the kingdom might use the crisis to seize the Seaside Plain.
• After a sleepless night, Yu Lin Bloodhawk developed a rough solution but decided it needed further discussion, while making persuading the new high elf civilians to stay his immediate priority.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk followed a map to the longtime villagers’ settlement, a scenic village near Quel'Danil City with a lake fed by mountain water.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk met the villagers as they prepared for work, explained the reason for his visit, and was surrounded by villagers who returned to hear him out.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned that many of the High Elf commoners relocated to the Hinterlands were criminals or their descendants who had settled along Quel'Thalas’s dangerous southern border to avoid scrutiny. He realized their pasts would not prevent him from keeping them and concluded that Quel'Danil needed a census registration.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk spoke with elderly villagers and learned that the newly arrived High Elves were struggling with their weakened connection to the Sunwell.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked why the High Elf commoners had never chosen a lord to follow.
• The elderly villagers explained that many commoners or their ancestors had committed crimes and fled to the southern border, where they avoided registration and lived beyond the kingdom’s reach.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk understood that Quel'Thalas had tolerated the border settlement and that its residents had also served as a buffer against Troll incursions.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk decided their past crimes did not matter to him and recognized that Quel'Danil needed a census registration.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk prioritized settling and registering the thirty thousand High Elf civilians in Quel'Danil so they could remain in The Hinterlands and eventually support a High Elf army. After reviewing the Seaside Plain's crime records, he identified rising land disputes among human refugees and summoned the region's officials to discuss his plans.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to help the elderly villagers relocate their relatives and later told the City Lord's Representative to make resettlement and a census Quel'Danil's top priorities.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk urged the Quel'Danil Council to reassure, register, and support the newly arrived High Elves before recruiting them into an army.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk spent nearly a week examining crime records from the Seaside Plain and found that land disputes were increasing even as overall crime declined.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk summoned the Seaside Plain officials, heard their reports, praised their work, and began explaining the purpose of the meeting.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered land ownership and use rights to be separated and plots surveyed, then told officials to form a Kingdom of Stormwind Restoration Corps and collect grain to support the war. He hoped the corps and an intensified campaign would rekindle Stormwind refugees’ desire to return home.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered officials to place all land ownership under public control, preserve private use rights, and survey and register villagers’ plots.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk warned officials that orcs had reached the gates of the Hinterlands and that the Alliance faced a desperate phase of the war.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered officials to recruit Stormwind refugees into the Kingdom of Stormwind Restoration Corps to attack orc supply convoys and help restore their kingdom.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk directed officials to promote the refugees’ longing for home and raise grain taxes, while ensuring their basic needs were met, to supply the troops.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk concluded that Stormwind refugees had lost hope of returning home after their kingdom fell and sought to revive that hope through the restoration corps.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk planned to rally Stormwind refugees by forming a restoration legion and sending it to attack the orcs’ supply routes at Durnholde, hoping to disrupt the stalemated war and draw orc forces away from Quel'Thalas. He secretly intended to spend the refugees’ lives in battle and prevent any surviving soldiers from later challenging Quel'Danil.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk planned a relentless propaganda campaign to persuade Stormwind refugees to join the war and formed the Kingdom of Stormwind Restoration Legion.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reasoned that attacking the orcs’ supply routes would strain their main front and make them less able to focus on Quel'Thalas.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk identified Durnholde as a vulnerable supply junction guarded by few orcs because their forces were tied down elsewhere.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk decided to send a large Allied Army force to Durnholde to destroy the orcs there and sever their supply lines.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk privately intended to use the refugee soldiers as expendable troops and rely on Quel'Danil's Steel Torrent and naval strength to suppress any survivors who returned.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk planned to exploit Stormwind refugees while preparing a local assault on the orcs’ supply lines, and he flew to Aerie Peak to coordinate with Mez'dra. The chapter ended as Mez'dra joked that he liked flying drunk, while Yu Lin resolved not to let his high elf attendants take such a dangerous risk.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk planned to recruit more Stormwind refugees into a restoration army, cut their food supplies, and disguise his motives as support for the Alliance.
• Yu Lin decided the Eastern and Western Burning Legions would attack the orcs’ supply lines before the orcs struck Quel'Thalas, since the restoration army was not ready.
• Yu Lin sent Lor'themar a letter asking him to arrange a meeting with Grand Marshal Lothar so he could seek benefits for his contributions.
• Yu Lin arrived at Aerie Peak, where Mez'dra welcomed him and invited him and his attendants to drink.
• Mez'dra joked that he liked flying drunk, and Yu Lin worried about the danger and resolved not to let the high elves fly after drinking.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk met Mez'dra over drinks and argued that the Hinterlands should send troops into the war before the decisive battle. He wanted their participation to secure a share of the postwar spoils, though the chapter left Mez'dra considering what spoils could actually be gained.

• Mez'dra brought liquor, food, and Wildhammer Dwarves to welcome Yu Lin Bloodhawk and his Gryphon Rider Bodyguards.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk told Mez'dra he wanted to send troops out of the Hinterlands and attack the orcs.
• Mez'dra said Aerie Peak's defenses were complete and the Wildhammer Dwarves and Witherbark Trolls were trained to fight together.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained that joining the war before the decisive battle would improve the Hinterlands' chances of receiving postwar spoils.
• Mez'dra asked what spoils Yu Lin Bloodhawk meant, as the orcs had no land in Azeroth to surrender and Stormwind's territory was expected to be restored.