Chapter Summaries

Yu Lin Bloodhawk watched the poisoned Centaurs collapse before they could reach the High Elves, leaving most of his defenses unnecessary. Frustrated by the failed chance to capture prisoners himself, he ordered Willyx to force the Quilboar prisoners to deal with the incapacitated Centaurs.

• The Ranger commander used the Gryphon Rider's signal to halt the Rangers' retreat and prepare to attack.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk saw that the poison had incapacitated most of the Centaurs before they could reach the High Elves' traps.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk realized the Centaurs' condition made capturing them unpleasant and decided the Quilboar prisoners would do the work.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered Willyx to make the Quilboar fight the Centaurs, threatening them with death if they refused and promising weapons and possible recruitment if they obeyed.
• Willyx left Yu Lin Bloodhawk and soon heard screams from the prisoners as Rangers returned their weapons and surrounded them.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s forces finished subduing the centaurs, using the quilboar to capture or kill those who remained after the poison and traps crippled most of them. He accepted that many centaurs escaped and planned to keep the surviving prisoners alive as laborers for developing Trial Valley.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk sent the quilboar forward with the City Lord’s Household Guard to clear the battlefield while the Quel'Danil Standing Army returned to guard the ballistas.
• The quilboar passed through the smoke and found thousands of poisoned centaurs collapsed and suffering from diarrhea.
• The quilboar and High Elf Rangers killed the remaining centaurs who resisted, then returned to report to Yu Lin Bloodhawk.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned that nearly a third of the centaurs had escaped, but chose not to pursue them.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk decided to preserve most of the captured centaurs as a labor force for developing Trial Valley.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk waited for Sylvanas to finish securing the area, then led an elite force toward Dire Maul to find Prince Thalor and learn how to convert fel into magic power. Near Cross Intersection, they discovered several thousand centaurs blocking the road, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk wondered whether he had stumbled into the Centaur Supremacy quest.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered Sylvanas to capture the remaining centaurs and return while the Quel'Danil Standing Army took over the area's defenses.
• Sylvanas returned the next afternoon with a column of centaur prisoners, and the Old Charlatan finished installing the Portal's magical protections.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk, Sylvanas, and the Old Charlatan traveled to Ratchet, replenished their supplies, and set out for Dire Maul with an elite force.
• On the seventh day, Gryphon Riders and Owl Rangers spotted three to four thousand centaurs blocking the road near Cross Intersection.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk speculated that the encounter might be the Centaur Supremacy quest, and Sylvanas asked him what that meant.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Sylvanas launched a surprise assault on the centaur encampment, using Gryphon Riders to bomb the sleeping enemy before their ground forces advanced. The camp was burning and the centaurs were suffering heavy losses as Yu Lin Bloodhawk hurried to close in with his infantry.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the Gryphon Riders to prepare bombs and planned a coordinated attack with Sylvanas's cavalry and Sorens's Mage Corps.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk's forces quietly approached the centaur camp after the centaurs relaxed their vigilance at night.
• The Gryphon Riders set the tents ablaze and dropped Explosive Bombs on the fleeing, poorly equipped centaurs.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk shouted for the City Lord's Household Guard to attack and ordered his troops to kill any centaurs they encountered while rushing toward the camp.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s forces attacked the Centaur camp, where Gryphon Riders and Sylvanas’s Frostwolf Rangers had already thrown the defenders into chaos. When the Centaurs continued to hold their central camp, Yu Lin ordered the Gryphon Riders to locate and bomb their command center while his troops prepared to break through the middle.

• Gryphon Riders dropped Explosive Bombs on the Centaurs while Sylvanas’s Frostwolf Rangers attacked both flanks, driving the survivors toward the central camp.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk advanced with his City Lord’s Household Guard and defeated disorganized Centaurs with coordinated Ranger fire, magic, and Dire Wolf Battle Pets.
• Yu Lin sent an Owl Ranger to use Beast's Eye and check whether the Centaurs were routing, learning that most remained in the central camp under organized command.
• Yu Lin ordered the Gryphon Riders to find and bomb the Centaur command center and told Sylvanas to cover his forces as they prepared a central breakthrough.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the Gryphon Riders to target the centaurs’ core elite forces while his troops kept up steady pressure. He reached the front as the advance slowed and nearly half the Dire Wolf battle pets had fallen, leaving him questioning his assumptions about the centaurs’ strength.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk sent orders to the Gryphon Riders and Sylvanas, directing the Gryphon Riders to strike the centaurs’ core elite forces while the others maintained pressure.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the City Lord's Household Guard to keep advancing in formation and hurried toward the front after the messages were delivered.
• The City Lord's Household Guard’s commanders led aggressive attacks as centaurs resisted, and the Dire Wolf battle pets suffered mounting casualties.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reached the front and found that nearly half the Dire Wolf battle pets had been lost, though the High Elf rangers remained unharmed.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk questioned whether he had underestimated the centaurs and recognized that Dire Wolf battle pets were poorly suited to spearheading the assault.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk realized he had underestimated the centaurs and ordered his troops to break through their camp at any cost. He personally led a fierce assault, leaving Sylvanas puzzled by his sudden aggression.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized that the centaurs were far stronger and better equipped than he had assumed, but kept the attack on its original plan to avoid disrupting the coordinated battle.
• After losing more than two hundred dire wolves to the centaurs’ resistance, Yu Lin Bloodhawk urged Old Charlatan to have the mages use area-effect spells.
• Old Charlatan told Yu Lin Bloodhawk to keep advancing until the centaurs concentrated their elite troops, so the Mage Corps could destroy them together.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered a faster breakthrough at any cost, then went to the front and killed armored centaurs with rapid, accurate shots.
• Inspired by Yu Lin Bloodhawk, the City Lord's Household Guard spent its magic freely and drove into the enemy camp, while Sylvanas wondered why he was expending so much effort.

Sylvanas ordered her troops to funnel fleeing centaurs toward Yu Lin Bloodhawk, while he struggled to break through the centaur elites. When dark clouds gathered over the battlefield, Yu Lin Bloodhawk realized the Old High Priest had finally begun his attack and ordered his rangers to pin the centaurs in place.

• Sylvanas noticed elite centaurs concentrating against Yu Lin Bloodhawk and ordered her troops to widen the encirclement and drive fleeing centaurs toward him.
• Sylvanas wondered whether the centaur movements and the Old High Priest's plan were connected to the mysterious scrutiny over the Valley of Trials.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk fought through armored centaur elites, using Scatter Shot while worrying about his casualties and the limits of his dire wolf battle pets.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk's advance stalled as centaurs repeatedly filled gaps in their ranks, while his rangers swiftly killed centaur spellcasters.
• Dark clouds gathered over the centaur positions, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered everyone to use Concussive Shot to hold the centaurs in place.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk coordinated the rangers’ Concussive Shots and Frost Traps while the High Elf mages used shields and Frost Nova to freeze the centaurs. The rangers withdrew as Old Charlatan’s Mage Corps unleashed a storm of ice shards on the trapped enemy.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the rangers to slow the centaurs with Concussive Shots and lay a first line of Frost Traps.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk sent another fifty rangers to establish a second line, while the first group returned safely despite scattered centaur arrows.
• High Elf mages appeared among the elite centaurs, protected themselves with Magic Shields, and cast Frost Nova to freeze the enemy in place before retreating.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized the mages’ Blink, shields, and Frost Nova and privately complained that they did not follow up with Frostbolts or Arcane Missiles.
• The second group of rangers finished laying its traps and withdrew as Old Charlatan's Mage Corps sent ice shards raining down on the centaurs.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s forces devastated the centaur ranks with arrows and Frost Magic while Sylvanas ordered the Frostwolf Regiment to target the armored elites and avoid needless losses. Her messages reached both flanks, where the field commanders prepared to carry out her orders.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the rangers to bombard the centaurs with Rain of Arrows and Concussive Shot as ice shards froze and shattered their ranks.
• Sylvanas surveyed the battle and instructed her forces to pin down and destroy the centaur elites while letting fleeing, nonattacking centaurs escape.
• Sylvanas’s two Owl Rangers sent her orders to the Frostwolf Regiment’s field commanders using messenger owls.
• A field commander joked with his owl about its silent dives, and the owl flew off before he unfolded Sylvanas’s message.

Sylvanas watched the High Elves’ three-sided encirclement rout the Centaurs, recognizing how Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s tactics exploited their fear of death. The City Lord’s Household Guard had nearly finished its assault, and Sylvanas awaited the Frostwolf Clan Regiment’s pursuit of the fleeing enemy.

• Sylvanas observed High Elf mages and soldiers overwhelm the Centaurs as ordinary Centaur troops fled through the open side of the encirclement.
• Sylvanas recalled how Yu Lin Bloodhawk had devised the tactic and complained that he avoided risking his life unless forced into action.
• Sylvanas considered how the open escape route encouraged Centaurs to flee and caused their army to collapse.
• Sylvanas assessed that Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s City Lord’s Household Guard had nearly completed its mission while the War God Temple’s Mage Corps attacked the Centaur elite guard.
• Sylvanas prepared for the Frostwolf Clan Regiment to pursue the scattered Centaurs once their forces broke.

The High Elves destroyed the centaurs’ elite core with coordinated magic and attacks, causing the army to collapse into a panicked rout. Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the other High Elves watched the fleeing centaurs turn on their own comrades while Sylvanas’s Frostwolf Clan Regiment pursued them from both flanks.

• The High Elves sent Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s Household Guard and Sorens’s Mage Corps to break through, while Sylvanas’s Frostwolf Clan Regiment and the Gryphon Riders prepared to pursue the centaurs.
• The Old Charlatan’s Spellcaster Corps annihilated the centaur elite core as Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s Rangers exhausted themselves holding the breakthrough.
• The centaur army panicked after its elite soldiers fell, and fleeing troops killed comrades and officers who blocked their escape.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the High Elf troops stopped fighting and stared as the centaurs fled beyond the reach of their arrows and spells.
• Sylvanas’s two Frostwolf Clan Regiment detachments advanced from the flanks, shooting down centaurs who fell behind.

After the centaurs were routed, Sylvanas regrouped the Frostwolf Clan Regiment and sent it after them in organized squads, following Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s strategy of letting scattered enemies flee before hunting them down. As the Gryphon Riders prepared to guide the pursuit and prevent the centaurs from regrouping, Yu Lin remained behind to survey the silent, bloodied battlefield.

• The Frostwolf Clan Regiment obeyed its commander’s order to rendezvous instead of immediately pursuing the fleeing centaurs.
• The unit commander recalled how Yu Lin Bloodhawk had persuaded the war council to let the centaurs escape at first, then pursue them methodically after regrouping.
• Sylvanas assigned tasks after the two Frostwolf Clan Regiment groups reunited and divided the regiment into squads to hunt the scattered centaurs.
• The Gryphon Riders returned to the temporary supply point to replenish ammunition, rest their gryphons, and prepare to guide the pursuit and strike centaurs trying to regroup.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk stayed with his battered Household Guard to clean up the battlefield as the fleeing centaurs and pursuing Rangers disappeared from view.

After the centaur battle, Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered every surviving wounded centaur killed and faced the heavy loss of nearly five hundred dire wolf battle pets. With the journey to Dire Maul still long and dangerous, he waited for Sylvanas before deciding what to do next.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the Household Guard to clear the battlefield and kill all surviving centaurs.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk told Old Charlatan that only about a hundred dire wolf battle pets remained, though the guards themselves were mostly unharmed.
• Sorens worried that the army had barely crossed the Barrens and had already lost more than a third of its strength.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk considered how centaur territory and the loss of mounts would make the rest of the journey dangerous, and said they would wait for Sylvanas to return.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reflected that the centaurs' elite troops had caused unexpected losses and that he had to reach Dire Maul before the High Elves entered Outland.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk assessed the Alliance and orcs’ race to control the Swamp of Sorrows, where both sides were gambling on speed, strength, and judgment. He bet that Lothar would push the Alliance to advance quickly and reclaim Stormwind City.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reviewed reports that the Alliance had taken Blackrock Spire and was advancing toward the Swamp of Sorrows.
• Yu Lin reasoned that the orcs would offer little resistance in the swamp because its terrain favored the Alliance’s ranged forces and the orcs lacked time to organize a defense.
• Yu Lin explained that the Alliance needed to seize the swamp and isolate the orcs around Stormwind City before reinforcements and supplies arrived through the Portal in the Badlands.
• Yu Lin described the conflict as a wager in which both sides had set traps for each other and were racing to act first.
• Yu Lin bet that Lothar would prioritize reclaiming Stormwind City to restore the kingdom and raise Alliance morale.

Alleria blocked the orcs’ retreat from the Burning Steppes and warned Lothar that their peace offer was a trap, saving him by sending a disguised stand-in to the negotiations. After the stand-in died and Alterac rebelled behind Alliance lines, Alleria prepared to hold the mountain pass against routed orcs.

• After Blackrock Spire fell, Alleria led the Quel'Thalas High Elf Expeditionary Army and most Wildhammer gryphon riders to block the orcs’ route into the Swamp of Sorrows, and Lothar sent Uther to reinforce her.
• At an Alliance meeting, Human Kingdom representatives backed peace talks while young officers urged a decisive battle, and the meeting chose Lothar to lead a delegation to Blackrock Spire.
• Alleria gave Lothar an Orb of Deception and warned that the orcs planned to kill him, so Lothar sent a stand-in in his place.
• The orc negotiations proved to be a trap, and every Alliance official and soldier who attended was killed.
• Three days later, Alterac rebels rose in Tyr's Hand, delaying the Alliance assault on Blackrock Spire and increasing its losses.
• Alleria inspected hastily built defenses at the pass as she prepared for a possible orc breakthrough.

Alleria learned that Salayan had been trying to court her, while Vereesa teased her and withheld the reason he had come to the mountain pass. Alleria set the matter aside to coordinate her troops with Uther as they prepared to block the orcs’ route into the Swamp of Sorrows.

• Vereesa warned Alleria that the fighting could intensify and revealed that Salayan had been trying to get her attention.
• Alleria pressed Vereesa to explain, and Vereesa said Salayan wanted to court Alleria but Sylvanas had been turning him away.
• Vereesa accused Alleria of remembering her first meeting with Salayan and warned her not to betray her brother-in-law.
• Alleria wondered why Salayan, Lothar’s adjutant, had come with Uther’s paladins instead of staying beside Lothar, but Vereesa refused to explain and ran off.
• Alleria recalled that her troops had fought sixteen skirmishes in three days and decided to discuss coordination with Uther so they could seal the passage between the Burning Steppes and the Swamp of Sorrows.

Vereesa joined Alleria, eager to learn from her sister while believing her brother-in-law was the greater hero. In Desolace, Yu Lin Bloodhawk received Sylvanas’s revised pursuit plan and hurried to join her, while worrying that the City Lord’s Household Guard had lost nearly all its battle pets.

• Vereesa went with Alleria and thought about how her brother-in-law had saved refugees and civilians, making him a greater hero in her eyes.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk dismissed concerns about the centaur corpses left on the battlefield and sent Gryphon Rider Bodyguards to find out why Sylvanas had not reported in.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk broke camp with the City Lord’s Household Guard and Old Charlatan’s Mage Corps to support Sylvanas’s pursuit.
• Sylvanas’s owl letter reported that most centaurs had been killed, some had escaped west, and she planned to resume the pursuit at three with Gryphon Riders hunting the fugitives in the meantime.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk urged his troops to move faster and considered how the City Lord’s Household Guard could replace the battle pets it had lost.

After realizing the centaurs made the overland route to Feralas too dangerous, Yu Lin Bloodhawk convinced Sylvanas to return to Ratchet and travel by sea. Sylvanas continued pursuing the fleeing centaurs for three days and three nights, delaying their retreat.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reached Sylvanas's camp, arranged supplies and rest for the Frostwolf Clan Regiment, and told Sylvanas they should go to Feralas by sea.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk warned that someone might be provoking the centaurs to attack them, and Sylvanas agreed that sailing was preferable to crossing hostile territory.
• Sylvanas and the Frostwolf Clan Regiment set out to pursue the centaur survivors while Yu Lin Bloodhawk's troops followed after resting.
• Gryphon riders reported on the pursuit as Yu Lin Bloodhawk used Eagle Eye to monitor the regiment's progress.
• Sylvanas kept the pursuit going for three days and three nights, forcing Yu Lin Bloodhawk and his troops to follow.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned that Sylvanas had seized Sweetwater Oasis and trapped the surviving centaurs in the Wailing Caverns, putting their small force at risk of an attack by the Barrens’ tribes. He rushed to join her and warned her to retreat after dealing with the centaurs, but Sylvanas asked how they would attack the cave.

• A Gryphon Rider Bodyguard told Yu Lin Bloodhawk that Sylvanas had attacked a centaur settlement at an oasis and driven survivors into a huge cave.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized the place as Sweetwater Oasis near the Wailing Caverns and feared the centaur tribes would unite against them.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the Gryphon Riders to reinforce Sylvanas, bring Willyx from the Valley of Trials, and spread out to suppress news of the oasis’s fall.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk sent Sylvanas instructions to guard the cave entrance, kill centaurs around the oasis, and keep the fall of Sweetwater Oasis secret.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reached the Wailing Caverns at nightfall, scolded Sylvanas, and demanded that she follow his orders and retreat after defeating the centaurs.
• Sylvanas asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk whether they should attack the cave the way they had fought the quilboar.