News of the Burning Legion's withdrawal from Kalimdor and the gathering of its demon forces in the Broken Isles reached Rowan almost simultaneously.
Gul'dan's sudden change of his primary target puzzled Rowan.
Burning Nordrassil had outraged mortals and gods alike. Gul'dan had gone to such lengths to burn the tree, yet at the final stage, he had abandoned his plan to exterminate the night elves.
A campaign that began so fiercely only to peter out hardly suited Gul'dan's brutal, bloodthirsty nature. He was no indecisive fool. He knew perfectly well to finish an enemy while they were vulnerable.
Although Gul'dan led the Burning Legion's advance force on Azeroth, however, two Eredar lords still stood above him. Rowan suspected that Kil'jaeden and Archimonde had forced him to change course.
That subtle adjustment gave the night elves ample breathing room. Seen another way, however, it meant greater pressure elsewhere.
The moment he received the news, Rowan convened a military meeting to strengthen Kul Tiras's naval defenses and aerial patrols.
As the Alliance's largest industrial and agricultural nation, Kul Tiras could serve as an enormous factory, steadily supplying the other Alliance nations as long as it did not fall.
This was not Rowan's vanity or an excuse to protect his own country. It was plain fact.
Without a complete magical civilization and a technological industrial foundation, fighting the Burning Legion simply by throwing high-level class practitioners at it would exhaust the population even if they won.
If nearly all the native races of vast Azeroth died, what would be left to discuss about protecting Azeroth's world soul or preserving their own civilizations?
Early that morning, during a joint session of the Joint Committee of Departments, Kul Tiras declared a wartime state of emergency.
The older generation of lords-Marshal Daelin, Lord Arthur, Lord Aldrius,