Blood of the Highborne Timeline - Story, Lore

[Khazmo]

The following is a summary of all the events that surround the aftermath of the invasion of Quel'thalas. The focus is not just on what is shown ingame, but in other media too including novels, comics, chronicles and World of Warcraft.

Noteworthy events that happen before the Event:

• The Scourge invade Quel'thalas, slaying much of its population, its king and many of its great heroes. [Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos / Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Sensing their weakness, the forest trolls invade the forests of Quel'thalas to attempt to reclaim their former dominion. [RPG - Lands of Conflict]

• After destroying Quel'thalas, Prince Arthas marches on Dalaran [Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos]

Noteworthy events that happen during the Event:

• Silvermoon Falls, and the Amani trolls witness this with glee. Arthas discards the mooncrystals before leaving for Dalaran. [Source Ambiguous]

• The tainted Sunwell, pulsating with dark energies, threatens to deal fatal damage to the land and the elven survivors, who had relied upon the Sunwell to sustain them their entire lives. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Lor’themar Theron, Sylvanas' second-in-command, rallies the high elven survivors and protects them from the Scourge remnants. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• The Amani trolls launch attacks against high elf settlements in the Eversong Forest. To their surprise, the few high elves put up a poor fight. The Amani claim a significant portion of the forest. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne / RPG - Lands of Conflict]

• The forest trolls hunt down high elves to capture on behalf of Ral’jin, who wants to summon his god Ula-Tek. [RPG - Lands of Conflict]

• Kael’thas learns of Quel’thalas’ fall while in Dalaran, and a remorseful Jaina attempts to console him. Kael'thas lashes out at her, berating her for her relationship with Arthas. [Novel - Arthas: Rise of the Lich King]

• With his father gone, Kael'thas knew that leading his people was now his duty alone. Kael'thas abandons Dalaran to its fate and rushed to the aid of his people. He journey’s to Quel’thalas with his Royal Guard. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Lor’themar & Halduron lead search parties to find any surviving elves, eventually taking over a portion of Silvermoon, the Bazaar, and barricading it off from the undead. This served as a point of congregation for other survivors, who made their way to the safe portion of the city. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• The body of King Anasterian Sunstrider is recovered. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• The trolls send a fleet to Quel’Danas, hoping to reclaim the island and secure the Sunwell for themselves. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Once Kael’thas enters the forests he reunites with his friend Rommath, who had led the failed evacuation of children from Quel’thalas. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Rommath serves as Kael’s advisor and the two survey the damage done to Quel’thalas. Rommath is then sent by Kael to inform the elves about the coming of their prince. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Farstriders are sent into Eversong Woods to find survivors and bring them to safety. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Rommath teleports to Falconwing Square and battles through a horde of undead to reach Lor’themar and deliver the message. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Rommath’s cold demeanor proves alienating to some of the populace, who were disillusioned with Kael's absence and faced with starvation and continued Scourge attacks. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Organizing the survivors, Kael'thas evacuates as many of his people as he could, and came to burn several of the defiled forests in an act of scorched earth, to spite the Scourge invaders.

• Knowing what the enemy was capable of, the elves begin burning their corpses to avoid reanimation. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael’thas arrives in Silvermoon to an icy reception. His prolonged absence had been noted, and the populace was downtrodden, fearing the prince would abandon them. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael first meets Lor'themar and is shown to the body of his father. Kael performed a Thalassian blessing and told his father that he was lost without him; that Anasterian was the king, not him. He asked his father for the strength to lead their people forward. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• That night Anasterian is cremated on a funeral pyre. Kael takes up the shattered runeblade Felo’melorn into his possession, planning to one day reforge it into a symbol of hope and power. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael’thas makes no excuses for being absent during Quel'Thalas's darkest hour. He resolves to do whatever he could to rebuild the kingdom. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael’thas leaves to observe the defiled Sunwell, and witnesses the dark, twisted energies pulsating from it. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Fearing a further catastrophe upon the elves and the land, and an attack of the Amani trolls, Kael'thas rallies his people to destroy the corrupted Sunwell. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael, Rommath and Astalor plan on destabilising the tainted Sunwell using the mooncrystals, aiming to overcharge it to destroy it, taking the trolls and undead on Quel’Danas with it. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• After Dalaran falls the red dragon Korialsrasz, otherwise known as the mage Krasus, flies to Quel'thalas to observe the ruin of that land and look for the Sunwell [Comic - The Sunwell Trilogy]

• After finding the three mooncrystals, the elves travel to Quel’Danas and attack the Scourge and Forest Trolls that battle over the island. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael’thas summons Al'ar to destroy the undead blocking the way into the Sunwell Plateau during his mission to destroyed the tainted Sunwell. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• After a struggle, the elves succeeded in taking over the site of the Sunwell, and Kael'thas destroyed the tainted well with the mooncrystals. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• The destruction of the Sunwell wipes out the Scourge and Amani trolls that were fighting for possession of the Sunwell. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• All three mooncrystals survive the sealing of the Sunwell, albeit altered. Kael takes them into his possession thereafter (his glowing green orbs). [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• With the Sunwell gone, the elves were struck with severe withdrawal symptoms, whose effect proved fatal to the sickly, the very young, and the very old. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• The elves realise how dependent they had become upon the Sunwell, and how much they rely upon the constant flow of arcane energies it provided them with. Overcoming this addiction becomes another goal. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Though his people are insular and isolationist, he isn’t. Kael’thas knows that to protect the people and the kingdom, he would have to return to the Alliance and battle the Scourge in Lordaeron. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne / Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne]

• Kael’thas’ leadership forges the high elves into an effective fighting force. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael’thas renamed his shattered people “blood elves" in honour of their fallen brethren and resolved to see Quel'Thalas shine once again. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne / Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne]

• Kael’thas officially decreed that his father would be the last king of Quel’thalas, leaving the crown unclaimed. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Lor’themar Theron is named regent in his absence and is instructed to seek a cure for the elves’ addiction to magic. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne]

• Kael’thas takes a number of his most powerful followers to join the Alliance resistance, though the majority of his people remained behind in Quel’Thalas. Among the magisters that go with him is Rommath. [Novella - Blood of the Highborne/ Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne]

• After the Sunwell is destroyed the red dragon Korialstrasz watches the re-accumulation of the Sunwell's energy but did not want the Scourge to learn of it. He shapes the energy into the form of a peasant girl he names Anveena Teague. He hides her until the time is right to bring her back. [Comic - The Sunwell Trilogy]

Noteworthy events that happen after the Event:

• Anveena Teague is taken to a safe area in the Alterac Mountains where she lives in peace as a pretend person. Over time, she develops true emotions and thoughts, and becomes sentient. [Comic - The Sunwell Trilogy]

• Dark Iron Dwarfs learn of the forest troll plans to summon Ula-tek into the world and are jubilant. They provide the forest trolls with some support for their goal. [RPG - Lands of Conflict]

• Kael'thas reunites with Alliance forces but falls under the xenophobic command of Lord Garithos. This leads the Blood Elves into increasingly difficult actions against the Scourge as Garithos seeks to get rid of them. [Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne]

 

[Khazmo]

[CLAIMED POST FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE UPDATES]

 

[Ethenil]

Great summary! One thing I would alter is Jaina's talk with Kael. To me, it makes more sense if Jaina and her expedition leave for Kalimdor shortly after the death of Terenas. Her being in Dalaran up to the fall of Quel'Thalas poses some timeline issues, in my opinion.

 

[Vel (Tien-Yun) Wu]

• Kael’thas learns of Quel’thalas’ fall while in Dalaran, and a remorseful Jaina attempts to console him. Kael'thas lashes out at her, berating her for her relationship with Arthas

I like this part a lot.

Great summary! One thing I would alter is Jaina's talk with Kael. To me, it makes more sense if Jaina and her expedition leave for Kalimdor shortly after the death of Terenas. Her being in Dalaran up to the fall of Quel'Thalas poses some timeline issues, in my opinion.

I'd enjoy discussing this so let's try it. From my perspective, it seems plausible enough. If you look at the Wiki:
Warcraft III campaigns


After Chapter 5: The Fall of Silvermoon there is:
* Interlude: The Revelation
* The Journey To Kalimdor
* Chapter 6: Blackrock & Roll, Too!

This is enough padding time for Kael to learn about the news, for Jaina to have that conversation with him, then depart before Arthas starts the The Siege of Dalaran. She has already talked to Medivh shortly after Human's Chapter 6, so the plan to set sail for Kalimdor could have been in motion for some time when she spoke to Kael.

For me, the harder part is how this can be implemented. Whether there exists enough originally voiced dialogue that can be extracted from WC3 or WoW to build this scene.

I do realize people are not fully united on the relevance of Christie Golden's writings (i like them a lot myself), and that's okay.

 

[Ethenil]

My main issue is the travel times being so ridiculously different.

The Horde and the Alliance meet in the Barrens (Cry of the Warsong). This means that in the time it took the Horde to leave the EK, go through the Darkspear Isles, reach Kalimdor and march north, the entirety of the human and undead campaigns happened, both of which should be pretty long since they include an entire war, sailing to Northrend and back, marching across an entire continent and back, and then sailing to Kalimdor.

 

[Khazmo]

For me, the harder part is how this can be implemented. Whether there exists enough originally voiced dialogue that can be extracted from WC3 or WoW to build this scene.

Times like these are when you wish deep learning AI were more advanced for generating voices. Then we could feed in the current dialogue and attempt to make a line or two for use here.

EDIT: I didn't have time earlier to respond to everything, so I'll try now:

Personally, I don't think it works that Jaina immediately begins rallying people to flee Lordaeron after the burning of Stratholme and I think this is one of those rare instances where the retcons actually make more sense.

I see Jaina's meeting with Medivh marking the moment where she listens to his prophecy and begins exploring what he is claiming (researching ancient lore on Kalimdor, and so on), but has not started her exodus. When the Scourge pull back and pretend to be defeated (in the retcon), there would be no need to flee Lordaeron, and as we know, the events between the murder of Terenas and the Scourge invasion of Dalaran happen rather quickly. Additionally, it feels like Jaina rallying the refugees is a hidden chapter in the story that we've never seen, and pads out the tale a little more. Although Jaina and Thrall arrive in Kalimdor at similar times, I think that can partially be explained by the many mages that followed her there and the very fair weather they had to put up with.

On the whole though, I'd love to see the scene with Kael'thas but in all honesty, I'd expect that you would need new actors to portray them for this scene. This had been my plan when I had drafted a campaign to follow the events in Quel'thalas as shown in this thread.

 

[Ethenil]

I still think the timing thing is extremely egregious.

Jaina starting to rally people after Stratholme makes perfect sense! And then when Lordaeron City falls, many more people go to her. Then we can decide when exactly she departs. Maybe as Quel'Thalas is begining to be invaded.

 

[Vel (Tien-Yun) Wu]

Times like these are when you wish deep learning AI were more advanced for generating voices. Then we could feed in the current dialogue and attempt to make a line or two for use here.

EDIT: I didn't have time earlier to respond to everything, so I'll try now:

Personally, I don't think it works that Jaina immediately begins rallying people to flee Lordaeron after the burning of Stratholme and I think this is one of those rare instances where the retcons actually make more sense.

I see Jaina's meeting with Medivh marking the moment where she listens to his prophecy and begins exploring what he is claiming (researching ancient lore on Kalimdor, and so on), but has not started her exodus. When the Scourge pull back and pretend to be defeated (in the retcon), there would be no need to flee Lordaeron, and as we know, the events between the murder of Terenas and the Scourge invasion of Dalaran happen rather quickly. Additionally, it feels like Jaina rallying the refugees is a hidden chapter in the story that we've never seen, and pads out the tale a little more. Although Jaina and Thrall arrive in Kalimdor at similar times, I think that can partially be explained by the many mages that followed her there and the very fair weather they had to put up with.

On the whole though, I'd love to see the scene with Kael'thas but in all honesty, I'd expect that you would need new actors to portray them for this scene. This had been my plan when I had drafted a campaign to follow the events in Quel'thalas as shown in this thread.

I cannot agree more. In fact, I might be able to concoct a solution for that last concern of yours. We may not need the old or new actors at all.

I will be very grateful if you can join me in this following conversation:
Voice cloning for creating new, voiced dialogues using the original actors' voices

 

[Khazmo]

Updated with sources as well as a little pre/post story events