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Legends of Arkain True Story

This bundle is marked as director's cut. It exceeds all expectations and excels in every regard.
arkain_2020_x200-png.369838


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A Campaign Series made by Shar Dundred

If you enjoy the Legends of Arkain series, please consider showing your support by becoming a Patron and joining the Arkain community today!



! Requires Version 1.29.2 or newer !


You are not allowed to publish any edited version of any Arkain map! This includes but is not limited to Reforged edits!


Story

The world of Arkain is at war, with the continent of the same name being the center of conflict, war and destruction. The First Voidwar ended in a stalemate, but the people of Arkain knew the next war would come. The Second Voidwar is at hand, heroes and villains alike will rise to stand against the tide of war
Command the brave General Blen Greymoore, one of the best generals of the human Empire of Rodan, and his allies to defend the vassal Kingdoms of Arkain. Bring glory to your Empire and Emperor.
Join the ruthless General Gardon Bloodclaw and withstand your enemies, both inside and out, and face the horrifying Demons. Be willing to walk the path of victory, even if it costs your soul.
Take control of the honorable Rangul and the Deathbreeze Clan to unite the Orcs under one banner. Fight everyone who stands between the Orcs and their wish to take the Kingdoms for themselves.
Control the mysterious Amari, the exiled daughter of Rangul, in her attempt to save the Orcs from themselves. Create a new realm for your people, like never seen before.
Fulfill the plans of the ancient Aridon the Watcher and his undead forces to maintain the balance of Arkain. Only the living dead can fight the upcoming chaos.
Walk the path of the brutal Ornasion the Destroyer and unleash countless undead monstrosities to destroy your enemies. Whether they are mortal or immortal, none shall withstand the wrath of the Destroyer.
The time has come to make your choice for only those who win the war will write history.


Campaign Series Info

The Legends of Arkain is a campaign series which takes place on the world Arkain.
The races of Arkain fight against the demon invaders, who try once again to enslave every being on Arkain. The Humans, the Orcs and the Undead will have to make a stand against them... or face complete annihilation or enslavement by the Demons.
This campaign series will consist of actually three different series. There will be a Human, an Orc and an Undead campaign series. They will all run in the same timeline but will present three different stories and outcomes. When they are all finished, it's completely up to you, who wins this conflict.
Those, who win the war, will write the history.

You like the campaign?
Click here to visit the forum!
Click here to see the progress of the series!

Click here for the First Human Book!
Click here for the First Orc Book!
Click here for the First Undead Book!



Click here for the Second Human Book!
Click here for the Second Orc Book!
Click here for the Second Undead Book!

Let's Play made by @Jayborino!
Features

- Three different storylines/campaign series
Take control of one of the three factions, the proud Humans of the Empire, the plundering and strong Orc Clans or the mysterious Undead Nexus and their endless army of the dead, and face the demonic invasion as well as other struggles that await you.
- New units
Command units, you already know, as well as completely new units with new upgrades and abilities.
- Decide the fate of Arkain
At some points of the campaigns, you'll have the opportunity to decide things, that affect the storyline, characters and sometimes even the chapters you play or how you have to play them. By doing or, well, not doing certain side quests, you can also affect the campaign.
- Three difficulties
You can play the campaign in either easy, normal or hard difficulty, just like in the original WC3 campaigns. It will impact on the AI difficulty and scripting as well as other minor changes.
In easy version, for example, the AI won't rebuilt lost buildings.

- Full Jass AI
In this campaign series, every single AI is written in Jass instead of being created with the AI editor. This makes the AI more intelligent.
- Universal hotkeys
All abilities, units and buildings use QWER hotkeys.
- Race Mechanics
Every available race has its own unique race mechanic to improve gameplay - and, in some cases, to add new ways influencing the story.

Characters

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General Blen Greymoore
General Greymoore is said to embody everything the Empire stands for. He is an honorable warrior, proud to fight for the Empire and the Emperor, following every order and doing whatever he can to make the Empire a better place - even if it means that he has to fight the enemies of mankind without showing any mercy, hunting them until they are completely destroyed.
Already, many bards tell romantical tales of the veteran who was born a peasant and rose through ranks only by his wit, his tactical mind and his strength in both body and mind, saving not only his men but also fair ladies on a daily basis. Of course, the tales are exaggerated, as tales tend to be, and Blen wouldn't consider himself a paragon, having to send his men into certain death again and again to assure victory for the Empire, mourning those who he lost. Greymoore's soldiers all look up to him, seeing him, who fights at their side in every battle, as their inspirational role model.

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General Gardon Bloodclaw
General Gardon is the most ruthless and merciless general in the Empire. He is known for using every available weapon against his enemies without showing any pardon. His background is a mystery. He simply appeared out of nowhere and became general. He proved very fast, that he got that position for a good reason, destroying the enemies of the Empire with fast, merciless effectiveness. He is the commander of the Ironfist, an elite force of the Empire, which often carries out top secret missions for the Emperor himself. According to rumors, Gardon himself enjoys the favor of the Emperor - much to the frustration of many higher-ranking Imperials. Yet none would dare make a move against him, as in the past, such attempts ended in disaster.

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Rangul
Growing up as a usual member of the Deathbreeze Clan, Rangul's abilities and his dedication to his race along with his strength made him rise up the ranks of the clan quite fast until he became the first and most trusted lieutenant of the chieftain. Rangul sees his race on its way to utter extinction and dreams of a realm for his people. A strong realm that would prosper and serve as staging ground for many invasions. Dedicating his life to create this realm himself, he planned to not only be the successor of the chieftain but to also unite all other clans under his command, sending them against the Kingdoms of the Humans. Their lands would be taken over and used by the Orcs who would then become more than simple marauders and pillagers.
However, his plan has one major hole: The Demons and their constant attacks. While Rangul thinks that his people could be powerful enough to defeat some demonic army, he has yet to come up with any ideas on how his people should wage war on the Kingdoms on the one side and defend against the Demons on the other.

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Amari
The chieftain of the Cliffhunter Clan, Amari, was born as the daughter of Rangul. While women in the Orc society were forced to stay at home and take care of it and the children while the males were fighting, Amari wanted to prove to her father, whom she knew was more tolerant towards new ideas - him adopting a human girl was perfect proof for his. She secretly gathered a few other members of the Deathbreeze Clan and went on a mission to gain his trust. However, she was betrayed and forced into exile - like all Orc women who were unwilling to "stay home". The fate of an exiled female was often death. However, Amari did not want to accept that fate. She sneaked her way through to the Kingdoms where she met other exiles and together they founded the Cliffhunter Clan - a clan consisting of all Orc women who had been exiled by their clains. Therefore the Cliffhunter Clan is considered an exile clan by the other Orc clans - and therefore hardly even considered a real orc clan.
Amari and her followers raided the Kingdoms for a long time, with Amari being smart enough to keep her clan moving instead of settling anywhere to avoid being detected by the armies of the Kingdoms. Since the foundation of their clan, the number of exiled Orc women has increased dramatically, showing that there are many women who want to fight. Amari promised to herself that, one day, she would make the other Orc clans accept her clan and reform the society of her people regarding females.

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Aridon the Watcher
Aridon is the most mysterious creature of Arkain – also the most unknown. No one but the Demons even knows of Aridon's existence and the archlich intends to keep it that way as long as possible. It's unknown for how long he has existed, but he has always been here. He's even older than all of the oldest Demons together. It's also unknown who or what he used to be before – if he has ever been anything else before. He calls himself the humble Watcher of Arkain who ensures that the balance isn't disturbed by the other races. The Demons and the mortals alike often tend to threaten this balance with their actions and Aridon has often interfered in the actions of the mortals – but from the shadows without being noticed. He has seen the future and has known centuries ago that in this conflict, manipulations won't be enough and prepares for a full scale war. It's time for the Undead to fix the flaws of the other races.

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Ornasion the Destroyer
Unlike other dreadlords, Ornasion had always prefered brute force over manipulations or mind games. This made others of his kind consider him a savage brute, not worth much more than some pitlord. He was considered simple-minded, no threat to the far more intelligent and cunning dreadlords. However, it was this apparent "simple-mind" that spared him from the political games between other Demons, allowing him to focus on what he did best: Warfare. He became a great tactician and led the Blooddrinker Legion into many successful battles against their enemies.
Ornasion turned out to be the greatest general of the Blooddrinker Legion, yet the other dreadlords never considered him a threat due to him being interested in nothing but war, even going as far as calling him a "Pit Dreadlord" in reference to the brutish Pitlords. It was the last time a dreadlord would underestimate any other dreadlord. One day, still centuries before the Void War, Ornasion made his move. He challenged all higher-ranking dreadlords of the Blooddrinker Legion at once - and tore them apart. While actually being the brute they always considered him to be, he was no fool and was driven by the same ambition as others of his kind were.
Ornasion used his brute force to make the Blooddrinker Legion the most numerous by absorbing several smaller Legions. In doing so and due to his tactical abilities, he had secured the place of his Legion as the one leading the charge against the Humans and other races of Arkain, planning to destroy all his enemies - be it by crushing their lands or by corrupting their minds.

Click here to learn more about the other characters!


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Full release



Models & Skins:
Blizzard Entertainment
67chrome
epsilon
Wandering Soul
infrenus
Tauer
AndrewOverload519
Mephestrial
Dojo
PrMosquito
Hawkwing
Em!
dickxunder
acagnip
Uncle Fester
Frankster
Mc !
IamMclovin
AhhFreshWeeD
Sin'dorei300
Elenai
Kuhneghetz
CloudWolf
alreadyused
Dark Hunter1357
Dmitry Rommel
Kitabatake
Shar Dundred
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Uljimasa Hojo
eXciTe
Sellenisko
frostwolf
-Grendel
Skipper
Deolrin
gookywooky
Callahan
BlinkBoy
Hueter
Coinblin
supertoinkz
SuPa-
Tarrasque
Power
Afronight_76
chr2
olofmoleman
imforfun
Deolrin
Pyramidhe@d
HerrDave
Meteor_demon
kangyun
Kael Theron
PROXY
JetFangInferno
JesusHipster
Makoodzaka
Rizz_Boomer
johnwar
Villagerino
frostwhisper


Icons:
Blizzard Entertainment
Uncle Fester
CloudWolf
xylign
SkriK
CRAZYRUSSIAN
Darkfang
GreyArchon
67chrome
Fjury
PrMosquito
INSEKT
Muoteck
dickxunder
Frankster
CloudWolf
Kuhneghetz
Elenai
Heinvers
Shar Dundred
Uljimasa Hojo
SinisterX
Darkfang
Hemske
Palaslayer
NFWar
Hellx-Magnus
Justicebringer
Sin'dorei300
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Mr.Goblin
Mythic
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Sellenisko
-ToasT
jigrael
Just_Spectating
APproject
Pins
Eagle XI
kangyun
-Grendel
BLazeKraze
Mc !
Kael Theron
Stanakin
JollyD
The_Silent
-Berz-
chr2
olofmoleman
San
Scias
Akolyt0r
Peekay
Edge45
ChevronSeven
4eNNightmare
r.ace613


Music:
Sabaton

Campaign Preview Screen:
Heinvers

Campaign Logo:
Mythic

Everything else made by:
Shar Dundred

First Supporters:
Theoden of KoMe
Chen
youness
Kasrkin
kakuzu
BandolXD
Heinvers
Imperator
Veritas 117
PlankingWolf


Please contact me via PM if I forgot to give you credit for your resource!



To Blizzard Entertainment for this great game.
To Turnro whose great campaigns inspired me to revive this old project.
To Jayborino for his enjoyable let's play projects of the Arkain series!
To all who supported this project!
To all who reported bugs and gave/give constructive feedback both during and after the development!
And very many special thanks to Kasrkin, who supported the creation of this project in many, even countless ways!



Feel free to post your suggestions, opinions and questions!
Please report any bugs!

Keywords:
Arkain, Legends, Legends of Arkain, LoA, campaign series, True Story, True Story of Arkain
Contents

Legends of Arkain True Story (Campaign)

Reviews
Part of the Arkain Series. Obviously approved !
Ralle
From looking at the past releases of this project combined with the stats and reviews of this one, it is evident to me that Shar Dundred has still got it. Congratulations on another DC in your collection.
Level 5
Joined
Sep 7, 2017
Messages
83
Such a good day thx to Shar, that maybe one day Blizzard even fixes the music overlap bug when loading... it's only been how many years? :)
 
Level 2
Joined
Jan 14, 2024
Messages
3
No voice acting in the dialogues or am i missing something? It's a let down and i give the campaign 3.7 due to lack of voice acting. When playing the chronicles of the second war, the remake for Wc2 in wc3 reforged, it got voice acting for all dialogues through the whole campaign, so i was expecting the same here :(. But for game play in the different missions? 5 of 5!
 
Level 3
Joined
Dec 8, 2023
Messages
6
No voice acting in the dialogues or am i missing something? It's a let down and i give the campaign 3.7 due to lack of voice acting. When playing the chronicles of the second war, the remake for Wc2 in wc3 reforged, it got voice acting for all dialogues through the whole campaign, so i was expecting the same here :(. But for game play in the different missions? 5 of 5!
Just going to say that doing voice over for any projects is one of, if not one of the hardest things to get right. I mean its nice to have so there isn't any slience doing dialogue and to highlight traits/emotions more but there's a reason why its so rare to see it done in custom content for any game. You got to find the right people to give their voice to the right characters (with the right tone/attitude) or you will have conflicting/grinding voices for the cast.

I generally love seeing voice acting in mods (even if its poor) but for most players it is offputting and normally a negative if done poorly, Shar can add voices much later but honest you can get the personality of the cast through actions and the written text alone so it isn't a issue (plus you can clearly see the emotion of the characters in question most cases due to how Shar writes).

It would be a nice addition if Shar ever feels like it, Chronicles of the Second War is a rare example within the Warcraft 3 community of voice acting and another one recently was War of the Spider which also does a good job but tbh I don't think mods should be rated if they have voice acting or not (only if they have it and if its good/bad) due to how rare it is and that it isn't needed most cases (like True Story has shown and many other campaigns you can still do a story without any voices).

After playing so many custom campaigns for many games from Half-life, Doom, Halo, AOE, Warcraft, Stalker and etc. Most without voices in them, I'm just saying that I feel like voices shouldn't need to be priority as alot of custom content get their story through just fine and emotions as well in character department (or environmental mood). Most custom content is made due to love for the engine/game, so the author can share their ideas/worlds or to create something fun. Normally its a small team or a single person (with some aid), voice acting requires so much effort from the voice provider to fit the content they are acting in and no one can provide to all scenarios with their voice. A small team or a single person can't provide that in their project, some small teams do try but those often end up in the corny/poor acting area (which I love but many players do find bothersome when trying to engage with the story and I seen this occur alot in the FPS modding community). Overall voices would be nice but its alot of hard work to get right without any issues and Shar done well as its clear that his writing has covered him in that department as I had no issues seeing the emotions plus the traits of the characters being portrayed in writing only (plus the actions they do).
 
Level 1
Joined
Feb 2, 2024
Messages
1
Hi i want to play this campaign but i cant upgrade my w3 classic from 1.27b to 1.29 i will have issues if i run it with that version? i really want to play this campaign (im watching all the videos of Jayborino)
 
Level 29
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
1,114
Hi i want to play this campaign but i cant upgrade my w3 classic from 1.27b to 1.29 i will have issues if i run it with that version? i really want to play this campaign (im watching all the videos of Jayborino)
You can always download any versions of Warcraft III Classic here:

(Go to "Game Files" section and get 1.29.2 Files).

Please note that you need a legitimate CD Keys to play, and that you MUST start the game with "Warcraft III.exe". Running the game through the Launcher will instantly get Reforged instead.

Does this work Wirth reforged graphics
Shar Dundred is only supporting the 1.29.2 for all Arkain campaigns. Playing this campaign on higher version than 1.29.2, especially Reforged, is NOT RECOMMENDED, and it might resulted in unexpected bugs and problems during the gameplay.
 
Level 3
Joined
Nov 25, 2018
Messages
17
I'm curious about this project. It's been a while since I played the first and second books, and I didn't expect such a big project. I noticed it includes around 86 missions, which is shown in War3. My question is, do the first and second books of each campaign differ from this one, or do they continue the storyline? Should I replay the books to understand the True Story, considering I've forgotten much of the story.
 
Level 5
Joined
Aug 22, 2021
Messages
20
Hey, boss! Can I translate this campaign into chinese? I wanna share it with chinese players.Many Chinese player love Arkain.
 
Level 7
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
227
Hey IDK if it's intentional or not, but in Act Four, Chapter One, the undead mission in the caves where you have a possessed dwarf, there is a difference in between the units you can train and the units you start with.

Key differences:
- Banshee -- Ghost
You start out with 2 banshees, but can only train ghosts (which can only cast possession and not the other good stuff)

- Poisoner -- Rifleman
You start out with 2 poisoners next to the barracks, but you can only make riflemen.

- Deadman -- Footman
You start out with multiple Deadmen, but you can only train footmen
 
Level 2
Joined
Jun 6, 2023
Messages
4
Hey there!
A quick question: is the true story set in stone or it can be changed? I've reached one of the story events that I have a feeling would be VERY different, if 30 missions a go I didn't do one of the side quests, and now I am suffering from uncertainty =(
Please help!
Thank you! :D
 
Level 36
Joined
Mar 11, 2017
Messages
627
Finally the end of this chapter of the story. 5/5 Game of Thrones vibes from this entire campaign.
Played the humans and orcs and undead.
Now time to finish this one.
:peasant-cheers-back:


This is considered the "canon" campaign of Arkain that includes all races and their simultaneous point of view. All races' stories are connected now in a one coherent correlated mega campaign if I may call it as such.
There is 1 thing that I believe all campaigns need to add
AI voices to make things even more engaging and make the big cinematics easier to stay and listen
 
Level 7
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
227
I think I can't do it anymore.

I got to Act 4 Chapter 4, but the magic immune golems, 1300HP elites with 40-80 damage that crit and poison, @(%*& 3!!! paladins with 45 second Divine Shield killing your heroes while they are behind your allies, getting blizzared, your priests getting sniped by catapults while your reinforcement production is at the other side of the map, are making the fights too tedious to continue. The previous chapter was a lot of fun because my heroes had strong AoE abilities allowing me to change the tide of each lane whilst feeling powerful and important, but spamming Aedele's Q every 8 seconds on the built-up waves pales in comparison. Even though it's very strong and it does feel good to go -600 on a hero and -300 on its surroundings, it's only ever 8s

The reinforcement mechanic in A4C3 was also pretty cool, getting a new squad to send to their deaths, but here my allies don't even help me defend against the wolves. The mass tele is pretty fun, zipping around from battlefront to battlefront, picking up reinforcements from the main base now and then, but I had to take a break from playing due to frustration after I failed to set up a base in the northern lane to cut down on reinforcement time. The double avatar ults on melee heroes also do diddly-squat, because with ulti they are as good as the elites of the other side that they have 5 of and also there's an invulnerable paladin smacking away at your heroes for 80 damage per hit.

I'll probably come back and whosyourdaddy through this one.

Maaayybe I'll try again with catapults, at least to free up the too-small lanes and to have better AOE?
But really, it's a bit of a downgrade compared to A4C3, your subfaction doesn't have anything special either. Fire mages are poop because their rain of fire doesn't stack and they do barely anything vs the elites & golems. Your own golems don't have enough sustain to outlast the frontlines. Your knights are flimsy too even with Priest support. The heroes are a lot less fun. Aedele's Q is pretty strong and her mass tele is nice too, but her ult is pretty useless. 20 Bonus single-target ranged damage and some health..? Just another avatar... Would be nice if 3 of the 4 ultimates had more impact rather than just +stats temporarily during the mission.

I guess I should've used a squad of firemages to kill the paladins... They were the worst for sure. 🤔

I liked the two little demon outposts on the sides harrassing you and rewarding you with a gold mine if you take them out.

Sorry for being all negative Nancy, I got really frustrated looking helplessly at invulnerable paladins smashing my army to bits for the umpteenth time x)
And I had so much fun in A4C3! The quite similar Orc epic multilane battle chapter.

Some suggestions for improvement I could come up with:
  • Widen the lanes a little, esp up top to have less pathing frustrations. That top lane has got some chokes not meant for the amount of units on this map I feel.
  • Replace more one-click-upgrade ults with ults that do stuff. Or up the stats you get from them? Vanilla avatar / metamorph is not as good in this campaign with 2-3x the units and also higher stats on many those units.
  • Idk what to do about divine shield because it's so iconic, but it's not fun looking at an invulnerable unit attacking your army for half a minute each. And you better pay attention, or they'll be invulnerable again by the time you're back! Maybe longer cd is the easy answer
  • Choose subfaction / assisting faction? I can imagine having some dwarf runepriests would already change how bad your units compare to the enemies' (mostly due to the black elites on the enemy side)
  • Golems having some sort of slam would make them more attractive as a unit in general. Not being able to heal them with priests is a huge micro cost. Or they die and it's a macro cost. Would usually rather have knights, they're about the same tankiness but you can heal them. Making the golems offensively stronger like that would also add a much-needed elite T3 AoE powerhouse unit that all of the vanilla factions get (gryphon rider, tauren, frost wyrm, chimaera), which feels missing from this mission. (or rather, strong AoE options feel missing & spamming Aedele's Q feels a little one-dimensional)
 
Level 1
Joined
May 11, 2019
Messages
2
Hey, I'm quite new to downloading custom campaigns on the latest version and it keeps crashing during the levels and I don't know what to do. If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Level 12
Joined
Dec 19, 2022
Messages
93
Hey, I'm quite new to downloading custom campaigns on the latest version and it keeps crashing during the levels and I don't know what to do. If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.
Make sure that you use older version, I use 1.29. Just search for downloads and use your legit CD key when asked.
 
Level 29
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
1,114
Hey, I'm quite new to downloading custom campaigns on the latest version and it keeps crashing during the levels and I don't know what to do. If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.
Shar Dundred is only supporting 1.29.2 for better experiences of Arkain Series campaign AFAIK. Any other versions of the game, particularly Reforged, are currently not supported and might lead to unexpected results.
 
Level 1
Joined
Apr 17, 2024
Messages
2
I just finished the whole True Story campaign on story difficulty, and it was already hard to beat!
Awesome story, cool custom models, amazing maps, a lot of factions, really it's clearly one of my favorite custom campaign so far, truly a master piece. It was so cool to play that I wanted to create an account here to say how much I appreciated your work. Congrats bro!
It may be strange, but my favorite character was the Destroyer. I guess I saw some similarities between him and the Hellscream family, since I love Grommash and Garrosh.
At the end of the credits, you said the story wasn't finished (I bet it is, Tregakh is still on the run!), but you said that you won't make the next part of the story on WC3. So, I was wondering both thing... did you planned anything yet? And did you need people to translate it? Because I'm french, and I want to share your amazing work to my fellow french friends.
 
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