Flavor lore

Brann Bronzebeard's manuscript resuming his research and speculations about the Ancient offshoots and others races.

Flavor lore is lore that is written "in-universe" and doesn't necessarily agree with what actually happened, but exists in the Warcraft universe to add realism and make the worlds seem more alive. Flavor lore often includes beliefs, legends, and myths kept by various cultures in the worlds, and historical accounts written by in-universe authors.

In-universe authors of flavor lore will often discuss the current prevailing theories at the time the book was written. Some of these ideas turn out to be true or contain only kernels of truth. Other times the legend may turn out to be wrong. When something turns out to be wrong, cultures will stop believing the legend or continue to hold onto their own viewpoint. Outdated theories continue to exist as part of Azeroth's cultural evolution even though they may not necessarily be believed anymore by current inhabitants of Azeroth.

Flavor lore also includes references to books or documents that exist in the world but may not be published in the real world. For example, in the World of Warcraft: The Magazine Volume II Issue I, Brann Bronzebeard speculates about various species origins, yet the full manuscript does not exist in a book licensed by Blizzard.

Most of Blizzard's external publications such as novels and guidebooks were previously considered hard canon, but at BlizzCon 2019, Steve Danuser stated that the World of Warcraft: Chronicle was written from the point of view of the titans and their servants, retroactively making them flavor lore. All subsequent lore books, such as the Exploring Azeroth series or the Grimoire of the Shadowlands and Beyond, have been written as flavor lore and are explicitly presented as the writings of in-universe characters who are potentially biased or misinformed.

Why flavor lore exists

In the real world, historians do not always agree upon what occurred in events in history or what caused the events to happen in the first place. Different religions, and even scientists, have different view points on how Earth was created and how the races of Earth originated. Many of these ideas become outdated, but still exist in Earth's cultural library. Authors will project their own viewpoints into their writing. Sometimes they will debate other hypotheses and theories made by other authors.

Flavor lore is created to emulate this mechanic of Earth culture in the world of Azeroth. It adds a dynamic of reality to the world. Some flavor lore however is created due to newer material retconning the older sources and is created as an explanation to reconcile the differences between old and new lore. Other flavor lore is written intentionally in order to add a sense of mystery to the unknown things.

Examples of flavor lore

Universe genesis

Main article: Creation myth

There are several creation myths postulated by the peoples of Azeroth in attempts to explain the creation of the universe. For example, some theorize that a catastrophic cosmic explosion sent the infinite worlds spinning out into the vastness of the Great Dark — worlds that would one day bear life forms of wondrous and terrible diversity. Others believe that the universe was created as a whole by a single all-powerful entity.

Light and Void's sapiency

The Light is one of the cosmic forces and has been personified many times by its followers and others, believing that it had a "will", or that it made deliberate choices, or that it was "good", while the Void was "evil", but such concepts do not apply to the Light and the Void, they are simply primal forces with their morality characterized by how they are wielded.

Titans and keepers

The Pantheon of Order was once credited with directly shaping Azeroth and creating most of its races, but they were actually done by their titan-forged servants under the leadership of the keepers.

Galakrond

The massive proto-dragon Galakrond is known as the "progenitor of dragonkind", and it is said that from him the titans created the Dragon Aspect. In reality, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza decided to hide the truth about the acts of cannibalism that made him so massive, and told another version of Galakrond's history to the Azerothians. This version was then actively encouraged by the Aspects to keep the secret from the dragonflights, so that no one would follow his path.

Night elves origin

There are competing legends for the origin of the night elves. Some legends say that they evolved from trolls. The night elves themselves believe that they were created by their moon goddess, Elune. While Brann Bronzebeard eventually confirmed the former origin through Cenarius and Freya, night elves may find the truth difficult to accept.

Near-humans

The near-humans of Draenor were an in-universe speculative race used by Garona Halforcen and Medivh to interpret the former's non-orcish heritage. However, it was later revealed that Gul'dan deceived Garona into believing that she was half-human, although she is in fact part draenei and orc.

The first druids

The tauren believe that they were the first druids under the tutelage of the demigod Cenarius, as told in the myth of the Forestlord and the first Druids. Though the tauren's ancestors, the yaungol, had indeed learned to wield basic nature magic beside Cenarius, it was later confirmed that the night elf Malfurion Stormrage is considered to be the first proper druid of Azeroth.

Necromancy

While the Kirin Tor considered necromancy to be a school of arcane magic, it is in truth a separate branch of Death magic.

Hearthstone

Main article: Hearthstone lore

Hearthstone is considered to be flavor lore. It is a card game developed and played at inns around Azeroth and Draenor, as can be seen in World of Warcraft, but as such may not accurately represent things as they really are.

In the RPG

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Brann's appendixes

"The appendices refer to the 3,000 attached pages that Brann included in his report to King Magni. Sadly, you and I don't have the proper connections or Ironforge security clearance, so we won't be seeing the appendices. (The references to them are for flavor.)

We included the locations Blizzard asked us to include. If something isn't in there, it's *probably* because they don't want to release information on it yet."

- Luke Johnson^{[citation needed]} 

Lands of Mystery

In Lands of Mystery, Brann Bronzebeard doesn't know where Uldum is located and hints that the Caverns of Time might be another name for the city. However, he points out he doesn't know for sure.

In another section, he discusses various theories of where the silithid race originated from. He mentions that current speculation and second-hand accounts at the time he wrote the book include; the silithid originating first, followed by the aqir, followed by the split forming the qiraji and nerubians. The other theory he included was that the aqir were first, then the split between the qiraji and nerubians, and the silithid were created by either the qiraji, or some other, at the time, unknown force.

Appendix Three

Manual of Monsters: "Appendix Three: Other Monsters in Warcraft" created flavor lore to incorporate creatures originally derived from non-Warcraft sources so that they could fit into Warcraft lore. In some examples, the creatures are a separate species that share the same name as well-known Warcraft creatures, so special lore was written for the new creature to explain how they fit into the universe. The introduction to the book states that said lore takes precedence over any descriptions found in the non-Warcraft books the creature was derived from. There is nothing in the book that states that said creatures are not lore (in fact, it goes out of its way to tell how they fit into Warcraft continuity and that these are other creatures on Azeroth besides the ones discussed in earlier chapters of the book). However, many fans choose to ignore much of the appendix lore since most of the creatures do not show up in other Warcraft sources.

See also

• Creation myth
• Mythic creatures