Warcraft universe

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This article is about Blizzard's Warcraft material. For the lore of the cosmos, see Great Dark Beyond and plane. For the film universe information, see Warcraft film universe.
Warcraft
Warcraft 2001.png
Official logo for the franchise
Genres Real-time strategy, MMORPG, collectible card game
Developer(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s) Blizzard Entertainment
Creator(s) Allen Adham
Frank Pearce
Michael Morhaime
Platforms DOS, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, iOS, Android
First release Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
November 15, 1994[1]
Latest release Warcraft I: Remastered and Warcraft II: Remastered
November 13, 2024

The Warcraft universe (aka Warcraft franchise and the Warcraft Saga)[2] is the game world, history, and lore created by Blizzard Entertainment, beginning with the seminal title Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. This page contains information about the official sources of Warcraft franchise and its lore.

See also lore, Category:Sources, Category:Online sources, Warcraft Wiki:Citation, and Warcraft Wiki:Book citation index.

Want to know more about the lore of World of Warcraft? Although the game doesn't require any prior knowledge of Warcraft lore to enjoy, you may appreciate the broader understanding of the setting and characters in the game that you will gain from learning about the lore. Below are some resources that are available.

Selected Warcraft universe articles

Warcraft »
Retail World of Warcraft »
Classic Era »
Classic »
Other games
Books »
Other media
Blizzard Entertainment »
External links
The original 1994 Warcraft logo


Games, their manuals, and official sites

The computer games were the origin of the Warcraft universe, and continue to be its primary focus. Much has changed in the lore since Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, with each new release greatly expanding the world and revising some of the past lore.

Warcraft introduced the basic conflict between the orcs and humans, as well as the characters of Medivh, Llane, Garona, and Anduin Lothar.

Warcraft II expanded the world beyond the continent of Azeroth to include Khaz Modan and Lordaeron. The dwarves, high elves, trolls, goblins, and Burning Legion were introduced, as well as a host of new characters.

Warcraft III expanded the world yet again by introducing the continents of Kalimdor, Northrend, and Outland along with a mention of the mysterious land of Pandaria, a detailed backstory chronicling the creation of the world of Azeroth, and several new races including the night elves, the tauren, and the Scourge.

World of Warcraft and its expansions have continued this trend by allowing the players to experience nigh all of the colossal world as no more than one of the many little players, as well as introducing a host of new creatures and characters.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans

Warcraft II

Warcraft Adventures

Warcraft III

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Worldsoul Saga
Classic

Hearthstone

Warcraft Rumble

Warcraft Rumble (mobile game)

World of Warcraft site

Current
Previous

Cata-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Cataclysm.

WoD-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Warlords of Draenor.

World of Warcraft site archives

WoW Icon update.png This section concerns content related to the original World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft Community Site World of Warcraft Community Site Official World of Warcraft forums

The World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King sites didn't survive the overhaul. See the archives below for the lore articles.

Bc icon.gif This section concerns content related to The Burning Crusade.

Wrath-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Wrath of the Lich King.

Cata-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Cataclysm.

Mists-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Mists of Pandaria.

WoD-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Warlords of Draenor.

Legion-Logo-Small.png This section concerns content related to Legion.

Timelines

Main:

Other:

See also

Novels

Warcraft
World of Warcraft

Compilations

Novellas

Mists of Pandaria - Destination: Pandaria
Battle for Azeroth
The War Within
  • Heartlands - by Adam Christopher, November 13, 2024

Short stories

World of Warcraft
The Burning Crusade
Wrath of the Lich King
  • Glory - by Evelyn Fredericksen, before Patch 3.3.0 (December 8, 2009)
Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria - Destination: Pandaria
Warlords of Draenor - Savage World
Legion - Prepare for the Invasion
Battle for Azeroth
Shadowlands
Dragonflight

Varying canonicity

Possible
Unlikely

Compilations

Comics

World of Warcraft
Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria - Destination: Pandaria
Warlords of Draenor - Savage World
Legion - Prepare for the Invasion
Battle for Azeroth

Canceled comic

Varying canonicity

From the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Official Strategy Guide (hinted to be non-canon)[6]
Hearthstone

Hearthstone This section contains information exclusive to Hearthstone and is considered non-canon.

Compilations

Manga (Manhwa)

Compilations

Audio drama

Legion - Prepare for the Invasion

Magazine

See also

Videos

Animated series

Cataclysm
Mists of Pandaria - Destination: Pandaria
Warlords of Draenor - Savage World
Legion - Prepare for the Invasion
Battle for Azeroth
Shadowlands
Dragonflight

Hearthstone

Hearthstone This section contains information exclusive to Hearthstone and is considered non-canon.

Blizzard web-series

Cinematics, trailers and patch trailers

DVDs

  • Warcraft III Cinematics Disc
  • The Making of World of Warcraft
  • World of Warcraft Behind-the-Scenes DVD[7]

RPG books

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

Warcraft

World of Warcraft

PDF-only material

Other books

Stub.png Please add any available information to this section.

Art

Atlas

Lore

Strategy Guides

While strategy guides contain some lore information (description of races and events), they are not lore-reviewed by Blizzard.[11]

Warcraft

World of Warcraft

Calendars

  • Year of Fear
  • Year of Here
  • World of Warcraft 2010
  • World of Warcraft 2011 Calendar
  • World of Warcraft 2012 Daily Calendar
  • World of Warcraft 2014

Other

Editions

Other

Trivia

  • The word Warcraft was originally written WarCraft with a capital C, similarly to StarCraft, during the first few games[12][13][14] but later adopted the lowercase 'c' with the release of Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition[15] and Warcraft III.[16] The logos still continue to use WarCraft however.
  • The name "Warcraft" was created by Samwise Didier when he shouted it out during a lunchtime brainstorming session prior to the development of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.[17] He mentioned that he had always wanted to use the name to make a game.[18] It was previously the name of his Dungeons & Dragons character and was intended to be the opposite of the word "witchcraft".[19][20] The other developers all liked the name and decided to use it because of its coolness, rather than it being based on any game design elements. Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham originally wanted to use Warcraft as the name of a whole series of games about different eras of warfare across many different genres—including fantasy, science fiction, modern military, and historic military—all with the title Warcraft and a subheading (e.g. "Warcraft: Vietnam"), with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans being the first. Adham intended this as a strategy to optimize for retail stores: having many related titles next to each other on store shelves would create cross-selling opportunities and show that the brand was well-supported. However, the only two games from this original plan that ended up actually getting made were Warcraft and StarCraft.[18]
  • In the period between World of Warcraft and The War Within, the Warcraft universe took on a more cosmic slant, introducing elements such as the Void Lords. This wasn't part of a pre-existing plan, but something that occurred over time. It has been noted however, that the IP has technically had cosmic elements from the beginning, as Orcs & Humans involves the Horde invading Azeroth using a dimensional gateway.[21]

References

 
  1. ^ Blizzard's 'Warcraft: Orcs & Humans' Now Available (1994-11-15).
  2. ^ The Story of Warcraft
  3. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080813073530/http://eu.blizzard.com/en/wow/townhall/
  4. ^ Micky Neilson 2013-07-31. Twitter. Archived from the original on 2021-02-22. Retrieved on 2023-11-07. Any chance that "Silver Hand, Ebon Blade", from the amazing Raph Ahad, can be canonized? As IntheSotSun? "It is possible."
  5. ^ Micky Neilson 2014-10-24. Twitter. Archived from the original on 2018-07-27. Retrieved on 2023-11-07. Hi, are these stories canon? "I don't believe so."
  6. ^ Micky Neilson on Twitter (Archived): Hi, are these stories canon? "I don't believe so."
  7. ^ http://gear.blizzard.com/index.php/default/warcraft/world-of-warcraft-behind-the-scenes-dvd-85913.html
  8. ^ World of Warcraft RPG Character Sheet at White Wolf's download site
  9. ^ World of Warcraft RPG Conversion Document at White Wolf's download site
  10. ^ World of Warcraft the Roleplaying Game Preview at White Wolf's download site
  11. ^ Micky Neilson on Twitter: "Strategy guides don't go through a lore review process."
  12. ^ File:WarCraft I - Box Art back.jpg, body paragraph
  13. ^ File:Warcraft II Box art back.jpg, body paragraph
  14. ^ File:Warcraft IIx Box art back.jpg, just below the logo
  15. ^ File:Warcraft II BNE Box art back.jpg, body paragraph
  16. ^ File:Rear-Cover-WC3-Reign-of-Chaos-Standard.jpg, Unrivaled World Editor section
  17. ^ BlizzCon 2017, "Behind Blizzard's Worlds"
  18. ^ a b Bryan Menegus 2019-10-01. How Warcraft Got Its Name. Kotaku. Retrieved on 2019-10-02.
  19. ^ Game Informer 2018-11-08. GI Show – Warcraft III, Diablo Immortal, Red Dead Developer Roundtable (27:55). Retrieved on 2019-05-08.
  20. ^ Game Informer #308: World of Triviacraft, pg. 96
  21. ^ 2024-09-02, "We want to make sure that every group of players can seek adventure," World of Warcraft devs discuss boosting solo play in The War Within. Windows Central, retrieved on 2024-09-04

External links

Wikipedia Wikipedia 
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard official site 
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Warcraft: Orcs & Humans overview and demo.
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition overview.
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos official site with demo, screenshots and more.
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne official site with screenshots, artworks and more.
Blizzard Entertainment Battle.net site 
Blizzard Entertainment Battle.net The Dark Portal, the consolidated source for official Warcraft II news, strategies, maps, pictures, and more.
Blizzard Entertainment Battle.net Mojo StormStout's Warcraft III Strategy Guide.
World of Warcraft Community Site World of Warcraft official site 
World of Warcraft Community Site World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade official site 
World of Warcraft Community Site World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King official site 
External link Fantasyflightgames site 
External link fantasyflightgames.com Warcraft: The Board Game official site.
External link fantasyflightgames.com Warcraft: The Board Game's collection official site.
External link fantasyflightgames.com World of Warcraft: The Board Game official site.
External link fantasyflightgames.com World of Warcraft: The Board Game's collection official site.
External link fantasyflightgames.com World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game official site.
External link fantasyflightgames.com World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game Figure Expansions official site.
External link white-wolf.com Official site of White Wolf Publishing (publisher of the Warcraft RPGs).
External link swordsorcery.com Official site of Sword and Sorcery.
External link warcraftrpg.com Official site for the World of Warcraft RPG.
External link DCComics.com World of Warcraft (Wildstorm comic) and Warcraft action figures official website.
Warcraft games and products
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