Quick guide to Warcraft lore " What ' s the background story of the Horde ? " • " Why is Illidan so hated ? " • " How did the Burning Legion start ? " " Who is Deathwing ? " • " When did Arthas become the Lich King ? " Well , here is the guide how to learn the history and lore of Warcraft . Where to start . The often hard question ( if you are clueless to lore ) is usually : Where to start ? Well , somebody would say all the way back to Warcraft I ( aka or the First War ) , or maybe Warcraft II ( aka or the Second War up to and including , Warcraft III is the best place to start . Also , this game then elicits more interesting questions . For instance , how Illidan Stormrage became so hated or where the Scourge started . The novels and short stories . The novel s and short stories are also a great source for information . It is a good idea to read them in chronological order , so you understand much more of what they might mention in some novels . There are 16 novels , and a new one is about to come out ( as of August 2011 ) . Usually , the novels give the best information for lore , but other sources might also work ( look below at other sections ) . Every novel is about some of the characters . So , my advice is , use these as your key source . The RPG books . The RPG books are not considered canon by Blizzard , but still contain some information that is not included in any other novels , and much is even altered from games to fit into current lore . An example for that one is perhaps the First War , which has got too much retcon to fit into current lore , and is not depicted in any novel , unlike Warcraft II , which is novelized . Only a bit information about the war is mentioned in The Last Guardian . Still , they also tell much about the culture of the races you don ' t find anywhere else , for instance that the Wildhammer Dwarves revere the Earth Mother . Use the RPG books if you want some detailed information . Comics and Manga . While the novels are the key sources , the comic s and manga s still contain some important lore , such as the Sunwell Trilogy , which describes much of the blood elf lore and , which describes a very important part : Varian Wrynn ' s life as gladiator . So these are indeed good to have , also . In - game lore . You can find lots of important lore in - game , too . Those aren ' t always major , but some of the most important events , such as the Invasion of Gilneas and Battle for Light ' s Hope Chapel are depicted in here . Some minor information can also be found , which is sometimes retconned , such as Maim Blackhand ' s death , told by Eitrigg . So it is a good idea to also ( if you want to ) read some of the quest text on the more important quests . If you don ' t play World of Warcraft . You don ' t necessarily have to play World of Warcraft to know the lore . However , they have , as said before , the game has some great events that are very important to lore . In game you can experience lore , but if you don ' t you can still read about it . Retcon . Retcon is short for " retroactive continuity " or a change in lore to fix what appears to be a conflict or continuity problem because old lore doesn ' t account for some new element . The lore keeps changing , and it is a good idea to keep up the knowledge from the new media . It can often be hard to find out just WHAT is the real lore , but often , it ' s the newest written that is considered the basic lore . Flavor . Flavor lore is when there seems to be two different versions of lore behind something . One of the most famous examples is the War of the Ancients . The story is forever altered , but the media often stay to the original story , though Blizzard considers Richard A . Knaak ' s books to be the current one . So not all lore is conclusive .