Metzen on lore From 1 . Metzen on Lore | by Tseric from the official US forums ( original link obsoleted by forum change ) < br > . . . and from 1 . 15 / 05 Metzen on Lore | by Vaneras from the WoW - Europe ( En ) forums ) ( original link obsoleted by forum change ) : Hey y ’ all , < br > < br > I wanted to drop you guys a line and explain what ’ s up with some of the recent changes you ’ ve all been seeing in the lore – and specifically address your concerns about the draenei and their revised backstory . Bear with me here , I tend to get a bit wordy as I build up steam . : - ) < br > < br > Anyway , here we go : < br > < br > < br > Hit # 1 : Lore Train - Wreck < br > Right … To be totally up - front with you guys , it ’ s my bad , straight up . The obvious lore contradiction with Sargeras and his encounter with the eredar was clearly documented in the Warcraft III manual . I wrote those bits about four years ago , and to be totally honest , I simply forgot . Genius , right ? With my excitement to get the draenei up to speed and root them more firmly in the setting , I forgot to do my homework and go back over my earlier writing . I can assure you , no one ’ s more crushed about this mistake than I am . I ’ ve spent the last few days kicking my own ass over this one . Sucks to fail . It may not always be evident , but we take this story stuff really seriously at Blizzard . It ’ s been one of my personal missions at this company to maintain a high level of integrity throughout the Warcraft game setting ( all of them , actually ) and I think we ’ ve done a pretty decent job of upholding the continuity over the years . < br > < br > I think it ’ s important to note that world building is far bigger than just “ storytelling , ” and it requires ( in my humble opinion ) a certain amount of flexibility . Sometimes you need to expand certain ideas or retcon whole sections of continuity to broaden the scope and accessibility of your setting . There are a good number of these types of situations already ( like totally revising our timeline , suggesting trolls were the progenitors of all elven subspecies , etc . – there ’ s a hundred other examples ) . To make an omelet , ya need to break a few eggs , and WoW ’ s one big omelet . < br > < br > The trouble is , this has become a pretty big setting . There are literally thousands of characters , hundreds of locations , and all sorts of creatures , items , and plot themes that all define this world . As you can imagine , it ’ s a lot to police . Sometimes things do fall through the cracks – mistakes get made and we ’ re forced to scramble to come up with clever solutions to continuity errors . ( Hakkar , anyone ? : - ) ) . You not only have me jamming ideas , but a ninja team of quest designers , an army of freelance RPG writers , and a commando squad of red - hot novelists who are all involved in flushing out the lore and making it more than just wallpaper on a game . < br > < br > I ’ m explaining all this not to excuse this particular mistake , but to give you some understanding of how the mistake was made . I ’ ve read a fair amount of posts over the past few days and I know there ’ s a lot of confusion and frustration surrounding the whole eredar / draenei train wreck . Believe me – I know exactly how you feel . At the end of the day , we ’ re all just a bunch of geeky fanboys and fangirls , and we all get pretty fired up when people start screwing with the worlds we love . If anything , all of the venting and creative suggestions I ’ ve seen over the past few days have reinforced for me the fact that you guys really do care about this world and its troubled denizens . < br > < br > While I can ’ t promise that these types of mistakes will never happen again , I do want to state clearly that we take the responsibility of crafting and maintaining this lore very seriously . You all pay good money to adventure through this world month by month , and you deserve the best we can give . < br > < br > Don ’ t lose faith – we ’ ll do ya ’ proud ! < br > < br > < br > Hit # 2 : So What ’ s the Story , Blizzard ? < br > Ok , so what ’ s the real scoop behind the eredar / draenei story then ? At this point , even though the NEW lore directly counters the Warcraft III manual , we ’ re still going to run with it . There are a lot of reasons for this , not the least of which is that I think it ’ s far stronger than what I crafted back in the day . The eredar were not necessarily all evil . Sargeras did come to them and tempt them with power . They did NOT make Sargeras crazy . This gives the eredar more dimensionality and roots the draenei to a key moment in Burning Legion history . < br > < br > We ’ ve also woven all of this new lore into an upcoming novel by Christie Golden ( author of Lord of the Clans ) that depicts the draenei ’ s escape from Argus and the “ RISE OF THE HORDE ” on Draenor . The book DOMINATES , and you ’ re going to really dig it . Durotan , Ner ’ zhul , Gul ’ dan , Doomhammer , Hellscream , Kil ’ jaeden , Velen – this story is the one you ’ ve been waiting for . I ’ m getting geeked up just thinking about it . . . < br > < br > However , this new lore does leave a large hole – how did Sargeras go nuts ? What drove him to fall and begin his Burning Crusade ? I don ’ t know yet . It will be his encounter with some evil race ( who dares me to use Old Gods ? ? ? ) , but it won ’ t be the eredar . < br > < br > I ’ ll chew on this . Maybe we ’ ll solve this by the end of the expansion . See – this is that flexibility stuff I was talking about earlier . . . : - ) < br > < br > < br > Hit # 3 : World of Spacecrafts < br > Another concern I ’ ve been hearing about is the inclusion of certain sci - fi elements into the setting . I appreciate that this stuff is pretty far out , but that ’ s the whole point : Outland – and the greater universe out there in the void – ARE far out . Change is always difficult – I remember people getting really upset about dwarves with guns , steam - tech , Gnomeregan as a hi - tech city – many people had a hard time rolling with those technologies in a fantasy setting . But I ask you all – can you imagine WoW without those elements now ? < br > < br > We ’ re definitely throwing some new concepts at you all , but I ’ m very confident that when you ’ re able to see these elements in context , over the course of the gameplay – you ’ ll understand why we ’ ve been so excited to include them . < br > < br > To be clear , we ’ re not talking about having the Millennium Falcon cruising around the Twisting Nether ( I ’ m certain there would be some legal issues there , to say the least ) . The draenei ‘ nether - ship ’ you ’ ve been hearing about is far more than it seems . It ’ s part of a larger dimension - traveling fortress called Tempest Keep that essentially teleports through alternate realities . It doesn ’ t bank and roll or shoot proton torpedoes ( not yet , anyway ) . < br > < br > While we will be introducing a number of naaru technologies ( like this ship , for instance ) , we ’ re not planning on going hog - wild . Conceptual balance is everything . For those of you who are fearful of seeing jet - packs and laser pistols filling up the AH , never fear . If you did see them , they ’ d likely be goblin engineered and get your character killed anyway . < br > < br > < br > Hit # 4 : Blood Elves Sure Get Around < br > I also saw some strangeness about the apparent contradiction of how the blood elves could have sabotaged the draenei ‘ nether - ship ’ since they ’ re all holed up in Quel ’ Thalas . Remember , there are twisted blood elves in Outland who have been there since TFT campaign . It ’ s those creepy elves who sabotaged the draenei ’ s “ flight ” to Azeroth . < br > < br > I ’ d love to elaborate on this further , but I ’ m afraid I ’ d spoil your appetites for dessert . < br > < br > In conclusion , I just want to reiterate that we do take these continuity errors very seriously . It ’ s very important to me that you all feel you can trust us as developers and know that we ’ re out to build a world that ’ s worthy of your time and your passion . < br > < br > Thanks for bearing with me here . See y ’ all on the other side of the Portal ! < br > < br > < br > Chris Metzen < br > 5 - 12 - 06 < br > 12 - 5 - 06