Chris Mentzen

**Christopher Vincent Metzen** (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1979) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the fantasy novels in the settings of WarCraft and *Diablo*.

When he went to college from 1911 to 1919 the volume of his fictional work releases decreased significantly

From 1925 to 1945, Chris was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. He then moved within the same university, to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, positions he held from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of Shigeru Miyamoto, a co-founder of the High Fantasy genre. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of unfinished works and unpublished manuscripts, including *Atlas of The World of Warcraft, WarCraft: War of The Ancients, Songs of Earth and Fire*.

## Works of Fiction (published during his life)

Hearthstone (serial) (1907-1909) - Christ Mentzen's first work of fiction, it was a serialized fictional account of a man hunting the mysterious man like monster known as the Kardan in the North American forests

Task Force (serial) (1907-1910) - the adventures of a task force that protected Britain in a alt-history version of London where everyone could use magic

Titan (Novella) (1908) - A explorer in Greece stumbles across a stone Titan who tells him about his battle with the Olympians.

The First Chronicle of the Lost Vikings (Novel) (1909) - After they get stranded on a distance shore a group of Vikings must make their way home in this Norse Mythology adventure heavily inspired by the Odyssey.

WarCraft: The Armani War (Novel) (1910) - the first work of fiction within the WarCraft setting, a story about the High Elves/Quel'dorei of Quel'Thalas and the Humans of the kingdom of Stormwind's war against the Trollish Armani Empire.

Poems of Myth and Legend (loose short story and poem collection) (1913)

The Second Chronicle of the Lost Vikings (Novel) (1914) - After getting accepted into college at the age of 19 it became harder to find the time to get this book finished

Tales of WarCraft (Short Story Collection) (1914) - a short story collection that became the bases for the WarCraft setting

The Final Chronicle of the Lost Vikings (Novel) (1918) - After getting accepted into college at the age of 19 it became harder to find the time to get this book finished

Warlords of Dreanor (Novel) (1920) - When the alien Dreanei arrive in crystal ships to the shores of Dreanor, they interrupt a civil war between the orcish tribes. A young Orc named Grom Hellscream who was recently appointment WarChief of the Hellscream Clan after his father was killed by these Dreanei must navigate the political divisions of the Orcish and Ogre tribes to create the Horde. These orc tribes band together under the Hellscream banner to fight off the Dreanei.

WarCraft: Tides of Darkness (Novel) (1921) - A Kul'Tiran named Daelin Proudmoore after ending on in a sticky situation on his privateer mission to recover the long lost Dragon Soul has a run in with The Twilight Hammer Cult. The quest brings him to many locations and further situations against many other threats from sea monsters, Gurubashi Trolls, Cultists disguised as Pandarian Monks, a battle between Lordereon Paladins and crazed Kobolds, and a shady deal with a Goblin Trade Prince that leads to an encounter with the ocean god of the deep N'zoth one of the gods of the Twilight Hammer Cult's pantheon.

Hellfire of Dreanor (Novel) (1922) - The Dreanei's old enemy the Burning Legion arrives to take over Dreanor as a base of operations to build up an army to fight off The Titans. Grom Hellscream must find a way to reclaim his homeland but did he make a poor decision to make a pact with the mysterious orc Warlock Gul'dan and his notorious Shadowmoon Clan.

WarCraft: The Lands of Mystery (Fictional Textbook, Based on the Notes of Christ Mentzen was actually written by Shigeru Miyamoto, Sam Raimi, and Kevin Levine) (1922) - a fictional textbook greenlit by Mentzen's publisher to help detail the world WarCraft takes place in so readers could better grasp the scope of his world. At this point WarCraft was the name of the planet (later retconned to Azeroth in the next book), Azeroth was the name of the continent (later retconned to Eastern Kingdoms in the next book, but this book was the first use of Azeroth in the WarCraft universe), The Islands of Kul'Tirus was referred to as Kul'Tiras: The Pirate Kingdom (Despite being portrayed as a noble sea faring kingdom in Tides of Darkness and future works in the WarCraft series, this book referenced it as a hive of scum and villainy filled with bandits and pirates), Zandalar (though in this book was just an large tropical island on the map with lots of monkeys and talking bananas. despite Tides of Darkness referring to it as the seat of the great Troll empire of Zandalar sworm enemies of the Gurubashi), Undermine the island capital of the Goblins, The Broken Isles (most of the lore in this book is still accurate, only change was The Ancient Ancestors of The High Elves were given an actual name down the line the Highborne and any references to The Burning Crusade being some endeavor by Lordereon to cleanse the world of elves through flame was changed to be caused by the demonic faction known as The Legion despite Lordereon being at war with the elves making zero sense based on the info in The Armani War and Tales of WarCraft. The Demons being a loose factionless race that joined under a crusade for a short time against the mortal races was the original idea mentzen had in his notes but this was changed when Dreanor was brought into the WarCraft setting), The Dragon Isles (not retconned but was massively fleshed out in later works, this was also the first reference of these isles and the Dragonflights being factions of Dragons rather than different species which were inaccurately referred to by their colors in this book rather than their actual names used in Tales of WarCraft or Tides of Darkness). The Kingdoms in this were Lordereon (massively altered from the hyper religious nutjobs at war with Stormwind to allies with Stormwind, plus the book referenced them being racist against the Elves despite this being untrue), The Armani Empire (everything was accurate except they used Ogre instead of Troll), The Gurubashi Empire (now given an actual belief structure as opposed to just being the Cannibal Hakkar worshippers they were in Tides of Darkness and Tales of WarCraft, only mistake was that the book wrongly referred to Trolls as Ogres), The Kingdom of Stormwind (Largely accurate except the capital city of Stormwind wasn't referred to as Stormwind as in all other source material but as Seawind, and King Llane Wrynn being referred to as Llane Stormwind Steward of Stormwind waiting the return of the Wrynn family), Quel'Thalas (though miswritten as Thalas'Quel and its denizens misnamed as Thalas'Elven), Dun Morogh (the kingdom of the Drawves and Gnomes, both races were first referenced in this book along with their nation yet future works would claim Drawves and Gnomes had separate Kingdoms), Gilneas (was actually fleshed out to be inspired by Eastern Europe, as opposed to the just a footnote reference we knew existed but knew nothing about it that it was in The Armani War, Tales of Warcraft, and Tides of Darkness), The Naga Empire (mostly retconned into The Void, was a underwater kingdom first referenced in this book whose capital was the sleeping city of Nazjatar and whose gods were praised by the Twilight Hammer Cult. Was written to be evil and mysterious) and Khaz Modan (A Drawven Kingdom first referenced in this book). Dalaran though a major player in the subsequent books, was not featured in the book's art, maps, or pages at all + Northeron despite being a major faction in The Armani War was not referenced at all + Booty Bay was not referenced as a pirate city like it was in Tales of WarCraft but as the southern most port of Stormwind. Due to the large amount of retcons post this books release, misinterpretations, contradictions with previous warcraft works, and the lack of involvement from Chris Mentzen himself the validity of this book is called into question as a lore source.