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[AlbusDumbledore]

Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore, Cataclysm

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

This week saw a monumental post on the story forum that answered a variety of World of Warcraft lore questions. One of the questions asked got an answer that blew the metaphorical doors off of a long, puzzling situation. (There will be a lot of Cataclysm spoilers in this post. Be warned.)

Bornakk - Ask CDev #1 Answers - Round 1

Quote:

Q: What happened to all of the Scourge's Obsidian Destroyers?

A: The entities known as obsidian destroyers are actually enslaved titan constructs that were once called the tol'vir. The tol'vir were created to maintain titan lore repositories and titan machinery surrounding the titan cities of Ulduar and Uldum. Not long after the troll empires divided the insectoid kingdom of the aqir, the aqir that travelled north discovered and overthrew the tol'vir society in Northrend. These aqir would eventually become the race we know as the nerubians today, having adapted the tol'vir's architecture for their own purposes. Similarly, the aqir that travelled south ransacked and overthrew a titan research station near Uldum, renaming themselves the qiraji and calling their new home Ahn'Qiraj. Although the Scourge would eventually consume the nerubian empire and throw its few remaining tol'vir slaves into the front lines, it's possible that more tol'vir still exist in the hidden titan city of Uldum or deep within the remnants of Azjol-Nerub.

source

Now, this is huge. It answered for folks who played Warcraft III why a unit they associated with the Scourge was in AQ. It gave us an idea of what the tol'vir first mentioned at BlizzCon '09 would look like and what they were. The implications are staggering. If you've been wondering (like, frankly, I had been) why the pictures of Uldum coming out looked so much like Anh'Qiraj, now you know. Uldum looks like AQ because both Uldum and AQ were build by the titans, not the old gods or their aqir/qiraji/nerubian servants. It also explains why the nerubian take on architecture derived so decisively from the qiraji model. Both the nerubians and qiraji found and enslaved tol'vir, but the nerubians didn't get their hands on an actual titan built facility the way the qiraji did.

Now, we can see that the architecture of Ulduar and Uldum are vastly different. There are similarities, to be sure, but Uldum/AQ definitely have their own aesthetic. Did the Northrend tol'vir have their own style as well, and that's why nerubian art and construction looks so different from their qiraji cousins? It probably contributed, to be sure. I'm actually ridiculously hopeful that a full-fledged Azjol-Nerub zone will be introduced in Cataclysm the way the Isle of Quel'Danas was at the end of Burning Crusade now.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: Ahn'Qiraj, Uldum and the Tol'Vir

Know Your Lore: Ahn'Qiraj, Uldum and the Tol'Vir originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST.  Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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