Read more about Shadowlands ➜ https://worldofwarcraft.mgn.tv
Thanks for tuning into Part Nine of my World of Warcraft experience. Getting ready to delve into Shadowlands, preparing for launch in November!
If I’ve missed something from this video, let me know in the comments below!
And remember, you can catch me live at https://www.twitch.tv/galaxyaus !
Catch the original clip at https://youtu.be/s4gBChg6AII 🙂
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The Lich King's and Sylvanas have a long history, it is probably the best story told in Warcraft going all the way to Warcraft 3. If I were you to better understand Sylvanas, it's best to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRMkhfs-z8&t=4021s so you get a full understanding of the Lich King, Sylvanas, and Proudmoore. When you have seen that video then its the Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic, followed by the Wrathgate cinematics, the fall of the Lich King Cinematics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4BCLP_sojs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MUc-rQD8j0.
Your reaction videos are awesome!!
OK. A lot to unpack here.
The Lich King is a title not a name. The "helm of domination" is the source of the king's power. It was made by the big baddie from this expansion The Jailer as a control mechanism over the dead on Azeroth (and probably other planets). Without it, the mindless undead would just do what zombies do: bring about the apocalypse So the helm (worn by someone to wield it – a lich king) was the only thing holding back the undead from just rampaging.
Icecrown Citidel (SO MUCH FUN TO RAID!!1!! sorry, i digress) was constructed by the Jailer as a gateway like thing and a baser of operations on Azeroth for him overseen by his Lich King wielding the sword Frostmourne to enslave souls of the living that he killed with it and the Helm of Domination which gave him the power to do it.
The former Lich King, before the "usurper" was a former Prince of Lordaeron, Arthas Menethil. (Calia's brother) WAAAY back in Warcraft 3 was "tricked" into taking up the sword Frostmourne (well his vanity and ego was used against him, really) which slowly twisted his mind with the whispers of who we now know is the Jailer and led to the summit of Icecrown where he donned the helm, merged with the spirit of the helm (basically let the Jailer move in his mind with him) and became the titular Lich King.
He then killed Syvannas and with Frostmourne turned her into an undead banshee and his slave. You saw that story in Warbringers: Sylvannas. So once free from his control, she wanted revenge.. And man did she go big. As Sylvannas does. She ended up freeing all the former humans of Lordaeron who had been killed and raised just like her and the became "The Forsaken"
In the Lich King expansion, we kill the Arthas Lich King. Bolvar Fordragon, another noble from Lordaeron who assists the raid in killing Arthas had just been burned by dragonfire (long story) so he's all burned and fiery looking. Even though everyone back home thinks Bolvar died, in reality he was Infused with the magic of dragon fire. So as we all stand over Arthas's body, he volunteers himself to take the Helm of Domination and sit for eternity alone on top of that spire being a good guy and keeping the Scourge (undead army) from rampaging across the planet and forces everyone present to take a vow to NEVER tell anyone, not even his family, about what Bolvar did. He speaks those famous lines "There must always be… a Lich King."
Sylvannas with her nemesis gone and no other reason to carry on throws herself off the citadel presumably to splatter herself on the stone below like the drama queen she is. Obvie, that didn't go as planned. The Jailer's hand-picked servant, Arthas had failed and been replaced by a… wait for it… usurper. So.. right from the very moment Bolvar took on the helm, BEFORE Sylvannas even had a chance to try and kill her undead self the Jailer already had a plan to fix it. So he unbeknownst to us at the time, saved Sylvannas as she was falling by some of his Valkyr struck a deal with her and set about the plan to… (deep breath)
Kill Vol'jin, the Troll and quite popular and beloved warchief of the Horde.
Install her as the new warchief
Start a war between the Horde and Alliance by committing genocide of the Night Elves so that all the souls go to the Jailer, (her boss)
Defeat his biggest competitor for universal power, the Old Gods (Void)
and when the time was right:
take the helm from Bolvar and rip open the veil and deliver Azeroth and it's Titan worldsoul to the Jailer to devour.
That's where we're at! <3
If you want to understand all the lore from start until now I suggest searching for The History of WoW in 23 Minutes. You may have to pause and slow it down a bit but it will tell you everything.
There are a lot of in game cinematics that give some insights and fill in story elements during and in between each expansion
If you want Legion to make sense you have to see all of them hahah I'm so sorry this game is literally so long and there is so much lore. For any of it to make sense you have to watch all of them. Bolvar is not the original Lich King, and there must always be a Lich King in order to control the balance of life and death on Azeroth. Bolvar was a paladin who sacrificed his life to control the scourge, being that he was such a great paladin and very in tune with the light he was able to keep control of the armor and the position of LK. By breaking the helm, she essentially killed the power of the Lich King, and therefore allowed the realm of life and death to converge. We all expected her to put it on. We were all in awe when she instead broke it.
To get a quick recap on what's going on, watch the Wrathgate cinematic, then the Lich King death cinematic. And to add more, watch Afterlives: Bastion
Welcome to all of our confusion.
"And I will set us all… Free."
Still gives me goosebumps even after seeing it who knows how many times.
Team Sylvanas for life. And beyond.
Anyway, there's Shadowlands cinematics called "Afterlives" which are similar in style to the Warbringers ones.
As my fellow commentors suggest, all the cinematics are worth watching. The lore of world of warcraft is old and long, if you feel like you have some catching up to do i highly suggest the lore aficionado Nobbel87. He has basically all the relevant videos on every major and minor characters, storyline and timeline you will ever need. Definitely worth a check out.
Also i like your reaction vids, keep up the great work.
I do recommend watching the Wrathgate in game cinematic and the Fall of the Lich King in game Cinematic. They are pretty dated and some of the first in game cinematics, but somebody did a remaster on them both and they are great.
"Why was he red and now he's blue?"
Cuz he's from Georgia.
Once again, recommend 'All the lore you NEED to know for Shadowlands (+BFA Recap)'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BH6wN8x338
Great cinematic and all, but SL better give a really good explanation as to how Sylvanas is so ridiculously powerful now…
As a former FFXIV player (and FF VI fan) FF story is linear and you will find amost all on game. WoW have books, games (Warcraft trilogy) and even a Movie (Warcraft movie its the setup of Warlords of Draenor visuals). Every ''new'' expansion have a lot of lore videos, a book and some small stories to setup everything. Sure, we dont have the (in)famous ''please take your time to watch 30+ minutes of cinematics'' but we have books, lol.
BfA was the first expansion with heavy cinematic content and we hope Shadowlands will follow the recipe.
This needs to be watched to understand whats coming next https://youtu.be/yjPcJsl3COs
Start with Warcraft III cinematics
The lich king stuff is kinda complicated but but in summary the true power of the lich king comes from the crown called Helm of Domination powerfull item bringed to azeroth from shadowlands it give you power to control undead and its kind of a bridge beetwen word of living and dead, the first lich king was Ner'zul orc that destroyed Draenor home planet of orcs creating outland he was tricked by one of the greater demons called Kill'jaden and he kinda bounded Ner'zul's soul to helm and left it on Northrend Ner'zul with his new power started controlling undead to kill all life on azeroth to make an army that can destroy burining legion, one of the paladins that fought against undead was Arthas (the one you meet in warcraft 3 and then in Wrath of the lich king, his story is really long, but i recomend you to play warcraft 3 or read the book about him called "Arthas" for me its greatest villan in all games history) he became second lich king (most badass lich king, for example he killed Sylvanas and turned her into banshee queen), the third lich king is one you see in this trailer his name is Bolvar Fordragon one of the greatest heroes of alliance that died under Wrathgate fighting against Arthas he was burned by the red dragons and then resurected and tortured by Arthas, when Arthas died by hand of Tyrion Fording in the end of Wrath of the lich king expantion Bolvar asked Tyrion to put crown on him because if noone controls undead they will kinda fuck everyone up, so there always must be a lich king to control them, and Bolvar even after he becamed lich king is kinda of a good guy that helped us fighting burining legion in legion expantion and now probbably will help us in shadowlands. Thats the short version i didn't put all Arthas story coz you should watch it on your own i really recomend that.
React to "The almost complete history of World of Warcraft in 23 minutes" by Hidden Azeroth
All the previous trailers and in-game cinematics are worth watching if you want to catch up on the very basic lore of the world and characters. My favorite will always be the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic trailer, it gives me chills every time.
There is a new prepatch cinematic that was released in game today that shows what happened right after this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKsNKZi5Ct8 History of WoW
That’s not arthas lich king btw that’s bolvar fordragon as the lich king.. when he activates lich king powers he turns blue….as to why he is red in first place…well that’s more lore you might wanna dig into
You should check out this video called "All the lore you NEED to know for Shadowlands (+BFA Recap)" made by Platinum WoW, it's pretty funny and it'll tell you everything you need to know.
Are you going to watch the Afterlives series next? I highly suggest it before Shadowlands since it gives you a quick introduction into each zone.
As a WoW player who has played FFXIV a bit myself, I'm finding great enjoyment in watching you react to these.
The current standing Lich King is Bolvar Fordragon. He looks burnt to a crisp simply due to the fact that he was. The Previous Lich King revived him just to torture him after the Events of Wrathgate (That's a rabbithole of it's own). He was then enstated as Lich King after ARthas (The previous Lich King) was killed so that the wandering undead of the world (though mostly just Northrend) would have a shepherd. Now that the crown is gone, which is what mind controlled the undead, the scourge of the world are free to attack and go anywhere they please. This prefaces the pre-patch content that dropped the other day.
Fun fact: If you go to Icecrown ingame, starting today, you can see the broken sky.
Also, you should definitely just watch all the ingame cinematics as well. Some will need a lot of context but just about all of them tell a fantastic story. The Legion ingame cinematics are a must, but they hit a lot harder if you're leveling through those zones and connecting with the characters.
In the timeline,the videos after this are the "afterlives",but you can watch any cinematic
Watch some videos by Nobbel, he is a WoW lore nut, and can fill in the story for you.
You have to watch cinematics from the very beginning,i.e, from Warcraft Reforged and then to World of Warcraft
"What kind of power is that?!" – Galaxy… and everyone on Earth and in Azeroth between "Reckoning" when she swatted Saurfang like a grumpy-but-lovable green bug and Shadowlands. Jaina, Lor'Themar, and Thalyssra exchanged a dialogue after Saurfang's death that went something like this:
Jaina – "Ummm… wtf was that?"
Lor'Themar – "You two lady-super-wizards don't know?"
Thalyssra – "Listen, I may have been slurping moonwell sizzurp for 10,000 years but even I know that sh*t's not right… the dark-matter-mystery-smoke was wild. I need a drink…"
Keep up the amazing content!
watch the ALL in Cronological order
These reaction vids are great! I'd recommend watching the intro videos of all the xpacs. It's a good stating point to see the villains that get referenced, and you can always delve into the cut scenes as you see fit.
I suggest you do the pre-patch event since it has 2 cinematics then you can go back and watch the old ones
This is a silly video, but it's also as thorough as I've seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmhO1LldIQw It covers every major lore event, FROM THE BEGINNING, as quickly as possible. It skims over everything, so you get the entire breadth with almost no depth. You can fill in depth later, as you come across things that are relevant/interesting to your adventures. Check it out.