Learn About WarCraft Lore: The Cinematics

The video opens with the long-standing conflict between orcs and humans, a human knight and an orcish grunt in an open field, battling for seemingly no other reason than their mutual hatred for one another... but something looms on the horizon, far larger than anything the Alliance or Horde has ever had to deal with before...

As the new, young orcish warchief Thrall rests in his hut, strange visions of the future haunt his sleep... visions of war, death, and fire that will consume all of Azeroth...

Meanwhile, King Terenas of Lordaeron is burdened with many troubles... a plague has been spreading fast through the cities to the north, along with the ongoing problem of orcs who have escaped from their internment camps ravaging the countryside. A strange visitor, however, brings warnings of far more trouble ahead...

After the Prophet's warnings go unheeded, King Terenas sends his son, Prince Arthas, to investigate the strange plague in the lands to the north. What the young paladin discovers there is more disturbing than he could have imagined: the plague is the work of a cult of necromancers, inspired by the demon Mal'ganis, which transformed the infected into mindless, undead zombies which fed ravenously on the flesh of their former families and neighbors, who were thusly also transformed into undead.

Arthas, after having put an end to the leader of the Cult of the Damned, fought the demon Mal'ganis in the city of Stratholme, slaying villagers as they slept in an attempt to spare them from becoming undead abominations. When finally confronted, Mal'ganis fled to the frozen wastes of Northrend, with Arthas hot on his heels. Upon arrival in Northrend, Arthas learned about the Lich King, the leader of the undead Scourge, working under the Burning Legion to wipe out all life on Azeroth, and also about a runeblade called Frostmourne, which he believed would give him the power to slay Mal'ganis and free his people. Taking up Frostmourne came at a terrible price, however, and Arthas found his soul consumed by the blade, his mind turning, and his allegiances uncertain. After months in the frozen wastes, Arthas returned to Lordaeron and received a hero's welcome from his father and his people...

After betraying his father, Arthas went on a murderous campaign through the lands that, by right of succession, were now his kingdom. As he slaughtered his way from city to city, town to town, his childhood friend Jaina Proudmoore was visited by the same prophet as Thrall and Arthas's father, only unlike the late king, she heeded his warning and gathered as many people as would listen to her and fled to the distant land of Kalimdor to the west.

Meanwhile, Arthas destroyed the ancient forests of Quel'thalas, land of the High Elves, murdering all in his path, in order to use the magical powers of the Sunwell, the source of the elves' power, to resurrect the Cult of the Damned leader Kel'thuzad as an undead lich. From here, he received further instruction to storm the city of Dalaran to summon the demon lord Archimonde, who then proceeded to finish the destruction of Dalaran through powerful magics...

Some time later, across the Great Sea, the orcs, led by Thrall, arrive in Kalimdor, shipwrecked and separated from other members of their party. Eventually, Thrall becomes reunited with his friend Grom Hellscream, as well as meeting the Tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof and becoming allies with his people.

As Thrall tries to seek out an oracle to help him decipher the disturbing visions of the future, he leaves Grom, who had recently shown little to no restraint in attacking small human settlements that were appearing in the new land, to collect lumber for their campaign. Grom reluctantly agrees to this task and sets his peons to begin chopping down wood. He soon discovers that the woods are sacred to a strange, savage race of elves, the Night Elves, and the demigod Cenarius. After fighting a losing battle, Grom happens upon a font of demon blood, prepared for him by the pit lord Mannoroth. After partaking in the blood, Grom and his orcs devastate the night elf forces and slay Cenarius.

Meanwhile, Thrall ventured into the Stonetalon Mountains, seeking the oracle, who he soon finds out is none other than the same prophet who instructed him to come to Kalimdor to begin with, and it is revealed that the prophet is none other than the Guardian Medivh, whose madness brought the orcs to Azeroth to begin with. At this time, he also meets Jaina Proudmoore and, under Medivh's guidance, strikes up an uneasy alliance between his people and the humans. He returned to his camp to find that Grom and many of his orcs have become red-skinned chaos orcs after having drank the demon blood. He hastily puts together a plan with Jaina to capture Grom and remove the demon's influence on the orc hero's soul. Once free, Grom and Thrall venture deep into Ashenvale forest to hunt down Mannoroth, to settle the score between orcs and the demon once and for all...

As the humans and orcs continued with their extremely fragile alliance, the night elf High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind watched from the forests, angry that these strange creatures had invaded her land and had begun clearing her forests for fortifications. Her concerns were quickly turned to more pressing matters, however, when the undead Scourge began to invade Kalimdor, destroying orc, human, and night elf alike, with the Burning Legion and the night elves' ancient enemy Archimonde close behind.

To prepare for the coming onslaught, Tyrande awakened the druids, including her love Malfurion Stormrage who had been sleeping for nearly ten thousand years, journeying through the alternate dimension of the Emerald Dream. As she and Malfurion ventured deep into the earth to awaken further demons, she came upon an ancient prison, which contained Malfurion's brother, Illidan Stormrage. Against Malfurion's wishes, Tyrande decided to free Illidan, hoping he could help in the continued campaign against the Burning Legion.

After being freed, Illidan set about striking against the demonic Legion, but soon felt the pangs of his thirst for power, and at the suggestion of the death knight Arthas, consumed the powers of the Skull of Gul'dan, becoming a horrifying, powerful half-demon monster. After slaying one of Archimonde's dreadlord lieutenants, he was discovered by Tyrande and Malfurion, who demanded that the demon tell them what he had done with Illidan. When it was revealed that the creature was, in fact, Illidan Stormrage, Malfurion banished him from Ashenvale in disgust, and Illidan swiftly departed, planning his revenge against those who had betrayed him.

Soon afterwards, the night elves struck up an alliance with the humans and the orcs, as they discovered that Archimonde's plan was to climb to the summit of Mount Hyjal and strike at the World Tree Nordrassil, destroying it to get to the Well of Eternity, the mystical source of the night elves' immortality and an infinitely powerful font of magic which Archimonde could use to call forth the entirety of the Burning Legion onto the face of Azeroth. The unified forces of the orcs, humans, and night elves stood to defend Mount Hyjal as Malfurion prepared a way to end Archimonde once and for all with the aide of the spirits of the forest. One by one, the alliance's fortifications fell, until finally, Archimonde made his way to Nordrassil, and the energies of the Well of Eternity...

Determined to destroy the Lich King, Illidan used the immense powers of the Skull of Gul'dan to awaken the Naga, a race of night elves transformed into aquatic reptilians by the hand of ancient powers deep beneath the waters of the Great Sea...

With the aide of the naga, Illidan managed to gain access to the powerful artifact, the Eye of Sargeras, which he used to shake the very foundations of the earth, causing a crack in the icy tomb of the Lich King, greatly weakening his power and his hold over his undead minions. In his weakened state, the Lich King called out to Arthas to come to Northrend to aide him. Arthas, meanwhile, was forced to deal with an uprising of his undead legions, led by Sylvanas Windrunner, former ranger of Quel'thelas. The death knight left his lieutenant Kel'thuzad to take care of quelling the rebellion, a task which he failed at and was forced to retreat to the floating citadel of Naxxramus.

Arthas rushed to Northrend to assist the Lich King, while Illidan, under the command of the demon lord Kil'jaeden, also hurried to the frozen continent with new allies in the blood elves, led by Kael'thas Sunstrider, only his task was to finish off the Lich King and end the undead threat to Azeroth once and for all. At the base of the Icecrown Citadel, home of the frozen throne of the Lich King, Arthas and Illidan battled fiercely - the death knight in the end being the victor, leaving Illidan mortally wounded in the snow as Arthas began his ascent to meet his master, haunted by the voices of all he had slain and betrayed during his rise as a death knight...