Chapter 3

Greenfield Plains, southern Alterac, First Day of Spring

The harsh gray eyes looked upon the wilderness with years of experience and wisdom. His men filed up in line as they should have, and prepared for the next battle, none of which could predict when or where.

Yes, we have the men, now if only we can find this menace before it grows too large to contain…he thought, reflecting his strict orders from the head of State and the rightful Monarch of the land, King Terenas Menethil II.

He, Uther the Lightbringer, had been assigned to destroy the growing orcish threat in southern Lordaeron, the mightiest human kingdom in the land, its proud heritage stretching back thousands of years, from the age of the Empire of Arathor to the founding of the Principals of the Holy Light to the wars against the unworldly and savage orcish Horde.

Yet he was not of Lordaerel birth, instead of coming from the warmer climes of the south, borne of the Kingdom of Azeroth. Azeroth, otherwise known as the Kingdom of Stormwind, had once been the greatest of the seven human nations of Lordaeron, Alterac, Gilneas, Stromgarde, Dalaran, and Lordaeron. In its days of glory it boasted the largest population and cities, its armies thought nigh invincible. It had been cut off from the other six nations of humanity by its remoteness, its location on the southern continent.

The grand Stormwind was founded by the last descendants of the bloodline of Arathor, the ancient unified human kingdom, and thus already contained many riches and glories. Many stories of Azeroth's greatness, its vast halls of inlaid gold and ever-shining marble of Stormwind Keep, the glittering spires and pristine churches of the holy city of Northshire, the wealth of the bustling Grand Hamlet, the vast golden farmlands of Westfall, had reached the North over the many years, turning Stormwind into something of a legend.

Yet in all its hundreds of years of lore and history Stormwind had never encountered had appeared twenty years ago from the uncharted wilderness of the steamy swamps of the Black Morass; the invaders from the east of the vast southern continent that situated Stormwind.

At first the ruler of the land, the benevolent King Llane I of the Wrynn Dynasty, had been able to marshal armies enough to hold the invaders back from where they first appeared, near the fetid Swamps of Sorrow and Black Morass.

The invaders soon identified themselves as the orcish Horde, a race of green-skinned, brutish, somewhat primitive, violent, blood lusted killers and warriors.

The demon-driven orcs though kept building their numbers, until the grand armies of Stormwind were overrun. The war, later called the First War of Orcish Ascension, utterly obliterated Stormwind.

In the end, the just and benevolent King Llane was killed in the siege of the capital of Stormwind, and Lord Lothar, commanding general of the nation's armies and blood connected to the throne has bestowed the title of Regent Lord and had led nearly half of the population of the kingdom in what would later be called the Great Exodus to the northern continent of Lordaeron, where the other six human nations lay placidly in oblivious wait.

Bringing tales of the destruction they had faced at the hands of the Horde, the refugees from Azeroth found safety in the lands of Lordaeron, if only for a time. In scant years the orcish threat had reappeared, their Horde conquering most of the dwarven kingdom of Khaz Modan, forcing the human nations to band together in a grand coven, latter named the Alliance of Lordaeron.

The dwarves were quick to join, hateful of the Horde, and with most of their mountainous lands under the control of the barbaric orcs and their allies. Even the brusque High Elves of Quel'thalas decided to partially endorse the Alliance, and later fully join it as their forests were burned down by the out worldly invaders.

What was then called the Second War continued for many years, and hundreds of thousands lost their lives. The battles ranged from southern Lordaeron to remote northern Quel'thalas, and the bloody counter attack back into Azeroth itself, many perishing in the greatest war ever to inflict itself upon the world. Long, blood-drenched engagements such as the fly-infested Battles at the Thandol Span, the long, starving Siege of the Capitol, the campaigns in Hillsbrad, Southshore, and Tarren Mill, to the terrible standoff at the Battle of Blackrock Spire, and the final bloodshed at the Dark Portal itself had defined the conflict.

The war had finally been won, through skill, luck, and treachery within the enemy, but at such terrible cost. Regent Lord Lothar along with thousands of comrades and the countless dead of the enemy forever were cast into the Great Beyond by the War, but all civilization and good had been saved by the Alliance.

Yet in the years to come internal conflicts within began to destroy the Alliance. The strong and integral nation of Gilneas was first to leave, followed by the military force of Stromgarde, and also later the magical High Elves.

Yet, King Terenas had managed so far to keep the Alliance intact to its present state, containing the superpower of Lordaeron, the rebuilt Azeroth, the merchant and naval supreme Kul Tiras, and surprisingly the dwarven thanes of Ironforge and its lands.

Skirmishes and threats would continue for years though, as the orcs again rampaged through the Dark Portal many months later, then pushed back to their own homeworld, the red world of Draenor, where Lord General Turalyon and his forces held their ground, closing off the Dark Portal to save Azeroth as the Draenor itself fell apart around them.

And so due to the heroic sacrifice of all these men and women the world had lived in relative peace, until now.