Vorgendor
Vorgendor, also known as the Blood Dimension, is a world in the Great Dark Beyond and the homeworld of the worgen.[1] The worgen were originally favoured servants of Elune, created as guardians against encroaching darkness. Their blood was originally pure and blue, and they possessed a close connection to Elune.[2][3]
Vorgendor was invaded by the Burning Legion, known to its inhabitants as the "Emerald Flame". In desperation, the worgen turned to blood magic to fight the invaders, corrupting their race and allowing the pricoliches, powerful masters of blood magic, to rise to prominence.[1][3][4] Despite their use of blood magic, the worgen have gradually been losing their war against the Legion.[1]
History
Ancient Vorgendor
The worgen were originally favoured children of Elune and were created to serve as guardians against encroaching darkness. Their blood was pure and blue, resembling the waters of the moonwells.[2][3]
The ancient worgen revered a blue moon as a goddess. Their surviving traditions foretold that the Moon Goddess would one day return and that the Blue Moon would reappear, opening a gateway into a new realm untouched by the Emerald Flame where the worgen could prosper. Ur later speculated that this promised sanctuary might be Azeroth and questioned whether the moon worshipped by the ancient worgen might be Azeroth's Blue Child.[1]
At some point before the Great Sundering, Highborne mages discovered Vorgendor. During the reign of Queen Azshara, her mages opened portals to several distant realms, including Vorgendor.[5] Some Highborne also learned to draw extraplanar power from Vorgendor through rituals fuelled by blood. These rites could increase the physical strength, intellect, and agility of their practitioners, but could also cause madness, visions, and transformations into wolf-like creatures. Continued experimentation corrupted the bodies and minds of the practitioners; the survivors were eventually hunted down and banished. Their knowledge of blood magic was lost.[6]
The Emerald Flame
Vorgendor was eventually invaded by a force known to the worgen as the Emerald Flame, which Ur later identified as the Burning Legion. Facing destruction, the worgen turned to blood magic in desperation. Blood magic came to dominate their society and gradually corrupted the race, while its most powerful practitioners, the pricoliches, rose to power.[1][3]
The pricoliches gained control over worgen servants, stripping them of their free will and reducing them to obedient soldiers. Despite their corruption, the worgen continued fighting the Legion and accumulated centuries of experience in the conflict.[3] Their struggle was ultimately unsuccessful in driving the invaders away and, by the time of Ur's investigations, the worgen were gradually losing their war.[1]
Ur's expeditions
The human mage Ur devoted much of his research to other worlds and eventually became particularly interested in Vorgendor. He studied surviving accounts of the world and its inhabitants and personally travelled there.[1][5]
Ur described Vorgendor as a dark place of nightmares. During his travels there, he observed a blood-red moon and communicated with a worgen blood mage, from whom he learned of the worgen prophecy concerning the return of their Moon Goddess and the Blue Moon.[1] He also studied the magical pathways between Vorgendor and Azeroth and concluded that sufficiently powerful magic could bring worgen across the barrier between the worlds.[7]
Contact with Azeroth
The Scythe of Elune eventually provided a means of summoning worgen to Azeroth. Velinde Starsong used the Scythe to summon worgen to fight demonic corruption, unaware that a pricolich had manipulated her by presenting himself as Elune. The summoned worgen initially fought effectively against the Burning Legion, but the influence of the pricoliches eventually overwhelmed Velinde's control over them.[3]
At least two pricoliches reached Azeroth. Keeper Gnarlmoon established himself in Karazhan, while Father Lycan travelled through the barrier between Vorgendor and Azeroth and became involved in the affairs of Gilneas.[3][8] Lycan describes the feral worgen already present on Azeroth as sentries and foot soldiers preceding a possible conquest of the world.[8]
The pricoliches now seek to open a portal to Vorgendor.[3]
Endnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Vorgendor: Myths from the Blood Dimension", Turtle WoW (2018–2026)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Wolfblood", Turtle WoW (2018–2026)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "Wisdom of Ur", Turtle WoW (2018–2026)
- ↑ The word is never defined within Turtle WoW, but it is clearly derived from the Romanian word pricolici "werewolf".
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Scythe of the Goddess", Turtle WoW (2018–2026)
- ↑ "On the Powers of Blood", Turtle WoW (2018–2026)
- ↑ "The Book of Ur", World of Warcraft (2004)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Celia's Journal", Turtle WoW (2018–2026)