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.

WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for World of Warcraft: The Comic. Players who are currently reading through the comics or simply wish to avoid spoilers from the series should avoid this post.

We're taking a step back from Alliance politics this week in light of some new information from the 3.3.5 PTR. The servers have been laggy and somewhat unstable, but I've still been able to log on and play through a few things. One of those things is an interesting new quest chain available in Orgrimmar involving Doomsday Cultists who are suddenly making appearances in the Drag and talking about the end of the world as we know it.

The biggest thing that sparked my interest was mention of Cho'gall. Matthew Rossi did an excellent write-up of the Twilight's Hammer and their leader Cho'gall, but what struck my interest was that Cho'gall's presence in game may lead to more interplay between story lines from the Warcraft comic series and World of Warcraft itself. However, while I made the connection readily enough, there are plenty out there who haven't read the comics and have no idea who Cho'gall, Med'an or any of the other characters I've referenced in previous posts actually are.

In light of this, today we're going to be talking about the last half of the Warcraft comics series -- what happened in them, who was introduced, who died, what happened with Cho'gall, why Silithus was suddenly relevant again, and most of all, who the heck that Med'an kid is that I've been going on about. As I will be talking about these things in detail, this post is absolutely brim full of spoilers for the comics series; readers who are interested in picking up the comics and reading through them may want to veer away from this post.

Med'an's story begins in Issue 15 of the comics. King Varian Wrynn just defeated Onyxia and rescued his son Anduin with the help of Valeera Sanguinar, Broll Bearmantle and Jaina Proudmoore. Everything seemed to be going well on Azeroth, and as Varian and the rest of the group headed back to Theramore, Jaina and Anduin managed to talk him into trying another peace summit with the orcs. He'd originally been on his way to a summit with Thrall when he was abducted by Onyxia -- and subsequently kidnapped by an orc shaman named Rehgar Earthfury and used in gladiator battles as a part of Rehgar's team, along with Valeera and Broll. Needless to say, Varian wasn't terribly keen on the idea of chatting with the orcs, but Anduin insisted, and Varian relented. The group reached Theramore, greeted by Aegwynn, who was happy to see them all in one piece. Aegwynn was the former Guardian of Tirisfal, the mother of Medivh and once upon a time, the most powerful woman on Azeroth.

Meanwhile in Thunder Bluff, a Forsaken mage named Stasia Fallshadow went to the Pools of Vision on Spirit Rise to investigate a scroll she'd found, a strange prophecy involving "the foretold savior of Azeroth." Stasia knew that whoever controlled the savior, controlled Azeroth -- something she was pretty keen on doing, for unknown reasons. She saw a vision of a half-orc woman in tears, standing over the corpse of a human king and barely showing her pregnancy. The half-orc gave birth to the child and turned it over to another undead, a mage that she called an old friend. She told the mage that she was too dangerous, too unstable and mad to take care of her son, and made him promise never to reveal to the child who his mother was. By the end of the vision, Stasia had the location of the child, now grown -- Brightwood Grove.

The child's name was Med'an. Med'an was an odd boy; he possessed an aptitude for both the natural magic of shaman and the arcane magic used by mages. Despite his youth, he was strangely powerful. Sometime later in Brightwood Grove, Med'an and his caretaker Meryl were attacked by a group of ogres and tauren. The attack was a surprise, but the even bigger surprise was the half-orc woman who suddenly dove in out of nowhere to help the two of them. Med'an thought the woman looked vaguely familiar, but Meryl pulled him to safety away from the battle. When they returned to the scene of the fight, the ground was littered with corpses; the woman that had given them aid, gone. It seemed she'd left just as quickly as she came.

Only she hadn't. The woman was Garona, the half-orc assassin who murdered King Llane Wrynn, Varian's father. Garona was a tool of Gul'dan back then, kept firmly under his control with control words he'd programmed into her when she was a child -- he'd basically ensorcelled her into doing whatever he commanded. Garona hadn't defeated the attackers; they'd captured her -- something that Stasia had planned all along -- and taken her back to Ahn'Qiraj, the stronghold of the Old God C'thun. It seems upon C'thun's death, the Twilight's Hammer moved into the city and took it over. Stasia brought Garona back to meet her master, Cho'gall, the ogre mage who heads the Twilight's Hammer. Cho'gall was thought dead back on the Broken Isles, but apparently rumors of his death were exaggerated. He was terribly pleased to see Garona, and even more pleased to see that the control words Gul'dan used on her were still effective. Garona would be a useful tool for him and make it that much easier to get to her son, the subject of the prophecy Stasia had uncovered.

Cho'gall had also caught wind of the peace summit to be held in Theramore and came up with a plan that would use Garona to her full potential. Using the control words to bend her to his will, he ordered her to seek out and murder King Varian Wrynn, followed by his son Anduin and then the Warchief Thrall. Stasia got together a group of Twilight's Hammer -- some human, some orc and some tauren -- to escort Garona on her journey. The humans would attack the Horde members, and the orcs and tauren would attack the Alliance members, and if Garona failed to kill Varian, each side would still be more likely to blame the other, declaring open war on the spot and completely ignoring the Twilight's Hammer and whatever they happened to be up to in the south. And if for some reason Garona failed and got herself killed, it'd be that much easier to get her son, Med'an. He then ordered Garona to forget all about both him and Ahn'Qiraj the moment she stepped out of the city -- to her, it would be as if she were working under her own volition.

Med'an in the meantime was still out in Brightwood Grove, trying to get himself in trouble so that the strange woman would show herself again, since Meryl wasn't talking about the incident or the half-orc. But she looked familiar, and Med'an couldn't place why – until he got home and overheard a conversation between Meryl and a man named Koron. Koron had infiltrated the Twilight's Hammer and owed Meryl a few favors, so Meryl called them in, asking for information about Garona's whereabouts. Unfortunately, he also let slip that Garona was Med'an's mother, and Med'an overheard that, too. Med'an took off to go rescue his mom; Meryl took off to go rescue Med'an from rescuing his mom.

Back in Theramore, the evening of the Horde's arrival was appropriately dark and stormy, largely due to Stasia, who brought a few shaman with her to offer some cloud cover. Garona angrily pointed out that this also meant she couldn't see who she was supposed to be targeting, and the group pulled back to try again at a later point. Stasia was ... less than pleased with Garona's attitude and decided that one way or another, Garona would be dying the next day -- whether it be by the hands of the Alliance and Horde, or by Stasia herself.

Warchief Thrall arrived, along with the two orcs he'd chosen as advisors: Garrosh Hellscream and Rehgar Earthfury, who'd given up the gladiator circuit in favor of more honest pursuits -- arguably two of the worst choices the warchief could've made. Everyone laid down their weapons, and the peace summit began. Despite the tensions between the orcs and humans, the two sides realized they had more in common than previously thought. By the end of it, Varian and Thrall were downright friendly with each other, something that pleased young Anduin immensely. Unfortunately, that tentative friendship would soon be irrevocably shattered. The summit was cut short due to news of a sudden uprising of Scourge in Goldshire and Southshore, and as the two parties prepared to leave, the Twilight's Hammer struck.

Cho'gall's plan succeeded in making all hell break loose as Garona and the Twilight's Hammer began their attack. Both Varian and Thrall were caught off guard by the ambush and fought back against the attackers ... until Varian caught sight of Garona. He immediately recognized the woman who had murdered his father right in front of him when he was a child and, enraged, turned on Thrall. As far as Varian was concerned, it was blatantly obvious that Thrall had hired Garona, the same orc that had killed his father, to come back and finish off Varian himself. Thrall thought he was crazy and told him as much, and Garrosh cut in with a few choice words of his own. Med'an managed to show up in time to save Anduin and try to rescue his mother -- and for his efforts, Stasia caught him, knocking him unconscious and carrying him away. On the way out, she used a few choice words to paralyze Garona on the spot so that she'd be unable to defend herself when Varian got around to executing her.

This is really the moment where all of the animosity we see in the Ulduar trailer began, the spark that set it all off. Garrosh saw Garona as a traitor and tried to kill her. Jaina stopped him even as Varian accused him of trying to do so in order to cover up the fact that Thrall had been the one to hire her in the first place. Jaina was perplexed by Garona's apparently spellbound state and the fact that the attackers had just left her to die; she wanted to know the reason behind it, so she insisted Garona stay imprisoned at Theramore until they found out just what she was up to. Then Garrosh opened his big fat mouth and said that it was obvious the Alliance were just trying to cover for Garona, and that Varian hired her to kill Thrall.

Thanks, Garrosh. You make a wonderful diplomat.

You have to understand that by this point, Varian was pissed, and he had every right to be. Garona killed his father and cut out his heart while Varian watched, when he was just a little boy. He wanted nothing more than revenge for his father's death, and Jaina was denying it. Not only that, but Thrall, Garrosh and the other orcs were going to simply walk away -- and if there's one thing Garrosh Hellscream is really, really good at, it's irritating the hell out of people. Given the situation, it's amazing that Varian didn't just lock Jaina away for treason and murder Garona, Thrall and the others. But he didn't. Thrall, Rehgar and Garrosh left in one piece -- and Thrall was almost heartbroken that things had fallen apart.

Varian and Anduin, who told his father about the strange boy that saved his life, the son of Garona, got ready to leave. Varian said he wasn't about to kill a mother but given the extent of her crimes, when Jaina was done figuring out what had happened, he wanted Garona turned over to Stormwind for execution -- mother or no. In the meantime, Garona began to come out of her stupor, just in time to beg Valeera to save her son. Valeera decided to stay in Theramore and find out more about Garona and her son in the hopes of figuring out more about what had just happened, and bid Varian and Anduin farewell.

Jaina and Aegwynn both were astounded by the depth of the mental blocks placed on Garona to keep her from remembering anything. Between Jaina's magic and Garona's sheer strength of will, the assassin managed to scream the words "Ahn'Qiraj" before passing out entirely. Meanwhile, Meryl -- remember him? The guy who was supposed to be keeping Med'an out of trouble? He'd traced Med'an's path to Theramore and arrived with the Scourge at his heels only to find Garona knocked out on a table. But what was surprising was what happened next: Aegwynn recognized Meryl. Apparently while he was alive, he was one of the founding members of the Council of Tirisfal, the same Council that appointed Aegwynn as Guardian back in the day.

Med'an in the meantime woke up in Ahn'Qiraj to the dulcet tones of Cho'gall, who was berating Stasia for her failure in bringing Garona back, to Stasia's protests. After Stasia admitted she was just trying to get Garona killed, Med'an tried to attack them both and got himself flung across the room for his troubles -- landing right on top of the corpse of C'thun. Despite being a corpse, the thing immediately starting whispering sweet nothings of chaos and destruction in Med'an's horrified ears.

While Jaina, Aegwynn and the soldiers of Theramore fought off the Scourge forces that had followed Meryl and attacked, Meryl teleported himself and Valeera into Ahn'Qiraj and right into the middle of a very surprised and very angry group of Twilight's Hammer, who were none too happy to see the two of them. After a long battle in which Med'an was rescued and Valeera managed to get herself fully possessed by the spirit of a dreadlord, they got out. The dreadlord's name was Kathra'natir, and Meryl had seen him before -- in fact, Meryl had banished the dreadlord from Azeroth more than 3,000 years before. Rather than let Valeera remain possessed, Meryl took the demon's spirit within himself and teleported everyone back to Theramore.

Aegwynn finally got to set her eyes on Med'an and was absolutely floored to discover that the kid was the spitting image of her son Medivh -- well, Medivh if he'd been a half-orc. Meryl spoke with her about it, and the two decided to keep Med'an's heritage a secret for the time being -- but the revelation of who exactly his father was certainly did a lot to explain the sheer amount of power and magical prowess Med'an possessed. Jaina took Med'an to see Garona down in the prisons, but to her dismay discovered that Garona had somehow managed to come out of the coma she was in and escape.

Only Garona hadn't really escaped; she'd been taken away. In the now-empty cavern of Onyxia's former lair, not too far from Theramore, Garona was awakened by a draenei paladin named Maraad, who identified himself as Garona's uncle. Apparently, the whole bit about Garona being half-human was incorrect; Garona was actually half-draenei, an experiment of Gul'dan who'd been "bred" specifically to be an easily controlled killing machine. Maraad told Garona that he could help her break the bonds that she'd been programmed with her entire life, but it would take time, and Garona decided the best course of action would be instead to go kill Cho'gall. If Chog'all died, his hold on her would also die -- and if she failed and died, at least she would no longer be a danger to anyone.

Med'an overheard Aegwynn and Meryl talking about his mother, as did Valeera, and both set out to go find Garona. Valeera got there first and was immediately attacked by Maraad, who thought that Valeera was there to harm Garona. Garona slipped away on Valeera's mount and was met in mid-air by her son, who demanded to know just what had been going on. Garona explained that she had to leave, that she was too much of a danger to keep around, and told Med'an to go speak to Maraad -- his great-uncle -- and stop him from killing Valeera down below. Then she left for Ahn'qiraj, to confront Cho'gall and either kill him or be killed in the process.

Med'an broke up Valeera and Maraad's squabble with an impressive display of shamanic magic. But he was overcome with a sudden attack -- the whispers of C'thun drove into his mind, and Maraad helped him by using the power of the Holy Light to heal the kid. Med'an was awfully impressed by the show and asked Maraad if he'd teach him how to use it. Though the Light took years to master, Maraad said, if Med'an was willing to learn, Maraad would gladly teach him.

This is where everything starts to pull together -- Maraad had been looking for his niece for years, and a recent vision pointed him to Theramore. The vision itself involved Garona, that she would somehow be instrumental in the salvation of Azeroth and her actions would avert an upcoming "catastrophe." Sounds familiar, huh? Right.

Unfortunately, when everyone sits down to try and piece it all together, they're stuck. Cho'gall is obviously planning something of epic proportions, but the armies of Azeroth are already focused on Northrend due to the Scourge's attacks. Which is when Meryl comes up with an idea ... Three thousand years before, a group of magi in Dalaran secretly formed the Council of Tirisfal to combat the influx of demons in the world. It was time, Meryl suggested, for a new Council of Tirisfal.

The suggestion was a good one, but Jaina pointed out a flaw in the plan: While the original Council was made up entirely of mages, there was something funny going on with Malygos up in Northrend, something that was weakening the power of mages all across Azeroth. Aegwynn came up with the idea of creating a council made up of all schools of magic disciplines: shaman and druid, priest and paladin, working together as one. With that thought in mind, Jaina decided to ask Maraad to be on the Council and ask if he'd travel to Outland and seek Khadgar to join as well. In addition, she decided to ask Thrall if he would join. Meryl suggested a dwarven priest he was acquainted with, and Aegwynn made the unlikely suggestion of a gnomish inventor. The choices made, Jaina left to go speak with Thrall.

While Thrall was flattered by Jaina's offer, he couldn't very well leave while the Horde were tied up in the war against the Scourge in Northrend, and he suggested Jaina take Rehgar as a replacement. He told her to seek out Archdruid Hammul Runetotem as well, since he and Rehgar were well acquainted. Jaina thanked him for his help and left with Rehgar.

Meanwhile, Garona reached Ahn'Qiraj, only to witness the terrifying transformation of Cho'gall as he was twisted into a monstrous mockery of the ogre he'd once been by his "master." Said master demanded Med'an's immediate recapture and gave Cho'gall the power to summon something to help him -- a Faceless One, the same ones we see in Ahn'kahet and Ulduar. It rose forth from the oceans near Theramore to attack.

Back in Theramore, Maraad, who had been teaching Med'an the ways of the Holy Light, prepared to leave for Outland. Med'an expressed a wish to go along, but Maraad told him to stay behind and keep practicing, as he was showing an astounding aptitude for the magic of the Light. Just then, the voices began to whisper to Med'an again, and the Faceless One burst forth from the water. Everyone tried to fight the thing back, but it was Med'an who managed to kill it with an impressive blast of arcane and shamanic magic woven together. Rehgar and Jaina returned just in time to witness it. Rehgar, Jaina, Meryl and Aegwynn were astounded by the way the boy seemed to effortlessly use magic in a way no one had ever seen before. Med'an told the group that he'd heard the voices again and that the Light had shown him that the being that was haunting him was old, as old as the world itself -- an Old God.

In Ahn'Qiraj, Chogall's "master" showed his displeasure at Cho'gall's failure by warping his body even further. Cho'gall decided since the boy couldn't be captured and bent, he would simply have to be sacrificed -- and with proper engineering, his death would accomplish what Cho'gall had wanted all along. The energy discharged upon Med'an's death would break the bonds that imprisoned his master and free him to unleash chaos onto Azeroth. Cho'gall's plan all along was to release an Old God.

The Twilight's Hammer are kind of nuts.

Meanwhile, Maraad and the others decided to allow Med'an to travel to Outland in order to get him away from Azeroth and out of the Old God's reach. Meryl and Aegwynn had a quiet conversation about Med'an's father, and Meryl insisted that Aegwynn needed to tell Med'an about Medivh, but Aegwynn refused. This time, her reasoning was that due to the power he was demonstrating, if people found out he was the son of the guardian who had unleashed the Horde upon Azeroth and nearly destroyed the world in the process, Med'an would find himself shunned, outcast, feared. All of the potential he'd been showing would be absolutely wasted. Meryl insisted that there had been enough mysteries surrounding the boy's parentage -- and told her if she didn't spill it to Med'an, he would. Aegwynn turned right around and threatened him back.

It turned out the threats were wasted breath. That night, as Med'an slept, he was suddenly visited by a vision that called himself "Medivh the accursed." Medivh informed Med'an that he was the boy's father and told him to come to him and visit his tower, Karazhan, if he wished to know more. Med'an was horrified -- apparently though he knew virtually nothing of Garona, he knew of Medivh and what he had done. The thought of telling his newly found great-uncle that he was descended from the monster who'd opened the Dark Portal and brought death to the races of Azeroth and Draenor repulsed him, and he vowed to himself that Karazhan would be the last place he would ever, ever go.

Everyone brought together the new members of the Council -- Rehgar and Valeera sought out Hammul, Meryl traveled to Ironforge to speak with the dwarf priest he'd suggested and find the gnome inventor that Aegwynn had suggested as well. Maraad and Med'an reached Shattrath and met with Khadgar.

Khadgar is an interesting character. You can find him in Shattrath, hanging out with A'dal. He has the appearance of an old man, but in reality he's only in his late 30s, maybe early 40s. When he was only 17 years old, he was sent by the Kirin Tor to be an apprentice to Medivh, and over the course of his time there discovered that Medivh was possessed by Sargeras and responsible for opening the Dark Portal and opening the way for the Horde to invade Azeroth. While trying to defeat Medivh with the help of Garona and Anduin Lothar, Medivh cursed the boy with frailty and old age.

Needless to say, the second Khadgar saw Med'an he knew who his father was. After telling Maraad that he was unable to join the council himself, he suggested an alternate mage from the Scryers and told Maraad to go speak to her while he had a word with Med'an. Khadgar told the boy about his father, and Med'an explained that Garona had been a product of a breeding experiment by Gul'dan -- an instrument under his control. Khadgar told Med'an about Medivh's possession and that he always suspected that Medivh tried his hardest to fight that possession, just as much as Garona tried to fight Gul'dan's control. A'dal chose that moment to speak to the boy directly.

"Meditate carefully on your decisions, Med'an. For the Light has given you great gifts and greater opportunity. Choose wisely, and you will become one of Azeroth's greatest weapons against evil. But the wrong choice could lead to that world's doom."

Maraad, the mage he'd recruited for the council and Med'an returned to Azeroth, where Med'an made his choice. He told Maraad he would meet him in Theramore and promptly teleported to Karazhan and whatever awaited him there.