The story of World of Warcraft is being drastically changed again. A whole addon has now become absurd – and that makes fans angry.
That World of Warcraft changes some details in the lore after 20 years, that is something people have gotten used to by now. Once it was the Eredar who were corrupted by Sargeras, but that story was later reversed. The powers of the cosmos have also changed multiple times, just like the timeline of some events.
With the “Chronicles” book series, Blizzard wanted to finally create a clear line. A “definitive” narration of the story, finally brought into a logical context. But in doing so, it seems some details were forgotten. Because suddenly the story of an entire expansion makes no sense anymore.
Which expansion is it about? It is about Battle for Azeroth, one of the more recent expansions. The core plot of the addon was that Sylvanas, as the leader of the Horde, allied with the Zandalari to be able to rely on their fleet. Since this was seen as a threat, the Alliance then forged a plan to ally with Kul Tiras and send Jaina ahead to negotiate this alliance.
The catch is: With the new book “Chronicles IV,” that never actually happened.
Because the timeline in the new book is different. Accordingly, all the major story events on Kul Tiras – including Jaina’s arrival, the attack on Boralus, and her appointment as Lord Admiral – occur before the actual conflict between Horde and Alliance.
Also, the entire war campaign of the Horde, such as the finding of the body of Derek Proudmoore (Jaina’s brother), now takes place before the events in Zandalar. This also means that the Horde at that time did not have any base in the harbor of Zandalar – even though this was supposed to be the base for all operations of the war campaign.
Even more absurd is that the captivity of Princess Talanji, or rather her rescue, takes place only after the events on Kul Tiras have occurred.
This leads to a big logic problem.
In the playable story of Battle for Azeroth, the Horde has already made contact with the Zandalari and their fleet as a potential military force. Just because this is a threat, Jaina even decides to reach out to Kul Tiras and ask her family for help.
Since all of this now takes place before Talanji is even rescued and the Horde comes into contact with the Zandalari, many quests in the intro experience of Battle for Azeroth and also on Kul Tiras no longer make sense.
Criticism has been there even before: The criticism of the Chronicles books is not entirely new. After many fans bought the first books, expecting it to be a neutral and complete summary of events, Blizzard later revised that. In Chronicles, the events are told from “the Titans’ perspective” – thus, they are not neutral, and especially after Dragonflight, it is questionable whether the Titans ever told the truth.
That Blizzard is now even changing younger lore so drastically that suddenly, reasons for war and events happen in a completely different order than presented in the game, is likely to upset some fans. In the reddit forum, some players are upset that the story seems to make no sense anymore.
Perhaps this is necessary to bring the story of World of Warcraft into clear, logical paths that ultimately make sense for the “big picture.” But if even important events in the book deviate so drastically from the representation in the game, it raises uncomfortable questions that lead many to doubt the story.
