The Warcraft timeline of events is a constantly shifting mass of lore information, and while some events and characters remain constant, others have changed significantly over the five-year run of the game. Malfurion Stormrage is one of those characters; noticeably absent from the World of Warcraft scene, his history was dramatically altered with the release of the War of the Ancients trilogy by Richard A. Knaak in 2004. Not only were the events of his youth altered, there were additions and changes made to the war he participated in that directly contradicted events presented in previous Warcraft games. In light of the impending release of the Stormrage novel, also penned by Richard A. Knaak, we're going to take a look at Malfurion, his history in games and novels to date, and what he's been up to so far in the World of Warcraft.


Please note: As the events of the Warcraft novels are considered canon according to Blizzard, I will be using those events as a basis for his history. Keep in mind there is an alternate timeline, but that timeline is no longer applicable -- and if you've got a problem with it, blame Chromie and the rest of the Bronze dragonflight.


Who: Malfurion Stormrage, aka Shan'do (honored teacher) Stormrage, aka the baddest druid that ever druid...ed.


What: Night elf – no demonic presence here!


History: Malfurion Stormrage was one half of a set of twins, Illidan Stormrage being his brother. The two had a fairly idyllic childhood along with their close friend Tyrande Whisperwind. As they grew older, the three elves found themselves having to choose their individual paths as adults. While Tyrande joined the priesthood of the Sisters of Elune, Malfurion and Illidan found themselves with a very different sort of teacher -- the demigod Cenarius, who was attempting to teach both of the twins the ways of druidic magic. Druidism was not something that the kal'dorei had previously followed, so the magic that Cenarius was teaching the twins was entirely new to them. Malfurion showed an amazing aptitude for the druidic arts right off the bat, while Illidan, despite being powerful in his own right, couldn't seem to grasp the spells and nuances of nature magic. Cenarius informed Malfurion that his brother was meant to follow a different path (and boy howdy what a path that was), and that it was Malfurion that was destined for the path of the druid, then showing him how to walk the Emerald Dream.


Malfurion had always been a different sort of night elf -- while the kal'dorei that surrounded the Well of Eternity were followers of sorcery and arcane magic, tending towards more flamboyant dress and speech, Malfurion was much more simple and humble. He dressed in a subdued manner, and the magic that he practiced was pretty much the direct opposite of the sorcery of the night elves. He also tended to question the ways and actions of night elf society and of Queen Azshara. These questions left him with few friends and few associates -- but it turns out Stormrage was right to question things, as his first trip into the Emerald Dream was a vision of the Well of Eternity and something terrible going on with the waters surrounding the palace of the Queen.

Turns out Queen Azshara and her followers were tinkering around with the Well – a source of infinite magic power drawn from the Great Dark Beyond (aka the void between worlds, or simply put, outer space). The tinkering, and the sheer amount of power contained in the Well had drawn the attentions of the evil titan Sargeras and his Burning Legion. Sargeras decided it was worth it to corrupt both the Highborne worshippers of the Queen and the Queen herself, promising her a wonderful magical sparkling world in which she could reign for eternity -- so long as she, you know, made a portal strong enough that Sargeras could pop through it, say hello, destroy all life on Azeroth as we know it, and have some tea. This information didn't fly with Malfurion, and so the War of the Ancients began!


The Burning Legion ran rampant through the city of Zin'Azshari and the lands surrounding it, and the night elves fought back as more and more of them realized something was up with the Queen. During the course of these wars, several key events happened: Malfurion grew stronger than ever, using the Emerald Dream to muck around with the portal at the Well. More and more night elves saw his path and his actions and decided they were the right ones to follow, indulging in 'Hooray Malfurion' and 'You sure know what's what' praise and accolades to the twin. Malfurion's popularity was growing in leaps and bounds, largely because he wasn't intent on bringing an army of demons through a portal and destroying the general public.


Illidan grew more angst ridden, annoyed that his brother was getting more attention and praise when clearly he was the superior dude, and took off to join the fighting forces in an attempt to highlight the fact that he was ever so much better than his brother. After receiving a reprimand from a superior officer and being told he was to answer to a human (Rhonin, who we...won't discuss. Time travel. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey things. Keep that in mind.), Illidan had just about had it. The final straw for Illidan came when Tyrande Whisperwind, close friend to both brothers and romantic lead extraordinaire decided, while she was doing priest business and helping out with the war, that she really liked Malfurion. You know, not liked, liked-liked. In that way. Illidan, ticked beyond all reason, went to join Team Azshara in a secret plot to undermine their plans and destroy the Well of Eternity all on his lonesome, convinced that if he could show Tyrande how much of an awesome loner hero he was, she'd decide he was a Really Swell Guy, and ditch his brother.

 

The war raged, the Legion ran rampant, and the night elves fought back against the pit lord Mannoroth and the eredar Archimonde and won. Malfurion managed to convince his brother that Team Azshara's odds were a really, really long shot to bet on, and that the portal that Azshara and the Highborne had put together needed to be toast. Malfurion and Illidan managed to close the portal -- but not without consequences. The stress surrounding the Well and the portal, not to mention Sargeras' last minute attempt to shove himself through the shrinking portal, caused the whole world to go kaboom. Azeroth itself received a face lift in the form of the Sundering that shattered the once-whole continent of Kalimdor into several different landmasses. Malfurion, Tyrande, Illidan, and everyone else took off for high ground, convening up at Hyjal. Illidan, still annoyed about the hooray Malfurion rabble, decided to make a new Well of Eternity with some vials of water he'd stolen from the original Well, an action that earned him swift arrest. While the night elves wanted to put the twin to death, Malfurion spoke in his defense -- and so Illidan wasn't killed, he was merely locked away for life. Underground. Where nobody would see him or think of him again. Thanks, Malfurion.

Malfurion and the night elves were unsure what to do about this new Well -- they couldn't very well destroy it as the thought of yet another kaboom wasn't exactly appealing at this point. Malfurion went to the dragonflights, who made a tree for the night elves to live in and blessed it with gifts -- thanks to the Bronze dragonflight, the night elves were now immortal, and thanks to the Green dragonflight, they were charged to watch over the new Well and the rest of the world via the Emerald Dream. Malfurion shared a heartfelt and tearful goodbye with Tyrande and headed out to take a nice nap along with a score of new druids, wandering around in the Emerald Dream and making sure everything stayed put.

Tyrande woke him up briefly a few thousand years later due to an attack by the Highborne survivors, who were throwing a hissy about not being able to practice arcane arts anymore. He ordered their exile, earning the enmity of the quel'dorei in the process -- thanks, Malfurion -- said another tearful and heartfelt goodbye to Tyrande, and went back to sleep, spending the majority of the next several thousand years dozing and watching over the Well via the Emerald Dream.

Meanwhile, Tyrande twiddled her thumbs, formed the Sentinels, sighed with longing, and waited for Malfurion to wake up and pay attention to her. This, understandably, made her more than a little cranky -- and then things started blowing up in her face. Orcs showed up, killed Cenarius, there were undead Scourge rampaging through Ashenvale, and to top it all off, Archimonde, the eredar that had been banished to the Twisting Nether way back ten thousand years before, was back. And he was severely annoyed, and wanted the power in the World Tree and the Well beneath it. Tyrande had too much on her hands to handle, and went to wake up Malfurion to ask for his help, letting him know what was going on out in the real world and not the happy go lucky dream world he'd been prancing around in for the past ten thousand years. Malfurion and Tyrande went to wake the other sleeping druids -- the Druids of the Talon, and the Druids of the Claw, on the way fighting furblogs, spiders, and The Largest Panda Ever (Yes, really) in an effort to pull together enough forces to fight back. Tyrande was more than a little short with Malfurion during all of this, reminding Malfurion that she didn't "have the luxury of sleeping through times of great peril."


Ouch, Tyrande. Ouch.

Tyrande and Malfurion were in the middle of waking the Druids of the Claw beneath Hyjal when they happened upon a dusty door that they'd all but forgotten about -- a door that opened to the prisons where Malfurion's misguided brother Illidan had been imprisoned. Tyrande, who was still annoyed at Malfurion, suggested they pop on over and let Illidan out to help them with the whole mess but Malfurion nixed that option pretty quickly. Tyrande decided to go do it anyway, and while Malfurion went back up to the surface, Tyrande and her Sentinels fought their way in and freed Illidan, filling him in on everything that had happened so far and asking for his help. Still googly-eyed over Tyrande, (Hey, let's face it, there's not much to do in a hole in the ground other than think about things you like -- arcane power, magic water, that chick that dumped you way back when for your brother) Illidan agreed to lend his aid. Malfurion was more than a little upset by Tyrande's actions and refused to trust his twin, afraid that his brother would go off the deep end and do something monumentally stupid in an effort to be the Big Damn Hero again.


 

Illidan, irritated with Malfurion's lack of trust, promptly decided to go off the deep end and do something monumentally stupid in an effort to be the Big Damn Hero again. He led a force into Felwood to hunt down the Legion, convinced that he could personally save the world in one fell swoop. In the process he met a man with a nice sword, who told him about a Skull that would make for tasty nomnoms and give him all kinds of power in the process. Illidan found the Skull of Gul'dan, consumed its powers and promptly went demon in the process. With this new power, Illidan stomped his way to the demon lord Tichondrius and killed him.


It was at this point that Malfurion sat down and had a frank discussion with his brother about Where He Went Wrong, and told him in no uncertain terms to Get Off His Land and find somewhere else to loom in a demony fashion. Illidan, further ticked that his efforts to stomp a demon lord went unappreciated, gave Malfurion a "So be it...brother." and took off for parts unknown.


Later, Malfurion went to sleep -- normal sleep, not prance about in Emerald Dream sleep -- and was visited by a great raven in his dreams, which told him to come to the base of Mount Hyjal with Tyrande. He and Tyrande followed the bird's advice and were met by another unlikely duo at the base -- the human mage Jaina Proudmoore, and the orc Warchief Thrall. About to duke it out with the human and the greenskin, the two were interrupted by the raven from the dream, who revealed himself as Medivh and said they all had to band together, sing songs, play nice, and defeat the Burning Legion before Azeroth fell for good. The orcs, humans and night elves agreed to join forces, and Malfurion concocted a plan. Unsurprisingly, his plan involved blowing up the Well. Again. Malfurion apparently has a one track mind when it comes to defeating the Burning Legion. And so the good guys lured Archimonde to the World Tree, letting him destroy all their bases in the process, and while Archimonde was gleefully distracted by tree-hugging, Malfurion ordered in the Ancestral Guardians, (aka wisps) to blow up the whole thing. Sure, the night elves lost their immortality in the process, but Azeroth was safe once more, and heck, the continents didn't even explode this time! Chalk one more victory up to Malfurion Stormrage. Oh, and those other guys.

 

Malfurion had a couple of months to rest and rebuild before word came that his brother was up to his old tricks again and fighting night elves. With a heavy sigh, Malfurion and Tyrande headed out to the Broken Isles, where they helped Illidan's warden, Maiev Shadowsong, fight against Illidan's troops. In the chaos, Illidan managed to capture Tyrande, pretty much admitting that he was just trying to impress her and confessing his love, again. Tyrande was less than thrilled by this (maybe flowers would've been a better choice, Illidan), and Illidan took off when Maiev and Malfurion showed up. Tyrande, Malfurion and Maiev took off to Lordaeron to capture Illidan, as he seemed intent on performing a spell that was tearing apart the continent of Northrend. Apparently blowing up World Trees and Wells is okay, but tearing apart continents is bad news. Unbeknownst to Malfurion and Tyrande, Illidan was being blackmailed by the Burning Legion and trying to kill the Lich King, not randomly tearing apart continents for pleasure.


Meanwhile, Maiev and Tyrande were at each other's throats in the most passive-aggressive of fashions. When Tyrande was swept down a river in battle, Maiev took it upon herself to 'sadly' inform Malfurion of his beloved's demise. Malfurion went nuts and captured Illidan, breaking his continent shattering spell and accusing him of causing Tyrande's death. Kael'thas (who was fighting for Maiev at the time and not quite the magic-addled crazy we know, love, and kill repeatedly today) piped up and told Malfurion that Tyrande was only mostly dead, not dead-dead, and the two brothers took off to look for the woman they both had a thing for. Illidan rescued Tyrande while Malfurion held back the undead forces. Grateful for the rescue, Malfurion allowed his brother to go free on one condition – that he never, ever bother the night elves again. Illidan agreed and vanished through a portal, never to be seen again. Almost.


Malfurion and Tyrande went home, finally. Shortly after that, he learned that a number of night elves were planning to create a new World Tree in the hopes of regaining their lost immortality. Malfurion warned against it, as nature would never bless such a selfish act -- and he was right, to a degree. The dragonflights blessed the original World Tree in order for the elves to watch over the Well of Eternity and Azeroth, not because they thought the night elves were pretty cool -- there was no way they'd bless a second tree, and simply planting a tree wouldn't get the night elves the immortality they'd grown so attached to. Tired and exhausted, Malfurion bid Tyrande yet another tearful and heartfelt farewell, and went once more to take a nap down in the barrow dens and replenish his powers. Defeating the Burning Legion, after all, takes a lot out of a guy.


 

World of Warcraft, present-day: In vanilla WoW, Malfurion Stormrage was nowhere to be seen. The leader of the druids was now Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, a character players knew little about, and the night elves had made their home in the new World Tree of Teldrassil, which had apparently been planted despite Malfurion's warnings. Fandral is a player favorite -- players love to hate him, and hate to love him, but do both with alarming fervor. During the course of vanilla WoW it was revealed that Malfurion was lost somewhere within the Emerald Dream, fighting something called the Nightmare – a mobile area of corruption within the Emerald Dream. Players could find Malfurion by turning in the Nightmare Engulfed Object obtained by killing one of four corrupted green dragons at one of four emerald portals scattered across Azeroth to Keeper Remulos in Moonglade. Remulos goes to Lake Elune'ara to dissolve the nightmares engulfing the object, and Malfurion appears, warning Remulos that the Nightmare is present and that Ysera's old brood -- those four dragons that you can fight outside of the Emerald Portals – have been corrupted by it, hence their presence as bad guys.


The other place that players could find Malfurion in vanilla was through a portion of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line. Players are sent to the Sunken Temple in an effort to find and redeem Eranikus, Tyrant of the Dream and obtain the green shard needed for the formation of the scepter. Players entering Eranikus's room are met by a vision of Malfurion, who states that Eranikus has been twisted by the none other than the Old Gods, and the corrupted green dragon is waging a war against the Emerald Dream and those trapped within it. It is heavily implied that the Nightmare was a result of the corruption of the Old Gods, which isn't entirely implausible to believe.


In Burning Crusade, players were far too busy mucking around with Illidan and the Black Temple, leaving the Nightmare of the Emerald Dream nothing more than a tantalizing piece of lore that was left largely untouched. Players had hoped for the announcement of the Emerald Dream as all or part of the next expansion, but that was not to be. Instead, we got Wrath of the Lich King.

 

In Wrath, players encounter more of the Nightmare -- a small portion of it, at any rate. Players entering the Emerald Dragonshrine in Dragonblight are set upon by defenders of the little glade. Nishera the Garden Keeper states that she had asked Ysera for help against the Scourge -- and Ysera, possibly addled by the Nightmare, instead commanded the defenders of the Dragonshrine to attack anyone not of the green flight. There is also a quest in Icecrown that sends players into the Emerald Dream itself to retrieve acorns in an attempt to aid a fallen crusader soldier. At last, players get to enter the Emerald Dream – but the area is a small, restricted place filled with Nightmare Figments, easily defeated, and Nightmare Aberrations. The Aberrations are level 80 elite mobs that do surprising little damage and offer no loot and no experience for killing them.


Malfurion Stormrage, on the other hand, is still nowhere to be seen -- he's off in the Emerald Dream fighting the Nightmare with Ysera, has been doing so for five years now, and players, not to mention Tyrande, are getting antsy for his return. In the novel Stormrage, we've been promised answers to all those questions lurking about the Emerald Dream, the Nightmare, and just what it is that Malfurion's been up to. Will we see the Emerald Dream expansion that so many people have been longing for since World of Warcraft's release, or will all chances of stepping into the Dream be destroyed by the upcoming Cataclysm? Only time -- and apparently a Knaak novel -- will tell.