Short stories

Not to be confused with Animated shorts.

This article contains lore taken from Warcraft novels, novellas, or short stories.

This article is a list of short stories organized by source. There are 30 short stories in total (3 of Savage World category, 9 from Destination: Pandaria, 12 Leader Short Stories and 6 others).

Non-canon stories are also included in the list.

Official site short stories

Short stories found on the official site:

Shadowlands

• Terror by Torchlight
• We Ride Forth

Battle for Azeroth

• A Moment in Verse

Legion

• Dark Mirror

Savage World

• Hellscream
• Code of Rule
• Apocrypha

Destination: Pandaria

• Li Li's Travel Journal
• The Trial of the Red Blossoms
• Bleeding Sun
• The Blank Scroll
• Death From Above
• Strength of Steel
• Over Water
• The Untamed Valley
• The Jade Hunters

Leader Short Stories

Issue 1: Garrosh Hellscream: Heart of War (link) Issue 2: Genn Greymane: Lord of His Pack (link) Issue 3: Gallywix: Trade Secrets of a Trade Prince (link) Issue 4: The Council of Three Hammers: Fire and Iron (link)

Issue 5: Vol'jin: The Judgment (link) Issue 6: Gelbin Mekkatorque: Cut Short (link) Issue 7: Baine Bloodhoof: As Our Fathers Before Us (link) Issue 8: Tyrande & Malfurion: Seeds of Faith (link)

Issue 9: Sylvanas Windrunner: Edge of Night (link) Issue 10: Varian Wrynn: Blood of Our Fathers (link) Issue 11: Lor'themar Theron: In the Shadow of the Sun (link) Issue 12: Velen: Prophet's Lesson (link)

Feast of Winter Veil

• Smokywood Pastures Presents: A Winter Veil Carol

Other

• The War Effort
• Glory
• The War of the Shifting Sands
• Road to Damnation
• Unbroken
• Charge of the Aspects

World of Warcraft Official Strategy Guide & World of Warcraft Master Guide, Second Edition

Short stories found in World of Warcraft Official Strategy Guide & World of Warcraft Master Guide, Second Edition.

• A Druid's Tale
• A Hunter Prowls
• A Shaman's Retribution
• A Warrior's Story
• Attacking from the Shadows
• Hidden Knowledge
• Priestly Reckoning
• The Light Stands Strong
• The True Threat

Notes

• In later editions the titles of the stories are not printed. Instead they are given the heading "Lore".
• Micky Neilson has hinted these stories are non-canon.

Hearthstone short stories

This section contains information exclusive to Hearthstone and is considered non-canon.

• Tale of the Fox

RPG short stories

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Warcraft The Roleplaying Game

Short stories found in Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft The Roleplaying Game.

• Oakwidow watches as Horde and Alliance members clash with unholy bloodlust in a cursed vale in Kalimdor, where a demon had once fallen (7-10).

• Oakwidow gives "advice" to the orc blademaster Redjaw and some of his comrades to head to a dwarven mining town looking for work, but they are soon attacked by undead dwarven, elven, and human corpses that have taken over the town and its mines (34-35).

• Oakwidow lies to a group of adventurers — including three humans, Remox, Brother Sebast, Jergen, and a tauren, Stormhoof — in order to get them to attack a night elf mine guarded by ancients, which she claims are completely harmless (218-219).

• Gennet, a human warrior has just survived an attack by demons, and escapes to find an unlikely band of adventurers by a "temple to a forgotten god", and decides to join them (16-17).

• Hellak Darkhorn, a tauren warrior in the service of the Alliance, has a run in with H'jalla Danfour, a human warrior in the service of the Horde (118-119).

• Alayin Glitterhelm, a high elven mage, murders a far seer in Kalimdor in order to get the Book of Khadgar he was guarding. Unfortunately, he soon learns that something else was guarding the book (146-147).

• Within Shargha's Stronghold in Kalimdor, an orc chieftain, Shargha, has a discussion with his underchief, Boraga, about their opinion of the world's state of affairs (172-173).

Alliance & Horde Compendium

Short stories found in Alliance & Horde Compendium.

• A blood elf named Var'thal thinks over his recent battle with a felhound and the energy he has consumed from its now lifeless body. He contemplates how it would feel to feed on the powerful energies of powerful individuals like Jaina Proudmoore or the Lich King himself. He then plans to tell Prince Kael'thas about his encounter (6-7).

Magic & Mayhem

Short stories found in Magic & Mayhem.

• Gimbolt Surehammer and his blood elf companion, Maer-thiss, travel to the hut of the witch doctor Zul'ajik. They visited the troll in order to hire him to perform a ritual to contact spirits which would lead to the Demonwell. Because of Zul'ajik's hatred for goblins, their third companion, Ziggler, chose stay outside of the camp and to tinker on his clockwork dwarf. Ziggler interrupts the ritual when he pilots the clockwork dwarf and tramples the troll's tent and Maer-thiss. Gimbolt decides to flee with Ziggler, while Maer-thiss and Zul'ajik decide to kill them both (6-7).

• Verius, a pit lord disguised as a human, enters a chapel belonging to the Knights of the Silver Hand in order to infiltrate the Order of the Silver Hand. Father Rammal sees through his disguise, as does an elven cleaning girl who later enters the room. The elven girl breaks Verius disguise and he attacks Rammal. Rammal, who had also been in disguise shows his true appearance that of a blood elf, and both elves fall upon Verius to feed on his energy (11-12).

• Jocas Irongear, a goblin who left Theramore with his companions, Blackhawk and Ashar Ghosthoof, on his zeppelin is hired by a mysterious merchant to transport a cargo of spices from Ratchet. The cargo is revealed to be smuggled carrion beetles and the merchant is actually a troll witch doctor. The troll attacks the crew, and the zeppelin is damaged during the fight (27-28).

• Zaj'tal, a naga, attacks a night elf sentry mistaking her for a male. Zaj'tal defeats her in a battle of spells. He stands over her battered body, pleased even more that instead of torturing a man, he will be able to torture a woman (58-59).

• Bohein, a tauren, and his goblin companion, Isak, attempt to break into an ancient vault on top of a mesa while besieged by an undead swarm. Bohein tells Isak to open the vault while he attacks the undead. Using a special potion, Isak is able to stand on the side of the mesa and run down into the undead in an attempt to hold them back. Isak is successful at opening the door and finds a book inside. After Bohein returned to the top of the mesa, he took the book from Isak and used a spell inside to stop the undead (111-112).

• Sunstorm attacks a camp of trolls and orc raiders along with his dwarven companion, Nuji Kodosbreath. They then send their forces of high elves and steamwarriors, to push the Horde forces back into a trap. Dirtworm crews dig a pit under the Horde troops. Gnomish helicopters then covered the pit with nets, while tinkers staked the nets in place. They ended up catching sixty orc prisoners for interrogation (160-161).

Lands of Conflict

Short stories found in Lands of Conflict.

• Duncan Pike contemplates his reasons for still being alive after a battle with a large reptilian beast in the Swamp of Sorrows. Thinking he was going to die, he had defended himself as best as he could. To his surprise, an orc had joined the fight, giving him a chance for an opening. Together they had defeated the beast. While they were supposedly enemies, they learned to judge each other by their actions, not by who they were. They shared laughter at their ordeal, and helped each other to a goblin camp that could tend to their wounds (8-9).

• Garrick heads into woods of the Plaguelands looking for his childhood friend Adric, who has been raised from the dead by the Scourge. He finds his friend, who warns him that he should not have come to find him. Garrick tells Adric he wanted to find him in order to bring him back to his master, a mage of Dalaran, who is working on a cure for the Undead Plague. Adric does not want to be cured, so he shoots his friend in the back. As his friend lies dying, Adric tells him that they will have all the time in the world to talk after Garrick has died and risen again in undeath (12-13).

• Sir Antonio Kremen is captured, gagged, and thrown into a wagon. He has been kidnapped by thugs who want to ransom him for money. As the thugs drive the wagon down the road, they catch sight of a shepherd girl, and attempt to accost her. Sir Antonion Kremen does not want his mistake of being captured to also fall upon the girl, so he tries to warn her by thumping on his crate as best as he could with his head. Soon, however, he hears groans of pain, and the girl comes to the back of the wagon to help him out. She is a member of the Stormwind Assassins, and has been sent to rescue him and help him back to Stormwind (37-38).

• The dwarf Honagger Bradwarden is chased and attacked by wolves while out in the snows of Dun Morogh on his way home to Ironforge (63-64).

• Jack, a poor farmer's son, has a secret — he is a member of the Cult of the Damned. He is in a hurry to catch a boat going north. Not long before, three tired soldiers had come to his humble farmhouse looking for food after a long period of fighting the undead Scourge. He had listened to stories intently, and fed them poisoned soup, which had killed them within the hour. He had hid their bodies and then sold the farm. Later, he had passed the information he had picked up from the soldiers to his contacts in the Cult of the Damned, who had urged that he head to Northrend in great haste (82-83).

• Rogthur and his companion, Jaeson, trail some Forsaken into lands held by forest trolls in order to discover who the undead were going to meet. A band of trolls find the Forsaken scouts and quickly slay them. Rogthur and his companion are now stuck in troll territory, and the nearby trolls had discovered them. They two companions decided they were not going to go down without a fight, and they fight to defend themselves (119-120).

Shadows & Light

Short stories found in Shadows & Light.

• Trant journeys with his companions, Haneth, Vlac, Nuji Kodosbreath, and Dolmont to Outland through a portal from Azeroth. They fight a few nether drakes, dragons, and a netherwyrm before deciding to open another portal to escape into Dustwallow Marsh (6-7).

• Guzul'dar and Stefon meet up with the high elven tinker Lenaeas, a companion of theirs, to work on a device they hoped would hopefully destroy the Maelstrom and bring Azshara's undersea kingdom to the surface (specifically more of Suramar). They planned to take the device to Maelstrom using a commandeered goblin zeppelin with the help of their other companion, a dwarven pilot named Tagradin (10-11).

• Akinos Steelclaw travels to Stormwind as a diplomat from the Horde in order improve diplomatic relations. While in the Valley of Heroes, he gets into a debate with members of the Stormwind City Guard about which heroes from both the Horde and Alliance should and shouldn't be included in the Valley of Heroes. After the debate, Akinos wonders if the Stormwind Council could be toyed with as easily as he had with the guards, and if so then his position as diplomat would be an enjoyable post (29-30).

• A short story which covers Aviana's experiences during the War of the Ancients, during the battle in Suramar, as she watched her fellow Ancients die or be held back by the Burning Legion's forces. She stops to talk to Cenarius and tell him information of what was happening on the battlefield, while he prepared his attack on the Eternal Temple. Cenarius then sends her back to Elune to pass on his sorrow that the battle will end with so much death (64-65).

• Leyan a young guard of Nethergarde Keep, stands watch at the top of the Tower of Nethergarde, when Khadgar appeared near him. They then discussed planar travel, and the worlds separated by the Twisting Nether. Khadger opened a small portal looking into another place within the Nether. Khadgar then discussed how he may have have to cross the Twisting Nether someday, and would have to take others with him. They then left the tower (125-126).

• Drann along with his companions, Captain Dumont, Stonehoof, Feulia, Makil, Renmar, and Talario, fight their way to an altar and cite a ritual that they hope will open treasure to them, but instead they end up releasing an angry fire elemental. They are then transported to the Firelands of the Elemental Plane, where they hope they can find a way back home (133-134).

World of Warcraft The Roleplaying Game

Short stories found in World of Warcraft The Roleplaying Game.

• Hruon Firesinger, a tauren shaman, contemplates how life will be good in Mulgore (5).

Alliance Player's Guide

Short stories found in Alliance Player's Guide.

• Rogno battles a furbolg and then an ancient (10, 22).
• Jinxo is captured by orcs and plans an escape before she is sold into slavery in Gadgetzan (42).
• Mareek, a goblin sapper, opens a cave for Emor and Vontair releasing something dangerous (57).
• Aliastra, a savagekin and her pack battle the Ton'ma ogres (60).
• Jaryn a windwarrior, rides his gryphon, Blackfeather, into a battle against a band of goblins (74).
• Iolan with his brother Marteleth over choice to leave his family and learn magic (76).
• Dessenth and Wehr prepare to battle a camp of orcs (95).
• Tardor prevents a troll from calling reinforcements, saving Montegro and the rest of his caravan (108).
• Zur and Valisha escape from a prison cell (118).
• Ukk and Gorgh ambush a human supply caravan and are distracted by target dummies (120).
• An archdruid speaks of a dream he once had and gives reasons why the night elves should join the Alliance (124).
• Petran is forced into a fight with dwarves in Theramore and attempts to escape (131).
• Ishy is plans to get the  [Amberseal Keeper], a magic staff, from the Tainted Scar. He is doublecrossed by his companion, the warlock Achalon, and a dreadlord, Darthias. His friend, the sentinel Elain, shows up to help him. Ishy defeats Achalon, and both escape with the Amberseal Keeper in their possession. They discuss giving it to Sal or keeping it, and both head off to Booty Bay (135, 164, 172, 174, 179).
• Grondor Glitterscreen gives directions on how to get around Ironforge to Camon Tieron and his companions (141).
• Fraweth Whiteshield battles the pit lord Timmanrug for the second time (159).
• Selene is interrupted while she trains her human acolyte. Gareth had brought in a captured orc who asks for unification between their people (190).
• Sentinel Anara Darkshrike patrols her night elf lands for intruders (191).

Horde Player's Guide

Short stories found in Horde Player's Guide.

• Doth'jin, a forest troll, ambushes an elf caravan (10).
• Sir Bestor of the Scarlet Crusade is killed by a lightslayer assassin (40).
• Mertada and a sun paladin battle defiled water elementals in the Plaguelands (49, 53).
• Markis, Arham and the narrator battle a primal (57).
• The orc shaman Hakin and his dire wolf companion, Da'kar, encounter a Forsaken ambassador, a shadow ascendent, in Tirisfal Glades (65).
• Datein, a techslayer and Rorgham prepare to attack a group of goblins and their steam armor (78).
• Gorn encounters the corrupted orc Sesk while traveling through the Barrens (84).
• Former friends in life, Kastine and the Forsaken Eleska encounter each other (88).
• One week from Thunder Bluff, walock is ambushed by a pack of quilboar. He uses his hammer of life, Serasa (made from the bones and spirit of a gazelle), to defend himself. Starving, his hammer leads him a new gazelle pack (110).
• Kargor watches as Tigore proves his warrior skills through technology (122).
• Gungh is saved by the troll Woothi after he becomes lost in a jungle and is poisoned by a snake (128).
• Rufus Montaine and his father Morgan are spectators at one of Blackmoore's gladiator tournaments. Rufus gains permission and duels Thrall showing him respect. Years later, Thrall honors him after his death (133, 136, 139).
• Vornal looks over the newly built Sen'jin Village, and contemplates the future of the Darkspear tribe. He thinks about the death of Sen'jin, the new leader Vol'jin, and of his son Vok'fon who spoke out against the Horde, and was made an outcast (145).
• Osak and the White Kodo (148)
• Kalasan tries to brings a warning to Sylvanas Windrunner of a traitor in the Forsaken's midst but is intercepted by the dreadlord Varimathras (153).
• Helda and Karg are waylayed by a group of Grimtotem (164).
• Andarin Lightblade infiltrates the Undercity with the help from a Forsaken, Trevor, in order to free prisoners (165, 170, 173, 179, 185).
• Orc Tale (193)
• A tauren tells two legends to some young tauren calves. First, he tells of the night elf legend of three children of Cenarius, the "the dryad, the keeper of the grove, and the centaur". Then, he tells them a legend of the Earth Mother and the Kodo (209, 211).

Dark Factions

Short stories found in Dark Factions.

• The naga Zaj'tal (previously seen in Lands of Conflict) battles the pandaren wardancer Shinjo Greatpaw (15).
• Kenry the Robber writes in his diary about how he, his second-in-command Marka, and his band were ambushed by a group of tauren and a troll (75).
• Zul'armon is captured by an Atal'ai priest to be sacrificed to Hakkar. When a green dragon attacks the camp, Zul'armon is able to escape. Together they are both able to defeat the trolls, allowing Zul'armon to return home (85, 88, 95).
• Garnett, a human warrior fights a goblin during a gladiator tournament in Gadgetzan (102).
• Colmir, Thrum, and Glink attempt to clear out insects from a ancient tomb (105).
• Janelle and Shandra fight a supply of clockwerk goblins. They discover a goblin tinker working a miniature factory producing the contraptions (108).
• Shomei, Milanna, and the rest of his companions fight Kritok and his goblin slaves (110)
• Darren and Maddox of the Explorers' League explore Uldaman and encounter a Dark Iron dwarf (113).
• Robeez, a goblin merchant, tries to sell his wares to a human girl (115).
• Tajarri trains a young human druid in the Moonglade (130).
• Tarku and Orgar of the Dark Horde argue over who is the better warrior (135).
• Artemal and Patrik of the Defias guard a post in Westfall with the help of some gnolls. Although Revale and Salmister had warned them of danger, they are ambushed in a surprise attack by a disguised Stormwind knight (141).
• Arend battles the Scourge as a member of the Scarlet Crusade. During one of his battles, he encounters his undead wife, Lise (156).

Notes

• Silver Hand, Ebon Blade is a short story by Raphael Ahad that won the 2010 Global Writing Contest and was featured on the Blizzard Writing Contest website. Micky Neilson said that the short story may one day be canonized as In the Shadow of the Sun was.