Recommended Game Story · Warcraft Part 37

Dawn of Hyjal — The Ten-Thousand-Year Prison and the Forest That Gave Up Eternity

Spoiler Notice: This article covers the Night Elf campaign of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, the release and transformation of Illidan, the Battle of Mount Hyjal, and the final cinematic. It follows the summoning of Archimonde in Part 35 and the Kalimdor journey in Part 36. This is a novel-style commentary written based on official events, not a translation of an official novel. While the atmosphere of the scenes has been reconstructed, no new dialogue or unverified inner thoughts have been presented as official facts.

Table of Contents for This Part

Chapter 1: When the Forest Watches the Invaders · Chapter 2: Escape Under the Moonlight · Chapter 3: The Sleeping Archdruid and the Horn · Chapter 4: Awakening Wings · Chapter 5: The Path Split Underground · Chapter 6: The Priestess Who Opens the Prison Door · Chapter 7: Bears Reclaiming Forgotten Names · Chapter 8: Brothers Separated by Ten Thousand Years · Chapter 9: The Death Knight and the Skull of Gul'dan · Chapter 10: The Victorious Exile · Chapter 11: The Prophet Reveals His Name · Chapter 12: Three Defensive Lines Beneath the World Tree · Chapter 13: The Giant Swallowed by the Smallest Lights · Chapter 14: Losing Immortality, Gaining the World · Index of Characters and Locations · Further Reading · Official Game Guide.

Chapter 1 · When the Forest Watches the Invaders

The forests of Kalimdor held memories older than the wars of the Eastern Kingdoms. To the sentinels guarding the trees, this land was not a newly discovered continent; it was a home lived in through ten thousand years of vigilance. Strange races flooded into that home. Humans had lost their houses and crossed the sea, while Orcs had escaped demonic control to seek a new life. However, these circumstances were not automatically conveyed to the masters of the forest. The settlers' axes and marches cut down trees and widened paths. Even Cenarius fell at the hands of the Orcs. A journey for survival and a war to protect a homeland were colliding in the same space.

Tyrande Whisperwind was the High Priestess who served the moon goddess Elune and the leader of the Sentinels. She and Shandris tracked the traces of humans and Orcs in the darkening forest. At the time, Thrall and Jaina were pursuing the demons that remained after the death of Mannoroth. The fact that humans and Orcs were moving in the same camp was not yet familiar even to them. Soldiers who had long been taught to see each other as enemies were carrying both a common goal and old distrust. To Tyrande, that camp was not a reliable alliance from the start; it looked like a gathering place for invaders who defiled the forest and killed a demigod.

The Night Elves' war was intertwined with the life of the forest. Small wisps tended to the trees, moonwells restored weary warriors, and massive Ancients uprooted themselves to join the battlefield. Tyrande's forces attacked the human and Orc strongholds. However, the war did not end with driving out the invaders. Fire and the undead poured from the sky. The catastrophe that began outside the forest was now threatening all life within it. Humans and Orcs also recognized the Scourge that had brought down the Eastern Kingdoms. A greater enemy had appeared before eyes that had been focused on different foes.

The inhabitants of the forest were also caught up in this initial clash. The option to assist the Furbolgs, who were seeking a way to leave the land where the corruption was spreading, shows that war is not solely the business of armies. They were not a faction trying to plant a flag of victory, but neighbors looking for a forest in which to survive. There is no need to fix the specific path or the number of Furbolgs rescued in this optional mission as the sole historical truth. What is important is that the catastrophe in Kalimdor was spreading beyond a confrontation between migrants and sentinels to the flight of those who had lived there for a long time. Tyrande, too, had to shift from merely striking down the enemy before her to alerting others to the greater disaster and preparing for it.

Chapter 2 · Escape Under the Moonlight

The night at the foot of Mount Hyjal was not a safe refuge. Night Elf archers crossing the forest were growing exhausted, but the pursuing undead did not feel fatigue in the same way. They could not kill every enemy blocking the path. Tyrande had to hide among the trees, gather her allies, and find a way to survive between the rivers and the enemy strongholds. Even for a race accustomed to moonlight and shadows, the darkness of that night was unfamiliar. Knowing the shades of the forest was not the same as defeating the catastrophe that had seized the entire forest.

What she faced was not just minor demons. Archimonde had returned. In the place where Tichondrius reported the progress of the invasion, the massive demon looked down once more upon his enemy from ten thousand years ago. The Legion, which the Night Elves had once repelled, had returned to the same world. However, this time, the vast ancient empire and all the allies of the old war did not exist as they once had. The forest Tyrande had protected and the troops within it had to endure the new invasion. She could not face this threat alone. Surviving to inform others was more important than an immediate duel.

Tyrande joined up with the remaining archers, opened paths using abandoned siege equipment, and broke through the roads blocked by the undead. The village Shandris was guarding was also under attack. It was a war where one stronghold fell even as a unit escaped. Now, more arrows were not enough. She had to awaken the Druids who had slept for a long time and gather the power of the forest itself once more. Tyrande's journey changed from an escape out of enemy lines to a call to awaken the deep memories of the continent. Before the night ended, what she could still summon became more important than what she had lost.

Chapter 3 · The Sleeping Archdruid and the Horn

Malfurion Stormrage was dwelling within the Emerald Dream. Though his body slept in a cave, that sleep was not a long rest of doing nothing. A Druid was a being connected to nature and the world of dreams. However, the place where his physical body lay could be exposed to enemies in reality. As the Legion and the Scourge flooded into the forest, the leader most needed was at risk of falling before he could even wake. What Tyrande needed to find was not just the words to call her sleeping lover, but the means to break that sleep and the time to protect his sleeping body.

That means was the Horn of Cenarius. Cenarius was already dead, but the relic he left behind possessed the power to call upon the forest. An Orc camp was situated at the sacred site where the horn was kept. Tyrande had to ensure Malfurion's cave was not overrun by the undead while she reclaimed it. It was a battle where focusing strength in one place could cause another to collapse. Even if one does not transfer the game's time limit numbers into minute-by-minute historical records, the urgency required by the mission is clear. She had to prevent the war from killing the person she was trying to wake before he could rise.

Malfurion awoke at the call of the horn. The leader of the forest who had been asleep returned to the battlefield of reality, and the power of nature moved toward the invaders. However, this did not undo the death of Cenarius. Instead, his disciple began to take responsibility in place of the departed master. Tyrande had led the long vigilance alone, and Malfurion returned from the dream world to face a changed reality. The warmth of reunion and the catastrophe of the continent were placed in the same moment. The two did not even have time to fully enjoy the joy of finding each other again.

Chapter 4 · Awakening Wings

Malfurion and Tyrande set out to find other Druids. The power of the guardians lay dormant in the valleys of Winterspring and old caves. However, they could not accept all life on the road as allies. The Legion's corruption had twisted the Furbolgs, and Satyrs had corrupted the forest's strongholds and Ancients. What Tyrande and Malfurion saw was not simply a forest with more enemies. It was a forest where the beings they had tried to protect were turning into the enemy's means of attack. Dealing with them involved the pain of losing neighbors and the responsibility of preventing further spread.

The perspectives of the two leaders were not always the same. Seeing the humans fighting the Scourge, Malfurion considered the possibility that their strength could be helpful. Tyrande saw the death of Cenarius and the defilement of the forest first. For someone who had protected their homeland for so long, cooperation with a strange army was not an answer that could be easily given. The difference between the two is not explained by a simple distinction between kindness and cruelty. One looked at the remaining possibilities, while the other remembered the dangers she had repeatedly seen during her long vigilance.

After securing resources and clearing out the corrupted outposts, they awakened the Druids of the Talon. These were druids who could take the form of ravens and conjure cyclones. The power to protect the forest was not composed of only one type of mighty warrior. There were those who borrowed wings to survey the skies and hold enemies with the wind, and there was also a need for those who could stand on the ground and fight with heavy bodies. The awakening druid groups were both troops for the next battle and beings who were reconnecting the severed order of the forest. Their next destination was the Druids of the Claw, who remained deep underground.

Chapter 5 · The Path Split Underground

Deep beneath Hyjal remained spaces that had not been touched for a long time. Malfurion and Tyrande passed between giant spiders and traces of strange magic. One should not blame all the obvious demonic corruption on this path on the actions of a single prisoner. The Legion was already infiltrating the forest and the underground. The danger here lay not only in the monsters in front of them but also in the purposes that the ancient places had harbored. The cave they entered to awaken the guardians also contained the path to a prison where someone else had been bound to never wake again.

That prisoner was Illidan Stormrage. He was the person who had created a new Well of Eternity after the War of the Ancients and had brought the danger of magic back. To Malfurion, he was both a brother and a traitor who had put the world they were meant to protect in danger. Tyrande saw another possibility. The power that had fought the Legion might still be needed now. Releasing someone who had been locked in a prison for ten thousand years to put them into war was not a simple reinforcement of troops. It was a choice to overturn a long-held judgment and punishment in the face of an immediate disaster.

The two leaders split on this choice. Malfurion warned that Illidan must not be released, and Tyrande did not follow that prohibition. She headed to the prison, asserting the responsibility she held as a High Priestess. If one describes this as an amnesty agreed upon by all Night Elves, the conflict of the event disappears. Tyrande's decision actually clashed with those guarding the prison. Malfurion went to find the Druids by a different path. The goal of saving the forest was the same, but the answer regarding whose power to accept and whose door to keep closed was different.

Chapter 6 · The Priestess Who Opens the Prison Door

The stone walls and closed doors of the underground held a ten-thousand-year boundary. Before Tyrande were the wardens and guardians of the prison. They blocked her, stating that even with the status of a High Priestess, she could not release the prisoner here. Tyrande judged that Illidan had once been a hero and could play that role again. Neither side took this choice lightly. Those guarding the prison sought to protect the world, and the one trying to open it sought to find the power needed for a collapsing world. The same language of protection became a weapon against each other.

Tyrande broke through the resistance and reached Illidan. The process involved battles with the watchers. It was not a peaceful release where no one was hurt. However, one should not add a scene where Maiev, who becomes an important figure later, directly confronted Tyrande at this spot. This prison breakthrough and Maiev's subsequent pursuit are connected but are not the same scene. Furthermore, there is no need to transfer all arbitrary paths of battle, equipment chests, or secret locations in the game into essential historical events. The center of the story is that Tyrande actually opened the door, crossing an ancient prohibition.

Illidan recognized Tyrande's voice. She told him that the Legion had returned and that his power was needed. Illidan decided to fight the demons, but he did not turn that promise into unconditional loyalty to the society that had imprisoned him. His long relationship with Tyrande drew his response. The Illidan the reader meets in this scene is not yet a being who possesses all the abilities and appearance of the future. Before absorbing the Skull of Gul'dan, he was a Night Elf with long black hair, a blindfold over his eyes, and markings on his skin. The massive horns, wings, and hooves were not yet his new body.

Chapter 7 · Bears Reclaiming Forgotten Names

On a different path, Malfurion approached the Druids of the Claw. However, they were not simply in a state of deep slumber. They had forgotten who they were within their bear forms and were gripped by wild instincts. One can understand why the guardian of the underground called to them like the bear god when looking at this sight. What awaited Malfurion was not just a decisive battle with intruders. It was a fight where he had to save and return his comrades even as they failed to recognize him and attacked.

The cyclones conjured by the Druids of the Talon and Malfurion's roots were used here as a means to stop movement rather than as weapons to kill. The horn could not reach all the druids if blown only at the entrance of the den. Malfurion had to enter the center of the cave without recklessly striking them down. Even when facing the same opponents, the goal of a battle can differ. If one were to kill all the bears that appear as enemies, one would be destroying the very comrades who needed to awaken. This path shows that there is another choice between survival and attack: recovery.

Deep in the cave, the call rang out. The Druids of the Claw recognized themselves and their master once again, and they returned under Malfurion's command to fight the Legion. They were not spoils of war reclaimed from the enemy, but comrades who had regained their lost names and purposes. While Tyrande brought one person out from imprisonment, Malfurion brought those who had been forgotten within animal forms back to reality. The two paths look different, but both were processes of reclaiming someone from a long passage of time. However, accepting those who returned did not yield the same results for the two of them.

Chapter 8 · Brothers Separated by Ten Thousand Years

Illidan and Malfurion faced each other again. The word brother could not erase the ten-thousand-year severance. Illidan brought up how long his imprisonment had been, and Malfurion replied that the punishment was for past mistakes. The memory of having fought demons together and the memory of being unable to tolerate his subsequent choices clashed. If one concludes the entire event with only one side's words, the relationship between the two becomes too simple. They were brothers who had suffered the same disaster, but they had long held different answers regarding the means permissible to stop that disaster.

Tyrande tried to stop the argument of their reunion. While they argued over the past that had already happened, their current homeland was collapsing. Her reason for needing Illidan's power was clear. However, Malfurion worried about the price that would follow that help. Opening the prison door did not mean trust had been opened as well. Now Illidan could come out, but what place he would have within the community was still undecided. His next choice became an action toward the Legion and an answer toward the world he had returned to.

Chapter 9 · The Death Knight and the Skull of Gul'dan

In the corrupted Felwood, Illidan encountered an unexpected being. It was Arthas Menethil. The prince of humans was now a Death Knight serving the Lich King. One should not merge the Arthas of this time with the Arthas who wears the crown on the Frozen Throne later into the same moment. He had already brought ruin to many cities, but he had not yet reached all the conclusions that followed. The two warriors with different goals clashed, and it did not become a duel where one easily struck down the other. A gap for conversation opened after they recognized each other's strength.

Arthas gave Illidan information about the Skull of Gul'dan. Gul'dan had died long ago, but immense fel magic remained in his remains. That power, used by Tichondrius's demons, was connected to the corruption of the forest and the activities of the Legion. Claiming it could be a choice to take away the enemy's power while simultaneously accepting it into one's own body. One cannot explain the reason the Death Knight handed over this information as pure goodwill. There were interests and conflicts between the Lich King's forces and the Legion's commanders. It was a war where moving an enemy of the Legion was profitable to another enemy.

Illidan absorbed the Skull of Gul'dan. He did not stop at destroying the demon's power but became a vessel for that power himself. His body no longer remained in the form of the Night Elf who had come out of prison. A demonic form with horns, wings, and hooves appeared on his new body. This change was much deeper than borrowing a tool from a demon and using it briefly. He had added another irreversible choice on top of the freedom he had regained. Public excerpts of the official novel also recall this event, but they do not move the subsequent Outland scenes to what is happening in the forest now.

Chapter 10 · The Victorious Exile

Illidan, having gained new power, struck down Tichondrius and his forces. An important commander of the Legion had disappeared, and a blow was dealt to the enemy covering the forest. This was indeed a victory against the Legion. However, what one defeated and what kind of being one became are not the same question. The Illidan that Malfurion and Tyrande saw was a brother who had absorbed the enemy's power and gained a demonic appearance. For Illidan, the result could support his choice. For Malfurion, the means itself was a danger that should never be permitted again.

Malfurion did not accept Illidan and exiled him. After coming out of prison, it seemed as if a possibility of returning to his homeland had opened, but Illidan was pushed back outside again. Instead of a place of welcome, a path to leave was placed before the victorious warrior. One should not change this conflict into a story that Illidan had already sworn loyalty to the Legion or that Malfurion had solved all demonic threats. They parted ways over the method of using the enemy's power while fighting the same enemy. The fact that the goal of saving the world was the same did not automatically heal the wounds of the relationship or the differences in means.

Even after Illidan left, Archimonde's march continued. Defeating Tichondrius did not mean the entire invasion had ended. The journey of the freed prisoner split toward the next story here, and the remaining guardians of the forest needed a different choice. Before an enemy that could not be stopped by their race alone, they now had to decide who they would fight with. The argument over the limits of faith in the underground prison led to a larger question over common survival beneath the World Tree.

Chapter 11 · The Prophet Reveals His Name

The prophet who had led the humans and Orcs to the west finally revealed his identity. It was Medivh, the last Guardian of Tirisfal. The mage who had once opened the Dark Portal under the control of Sargeras and was connected to the tragedy of two worlds had returned. If one reads this scene as a sage who never did anything wrong appearing to teach others, one misses his role. The meeting led by Medivh also carried the responsibility of making up for the disaster he had caused. The answer he brought was not magic to erase the past, but making the enemies of the past make different choices now.

Jaina, Thrall, Malfurion, and Tyrande had enough reasons to suspect each other. In the Eastern Kingdoms, humans and Orcs had fought for a long time, and in Kalimdor, the forest had been cut down and Cenarius had died. It was a place where anyone could present their own wounds as evidence. However, Archimonde's goal did not stop at the victory of one race or the occupation of one kingdom. The power of the World Tree of Hyjal and the Well of Eternity remaining beneath it were being threatened. If that were taken, the homelands and refuges they had been fighting over could collapse together.

Under Medivh's guidance, humans, Orcs, and Night Elves set out for joint defense. This was not a declaration that they had forgotten all historical responsibilities. It was that different armies began to carry out a single defense plan in the face of the same threat. Cooperation did not begin after trust was perfected, but at a moment when no one's future would remain if they did not act. Settlers who had invaded the forest had to stand side by side with the warriors who protected it. Sentinels who had continued a long vigilance alone had to accept the strength of strange soldiers. It was a rare moment where war could create new relationships instead of ending them.

Chapter 12 · Three Defensive Lines Beneath the World Tree

Nordrassil was more than a giant tree. It was a World Tree rooted above the new Well of Eternity that remained in Hyjal after the War of the Ancients, and it was connected to the long lives of the Night Elves and the order of the forest. Protecting that tree on the battlefield was not the same as defending a single visible tree trunk. The nature, history, and the world that would live on in the future were hanging beneath it. Archimonde sought to claim that power. The fact that the guardians could not strike down this demon as they would before a normal gate meant that the purpose of the fight had to change, rather than that they should give up the fight.

Jaina's human army, Thrall's Orc army, and the Night Elves divided and guarded the paths leading to the mountain. Malfurion prepared the means to stop the Legion's commander at the end. The mission of the defensive lines was not to immediately destroy all the enemy's soldiers, but to hold out until that preparation was complete. The human and Orc strongholds were attacked in turn. Even if one defensive line collapsed, the entire fight did not end in immediate defeat. Time was needed to fall back and add strength to the next line. Only if the surviving troops could continue to fight could the final plan have meaning.

For the Night Elves, the final line was the center of their homeland, from which they could no longer retreat. The forest's warriors, Druids, and living Ancients met the attacks of the Legion and the Scourge. If one places all the heroes and unit types that appear later into this battle at once, the appearance of the fight at the time changes. Here, it is based on the troops and flow of Reign of Chaos. Even if one does not fix the set game time or the number of units produced in a specific play as historical figures, the causal relationship that Jaina and Thrall's defense bought time for Malfurion's preparation is maintained.

Finally, Archimonde approached the World Tree. The giant who had broken the visible defensive lines seemed to have almost reached his destination. However, it was not an unconditional surrender that opened that path. The final power the guardians had prepared was gathering in a form smaller than the soldiers he had overwhelmed and lighter than the massive fortress. They were the wisps who had tended to the trees and lived as part of the forest. Instead of asking whose largest sword would decorate the end of the war, the moment was coming to ask how much life remained in this forest.

Chapter 13 · The Giant Swallowed by the Smallest Lights

Countless lights gathered at the call of the horn. The spirits of the forest flocked to the place where Archimonde was trying to take the power of the World Tree. Before the massive demon, a single wisp might have looked too small. However, when those lights gathered together, the scale of the battlefield changed again. The power that broke swords and armor was not the power that ruled the life of the entire forest. What Malfurion had prepared was not a larger giant to face the giant alone, but the final means to liberate the power of Nordrassil and nature.

The light engulfed Archimonde, and the power of the World Tree exploded. The giant fell within that explosion. The path by which the Legion had anchored itself to the Well of Eternity and sought to swallow this world was severed. The shock shook the battlefield, and the surviving armies finished the fight with the shaken demonic forces. It was a conclusion where one could not say that only one among humans, Orcs, and Night Elves had won alone. Those who prepared the final power, those who protected the time for it, and the spirits of the forest who became that power itself were all within a single victory.

This is the victory that brought down Archimonde at Hyjal and the invasion at the time. It is not written to imply that all demons of the universe and all eras of the Legion disappeared forever at this moment. Other timelines and larger cosmic wars follow in later games. However, the fact that more stories remain later does not make the sacrifice of this moment small. What they protected was not a completed paradise that had eliminated all future dangers, but a world that could still make the next choice. The survivors had time left to start again.

Chapter 14 · Losing Immortality, Gaining the World

The morning of victory was not a morning that erased the losses. The World Tree was deeply wounded, and the forest was burned. The Night Elves lost the immortality connected to that tree. What had existed like a condition of life for ten thousand years had vanished. For those who could die on the battlefield even before, a different life of accepting aging and frailty now lay before them. One should not express this change as if all Night Elves immediately aged and collapsed. It was the loss of the blessing that had made a long life possible, and a problem of the future they had to adapt to.

They gave up their race's eternity to protect the world. That does not mean all the roots of the tree disappeared permanently and the possibility of recovery was gone. Nordrassil survived, albeit wounded, and its recovery and the future of the Night Elves continue into later stories. The new World Tree, Teldrassil, is not the tree of this battle. The attempt to regain immortality and the formation of a new community are separate events after the war. What was protected at Hyjal was Nordrassil. Distinguishing the names of the trees is also distinguishing what they lost and what they sought to find later.

Medivh's final appearance contains the meaning that the era of entrusting the fate of the world to a single Guardian had passed. Humans, Orcs, and Night Elves did not survive because he fought all the battles for them. They held each other's hands, stopped the marching enemy, and bore the price of the final choice themselves. The returned Guardian pointed the way, but it was the lives of this world who walked that path to the end. Making up for old failures was also eventually achieved through their new choices.

The victory at Hyjal did not heal the old distrust of humans and Orcs, the wounds of the Night Elves, and the ruins of the Eastern Kingdoms all at once. Even Illidan, who had gained his freedom, was outside his homeland. In the surviving world, there were still unclosed prisons, unfallen thrones, and people who had not returned. However, on this night, the march of hell was finally stopped. The smallest lights of the forest swallowed one of the largest enemies in the world. In the place where the ten-thousand-year boundary ended, the next history of those who could not live forever began.

Index of Characters and Locations · Following Different Names

Tyrande Whisperwind: High Priestess of Elune and leader of the Sentinels. She decides to release Illidan and participates in the defense of Hyjal. Shandris Feathermoon: A commander who protects the forest and Night Elf strongholds with Tyrande. Maiev Shadowsong: A figure connected to the wardens who later becomes the center of the pursuit of Illidan. Do not confuse her with the person who directly confronted Tyrande in this prison scene.

Malfurion Stormrage: An Archdruid connected to nature and the Emerald Dream. He is the same person as the Furion notation in the classic game. Illidan Stormrage: Malfurion's brother. After being released from prison, he absorbs the Skull of Gul'dan, transforms, and defeats Tichondrius but is exiled. Distinguish between his appearance in prison and his appearance after absorbing the skull.

Druids of the Talon: A group of druids who use raven forms and cyclones. Druids of the Claw: A group associated with bear forms. Although the two Korean names are similar, they are not the same group that awakens in the same form during the same mission. Horn of Cenarius: An artifact connected to awakening sleeping druids and calling upon the spirits of nature. It is not an object that resurrected the dead Cenarius.

Arthas Menethil: In this part, a Death Knight serving the Lich King. Gul'dan: An already dead Orc warlock whose skull appears as a relic of the event. Tichondrius: A Dreadlord of the Legion and a commander defeated by Illidan. Archimonde: A demon who leads the invasion and targets Nordrassil. The defeat of Tichondrius and the defeat of Archimonde are different events.

Felwood: A forest connected to demonic corruption and Illidan's transformation. Mount Hyjal: The stage for the World Tree and the final joint defense. Nordrassil: The World Tree of this battle. Teldrassil: Another World Tree established after the war. Emerald Dream: A realm necessary to understand the connection between Druids and nature, and not another name for the underground prison.

Data Versions and the Boundaries of This Part

I have compared the fixed scenes and dialogue in the first part of the Night Elf campaign, the official manual's Battle of Mount Hyjal and Night Elf descriptions, and Blizzard's Illidan retrospectives and official appearance materials. For the Illidan novel, I used only the range of recollection contained on pages 28–29 of the public excerpt released by Blizzard as supplementary material for this event. This does not mean I have read the entire original novel or copied its sentences. I have not fixed the production quantities, optional mission paths, or random hero names that differ with each play as fixed canon. I will continue to follow the official materials of the era for the Legion's subsequent cosmic fate and all subsequent events of the Night Elves.

Further Reading · Until This Night

The background of the World Tree and Illidan's imprisonment can be read in Part 16, the Last Guardian and the Dark Portal in Part 25, the fall of the Eastern Kingdoms and the summoning of Archimonde in Part 35, and Thrall and Jaina's journey to Kalimdor in Part 36. The published text is linked to the links below and the overall series table of contents. The next story covers Illidan's new actions and Maiev's pursuit.

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The Official Game of This Story

You can check the Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne campaigns on the official product page of Warcraft III: Reforged. The forest, prison, and the final battle of Hyjal in this part correspond to the Night Elf campaign of Reign of Chaos. Please check the supported languages and regional usage conditions on the official page before purchasing.

Warcraft III — Official product and campaign guide

Official Materials and Verification Scope

Verification Date: October 8, 2026 (UTC). I wrote this based on the settings and events verified in the official public materials below. I have only verified the settings and introductions within the scope of the public samples and do not indicate that I have read the entire books. The illustrations are AI reconstructions, not official images.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos — Fixed scenes and endings of the Night Elf campaign

World of Warcraft Official Manual — Battle of Mount Hyjal and the Night Elves

World of Warcraft: Illidan — Flashbacks from pages 28-29 of the official excerpt

Burning Crusade Classic Official Retrospective — Illidan before Outland

Forge Tales: Night Elf Reconstruction — Official models and art descriptions

Warcraft III — Official product and campaign guide