Make Azeroth breathtaking

"There are so many secrets waiting for our Ancient Books Association to uncover, I feel so inspired!"

—————————————— Gazlowe's Office ————————————————

"Dad, I'm back. And who is this?"

As soon as Tanisbub pushed open the door, she saw a Blood Elf Ranger sitting in a guest chair, wearing the standard leather armor of the Blood Elf Ranger Corps, but with more intricate enchantments and more beautiful patterns.

"This is General Haduron Brightwing, the current Ranger-General of Quel'Thalas. This is my adopted daughter, the Great Tinker, Tannis."

Gazlowe greeted the two men with a smile and introduced them to each other.

"I have long admired your name, General Haduron."

"Thank you for your assistance to the blood elves, Miss Tanis."

Haduron stood up from his chair, walked over to Tannis, and shook hands with her.

"I didn't know General Haduron was coming...?"

"The first thing I've decided is that the living conditions of my people in Ratchet are already the envy of us poor blood elves who are still fighting as guerrillas in Eversong Forest. Therefore, I am now making a request to Ratchet to hire them."

"You're going to retaliate against the Scourge who are still active in Quel'Thalas?"

Tannis and Gazlowe realized it at the same time.

"Not only that, but also rebuilding Silvermoon City and then making contact with Prince Kael'thas, who is far away in Outland."

I. Lor'themar

Lor'themar Theron sat in a well-repaired civilian hut, intently reading the latest battle report. Although he had permanently lost his left eye in the chaos of the Scourge, his remaining eye was still as sharp as an eagle's.

"Your Highness the Regent."

A blood elf mage, dressed in magnificent robes and holding a dazzling staff that was clearly not of ordinary quality, pushed open the door and walked to Lor'themar's table.

"Archmage Romans, has Haduron returned? Has he managed to request reinforcements?"

As Lor'themar tidied up the documents on the table, he looked at Archmage Romans.

"Yes, he not only brought back the reinforcements you requested—he also exceeded his target."

"Excessive?"

"General Haduron not only brought back a group of blood elf mages who had recovered their fighting strength, and hired the tinkering and engineering infantry units from Ratchet, but also, through Ratchet's connections, met with Admiral Daelin, the leader of Kul Tiras. After requesting assistance from the Kingdom of Kul Tiras, Admiral Daelin generously allowed Archmage Jaina to bring a contingent of his elite troops to assist us in the Quel'Thalas campaign."

"Really? That's great!"

Lor'themar's face lit up with joy. He straightened his battle robes and stood up from his chair.

"Let's go and meet our distinguished guest!"

——————————————Quel'Thalas Provisional Embassy————————————————

"I'm very sorry, we didn't provide a good hospitality."

Inside a mansion that once belonged to a blood elf nobleman, several blood elves dressed as maids were serving tea and refreshments to Tanis and the others. Haduron sat in the main seat and expressed his apologies—although the tea and refreshments in front of him were considered exquisite by ordinary human nobles, in Haduron's eyes, they were barely enough to entertain ordinary guests.

“It’s all been done very well, General Haduron.”

Jaina, holding the teacup, spoke softly.

“No, Archmage Jaina, you are honored guests of Quel'Thalas, and we should treat you with the courtesy due to a state guest. Unfortunately, Quel'Thalas is currently unable to hold a proper welcoming ceremony.”

Lor'themar's voice came from outside the door, and everyone present stood up to pay their respects to the blood elves' current supreme leader in Azeroth.

"Gentlemen, no need for formalities. If anyone should be bowing, it should be me. Now, let me explain the situation we are currently facing."

As he said this, Lor'themar walked to the main seat and sat down. Romans and Haduron stood on either side of him. Then, a magical map rose up from the carpet in the center of the room, with a large area on it dyed black.

"Is this a map of the Eversong Forest?"

Jaina immediately recognized what the map depicted.

“That’s right, Archmage Jaina, this is what Eversong Forest looks like now. These blackened areas are currently under the control of the Scourge.”

After saying this, Lor'themar nodded to Romans, who tapped his staff lightly, and a few small red spots appeared on the map.

"These areas marked in red are the areas under our actual control in Quel'Thalas."

"What about those white areas, and those green ones?"

Looking at the map, where some areas were still in other colors, Jaina couldn't help but ask a question.

“Those areas, the white areas are the front line of our war against the Scourge, and the green areas are controlled by forest trolls—if we want to launch a counterattack against the Scourge, these forest troll camps are the problem we must face.”

"Forest trolls? Weren't they all driven out of the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas after the Second War?"

Jaina frowned as she thought about the role the forest trolls played in the Second War and their fate.

“That’s right. These guys took advantage of the Scourge’s destruction of our kingdom and sneaked out of their rat holes to return to this land. If they were just setting up bases, I might have turned a blind eye until the Scourge was driven out of Quel’Thalas. But they’re attacking our rear! Stealing our supplies!”

Lor'themar slammed his fist on the armrest of the chair, his anger blazing.

"Attack you? Don't the forest trolls realize that natural disasters are the primary enemy of all living beings?"

Jaina frowned slightly. She had learned about the knowledge of other troll races when she dealt with the Darkspear tribe. In her opinion, the forest trolls, as one of the oldest troll groups, should not be so short-sighted.

“They had no choice, Jaina. If they hadn’t taken advantage of the current chaos in Quel’Thalas to weaken both sides to a considerable extent, then after the war, regardless of whether the Scourge or the Blood Elves won, they would have had to pack up and leave once again.”

Tennys spoke casually.

"They could come and negotiate with the blood elves to join forces. After all, the threat of natural disasters is the primary threat to this land, isn't it?"

Before Lor'themar could answer Jaina's naive idea, Tanis chuckled.

"Negotiation? How can we negotiate? The ultimate goal of the forest trolls is probably to rebuild their Amani Empire, which means the blood elves must leave this land. The blood elves' goal is to revive the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas, which means this land cannot tolerate the existence of the forest trolls. From the beginning, the conflict between the two sides cannot be reconciled. How can we negotiate?"

Tannis's words stunned Jaina, and Lor'themar nodded in agreement with Tannis's assessment.

“That’s right, irreconcilable. Although we and the forest trolls both have to fight enemies like the Scourge, we can never be allies with them—not in the past, not now, and not in the future.”

After saying this, Lor'themar gestured for Romans to close the map, and then looked at everyone present.

"Due to the extremely tense situation at the front, we simply cannot spare troops to deal with these arrogant forest trolls. However, if we don't deal with these creatures, our troops, especially our logistical units, will inevitably suffer again sooner or later. Therefore, I request that Archmage Jaina and Grand Tinker, along with your people, cooperate with the blood elf... uh, sorcerer troops returning from Ratchet, plus a small group of rangers and Archmage Romans and his apprentices, to kill—or drive out—these forest trolls."

II. Eternal Song Forest

Forest trolls, one of the oldest intelligent beings in Azeroth, are direct descendants of the legendary Zandalari trolls, the creators of the troll empire. After the cataclysmic explosion of the Well of Eternity, they established the glorious Amani Empire in the Eastern Kingdoms.

Years later, the forest trolls, in order to protect their sacred land, waged a war that lasted for thousands of years against the Highborne who had migrated to the area now known as Quel'Thalas. As the elves were newcomers, although they gained a great advantage in the early stages of the war by using arcane power, as time went on, the trolls' advantage as local powers gradually became apparent.

Finally, left with no other choice, the High Elves, who had changed their name to High Elves, offered to teach humans magic in exchange for these brave descendants of the Vrykul joining the Troll Wars. Emperor Thoradin's soldiers displayed a fighting prowess that exceeded the elves' expectations, and the trolls gradually became overwhelmed in the battle against the combined forces of humans and elves.

Finally, at the foot of the Alterac Mountains, a decisive battle broke out. The fierce fighting lasted for several days. Zul'jin, the chieftain of the Amani trolls and the greatest warrior of the trolls, led his troll army in a gradual defeat under the onslaught of the allied forces. The allied mages even summoned heavenly fire from the sky, delivering a fatal blow to the trolls. Amidst Zul'jin's desperate roar, the Amani troll empire, which had stood in the Eastern Kingdoms for thousands of years, slowly came to an end. The trolls' sacred land became Silvermoon City, the capital of the high elves, and vast swathes of troll land fell into human hands. The nascent Alliance was officially born from this moment.

"Is this the story that took place on this land before the birth of the human empire?"

Jaina, sitting on her white horse, closed her book and looked at Iggy, who was struggling with a brightly colored chocobo beside her.

"It's history, it's history. I wrote this by referring to the documents of Silvermoon City, the information of Ironforge, and the Darkspear trolls who were willing to tell me the stories of the Amani Empire."

Having finally calmed the restless chocobo down, Iggy flipped over and sat on its back, retrieving his manuscript.

"It seems... you don't have any prejudice against those trolls?"

"Of course they are! They are our mortal enemies! In some ways, what the forest trolls did to the blood elves is even more hateful than the Scourge!"

"Then your manuscript..."

Jaina looked at Iggy, who was gritting his teeth, and found it a little unbelievable.

"As a researcher and recorder of historical documents, the most taboo thing is to mix personal feelings into history. Whether it is true or false, future generations will judge for themselves. All I can do is try my best to restore that period of history in my writing."

"........"

Iggy's condescending words stunned Jaina. She was about to say something when she suddenly remembered that Iggy was a blood elf... and blood elves were more than ten times the age of humans...

Unable to find anything to say, Jaina remained silent, and Iggy clearly didn't want to discuss the matter further. The two led their troops forward in silence until they saw Tanis, who was supposed to have gone to set up camp with Romans earlier, crouching by the roadside behind a strange machine, seemingly fiddling with something...

"Tannis, the Great Tinkerer, what is this machine?"

Iggy jumped off the chocobo and looked at Tennys, who was copying some data, and asked her curiously.

"Ah, this instrument is used to detect the concentration of arcane ions in the air. Although my all-purpose glasses have a similar device, this specialized one is much more accurate..."

As Tanya answered Iggy's questions, she turned a knob on the instrument.

"But wouldn't it be safer to conduct the tests inside the camp?"

Jaina dismounted her warhorse and walked to Tannis's side.

"Blood Elf arcane mages constantly emanate arcane energy, making it impossible to measure accurately... but this data is really strange... very strange..."

Tennys turned the knob a few more times, dimming the machine's screen.

"Is there something wrong with the arcane ion concentration in Eversong Woods, Great Tinker Tannis?"

Iggy touched her chin in confusion. She knew very well that if Tennys said something strange, something strange must have really happened.

"The Sunwell is a source of extremely high concentrations of arcane energy, isn't it?"

Iggy nodded.

"The Sunwell being corrupted by death magic shouldn't theoretically affect its original function of producing arcane energy, right?"

Izzy continued to nod.

"Even if an arcane well like the Sunwell is detonated, the residual arcane energy would still be enormous, right?"

Iggy nodded again.

"That's the problem!"

Tennys took out two pieces of paper, two pieces of paper with almost identical numbers written on them.

"Based on these intelligence reports, after your prince detonated the Sunwell, Eversong Forest should have been contaminated with a high concentration of arcane energy! The problem is, according to my current detection, the arcane energy level in Eversong Forest is basically the same as in the Ratchet region! So, where did the free arcane energy generated after your Sunwell explosion go?"

Upon hearing Tannis's words, Iggy's face turned deathly pale.

"Tannis, the Great Tinker, do you mean that the remaining power of the Sunwell has been taken away by someone with ulterior motives?"