*Will contain spoilers*

One of the many complaints I see about the movie, Warcraft, is that it doesn’t follow the lore of World of Warcraft. They couldn’t be more right.

The movie does not follow the lore of World of Warcraft because it is before World of Warcraft. After all, the movie is called Warcraft, not World of Warcraft. There is a difference between the two, it all depends on the time frame your talking. This movie is before Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 2. This is the long-forgotten game of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.  King Varian, was nothing more than a prince as his father was King Llane and ruler of Stormwind. 

In the beginning, the movie discusses the war between Orcs & Humans. This is the biggest clue, that this movie is not based on World of  Warcraft, but a time before that. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, did not sell very well, in fact, it did so poorly it was removed from the shelves. Blizzard, later on, released Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness, which is why I  believe this is as I call it “The long lost story of Warcraft.” I call it this because, in its failure, hardly anyone knew about a time when it was literally just orcs and humans.

Whether or not Draka almost miscarried Thrall due to going through the portal while pregnant, is a mystery. I haven’t been able to find any source that states this or whether or not Gul’dan actually breathed life into Go’el (Thrall) to bring him back to life.  The movie features a young Khadgar, who bears the mark of the Kirin Tor, who renounced his vows. He was approximately 17 at the time this happened, so the movie is accurate in the proper depiction of his age. Khadgar would play a huge role in the movie’s end plots, just as much as the role he would play in World of Warcraft. 

Garona Halforcen is believed to be half-human/half-Orc, but in reality is Draenei/Orc, at this point, the truth has not been revealed to her yet. Though, it has not been revealed what she is exactly, only that she is an Orc that looks different and speaks the common tongue. She was an emissary in the first invasion of Azeroth, and the murderer of King Llane. Though it is true in the movie she was reluctant and did not want to murder him,  this was also true in the way of the lore. This also proves the kind of king Llane was, a king willing to die to save his people.

What you may not know is, while Garona is the murderer of King Llane, he is not the one who told her to kill him. Medivh played mind-games with her, so she was unable to form a true alliance with the King of Stormwind. She was forced to kill the King after she was told to, she was unable to stop herself. Varian fought for years to try to understand why his father’s murderer would cry at the moment she killed the King. The young Prince witnessed the death & murder of his father.

In lore, Medivh fathered a son with Garona. At which point, we would be unsure of this at the current time. In order to tell whether they kept true to this, we would need to see more Warcraft movies. No one knew about the brief affair with Garona and Medivh, so it would definitely make sense that Garona and Medivh would have an affair and a son of theirs would show up in a future movie.

Gul’dan is the main enemy in the movie, but this begins with his backstory. Gul’dan was the first warlock of the horde, the first Orc warlock to have ever existed. He killed the Orc’s world, and it was the same fel that Medivh used against the orcs that would work its way to destroying the human world. Medivh had been corrupted by Sargeras from before he was born, Sargeras after being defeated by Medivh’s mother, Aegwynn, his essence went inside her body and waited. After Medivh was born, Aegwynn left him with his father, and Medivh would acquire his mother’s powers, along with Sargeras.

This leads to Medivh’s corruption as he was possessed by Sargeras. Sargeras used him to contact Gul’dan and help bring the orcs to Azeroth. This is only the backstory to Medivh bringing the orcs to Azeroth. There is so much more to the story, to make the long story short, yes, Medivh did help bring the Orcs to Azeroth and he was able to use the fel against the orcs. Gul’dan was in disbelief when he had heard that the mage had used the fel against them, though the orcs called him a warlock, which is untrue. It makes sense, as mages did not exist in the world of Orcs.

Medivh killed his own steward, Moroes, a name you might recognize from the first mandatory boss in the raid, Karazhan. Towards the end of the movie, you see Draka place her son on a little riverboat and send him off, but in the lore, Go’el was found among his parent’s bodies, he was then given the name Thrall, and raised by humans. Khadgar and Lothar, in the end, defeated Medivh together. Of course, before his death, Medivh cursed Khadgar with age and frailty. This is not depicted in the movie, so who knows if we will get a sequel, and if so, what will this sequel bring us? Where will pick up?

There are so many more places the story can start in the next chapter. To answer the question “Does Warcraft, the movie follow lore?” The answer is yes, though there are a few differences, but not enough to stray too far from the story. As with any movie based on a book or a video game, especially one as extensive as Warcraft, you can not expect them to have every little bit of the story, they will need to remove or add a little here & there. Overall, the movie did closely follow the lore, especially when looking at it from going back as far as the original Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Have you ever watched Warcraft? What did you think about it? Let me know what you think about it.