Hello everyone!
For this weeks lore video, I’ve decided to cover the story of Rehgar Earthfury who was chosen
to be fighting in the nexus within the game Heroes of the Storm. At some point I want to cover
each and everyone of the warcraft heroes that they’ve picked for the game, but today we’re
going to talk about the orcish shaman himself. From his youth on Draenor to the fighting pits
on Azeroth all the way to saving the world with the shamans of the earthen ring. Ladies
and gentleman, sit back, relax and I hope you’ll enjoy!
Rehgar’s story begins on the homeworld of the orcs, namely Draenor. His clan was at war with
a band of ogres and one day, they attacked his people, murdered most of them, but Rehgar’s
survival instincts were strong. He took the life of one of the ogres, long before he was
of a normal age for an orc’s first rite of passage, so he was very young when he took his first kill. The ogres wondered if they should
smash him on the spot, end it here and there, but they decided against it since he’d be more usefull as a training dummy
for the youngers ogres. The ogres didn’t realise what they were getting themselves
into though. Pitching Rehgar at much stronger and larger foes trained him well and he became
such a problem that they decided to sell him to the orcish arenas. His blood price would
pay for their losses and in the arena, Rehgar felt right at home. All his life, he had known
nothing but fighting and his warrior skills earned him recognition and a spot amongst
the forces of the first orcish invasion of Azeroth.Chosen to be one of the orcs to step though the dark
portal to conquer the planet, Rehgar was right there at the frontline, facing
of against the alliance of humans, elves and dwarves. As most of you know by now, the Alliance
of Lordaeron, despite having to take on such skilled fighters as Rehgar, they were able
to defeat the Horde and save their planet. The orcs that surrendered were not executed by the Alliance,
instead they decided that it would be more humane to place them within interment camps. Now most orcs within these camps, they became very passive
like an illness was spreading through them, but not someone like Rehgar. They tried to subjugate him
ofcourse, but Rehgar was simply untamable up to the point where the guards decided to sell him
as a gladiator to fight for the amusement of the human lord Agrovane. On the outside,
the world didn't stand still. The Dark Portal would eventually be destroyed by the Alliance of the Lordaeron which meant
that the orcs were stuck on Azeroth, they had no way home, but it meant very little for Rehgar. He managed to
escape his master and having to fight for the humans amusement, but fighting was all
this orc knew in his life. He returned to fight in the underground contests, not to secure
a new planet for his people. Not for a human master or for the ogres. He simply returned to fight for himself. He gained
fame and riches during these contests, the crowd would cheer his name as he earned himself enough money to
no longer have to fight as a gladiator himself, instead he became a gladiator master, training
others to fight for him. One of his gladiators was an orc of the blackrock
clan called Bloodeye Redfist and as Rehgar saw Bloodeye fighting with the booty bay bouncers, the first time that he met him,
he recognised a lot of himself in the orc. A hotheaded troublemaker with a history steeped
in war, he saw potential in the orc and he bought him to turn the hothead into a very succesfull
Gladiator. As warchief Thrall did his own story line, escaped his own human masters and gladiators life, he reformed
the Horde and he started to carve out a little piece of the land starting on the red shores of Durotar.
Thrall had also begun to revive the ancient orcish ways that were lost on their home planet
so long ago as the orcs started to dabble with demonic powers and demonic influences. Shamanism would become a part of the orcish culture once again and Rehgar followed
Thrall’s leadership and under his guidance, Rehgar became a shaman. Within
3 years, together with his prime gladiator blood eye, Rehgar earned himself quite a pretty penny turning his apprantice
into an orc’s favored champion, but things took a torn for the worst. Deadeye was
poisoned by the mate of one of the orcs that he had killed in his many battles. They had come into his
chambers, they wanted revenge and the orc was poisoned. In his final moments, as the poison took his life, he was able to take out his final opponent,
but there was nothing they could do to save his life. This is the moment where the story
described in the comics actually begins. Rehgar, at this point, is down 1 fighter and his team of Valeera Sanguinar
and Broll Bearmantle, they will have to fight within Dire Maul within a month. Fight against
other teams with who ever Rehgar is able to buy on such short notice. He basically thinks that
they’re dead meat, but fate has a weird way of working out sometimes and the most
unexpected fighter would show up....
Now to understand what happens next, you'll need a little bit of back story about Varian Wrynn.
The black dragon Onyxia had infiltrated stormwind under the disguise of lady Katrana Prestor.
She worked on manipulating events. She caused the stonemasons guild to riot through the streets, she caused the formation
of the defias brotherhood and the death of Varian’s wife Tyffin. Her passing made Varian
depressed and more vulnerable to Onyxia’s manipulations, but his son Anduin... He was a bright light in the darkness, he was able
to pull his father out of it so Onyxia had to come with a new plan. She decided to have Varian
kidnapped and use her magic to split him in two beings. She wanted to end up with 1 Strong willed Varian which she would
simply kill off and than she had 1 weak willed Varian which she could easily manipulate and control events from behind the curtains. Unfortenatly
for the black dragon, naga attacked as she worked on her spell, as she split Varian in two. Where as the strong willed
Varian was able to escape. He was able to break out, he jumped into the ocean, he got out of there. And the weak willed Varian would
later be ransomed back to Stormwind and used by Onyxia.
So here we are, Rehgar and his party, they're traveling to Orgrimmar and they're in desperate need of a third member
for their arena team. On the beach, the orcs spot a human waking up to the mouth of a hungry
crocolisk. Bets are quickly placed on the outcome of the fight, but Rehgar’s experienced
eyes, they can immediately tell that this human is a very well trained fighter. Varian manages
to put up a real good fight, but it seems like the crocolisk has the upper hand. Rehgar can’t
let this new price become croc bait, so a quick lightning bolt ends the life of the wild beast, but It was
unnecessary. Varian had placed positioned himself in such a way that the beast with its own weight
it would place a stake through its heart. As they met, Rehgar asked Varian who exactly he is and the human, to his
shock and surprise, doesn’t remember anything. This makes it all the easier for Rehgar to
capture Varian, despite the treaty between horde and alliance, and force him into his
arena team together with Valeera and Broll.
Now throughout the comic, there are a few story lines going on here like Valeera and Varian and Broll, but I’ll focus this video
on Rehgar. At first Varian doesn’t even want to fight for Rehgar. They consider giving him a little bit of a taste
of the whip, but Rehgar is wise enough to know that if they place Varian's back against
the wall, Varian will have to fight. His team is pitched against another team to get them some training in, Valeera brashly
enters the fight and Broll and Varian are forced to join her. As Rehgar expected, Varian would not let someone die on his watch. They emerge
victorius from the fight, they finish their gladiator training and as a reward, Rehgar has them pick equipment
of their choice from the hall of legends. As the team arrives at dire maul,
the crowd can’t believe their eyes. Surely such a pinkskin can’t hold his own against
the mightiest in the arena, but Varian (with his leadership and his team) they surprise them all. As they trained, as the story progressed, they
grew closer together, they learned how to work together and use their strenghts to their advantage. Each victory
earned fills Rehgar’s pockets even more until finally, Varian and his team, they’re able to
take out the champions of dire maul and claim the title for themselves. Varian has put up such
a good fight within the arena, that he manages to win the crowds favor. They cheer his new nickname Lo’gash,
meaning ghost wolf, a fitting name for the hero of Dire Maul.
With his pockets full of gold, Rehgar is ready to leave Dire Maul behind, but before he does,
he decides that Valeera is not the best person to be in the team. There was a lot of fighting between Broll and Valeera, he decides that Valeera has to go.
He sells Valeera to a new team where she'll become the captain and Broll and Varian hate the idea of leaving Valeera behind,
but such is the life of a slave. Down another team member, Rehgar sets out to Thunderbluff
to meet with Magatha Grimtotem and find a new recruit amongst the tauren. Now Varian
is still trying to regain his memory and although he recieves flashes from time to time, he
still doesn’t know who he is or what he’s supposed to do. Broll Bearmantle
recommends to visit the Pools of Vision within Thunderbluff so that they can do a cleansing ritual, to see if they can find
some answers and prevent Varian to be lost in his memories. Magatha warns them that it
would be very unwise to go to the caves right now since an elemental has been let lose,
but Varian and Brolthey're willing to take their chances. While meditating, both fighters
recieve their own visions and Varian finds out that he has a son, that there are people
who need him so he can no longer stay with Rehgar. After taking care of the elemental
that they’d been warned about, they’re invited to join Rehgar and Hamuul Runetotem
for dinner since Hamuul expected that Magatha was the one who had summoned the elemental
and now she had to pretend to be happy about it being destroyed. This
made the old druid very happy and as they sit down, Hamuul tells them the tale behind Varian’s
new nickname. Lo’gash also known as Goldrin is a demi-god who was part of the army
way back when, 10.000 years ago, during the war of the ancients. Each culture has their own version when it comes to the Lo'gash story line, but 1
thing always stayed the same, his ferocitiy and will was able to push himself through
the boundaries of the afterlife to aid his people. Giving Varian this nickname was actually a
compliment of the crowd, to compliment his skills as a fighter. Varian: 'I am Varian, but I am also Lo'gash."
After the tale is done, Hamuul gives Varian
a feather as a thank you for destroying the elemental, but Broll recognises the feather and
the intention behind it immediately. He and Hamuul are both druids and with the
feather Broll is able to summon the aid of a hippygroph and on it’s back, he and Varian, they
escape their slave master. Rehgar’s guards quickly go after them, but Rehgar himself
isn’t too worried about his top fighters making an escape. They’ve earned his investment
in them a thousand times over at dire maul and he always knew that this day was coming.
A man is truly a prisoner only as long as he agrees to remain one. After that, in his
heart, at least, he is free and where his heart is, his body may follow if his will
is strong enough. And I’m an old hand, Hamuul. I recognize a hippygryph feather when I see
one. I know that they can do in the right hands.
Rehgar knew full well what Hamuul was planning to do, but his days as a gladiator master
were over. We wouldn’t see Rehgar show up in the storyline for quite a bit and from
this moment on, he became more of a side character to the story then really having one for himself. Through
out the comics Varian discovers who he truly is and together with Broll and Valeera, Valeera
was able to set herself free in the meantime, together they restore Varian’s memories, they uncover
Onyxia’s plans and they bring the black dragon down restoring the 2 sides of Varian
into one single being. In the mean time, Rehgar realised that he had his fill with the whole
gladiator thing. As he saw Brol and Varian escape, he realized that his heart was with
them instead of the profit he could make so he retired and offered his services to
Warchief Thrall. Now the warchief's advisor, Rehgar joins Thrall and Garrosh as they travel
to Theramore to sit down with Varian, Anduin, Valeera, bunch of others in an attempt to
bring peace to the alliance and the horde. Garrosh strongly disagrees with Thrall’s choice to this meeting, he
believes that they should dominate and take what ever they need, but Anduin he speaks out, he speaks of wisdom
and he wonders why they would sacrifice lives and resources when a few words could bring
them much bigger profits. The peace negotiations, surprisingly, they're actually going very well, Thrall and Varian
step outside on friendly terms, side by side, but this is Warcraft afterall and Garona halforcen together with the twilight hammer cult they attack Theramore.
Garona has been placed under a spell by Cho’gall, who’s working with the old god C’thun.
They want to bring about the end of the world, they want to interupt these peace treaties, and they want to bring disorder
amongst the factions. Cho'gall: 'Brothers of Twilight, the hammer calls to you!' In the battle accusations are thrown back and forth. Varian thinks that
the Horde has send the same assasin that killed his father to kill him, but Thrall had nothing
to do with this. Garrosh believes that the Alliance have betrayed them, but Valeera tells
him to open his eyes and realise that there are many different races attacking them. During the battle, Rehgar
uses his shamanistic powers to keep prince Anduin safe and at the end of the battle,
Garona is captured at Theramore while her son Med’an is taken by the cult.
She might have failed at killing Varian, but the human king is pissed. He wants to
see justice done to Garona, but justice would have to wait. Jaina is still the ruler of theramore,
it's her rules, and she decides what happens to Garona. Thrall and Varian, with their entourage, they both head home and the peace treaties between the alliance and the horde...they're dead!
Back at Orgrimmar, Garrosh is pissed with his warchief and he’s not the only orc that believes thatThrall’s
actions make him look weak. They end up in the arena as Garrosh challenges Thrall to
Mak’gora, but the fight goes undecided since the undead forces show up to attack their
city. This is actually the Wrath of the Lich King pre-event where the undead scourge attack Stormwind and Orgrimmar. Thrall, Garrosh, Rehgar, members of the Horde unite and aim their fury and battlerage
at the undead. After they protect
their city, Thrall decides to answer the Lich King’s taunts, take the battle to Northrend
itself with Garrosh leading the campaign. The Alliance also protects their home,
they start their own campaign against the Lich King. Unfortunately these 2 factions, they can't work together, but the campaign against the Lich King is well on its way. Just before Thrall's ready to leave, Jaina shows
up with a special request. They’ve been able to crack the magical spells placed on Garona’s
mind and they figured out what Cho’gal is trying to do together with the old gods.
Their best course of action at this point would be to create a new guardian which can defend them against Cho'gal and this threat. The guardian is a being, in
this case they chose to use Med’an (Garona's son), which is granted powers from other people. These
powers are combined into one being, but instead of just using arcane magic as they'd done in the past, this time they
decided to go with magic from different sources. Shamans, priests, paladins, druids, all kinds
of different classes merged together into a council, merging their powers into the guardian.
Naturally, their first choice that came to mind was to have Thrall stand on the position of Shaman, but
Thrall was about to leave to Northrend. Instead he suggested that Rehgar should join them,
if he was willing, and Rehgar he was a shaman in his own right and a hero on his own so of course, Rehgar was willing. With their powers combined, with the council backing up Med’an
was able to defeat Cho’gal and C’thun, save the day and with the deed done he returned
the borowed powers to the council. After these events, the
council broke up, each member returning to their own lives and stories and not a lot of
people seem to remember these events since Med’an has not really been mentioned in the game. The only mention was once
in Velen’s short story, but despite that, despite nobody seeming to remember it, a new council was created and Rehgar was part of it.
There are 2 more story lines, 2 more novels where Rehgar makes an appearance, but honestly he doesn’t do much. First
there’s the novel Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects which takes place after Thrall made Garrosh
the Warchief and Deathwing, ny this time, broke out and caused the Cataclysm. Members of the shamanistic group called the Earthen Ring,
amongst them Rehgar and Thrall, they're trying to heal the world at the Maelstrom, but Thrall
isn’t quite there, isn't quite centered. He’s the weakest link in the chain of the healing that they’re
trying to do to the world and the Earthen Ring members, they call Thrall out.Thrall tried to explain himself
to Muln Earthfury, one of the members who asked why he wasn’t able to do these things that they
were all well capable of doing. Thrall said that he had a lot on his mind to which Rehgar said:
Thrall’s vision as he was hearing these words turned red for a moment, but before he could speak, Muln Earthfury
stood up for him. He told Rehgar that Thrall used to be the leader of the Horde and that Rehgar
had no idea what burdens he bore and perhaps still does bear. As one who until recently
owned slaves himself, Rehgar was in no position to sit and pass moral judgment upon Thrall. Now the rest of the novel focuses
on Thrall as he's send on a mission to help out the Aspects, the events of the expansion the Cataclysm take place. Thrall helps take down Deathwing and he comes back no longer
as Thrall, as a slave to the Horde, to himself, instead he now goes by the name of Go’el. Rehgar welcomes his old friend
back and is informed about Thrall’s new name and that’s pretty much what Rehgar did in this novel.
Now the final moment where Rehgar actually did something is in the story Tides of
War where Garrosh enslaved elementals and used a mana bomb to bomb theramore. News of
this reaches the earthen ring as they're still trying to heal the world. They’re devestated and furious that Garrosh had used these dishonorful
tactics. had enslaved the very elements they tried to heal. His actions could undo all the work
they were trying to accomplish and Rehgar wondered what else Garrosh might do next. Garrosh and Rehgar never saw eye to eye, even when Rehgar was still advising Thrall in the roll of warchief
and Garrosh was like 'We should conquer the world, we should dominate the world'. Rehgar was very much against him.
Naturally after hearing this news, they also wonderd if they should go out and confront Garrosh,get involved in the situation, but for
the moment they decide to stay and focus on their mission. To leave now would undo all
their hard work and although Thrall would later on in the story line leave the Earthen ring for a to help out with stopping Jaina from flooding Orgrimmar, this is the final moment that we see Rehgar in the story.
It’s hard to say if and when we’ll ever see Rehgar in the story again since he doesn’t
even have an ingame model yet. They did give him a roll in heroes of the storm so atleast
he’s got that going for him and who knows...perhaps one day they'll actually give Rehgar a proper spot in the game itself. We’ll see more of the orc who used
to be a slave, a gladiator, a slave owner, advisor to thrall, member of the council of tirisfal
and now a member of the earthen ring.
Ladies and gentleman, with that we've reached the end of Rehgar's story line. I wish I could tell you more, but it's entirely up to Blizzardif they'll do more with the character.
I do hope that you enjoyed his story so far. On screen I’ve linked two videos that tightly connect to Rehgar so if you want more details or you want more story lines connected to him:
On the left we have the story of Varian wrynn and on the right we have the story of Valeera Sanguinar.
As Always, Thank you very much for watching everyone, subscribe if you like my videos and until next time guys.....see ya!
Rehgar: "I was born for the arena.
On my squad, we trust the spirits for guidance.
No one is left behind.
Not even a pinkskin.
And when our backs are to the wall, I call on the elements to even the odds!
The name's Rehgar.
'Heroes of the Storm'? *Giggle* I AM THE STORM!"