Hello everyone! A few weeks ago I asked the question on Facebook and Twitter as to what
character related to the legion story line you guys and girls wanted to see a video about. Don't worry, one day I want
to cover each and every bit of lore on the channel that Warcraft has to offer, but for now you voted Maiev Shadowsong
so that’s the story we’re going to tell today so let’s begin shall we?!
Illidan: "Maiev...How is it even possible?!"
The first time that we see Maiev in the story line is during the war of the ancients which took
place over 10.000 years ago. A lot of important characters and a lot of storylines find their
origin during this war, but I’ll have to focus on Maev in order to give you an understanding as to what kind of character she is. The war of the ancients it was caused by the highborn
which tried to summon the dark titan sargeras and the burning legion into the world of Azeroth.
The night elves they eventually found out what the highborn and their queen Azshara were trying to do
and they organised a resistance to fight back. Maiev was part of this resistance, she was part of
the sisterhood of elune, a religious order of the night elves dedicated to worshipping
their goddes Elune, healing, blessing and praying for their people. The sisters were
servants of elune their goddess, sometimes they were graced by her powers,but praying was only half of what they did.
The other half of elune that they revered, that they worshiped, was the aspect of the night warrior which meant that her
servants were also trained in the art of combat and it was a good thing too since their skills
were needed to fight back against the Legion. Many powerfull servants of the Burning Legion were summoned during
the war with the portal that they created with the use of the Well of Eternity. You had creatures like Mannoroth, you had Archimonde and you had Hakkar the Houndmaster. The last one,
Hakker was able to take out the high priestess of Elune, Dejahna and she was the leader of their organisation.
Before her death, Dejahna named a sucesser to pick up the mantle of leadership and the one
she had chosen was not Maiev, instead she named Tyrande Whisperwind to take her place.
Tyrande had shown an extremely powerfull conection to Elune. Where others might be able to bless
and heal certain wounds, they were not always succesfull. Tyrande didn’t see herself as
anything special, but her gift and her devotion allowed her to channel Elune’s power and
heal where others could not. That’s why she was chosen and Maiev, although she didn’t
outright say it, she thought that it should have been her. During the war, Tyrande is kidnapped
by the Satyrs, she's taken to Azshara’s palace and Maiev mentioned that she feared it was Tyrande’s
inexperience that actually betrayed her. It would have been better for Tyrande if her predecessor
had chosen one more...seasoned...someone like Maiev. Malfurion Stormrage, as he heard Maiev speak these words, he had to bite back his anger and he
explained that it was not Tyrande’s fault. During this conversation
as it was described in the book, we also see Maiev interact with her little brother, Jarod Shadowsong. They had not seen
eachother for a very long time as Maiev had chosen to move away to the temple of Hajiri
as the place for her studies. This location was far away from their home so they hadn't spoken to eachother in a very long time and despite Jarod
being taller then his older sister, it still seemed like he was looking up to her. Just as this conversation took this place, just moments before,
Jarod had just saved the night elves army by ordering different races to work together, yet his
sister she tried to write it off as a city guard playing for commander. Fortune was with her brother
that time and Jarod simply nodded despite it being an act of good, common sense. Maiev
shrugged this comment off, she didn't see it as Jarod being a capable leader, she tried to write it off as her brother simply being lucky and that’s the way at first that they acted around each other.
Maiev was the older sister after all and Jarod saw himself as nothing more but a simple guard, yet the war would
prove that Jarod was so much more. The different leaders of the night elf army fell in battle and Jarod,
unwillingly and unknowingly flowed into the roll of the military leader of the kaldorei
resistance. Similar to Tyrande, Jarod also didn't think he was anything special nor that he deserved the respect that the
night elf forces gave him, but he was smart, he was able to lead the resistance and was it not for
him, they might had lost the war entirely.
Maivh through out the course of the war, she also tried to gain a better position since like I said, she believed to be a better
and more experienced leader of the sisterhood so when Tyrande was kidnapped to Azshara's palace and Marina,
the one Tyrande had named to become the leader after her, when Marina was killed...Maivh took up the
roll as leader. Jarod noticed what his sister was doing, that she was there at the front
of battle trying to show all of them that she was worthy of being in the position of a leader. He wondered
if such ambition was permitted in the moon goddes’s order, regardless, he knew that
Maiev was Maiev and she would not let anyone stop her. As Jarod grew in his roll as leader
so too did Maiev’s respect for her little brother. When Tyrande was eventually liberated out of
Azshara’s palace, Maiev reluctantly stepped down as leader and eventually, despite all
odds and after many battles against the demons, the night elves were able to stop Sargeras, close the portal
created by the Highborn and send the Legion back to the twisting nether.
The well of eternity, that vast pool of power that they had to used to create their portal
to summon the legion and try to summon Sargeras, it had become so unstable that it started to sunder the land, split the land of Kalimdor apart
and create the world as we know it today.
Part of the night elf kingdom was simply destroyed send to the bottem of the sea, including Azshara’s
palace. As the queen realized that their plans had failed, water started to fill up the palace and in that moment,
the old gods whispered to the queen offering her a deal. She and the highborn with her were transformed
into the naga and when the time came, she would serve the Old Gods. The night elves resistance they also saw their world being destroyed, they
where able to retreat to high ground and you have to understand that in that very moment, they saw
their world that they knew destroyed. They had to think about shelter, about food and thankfully they had an ample
supply of water in a big lake which they could use to give their people something to drink, but Illidan Stormrage, Malfurion Stormrage's twin brother, he had other plans in mind with
the water. Illidan had acted as a double agent during the war, but only a very
few praised his actions. Most were uncertain if Illidan was truly fighting for their cause
and didn’t join the legion willingly. By this time he had these tattoos across his body,
Sargeras had burned out his eyes and they, well at least some of them, kinda wondered if Illidan was truly on their side
or if he was actually part of the Legion and only switched sides again because the Legion lost
as Illidan aproached the lake he thought to himself that
he would become a hero. He would restore the night elves life essence as he had taken several
vials filled with water from the original well of eternity and he used them to create a new well of power.
Illidan hungered for that power, was addicted to magic and he understood that their enemy. He understood
that the legion had only taken its first bite out of their world and one day they would
be back. By creating this well, he imagined his people embracing him as a hero, but actually, quite the opposite happened.
Jarod shadowsong was struck down by Illidan
and Maiev, together with Shandris quickly healed his wounds. Jarod would thankfully
live, but Maiev she was furious, she was terrible to behold. She wanted to slay Illidan right in that moment,
but Tyrande stopped her telling Maievh that Jarod did not die and that it was Jarod’s decision to make. They now
had a new pool of power in the world and the night elves did not want another War of the Ancients
to happen so something had to be done. It was the dragon aspects that came up with the
plan of planting a world tree over the well to both contain its powers and make it less treacherous
in nature as the Well that it was. Nodrassil, meaning crown of the heavens, was placed over the new
well and on top of that, for their efforts in saving the world, the aspects gave it their
blessing. Strength, a healthy life, the ability to dream and those that followed malfurion’s
path of druidism, they were welcome into the Emerald Dream. Finally and maybe most importantly
for the story line of Maiev, the bronze dragon Nozdormu granted immortality to the night elves for as long as the tree
would stand. With that done, all that was left to do was to decide what would happen
to Illidan and Illidan’s’s brother pleaded with the others to not execute Illidan, instead
he wanted them to imprison his twin. Jarod shadowsong agreed with Malfurion’s request
which did not satisfy Maiev at all. She wanted to see justice done and the night elves now
realised what kind of a dangerous and powerful elf Illidan realy was. They could not leave
him unguarded so Maiev volunteered to be his guard, to be his warden. From the sisterhood of Elune came
more volunteers ready to take up this job and this created a new organisation known as the Watchers. Maiev: 'For the Watchers'
Time went on, the war was left behind them and Jarod felt that Malfurion and the druids, that they
were more concerned with nature than they were with their own people. In the meantime he had falled in love with a novice
priestess named Shalasyr and together they decided to leave their people behind without
saying a word. Maiev was truly hurt that her brother left her like that, her only family,
so she focused her attention on the watchers as they were her only company. Maiev as their
leader gained the title of warden which was later awarded to a select few who had proven
their exceptional fighting abilities, their tracking skills and their tenacity. At first the watchers
were mainly charged with watching over Illidan, that was the whole reason why they were created, but over time as the years went by, they gained more responsibilities.
Their duties eventually included the capture, imprisonment and where ever necessary, the recapture of all
dangerous criminals so over the years, Illidan was no longer the only one that they kept imprisoned.
For around 10.000 years Maievh and her watchers kept guard, they made sure that Illidan recieved
his punishment as well as upholding the law, but time on the outside did not stand still and Illidan’s warning would come true.
During Warcraft 3, with the Lich King being send by Kil’jaeden to weaken the world and get it
ready for another invasion, Arthas was turned to the dark side and resurrect Kel’thuzad
as a Lich. Together with their scourge forces, they summoned Archimonde once more which meant
that the Legion had returned. Archimonde rememberd the events of the War of the Ancients and
he set his eyes on taking out the night elves as well as draining the powers of the world tree Nordrassil.
Tyrande Whisperwind was leading the night elves at the time and she decided that it was time
to wake up the druids and her beloved Malfurion. Together they went deep beneath the earth
to wake up the druids of the claw but as they journeyed through the tunnels, they came across the path leading to Illidan’s prison...
Tyrande despite everyone telling her not to, she decides that freeing Illidan is the best course
of action. She believes that they need Illidan’s help to fight back against the legion and
for her, Illidan's love was so strong that he was still willing even after 10.000 years, to fight with them against the legion. During these events, Maiev was
away on a mission so she couldn’t stop Tyrande from liberating
the betrayer and Illidan, at first, actually did what Tyrande asked him to do. He absorbed
the skull of Gul’dan, he increased his power and he made himself look like a demon. With
this additional power he was able to slay the dreadlord Tychondrius who was leading the undead forces in the area
and they were busy corrupting their forest. Illidan made a great sacrifice by absorbing the skull of Gul'dan and of course, his own lust for power also played a part in it and...
when Malfurion and Tyrande found Illidan again, he was looking so much like a demon that they didn't even recognize him.
When they did, when they realized what Illidan had done, they could not stand behind his actions.
Despite saving their forest, despite sacrifing his own soul, Malfurion banished
Illidan from their lands. Later on the Prophet Medivh would show up with Jaina and Thrall. Malfurion and Tyrande would ally with these forces
and together they came up with a plan. They would distract Archimonde long enough for Malfurion to gather the spirits of the forest and
as Archimonde climbed the world tree Nordrassil, the spirits detonated blowing up Archimonde as well as the Night Elves immortality.
Malfurion believed it was a small sacrifice to make for the safety of Azeroth, but Illidan, his story wasn’t quite done
yet and neither is Maiev. She learned what Tyrande had done, she was hellbent on capturing
Illidan once again, but that’s a story I’ll save for next week.
Maiev: I watched the Barrow Prisons for over 10.000 years, yet I'm the one who feels caged.
I feel hollow inside. Vengeance is all I have left. Tyrande will pay for setting Illidan free.
I will recapture Illidan or die trying.
For now thank you very much for watching everyone, I really hope that you enjoyed the story so far! Next week we’ll continieu
with Maiev’s hunt for Illidan, the events during the Burning Crusade and the novel Wolfheart.
We might even speculate a little bit about what Maiev might do in the next expansion Legion, but like I said, we'll save that for next week.
As always, Subscribe if you like my videos and until next time guys....see ya!