Lords of War Part Five – Maraad

Well, color me curve-balled (and blue.) The final Lords of War entry concerns not some leader of the Old Horde whose alternate-universe doppelgänger will be causing us trouble, but instead shows us the darkest moment from Vindicator Maraad's past.

Maraad is a pretty interesting character - it's good to see a Paladin character, especially a Draenei one, who struggles with morality. The last time we really saw that was in Warcraft III, with Arthas' descent into evil (he has a bunch of mercenaries murdered to cover his own tracks before he loses his soul to Frostmourne.) Maraad is certainly not an evil person, but we see in this short how his thirst for vengeance (while totally understandable) overcame his purpose as a paladin.

Anyway, it's also nice to see more Draenei stuff. Warlords of Draenor has been marketed as being Orcs, Orcs, and more Orcs, and in fairness, that's a pretty good summation of the expansion's main threat. Yet the biggest saving grace of the expansion is that we are getting a really solid look at the Draenei. I can't really think of a previous expansion in which the major Alliance presence in the game was not humans (while it petered out sadly early in Dragonblight, half the Horde stuff in Wrath's first couple levels was Forsaken-themed,) and the fact that it's the Draenei, who have always kind of struggled for the spotlight, is really cool. (Some day, Gnomes. Some day.)

I had previously thought we might see Gul'dan or Ner'zhul, but I've seen it pointed out that these two, as well as Blackhand, would have wildly different stories than the ones Maraad would have known. Blackhand, after all, was the Horde's first Warchief, and Ner'zhul's major motivation for forming the Horde had no relevance in Warlords, since it's not him who actually brings the Horde together in that universe. Gul'dan, you could potentially tell some backstory for, but I think Blizzard may want to keep his past mysterious - leaving it just that he used to be Ner'zhul's most gifted student, but jumped at the opportunity to ally with the Burning Legion because he's a sociopathic monster with nothing but ambition.

I believe this is the final entry in the series, but much like the Shaohao series for Mists, I think it was gorgeously done. I only wish we had a lorewalker, Seat of Knowledge equivalent in Draenor for more lore-stuff.