This is about the book. For the (unreleased) computer game based on the same story, see Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was a black comedy point-and-click adventure computer game under development by Blizzard Entertainment that was set in the Warcraft universe, and cancelled before its release...

.

Warcraft: Lord of the Clans is a novel by Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

 novelist Christie Golden

Christie Golden

Christie Golden is an award-winning author who lives in Loveland, Colorado, United States. She has written over thirty novels and several short stories in fantasy, horror and science fiction.-Career:...

 based in Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...

s Warcraft Universe

Warcraft Universe

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media originally created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of Four core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and World of Warcraft...

. It was published by Pocket Books

Pocket Books

Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...

.

The story of the novel was originally going to be used in the adventure game

Adventure game

An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...

 Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans

WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was a black comedy point-and-click adventure computer game under development by Blizzard Entertainment that was set in the Warcraft universe, and cancelled before its release...

until it was cancelled.

It is the second book released in the Warcraft Universe after Warcraft: Day of the Dragon

Warcraft: Day of the Dragon

Warcraft: Day of the Dragon is a novel by Richard A. Knaak based in Blizzard Entertainments Warcraft Universe. It was published by Pocket Books.It is the first book released in the Warcraft Universe.- Plot Summary :...

, although there is no plot continuity between them, and are written by different authors.

Plot summary

The book's plot revolves around Thrall's journey from birth, to slavery as a gladiator and finally his path on the journey to becoming Warchief of the orcish Horde. The main villain of the book is Aedelas Blackmoore, who commands the encampments where the orcs were imprisoned, and also Thrall's (thrall means slave to humans) former owner. Blackmoore's plans were to raise Thrall to command an orcish army to over run the Alliance, allowing him to forcibly take the position of King.

Thrall was trained to handle every weapon and learned battle tactics, but also studied basic writing and history. Also, to enrich Blackmoore further, Thrall was forced to compete in many gladiator tournaments, which made him want to escape even more. Thrall eventually escapes Blackmoore's tyranny with the help of a young human girl named Taretha. During his captivity, she would sneak notes to Thrall and was one of his only friends while in the grasp of Blackmoore. After earning his freedom thanks to Taretha, Thrall set out to find a group of orcs that had evaded Blackmoore. He found these orcs to be those of the Warsong Clan, led by Grom Hellscream. After learning some of his history from Grom, Thrall then headed for the mountains of Alterac to find his original clan, the Frostwolf Clan. There he met with their Shaman, Drek'Thar, who taught Thrall the ancient ways of Shamanism

Shamanism

Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...

. There he also met with the Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer and learned more of his past and the reasons for his parents' death.
With his new power, and knowledge provided by both Drek'Thar and Doomhammer, Thrall raised an army by freeing his people from the prison encampments, rallying them under the goal of freedom and a return to the orcish life before the war. Unfortunately, Doomhammer fell in a battle liberating one of the encampments, so in his final moments, he granted Thrall the title of Warchief.

Thrall then decided to attack the fortress of Durnholde, home of Aedelas Blackmoore, his former captor, to free all the remaining entrapped Orcs at once by cutting off any more reinforcements. He succeeds in taking Durnholde fortress, killing Blackmoore with the help of the elements and of course, his Orcish army. Tragically however, he is too late to save the one human who had helped him during his captivity. At the end of the book, Thrall crushes Durnholde with his elemental powers, then addresses the Horde, promising they will succeed under his leadership.

Within World of Warcraft

The events and characters surrounding the escape of Thrall from the book are found in the MMORPG World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...

as a dungeon setting. Players are sent back in time to assist the escape and ensure Thrall is freed, as a new enemy travels through time attempting to stop the rise of the new Horde. Despite a slight change in history regarding Thrall's escape, the rest of history remains unchanged thanks to the efforts of the Bronze Dragonflight.

Durnholde is also found in ruins in the main game, now used as a hideout by the Syndicate, never having been rebuilt since the events in this book. After the Cataclysm, the Syndicate was replaced by elementals.