Welcome to Lore, Warcraft & You. A series of written articles looking at various lore figures within the world of Warcraft universe. This week we take a look at a figure set to make a World of Warcraft in game entry in the Warlord’s of Draenor expansion set later this year; Vindicator Maraad.
So, who is this Vindicator Maraad, and why have you possibly not heard of him before? Well the story of the Vindicator starts back in The Burning Crusade expansion for the game, where briefly you could see Maraad within the opening cutscene of the game. Carrying the Hammer of The Naaru, a weapon that players of the game can actually acquire in-game with the same model off of the boss; High King Maulgar within Gruul the Dragon-Killer’s lair. This weapon is not unique to Maraad however, and is seen within the game in the possession of several quest givers and non-player-characters.
Maraad’s involvement in the World of Warcraft is where the story of this paladin gets particularly interesting. Not a great deal is known about much of his backstory currently, however what we do know is surprising and does make Maraad a particularly important character.
Garona Halforcen in-game
Maraad’s as of yet unnamed sister is the mother of none other than Garona Halforcen, the half-orc half Draenei lover of Medivh, and the mother of Med’an, Medivh’s son. Garona herself features within the World of Warcraft as a quest giver within the Twilight Highlands. Garona is the only known alive family member Maraad has, but it’s likely that during the events hinted at within the Warlords of Draenor expansion that Maraad’s story, his connection with Medivh and indeed with Khadgar (Medivh’s former apprentice), will all become clear. Possibly this could manifest in the form of quests for Maraad on the alliance side in the Shadowmoon Valley staging area for the alliance in that forthcoming expansion.
Personally I think the connection between Maraad and many older characters is an incredibly important story, and one I wouldn’t imagine Blizzard to include in WoD unless they intended to clean up loose ends regarding the disappearance of Medivh and the surrounding story of those characters. It’s an incredibly unusual story of racial cross-overs, one which is less popularised within the rest of the game. Med’an is a half human son of a half orc, half Draenei. Garona herself was born to an experiment in racial breeding, another extremely dark aspect of the Warcraft universe untold so far, which actually includes the story of her mother, a Draenei who was captured by Gul’dan, whom supposedly ordered one of his orc warlords to rape her and produce a child if he could. The confusing, and quite honestly complicated, and controversial identity crisis that could be told in a story of this complexity is certainly one of the more anticipated tales I cannot wait to see explained.
A story of war, hatred, mixed bloodlines and the following of the light is one of Maraad, and that’s merely what’s presently known of his family. Maraad is a paladin and a devout follower of the light. The following of this religious power is a key aspect of WoW, and comes in many different forms. The last time Maraad was seen within the game, he was aboard the Skybreaker airship within Icecrown, preparing the invasion of Icecrown citadel and featuring as a quest giver for Alliance players. He supposedly rescued his niece, Garona from human imprisonment in Theramore. He revealed to her the truth of her bloodline, and the story of her mother’s rape as an experiment of Gul’dan’s madness, under the corruption of the Burning Legion on Draenor.
Maraad was revealed to be a founding member of ‘The New Council of Tirisfal’ in the Warcraft Comic. This ‘New’ council features as the successor to the very same council Medivh took a leading part in all those years ago. The guardians of Tirisfal (named after the meeting place the original members) were members of the council, dedicated to the prevention of future Burning Legion involvement in Azeroth, with their primary duty to protect the world from future invasion forces. The council itself features members and representatives of areas of power within Azeroth, including a shaman representative as envoy of Thrall, and even Medivh’s son Med’an.
Changes to this alternative universe cannot impact the main timeline which we are familiar with in the outside world of Azeroth we were told at Blizzcon last year, with the events taking place on a completely different Draenor at the point of Garrosh’s involvement, which destabilized the timeline from its natural course. That’s not to say however that people cannot come back from the dead, as Garrosh intends to lead a unified orc force under his control back into the normal WoW timeline and take revenge on the un-pure Horde and those who imprisoned him at the end of Mists of Pandaria’s final cut scenes for the Siege of Orgrimmar raid instance. This isn’t to say that it’s likely, but perhaps some well-loved characters may have a second chance at life when the events of the expansion are over. This prospect is quite exciting, as personally I would love to see in an ideal world, some more orcish characters come through who died, and more hilariously the prospect of Garrosh’s own father, Grom prior to the corrupted blood.
So there you have it, the story of Maraad, possibly one of the most interesting characters in the Warcraft universe, featured in an arbitrary quest on an airship in WoTLK, and seen once in The Burning Crusade’s opening cutscene. The story of Warlords of Draenor is rich with loose ends and untold stories from the older games, and I cannot physically wait to see how they are represented within this year’s release, where it’s for certain that I will NOT be rushing through the quest lines without reading them!
If you have enjoyed this article and would like to leave a comment below discussing Maraad’s origins and perhaps some predictions on his involvement in WoD please do! Thank you very much for reading, I’ll see you next time, for another feature of Lore, Warcraft & You!
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