History Characters / HeroesOfTheStormWarcraftWarriors

Son of the Alliance's first king Llane Wrynn, Varian witnessed his father's murder by the half-orc Garona Halforcen, instilling his dislike towards the Horde. He then grew up to be a respectable man, with good signs that he would become a good king of Stormwind one day. Unfortunately due to the plot by the black dragon Onyxia, Varian ended up being split in two, his diplomatic but more passive side residing in Stormwind, while his warrior spirit stranded to Kalimdor, amnesiac and picked up as a gladiator by Rehgar Earthfury. Befriending two other gladiators, Valeera Sanguinar and Broll Bearmantle, Varian would make a name of himself in the ring as "Lo'Gosh", but he soon broke away from his gladiator life. Accompanied by his two friends, he reclaimed his true identity and kingdom, slaying Onyxia.\\

Returning as the King of Stormwind and becoming the High King of the Alliance, Varian led the Alliance in many battles against the Lich King, Deathwing, Garrosh Hellscream, the Iron Horde and finally the Burning Legion. While at first his hatred for the Horde made him hotheaded, he managed to temper his ferocity and develop his diplomatic side thanks to the influence of his son Anduin. He ultimately died a hero, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing himself]] during the assault of the Burning Legion on the Broken Shore to buy enough time for the Alliance to regroup.\\
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Neltharion the Earth-Warder was one of the five Dragon Aspects, beings empowered by the titans to be the immortal guardians of Azeroth. However, driven insane by the Old Gods, Neltharion turned on his siblings during the War of the Ancients. After this, he took a new name - Deathwing, the Aspect of Death. Deathwing was the most powerful servant of the Old Gods, and acted as their instrument of destruction. He manipulated both the Horde and Alliance during the Second War, but was ultimately defeated. He was not killed however, and retreated to the elemental plane Deepholm to recover.\\

Years later, Deathwing emerged from his realm, outfitted with elementium plating that barely held his crumbling form together. He began the Cataclysm, an event that nearly tore Azeroth apart. His ultimate goal was to begin the Hour of Twilight, an apocalypse where all life would end and the Old Gods would awaken once more.\\
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Ragnaros is the Elemental Lord of Fire - like a flame, his only desire is to watch everything burn. The Firelord and his brethren once held sway over the entire world. As a servant of the Old Gods, he fought against the titans for domination over the planet. The victorious titans banished him and his brethren to the Elemental Planes -- there to remain imprisoned until the end of time. It was then and there that the elementals turned on each other. For five millennia a battle was fought at the core of the world, with Ragnaros biding his time in the Firelands.\\

Ragnaros returned to the surface when the Dark Iron clan, in a desperate attempt to fight back against the other dwarven clans, summoned him into Redridge. His emergence permanently scarred the land and created the volcano known as Blackrock Mountain. Ragnaros swiftly proceeded to enslave the Dark Iron clan, and remained inside the Molten Core of the volcano to gather his strength. Now, his full destructive potential is ready to be unleashed, and there has never been a realm more suited for it than the Nexus.\\
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Rexxar is a descendant of the mok'nathal, the children of orcs and ogres. Rexxar and his wolf companion, Haratha, left their homeworld of Draenor to fight alongside the Old Horde during the First War. His father Leorokk was fiercely against this; when Rexxar went anyway, his father disowned him. However, Rexxar grew disenfranchised with the Horde due to their leaders' ChronicBackstabbingDisorder. After Haratha died defending him from a warlock, Rexxar declared he would only trust the beasts from then on, and traveled the world of Azeroth with his new animal companion, Misha.\\

This changed when Rexxar encountered a dying grunt with a message for Thrall. Coming to admire the Horde's new leader, Rexxar stayed in Orgrimmar and helped with its construction, later being caught in a violent conflict between the New Horde and Grand Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, ruler of Kul Tiras, who wanted to wipe them out. After Daelin's death, he turned down an offer from Thrall to return to Orgrimmar, instead wanting to remain in the wild among the beasts; Rexxar nevertheless promised that Thrall was now like a brother to him and if he ever had need of the mok'nathal's help, he had only to ask. He then left, seeking new adventure with Misha in tow, now bearing the epithet "Champion of the Horde".\\
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Thrall is the son of Durotan, chieftain of the Frostwolf clan. However, not long after his birth, his parents were slaughtered by assassins sent by Gul'dan. The lone survivor of the attack, he was found by Aedelas Blackmoore, a human lord who planned to raise him to lead an army of orcs against the Alliance. Renamed "Thrall", he spent his days fighting in a gladiator ring for entertainment and learning the ways of war and strategy, though he was also taught how to read and write in the human tongue. Thrall would eventually escape his imprisonment and find what remained of his people. He learned the ways of the shaman from the far seer Drek'thar of the Frostwolves, and the ways of the warrior from Grom Hellscream of the Warsong clan. After impressing Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer, Thrall, Grom and Doomhammer began a journey to reunite the orc clans now living in internment camps scattered across Lordaeron. In one of their attacks, Doomhammer fell, but he bestowed Thrall with his hammer, his armor, and the title of Warchief in his final moments.\\

At the behest of the prophet Medivh, Thrall then led the orcish Horde to Kalimdor, where on his journey he befriended the Darkspear trolls and Bloodhoof tauren. After defeating the Burning Legion with the aid of Jaina Proudmoore and the night elves, Thrall and his people settled in a desert he called Durotar and founded the Horde's capital city of Orgrimmar.\\
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Arthas Menethil was a young paladin, son of King Terenas of Lordaeron and student to the legendary Uther the Lightbringer. During this time, a plague broke out in the kingdom, ravaging the land. Arthas soon learned that this plague was meant to transform its victims into mindless undead. The prince's desperate attempts to stop this plague grew darker and darker - he disbanded the Order of the Silver Hand so he could purge the infested city of Stratholme, burned down the ships of his men so they'd be forced to stay in Northrend, and eventually sacrificed his soul to wield the runeblade Frostmourne. However, this entire time he had been manipulated by Ner'zhul, the original Lich King, into becoming TheDragon for the Scourge. Upon equipping Frostmourne, he became the first death knight.\\

Arthas served as the Lich King's champion in conquering much of the Eastern Kingdoms. After raising Kel'Thuzad as a powerful lich, the fallen prince led the Scourge against the city of Dalaran, where Kel'Thuzad summoned Archimonde unto Azeroth. After the Legion's fall, Arthas returned to purge the last of the humans from Lordaeron. However, Illidan, under the command of Kil'jaeden, cast a powerful spell that nearly destroyed the Lich King, weakening Arthas and severing his connection to many of the undead. Although he was nearly destroyed by Sylvanas and her newly freed Forsaken, Arthas was saved by Kel'Thuzad, allowing him to return to Northrend. With no options left, Arthas donned the Helm of Domination and became the new Lich King, destroying most of Ner'zhul's soul. Now he leads the Scourge on a march to turn the entire world into his undead slaves.\\
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Cho'gall is one of the ogre-magi, rare ogres born with two heads. Such mages tend to assume positions of leadership within their clan and so it was with Cho'gall, who killed the chieftain of an orc clan, became chieftain himself and erased its original name from existence, renaming it Twilight's Hammer. He was a powerful ally of the Old Horde and answered to the orcish warlock Gul'dan. After Gul'dan's demise and the Old Horde's dissolving, Cho'gall and the Twilight Hammer Clan went into hiding on Azeroth. In secret, they had turned the clan into a cult that worshipped the horrific [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]], and returned during the Cataclysm to herald their masters and the end of the world.\\

E.T.C. is the Power of the Horde incarnated by brutal rhythms and blistering guitar riffs into the form of the most elite tauren chieftain to ever headbang across the surface of Azeroth. Don't bother putting on socks. He's just going to rock them off anyways.\\

In reality, Music/Level80EliteTaurenChieftain is a band made up of Blizzard employees, who perform HeavyMithril songs about ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/StarCraft''. His appearance in ''Heroes of the Storm'' is a massive tribute to the group, [[RuleOfFunny as well as an excuse]] [[ReferenceOverdosed to make lots and lots of rock n' roll jokes]].\\
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Garrosh Hellscream, former Warchief of the Horde, is as battle-hardy as is he egotistical. He is the son of the legendary Grommash, although he never drank the demon's blood. He stayed behind on Draenor, shunned by the role his father played in damning the orcs. This was until Thrall arrived through the Dark Portal and informed Garrosh of his father's great courage - how he had defeated Mannoroth and freed the orcs. Reinvigorated by this knowledge, Garrosh became Thrall's protégé and eventually the commander of the Warsong Offensive in Northrend.\\

His new demeanor brought along his father's fighting spirit, but also his hotheadedness. Thrall believed Garrosh would soon level out however, and appointed him as the new Warchief after the Cataclysm shattered the world. Thrall was '''very''' wrong, however. While Garrosh's rule brought new wealth and territory into the Horde, it also caused bloody conflict with the Alliance and revealed his FantasticRacism as he grew ever weary of the trolls, tauren, Forsaken, and blood elves. This reached its boiling point in Pandaria, when Garrosh unleashed an Old God's power in an attempt to reform the world in his image. While the Alliance and Horde intervened, this was hardly the end of Garrosh.\\
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Mal'Ganis is one of the nathrezim, or dreadlords, who served as Ner'zhul's elite jailers. He aided the Lich King in his task of preparing Azeroth for the Burning Legion's second invasion, spreading a plague through Lordaeron that would turn the population into mindless undead. Posing as the leader of the Scourge, he confronted Prince Arthas at Stratholme, and watched him purge the city before its citizens could turn. Impressed by Arthas' resolve, Mal'Ganis goaded the prince into following him to Northrend. In a desperate attempt to defeat Mal'Ganis, Arthas sought and found the runeblade Frostmourne. However, this was Mal'Ganis' plan all along, as Arthas forfeited his soul to the Lich King when he claimed the weapon. When Arthas finally confronted Mal'Ganis with Frostmourne in hand, Ner'zhul betrayed his jailer and commanded Arthas to slay the dreadlord. \\

However, being a demon, Mal'Ganis was not truly dead. After reforming his body, he returned to Northrend, where he manipulated the Scarlet Onslaught - an elite branch of the Scarlet Crusade - in the form of Barean Westwind. When his cover was blown, Mal'Ganis retreated, but eventually came back when the Legion invaded Azeroth for the third time.\\
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The middle brother of the dwarven Bronzebeard clan. While his older brother Magni was the King of the Dwarves, and his younger brother Brann was a great explorer, Muradin was a great warrior. Muradin led an expedition to acquire the runeblade Frostmourne from Northrend and was later aided by Prince Arthas in his endeavor. However, upon realizing that Frostmourne was cursed, Muradin sought to leave it, but Arthas chose to claim the sword, unleashing a shockwave that seemingly killed Muradin.\\

...but, as fate would have it, Muradin was only knocked unconscious and awakened after Arthas had turned on his own people. Muradin had lost his men but also his memories, as Muradin thought himself an Earthen and resigned himself to the Storm Peaks until he was discovered by the Alliance years later in the crusade against the Lich King. When the three Bronzebeard brothers reunited, Muradin regained his memories, and returned to Ironforge after Arthas was defeated. After his brother Magni accidentally petrified himself in an ancient ritual, Muradin became the new head of the Bronzebeard clan and now shares the Ironforge throne with the Dark Iron and Wildhammer dwarves.\\
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* ''Taunt'' increases Varian's maximum health. Activating it silences a enemy hero and forces them to attack Varian. This makes Varian a Tank who dominates the battlefield with crowd control.