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World of Warcraft Patch 4.2, Rage of the Firelands is here! With a new raid, a legendary questline, all-new raid tier and PvP armor sets, the most diverse daily questing experience to date, major story developments, PvP Season 10, user interface enhancements, and much more, patch 4.2 has brought Azeroth a little something for everyone, including us Templars !
read patchnotes here:
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A few weeks ago one of our dearest members made this text, and I wanted to share it with you all. This is for you Isobell, may you get well and come back to us soon.
Bal'a dash, malanor. Greetings, traveller.
You are welcome here.
In the name of Grand Master Hjallis I offer to take your cloak and I bid you to take a chair to rest your weary feet. I offer you a cup of sparkling oasis water to clench your thirst and will set out a plate of poached emperor salmon to release you of your hunger. I will light a fire to warm your bones. My name is Isobell the Noble and I am a Storyteller. Since you have sought me out, I can only assume you have come here to learn of the history and adventures of the Templars of Quel’Thanas. You are invited to listen to all I have to say. Please consider this a safe haven from the hardships and perils of Azaroth and stay as long as you like.
To fully understand how and why the Templars of Quel’Thanas came to be, I must first share with you the history of Quel’Thalas and the rise and fall of the High Elves. This history has been fully documented and if you permit me, I will read from one of the old scriptures…
History as it has been written
“The high elves, led by Dath'Remar, left Kalimdor behind them and challenged the storms of the Maelstrom. Their fleets wandered the wreckage of the world for many long years, and they discovered mysteries and lost kingdoms along their sojourn. Dath'Remar, who already had the name Sunstrider (or "he who walks the day"), sought out places of considerable ley power upon which to build a new homeland for his people. His fleet finally landed on the beaches of the kingdom men would later call Lordaeron. Forging inland, the high elves founded a settlement within the tranquil Tirisfal Glades. After a few years, many of them began to go mad. It was theorized that something evil slept beneath that particular part of the world, but the rumors were never proven to be true. The high elves packed up their encampment and moved northward towards another land rich with ley energies.
As the high elves crossed the rugged, mountainous lands of Lordaeron, their journey became more perilous. Since they were effectively cut off from the life-giving energies of the Well of Eternity, many of them fell ill from the frigid climate or died from starvation. The most disconcerting change, however, was the fact that they were no longer immortal or immune to the elements. They also shrank somewhat in height, and their skin lost its characteristic violet hue. Despite their hardships, they encountered many wondrous creatures that had never been seen in Kalimdor. They also found tribes of primitive humans who hunted throughout the ancient forestlands. However, the direst threat they encountered were the voracious and cunning forest trolls of Zul'Aman. These moss-skinned trolls could regenerate lost limbs and heal grievous physical injuries, but they proved to be a barbaric race. The Amani empire stretched across most of northern Lordaeron, and the trolls fought hard to keep unwanted strangers from their borders. The elves developed a deep loathing for the vicious trolls and killed them on sight whenever they were encountered. After many long years, the high elves finally found a land which was reminiscent of Kalimdor. Deep within the northern forests of the continent, they founded the kingdom of Quel'Thalas ("High Kingdom" or "High Home")[3] and vowed to create a mighty empire which would dwarf that of their kaldorei cousins. Unfortunately they soon learned that Quel'Thalas was founded upon an ancient troll city that the trolls still held to be sacred. Almost immediately, the trolls began to attack the elven settlements en masse.
The elves, unwilling to give up their new land, utilized the magics which they had gleaned from the Well of Eternity and kept the savage trolls at bay. Under Dath'Remar's leadership, they were able to defeat the Amani warbands that outnumbered them ten to one. Some elves, wary of the Kaldorei's ancient warnings, felt that their use of magic might possibly draw the attention of the banished Burning Legion. Therefore, they decided to mask their lands within a protective barrier which would still allow them to work their enchantments. They constructed a series of monolithic Runestones at various points around Quel'Thalas which marked the boundaries of the magic barrier. The Runestones not only masked the elves' magic from extra-dimensional threats, but helped to frighten away the superstitious troll warbands as well.
As time wore on, Quel'Thalas became a shining monument to the high elves' efforts and magical prowess. Its beauteous palaces were crafted in the same architectural style as the ancient halls of Kalimdor, yet they were interwoven with the natural topography of the land. Quel'Thalas had become the shining jewel that the elves had longed to create. The Convocation of Silvermoon was founded as the ruling power over Quel'Thalas, though the Sunstrider Dynasty maintained a modicum of political power. Comprised of seven of the greatest high elf lords, the Convocation worked to secure the safety of the elven lands and people. Surrounded by their protective barrier, the high elves remained unmoved by the old warnings of the Kaldorei and continued to use magic flagrantly in almost all aspects of their lives.
For nearly four thousand years the high elves lived peacefully within the secluded safety of their kingdom. Nevertheless, the vindictive trolls were not so easily defeated. They plotted and schemed in the depths of the forests and waited for the numbers of their warbands to grow. Finally, a mighty troll army charged out from the shadowy forests and once again laid siege to the shining spires of Quel'Thalas.
The Troll Wars
When the Amani returned, they struck back with a vengeance. The trolls besieged Quel'Thalas for many years, bringing the elven kingdom to its knees. In desperation, with defeat nearly imminent, the high elves turned to their southern neighbors: The human empire of Arathor.
The human tribes had recently been united under the rule of Thoradin, establishing their capital city of Strom (present day Stromgarde) in the highlands of southern Lordaeron. While they too suffered at the hands of the trolls, it was not until ambassadors from Quel'Thalas arrived that Thoradin realized how desperate the elves' situation was. The elves agreed to train one hundred men in the arts of magic in exchange for Thoradin pledging military aid. Thoradin, though distrustful of magic, agreed to send aid to the elves out of necessity - realizing that once Quel'Thalas had fallen, Arathor would be next. After the battle that forever broke the legions of Zul'Aman, the elves pledged an oath of loyalty and friendship to Thoradin and his bloodline.
The Second War
Nearly three thousand years later, shortly after the fall of the Kingdom of Azeroth, Anduin Lothar - the last blood descendant of King Thoradin - led his people across the Great Sea to Lordaeron, where he went before King Terenas and warned of the coming of the Orcish Horde. Terenas immediately called a council of the neighboring kings which led to the formation of the Alliance of Lordaeron. With Lothar named Supreme Commander, Terenas sent a missive to King Anasterian Sunstrider - himself a veteran of the Troll Wars millennia before - informing him of Lothar's lineage and the request for aid to the Alliance. At first, Anasterian reluctantly sent a token display of support in the form of a party led by Alleria Windrunner.
Not long afterwards, when Orgrim Doomhammer led the Horde's invasion of Quel'Thalas and began burning the edges of the Eversong Woods, it was discovered that the Horde was being aided by the elves' mortal enemies, the Amani, led by the cunning Zul'jin. Alleria brought the head of a freshly slain troll warrior to the Convocation of Silvermoon, throwing it at Anasterian's feet. This provoked an intense rage within the King of Quel'Thalas, and he immediately called for the mobilization of his armies to battle the Horde. The effort was led by Sylvanas Windrunner, Ranger-General of Silvermoon.
After the Second War ended, Anasterian withdrew his support from the Alliance. The official stance was that the humans' poor leadership resulted in the burning of Eversong Woods (even though Terenas reminded him of the many humans who gave their lives to protect Quel'Thalas); in addition, with Lothar dead and the Horde defeated, Anasterian believed that the debt to Thoradin and his descendants was repaid. With few exceptions - including the elven priests and sorceresses, as well as Anasterian's son and heir, Prince Kael'thas, a member of the Kirin Tor of Dalaran - the majority of the elven race shut themselves inside their enchanted kingdom.
The Fall of Quel'Thalas
Almost fifteen years later, the Plague of Undeath broke out in Lordaeron. Terenas' son Arthas, a paladin trained by Uther the Lightbringer himself, made efforts to stop the Plague from turning his beloved people into mindless undead raised to serve the Lich King, master of the Scourge. Instead, the whole chain of events appears to have been engineered by the Lich King himself to find a suitable host for his bodiless mind, and Arthas fell into despair and eventually madness. Travelling to Northrend, he forfeited his soul to the Lich King upon taking up the runeblade Frostmourne.
Now the greatest of the Lich King's death knights, Arthas travelled back to his homeland, murdered his father and all but obliterated the Kingdom of Lordaeron. Afterwards, he was tasked by Tichondrius, the leader of the Dreadlords and the Lich King's chief jailor, to resurrect the necromancer Kel'Thuzad - whom Arthas had killed not long before - so he could fulfill his appointed duty of summoning Archimonde into Azeroth. Tichondrius also told Arthas that there was only one suitable place to resurrect Kel'Thuzad - the mystic Sunwell, the source of the high elves' magic, deep inside Quel'Thalas.
To reach the Sunwell, Arthas needed an insider, someone who could allow him to bypass the magical defenses of Quel'Thalas; he found one in Dar'Khan Drathir, a member of the Convocation of Silvermoon. Dar'Khan, an egotistical and embittered man, believed he deserved more than he was receiving. Arthas preyed upon his ego, promising Dar'Khan untold power in exchange for his aid, and his loyalty. With the backing of his "Blessed Lord Arthas", Dar'Khan provided the Scourge with two powerful artifacts - the Stone of Light and the Stone of Flame - that had warding powers against the undead, allowing the Scourge armies to circumvent Quel'Thalas' formidable defenses. Thus, Arthas led the Scourge in a march of death up a path that today is known as the Dead Scar, across the Elrendar River into Eversong Woods, destroying one of the protective runestones on the edges of the forest.
The elves, in an attempt to stop the blight from spreading further into Eversong Woods, set the area around the destroyed runestone to the torch. But the armies of the Scourge pressed on, breaking through the Elfgates and through Silvermoon itself. Ranger General Sylvanas Windrunner led the defense as best she could, but she fell to the power of Frostmourne. In a cruel gesture of dominance, Arthas took Sylvanas' lifeless body and ripped her spirit from it, creating the first banshee. Even the blade Quel'Delar, King Anasterian and the Convocation of Silvermoon were no match for Arthas' legions, slaughtered with their people by the relentless tide of the mindless undead.
With Silvermoon in ruins and the elves broken and scattered, Arthas fulfilled his task and submerged the corpse of Kel'Thuzad within the waters of the Sunwell, fouling the potent waters of Eternity; the necromancer returned to the world of the living as a sorcerous lich. Not long afterwards, the Sunwell itself exploded, cutting off the elves from their source of magic.
Betrayals and Second Chances
When word of Quel'Thalas' fall reached Dalaran, Prince Kael'thas - now the last of his bloodline and de jure leader of the high elves - returned to his homeland and gathered all the survivors he could. The elves rejoined the Alliance armies, where they called themselves blood elves in honor of their fallen. But the Alliance began to look down on their elven "comrades". The ethnocentric Grand Marshal Garithos, the leader of the Alliance remnant, often gave the blood elves tasks that either beneath their capabilities as warriors or - worse - suicidal. Kael'thas was forced to call upon the aid of the night elves (led by Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, hunting for Malfurion's brother Illidan) and, later, Lady Vashj and the naga.
When Garithos discovered the naga had aided Kael and his brethren, he sentenced them to death for treason. Kael and his comrades were rescued by Vashj and her naga, who took them to Illidan in the wastes of Outland. With the promise of as much magic as they required, Kael'thas pledged the loyalty of the blood elves to Illidan's cause. Settling in Outland with the rest of Illidan's forces, Kael'thas sent a magister named Rommath back to Quel'Thalas, with the promise that Kael'thas would one day return to lead the blood elves to paradise. Rommath joined up with Lor'themar Theron, Regent Lord of Quel'Thalas, and informed him of Kael'thas' command to prepare the blood elves for their journey into the "promised land" beyond the Dark Portal. To aid in that task, Rommath and the new order of Blood Magi he founded used very powerful magics to rebuild the eastern districts of the shattered city of Silvermoon to serve as the blood elven capital on Azeroth.
With the Alliance viewing them as traitors, Quel'Thalas has turned to the Horde out of necessity. The Forsaken, in particular, are staunch supporters of the blood elves' membership in the Horde, as their queen, Sylvanas Windrunner, was Ranger General during the Scourge invasion and a good number of Forsaken are high elves who were killed in the war. Only one major obstacle preventing their becoming full members of the Horde remains: the Scourge that remain on the footsteps of Quel'Thalas, marching from their citadel of Deatholme at the southern terminus of the Dead Scar. There, the resurrected Dar'Khan Drathir directs the Scourge in Quel'Thalas; only his death would allow the blood elves to become equal members of the Horde.”
And so, my friend, the writings end. The high elves had gone and their descendants, the blood elves, joined the Horde, even though they where not considered to be equals by the other races. In the wake of the destruction, the majority of the blood elves had agreed to the restoration of Quel’Thalas by rebuilding Silvermoon City in Azeroth. But without their beloved Sunwell, and the magic that came with it, Quel’Thalas would never be what it was before.
For many decades to come the blood elves laid down their lives in the war against the alliance and the fight against the Lich King. The first to be sent into battle, the first to die, because they where considered inferior and expendable. Most blood elves embraced this faith and came to believe themselves indeed to be less than their Horde brethren. Many ended up dying, others retreated to Silvermoon City where they still can be found dreaming about the promised land, the old Quel’Thalas, with no hope of ever getting it back.
But it was not only the race of blood elves that was being oppressed. Within each of the horde races, individuals could be found that where bound and used, regarded as lesser beings, even by their own people. Many, like the blood elves, resigned in their oppression, but not all. For there were those, who where dreaming about freedom and a better world. They where dreaming of the world of Azeroth as a free world. A world in which all races and individuals were considered equal and valuable.
For many a years these dreamers roamed the world, persecuted for their beliefs by friend, foe and family alike. Most where in hiding and even though it was a lonely existence, they could live out their lives in freedom. Over time, the dreamers found each other. First small groups of two or three crossed paths, eventually more and more came together until there where whole families living in hiding around Azeroth, if one knew where to look. The better world where all could live in freedom and equality grew from a thought and hope, to a belief and eventually even a religion. This better world, known to many as Utopia, came to be known under a different name for its believers: Quel’Thanas. Unmistakably a reference to the old world of Quel’Thalas, for a lot of the practitioners of the faith where blood elves.
With the increase in numbers of dreamers living together, came the increase in strength of faith and belief. Until one day a group of dreamers decided it was time to come out of hiding. They had realized that the only way to build a free and equal world, was to live amongst those that oppose it. Fighting for their beliefs in this better world, they where no longer known as “Believers in Quel’Thanas” but as the “Templars of Quel’Thanas”. They took up living in the hometown of their deeply-respected Grand Master Hjallis and his partner, the beloved Iselia. And as more and more learned about the beliefs and deeds of these templars, more and more joined in their ranks.
At present day the Templars of Quel’Thanas consists of over 200 individuals; orcs, trolls, tauren, undead, blood elves and goblins alike. They eat, drink, talk, work, fight and laugh together in freedom. Every templar gets to be who he or she desires to be, as long as it fits the teachings of Quel’Thanas. And even though there is a command structure, all from the Grand Master to the squires are considered equals. And there goal is as it has been ever since the first dreamers roamed the forests: fighting to make Azeroth into the free world of Quel’Thanas.
And that, my friend, is how the Templars of Quel’Thanas came into being.
I hope my storytelling has given you some insight and understanding. Now if you please, it is late and the fire is almost out. We both need to rest. You are welcome to stay and hear more of the Chronicles of Quel’Thanas another day. For now, I bid you a respectful farewell. Shorel'aran.
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Greetings, and welcome to the Templars of Quel Thanas website. Templars of Quel Thanas is a casual and social guild found on the realm of Darkmoon Faire.
If you're a member, please read this post to find out how you can gain access to all of our member content here.
Templars of Quel Thanas was created at the end of 2008. It's a guild that focuses on having a social atmosphere, on giving each member a chance to do quests whenever they have the time to do so, and on raiding should they like to try it out. We do not demand that our members raid with us or that they are logged on most days of the week, we want our members to have fun, take part in our guild chat and play the game the way they want to. If it sounds interesting to you, take a look at our website, register here and send in an application to join us. Should you have any more questions, feel free to ask one of the officers while ingame.
If you wish to apply to join our guild, please read up on this topic Guild Description and then read more about why and how you can apply.
