Flavor lore

Flavor Lore is lore that is written in-universe that doesn't necessarily agree with what actually happened, but exist in the world of Azeroth to make the world seem more alive, and realistic.

Flavor lore often includes competing historical accounts written by in-universe authors, competing legends kept by various races in the world, or even different belief systems.

In-universe authors of flavor lore will often discuss the current prevailing theories at the time the book was written. Some of these ideas turn out to be true, or contain only kernals of truth, other times they turn out to be wrong, either cultures will stop believing the legend, or continue to hold their own viewpoint. Even outdated theories continue to exist as part of Azeroth's cultural evolution, even though they may not necessarily be believed anymore by current inhabitants of Azeroth.

Flavor lore also includes refrences to books, or documents that exist in the world but may not be published on earth. For example Brann Bronzebeard refers to sending in Appendixes to his Lands of Mystery to Ironforge, and refers to articles that can be found in them, but they do not exist in the book licensed by Blizzard.

Examples of Flavor Lore

Warcraft III manual, and Manual of Monsters, states that Cenarious was the father of Centaur. However they are also quick to point out that this is only one belief held by inhabitants of the world, and may not necessarily contain any truth, and that may have a completely different origin. In other sources we find out that another legend for origin of the Centaur turned out to be true.

the appendices refer to the 3,000 attached pages that Brann included in his report to King Magni. Sadly, you and I don't have the proper connections or Ironforge security clearance, so we won't be seeing the appendices. (The references to them are for flavor.) As of yet its unknown which origin will turn out to be true. We included the locations Blizzard asked us to include. If something isn't in there, it's *probably* because they don't want to release information on it yet.

-Luke Johnson, author of Chapter 4, of Lands of Mystery

In the World of Warcraft MMO, there are competing legends for the origin of the Night Elves. Some legends say that they evolved from Trolls. Other bits of lore hint that they may have been created by Elune, and that is why they share physical similarities to Keepers and Dryads.

Why Flavor Lore Exists

In the real world, historians do not always agree upon what occured in events in history, or what caused the events to happen in the first place. Different religions, and even Scientists have different view points on how Earth was created, or how the races of Earth originated. Many of these ideas become outdated, but still exist in earth's cultural library. Authors will project their own viewpoints into their writing. Sometimes they will debate other hypotheses and theories made by other authors.

Flavor lore is created to emulate this mechanic of earth culture, in the world of Azeroth. It adds a dynamic of reality to the world.