Rise of the Horde

Rise of the Horde
Author(s)	Christie Golden
Artist(s)	Glenn Rane
Pages	320
Publisher(s)	Pocket Star
Publication date	December 26, 2006
Retail price	US: $7.99; CAN: $9.99; UK: £4.07
ISBN 10	ISBN 0743471385
ISBN 13	ISBN 9780743471381

This article contains lore taken from Warcraft novels, novellas, or short stories.

Rise of the Horde is a novel by Christie Golden focusing on the events of the Horde and its culture in the Warcraft universe.

Chris Metzen himself commented on the book, which features the draenei's flight from Argus and, as the title implies, the corruption of the orcs.

"The book DOMINATES, and you're going to really dig it. Durotan, Ner'zhul, Gul'dan, Doomhammer, Hellscream, Kil'jaeden, Velen; this story is the one you've been waiting for. I'm getting geeked up just thinking about it."[1]

The book is written from the 3rd-person perspective, except for a note every chapter narrated by Thrall in the first person. Most of the story is told from the perspective of Durotan and Velen.

The book finally answers questions relating to Ner'zhul, the massacre of the draenei, the true color of orcish skin, and daemons. It is notable for painting a much more sympathetic picture of Ner'zhul than previous lore, showing him as a generally good-hearted but deceived and somewhat ineffectual leader.

Though the orc on the cover is almost certainly Grom Hellscream, he only appears briefly in the novel.

A number of plot elements introduced in Rise of the Horde, such as Oshu'gun, the Ata'mal crystal, and the Throne of Kil'jaeden, were developed solely by Golden, but the lore department at Blizzard liked them so much that they included these elements in The Burning Crusade.[2]