---
title: 'The Official Warcraft Timeline [Lore]'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=r8uzWxRGvMU'
video_id: 'r8uzWxRGvMU'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 1259
---

# The Official Warcraft Timeline [Lore]

> Source: [The Official Warcraft Timeline (Lore)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=r8uzWxRGvMU)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive overview of the Warcraft universe timeline, starting from the opening of the Dark Portal (Year 0) and covering major events before and after. It highlights key moments like the War of the Ancients, the rise of human kingdoms, and the rapid succession of events from Warcraft 1 to the War Within.

### Key Points

- **Timeline Definition** [0:41] — Year 0 is the opening of the Dark Portal. Events are dated as years before (BDP) or after (ADP) this event.
- **War of the Ancients** [1:52] — 10,000 years BDP, Sargeras contacted Queen Azshara, leading to a massive demon invasion. The Well of Eternity was destroyed, causing the Sundering.
- **Creation of New Well and World Tree** [3:43] — Illidan used vials of Well of Eternity water to create a new Well, over which Nordrassil was planted. Night elves gained immortality.
- **War of the Satyr** [5:05] — 9,300 years BDP, satyr and worgen emerged. The first worgen were banished to the Emerald Dream.
- **Rise of Humans** [6:50] — 2,800 years BDP, Thoradin united human tribes. They allied with high elves in the Troll Wars, leading to the formation of the Alliance of Lordaeron.
- **First Guardian** [8:44] — 2,610 years BDP, the first Guardian was empowered to fight demons. Aegwynn later gave birth to Medivh, corrupted by Sargeras.
- **War of the Shifting Sands** [9:25] — 975 years BDP, night elves and dragons fought the qiraji and sealed C'Thun in Ahn'Qiraj.
- **War of the Three Hammers** [9:47] — 230 years BDP, the three dwarven clans split after their king's death. The Dark Iron clan accidentally summoned Ragnaros.
- **Post-Dark Portal Timeline** [11:11] — All Warcraft games from Warcraft 1 to The War Within take place within 42 years. Key events: Warcraft 1 (Year 0), Warcraft 2 (Year 6), Warcraft 3 (Year 18), Classic (Year 25), Burning Crusade (Year 26), Wrath (Year 27), Cataclysm (Year 28), Mists (Year 30), Warlords (Year 31), Legion (Year 32), Battle for Azeroth (Year 33), Shadowlands (Year 35), Dragonflight (Year 40), The War Within (Year 42).

### Conclusion

The Warcraft timeline spans over 150,000 years, but the most intense events occur in just 42 years after the Dark Portal opened. The video emphasizes how quickly the world changes and suggests that future expansions will continue this rapid pace.

## Transcript

Hello everyone!
I figured it could be fun to talk about the 
warcraft timeline, put some of the major events  
in perspective. Lets put it into context and see 
what history we have for the warcraft universe.
Year 0 on the timeline is defined by the first 
time the dark portal opened up. Warcraft 1,  
the foundation of the story. The first time 
that Medivh brought the orcs in for conquest  
and the war that followed. On the timeline 
thats year 0, the year of the dark portal. 
Anything after that is defined by x amount of 
years after the opening of the dark portal. 
Anything before that is defined by x amount of 
years before the opening of the dark portal.
We do not have a starting year for the 
birth of the warcraft universe so a lot of  
the early cosmic eventsare floating somewhere 
on the timeline. We do have this really handy  
wiki page linked in the description down below 
incase you want to read all the major events,  
but this one has one of the earlier moments 
dated at year 150.000 before the opening of  
the dark portal. Conncted to a questline which 
dates a Mosh’Ogg Bounty to be somewhere around  
150.000 years old, believed to have its origin 
connected to the old gods. But that doesn’t tell  
us much besides the Timeline goes back over 
150.000 years. If i’dhave to pick a moment  
of great importance to remember, then we go 
back 10.000 years to the War of the Ancients.
A lot of Warcrafts stories refer back 
to this moment or have its roots here,  
like a story of the dragons or the night elves or 
sargeras and the burning legion. The war of the  
Ancients speaks of a time in which Sargeras made 
contact with Queen Azshara and the queen thought  
it would be a wonderful time to bring in Sargeras 
and his demons to purge Azeroth, cleanse it of its  
impure and inferior races. Make it perfect just 
like her. To this end they turned the Well of  
Eternity, a massive fount of magical power that 
was created to patch up the wound left behind  
when the titans ripped out the old ogd Y’shaarj 
during the time they brought order to Azeroth.  
That huge amount of power could sustain a portal 
big and strong enough to draw in Sargeras himself. 
The world found out about this, a resistance 
rose up. Mortals, Demi-Gods, Dragons,  
the world of Azeroth came to her defense and 
manged to hold off the Burning Legion but  
not without a great price. The portal over the 
well, all its magics and messing around with it,  
had made the well incredibly unstable and so 
the land sundered apart with the maelstrom, the  
remnant of the well, left behind in the middle.
Azeroth was changed forever and the after  
effects of the war would ripple on 
and resurface throughout its history. 
Like Pandaria for example, is tied to this 
because they hid away behind their mists  
as their emperor forsaw the coming of the 
legion and the destruction that followed. 
The Nightborne did a similar thing, casting a big 
old magical bubbel around their city of Suramar. 
The dragon aspects did a similar thing hiding away 
the dragon isles to help out the sundered world. 
The waters from the well of eternity and its power 
would remain as Illidan had filled some vials. He  
created a new well and they planted Nordrassil 
over it to contain its magical powers. As you  
can imagine, they had just fought a war over the 
original well, pulling in the legion again was not  
something they wished for. Enchantments on the 
tree by the dragons would give the night elves  
immortality and a strong connection to nature, 
which would help them with guarding the land.  
They would be the defenders of the world but not 
all were ready to hug a tree and let go of their  
arcane ways. Some of the highborne night elves 
refused to let go of magic, even when it became  
punishable by death. To not have to execute all 
of them, exile was a better option. They left  
but not before taking one of those vials filled 
with water from the original well. Eventually  
setting up their new home of Quel’thelas where 
they made not a new nightwell, but a sunwell!
A critical defining moment in time which 
you’ve heard me mention quite a few times  
if you’ve kept up with the channel. A span of 
10.000 years between this moment and the first  
time of the opening of the dark portal. A 
lot of time which were quite uneventfull  
in comparison to what happened 
after the dark portal opened.
Some of the highlights of those 10.000 years.
9300 years before the opening of the dark portal 
we have the war of the satyr. During the war of  
the ancients, Xavius, who you might know as 
the nightmare lord, went around transforming  
more of his kind into satyr after sargeras so 
graciously saw fit to transform Xavius into  
the first. When the legion was defeated and 
the well of eternity sucked all the demons  
back to where they came from, not all of the evil 
was purged off the planet. The satyr were still  
around being quite a threat to the night elves. 
Some of them wanted to embrace the pack form,  
a vicious brutal form which would give them 
the strength to wipe out their enemy but their  
shan-do malfurion forbade it. Little did they 
know that malfurion had dabbled with the pack  
form himself and nearly lost himself to the beast 
within. He didn’t want his students to repeat the  
same mistakes he had, but some did not listen. 
Even pushed the form further through the scepter  
of elune, giving birth to the first of the Worgen. 
They would be banished to the emerald dream,  
forever slumbering while within their heart ached 
to run and hunt. A wish that would become reality  
when thousands of years later they’d be summoned 
back into Azeroth by archmage arugal at gilneas,  
eventually spreading the whole 
worgen curse among their people.
It would take quite a few years for the 
highborne to evnetually set up Quel’thelas,  
as this is dated 6800 years before the opening.
4000 years later and we’d see the rise of the  
humans of Arathor. They’re the horrific mutated 
offspring of the vrykul in Northrend who could  
not bare to kill their own children despite 
being told to do so by their king Ymiron. The  
mutation was caused through something called the 
Curse of Flesh. This infected titan forged like  
mecha gnomes, earthen and vrykul and transformed 
them, making them more volnerable to the old gods  
corruption and litteraly giving them 
flesh. Birthing races like Dwarves,  
Gnomes and the Humans. Funny enough, this curse 
would be the very thing to lead to the downfall of  
the old gods. What they designed as a weakness, as 
a corruption, was also an empowerement, something  
the titans themselves could not have imagined.
Either way, 2800 years before the opening of  
the dark portals Thoradin of Arathor went 
around uniting the human tribes into one  
kingdom and then they allied with the high 
elves of quel’thelas to fight with them in  
the troll wars. The amani trolls were not happy 
with all these outsiders settling in their lands,  
troll lands and while the humans were mighty 
on the battlefield...they were going to need a  
little bit extra. 100 of their kind were trained 
in the ways of magic by their high elves allies  
and together they won the war. Securing a victory 
that would send the amani reeling and they’d never  
truly recover form it. Meanwhile the allegiance 
of elf and human would carry on through the ages,  
the reason why they would join the alliance of 
lordaeron, while the human kingdom would ever  
grow and expand, eventually setting up new 
places like Lordaeron, Dalaran or gilneas. 
Having access to magic does not come without 
risks, just look at how many times the elves  
dabbled with powers beyond their understanding 
and the humans were no different. Some of them  
would dabble deep into forbidden powers of 
fel, demonic might and so in the year 2610  
before the opening of the dark portal, the 
first guardian was empowered. They would be  
their champions against the demons, but also 
its greatest weakness as when Aegynn fought  
with the avatar of sargeras in the year 823 
before the DP, while seemingly victorious,  
his spirit infiltrated her body and would 
eventually lead to the birth of her son Medivh,  
already corrupted by the spirit of sargeras 
and the eventual opening of the dark portal. 
But before that we had the war of the shifting 
sands 975 years before the dark portal which night  
elves nad dragons battles in the sand of silithus 
and raiged the qiraji wall around ahn’qiraj,  
maintaining c’thuns prison until reopening 
it with classic and the war of three hammers,  
230 years before the opening of the dp!
The 3 dwarven clans going at eachother when  
their high king died. bronzebeard, wildhammer and 
Dark Iron who once all lived under the mountains  
of ironforge, would then split apart. The 
bronzebeards had won the war so they kept  
ironforge. The wildhammers set up first in Grim 
Batol and then in the aery peaks. The dark irons  
in the area claled redridge at the time, but the 
land changed with their leader Anvilmar accidently  
summoning ragnaros and enslaving his people to 
the willl of the firelord at blackrock mountain. 
Only 230 years before the opening of 
the dark portal which really surprised  
me with how not long ago that is considering 
Muradin Bronzebeard was said to be 221 years  
during Warcraft 3. Considering Magni is his older 
brother and while not officialy given an age,  
would have been born relatively 
soon or maybe during this war.
So in the span of 10.000 years we’d see 
whole new civilisations rise up. New races,  
new curses. Wars played out but over a pretty 
large span of time. Still incredibly fast  
compared to our own timeline ofcourse, but 
the crazyness in Warcraft really popped off  
once Medivh opened the dark portal, connected 
Azeroth with Draenor and allowed the orcish  
horde ot come in. What we’ve spoken about 
so far took place in a span of 10.000 years.  
Every single story and game from Warcraft 
1 to the war within took place within 42  
years give or take. Maddening when you 
think about it, so how does that work?
Well as Discussed, the opening of the dark portal 
is the defining point so Warcraft 1 is year 0 
The second war, which is stormwind falling to the 
might of the Horde and the rise of the Alliance  
of Lordaeron to counter this threat – That’s 
4 years after the opening of the dark portal. 
Year 6 is when Warcraft 2: Tides 
of darkness begins and that’s  
where we would see the first defeat of the 
Horde and shutting down the dark portal. 
Year 8 is when the dark portal re-opens and 
this time azeroth steps through themselves,  
shutting it from Draenors side as it 
blew up and transformed into outland.
18 years after the dark portal and the 
eventual death of the guardian medivh,  
we’d see his mother Aegwynn gather her power 
and bring him back to kick off the events of  
Warcraft 3. So in the previous years Stormwind 
has been rebuild and Thrall has grown up as a  
slave gladiator and then liberated not only 
himself but the rest of his people to reform  
the Horde. Not to conquer azeroth as it was back 
in the day but they still needed a place to live,  
a piece of azeroth to call their home.
In between the now prophet medivh visited  
Thrall in his dreams, guiding him on the path to 
clean up the mistakes made by the guardian as he  
was corrupted. Now he’s come back and he’s 
moving pieces in place to stop yet another  
invasion of the burning legion. Archimonde 
set his sights on that world tree Norrassil,  
remember back when 10.000 years ago... 
yeah that one. Jaina, Thrall, Tyrande,  
Malfurion and their allies rallied together to 
save the world at a great price as they blew up  
the tree, sacricifing the night elves immortality.
Illidan, the same illidan who made that new well  
was released from prison and played the roll of 
double agent, eventually hiding out on Outland. 
Meanwhile Arthas walked the road of damnation, 
becoming a death knight, murdering his father,  
the genoicde of the high elves of quel’thelas, 
now going by the name of blood elves. Evnetually  
merging with the lich king at the top of Icecrown. 
All that and more until World of Warcraft classic  
at year 25. 4 years had passed since the mortal 
races banded together and stood united against the  
might of the Burning Legion. That battle at mount 
hyal and blowing up of Nordrassil was year 21.
Each expansion usually takes around a year 
or two ingame to build up and play out. 
Classic: Year 25 to year 26. Yes, 
everything that went down in classic,  
from decapatiting van cleef to defeating 
Kel’thuzad and then handing over his  
phylactery for a bit of loot so he could 
come back later...all that in a year.
26 years after the first time the 
dark portal opened up, and around  
17 years after the sons of lothar closed it 
on Draenors side as it turned into outland,  
the dark portal opened up again...the 
thing just doesnt want to stay closed  
as we partied in the burning crusade. Found 
Illidan again and stopped another invasion of  
the burning legion by pushing Kil’jaeden 
back through his portal at the sunwell.
Only one year later, year 27. and 
Arthas the Lich King called out  
to clash with him in Northrend 
during Wrath of the Lich King.
Year 28 and Deathwing saw fit to break out 
of the world and cause not the Sundering,  
but the Shattering, changing the surface of 
azeroth, changing our questing experience, and  
quite a bit of change amongst leadership of the 
Horde and the Alliance like the death of cairne,  
crystalisation of magni, thrall handing over the 
title of warchief to garrosh Hellscream, son of  
Grommash, who he had met 2 years earlier 
during the Burning Crusade. Fun fact,  
Garrosh is actually older then Thral. We’d take 
our time for the cataclysm and spend 2 years here.
But then, Deathwing breaking out also caused 
the mists around pandaria to finally disapear.  
After 10.030 years give or take, the 
hidden lands were revealed. The Horde  
and Alliance brought their faction war to 
these overall peacefull sha infected lands,  
ending with garrosh kicked out of mantle 
of warchief and Vol’jin taking over.
Year 31 and the dark portal would technically 
not re-open, but it does change color from green  
to red as Garrosh managed to escape his trial and 
travel to an alternate reality where he connected  
that reality to ours and this is where it gets a 
bit muddied because not only is it an alternate  
reality with some minor changes compared 
to the main timeline like alternate Garrosh  
hadnt been born here. Not only that, it 
was also set in the past with some tweaks  
from our timetraveling Garrosh who prevented his 
father and the Horde from drinking demonic blood  
and enslaving themselves to the burning legion 
like our horde had. They would neverb e slaved,  
but they would be conquerers, trying 
to invade our Azeroth in our timeline,  
year 31. So heroes rose up, stepped through the 
dark portal once more and took care of this so  
called Iron Horde. Even went around round with 
Archimonde. Too make matters even more confusing,  
they made the decision that where the demons live, 
the twisting nether, trascends realities. A ruling  
done on twitter and to this day still one of 
the dumbest things they’ve ever come up with and  
that’s saying something considering shadowlands. 
Regardless, the ending saw alternate gul’dan  
blasted over back into our timeline, our reality, 
kicking off the expansion legion at year 32.
The biggest legion invasion as of yet. 
Varian and vol’jin kick the bucket,  
Anduin and Sylvanas take over. Magni wakes 
up, we re-unite with alleria and turalyon.  
Velen gets to do something, Surramar rejoins 
the world after 10.032 years. Illidan gets  
his redemption arch. A massive rift opens 
up in the sky, placing Azeroth and Argus,  
homebase of the legion and former homeworld 
of the Draenei right next to eachother  
which must have been a crazy day for regular 
people. Can you imagine being just a farmer  
and you look up, suddenly there’s a green broken 
planet in the sky. Just another day on Azeroth. 
We manage to defeat Kil’jaeden and then sargeras 
himself, ending the threat of the burning legion  
but ofcourse the demons aare still out there. 
The dark titan leaves behind a little gift,  
his sword stuck into azeroth and all across its 
surface azerite pops up. Once more a crazy day  
for the regular people, you’d imagine we’d 
see a lot more people go crazy I suppose.  
when thinking about it...the world itself 
doesn’t really respond to all this crazy  
shit happening in such a short timespan. Do you 
think they look at eachother and go like ehhh,  
was expecting rain today but I guess a literal 
god humping the planet was to be expected...  
Now that’s a story i’d love to see explored.
Anyways, azerite would change the face of warfare  
on warcraft forever....or well...atleast for like 
a patch or 2 as we’ve arrived at the battle for  
Azeroth. Year 33 where the fourth war is started 
with the invasion of Darkshore and the Burning of  
Teldrassil but would end with another warchief 
kicked out of the mantle. Sylvanas windrunner  
telling them all that they’re nothing while 
flying off into the next expansion. No longer  
whill the horde be lead by a warchief, they 
will now have a council while an armisitice,  
peace between the alliance and the Horde is 
settled. A peace that lasts too this day.
Year 35 is when the sky above opened up 
and the pathway into the literal afterlife,  
the place where your soul goes for all 
eternity when you die is open and not just  
to those kidnapped or those with super 
powers, nah nah nah we’ve seen literal  
randos from azeroth pop in to check on their 
departed loved ones or make cameos. Again,  
what kind of influence would this have had 
on the population. Not a story explored as  
we dealt with Sylvanas and the jailer, his 
defeat automaticly closing that rift again.  
And then something interesting for the timeline 
happens, a timeskip! After so many expansions,  
so many years of adventure after adventure...they 
thought it fitting to give azeroth a bit of a  
breather. Year 35 is when Shadowlands began taking 
2 years for our adventures to complete. Year 40  
is when dragonflight kicked off so for 3 years 
nothoing majorly happened on azeroth which is  
again crazy when you think about it. When you 
look at its history so far, but then again,  
if you make timeskip to big then you get 
a lot of offscreen storytelling I suppose.
Either way, after 10.040 years give 
or take, the dragon isles revealed  
themselves again and we get another crucial 
date on the calendar even before the war of  
the ancients. The dracthyr were created 
20.000 years ago and now wake up and  
rejoined the story. Assuming they’re following 
similar trends of 1 to 2 years per expansion,  
we can expect the War Within to take place 42 
years after the opening of the dark portal.
These are just a few highlights 
throughout the timeline, again,  
check out the extremely extensive wikipedia 
page if you wonna see more of the timeline  
and its major events but this is going to 
be it for today so thank you very much for  
watching everyone! Hope you’re enjoying them sweet 
summer days andddd until next time.....seee ya!