Worgen

 

Behind the formidable Greymane Wall, a terrible curse transformed many of the stalwart citizens of the isolated kingdom of Gilneas into lupine beasts known as worgen. Unable to cure their affliction and besieged by the dreaded Forsaken, these worgen learned to control their ferocity thanks to the help of the night elves. The worgen now stand ready to unleash the beast within at a moment’s notice in defense of the Alliance.

Worgen [ˈwɔɹgɛn] are large, lupine humanoids that walk upright, but hunt and howl as wolves, and lope on all fours to run. They primarily inhabit forests and are natural hunters. Being bitten by or drinking the blood of a worgen transmits the worgen curse and causes humans and night elves to be transformed into one. After the transformation, those that are overcome by rage and guilt gradually lose all vestiges of their former lives and turn mindless. By controlling their emotions via medication, magic, and self-discipline, worgen may resist being overcome by their feral instincts.

Those that become so by choice, like the members of the Wolf Cult and Wolfcult, embrace their new lives as neither man nor beast and form tribal societies known as "packs", such as the Bloodfang, the Nightbane, and Bloodmoon pack. Other groups are more disciplined, like the Gilnean worgen, but still run and hunt on all fours.

The worgen were created during the War of the Satyr by the grieving priestess Belysra Starbreeze and the rebel druid Ralaar Fangfire. They sought a solution to the wolf pack form, which embodied the full fury of the wolf Ancient Goldrinn, something the druids had never been able to command, and believed that the magic of Elune could tame its uncontrollable rage. She thus created the Scythe of Elune, which mixed the power of the moon goddess with the wolf form, turning Ralaar and the Druids of the Pack into the first worgen.^[2] They turned the tide in the war,^[3] but when Malfurion Stormrage called Ralaar (now known as Alpha Prime) a monstrosity, the worgen attacked the night elves as well.^[2] Malfurion was forced to seal them within the Emerald Dream after it was discovered that their bite turned other night elves into more worgen, through what is now called the worgen curse.^[4]

Centuries later, Alpha Prime and his followers were freed from the Dream by the human archmage Arugal to defend Gilneas from the undead Scourge. While extremely effective against the undead army, the worgen then turned on the Gilneans, prompting them to close the Greymane Wall. While no worgen managed to enter the city, humans who had been bitten by them did. They would turn into worgen themselves and were hunted by the nobility of Gilneas, including King Genn Greymane. Led by Alpha Prime, the worgen outside grew in number, used tunnels under the Greymane Wall, and mounted an invasion to bite as many as possible.^[2] After being taught how to control their inner beast by the night elves, through the Ritual of Balance, many worgen are now members of the Alliance. 

Origin

Long ago, amid a brutal war between the night elves and the demonic satyrs in Kalimdor, a group of druids practiced a powerful yet unwieldy form that embodied the fury of the wolf Ancient, Goldrinn. Led by Ralaar Fangfire, these Druids of the Pack sought to temper the uncontrollable rage inherent in their chosen form. To do so, they willingly submitted to the energies of the Scythe of Elune, a mystical artifact created from Goldrinn's fang and the staff of Elune.

Rather than abate the druids' fury, however, the weapon transformed Ralaar and his followers into worgen: bestial humanoids enslaved by their own primal instincts. Blinded by all-consuming rage, Ralaar's druids tore through friend and foe alike during battle with the satyrs. Night elves wounded by the unruly beasts contracted a virulent curse that turned them into worgen as well. Desperate to stanch the affliction's spread, Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage mournfully banished the worgen beneath Daral'nir within the Emerald Dream, where they would be in peaceful slumber for all eternity.^[5]

Release

Over the years, the Scythe of Elune was hidden in Ashenvale, and the Druids of the Scythe - the original worgen - were forgotten. The only proof that remained was a journal written by Fandral Staghelm.^[3] Before their release, wolf-men were known in human folklore as worgen.^[6][7][8] They were known in only in the timid whispers of the old, or the fanciful embellishments of the old,^[6] and a farmer's child was likely to hear myths of beastly wolf-men stalking the fields and marshes outside the village.^[7] In his studies, the mage Ur saw the worgen in a homeworld he described as a dark place of nightmare, and although he wished to prove worgen were real, he warned that they should not be summoned.^[7] While many remained in the resting state,^[4] some kaldorei worgen awoke and traveled the dream some time after their banishment, while others practiced shadow magic some time before their release.^[7]

Arugal and the Bloodfang

While Arthas Menethil marched on the elven kingdom of Quel'Thalas, the undead roamed the ruins of Lordaeron; gathering in hordes. One of these hordes spilled into Silverpine Forest, ravaging the area until eventually arriving at the Greymane Wall. While a small gathering at first that battered at the mighty wall, the group grew in number overtime until it was clear that an army had amassed. Gilneas had constructed the wall to separate from the Alliance of Lordaeron; and Greymane at first had felt vindicated in his choice as Lordaeron fell. However, as the Scourge numbers grew, he knew they could not remain idle.^[8]

Archmage Arugal told Genn of his findings, about bestial creatures imbued with preternatural strength and ferocity. He sensed that they were in some sort of resting state and wished to be freed, and suggested he could do so with Genn's blessing. The archmage's only hesitation was the ferocity of the worgen, that they may not be capable of being controlled; but as the Gilnean military was being decimated below, there were few other options. The king agreed, on the condition that Arugal summon one first to be inspected. He did so, and with Genn's permission, summoned more, including Alpha Prime, and put them against the Scourge outside the wall. As the battle between the Gilneans and Scourge raged outside the wall, Arugal performed his summoning. He opened a rift connecting the physical world with the Emerald Dream, drawing the worgen into Silverpine Forest. The wolf-men wasted no time in turning their fury on the Scourge. They tore through the undead in a storm of fang and claw, and the creatures were even more powerful than Arugal had expected.^[8]

At first this plan worked, and the Scourge were forced to fall back. However, with the undead army in retreat, Alpha Prime and the summoned worgen turned on the Gilnean soldiers as well. After the retreat of the Scourge, Archmage Arugal betrayed his nation and swore loyalty to Alpha Prime and developed a loyalty to the worgen. Gilnean soldiers bitten by the worgen were taken inside the wall, and when they became worgen themselves, were hunted and killed, but could not be exterminated.^[4] Alpha Prime was the master of the worgen in Silverpine forest, and held the maddened Arugal under his sway.^[3]

Led by Alpha Prime, and aided by the Archmage Arugal, the worgen of Silverpine sieged the keep of the noble Baron Silverlaine. Situated above the tiny hamlet of Pyrewood, the keep quickly fell into shadow and ruin, now known as Shadowfang Keep. There, Alpha Prime and Arugal Arugal created the Wolf Cult to search for the missing Scythe of Elune.^[9] The Wolf Cult recruited humans willing to become worgen.^[9] The curse rapidly spread among the human population, transforming ordinary men and women into ravenous, feral creatures immune to undeath. Arugal also used his magic to curse the village people of Pyrewood to turn into worgen whenever the sun went down.^[10] Those that followed Alpha Prime would become the Bloodfang Pack, those that served Arugal became the Shadowfang Pack, and those cursed to appear as worgen only at night became the Moonrage Pack.