Cycle of Hatred is a novel by Keith R. A. DeCandido taking place in Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft universe, one year before the beginning of World of Warcraft. It deals with the relationship between the humans of Theramore and the Orcs of Durotar. It stars Jaina Proudmoore and Aegwynn. The book is part of the Warcraft Expanded Universe.
This book contains:
- Badass Bookworm: Jaina Proudmoore in a nutshell.
- Cool Old Lady: Aegwynn.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Burning Blade's rather anvilicious resemblance to the KKK.
- Evil Chancellor: Kristoff is a massive racist and largely responsible for all the evil deeds done in the book.
- Fantastic Racism: Pretty much the whole point.
- Deader than Dead: Zmodlor won't be revived by Kil'jaden.
- The Devil: Zmodlor. Subverted in he's a fairly minor demon.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: Azeroth vs. the Burning Blade at least.
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: Humans vs. Orcs.
- Humans Are Bastards: So, thankfully, are Orcs.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Aegwynn drops this statement a few times.
- The Man Behind the Man: Zmodlor is ultimately behind the Burning Blade. The Shadow Council of Felwood is ultimately behind Zmoldor. The Burning Legion is ultimately behind the Shadow Council. Sargeras is ultimately behind the Burning Legion.
- More than Mind Control: Zmodlor is too weak to control Kristoff on his own and requires the man's massive racism to actually succeed in his plan.
- Oh, Crap!: When a merchant insults Jaina, the tavern he's in gets very quiet. A soldier stands up and tells him to shut his mouth about Lady Proudmoore unless he wants to swallow his teeth.
- Only Sane Man: Averted. For once, the people of Theramore and Durotar are largely opposed to warfare and it takes a great deal of effort to get it started. In Theramore's case, it's not so much that they're averse to war (for the common footsoldier, anyway) as it is they trust Jaina's judgement to the point that a couple off-duty town guards threaten to beat the snot out of a visiting merchant who badmouths her in a tavern, even if they might share his sentiment that the Horde is dangerous.
- Sophisticated as Hell: When not angsting about her life, Aegwynn can come of as this: She treats her powers and things like demons incredibly casually and can not stand the formalities of her position. The latter was part of the reason why she had a falling out with the Council of Tirisfal. She is also quite foul-mouthed.
- Straw Feminist: The leader of Jaina's military is a butch female. And the author makes a point to accentuate the fact that she's butch. And Does Not Like Men. The author even mentions she doesn't shave her legs. Like you needed to know.
- Straw Misogynist: Archmage Antonidas is set up as one—claiming that "it is no more women’s nature to become wizards than it is a dog’s nature to compose an aria"—in order to make Jaina look good. Orcish culture in general gets the same treatment.
- Stumbling Upon the Lost Wizard: Jaina Proudmoore is looking for a place to create a settlement and stumbles on a hidden shack protected by powerful wards. After bypassing the wards, she discovers Aegwynn, the only female Guardian of Tirisfal and Jaina's childhood hero. Aegwynn ends up helping Jaina defeat a demon and becomes her secret advisor.
