The Light of Azeroth exists within many of her champions, though ancient and terrible forces work against them. They have lived through the crucible of war but still greater challenges approach. Are they stronger or will they break?
Defenders of Azeroth is a series by Lannakitty and can be found here
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There are currently eight stories in the series.
Uncrowned: Rebel: Begins after the Worgen starting experience in Cataclysm, before the Worgen have formally joined the Alliance as depicted in Wolfheart. This can be read as a stand alone. Major Characters: Tess Greymane, Anduin Wrynn, Varian Wrynn, Genn Greymane, Lorna Crowley and Valeera Sanguinar.Status: Incomplete.
Life-Binder: Begins immediately after Dawn of the Aspects, which is some time after Theramore, but before Thunder Isle. Events in this story run concurrent to Earthwarder, Red Crane and Spellweaver, but can easily be read as a stand-alone. Major Characters: Alexstrasza, Harrison Jones, Chi-ji, Go'el (Thrall), Aggra, Ysera, OCs.Status: Incomplete.
Earthwarder: Begins a few days before the trial of Garrosh Hellscream. Events are ongoing in parallel to Red Crane, Spellweaver and Lifebinder. Can easily be read as a Stand Alone. Major Characters: Wrathion, Right & Left, The Black Talons and Anduin Wrynn. Assorted OCs.Status: Incomplete.
Blessing of the Red Crane: Begins immediately after the trial of Garrosh Hellscream in Pandaria. Events are ongoing in parallel to Earthwarder and Lifebinder. Can easily be read as a Stand Alone. Major Characters: Jaina Proudmoore, Kalecgos, Anduin Wrynn, Varian Wrynn, Archmage Modera and some OCs. Cameos by many lore characters.Status: Complete.
Spell-Weaver: Begins shortly after Blessing of the Red Crane, some time after the Draenor Expeditions have established their initial Garrisons. Events are after Red Crane and also ongoing in parallel to Earthwarder and Lifebinder. Best read as a sequel to Red Crane. Major Characters: Jaina Proudmoore, Kalecgos, Anduin Wrynn, Archmage Modera, Vereesa Windrunner and Various OCs. Cameos by many lore characters.Status: Complete.
Spell-Breaker: Begins shortly after Spell-Weaver and shortly before the raid on Highmaul begins. The events are ongoing and parallel to Earthwarder and Lifebinder. Best read as the sequel to Spell-Weaver. Major Characters: Jaina Proudmoore, Kalecgos, Anduin Wrynn, Wrathion, Tess Greymane, Archmage Modera and various OCS. Cameos by many lore characters.Status: Complete.
Springtide: Begins shortly after Spellbreaker. Jaina and Kalec take a much needed vacation. The events are ongoing and parallel to Earthwarder and Lifebinder. Major Characters: Jaina Proudmoore, Kalecgos.Status: Complete.
Negotiations: Begins shortly after Springtide.Status: Incomplete.
Tropes present in this series include:
- All-Loving Heroine: Alexstrasza and Azeroth are both this, the latter in particular.
- Ascended Extra: While Warcraft has a large cast, the main focus of the storyline is on Dalaran and the Dragonflights.
- Demoted to Extra: While the events of Draenor aren't being passed over, Warlords of Draenor is mostly being referred to in the side story, with occasional places where the events take center stage, often after Dalaran gets involved in the campaign.
- Does Not Know Her Own Strength: The ritual carried out by Alexstrasza and the Earthen Ring was meant to invoke Azeroth/the Earthmother to help heal the sterility of the Dragonflights. It succeeded, but Alexstrasza felt like she was melting internally during the process due to the sheer power of Azeroth's blessing mixed with her lack of fine control over it. Later on, it also turns out that the entire world, not just the Dragonflights, are having a baby boom, even things like diseases.
- Everyone Has Standards: While there are more than a few people who don't like the dragons due to the "lesser races" belief/Pride that so many of them have/had, (and in Dalaran, there are plenty of people who don't like the Blue Dragonflight in particular due to the Nexus War), nobody who learns about it really believes that the dragons deserved getting effectively sterilized after the Cataclysm.
- Fantastic Racism: Unsurprisingly, there's a fair amount of this between the Alliance and the Horde, in several places. Many people, Jaina included, are trying to do something about that.
- The Dragonflights also had this as a whole towards the younger races for a long time, and only really started growing past it as a whole recently.
- There's also a certain level of bias towards mixed-dragonflight whelps. It turns out later that this is partly because said whelps tend to die before they reach adulthood due to their mixed biology not holding up too well long-term.
- Family of Choice: Jaina views Anduin as a sort of nephew and Varian as close to an adopted brother. Her relationship with her blood family isn't the best.
- Half-Human Hybrid: A rare occurrence on Azeroth until the ritual that cured the infertility of the Dragonflights affected everyone else enough to help bridge the gap.
- I Know Youre Watching: Played for Laughs - Anduin manages to catch Tess once with this (he doesn't tell her that he has made a habit of saying it to empty rooms).
- Pride: One of the biggest issues the Dragonflights have is that they're to some degree composed of beings who are often a Smug Super. When the Sorrow couldn't be cured by anything the Dragonflights knew, the majority of dragons, even the Aspects, didn't bother to try and find an outside solution until Kalecgos exposed the other Aspects to Tyr's artifact.
- It's not something all dragons have, however, and they're starting to work on it.
- Alexstrasza's admitted this is probably her biggest problem.
- Shout-Out: The Blue Dragonflight's "Life Recordings" are effectively "dragon holocrons", per
Word of God. - There Are No Therapists: At least, outside of Pandaria, this is the case. (Shell-Shocked Veteran and mental disorders/hurt feelings do not mix well with the Sha).
- Unskilled, but Strong: Kalec plays with the trope - Modera states that he's easily the most powerful archmage she's ever known, and his skill with magic is all but unmatched even in Dalaran, but his knowledge of combat magics is possibly the worst she's ever known. So it's not so much that he's unskilled with magic, it's that his skills and focus aren't in combat magic.
