Once upon a time, cavemen roamed the earth, great volcanic eruptions disrupted the cavemen's gaming time, and I wrote an article called "Know Your Lore: Good Dragons." Now it's time to cover the "bad dragons" - the Blue, Black, Chromatic and Infinite Dragonflights. And yes, I know you're all going to complain about the blue dragonflight being "bad", but unless you really want to run every dungeon at level 80 without a mage, you're gonna have to fight them.

Blue Dragonflight

• Leader: Malygos.
• Characteristics: The blue dragons may be the most intelligent of all the dragonflights. They're the masters of magic, the weavers of the arcane, and the guardians of icy areas. Of course they're going to be villains at some point! "Arcane magic corrupts" is one of the primary lessons of WoW, along with "elves are jerks" and "never get involved in a land war in Kalimdor."

Hard to believe that this friendly soul over to the right stabbing what appears to be an entire planet was once not just a good guy, but indeed, the goodest of the good guys, huh? (Goodest of the good guys? What, am I a drunken five year old all of a sudden? Sheesh, that's just horrible.) But it's true: the ultimate big bad guy in the Warcraft Universe, the ultimate evil, the guy who comes up with plans that involve possessing babies was once the champion of the Titans themselves, before he started stabbing planets and possessing babies.

I guess there's no evil, be it big or small, that Sargeras won't engage in personally. He's a real hands on villain.

So what's the deal with Sargeras, exactly? How did he go bad? Why did he assemble the Burning Legion in the first place? And what's he up to nowadays? With the Legion running around being killed for loot and Marks of Sargeras in Outland (seriously, what is the big plan for Outland, exactly? So far all the Legion seems to be doing is being mad at Illidan because he promised to be Kil'Jaeden's BFF and then went back on it. Did they pinky swear? I bet they pinky swore. That seems like the kind of thing Kil'Jaeden would do) you'd think ol' Sargy would be in the thick of it, but instead his sidekicks are running the show and he's nowhere to be found. Why?

It doesn't help that some of Sargeras' history has changed in the telling. (Hey, I like the Draenei a lot, but you guys really changed the lore around.)

Well, you may have a hard time believing this, but it turns out that his whole baby possession scheme wasn't such a good idea after all. I know, I know, how could picking on an infant have gone so horribly wrong? But rather than dwelling on that, why don't we start talking about Sargeras' early days.

Well, now that Elizabeth has given me her deceptively large shoes to fill, I must step up to the bat and deliver a KYL. The injunction against egg throwing is in full effect.

Since Elizabeth is working on the dragons, I decided to talk about everyone's favorite life-making, ruin-scattering, not-gods-but-capable-of-killing-them meddlers, the gals and guys who created the Dragon Aspects, gave the Old Gods a whupping, banished the rowdier elementals to the elemental plane where they could get their brawl on with each other and leave Azeroth alone and who kinda, sorta let Sargeras go nuts and wander the cosmos corrupting and destroying everything in his path. Oops. Yes, I'm talking about the Titans, who I'm sure would hasten to remind you that batting .750 is a damn fine average.

For folks who like to just show up on a planet and fix it up so that mortals, like every single person playing the game, can live on it, we don't know a heck of a lot about the Titans. Where are they from? Why do they travel the cosmos, straightening up the place? Are they stricken with a case of OCD or is there some purpose to their pursuit of order? The Titans themselves aren't telling and if anyone else knows, they haven't shared yet. But we do know that they are divided into two 'races', the Aesir and the Vanir. (Norse mythology alert #1, there will be more.) The Aesir are more into storms and oceans, think of them as your classic 'sky gods' while the Vanir are the more cthonic ones, with interest in and power over earth and stone. As a result, the Aesir are the ones who created the mountain and sea giants to take care of the mountaintops and sea floors while the Vanir are the ones who made the Earthen, and if you have ever run a group through Uldaman you know why that's important.

Basically, the Titans are the reason that your character has places to go and things to do on Azeroth instead of starting gameplay underneath the tentacles of a horrible elder monstrosity. Sure, some of you might enjoy that, but for those of us who like our tentacles safely battered and fried up calamari style, it's safe to say that we all owe the Titans a solid. So let's talk about when the big guys showed up on Azeroth and what they did from there.

Before we get into this week's KYL, we have a little bit of business to take care of. Some of you may have noticed that this feature has been rather inconsistently published in the past month. This is due to my beginning a new job and classes at the same time. So to keep up our publishing schedule, and to bring a fresh face to the column, Matthew Rossi will be taking over KYL every other week, beginning next week. Please do not throw eggs at him.

And, now, on with the show! It's pretty much a given that in any fantasy game, you're going to have to kill a dragon or two, and WoW is no exception. There are tons of dragons hanging around, so much so that it becomes a problem to tell exactly what they're doing. Because of this, a concerned (and confused) reader wrote in a few weeks ago asking us to do a piece on the different dragonflights that were sent by the Titans to guard the world of Azeroth. As you wish, reader. As you wish. However, there are a LOT of dragons, so today we'll cover the "good" dragonflights: Red, Bronze, Green, and Nether. Next time we'll get the "Bad Dragons": Black, Blue, Chromatic, and Infinite.

If you may recall, back in the ancient days of yore two weeks ago, Know Your Lore did a report on the history of the trolls and promised to get to Zul'jin the following week. Then Know Your Lore got strep throat, which is a ridiculous thing to get at the age of 24. So I broke my promise and humbly apologize. Here is a monkey befriending a kitten.

Who: Zul'jin.

What: Leader of the Forest Trolls.

History: As stated in the previous article, all trolls came from one original species, but divided into several sub-groups based on their values. After they fought and lost a war with the night elves and the world got Sundered, they were tossed around to all different places. The forest trolls of the Amani Empire were sent back to northern Lordaeron, where they managed to rebuild a pretty extensive empire. Then the silly night elves showed up again, in the form of the arcane-addicted high elves, who put up magical runestones and built their city on sacred troll land.

The trolls attacked a couple of times, but were scared off by the arcane magic. There was an uneasy stalemate for several thousand years, but one day, the trolls launched their full forces at the elves. The elves called upon the humans of Arathor for help and agreed to teach them the secrets of magic. The humans and the elves routed the trolls in the Alterac Mountains, and the Amani Empire was beaten into submission. (Yes, I know I'm repeating myself but it's important, because ...) This is where Zul'jin comes in.

Woo, Zul'Aman is coming. Another dang troll instance. Another fight against my brothers and sisters. Another slog through endless high priests and animal aspects. Another raid of "Sorry there, I thought you were one of the mobs so I was trying to fight you." We've killed so many trolls now, I think it's about time we know what we've been fighting.

Troll lore is extremely interesting, but it's also ridiculously confusing. I mean, how many troll tribes have we launched genocides against by now? How are all these trolls related, anyway? Do any trolls actually get along with other trolls? Read on, and we'll try to sort through some of the muddy tangles of troll history. Next week we'll actually get to Zul'jin himself, who was originally the focus of this article before it got horrendously long.

Who: Trolls!

What: Trolls!

History: First, before this gets too confusing, let's do a basic summary of the sort of trolls you're going to run into in WoW, so you can connect the names with the in-game models. Jungle trolls are the skinny dudes in the Temple of Atal'hakkar, Stranglethorn Vale, Zul'Gurub, and Darkshore. The Darkspear trolls -- the playable race of trolls -- are also jungle trolls. Forest trolls include the troll enemies in Hinterlands, LBRS, Ghostlands, and Eastern Plaguelands, and the Horde-friendly Revantusk trolls. Ice trolls are found in Northrend and Dun Morogh, and sand trolls are the guys in Zul'Farrak. A basic troll identification guide is skin color. Forest trolls are green, jungle trolls are blue/purple, ice trolls are white/light blue, and sand trolls are beige. An excellent guide to troll looks can be found here. What? We're not racist.

With all the hubbub about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Know Your Lore is going to cover some of the lore behind our frozen neighbor to the north. (No, not Canada. They have no history. Also, I fully expect to get gkicked for that statement.) We already took care of Arthas and Sylvanas, but we still have Ner'zhul, Anub'arak, and others to cover.

But for starters, let's check out the lore behind one of the new additions to World of Warcraft: the Death Knight class! There's already been quite a stir about them on the forums, with people complaining that they should only be humans and undead, should only come out of sacrificing your previous character, and shouldn't be in the Alliance because it would conflict with the wonderful art of roleplaying a talking paladin cat. But I've always believed that people should know what they're complaining about, so here's a guide to the current basis of the Death Knight hero class, as we know it.

Name: Death Knights.

Race: Undead orcs, humans, other things.

History: The Death Knights actually have two separate histories: one from the Second War, and one from the Third. We'll start with the former, because doing things in chronological order is awesome.

Once upon a time, a very bad demon named Kil'jaeden corrupted the native orcs of Draenor and convinced them to forsake their shamanistic culture for the power of black magic. The orcs invaded the world of Azeroth, led by Gul'dan and the warlocks of the demon-influenced Shadow Council. But when Gul'dan overstepped his power and fell into a coma, the orc Orgrim Doomhammer took advantage of the situation, launching a palace coup and killing as many warlocks as he could find. Doomhammer hated warlocks and intended to kill Gul'dan as well. When Gul'dan awoke, he begged for Doomhammer to spare his life, and promised him that he could use shadow magic to create a caste of powerful warriors loyal to the Horde. Doomhammer was suspicious, but agreed to hear Gul'dan out.

Azeroth differs from the real world in many, many ways. For example, outside the game, you will rarely find that your wages for completing jobs come in leather form, unless you work in adult entertainment. You will also find it difficult to fit an elephant, a stack of ore, and five large swords into a small brown sack. And in Azeroth, you won't go to pick up a quest only to be told that the Mag'har have decided to go with a more qualified adventurer, nor will your flying mount get repossessed by the bank. But there's one thing Earth and Azeroth have in common: A lot of the violence and conflict is caused by religious differences.

Since Azeroth has no handy televangelism networks or airport pamphleteers, most players don't know too much about the religions and gods of the Warcraft universe. So Know Your Lore has prepared a guide to the major religions, their worshippers, their enemies, and other important information. Read on, lest ye be smited by boils!

Azeroth isn't an easy place to live. Aside from those damn immortal night elves, most of the characters we know and love today weren't around for most of Warcraft history. Thrall? Born after the First War. Jaina? Barely middle-aged. Arthas? Is he even old enough to rent a car?

But on today's Know Your Lore, we have a lore figure who's lived for well over a millenium. She's seen it all and done most of it, despite being a mere human woman. So put your hands together for the second-to-last Guardian of Tirisfal, Magna Aegwynn!

Who: Magna Aegwynn, Guardian of Tirisfal.

What: Human Guardian.

History: Once upon a time, a council of mages met in the woods of Tirisfal to figure out a way to keep the Burning Crusade away from Azeroth. The mages decided to imbue one protector, or Guardian, with the magical powers of the Sunwell and charge them to secretly fight the Legion. The mages empowered the Guardian through a long ritual which caused them to lose part of their power. Once a Guardian was created, he would be the only Guardian until his death, or until the mages completed a long ritual to strip the Guardian of his power and create a new one. The Guardian would be given the title of Magna and a room in the Violet Citadel.

This system worked well until the time of Magna Scavell. Scavell was an aging Guardian who took in five apprentices, all of whom wished to succeed him as Guardian. Four of the students were men and one was a woman, Aegwynn. While the male students made fun of Aegwynn, claiming that women weren't good at magic, Aegwynn studied hard and eventually learned to read the Meitre Scrolls, the spells of long-dead Highborne wizards, which few could comprehend. Because of this, the Council of Tirisfal chose Aegwynn to be the next Guardian and transferred the power from Scavell to Aegwynn through their ritual.

Questing in WoW can be a dull experience. Go out and kill ten harpies, go out and retrieve ten elephant tongues, go deliver this letter to a guy standing five feet away because I'm a lazy ass and can't be bothered to move. Eventually, you get bored, turn on Instant Quest Text, and start following objectives instead of storylines. But, as Amanda pointed out in June, sometimes it pays to read the story.

Many of the quests mentioned in that article's comments are miniature lore storylines in themselves -- Rakh'likh the Defiler, Linken's quests, all the really annoying chains in Eastern Plaguelands that I never finished because I enjoyed wearing the Scarlet Crusade disguises too much. A lot of these don't have much to do with the main lore of Azeroth. But sprinkled in-between are a couple of quests that really get deep into the heart of WoW, bringing in heavy-hitting lore figures and major events in the Warcraft universe. They're the quests everyone should do simply to see what happens. And so, Know Your Lore presents: The Top Ten Lore Quests in World of Warcraft!

I've talked to Alliance players, read WoW comics, surfed the forums, and seen raids on Darnassus, and one thing is clear: Pretty much everyone hates Fandral Staghelm. He's rude, snotty, argumentative and dismissive. In other words, perfect for a Know Your Lore feature! I'm sick of the generic faction leaders that have no flaws whatsoever, like the saintly Uther or the noble Thrall. It's like all the Warcraft politicians are Lincolns -- we need an occasional Nixon in there to spice things up.

So here's the guy you love to hate, the guy that Alliance encourages Horde to kill, the guy that greets you by making fun of his co-leader -- Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm!

Who: Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm.

What: Night elf druid.

History: Fandral Staghelm is 9,000 years old, which oddly enough makes him one of the younger night elf lore figures. He was born after the War of the Ancients, so he's significantly younger than Malfurion, Illidan and Tyrande, and didn't have to witness the terrors of the first Burning Legion invasion. Nevertheless, when Malfurion called for a new generation of night elves to learn the ways of the druids, Staghelm answered and rose to become one of Malfurion's top students. But he was more impetuous and easy to anger than the night elf leader, and they often quarreled. Luckily, Malfurion chose not to solve this disagreement in the manner to which he was accustomed. ("Hey! Let's blow up the world again!") The druids slept through the millenia, guarding the Emerald Dream and occasionally waking to help the night elves and possibly spend time with their angry, angry wives.

Most classes in WoW have some sort of lore hero that signifies everything that is good about their class. Druids follow Malfurion Stormrage, mages can look up to Jaina Proudmoore, and even the brutish warriors have Grom Hellscream and his axe. But what of the poor, misunderstood rogues? Where is their WoW hero? Dead? In hiding? Waiting for a raid invite? Stealthed somewhere and AFK?

The truth behind Azeroth's most famous rogue may be stranger than you can imagine. So quickly, before she kills you, meet ...

Who: Garona Halforcen.

What: Half-orc, half-something. We'll get into this more later.

History: Garona came of age before the First War, when the Burning Legion was beginning to form the orcs into an army to attack Azeroth. As a young woman, Garona traveled throughout Draenor and learned much about the local culture. The warlocks of the Burning Legion-controlled Shadow Council realized that they could have a use for an intelligent, well-versed orc, and they inducted her into the Stormreaver Clan. She quickly rose through the ranks to become a prominent member of the Shadow Council and the personal spy of its leader, Gul'dan.

Rexxar's a bit of an oddity in WoW. Prior to the Burning Crusade, he and his bear Misha wandered through Desolace and Feralas, with nothing to identify him but the title "Champion of the Horde" and no way to pass his time but to help Horde players with their Onyxia keys. As a player new to the Warcraft universe, I always wondered who he was and why he was a hero to the Horde. It was only later that I found out about his past, his true race, and his connections to the rest of the Horde. Oh, and so Big Red Kitty doesn't yell at us, we'll cover Misha and his other "pets" too. Ready? Let's go.

Who: Rexxar, Last Son of the Mok'Nathal, Champion of the Horde.

What: A Mok'Nathal, which is a tribe of half-orc, half-ogre humanoids.

History: Officially, Rexxar was "born of a union of orc and ogre" -- but since we get to meet his dad and his dad is also a Mok'Nathal, he's probably the son of two half-ogre parents. He grew up in a Mok'Nathal village in Blade's Edge Mountains. He was a happy child with a peaceful life, but as he grew older, he realized that there was no future for him in Draenor. So when the local orcs came calling with their plan to go through a portal and invade a new world called Azeroth, he joined up with the Old Horde against his father's wishes.

But after going through the Dark Portal and seeing the activities of the Old Horde in the First War, he decided that he would be better off on his own. He took off and wandered through the wilderness and communed with nature, kind of like a hippie but with less weed and bad jam band music. He made friends with several animals while he roamed, most notably Misha, an enchanted bear who he became fiercely attached to. But the wilderness of Azeroth was still too close to civilization, and he could not escape the fighting between the Alliance and the Horde. Misha and Rexxar set sail for Kalimdor, where they roamed the Barrens for fifteen levels until they were finally able to finish their quests and go to Thousand Needles.

For today's Know Your Lore, we have the tale of a spoiled rich blonde girl with special powers who saved the world, despite her propensity for dating guys that suddenly go evil and decide to destroy the world/another world/all life on the planet. Yes, we'll be discussing Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Okay, fine, it's about Jaina Proudmoore. But we're going to do Buffy later.

Who: Jaina Proudmoore.

What: Human sorceress.

History: Jaina was born in the kingdom of Kul Tiras, a seafaring kingdom that has mysteriously disappeared from Azeroth in WOW. Her father was Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, the ruler of the land. When Jaina was young, she discovered that she had talent in the magical arts and was sent off to the mage kingdom of Dalaran, where she badgered her way into becoming an apprentice of the sorcerer Antonidas. During her studies, she met and became friends with another privileged blond, Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider, who was then serving the Kirin Tor wizardry. Kael'thas developed a bit of a crush on Jaina, but postponed acting on his feelings because she was a teenager and he was a few hundred years old. That actually doesn't make a lot of sense. Was he planning on waiting until she was a few hundred years old too?

Anyway, by the time Kael'thas finally got the nerve to ask her out, Jaina had her eye on another prince -- Arthas Menethil, the heir to the throne of Kul Tiras's longtime ally, Lordaeron. The two met and began a relationship. But according to the lore, Arthas's duties in Lordaeron as a prince and a member of the Silver Hand and Jaina's commitment to Dalaran caused them to end their relationship and be "just good friends." And just like on Earth, their post-breakup "good friendship" was doomed to disaster.

If you ran the Azeroth orphanage quests Hordeside this past week, your orphan probably asked you for the autograph of "one of the greatest heroes the Horde has ever seen." But it's not Rexxar, Thrall or even the shifty Sylvanas. No, he wants to see the quiet, unassuming, elderly leader of the tauren -- Cairne Bloodhoof. And when we polled the members of It Came From The Blog last night, that's who they wanted to see in today's KYL. So, straight from the home office in Thunder Bluff, here's Cairne!

Who: Cairne Bloodhoof, Tauren Grand Chief of the Confederated Tribes of the Tauren.

What: Tauren, as you may have guessed.

History: Not much is known about Cairne's early life. When he comes into the story of Warcraft, he was a fully grown tauren chieftain, leading the Bloodhoof Tribe by the shores of the Great Sea in the Barrens (kind of near Ratchet.) The Bloodhoofs had once been a happy, peaceful tribe, but lately they had been facing attacks from the local centaur. Plus, the centaur had been hunting the same animals the tauren had, leading to fierce competition for food. Cairne came up with a plan to relocate his tribe to Mulgore, but he knew the centaur would wipe them out as they crossed the Barrens. So they were kind of stuck.

Then one day, Cairne noticed some weird, green-skinned creatures fighting off a band of centaurs. Intrigued, he took two other tauren and approached the leader of the "greenskins." He told the new creature that they fought with savagery and valor. The greenskin told Cairne that he was Thrall, and his people were called the orcs. Thrall said that the orcs had come to Kalimdor to seek their destiny. Cairne told him that there was an oracle in the north that might help him, and Thrall casually noted that he'd noticed a big centaur army heading that way. Cairne wisely freaked out at this, and the two heroes formed up an army and headed off to fight the man-horses.