New expansion, new lore! As it happened with the last few Hearthstone expansions, Saviors of Uldum will bring tons of both old and new stories to tell about everybody’s favorite card game. As the League of E.V.I.L. plans to take Uldum’s precious artifacts by storm, the Explorer’s League yet again tries to save the day and defend the sacred lands of the titans. In this summary we feature every single legendary card and their personal story within the Warcraft and Hearthstone universes!

Druid

Elise the Enlightened

After Elise Starseeker and Elise the Trailblazer, Elise the Enlightened will be the third print of one of the League of Explorer’s most famous members. 

Looking at her Saviors of Uldum card art, we can see that Elise fully embraces her druidical origins now. Thanks to a tweet by Peter Whalen three years ago answering a question about her Darnassian voice line, we already knew that Elise is and always has been a Druid!

It is safe to say that Elise may be Hearthstone’s “Master of Foreshadowing”. Her original card art shows an Uldum map, indicating that we will meet her in the desert of Southern Kalimdor in the future; another hint was her special encounter with Ol’Toomba, one of the bosses in the Dalaran Heist singleplayer campaign, where Ol’Toomba acts surprised after you play Elise Starseeker and says: 

Elise! Thought you was out in the desert still?

The only thing we don’t know yet is why she has become “enlightened”. Other cards like Untapped Potential indicate that she may have had contact with old artifacts and ancient species from the realm called Ahn’Qirai.

Untapped Potential

As already said, Untapped Potential‘s card art looks to provide valuable information about Elise and her “enlightenment”. 

The corresponding Hero Power called Ossirian Tear serves as a hint towards Ossirian the Unscarred, the final boss of a World of Warcraft raid called Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. Ossirian is the one and only specimen of the horusath race, a creature that once was an anubisath like Anubisath Sentinel. After defeating Grakkarond, one of the most ancient and powerful bronze dragons of Azeroth, Ossirian transformed into a nearly invulnerable piece of obsidian, and was praised as the hero of the anubisath ever since.

The stones that Elise wields in the card art are called Ossirian Tears in Hearthstone, but in World of Wacraft players knew them as Ossirian Crystals. These crystals helped Ossirian maintaining his incredible strength, but also bound him to the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. In the raid encounters, player can interact with the Ossirian crystals to make the boss vulnerable to a specific school of magic.

These crystals showcase an incredible source of power, and Elise might have obtained them after searching through Ahn’Qiraj. They may have different effects on different people, but the Hero Power in terms of Druid’s general gameplay makes a ton of sense looking at the lore of Ossirian the Unscarred!

In a recent Twitch stream by Alliestrasza, Dave Kosak also talked about Elise and Ahn’Qiraj, saying the she “most likely” visited the place before.

Hunter

Dinotamer Brann

What would the League of Explorers be without Brann Bronzebeard! Without a doubt, as one of the most famous dwarves of Azeroth, Brann would deserve his own lore piece. He is one of the most important figures in Hearthstone that built the bridge to deep Warcraft lore while evolving as a character within Hearthstone at the same time.

Many would think that Dinotamer Brann and its card art don’t add too much to Hearthstone lore as a whole. However, the fact that his art shows the real King Krush alone turns this card into a lore heavy-hitter.

“Wait, the REAL King Krush?”

You heard it right! King Krush is a GREEN DEVILSAUR, residing in Sholazar Basin. The old card art of King Krush shows a BLUE RAVASAUR named Lar’korwi, who has been using the same art in WoW’s TCG years ago. Could this be the first step of Blizzard’s effort to correct incorrect card art in the near future? Even if it’s not, Dinotamer Brann‘s card art is pretty cool and puts things right!

Unseal the Vault

Whoever played WoW during the Cataclysm expansion knows that Uldum holds countless of vaults. Players also know that Brann is famous for unlocking all kinds of faults, so seeing this new Quest card doesn’t come as a complete lore surprise. Looking at the card art, it could be a very specific vault that Brann found. Maybe one of our readers can identify that door? Let us know in the comments!

Mage

Reno the Relicologist

What would Hearthstone’s League of Explorers be without the charming Reno Jackson? His Saviors of Uldum card is called Reno the Relicologist and caused quite a stir within the game’s community; the fact that all four major LoE characters were tied to a certain class looked like a hasty design decision. Reno and Finley in particular have no particular class lore attached to them, and that combined with the fact that all characters have been Neutral legendaries in the past created even more confusion.

However, we know that class affiliations have been decided with some history in mind: Back when League of Explorers was in full force, one of the most played archetypes was Reno Mage; Reno Jackson provided insane support for the already strong Freeze Mage core and thus dominated the meta in early 2016. As a result you could say that Reno himself became attached to the Mage class as a whole, and Reno the Relicologist could be a well-deserved homage to one of the greatest Mage archetypes in Hearthstone history.

Another hint that comes from current development is a card called Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron: Its card art shows Reno’s hands finding the precious Old Gods artifact, and this particular find may have given him Mage-like powers. This has been partly confirmed by Mike Donais on Reddit, and that shows just how much thought Team 5 put into assigning heavy-lore characters to certain classes.

Raid the Sky Temple

Similar to Elise and Untapped Potential, Mage’s second Legendary card called Raid the Sky Temple shows Reno, the corresponding class explorer, hands full with scrolls from a so-called Sky Temple. Thanks to these scrolls, Reno could be able to extend his knowledge about magic in general.

And thanks to a tweet by Hearthstone Initial Game Designer Chadd “Celestalon” Nervig we do know that this temple is the Vortex Pinnacle, a place full of magic!

In World of Warcraft, this 5-player dungeon can be found at the southern border of Uldum; back when Deathwing escaped his prison he caused the Cataclysm and therefore several elemental planes to appear in Azeroth. In Uldum’s case, Skywall is the air elemental plane that unveiled itself, featuring multiple dungeons and even a raid guarded by Al’Akir himself.

This particular reference could point towards the location of the upcoming singleplayer campaign.

Paladin

Sir Finley of the Sands

Last but certainly not least, Sir Finley completes the ranks of the four beloved explorers. In his upcoming iteration, Sir Finley of the Sands pays homage to not only the Highlander mechanic, but his former self as well. Other than that, his own new card doesn’t offer a whole lot of lore insights.

Making Mummies

Unlike Sir Finley of the Sands, Making Mummies contains a lot more to talk about when it comes to lore and class fantasy in general!

Right after the release of the card, several community members on Twitter and Reddit criticized the fact that Paladin is allowed to resurrect dead creatures. Although they – just like priests – are loyal servants of the Holy Light and learn to use that power to resurrect fallen allies, necromancy isn’t the most fitting hobby for your average Warcraft paladin.

However, we need to make it crystal-clear that Making Mummies does NOT show a paladin executing necromancy. We see Sir Finley – in awe – interacting with a mummy, most likely thanks to an ancient artifact called the Emperor Wraps.

Unlike Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, this particular artifact doesn’t exist in Warcraft lore – but it still makes sense looking at Uldum’s history. Back when the Thunder King Lei Shen tried to overtake the land of the titans, the tol’vir used the Forge of Origination, a powerful titan device, against him and his mogu army; later on, Lei Shen got revived by the Zandalari trolls, and that knowledge of resurrection even helped Prophet Zul to shake up the storyline around WoW’s current expansion Battle for Azeroth.

Long story short, the theme of resurrection around Emperor Lei Shen and his history with Uldum provides a great base for coherent lore speculation involving Making Mummies, a card that does NOT represent class but rather expansion flavor!

 

Priest

High Priest Amet

High Priest Amet is Savior of Uldum’s first “evil” Legendary card we’re taking a closer look at. Thanks to Madame Lazul’s affiliation with the Priest class, we can say that most Priest class should be associated with the League of E.V.I.L..

On first sight, that doesn’t fit with the story of High Priest Amet: In World of Warcraft, Amet is part of the high council of Ramkahen, the remaining tol’vir – a once titan-forged and now feline race – who didn’t pledge allegiance to Deathwing. Under King Phaoris, Amet is the religious leader, providing his people with visions thanks to the holy water from the Vir’naal River.

Taking a look at other cards released with Saviors of Uldum, Shaman’s Quest called Corrupt the Waters could provide a valid explanation: Hagatha, being able to influence her natural surroundings, corrupts Vir’naal and thus Amet’s visions as well. And just like that, a floating-city-spaceship crashing right into your homelands does not only make total sense, but could bring the final salvation for Ramkahen!

Chances are high that the lore behind High Priest Amet will be unveiled with Savior of Uldum’s singleplayer campaign as it is a great example for extended storytelling around the League of E.V.I.L. and its class affiliations in the Year of the Dragon.

Activate the Obelisk

Being one of the most anticipated cards of Saviors of Uldum, Activate the Obelisk sadly doesn’t deliver a whole lot in terms of new lore.

The card art shows Madame Lazul activating a certain obelisk that wears the Rise of Shadows icon. We tried to reach out to the artist of the card to confirm the icon, but didn’t have any luck yet. Check the comments of this article for updates!

Rogue

Anka, the Buried

Anka, the Buried looks to be one of the few Hearthstone-exclusive characters of Saviors of Uldum. Anka looks like your average high-caste mummy, wearing very generic ancient jewelry. Her physique tells us that she once was a humanoid, most likely a Zandalari troll.

Together with the Thunder King Lei Shen, the Zandalari invaded Uldum to take control over the ancient relics of the titans including the Forge of Origination, a device made to save Azeroth in case it gets corrupted by the Old Gods.

Bazaar Burglary

Rogue’s new Quest card called Bazaar Burglary showcases the more light-hearted approach to the League of E.V.I.L. invasion. The card shows Togwaggle and his minions running away from an Uldum bazaar – which there are several of – and their hands full of stolen goods. No secret hints, no points of interest within the Uldum storyline, just some angry kobolds doing evil things!

Shaman

Vessina

Just like Anka, Vessina is a Hearthstone-exclusive character as well. However, players have met her before: Vessina also is a playable hero in the Dalaran Heist, the singleplayer campaign of Rise of Shadows!

Vessina is a shaman of the Sethrak, a serpent race introduced with WoW’s current expansion Battle for Azeroth. Being a shaman, her card effect as known as a “Bloodlust on a stick” perfectly incapsulates class fantasy.

The fact that a sethrak character got introduced in Hearthstone caused quite the stir, as cross-promotion has always been a sign for general development within the Warcraft franchise. Besides the vulpera, sethrak were the top contenders for becoming another Allied Race in World of Warcraft, but players have been let down so far in that regard. The reintroduction of Vessina could be a positive sign for the snake people coming to everybody’s favorite MMORPG!

Corrupt the Waters

We already covered most of the lore around Corrupt the Waters talking about the possible story of High Priest Amet.

However, we do know now that mucks, the creatures of the Witchwood as seen in Muckmorpher or Muckling seem to be the pure creation of Hagatha herself, as the card art of the new Shaman Quest clearly shows a pack of mucks emerging the corrupted Vir’naal river. 

Warlock

Dark Pharaoh Tekahn

Dark Pharaoh Tekahn is a tol’vir and the leader of the Neferset tribe.

After the Cataclysm reached Uldum, he and his people allied with Deathwing, and together with Al’Akir they try to overtake Uldum and all its hidden artifacts.

That is also the reason behind the looks of all Neferset tol’vir in Saviors of Uldum: In exchange for their loyal services, Deathwing granted them their true stone form, just like the titans wanted them to be before they were affected by the Curse of Flesh.

Funnily enough, Tekahn appeared as a playable Warlock hero in the Dalaran Heist. Nobody really knew what business Rafaam had with a tol’vir in the middle of Dalaran.

Thanks to his current flavor text, we know that Tekahn wants to eradicate the Explorer’s League as a whole. Maybe he and Rafaam teamed up after meeting in Dalaran? We already know that Tekahn loves forging evil alliances as well as shady deals: A couple of artifacts, and in return the League of E.V.I.L. takes care of Brann and the band, that doesn’t sound too shabby, right?

However Tekahn may have come in contact with Rafaam, he is yet again another prime example of the continuous storytelling in the Year of the Dragon.

Supreme Archaeology

Will there ever be a more iconic class fantasy card as Supreme Archaeology? We doubt it!

In the card art we see Rafaam what he does best: Abusing artifacts to increase his power and calling it “archeology”! The reward for his foul play fits right in: Tome of Origination is, after the Staff of Origination he was after during the League of Explorers expansion, another pristine titan artifact that Rafaam cares so much about.

In the World of Warcraft it is called the Book of Origination, which drops from regular monsters in – you guessed it – the Halls of Origination dungeon. Despite the different name, the colors of both references match perfectly, so we can definitely confirm that this item exists in WoW.

The “Origination” part stems from the already mentioned Forge of Origination, a powerful titan device that can control both life and death, so discounting cards as a Hero Power couldn’t be a more fitting theme!

Warrior

Armagedillo

As we all know, Dr. Boom is Warrior’s current “card patron”, so we had to expect one or another crazy Warrior card in Saviors of Uldum.

However, Armagedillo still takes every possible cake by a mile. In World of Warcraft, this cute little armadillo roams around Uldum, and yes, it’s only cute and little because you have no real reference thanks to the vast desert around it, because it’s actually big and really scary.

Dr. Boom knows that and decided to tame it and turn it into a deadly beast. Thanks to multiple mech upgrades, Armagedillo turned into an even deadlier killer machine than it had been in WoW, so this is definitely something that will change the Warcraft lore canon for good!

Hack the System

Hack the System was one of the earlier released Legendary cards, and it served as a great introduction to Uldum lore.

In its card art we can see Dr. Boom destroying some sort of system; thanks to the quest reward, we can be pretty certain that he “hacks” the access mechanism to a certain room in the Halls of Origination dungeon called the Vault of Lights. In this room, players in World of Warcraft can find Anraphet, a titan watcher who guards the sacred titan halls.

What is even more awesome is the attention to detail comparing the Hero Power Anraphet's Core and the model of Anraphet in World of Warcraft.

Neutral

Highkeeper Ra

Yes, we know, Highkeeper Ra is not a playable card. He will be the result of seven Mogu Cultists hitting the board at once. However, Ra is one of the most important character in Uldum lore.

More than some time ago, Ra was put in place by the titans themselves to protect Uldum and the Forge of Origination. When Lei Shen attacked Uldum, he managed to imprison Ra, and thus he turned mad through decades of incarceration.

All that culminates in Ra-den – as he was called by the mogu, who he created – turning into the secret 13th boss encounter in the Throne of Thunder, one of the most iconic raid dungeons in the World of Warcraft.

His card art clearly shows Ra at his most evil state; thankfully, after players defeat him in the Throne of Thunder, he sees the light again and decided to leave the scene. He has never been seen since.

Colossus of the Moon

Colossus of the Moon is a NPC that can be found in WoW’s Uldum. He is one of two colossi protecting the keys to unlock a chest that contains the Scepter of Orsis, a powerful artifact that Al’Akir wanted to steal from the land of the titans.

His twin brother, Colossus of the Sun sadly didn’t make it into the game, but maybe we will see him in the singleplayer campaign!

Siamat

The air elemental called Siamat, Lord of the South Wind, is one of the members of the Conclave of Wind, Al’Akir’s personal council.

In World of Warcraft, Siamat is the final boss of the 5-player dungeon called Lost City of the Tol’vir. He was put in charge to free the Neferset tol’vir from the Curse of Flesh, who then imprisoned him inside the ancient city to abuse his powers even more.

Just like many cards before him, Siamat has been part of the WoW TCG. His card art has been used in Hearthstone already – not for his own card, but rather for Djinni of Zephyrs, one of the first “djinni” cards in Blizzard’s card game.

King Phaoris

King Phaoris is the leader of the Ramkahen tol’vir and one of the main protagonists in the WoW Uldum storyline. Thanks to the help of the adventurers who were able to visit Uldum after the Cataclysm he manages to take Neferset City, making him the true King of Uldum.

The most interestsing lore bit about Phaoris, however, is his mention in the Warcraft novel “Quest for Pandaria”. Just before the release of Mists of Pandaria, this novel tells the story of Phaoris ruling Uldum and meeting members of the Explorer’s League. He tells them that “some things” are still buried under Uldum’s sands, and that could have reignited Brann’s thirst for archeological adventure.

Maybe this interaction caused the League to turn their attention to Uldum yet again? Maybe that is why they are at the crime scene just when Rafaam and his gang crashes right into the sacred titan lands?

Octosari

Octosari is one of the few Hearthstone-exclusive creatures in this list. How else could this insane effect be justified if not by a card that’s unique to Hearthstone in the Warcraft universe?

However, it will be interesting to see how Team 5 justifies a big old KRAKEN invading the DESERT of Uldum. At least that lore is just as crazy as the card effect!

Zephrys the Great

Just like crazy Octosari, Zephrys the Great is exclusive to Hearthstone as well.

What may be the most unique card in the history of digital card games definitely deserves its own place in Hearthstone history; furthermore, Zephrys justs waits to get a place in the World of Warcraft, ready to pay homage to a milestone in Blizzard’s card design!