Project Lore

Quel'Delar's Rest

Proverb is an occasional column discussing the lore of Warcraft. It is spoiler heavy for all past, present, and future Warcraft games, novels, and other media. Comment on this post or send a tweet to @Heartbourne and let us know what you would like to see in future columns!

Little is known about the new sword Quel'Delar. Patch 3.2 introduced the Argent Tournament and the area known of Quel'Delar's Rest. Speculation began even then about what or who Quel'Delar was, and now Quel'Delar has been revealed as a one-handed sword, as was Quel'Serrar. Parallels are being drawn between the two, so lets take the opportunity to remember the story behind Quel'Serrar and and review what we know about Quel'Delar.

Quel'Serrar is the name of a particular sword that players could obtain, however, the name merely means "high blade" in Thalassian. There may exist several Quel'Serrar. Players obtained the first named Quel'Serrar by taking Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying, a rare drop in Dire Maul, to Lorekeeper Lydros. He claims that the book is "one of their greatest compilations" and presents the player with A Dull and Flat Elven Blade and confides the following story to the player:

<Lydros reaches into his robe and presents you with a dull, flat elven blade.>

In ages past well before even the War of the Ancients, there existed this blade. The blade itself had to be crafted in ceremony with the children of the Aspects. A rare occurrence indeed... For not only would a dragon have to willingly heat and mold the enchanted metal with their breath, they would also need to contain the fury of their own enchantment by using their blood as temper. Over the course of 8,000 years, only a handful of these blades were created - each blade unique in both power and appearance. The blades of Quel'Serrar would take on the characteristics of their creator. Rumors exist of a single, legendary blade of Quel'Serrar crafted for an unknown entity by the combined might of the five Aspects. Before the abominations of Nefarian and Deathwing were thrust into our world, such meetings of the Aspect were represented by the term 'Prismatic.' I could only assume that the Prismatic Blade of Quel'Serrar was a most glorious creation. What I offer to you now is one such blade, unfired, unheated, untreated - the most raw and basic form.

Now you merely need to find a dragon that will willing enchant the blade.

If you had an eternity to live, this might be a possibility; but since you are mortal and could very likely cease to exist at any moment, might I recommend trying to persuade one of the lesser dragons to do your bidding.

Have you heard of the brood mother of the Black Flight? I believe she is called Onyxia...

Players would then be provided with the Unfired Ancient Blade, which they would then take into combat with Onyxia. After the sword was placed on the ground and hit by a deep breath, players would need retrieve the Heated Ancient Blade from the ground, which would only remain heated for 20 minutes, and drive it into the corpse of Onyxia after slaying her to temper it in her blood. Players would then return it to Lydros to receive the Quel'Serrar. As of Onyxia's revamping in patch 3.2.2, players can obtain new versions of the Quel'Serrar as drops from Onyxia; there is the Burnished Quel'Serrar that drops in the 25 player version and the Gleaming Quel'Serrar in the 10 man version. Like the reintroduction of Onyxia, these items have no place in the lore and are in the game just for fanservice.

So now we come to Quel'Delar, which is another of these High Blades wielded before even the War of the Ancients. Through data-mining, a variety of information has been gleamed about this sword. First, we have its model. These High Blades should each have its own unique look, although still look similar. Compare the Quel'Delar (left) to the Quel'Serrar (right):

The coloring, runes, and shape are slightly different, but the blades appear very similar.

Continue to part 2...