Retcon

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

This pages deals with retcon speculation. A retcon (short for "retroactive continuity") is a retroactive alteration in the official lore of a series of works of fiction. These changes can either be:

• additional backstory to explain and expand upon present circumstances.

or

• historical facts which are rewritten and are meant to be taken as having always been that way.

A large portion of the lore of the Warcraft universe would fall under the first meaning, since it was all developed around a relatively simple war between orcs and humans. This article deals with the second meaning of retcon, a retroactive change in the history or backstory.

Some apparently conflicting lore is actually written as flavor lore, and was not necessarily intended to be accurate observations of what actually occurred, but rather competing beliefs held by inhabitants of the world of Azeroth. An example of this is the tauren belief that they were the first druids, which was definitely stated to be false in the Warcraft encyclopedia.[1]

Metzen on continuity

Chris Metzen has emphasized the importance of ensuring continuity within the Warcraft universe:

We're taking the process of building a world seriously and it wasn't just churned out. It had a strong sense of continuity. We've always tried to do that with our ancillary products like the D&D line and our novels. We are kind of painstakingly anal, about making sure all the details add up, that continuity is held to be sacred. So that no matter in what medium you are experiencing Warcraft it all feels like a contiguous experience.

He has also said that the novels are pretty much considered canon, though some things are less canon...typically the characters in novels are canon..."28_Wow_Its_World_of_WarCraft_San_Diego_Comic_Con_2007.mp3 and that he has allowed the authors some freedom as to what they wrote, and that Blizzard plays it by ear as far as how much they reference from them or similar sources like the manga in the MMORPG.[2] The implication of this is that the only verifiable retcons are differences in storyline between the games themselves, using the MMORPG as a benchmark. Its unclear what falls under "other sources".

Retcon articles

It is left to the reader's opinion whether the discrepancies listed below articles constitute errors, retcons, flavor lore, or merely artistic license. The criteria for inclusion in the articles is a clear, apparent contradiction between two official sources. Where the sources are reconciled by another official source, that explanation is provided.

• Retcon 1 (Archive)

or

• Retcon 2