Battle of Mount Hyjal

The Battle of Mount Hyjal is a fictional battle that took place in Blizzard Entertainment's video game, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos The Battle of Mount Hyjal is re-enacted in Blizzard's massively multiplayer role playing game the World of Warcraft.

The Battle of Mount Hyjal was the final battle of the Second Invasion of the Burning Legion. The Eredar champion, Archimonde scaled Mount Hyjal and attempted to steal the powers of the World Tree for himself. Though faced with the allied forces of Orcs, Alliance and Night Elves, he managed to reach the World Tree and began siphoning its power. The druid Malfurion Stormrage, in a bid to stop him, called ancient spirits of the forest that gathered around Archimonde and exploded, obliterating him, but also resulting in an unimaginable amount of damage to the surrounding region, including the World Tree as well. Without the World Tree's magic to sustain them, the Night Elves became mortal.

Closer look upon the Battle
These chapters will show the events which led to this Great Battle for Azeroth.

The First plans
This battle was long orchestrated by Medivh, the Last Guardian, by his cunning, sometimes trickery and telling the future through dreams to the mortal races. After he was resurrected by his mother, Aegwynn, she sent him on a quest to stop the Legion from destroying The World Tree and with it, Azeroth. Medivh set out to gather a large army to defend the tree from the onslaught of the Burning Legion and their allies (Scourge, etc...). Although guarded by the Night Elves, Medivh knew that the they alone would not be enough to defend the tree. This is where the Human Alliance and the Orcish Horde came in...

Gathering the Troops
Medivh journeyed back to the Eastern Kingdoms, where he hopes to find enough troops to make a last stand against the Legion. Not long after his arrival he sensed a powerful orc nearby. This orc was none other than Thrall of Durnholde, warchief of the Horde. Medivh sent Thrall a vision of a Great Battle between Thrall's Orcs vs The Humans under a fiery sky. Thrall followed the spirits which led him to Medivh, who at this point calls himself the Prophet, and he tells the Powerful Warchief that the Legion will soon be here and that the orcs will find their destiny in Kalimdor. Thrall agrees with the plan and gathers the clans who wish to follow him to the lost continent.
Medivh knew he just sent a large host of orcs (and Trolls who joined the Orcs a bit later) but still it wasn't enough. So Medivh decided to go ask aid from the Human Alliance. Here he does not have as much luck as he had with the Orcs. Heavily divided and arrogant as they come, the humans did not heed Medivh's call and ignored him. Both King Terenas of Lordearon and Archemage Antonidas of Dalaran ignored the Prophet and lost many men in the fights with the undead scourge. However Jaina Proudmoore, one of the most powerful sorcesses in Azeroth, believed Medivh after she saw the carnage in Stratholme. She gathered as many followers as she could. From Khaz Modan to Quel'thalas, from Lordearon to Azeroth, humans, elves and dwarves alike gatherd to the port cities of Lordearon and set sail to Kalimdor. Now Medivh had enough troops to stop the legion.

The Eve Before Battle
When Medivh arrived at Kalimdor, he saw the Horde and the Alliance fighting each other as they had done for generations. However, this seemed minuscule compared to the fact that Grom Hellscream, the chief of the Warsong clan, ordered his men to drink the demon Mannoroth's blood. After doing so, Grom and his orcs decimated the Cenarion forces, but fell to the demonic bloodpact they had initiated. Medivh summoned both Jaina and Thrall to his lair at Stonetalon Peak and forced them to ally with each other. Shocked and slightly appalled, they both agreed and became allies. After having destroyed Mannoroth, thus dealing a serious blow to the Legion, the new alliance went North where they stumbeld upon the Night Elves, who in turn attacked them for killing Cenarius. However, Medivh again succeeded to ally the three factions by revealing his identity and the purpose as to why the Three factions should cooperate.

The Plan

Near Mount Hyjal, the factions gathered and raised up their defenses. The Humans built their base near the foot of the mountain while the Orcs built on the cliffs midway up the mountain. The Night Elves took up base on top of the mountain, just in front of the World Tree. Knowing that the Legion would be too strong to handle, Malfurion Stormrage, Archdruid and leader of the Night Elves, devised a trap that would destroy Archimonde and his warriors but at the cost of the Night Elves immortality. The trap consisted of gathering enough spirits to drain Archimonde's energy and then explode, thus destroying him. This endeavor took time, and Archimonde was stalled until the process was complete. Shortly after their bases were built, Jaina reported that the enemy was coming. The Battle was to commence.

The Battle

Archimonde began his assault on Jaina's base with his Undead Warriors. Jaina's troops did a marvelous job at holding the undead at bay and sometimes received back-up from their Horde and Sentinel-allies. But after a few days Jaina's defences were destroyed and she was forced to teleport herself to a safer distance. Now using Jaina's base as his outpost Archimonde began attacks on his next target, the Horde Base. However Thrall's defences were even better than Jaina's.

Having bought some mines from goblins near his base, Thrall made a minefield which would literally send the undead through hell (again) before they could even reach the base. Even if they would reach it, they were awaited by hundreds of Orcish Grunts, Troll Headhunters and Tauren warriors. To make things worse for the attackers the night elves were able to build better defences inside Thrall's base and thus were able to hold off Archimonde's troops for a long time. But also in his turn Thrall's base was overrun and he stood face to face with Archimonde.

The Eredar laughed at how Mannoroth was foolish enough to use the Greenskins as his puppets during the 1st and 2nd war, although Thrall replied that the Orcs were now free and they won't stop until the Legion was banished. Before Archimonde was able to kill Thrall, Jaina teleported the Warchief and all of his surviving warriors to the rendez-vous point. To add further insult to being denied his prize, Thrall hit Archimonde with a bolt of lightning immediately before being portaled out.

Having lost their Horde and Alliance allies, the night elves still had friends who were willing to help them. Having been persuaded by Tyrande Whisperwind, The Dark Trolls halted the Scourge in the West-pass of the mountain while the Furbolgs, who in their turn were pursaded by Shandris Feathermoon, halted the Scourge's process in the South. Both also in their turn, were overrun. Now the Night Elves stood alone as the last remaining side of Good on the mountain, but this made them more ferocious in battle. Mere hours before Furion's plan was ready the elven warriors fought their hardest, this inspired even the Treants to join in the battle. When Archimonde finally joined in, the night elves suddenly retreated, allowing Archimonde to get near the world tree. This was what Furion planned a few days earlier.

When Archimonde began sucking the Energy from the tree, the spirits came and with their combined magic drained Archimonde dry from his energy and in turn destroyed him. While their leader died, the Legion's troops also disappeared, and Arthas, who stood at the sideline all along, gathered the newly "free" undead minions and returned to his home in Lordaeron.

Aftermath

Although Archimonde was destroyed, the losses were high. Not only did many warriors fall, but the Tree was heavily burned and the forest was turned to cinders. The surviving warriors, with their leaders, looked up towards the tree and saw it was slowly healing. Giving a sort of symbolism, as long hope is there, the races will also be able to rebuild their civilizations.
After having signed a treaty of peace, the races went their separate ways. The Orcs founded their capital in southern Kalimdor, a land which would later be known as Durotar. The jungle trolls settled on the nearby echo isles. As for the tauren, they were finally able to return to their ancestral home of Mulgore after years of battling with the Centaur. The humans, after having their capital overrun by the Scourge, began constructed a new capital on the continent of Kalimdor. The dwarves returned to their ancestral home in Khaz'Modan. The high elves had no where to return, since Arthas razed Quel'thelas to the ground whilst corrupting the Sunwell, the source of the high elves power. The surviving high elves renamed themselves the blood elves, and settled in various human areas. Lastly, the night elves, having lost both their immortality and sacred tree settled down in an attempt to find a new purpose in life. While the female Sentinels kept watch, the male druids started work on growing a new world tree off the northern coast of Kalimdor while unbeknownst to them, the original World Tree was healing itself.

As for Medivh, he took his place "amongst the legends of the past."

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