The Warchief’s Command Board includes the adventures of a considerable cast of characters, some of them major lore figures, many based on relatively obscure questgivers and background NPCs, and several original characters. Here’s a look at some of the major recurring characters, including some of the more important plot points related to them. (Check back now and then; the list is bound to be added to and revised as we go.)

 

 

You don’t really need an explanation for who he is, now do you? Son of Grommash Hellscream, Garrosh was appointed by Thrall to lead the Horde just prior to the Cataclysm, and in the time period of the blog is still in the midst of his reign as Warchief.

Blog-Garrosh has turned out to be a bit more varied in his interests than his in-game counterpart. He’s demonstrated an affinity for writing poetry — or, as he calls it, EPIC VERSE; he plays Earth Online, a postapocalyptic fantasy MMO, in which he’s the leader of the guild <Warchief>; and since the beginning of the Pandaria campaign, he’s taken up the task of mentoring a group of young Horde trainees. He loves lemon squares, of course — who doesn’t?! — and has been known on occasion to show a surprising soft spot for wyverns.

Oh, and he’s also a dad. Yes, really.

 

 

Spazzle, a goblin from the Bilgewater Cartel, is Garrosh’s de facto tech guru, an admittedly mediocre enhancement shaman, and an all-around geek of nerdy proportions. He helps Garrosh maintain the blog and sometimes writes guest posts himself (which Garrosh almost certainly doesn’t read), and he is an officer in Garrosh’s Earth Online guild <Warchief> (and, by all appearances, is one of the few gamers in the group who knows what he’s doing). Recently, he’s begun to find himself torn between conflicting loyalties: his friendship with Garrosh on one side, his sympathy for Vol’jin and Thrall on the other.

Read Spazzle’s character profile to learn more about him. Follow his Twitter exploits at @SpazzleFizz!

 

 

Mokvar is one of Garrosh’s primary aides in Grommash Hold and the Warchief’s personal scribe. One of his main duties is to record many of the transcripts that are frequently incorporated into the blog. He also contributes to the blog as a guest poster on occasion. He frequently finds himself at odds with Malkork (then again, who doesn’t?), and has become close friends with Spazzle and Ji Firepaw.

Long-time WoW players will remember that long before he was a mini-boss in Siege of Orgrimmar, Mokvar inhabited Grommash Hold and offered players the quest chain to upgrade their dungeon gear. Mokvar’s Alliance counterpart was Deliana in Ironforge, who, years before, had been part of a mercenary group with Mokvar. In the blog, Mokvar and Deliana were reuinted when their mercenary past came back to haunt them; during their adventure, Mokvar vanished while pursuing a powerful warlock relic, and since his return has found himself having to work to regain Garrosh’s trust.

Read Mokvar’s character profile to learn more about him. Find him on Twitter at @Mokvar_Scribe.

 

 

Shayari is Garrosh’s 17-year-old, half-draenei daughter.

Recovered yet? Good. Let’s continue.

Shayari was born in Nagrand, unbeknownst to Garrosh, after a youthful fling between the young Warchief-to-be and a young draenei woman named Marsiya. Years later, Shayari moved to Dalaran to study to become a mage; during the purge of Dalaran, however, her partial orc ancestry left her unwelcome in the city, and she fled to Silvermoon with the other Horde refugees. There, she was found by Lady Liadrin, who brought her to Orgrimmar to meet her father for the first time.

Shay seems to have inherited her father’s temper, boundless self-esteem, and proclivity for giving people comical — and often dismissive — nicknames. She has continued her studies as an apprentice mage, now under the reluctant tutelage of Master Apothecary Faranell from the Undercity.

Follow Shayari on Twitter at @doeling_shay!

 

 

Gurtash is a 15-year-old orcish boy from the Orgrimmar orphanage. After writing to Garrosh’s mailbag, Gurtash was able to land a part-time job helping the Warchief care for his personal wyvern. Since then, Gurtash has taken an increasingly prominent role in Garrosh’s life. When the Horde began its military trainee program, Gurtash became part of a trainee group under the direct supervision of the Warchief himself (though Gurtash’s skills as a budding warrior are subject to some debate). Later, while Mokvar was off the grid and unavailable for scribe duty, Garrosh recruited the artistically inclined Gurtash to record his own brand of transcripts in the form of comics, which have continued to be a part of the blog ever since.

You can follow @Gurtash on Twitter. You can also find (occasional, sporadic) samples of his artwork on deviantArt.

 

 

Lady Liadrin is the leader of the Blood Knights of Silvermoon and perhaps most prominent paladin in the Horde. In blog continuity, Liadrin first met Garrosh while accompanying him on an ill-fated journey through time to Old Hillsbrad, then went on to play a major role in the Warchief’s exploits in an alternate timeline (WCB got there first, Metzen!) in which she had assumed command of the Argent Crusade. Later, in the aftermath of the purge of Dalaran, Liadrin discovered Shayari among the Silvermoon refugees, then delivered her to Orgrimmar to meet her father for the first time. The blog incarnation of Liadrin demonstrates a fairly sympathetic attitude toward Garrosh, as she has attempted to provide the Warchief with a calming voice of reason, and has taken an ongoing interest in Shayari’s well-being.

 

 
Sergeant Dontrag and Scout Utvoch are an inseparable pair of Horde infantry soldiers. Originally stationed in Ashenvale, they were reassigned to serve under Overlord Krom’gar in Stonetalon; there, they first met Garrosh during his investigation of Krom’gar’s questionable activities. Since then, Dontrag and Utvoch (D&U for short) have regularly cropped up in Garrosh’s activities (much to the Warchief’s chagrin), and have even plagued him online as members of his Earth Online guild. For reasons that no one seems able to identify, many people seem to have difficulty distinguishing which of them is which. They’re far from the brightest candles in the lantern, but spirits bless their hearts, they try.

Follow Dontrag and Utvoch’s words of wisdom on Twitter (where, between the two of them, they’re just barely able to scrape their thoughts together 140 characters at a time) at @Dontrag_Utvoch. Learn more about them in their character profile.

 

 

Dr. Edwin Faranell is Master Apothecary of the Royal Apothecary Society in the Undercity and a former human mage of Dalaran. Garrosh first encountered Faranell while investigating a mysterious anti-plague effect that was killing Forsaken; their mission would eventually take them to old Southshore, some ten years in the past, where Faranell would set in motion a disruption of the timeline that would nearly bring about the ruin of Azeroth. So, oops. During his misadventures in time, however, Faranell found himself trapped in a repeating time loop in which he was forced to relive the same eleven-year period nearly 3000 times — including his own human death. The experience has left the already-sarcastic Faranell rather embittered. At least he was able to use his many years in the loop to catch up on his reading, though, which has proven to be especially valuable in light of his photographic memory. As a result of his near-encyclopedic knowledge of a wide range of subjects, Garrosh has appointed him as a mage trainer for Shayari.

Oh, and in blog continuity, by virtue of some likely questionable methods, he actually has a jaw. At least when Shayari isn’t damaging it…

Faranell can sometimes be found waxing sarcastic on Twitter at @Edwin_Faranell.

 

 

When Gurtash was recruited into the Horde’s new military trainee program, Garrosh volunteered to supervise Gurtash’s group personally. After an…unfortunate mishap in the Valley of Trials, the team of young orcs named themselves the “Dead Peons Society” (a.k.a. “DPS”). While the group includes some dozen orc trainees, the major players who’ve appeared in the blog are Gurtash, fellow warriors Korrina and Kulkesh, monk Giska, and shaman Rue’kara (Ruekie). Also mentioned in less prominent roles have been prot warrior Mirembe (who has become a semi-regular commenter and mailbag correspondent); Ruekie’s twin sister, apprentice rogue Tue’kara; and Lok’osh, a rogue trainee who was killed by saurok in Pandaria.

You can learn more about Korrina and Ruekie in their character profiles (additional write-ups on additional trainees will come in time!). Follow the Twitter misadventures of Ruekie and Mirembe, respectively, at @RuekieShaman and @Mirembe18.

 

 

Mortimer is the Warchief’s personal wyvern. You wouldn’t have expected it at first, though. Mortimer’s first encounter with Garrosh didn’t leave the Warchief terribly impressed, which led to Mortimer’s reassignment from military service to flight path duty on the dreaded Winterspring-Silithus route. D.E.H.T.A. agents under Arch Druid Lathorius “liberated” Mortimer briefly before he was retaken by the Horde, and eventually, after coming to Garrosh’s aid against the aforementioned archdruid, Mortimer proved his value to the Warchief and has been a faithful companion since. For his part, Garrosh has clearly shown a growing fondness for Mortimer, who has proven himself one more than one occasion to be quite the airborne badass.

Bizarre though it may sound, Mortimer is on Twitter. (Don’t look at me; it wasn’t my doing.) You can follow him at @Wyvern_Mortimer, though. Expect lots of barking and growling.

 

 

Alliance players will remember Deliana as the questgiver who once started the dungeon set upgrade questline (or, if you started playing after Cataclysm, as that random human standing around in the Ironforge throne room). In the blog, Deliana has been reunited with her questgiving counterpart Mokvar, with whom she had once adventured as part of the Veiled Blade mercenary group, and joined him for his time in exile from Orgrimmar while in pursuit of a powerful warlock relic. Since then, she’s kept a close a close eye on her old comrade in arms, even venturing to stealth her way around Orgrimmar to stay in contact. (Just don’t tell Shayari. The two don’t seem to get along. Especially on Twitter.)

Speaking of which, follow Deliana on Twitter at @Deliana_VB! (Just don’t bring up ol’ “Fancy Hooves.”)

 

 

Taktani is a happily innocent and boundlessly energetic young druid who first came to Garrosh’s attention as a recurring mailbag correspondent. Eventually, she managed to convince “Mr. Warchief” to let her serve as a part-time scribe, covering for Mokvar’s absence (at the time) and supplementing Gurtash’s comics with transcripts of her own (though not always without incident).

Tak always seems to see the bright side of life, and is generally oblivious to many of the conflicts around her. She also seems to have an ongoing misunderstanding of how names work in Pandaria, erroneously thinking that she should say everyone’s name twice. Taktani often keeps the company of Dontrag and Utvoch (or, as she calls them, “Mr. D” and “Mr. U”), and more recently has befriended Shayari. Just don’t anyone introduce her to Mylune. For the love of the spirits, please.

Learn more about Taktani in her character profile!

 

 

For good or ill, without Magatha, we probably wouldn’t have Garrosh as Warchief. It was her treachery during Garrosh and Cairne Bloodhoof’s mak’gora duel in The Shattering that led to the latter’s death. Her subsequent coup in Thunder Bluff led to her eventual exile from the mainstream of tauren society. She was last seen in-game in Thousand Needles, when she recruits the player to help her escape imprisonment by the Twilight’s Hammer (though the blog found its own way to intrude on that particular questline…).

In blog continuity, Magatha has continued to crop up as a nemesis for Garrosh. She allied herself with the Twilight’s Hammer to mastermind a plot to kidnap the Warchief, then, some time later, deceived Garrosh into believing his long-lost mother was actually still alive…with painful results.

Though she’s typically in hiding, Magatha occasionally pops up on Twitter. Keep an eye on @M_Grimtotem, just to be safe.

 

 

Arch Druid Lathorius is the leader of D.E.H.T.A. (Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals), based on Northrend. In the world of the blog, Lathorius — or “Lather-on-us,” as Garrosh often calls him — is an unlikely sometimes-nemesis, sometimes-ally to the Warchief. He’s written a number of letters to Garrosh’s mailbag and made one noteworthy appearance at Grommash Hold; his most significant contribution thus far, though, is probably his unwitting role in bringing Garrosh and Mortimer together.

 

 

Ben-Lin Cloudstider is a Huojin pandaren who joined the Horde and moved to Orgrimmar shortly after the discovery of Pandaria. A retired monk, Ben-Lin now works as a counselor specializing in stress and anger management, a capacity that led to her first encounter with Garrosh at one of her anger management classes. (Yes, really.) Since then, Ben-Lin has reappeared on a number of occasions, often in the unenviable position of trying to calm Garrosh down and dissuade him from acting on his more rash impulses. One can only assume the Warchief has been working up quite the tab, especially since becoming a father.

Learn more about Ben-Lin in her character profile!

 

 

We would be remiss not to mention him, at least. Bob has been a regular contributor to Garrosh’s mailbag since its inception. This frequent correspondent from the Echo Isles seems to take great pleasure in winding up the Warchief, often drawing on some rather familiar tropes to do so. More recently, he’s even found his way into Garrosh’s Earth Online guild <Warchief>. If you go all the way back to Garrosh’s inaugural mailbag, you might get a notion of who he might really be.