The lore for Warcraft is expansive and has captivated the minds of fans for over twenty-five years. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands looks to expand that lore this fall with the expansion of the ever-popular MMORPG. Sylvanas Windrunner has shattered the crown of the Lich King and opened a rift over Azeroth, the Horde is splintered, and the Alliance is on the hunt for the former leader of the Horde. New adventures loom but before then, fans can read the latest tie-in novel for the expansion, Shadows Rising by Madeleine Roux.
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In Shadows Rising, the Horde now stands at a crossroads after Sylvanas Windrunner turned her back on them. The various factions form a council, leaving the mantle of warchief to rest. Thrall, Lor’themar Theron, Baine Bloodhoof, First Arcanist Thalyssra, and many other familiar faces rise to this new challenge. But the threats are numerous, and the distrust runs too deep. When the council is derailed by a failed assassination attempt on Talanji—the Zandalari queen and a key ally—Thrall and the rest of the Horde leaders are forced into action. They empower the young troll shaman Zekhan, still grieving the loss of Varok Saurfang, with a critical mission to aid Talanji and help uncover the rising threat against her.
Meanwhile, Nathanos Blightcaller and Sira Moonwarden have been tasked by the Dark Lady with a terrifying gambit: to kill the troll loa of death himself, Bwonsamdi. As Zekhan and Talanji work to save Bwonsamdi, their journey will be a key turning point in bolstering the Horde against the coming darkness and finding themselves along the way. Failure to save their allies and the trickster god will surely doom them—but through success, they may rediscover what makes the Horde strong.
Roux climbed to internet fame with her fiction blog, Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. She now is a New York best-selling author with her work on the Asylum series and with Shadows Rising, Roux enters her second piece of work to the Warcraft lore. You usually find Roux on her Twitter account where she is the most active as she shares her love of gaming, cosplaying, powerlifting, and general nerdom with fans.
In this interview, Adrian got to sit down virtually with Roux to talk about her process with expanding the lore in a franchise that she has been apart of since the vanilla version of World of Warcraft. Here, Roux dives deep into her love of the franchise and how her fandom connects to her writing process. She also discusses how writing a book for an established franchise works, how she had to adjust certain elements of her writing (Anduin almost had a tattoo), and how she got to bring LGBT+ representation to Azeroth, which was a priority for Blizzard. Additionally, we get the chance to learn more about Roux’s fandom in general and how she got flex her horror muscles in certain aspects of the novel.
Hit play on the audio above to hear the interview and find out which Warcraft character Roux would go powerlifting with.
You can find Madeleine Roux on Twitter @Authoroux and you can pick up your copy of Shadows Rising here.
