War of the Shifting Sands

The War of the Shifting Sands was a war between the night elves and the insectoid empire of Ahn'Qiraj, fought in the deserts of southern Kalimdor about a thousand years before the orcs came to Azeroth. It ended with the qiraji sealed behind a magical wall instead of destroyed, and the key to that wall, the Scepter of the Shifting Sands, was shattered. In Classic, patch 1.9 reopens the conflict: whole servers gathered supplies for a new war, players rebuilt the scepter, and the gates of Ahn'Qiraj opened to two new raids.

Background

Long before the night elves, the insectoid aqir ruled large parts of the world. Driven apart by the trolls, their southern branch settled in what is now Silithus and became the qiraji and their swarming silithid servants. Their city of Ahn'Qiraj was built around the prison of C'Thun, one of the Old Gods, and the qiraji worshiped him as their master.

The war

Nearly a thousand years before the First War, the silithid and qiraji poured out of Silithus and attacked the night elf lands to the north. Archdruid Fandral Staghelm led the night elf armies, which were made up of Sentinels and druids of the Cenarion Circle. For years the elves won battles but could not stop the swarm, which seemed to have no end.

The worst blow fell on Fandral himself. His son Valstann, a commander in the army, was captured by the qiraji general Rajaxx and killed in front of his father. Fandral never recovered from the loss.

With the night elves near defeat, the bronze dragon Anachronos persuaded the dragonflights to help. He came with three other young dragons, each a child of one of the great Aspects: Caelestrasz of the red flight, Arygos of the blue, and Merithra of the green. The dragons and the druids drove the qiraji back to their city. Instead of attacking Ahn'Qiraj itself, the druids and dragons raised a vast barrier, the Scarab Wall, and sealed the qiraji behind it.

Anachronos created a scepter to serve as the key to the wall and gave it to Fandral, saying that when the time came, the night elves could use it to open the gates. Fandral, still grieving for his son, wanted nothing more to do with the qiraji and threw the scepter down, shattering it into pieces.

Return in World of Warcraft

Silithus before the gates

In Classic, the Scarab Wall still stands at the southern edge of Silithus. Silithid hives such as Hive'Regal dot the desert, and the Twilight's Hammer cult has gathered in the zone to serve C'Thun. The Cenarion Circle holds Cenarion Hold against both, and its quests from Commander Mar'alith, Geologist Larksbane and others reveal that the qiraji are stirring.

The Ahn'Qiraj War Effort

With patch 1.9 in January 2006, each server began a shared war effort to prepare the armies of Azeroth for a new war. [[forever:npc:15701]] in Ironforge and [[forever:npc:15700]] in Orgrimmar collected huge amounts of metal bars, herbs, cloth, leather, bandages and food from players on both sides. When the goals were met, the armies sent the supplies to Silithus.

Rebuilding the scepter

At the same time, players could rebuild the Scepter of the Shifting Sands through one of the longest quest lines in Classic. It starts after Blackwing Lair with [[forever:quest:8286]] and [[forever:quest:8288]], continues through [[forever:quest:8301]], and leads to Anachronos in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris. Anachronos tells his story in [[forever:quest:8305]] and [[forever:quest:8519]], then sends the player to recover the scepter's pieces from the dragonflights in [[forever:quest:8555]]:

• Red: the shard hidden in Blackwing Lair, recovered by defeating Nefarian ([[forever:quest:8730]]).
• Green: the shard taken from the corrupted green dragon Eranikus, which ends with the defense of Nighthaven in [[forever:quest:8736]].
• Blue: the shard tied to Azuregos, which sends players on a long string of errands that starts with [[forever:quest:8575]].

Completing the quests rewards [[forever:item:21175]].

Bang a Gong

On each server, the first player to finish the scepter could strike the Scarab Gong at the wall in [[forever:quest:8743]]. Every player who finished the chain and struck the gong during the ten-hour battle that followed earned the title Scarab Lord and the [[forever:item:21176]], a mount that no one else could get. The gong started a ten-hour battle outside the gates, after which the Scarab Wall opened for good. Read more in Opening of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj and Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal.

The two raids

• Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj) is a 20-player raid in the outer city. The general who killed Valstann, [[forever:npc:15341]], waits there, and players face him alongside [[forever:npc:15471]]. The last boss is [[forever:npc:15339]], whose head goes to the Cenarion Circle in [[forever:quest:8791]].
• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (Ahn'Qiraj) is a 40-player raid in the temple at the heart of the city. Its bosses include [[forever:npc:15263]], [[forever:npc:15276]] and [[forever:npc:15275]], and finally C'Thun ([[forever:npc:15727]]) himself. Its reputation faction, the Brood of Nozdormu, rewards players with the [[forever:item:21196]].

Later history

Fandral Staghelm's grief over Valstann shaped his later fall: in Cataclysm he was revealed as a servant of Ragnaros and defeated in the Firelands. In WoW Classic, the war effort and the gong were recreated for each Classic server in 2020.

Sources

• War of the Shifting Sands (Warcraft Wiki)
• Scepter of the Shifting Sands (Warcraft Wiki)
• Ahn'Qiraj War Effort (Warcraft Wiki)
• Bang a Gong! (Warcraft Wiki)