The story of Elwynn Forest.
Elwynn Forest is the green heart of the Kingdom of Stormwind, a land of farms, mines and quiet woods spread out below the city walls. It looks peaceful, but few places in the Eastern Kingdoms have been fought over as often.
When the orcs first came through the Dark Portal, they marched through Elwynn and ringed Stormwind. Sir Anduin Lothar's knights broke that first siege by charging through the forest into the Horde's rear. The orcs returned, and the second time Goldshire and Moonbrook were the last towns to fall before Stormwind itself was left in ruins. After the Second War the people came home, Northshire Abbey was raised again in its valley east of the city, and Stormwind was rebuilt stone by stone.
That rebuilding left a wound of its own. The Stonemasons' Guild did the work, but the nobles of the House of Nobles never paid them. When the guild's leader, Edwin VanCleef, demanded what they were owed, the guild was disbanded, riots followed, and Queen Tiffin was killed in the chaos. VanCleef's masons turned outlaw as the Defias Brotherhood, and their bandits now raid the farms of Elwynn and Westfall.
They are not the only trouble. Kobolds have overrun the mines at Fargodeep and Jasperlode, gnolls from the Redridge side camp at the forest's edge, and murlocs from Stone Cairn Lake have killed enough people for Marshal Dughan to post a bounty on them. In the east, the Eastvale Logging Camp keeps the kingdom supplied with timber, while the mages of the Tower of Azora keep to their own experiments.
Written for this site from the game's lore. Further reading: Elwynn Forest on Warcraft Wiki.
