New Midnight prequel short story The Void Between is a tale of two elves… and sets the stage for our return to Silvermoon City

Blizzard has given us all an early weekend gift with the release of a new Warcraft short story: The Void Between by Alex Acks, which revolves around former Magister Umbric and Grand Magister Rommath. You can download the story as a PDF to read at your own pace, or listen to it as an audiobook on YouTube, where Kirk Thornton (Rommath’s voice actor) narrates. The PDF is 42 pages long (though a few pages are just quotes), while the audiobook is slightly over an hour, so pick your favorite.

As we head into Midnight — and into Silvermoon City — the Blood Elves and Void Elves will be center of the story. If you’ve been playing Warcraft for a long time, you may already have thoughts and feelings about the “Silvermoon Bros” (Rommath, Lor’themar, Aethas, and Halduron); outside of Lor’themar, we haven’t really learned a ton about the goings on of the others in quite some time. We’ve heard about Lor’themar’s wedding (once again why weren’t we invited? Thrall invited us to his wedding…) and we saw how Aethas was dealing with the fall of Dalaran in The War Within, but Rommath and Halduron have avoided the spotlight.

This short story specifically deals with Umbric (current leader of the Void Elves) and Rommath (reigning Grand Magister of Quel’thelas), their relationship with the void, and the events that have transpired since they were both High Elf students in Dalaran, up to the current day (just before the beginning of Midnight). And through the two of them, it sets the stage for the complicated place these High/Blood/Void Elves occupy, and how they might move forward in Midnight. (If you aren’t entirely up on your Blood Elf lore, this story might inspire you to play through the Dead Scar for context. Just make a brand new Blood Elf and run through the first two zones — there’s another member of their little party that shows up there.)

The Void Between is a story that carries an awful lot of weight to it, because it ties into elven lore that goes back to Warcraft 3. It deals with not only the introduction of the void as a possible solution to the High Elves’ magic addiction after Arthas tainted the Sunwell (before Kael’thas “saved” his people by destroying it), but also shows us some insight into classic characters we really only know as questgivers. The story takes us back to see them as cocky youths… and then shows us how they’ve evolved from there, through their struggles. Even through the years and hardships that Umbric and Rommath have endured — including watching the worst thing imaginable happen three times in a row, because the Blood Elves have had a long run with tragedy — sometimes, the oldest, frailest bonds are still the strongest.

This is a great read for anyone interested in the Blood Elves or Void Elves, or just wanting to know where things stand as we step into Silvermoon City again. Were I to voice any complaints after finishing this story, my biggest one is that Blizzard didn’t animate the audiobook, which could been an absolute animated banger. Instead it’ll have to just play out in my mind for now.