The Deadmines story: why Onyxia rewards you for killing VanCleef

The builder Stormwind did not pay

Stormwind was destroyed in the First War and rebuilt after the Second. Edwin VanCleef led the Stonemasons' Guild, the workers restoring the capital. In the novel Beyond the Dark Portal, King Varian calls Edwin over from a group of workmen; Edwin strikes a thick wall with his fist, confident it will hold, and Varian praises the work.

Two more accounts appear in Forever's own game data. Shaw's Report credits the guild's craft in Stormwind Keep and the Cathedral of Light, and blames the nobles' debt on military expansion through Elwynn toward Stranglethorn. Mathias Shaw also calls Edwin a childhood friend whom he personally trained in the ways of the shadows, hoping they would one day work together.

The nobles refused to pay the Stonemasons. In Varian's later account, in the World of Warcraft comic issue 13, Lady Katrana Prestor influenced the council's decision. A 2014 Blizzard article retelling the comic story identifies Katrana as Onyxia, a black dragon living among the kingdom's rulers in human disguise. The novel, the comic and that article describe the original Warcraft history; none of them is a Forever quest.

Sources: Blizzard: original Humans and Stormwind introduction (official manual) · Beyond the Dark Portal, Aaron Rosenberg and Christie Golden, 2008 (chapter 2) · · World of Warcraft comic #13, Walter Simonson, 2008: archived official preview · Blizzard, 2014: Valeera Sanguinar the Rogue (comic backstory naming Katrana as Onyxia) · Blizzard: Edwin VanCleef card background (cross-game, background only)

Queen Tiffin, the riot and the Brotherhood

In Forever's quest text, Baros Alexston, Edwin's former guildmate and now Stormwind's city architect, says some senior Stonemasons were offered government posts after the refusal, and that Edwin turned one down out of loyalty to all the workers.

Queen Tiffin strongly supported paying the Stonemasons the agreed sum, according to Blizzard's Creative Development team. The dispute became a riot, and Tiffin was accidentally killed. Baros says Edwin led the riot, then left the city vowing revenge. Former Stonemasons retreated to caverns beneath Moonbrook, Edwin founded the Defias Brotherhood, and former laborers became brigands using the Deadmines as a base against Stormwind. The sources do not say who caused Tiffin's death, and we do not assign it.

Sources: · Blizzard Creative Development, Ask CDev #1, June 30 2010 (archived) · Exploring Azeroth: The Eastern Kingdoms, Christie Golden, 2020 · Blizzard, May 13 2024: Deadmines historical introduction (later roster excluded) · Blizzard: Edwin VanCleef card background (cross-game, background only)

Westfall, the militia and VanCleef's signature

In Westfall, Gryan Stoutmantle has returned from fighting in Lordaeron to find farms overrun and turned into hideouts for thieves. He asks adventurers to help protect them and welcomes the player into the People's Militia. The Brotherhood reaches further: Deputy Willem warns of Defias thieves near Northshire, and Gryan's informant Wiley waits at the inn in Lakeshire. Wiley's note claims the Brotherhood controls mines from Westfall into Elwynn, has recruited kobolds and gnolls, and has goblins building metal monsters for Westfall's fields to prey on local superstition. It also warns of plans for a powerful weapon.

Farmer Saldean has stayed while most farmers were driven away, and Harvest Watchers now occupy his fields. Gryan still wants proof that so talented and hardworking a man became a criminal. An intercepted message supplies it: signed VanCleef, it asks for metal urgently, even railway pikes and water buckets, delivered to a barn. It does not reveal the hideout, so a captured thief, caught trying to steal Saldean's wagon, offers to show the entrance in exchange for his life. The game calls him the Defias Traitor, and he leads the player to a hidden entrance among the buildings of Moonbrook.

Sources: · · · · · · Our own Forever beta recordings: Westfall quest dialogue, the Deadmines run and the sealed letter

Inside the Deadmines

According to Blizzard's dungeon history, the Deadmines' gold was said to have supplied a third of Stormwind's treasury before they were abandoned during the First War, after which stories of hauntings grew. The Defias later claimed them. Inside, the ogre foreman Rhahk'Zor guards a door, goblins work timber brought down from the surface, Sneed operates a shredder, and a foundry moves molten iron toward the molds in hanging cauldrons, with Gilnid among the goblins there.

Beyond a cannon, the cavern opens onto a full armed ship with its crew. Captain Greenskin's intended destination was Stormwind Harbor. His first mate is the tauren Mr. Smite, and the cook is Cookie, a murloc whose Tenderizer is a rolling pin. Edwin waits high on the ship near the cabin, guarded by Defias Blackguards, and calls out: "None may challenge the Brotherhood!" On his body the player finds an unsent letter addressed to Baros Alexston. The quest describes it as follows: "It appears to be recently written and sealed." Its full contents are not published in the sources we read.

Sources: Blizzard, May 13 2024: Deadmines historical introduction (later roster excluded) · Blizzard, 2004: original Townhall dungeon feature (archived) · Exploring Azeroth: The Eastern Kingdoms, Christie Golden, 2020 · Blizzard: Captain Greenskin card (destination only) · · Our own Forever beta recordings: Westfall quest dialogue, the Deadmines run and the sealed letter

The trail back into Stormwind's court

Baros reads the letter, is surprised Edwin could be killed, and remembers him as an idealist and a romantic consumed by revenge, though he admits he is not sure he can blame him. He points to Edwin's lieutenant, Bazil Thredd, held in the Stockade. Warden Thelwater distrusts the player and orders Thredd killed as proof of loyalty. Afterwards he recalls that Thredd had no visitors for years, until a quiet man began arriving regularly with papers naming him Maelik.

Mathias Shaw recognizes the description as an assassin called Marzon, probably another alias, who works for Lord Gregor Lescovar. Shaw says Lescovar's rank and connections protect him, and with Edwin and Thredd dead their testimony is gone. His contact Elling Trias calls the necessary justice not legal. The gnome Tyrion disguises a Spybot with silk cloth and Clara's fresh apples and lures Marzon to a meeting in the garden, where Marzon reports that VanCleef's plans are moving ahead but someone is asking questions. Lescovar suspects Shaw. The player is told to kill both, and Shaw asks that Lescovar's death and Trias's role stay secret.

Sources: · · · · · ·

Onyxia's reward, and our take

Baros thanks the player for saving him and others from VanCleef's revenge and prepares a report for King Varian. The quest ends with Lady Katrana Prestor, who says the king is away on a diplomatic mission, thanks the player in his name and gives the Seal of Wrynn as the reward. The game data shows only her words; it does not show her confessing to anything.

Our take, which is interpretation rather than lore: Stormwind helped make VanCleef a villain, and receiving the reward from the same woman whose influence Varian linked to the refusal makes this an ugly victory. The other side deserves its weight too. The Brotherhood hurt Westfall's farmers and others who had nothing to do with the council's decision, and Edwin was leading it. And the strongest case for Edwin is that killing him does not pay a single worker. Who bears more responsibility for the man at the end of the Deadmines: Edwin himself, or Stormwind's rulers?

Sources: · · World of Warcraft comic #13, Walter Simonson, 2008: archived official preview · Blizzard, 2014: Valeera Sanguinar the Rogue (comic backstory naming Katrana as Onyxia)