Fall of Quel'thalas
Chapter Four: A wedding and then a celebration
Silvermoon, year 1001.
Dearest diary, my plan is thus. To emulate the late Queen Anthene'alas in every subtle way. King Anasterian could not keep his gaze from me when, at last, we met. Roan, you see, failed to mention that he had befriended the King as a boy. The embarassing details of their arrangement he refuses to share with me, though I suspect--it being Lord Roan Sunthraze, master of the champion Hawkstriders of Quel'thalas since his father's death, is also the most ridiculously charming man I have ever met. And do you know, he confessed to me as we left the palace, that he would have courted me himself by now, if not for my being a virgin.
I am sad that I ever told Roan this. He just won't stop teasing me about it! But, my horrid watchdog family is of the old ways, I was sent off to a girls' school, and could not have quit my 'disposition' if I wanted to. And soon, I will be married off to someone, and pussyfooting around won't do. So, I am stuck. However, after meeting the King, I am starting to believe what my mother always said. I may be able to turn my precious honor into something...
Young Prince Kael'thas will have his seventeenth birthday at the end of this year, and he hasn't got a proper mount, by his father's standards (Suddenly, I see how odd it was for me to transition from the previous theme to this one. Oh, how awful I am!). This Hawkstrider was the underlying purpose of Roan's visit. I spied a great deal many beautiful creatures in the Royal Livery as we strolled through, but Roan nodded at Anasterian's estimations as cooly as if he were not the product of many generations of professional Hawkstrider breeders by any means. But, I suppose it's more that Anasterian owes his family the strange favor. I like him, the King. When Anasterian is sad, it isn't ever for very long. He also has the finest tattooed veins I have ever seen at Court! Pitch black. I think it makes him look quite the rogue, I never thought the King himself would indulge such a style. I was noticed for my most notable charms, as is natural, but to catch him, I will have to tempt Anasterian with something more substantial. That is where the late Anthene'alas comes in. For now, however, I have made a pleasant enough impression, but the next step is all up to Roan. He's embarrassed by the debts of his family and is hesitant to visit with Anasterian again. He does not have the money to keep up with any of the true Lords and Ladies of the Royal Court, I suspect. If I can reassure him without letting on how I know about his late father's gambling... we may have something. I could become his financier, easily. And then, the dynamic duo can get to work at the Sunspire, not just alongside the Sunwell on lazy days. We'll both be married high and well by next year.
Oh! And Roan called the King 'Annie.' It was a slip but I did hear it. How absolutely precious.
What was precious about King Anasterian the Black-blooded? The man rumored to have once lifted a razor blade from his tongue and attacked the last of the ancient Sun-Cult priestesses? Blaize put his wife's diary back in the drawer when she entered their apartment.
"Oh, my handsome husband, look!"
Blaize was horrified at the white make-up and blonde wig Lady Novia had styled on Dannox. "It's so... awful."
"Well, Novia is a striking resemblance to Queen Saturna, and I think you shall get your punishment for that comment when you see her. Come on, now."
Celestia was still such a flirt after all these years. She coiled her arm around Dannox and sat on one side of the coach with him. Blaize sat alone on his side. Their carriage bumped along the cobblestones of the city while Blaize looked outside and scratched his chin.
"Read anything interesting lately, General?"
Blaize's eyes glared up over a fake yawn and challenged Dannox to shut his fat mouth.
"Hrm? Oh, what have you started reading, dear?"
"Nothing you'd be interested in."
"And just why not?"
"It's an epic tale of humility, chastity, and the hero getting just the right girl. There's religion, even. No evil, busty queens at all."
Celestia thrust her almost bare chest up, and pretended to adjust whatever elaborate underthing held that sort of abundant, oiled cleavage in place. Nothing else was said. Dannox might have drooled a little though.
One year ago...
Malfurion Stormrage took Lady Vashj by the hand, and the ten people gathered in Coilfang Reservoir clapped for the happy couple. He bowed ceremoniously at the waist, came up just as gently, and met his partner emerging from her own beautiful gesture.
"Oh, Malfurion, doesn't Belorim look so charming tonight, in front of all our guests? Exactly like his father."
"I understand, my Queen, that you are upset with me. But, please, do not speak to me about my brother's children when I am already trying so hard."
Vashj sniffed a perfect elven nose, and twirled on two bejeweled feet. She hummed.
"I raise you one absent wife. This evening isn't perfect without Belorim's wife here and you know it."
"I eat Tauren, I don't feed them."
The happy couple finished their first dance, and the audience clapped lightly. Vashj raised her perfect singing voice, and elegantly invited them all to dance. Malfurion spied Illidan across the room and excused himself while Vashj enjoyed a conversation with Lady Novia and whomever her hungry-looking date was. Oh, she'd clearly bought this Dannox person's entire outfit. Other than Novia and immediate family, all the rest of the wedding guests were servants.
Illidan and Malurion stopped short of shaking hands. Each folded his arms. Illidan said, "Congratulations, we are all finally convinced of the Naga's civility, and the general peace in Outland. Imagine someone so self-righteous as you are, marrying a Naga."
"Vashj is a Naga in name-only. And you said The Curse couldn't be reversed. Pah."
"I said I didn't want it reversed, when Vashj looked so good as she was. All of the Naga did."
"Spoken like a true dictator who took full advantage of the nautical prowess of our accursed bretheren during the last war."
"No, the last war was with Arthas in Northrend. I helped Warchief Thrall to end it."
"Yes, yes, you and Kael'thas both cleared of your crimes against Azeroth and Outland. Convenient."
"It would have been a shame, Malfurion, if my son had grown up without a father."
Malfurion paced a bit, then came back, shoved his brother and chanced it. "You may be bigger than me, but don't you dare pretend that affair with Queen Saturna isn't scandalous and a true testament of who you are, beneath it all."
Illidan insisted innocently, "I never slept with her. Not when she was Lady Whiteblade, and not now, as Queen of Quel'thalas."
"But yet, Belorim is convinced Queen Saturna is his mother."
"Because he wants answers, we all do. The truth is, I don't remember which of Kael'thas' soldiers it was, or if that person even survived the war in Outland. The Sunfury fought especially hard while under General Blaize."
"Who is a banished man, a villain! Along with Queen Celestia, Kael'thas' own stepmother, and anyone else the King doesn't happen to like!"
"The Night Elves and the Blood Elves have made peace. Who knows about the Highborne, but this is a new age, Malfurion. Azeroth has ended its wars in Outland, in Northrend, and finally, and any conflicts with itself. There is no Alliance, there is no Horde. No, I don't want to open old wounds. We have all been forgiven our worst crimes."
Malfurion sighed that his brother was right.
"Though, I'm not apologizing for shagging Vashj over and over. You should have left her a Naga for the whip-tail, alone." Then Illidan clapped his twin hard on the back and strode back to Tyrande. She greeted her husband with a kiss.
Malfurion flushed with anger, but Belorim found his way over then. "You made a brave groom, Malfurion."
"My deepest thanks—"
"Though, now that I've satisfied the invitation and seen you marry my godmother, had a bite to eat, and a drink, I am going to leave out of protest. My gift was left by the door."
Belorim then strutted on cloven hooves to the edge of the dance floor, submerged beneath the cool water and floating white candles that ebbed just there, cast a blue spell on himself and disappeared completely beneath.
"MALFURION!!! Where is my godson going? Belorim can't be seen… fleeing a family function, you fool!"
Malfurion changed into a seal and swam after his nephew. These days, no one forced a Naga to get wet, if they didn't choose to be.
As a shaman, Belorim was master of the elements, and he could hold his breath a great deal longer under water than Malfurion could. Even as a seal, it was necessary to surface. But if Malfurion caught him first, they would never get quite so far. They chased all through the winding pipe tunnel that led up and out of Coilfang Reservoir, breached into the lagoon proper in a spray of bubbles. Malfurion tugged at Belorim, but couldn't get a grip with his seal's mouth, and not hurt the young man Vashj had claimed as a godson. Malfurion became a Night Elf man again and threw his arms around Belorim.
The Blood Elf-Demon fought back. The two wrestled under water. It was when Malfurion began to drown that they finally made peace and got to the surface. Belorim cast a water-walking spell and lay Malfurion down on the soft waves.
"You're thousands of years old, and a Druid, but you almost drowned to death." Belorim laughed when Malfurion started breathing.
"Your father is an ass."
"I know." Belorim sat, crosslegged. "But I feel the same way about my godmother, I'm warning you. Why are you even with her?"
"Why is anyone with anyone, I love Vashj. She may be demanding but... she is beautiful, and powerful, and charming. She really wants for you to accept her, Bim."
"Stop it. I don't like people calling me that."
Malfurion sat to match him. Belorim considered for a bit, and revived a softly glowing lightning shield. "I think you're with her against your will."
"So, suddenly you're a shaman and you think you know everything? Again, I'm thousands of years old, more powerful than an Arch-druid--"
"It's an enchantment. She's seduced you with magic."
"When would Vashj have planned that?"
"The when is hard to place, but we know that it did take five years."
Malfurion felt it was too specific, and was compelled to ask further questions. Belorim laughed at them all, told Malfurion that as a druid, he had a very meager understanding of the passage of time. The real breadth of space between pristine events was like a flow. Reality had layers, like warm and cold currents floating over one another, affecting one another.
"You describe life as if it were but a dream."
"Yours may have been an emerald one, but Farseers know this life to be made of blue energy."
The peaceful lagoon around them seemed to accent the notion. Malfurion smiled at such an inspiring youth. "I see one thing in you that isn't a bad trait of your father's."
"Please share it; I don't see such a thing in myself."
"Why not, doesn't your wife love you, Belorim? What do you think she sees in you?"
Belorim shrugged. "My future is interesting, I suppose. She and her parents were trained by Thrall."
"I see. But there is more to a man than his deeds. It's his make which informs him."
"If that is the case, then King Anasterian would have remained condemned, history properly documented his demise as an assassination by someone in the Court or the Convocation of Silvermoon... but, no. Arthas brought a war to the city and the Blood Elves remember him as some patriotic martyr."
"You've studied Blood Elf history with real acumen."
"I don't know who my mother is. It's all I can do to console myself."
"At one time you insisted it was Queen Saturna."
Belorim looked especially forlorn now. "This is too painful. I am leaving this party because my wife is offended I was even manipulated this far, into showing up without her. And so I am leaving you to face Vashj's wrath. But, before I go, Malfurion, I will make a fair exchange." he leaned forward, chin in palm. "She took me to Nazjatar when I was about four years old."
"Yes, I know that."
"You know that I was the only survivor of a shipwreck and that Vashj just happened to be there to save me at the right time. But that's an incredible story, isn't it? What I remember from my time with the Naga and Queen Azshara is that the storm was bigger than anything I had ever seen. It rocked the entire world. I believed that truly, until Vashj brought me back to the surface and said I was just a child, imagining. I also believed that years had gone by, I felt it, but my father--your brother--insisted, when he received me, that I was still four years old. Tyrande and Father fretted over my return, thanked Elune that I came back and began planning my entire life. But, becoming a shaman and meeting May again freed me."
"How so? I always thought you running off to Thunderbluff and marrying like that was a teenaged act of defiance, coming from you."
Belorim stood. "Yesterday, with the help of Warchief Thrall and my wife May, we envisioned the truth. I am, in fact, twenty years old, not fifteen. Despite what Illidan or Tyrande think, it was a mature and right decision."
Malfurion laughed. "Oh, this is fun! Yes, becoming a shaman was a great change for you, Belorim, I congratulate you. Look at how you've rationalized turning your back on the Kal'dorei. I mean, wouldn't you notice the difference if that were true?"
Belorim was deathly serious. "That is exactly it. I do notice the difference. It's as if someone's stolen years from my life. I always sensed I was ahead of what others were telling me, expecting of me. Only now did I learn it was exactly so... dramatic."
"This is silly."
"And silly has inspired me to leave Darnassus and Zangarmarsh. I don't know what your wife did to me, but I never speak to her again. Tell Vashj that also."
Malfurion stood there and panicked while Belorim morphed into a ghostwolf for traveling. "This is an unfair trade, your godmother will never sleep with me again, never even look at me after I deliver insulting news."
"Why not blame it on Father? That seemed to work these last several thousand years. Think on what I've told you. Vashj has worked some kind of terrible magic. It has severely altered my life, and who knows what else? All for what? So that she can be Elven again and marry a Stormrage? She is a vain, and evil witch, and she never did stand trial in Darnassus along with Kael'thas and Illidan. That's too perfect. May and I are going to right this, Malfurion, and soon."
Then, the ghost wolf padded across the water, rippling bright moonbeams, and disappeared into the mists of Zangarmarsh.
Malfurion went back down below to think of some lie to at least force his wedding reception to end well, when the rest of the night with Vashj was going to be certain torture. Hadn't their years of courtship after The Curse lifted been tumultuous enough?
The present day...
The Solar Festival is an ancient celebration that Highborne enjoy at mid summer to mark the solstice. If it can be had in a glass house, then it is. If gawkers or immature people they should be kept away the guests inside wear sheer cloth and bright colors. There were many giggling faces pressed up against the glass windows, and the street beyond was packed with interested onlookers. Every person within the decorated greenhouse strolled proudly as beams of bold sunlight passed straight through to reveal many outdated birthday suits. It did not matter, however. The United Elven Social Club was determined to have an impressive event.
The crowd of Kal'dorei, Blood Elves and Highborne screamed in a frenzy when Dannox entered the room looking so near to King Anasterian it was scary. Queen Celestia was beside him, and she had also coached Dannox on every gesture and exclamation:
"I'll hack the Humans to pieces myself before I give up this throne or these women. Err, THIS woman!"
Those famous last words had no doubt encouraged Prince Arthas to leave Quel'thalas in shambles before that year was out. Celestia trailed her abundant glittering white skirt and flicked her wrist with the air of who she had once been.
Blaize tried to walk as calmly as possible beside Lady Novia, another Night Elf, floating like Saturna Whiteblade beside him. She wore the rumored white cotillion dress the present Queen of Quel'thalas had worn to first greet then Prince Kael'thas at the Black Temple. But this Saturna walked with knowledgeable confidence, there was not a vapid aura about her at all. She was better and smarter than his ex-wife. Vereesa Windrunner may have her Silver Covenant, but Lady Novia ruled the united Elven cause with dainty iron fist: Blood Elves were allowed to join the struggle, but only the best of them were to be admitted. Lady Novia smiled at the crowd, kept Blaize entranced, and set a sharp eye on Dannox groping Celestia's bottom—quite out of character for this late-empire version of Anasterian. In those days, either their royal divorce or his public destruction was imminent.
"I am doing a good job, I take it. You can't keep your breath off of my cheek."
Blaize checked himself. "I'm sorry."
"No, I am. What did you have for breakfast, rank steak? Go take a mint." And Novia dropped the old General off at the refreshment table. He suddenly remembered why he never made a strenuous effort to impress her. Though, Blaize had the server make him a large cup of punch. Why had his wife ever suggested he may have a chance with Novia, when clearly… Blaize considered how open he'd been to playing along since that false revelation. Celestia was no fool. Well, at least he was more appropriately covered in his official General's uniform. Though, a few people did stand out and put their reminiscent efforts to shame.
The whole party swarmed to the Anasterian lookalike, and Blaize hated to admit that Dannox was handsome everywhere, if his transparent costume was silly. Dressing up like the late King should have been offensive on its own, at least Blaize thought so. But times had changed… the younger generation of Elves, the ones who thought re-uniting the Thalassian and Darnassian empires was a good idea, thought themselves as capable as Farseer Thrall who had united the Alliance and Horde years earlier.
"Are you really General Blaize?"
Blaize did not want to turn around. The person sounded like another young, arrogant, feckless… "Banished and in the flesh." Then he stopped. The kid looked like Kael'thas.
The two men seemed to come to an understanding right then. There would be no explanations or sympathy. Knowing who they did in common was punishment enough.
"…Belorim?"
"No, that's my rumored half-brother. Though he looks nothing like me."
Blaize wondered how he could ever make such a mistake. Belorim was Illidan's son, and everyone knew that. Blaize suspected he was getting old, possibly.
A bow, "Of course. Good Afternoon, Prince Chao'thas."
"You were almost my father."
"Excuse me?"
"My mother was married to you, wasn't she? It's all my father, the King, ever talks about."
Blaize was ready to ask if the young man had any special message from the King, and if not, then to please accept what was beginning to feel like a mutual divorce from the kingdom.
"He would."
Prince Chao'thas nodded slightly, and Blaize was inclined to follow him about the room. "I suspect that I'll have other brothers and sisters soon, all Sunstrider bastards."
Blaize sighed, and just drank.
"But I suppose this makes you like my bastard father."
"Your what--"
"The other secret father who was almost mine. Mother almost kept you, she told me."
"Saturna still speaks of me?"
"My mother the Queen is a lonely woman."
"Kael'thas takes poor care of her, I'm not surprised to hear it. Nor am I her hero any longer. Was there anything else, Prince Chao'thas? My wife—well, one of them—has got to be calling for me in that overpowering throng over there."
"No General, you'll go when I'm ready."
Yes, another Sunstrider male, indeed.
"I don't like my mother being in Silvermoon, or at her estate in the country. She doesn't do well at all, she and Kael'thas are practically estranged, having their own affairs. Divorce is the real solution."
"Divorce would have beheaded King Anasterian faster than he was slain by Scourge and Arthas. Don't be so sure of your point. Besides, my Prince, your father banished me from the kingdom. I can't have anything more to do with it if I am to survive. I certainly couldn't ever displease Kael'thas unless I don't like the allowance he gives my Celestia."
Prince Chao'thas pointed over at Dannox who was making many of the ladies swoon with his rehearsed authentic Anasterian speeches. "The man is immortal, General Blaize. Suffering forever. A mockery. I don't want that for my mother."
Blaize thought of Saturna then and she was blue. Literally blue-skinned. Or was it the water all around her, the sad forest? Why would he think that? He came to with Prince Chao'thas snapping loudly in his face.
"Will you help me or not? My offer is more than generous."
Now Blaize felt very, very old. He'd missed out on some epic plot. "Oh, this is foolishness and a half. I'm done with the Sunstriders. I'm married to one, was abused by the others… no thank you. Being the man of the hour, for one hour this afternoon and then living the rest of my life in peace is preferable to all the hell you and your forebears put me through."
Chao'thas frowned. One difference from his father. He could manage an ugly pout that must have come from Saturna. Though, she would not have taught him to be so repugnant about it. Saturna always had an adorable little…
Chao'thas had gone.
"Blaize? My handsome husband, you must mingle if you are to have any sort of effect."
"I just mingled with the latest Prince of Quel'thalas, didn't you see? I would have introduced you, but he asked if I would please seduce his mother, then I said no, and then he stomped off in a royal huff."
Blaize felt Celestia grip his arm with sudden passion. "You… declined?"
He only drank punch and gazed at his wife. She was in a version of her old wedding dress, rose red with embroidered flowers—five in total—floating over what mattered. And she had not beeen married on a day of the Solar Festival. Blaize felt himself smiling at how ruthless Celestia had been to bait Anasterian, and now how far it had actually got her. Dannox was right. It had resulted in nothing more than a public service for all the lusty sorts in the room.
"Oh, I see, you're drunk."
"Hm, what's that, darling? Oh, there's nothing in this, though. It's punch. Are you suggesting that I have to be drunk to show you any kind of attention? I thought I was a good husband, in public."
"No, the problem is that you are hardly ever a naughty husband, in private."
Blaize pretended that he could not possibly be aware of how dashing he looked in his uniform, which irritated Celestia. "You flirt best with the man nearest you, I take it. I hope you don't bring Dannox home with us, we might see steam coming out of your ears, in such a small apartment."
She went back to polite conversation. "I don't think I like the youngest Prince of Quel'thalas. He's sort of… petulant. Has he at least got any magical acumen to recommend himself?"
"Prince Chao'thas is not able to re-enchant your breasts, if that is what you mean—"
Celestia stormed past her husband and found Dannox right away. Blaize finished his punch, and then found someone with a tray of liquor, and tried to forget that another Sunstrider was already hoping to ruin his life.
That evening…
Dannox kissed Celestia with something like anger. She pressed herself against him in the tiny closet, begged him to finish. He was failing to deliver and it was infuriating him.
"It's this stupid costume."
"No, no, dear, I love the costume. Keep it on, don't change."
Dannox laughed powerfully at her all of a sudden, and she shushed him. Lady Novia's voice carried somewhere outside. Still, ever bad, he whispered, "You're still madly in love with him, aren't you?"
"No, not Blaize, not at all."
Dannox scratched his blonde wig. "I was talking about your belated Anasterian. Wow, that possibly killed the mood forever."
"Oh, Danny… Please don't tell him I said that."
"Only if you won't call me Danny ever again. That was never my nickname."
Novia seemed closer to the closet now. She wasn't an idiot. They waited forever before starting up again.
"Dannox is such an odd name to begin with. If it wasn't Danny, then what could it possibly have been?"
"Big Dan. But you're not allowed to call me that either."
Celestia cried into his shoulder. "You don't understand, your best friend won't sleep with me, you'd be doing him a favor when I come home humming and not bothering him for a thing. Just one ride, Dannox and Blaize will be free for a week."
"I'm starting to see that you would want me once every week."
"Excuse me! I believe you encouraged me, Dannox. And I was agreeable to you as well. Don't tell me that you're 'not in love with' Novia too. We committed people—to law, love, or money—we must do what we can."
Dannox gave her nothing at all, fixed his pants, and then opened the door. Celestia was forced to hide in all the cloaks and coats on hangers. Then, the closet closed up again and she was left alone in the dark to wait depart innocently on her own when it was less suspicious.
While she waited and cried, and cursed Dannox and Blaize, and Anasterian, and Kael'thas and Chao'thas and Saturna and everyone else, Celestia eventually came to the conclusion that writing in her diary might ease her distress. She would have to break her fast of self-reflection—the last time she'd written must have been over a year ago...
The door snatched open again, and General Blaize definitely saw her, reached around and got his coat. He then closed the door back on his wife.
Celestia beat on the door and screamed first, before she got her own cloak, calmed down, and joined him.
"Don't you even care that Dannox and I slept together only a few moments ago?" she said to him in the carriage. Solar Festivals ended after sunset.
"Let's face it, dearest. You are a liar who has about as good a chance at sleeping with Dannox as you did the real King Anasterian when you two first met. The poor man may be a whore, but, like the best of men, he enjoys substance."
Celestia was tugging her cloak tight across her arms. For an enchanted city, autumn night was so cold in Dalaran. "I never did tell you anything of the sort about Anasterian. How did you…"
Blaize just smiled at her. "Oh, you poor, poor thing. Frigid cold inside and out. Ah, well, I suppose even you could use some warming up, like the rest of us. Would you like to have some pity nuptials tonight, dear?"
Celestia was angry already. She felt inclined to say no.
"What a shame. I adore you in that dress, but if you truly don't want to…"
"General Nathaniel Blaize. By your own definition, you are among the worst sorts of men: the swindlers, the cheaters, the fiends, now that you've just solicited me based on a flimsy garment."
"You know very well that is not how I meant it."
"But yet you asked me to pity you."
Blaize murmured angrily to himself.
"Tangle with me if you like, Nathaniel, but do so with full awareness that I am the only survivor of the old regime. Ask yourself why Sorn converted to the Sunfury, and Liadrin? Weakness. Lorth'remar may have resigned himself to the Horde with the others… but I am the only political figure so wounded by the old ways who still exists, untarnished, and worse yet for my enemies, empowered. The Highborne have gone their way, the Blood Elves still yet another. But Celestia Sunstrider, she will blaze her own path, in spite of what Anasterian has stolen away."
"Maybe so, Celestia, but I've sent Blood Elves more treacherous than you marching into battle. And willfully going on the front lines, too!" then Blaize returned to looking ruefully out of the carriage window.
Dearest diary,
I am very pleased to be keeping an account of my life once more. I so loved being able to reflect and confide in something so perfect, and will certainly enjoy doing so again, oldest friend. Though you are elegant and unable to disappoint me, I fear I must disappoint you in this first entry after so long. For, after the Solar Festival today, Blaize looking so irresistibly handsome, and Dannox so obviously well hung in Anasterian's old costume, and Lady Novia so perfectly drunk and out of the way on what I slipped her, I came out with only one satisfaction for the evening:
Complete and irrefutable proof that my husband, General Nathaniel Blaize, is an ass.
Good night.
Blaize laughed to himself when he read the entry later. Somehow, he found it charming of her.
Author's Note:
By the way…
Blaize was banished 10 years ago.
At that time, Kael'thas had just returned to Silvermoon, having been away in Outland for 5 years (two years with Illidan and 3 years at Tempest Keep).
Kael'thas first left for Outland after his father Anasterian died. Anasterian died when he was almost 50 years old,
and he married Celestia twenty years earlier.
Anasterian was 20 years old when he wed Anthene'alas, and they remained married for a decade (he was single for many years afterward).
Kael'thas was four years old when his mother died. He was quite the miracle baby, considering Anthene's poor health, and his conception so late in that marriage.
Celestia's age at present more or less marks the entire span of this story: at least 50 years.
