If one builds a Lunarfall Inn (Alliance) or Frostwall Tavern (Horde) in their garrison, they gain access to unique quests given by various figures in WoW lore such as Darion Mograine, Lorewalker Cho, and Aviana. These quests have some interesting background lore; for example Darion is researching the Shadowmoon clan to better understand the Lich King’s origins, and Cho believes there are Titan artifacts hidden in the Everbloom. However there is one quest which has far bigger and more immediate implications. It comes from an unlikely source, a masked night elf simply referred to as “Cowled Ranger,” and she gives a quest titled “The Huntresses.”

The Cowled Ranger as she appears in the Lunarfall Inn. Screenshot courtesy of WoWhead.

Unlike the other dungeon quest npcs, she is not a character that has appeared in any previous WoW expansion. Aside from how she stands out compared to her fellow quest-givers, the ranger’s quest is very odd as well.

I do not wish to come out of the shadows, but I mean you no harm. My purpose here is my own secret to keep, I simply needed a warm place to bed down for the night.

I can see that you are not the type to be easily swayed into leaving. Very well, perhaps you can aid my in my search.

I am looking for someone, it is not important who. All you need to know is that I will reward you for any sign of high elven weaponry that you should come across.

This is very interesting. There is no reason for there to be high elven weaponry of any sort on Draenor, at least not this Draenor. Of the high elf characters we know, there is only one major character connected to Draenor, but she has been missing since the Second War. She vanished with the main timeline’s Draenor’s destruction…

To complete the quest, you must locate a “Silver-Lined Arrow” in the Shadowmoon Burial Grounds on Heroic difficulty. The already unusual quest ends on an even stranger note when you present the arrow to the Cowled Ranger.

This is… it can’t be.

I must be off, here is your reward. I do not part with it lightly…

A high elven arrow, one that she seems to be in awe over. So for some reason, this “Cowled Ranger” is searching for a high elf connected to Draenor who uses arrows. There’s really only one character who fits that description: Alleria Windrunner.

Initially this seems to be all there is. A single quest that hints at a long rumored storyline’s continuation, nothing concrete enough to really to get excited over. That quickly changes.

Each day at your inn/tavern, new quest givers will appear to offer new dungeon quests. But there is a chance that the Cowled Ranger will show up again, and she has a new quest to offer. This one, titled “Fate of the Fallen” makes things (somewhat) clear:

I feel that I can trust you, perhaps. You have, at least, not spoken of my secret to anyone, and for that I thank you.

I have need of your aid again, and in return, I will share some of my own information. I am here, you see, to find an elf by the name of Alleria. She was lost years ago, on Draenor. It is my faint hope that the twisting nether brought her here.

I do not know if such a thing is even possible, but do keep an eye out for any signs of high elves as you travel.

To complete the quest, you simply have to loot another Silver-Lined Arrow from the Shadowmoon Burial Grounds. Unlike The Huntresses, this quest is a daily and can be completed any time the Ranger shows up at your garrison, providing you’ve already completed The Huntresses.

So for whatever reason, a mysterious night elf ranger is searching for Alleria Windrunner, and she believes Alleria has somehow come to be on this alternate Draenor. Alleria was last seen when Draenor was pulled into the Twisting Nether, a chaotic realm of untamed magic. We’ve also seen that the Gorian ogre empire and the arakkoa have done research on and practice some form of time-magic on Draenor. Lost within the nether, could she have been pulled into this Draenor via the strange experiments conducted by the ogres, in a timeline already saturated with Kairoz’s magic so that it has been linked to our own?

Now of course it could simply be a wild-goose chase. The Cowled Ranger herself admits that it’s a “faint hope” that Alleria is on Draenor. Then again, there’re those high elven arrows in the Burial Grounds to account for.

There are still further questions to account for as well. If Alleria is indeed on Draenor, how did exactly did she get there? How long has she been there? Why is a night elf searching for her? And most intriguing of all: where’s Turalyon?

Ian Bates

World of Warcraft Writer and columnist for Blizzplanet. I am also known as The Red Shirt Guy (BlizzCon).

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