This New Warcraft Guidebook Is Jam Packed With Gorgeous Art

The world of Warcraft is very frequently a ridiculous place—mainly because game makers Blizzard have been making up the fantastical universe as they merrily went along for 22 years. A new book however, is attempting to sort all that out, and in the process, give us some rather smashing art to gawp at.

For all intents and purposes World of Warcraft Chronicle: Volume 1, coming from Dark Horse next month, is essentially Warcraft’s answer to the rather excellent A World of Ice and Fire book we at io9 are rather big fans of—a fictional “non-fiction” book attempting to chart the history and evolution of Warcraft’s world of Azeroth, and the many troubles that have assailed it across the centuries and, like 6 World of Warcraft expansion packs. The world always needs saving from something or other!

It’s unequivocally for the most diehard fans of Warcraft—the sort of person that hears a name like “Therazane” or “Alexstraza” and not only just recognizes it, but desperately wants to know more—rather than anyone unfamiliar with the games or the fiction and looking for a primer ahead of the movie. But one of the best things about it is that it’s just packed with gorgeous art from World of Warcraft environment artist Peter Lee, several pieces of which have been released as part of a preview of the book. It gives fans insight into events and mysterious locals from the Warcraft lore that they’ve only ever heard about in passing, never seen or witnessed in the games... or maybe they were too busy rampaging through them on a mad quest for more loot to notice them the first time round.

For diehard fans desperate to know more about this wildly vast (and wildly confusing) universe, or more casual ones who just want a bunch of cool looking Warcraft art to stare at, World of Warcraft Chronicle doesn’t look half bad. You can download a preview of the book here, ahead of its release on March 15th.

[IGN]