World of Warcraft is a game defined by factions with different philosophies, and various reasons for existing. It is a world in constant turmoil, with different people all struggling to get what they want or need. There are the two player factions, the Horde and the Alliance. There are others too. There was one character who was almost universally revered by all living things. He wasn't some kind of superhero, or all-powerful overlord. He was a simple old man. Tirion Fordring.
Well, perhaps not so simple. Tirion was a man, committed first and foremost to principles. His principles were hardly unusual, they were the standard teachings of the Church of the Light (a fictional religion followed by the humans in Warcraft). He was a paladin, a warrior of the church, so this makes sense. But the Church was a part of human society, and human society was firmly connected to the Alliance. It was the humans after all who had first been threatened by the invading orcs. Indeed it was in the wars against the orcs that the first human paladins came to be. But in the aftermath of the two wars against the orcs, a decision was made that did not sit well with some in the church. The defeated orcs were put into internment camps, which later devolved into outright slavery. The humans were increasingly brutal and savage to their captives. Tirion was one of those who was dissatisfied. When he saw an orc named Eitrigg who was about to be executed for participating in a rebellion, he intervened and saved the orc's life: risking his own. Lord Uther, the leader of the paladin order, ostracized him and conducted a ritual to try to cut him off from the Light. The Alliance leaders also considered his actions criminal. Tirion fled his manor, Mardenholde, and barely escaped with his life. He hid in the mountains south of Quel'thalas, perhaps with the help of the elves or the trolls, for many years.
Even though this area was dangerous, he braved it: so he could be near his son Thaelan. As he watched Thaelan however, he began to realize something was wrong with the Scarlet Crusade: an Alliance organization founded amid the third war (the events of Warcraft III) of which Thaelan was a high-ranking member. In particular he began to notice that there was something disturbing about the relationship between Thaelan and his superior in the organization: High Inquisitor Isilien. Isilien seemed to increasingly control Thaelan, and was forcing him to commit acts that were increasingly brutal. Eventually he learned that the Argent Dawn had hired a team of adventurers (the players of World of Warcraft), to help them deal with the Scourge forces that remained in what was now called the Plaguelands. He left clues to where he was hiding, hoping one of them would find him. It was time to confront Isilien and find out what was really going on in the Scarlet Crusade. One of the adventurers found him, and agreed to go with him to confront High Inquisitor Isilien. They confronted the Inquisitor and Thaelan at a tower near Mardenholde. In the ensuing argument, Thaelan started to rebel against Isilien. Rather than see Thaelan be turned against him, Isilien pushed him from the tower killing him. Tirion went into a rage and killed Isilien. In his rage, he reconnected to the Light despite Lord Uther's ritual.
The Scarlet Crusade had enemies: and taking out the High Inquisitor was a blow to them. Darion Mograine, leader of the Argent Dawn, was one enemy of the Scarlet Crusade. He had once been a high-ranking member of the organization himself: in fact at the very highest rank. His father, Alexandros Mograine, was the founder. But Darion, because he was so close to the top, had seen what was wrong much more easily. He had seen it take hold of his own brother and lead him to betraying their father. It was evil, insidious, and not from the world of Azeroth: it was the Legion. The Legion which had created the Scourge: the enemy that the Scarlet Crusade had been created to fight. Now Tirion and Darion were kindred spirits: having both lost loved ones to the evil that was eating the Crusade. Somehow Darion found Lord Uther's armor, and now he gave it to Tirion as a way to show that all was forgiven. Darion was subsequently killed.
In his absence, Tirion was the obvious choice to lead the Argent Dawn. In the mean time, the elves of Quel'thalas had joined the Horde: having been insulted and abandoned in their time of need by the Alliance. Many elves had been members of the Argent Dawn before this decision, and Tirion decided to let them stay. But more than that, members of the Scourge were starting to free themselves from the Lich King's control: and they had banded together as the Forsaken, and also joined the Horde because the Alliance wanted to kill them all. Some of these were priests, and they learned how to wield the Light despite their undead state. These were people that Tirion and the others had known in life: who were committed to fighting the Scourge now more than ever thanks to their treatment at the Lich King's hands. Tirion made the controversial choice to let them into the Argent Dawn. The Argent Dawn was no longer an Alliance organization. Furthermore, even the most distrustful among them could see the point in working with the Horde as well as the Alliance to take down the Lich King. After all, the Horde had reason to hate the Lich King as well. Tirion signed a pact with the leaders of the Horde recognizing the Forsaken's right to the land. He promised he would not aid Alliance forces that were attempting to claim the area. This made sense, the Forsaken were citizens of the former Lordaeron just like Tirion was. It was in his interest to recognize their right to the land so that they would recognize his right to Mardenholde. Which they did. With that however, Tirion had made the Argent Dawn officially a neutral player on the political stage. Darion Mograine had hired mercenaries regardless of race: but Tirion would accept full members from both factions. He later renamed the group to the "Argent Crusade".
Thus the stage was set for Tirion to take a peculiar place in the Warcraft story: a place set above the faction conflict, and blurring the line between character and force of nature. You see, Darion was killed, but death in Warcraft is not always the end of a person's story. Under the control of the Lich King, Darion Mograine assaulted the last stronghold of the Argent Dawn: Light's Hope Chapel. However, having become a paladin after the end of the Third War: Darion lacked essential knowledge of this place. It was here that the Paladins of the Silver Hand had once been invested, before an ancient artifact. It was this artifact, called the Altar of Ancient Kings, which had so far kept the Scourge at bay. Now, the Death Knights of the Ebon Blade, tried to assault it. They failed. The weapon that Darion wielded, the Ashbringer, responded to the power inside the Altar. It turned on him, and without it he could not fight well. He halted the assault, and knelt before Tirion. An image of the Lich King appeared, to cast a very real spell that might have ended it all. However, the Lich King was distracted and in that moment of distraction: Darion was free to act completely on his own. He seized his chance and threw the Ashbringer to Tirion. Tirion channeled the power of the Altar through his body and into the blade: purifying it and making it a weapon of the Light. This was a feat which had been thought impossible, the Altar was not designed to be used by humans or even elves. It had been designed for the Titanforged, the creatures created from stone and metal by the Titans. But in a crucial way, Tirion had become like them: his motives were pure, and his will was iron. Tirion had no wish to destroy Darion, they were friends and kindred spirits. Darion had valuable skills and knowledge, passed down to him by his father. It was hardly his fault he'd been pressed into the service of the Scourge. The powers of the death knights were valuable too, Tirion had fought against them in the First and Second wars. So, when Darion declared his intention to destroy the Lich King, Tirion accepted him as a partner.
The assault on the Lich King took place soon after. Here Tirion played a crucial role: breaking Frostmourne with the purified Ashbringer. And so, it was done. The Lich King was defeated, and the Scourge destroyed. But there was no turning back for Tirion. He could not simply return to the Alliance, as if nothing had happened. Now he stood between two factions on the brink of war, between two leaders whose hearts boiled with hatred for each other.
And in this position, Tirion could exert a unique power on both the Alliance and the Horde. He represented a constant reminder of what the two factions shared: even after the defeat of their common enemy. Not enough of an influence to stop the two factions from going to war, or even to stop atrocities from being committed in that war. But enough of an influence so that the factions could make peace when the need arose. So that, for the first time in Azeroth's history, a war criminal could be tried in court rather than simply hunted down and slaughtered. So that the cycle of reprisal and aggression could be ended, even if it was doomed to begin anew immediately. Tirion didn't have to do anything in particular to make this happen, except continue to be present and run the Argent Crusade. This was not the first neutral faction: indeed there were many in the world. But none of them were lead by someone so revered by the leaders of both factions. Tirion exerted this influence because of his dedication to his own principles above loyalty to any faction or nation: changing the world not by using force or strong language, but simply by refusing to change his behavior to fit popular notions of propriety. We typically think of neutral characters as being weak-willed or uninterested, perhaps mercenary types. But Tirion represents a different kind of neutral character, a kind of character who can have a profound influence on the plot of a story: a character who is principled and engaged with the world in a meaningful way, but marching to the beat of a different drummer.
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