Project Young Illidan part 1

Illidan Stormrage - before demon days

My first render of young Illidan Stormrage

Reference: Original Illidan Stormrage art by Blizzard

Why This Project?

To many World of Warcraft players, he is just another villian; however, there is much more, a dynamic story... a love story.... that are unknown to perhaps millions of those who played WoW. My intention is to bring out that side of Illidan with my drawings and illistraions.


Character background & study

Before he turned demon, Illidan was another young Night Elf who studied magic and was mad in love with another Elf sorcer Tyrande... however, Illidan's twin brother also fell in love with wit her.

Illidan is the fraternal twin of Malfurion Stormrage and, like his brother, grew up as the friend of Tyrande Whisperwind millennia before the Great Sundering. Unlike Malfurion, Illidan had no patience for the subtleties of druidism and proved to be a poor student despite their teacher, the demigod Cenarius.

Yet Illidan was talented at sorcery, which at the time was a staple of night elf society. His magical abilities were cold comfort, though, for he had been born with golden eyes, which were quite rare in night elves before the Sundering. Golden eyes were thus commonly regarded as a sign of future greatness, but Illidan showed no signs of achieving anything out of the ordinary. Little did Illidan know that his eyes actually indicated strong druidic potential.

Illidan had strong feelings for Tyrande Whisperwind, a novice priestess in the Sisters of Elune. Illidan so desired to impress Tyrande that he often acted without thinking, particularly in magic; he never realized that these displays weren't quite what the priestess was looking for in a mate. But while Illidan struggled to win her heart, none of them realized that the battle was over soon after it had begun; Tyrande had chosen Malfurion almost from the beginning.

Fascinated with arcane magic, he learned increasingly difficult spells, but to his discouragement, the Moon Guard did not offer him membership in light of his advanced sorcery. Nevertheless, Illidan remained determined to become the hero his people expected him to be.
Soon he found another compelling reason to achieve greatness. One day during a festival, he caught sight of Tyrande dancing in the crowd and realized that he loved her. At some point over the years, he had fallen in love with her kindness, her laughter, her beauty, and her faith.
His joy was dimmed only by the fact that Malfurion, too, had feelings for Tyrande, although Malfurion was slower than Illidan to recognize them. Illidan could see that Tyrande would inevitably choose either Malfurion or Illidan as her mate. It was simply a matter of which twin would prove worthy in her eyes.
Above are ::
reference from: http://www.wowwiki.com/Illidan
reference from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/encyclopedia/441.xml