Earlier, Elune had issued a divine decree, appointing Andreas to temporarily take over the administration of the government on behalf of Tyrande.
As the Moon Goddess worshipped by the entire Night Elven race, Elune actually cared very little for their political governance. She had always maintained a certain detachment from secular affairs, and even now, Andreas remained unclear as to the true deity's ultimate goal.
Was it to banish the forces of the Void? Or perhaps to annihilate the Burning Legion?
Elune's focus on Andreas and Tyrande stemmed more from curiosity; she saw sparks of interest in these two God-blessed individuals. Compared to the murky political struggles of the mortal world, her concern for the Night Elven race centered primarily on whether her faithful followers had strayed from the path or lost their way.
Tyrande's obsession with power had caused her to neglect—or perhaps intentionally distort—the training of the Sisterhood's priestesses, and this practice undoubtedly touched Elune's red line.
However, since Tyrande was her first chosen champion, Elune still gave her a chance to redeem herself, provided she first straightened out the chaotic state of the Sisterhood of Elune.
Andreas did not know exactly how many years this "temporary" period would last; it would depend on Tyrande's enthusiasm for her work. But having the opportunity to govern Astranaar, and by extension the entire Night Elven race, he intended to use this limited time to strengthen the race's power to the best of his ability, using his achievements to win the people's support for his rule.
The threat of the Burning Legion still loomed, and the Old Gods, lurking in the dark corners of the world, were also beginning to stir. Andreas did not want the Night Elves of the future to suffer the same fate as original history, seeing their home atop a canopy thousands of meters high destroyed by "missile launchers" called catapults.
...
Before heading to Astranaar to take office, Andreas still had some loose ends to tie up in Moonshadow's Rest.
He first visited the shipyard, where the craftsmen were currently huddled around a prototype ironclad, discussing something with furrowed brows. The arrival of their Lord seemed to provide them with a core pillar; one by one, they greeted Andreas with surprise and gathered around him to ask various technical questions.
Andreas shook his head with a bitter smile. As expected, the side effects of "pulling seedlings to help them grow" had manifested. He had brewed this bitter fruit himself, and now he had to swallow it with a sigh.
This time, Andreas did not directly dictate the best direction for improvement. Instead, he adopted a guiding approach, trying to make these craftsmen use their own brains to stimulate their inherent creativity.
This process was destined to be difficult to achieve overnight. However, as immortal Night Elves, the one thing they did not lack was time, and Moonshadow's Rest had sufficient resources to allow them to learn through trial and error.
Accompanied by the respectful farewells of the apprehensive yet eager shipwrights, Andreas left the clumsy, black, and thick ironclad... the thing was honestly a bit of an eyesore.
Next, Andreas arrived at the Arcane Golem workshop he had specifically designated for Alan.
After a thousand years of accumulation, Alan—who already possessed the manufacturing techniques—had decorated his workshop with various models of Arcane Golems, giving it a quite magical atmosphere. However, lacking an infinite energy source to drive them, these Arcane Golems could only be treated as large-scale figurines with purely ornamental functions.
Andreas's original plan was to let Alan become familiar with the technology first, and then activate these golems all at once after obtaining a large-scale energy source. But now, due to Elune's intervention, Andreas had fine-tuned his plan. He intended to bring Alan with him to Astranaar.
Backing onto the Well of Eternity—an Arcane source of infinite energy—Andreas naturally wanted to make full use of it. He would not leave it sitting idle on a high shelf like Malfurion and Tyrande did.
While excitedly reporting his achievements to Andreas, Alan also raised some issues, the first of which was the scarcity of mineral resources.
Mithril was manageable. After a thousand years of mining, the Tanaris Expeditionary Force had stockpiled a considerable amount of Mithril ore. The expeditionary force led by Nawaz had fought many small-scale battles with the Sandfury Trolls over the past millennium, but because of Andreas's orders before his slumber, Nawaz had not escalated the conflict to a strategic level.
The two sides still presided over Gadgetzan and Zul'Farrak respectively, with a clear boundary between them. Although there were occasional frictions and conflicts, there was no immediate possibility of full-scale war. Over the years of peaceful coexistence, the Sandfury Trolls had also come to understand the Night Elves' strategic goal: the other party had entered Tanaris solely to mine an ore that the Trolls could not smelt.
If the Zandalari Trolls saw the Sandfury tribe in such a pathetic state, the current Prophet would likely be so angry he would strike the Sandtop Chieftain's head with his staff. Although the Sandfury tribe did not know how to use Mithril, it did not mean the Zandalari—the big bosses of the Trolls—did not. They were well aware of the strategic value of this ore.
Unfortunately, Zuldazar's holy mountain had been separated from the continent by the Sundering. Isolated in the middle of the ocean, they had not yet developed a navy capable of crossing the sea and were temporarily unable to interfere with the development of Trolls on the various continents.
What Alan worried about was not the abundant Mithril, but the Thorium ore, which could only be mined in small quantities in the Stonetalon Mountains.
Compared to Mithril—which was soft, highly malleable, and had strong magic conductivity—Thorium possessed higher strength and above-average magic conductivity. The two complemented each other perfectly and were indispensable mineral resources for constructing Arcane Golems.
Thorium from the Stonetalon Mountains was sufficient for research, but if they wanted to achieve mass production of Arcane Golems, finding a vein with large-scale Thorium output was imperative.
Andreas made a note of Alan's suggestion; the problem of the Thorium shortage would have to be solved sooner or later.
After years of exploration, the footprints of the Night Elves covered the entire northern and central parts of Kalimdor. Aside from the small islands attached to the continent, there were only three unexplored areas remaining: Silithus, Un'Goro Crater, and Uldum.
Current Silithus included the desert where the Ahn'Qiraj Empire was located; before the appearance of the Scarab Wall, these two regions were originally one. Uldum was out of the question; ever since Lei Shen's failed invasion, the surviving Tol'vir had completely closed the gates to Uldum. They had even used the power of the Forge of Origination to shroud all of Uldum in a powerful barrier; those inside were not allowed out, and those outside absolutely could not get in.
Unless absolutely necessary, Andreas did not want to provoke the insects of Ahn'Qiraj. That meant the only area available for exploration was the Titan greenhouse—Un'Goro Crater.
"Un'Goro Crater, huh..."
On his way back to the Lord's Palace, Andreas thoughtfully rubbed his chin.
The Tanaris Expeditionary Force led by Nawaz occupied the eastern part of the Great Desert, but the entrance to the Crater happened to be in the western desert controlled by the Sandfury Trolls.
"It seems the time for exterminating the Sandfury Trolls must be put on the agenda."