When you set aside cosmic deities and various other forces that work from within the void, Gul'dan is the most ruthless and outright evil bastard that has ever plagued Azeroth. He's killed innumerable innocents, brought down entire civilizations, and is still actively plotting the destruction of not just the world, but the entire universe as well, and yet Blizzard has somehow managed to make him a sympathetic character in their latest animated short.

The Harbingers short tells the story of Gul'dan's rise to power from a crippled, lowly shaman in a village long forgotten, to the very incarnation of the Burning Legion's hatred for all things still living. Here's the video and I fully recommend you give it a watch, its rather well done:

While I don't have a source for the following statement, I do believe this animated short is going to be one of many that will pave the way toward the release of Legion, World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion. They've done a similar thing for the release of Warlords of Dreanor and the community response was overwhelmingly positive, so I have almost no doubts that they will apply the same sort of strategy with Legion as well. I certainly won't complain, more lore is always welcome!

If you would like to learn more about Legion, its story and the various gameplay features, you can find all you're interested in over at the official website. Blizzard has done a great job of keeping it up to date with all of the news and updates they've released over the course of the last few months.

Finally, if you own World of Warcraft but haven't played it in a while, now would be the time to return and give it a try as the pre-expansion patch has arrived, bringing with it a bunch of class updates, balance changes, and a complete rework of the transmogrification system.