text: chris metzen christopher vincent " chris " metzen ( born november 22 , 1973 ) is an american game designer , artist , voice actor and author known for his work creating the fictional universes and scripts for blizzard entertainment 's three major award - winning media franchises : warcraft , diablo and starcraft . on occasion , metzen has published his art under the alias " " . metzen was hired by blizzard entertainment as an animator and an artist ; his first work for the company was with the video game justice league task force . metzen is currently the senior vice president of story and franchise development at blizzard entertainment and has assisted the company 's projects by providing voice talent for a number of characters , as well as contributing to artistic character design . outside of blizzard entertainment , metzen authored a graphic novel series based on a futuristic second american civil war . in his most recent work , metzen co - authored graphic novels , transformers : autocracy and transformers monstrosity with author flint dille and artist livio . career metzen began his career in design after applying to blizzard entertainment , then known as chaos studios , on the recommendation of a friend who had seen his work . he was quickly recruited by the company , although metzen states that at the time he did not really know what blizzard entertainment dealt with , assuming it was a graphic design studio rather than a video game developer . metzen 's first work for the company was with the game justice league task force , in which he provided artwork and character animation . around the same time , metzen also contributed to 1994 's warcraft : orcs and humans by working on artwork , illustrations and the game 's documentation . later video games by blizzard entertainment would frequently include metzen 's work in manual design , illustration and concept art . however , metzen 's role in developing later warcraft games increased significantly with 1995 's warcraft ii : tides of darkness , which gave him the opportunity to work on the game 's fantasy - based fictional universe in addition to designing the game 's various scenarios and missions . in 1996 , blizzard entertainment launched its second major franchise with the role - playing game diablo . diablo 's fictional universe was created by both metzen and fellow designer bill roper , and metzen also provided voice acting for some of the game 's characters . on occasion , metzen would provide voice talent for later video games . in 1998 he took the role of lead designer on the science fiction strategy game starcraft . along with james phinney , metzen again provided the game 's extensive story and script , as well as organizing the voice casting for the game . in 1999 , metzen wrote a short story set in the starcraft universe with fellow blizzard entertainment employee sam moore . the story , entitled revelations , was published in the spring issue of amazing stories with cover artwork by samwise didier . returning to the diablo series in 2000 with diablo ii , metzen worked on the game 's story , script and artwork . in 2001 , he published a novel set in the warcraft universe , entitled of blood and honor . with 2002 's warcraft iii : reign of chaos , metzen was the creative director , a role he would hold in all of blizzard 's later video games , and provided the game 's story concept and script . metzen 's work with 2004 's massively multiplayer online role - playing game world of warcraft was not as extensive as his earlier work , but he still contributed with script writing , artwork and voice work . metzen announced in early 2005 that he was working on a graphic novel series independent of blizzard entertainment . the series , entitled soldier : 76 , is set in a second american civil war in 2010 , with increased domestic and global terror threats and the increase in power for the us federal government over that of local state governments serving as a background . metzen wrote the series ' script , while brazilian artist max was responsible for the illustration and painting of the book . soldier : 76 would later appear as a character in overwatch , blizzard 's online first - person shooter game , released in may 2016 . chris metzen teamed with author flint dille and artist livio to create the 12 - part , bi - weekly digital comic series , transformers : autocracy . autocracy , published by idw publishing was published in 2012 . the series focuses on the days just before the great war . it is set after megatron origin , and presents the decepticons as an established force , sowing dissent across cybertron primarily through terrorist actions . the series focuses on orion pax , an autobot commander charged with rooting out these cells . transformers : autocracy was released as a collected trade paperback in july 2012 with a bonus forward authored by metzen . the same team is current working on the follow - up series , " transformers : monstrosity " . metzen made a cameo appearance in the 2016 warcraft film , as a turbaned perfume vendor in . personal life he first started creating comics at the age of twelve , but that he had held an interest in drawing since at least six . he states that he still retains a habit of spending " an average of thirty - five dollars per week " on comics books . a fan of dungeons & dragons , metzen cites the dragonlance series of novels and star wars as the primary inspirations for his fantasy and science fiction creations , and names fantasy and comic book artists such as walt simonson and keith parkinson as his artistic inspirations . he defines his artistic style as having been " heavily influenced by walt simonson 's and jim lee 's styles for form " while preferring the " costuming , themes and general feel of larry elmore and keith parkinson 's fantasy paintings " . in addition to art , metzen 's interests include pop and rock music , the nightlife , and dirt bikes . on april 21 , 2013 , metzen married his longtime girlfriend kat hunter , who is a licensing project manager at blizzard entertainment . roles video games diablo – skeleton king starcraft – marine , battlecruiser , ghost warcraft iii : reign of chaos – thrall warcraft iii : the frozen throne – thrall , vol 'jin world of warcraft – thrall , vol 'jin , orcs , , , the world of warcraft : the burning crusade – thrall , vol 'jin world of warcraft : wrath of the lich king – thrall , vol 'jin , varian , / , starcraft ii : wings of liberty – marine , battlecruiser world of warcraft : cataclysm – thrall , vol 'jin , varian , , , the world of warcraft : mists of – thrall , mara , captain , the storm lord , war - god starcraft ii : heart of the swarm - marine , battlecruiser : heroes of warcraft - thrall , various minions world of warcraft : warlords of - thrall heroes of the storm - thrall starcraft ii : legacy of the void – marine , battlecruiser overwatch - creative director