The legendary hunter Huln Highmountain had led the tauren people against the Burning Legion during the War of the Ancients, and had obtained the favour of the demigod Cenarius for all his valour. Yet even as the protectors of Azeroth claimed victory over the demons, Huln did not rest for one abomination had gotten away.
In the wake of the Sundering and the decimation of the Blue Dragonflight, Neltharion the Earthwarder would come to be known by various fear-inspiring epithets. The kaldorei named the Mad Aspect Xaxas, “Elemental Fury,” whereas the green-skinned Brox had revealed the orcs would know him as “Blood’s Shadow.” Yet only one name would be instantly recognized by all peoples who heard it uttered: Deathwing. It was this evil creature that Huln vowed to track down — but as for any cornered and wounded beast, the hunt for the Black Aspect could prove deadly.
When the supercontinent of Kalimdor was sundered, the kaldorei had fled to the northwest of Zin-Azshari, into the lands of Azshara — named after the arrogant queen — and bordering Hyjal. As for the tauren, they had rallied to the east; this fragment of the supercontinent would drift eastwards, forming a fractured landmass called the Broken Isles, which included the mountainous homeland to which Huln’s people would return.
These high peaks would eventually take Huln’s own name — Highmountain — but they were also the location of Deathwing’s hidden lair. The weakened Mad Aspect returned to these caverns, his mind assaulted by the furious screams of the Deep One. In the throes of agony and madness at having lost his Demon Soul, Deathwing turned his rage against his
incompetent servants, indiscriminately killing Black dragons, goblins, and drogbar alike. His wrath abated, he entered one of his chambers to have his remaining slaves heal his ravaged body.
In the following months, the tauren begin to hold secret meetings with one of the influential and rebellious drogbar, Igrul. Having seen the impressive adamantium plates that cover Deathwing’s body, Huln implores the drogbar to reveal any weaknesses in their design that could be exploited. “Mypeopledidnotmakethisgoblintrash Weonlystrappedittothatwyrm’shide Noweaponofmortal makecanpenetratethesemetalplates.”
In ancient times, the Pillars of Creation had been gifted to the Watchers by the Titans, immensely powerful tools that would help the Titanforged shape and order Azeroth. In the intervals during which the Pillars lay dormant, their energies spent and recharging, these ancient artifacts were left vulnerable to thieves and betrayers. Thus, the Pillars would pass through many hands over the course of millennia, eventually becoming scattered and forgotten throughout ancient Kalimdor. It was the explorers of Suramar who would finally locate all five artifacts, returning them to the capital city under the watch of Grand Magistrix Elisande.
Much of the Pillars’ energies would be spent during the War of the Ancients; this time, Elisande’s Highborne would use them to close an unstable Legion portal that had been opened by adherents of Azshara in the Temple of Elune. In the ensuing chaos, the weakened artifacts would be stolen by those who still hoped to wield their remaining power. One of these thieves was an agent of the Black Dragonflight, who would seize the Hammer of Khaz’goroth and return it to Deathwing’s lair. The Mad Aspect had been wary of the artifact, but soon became underwhelmed by the trivial magics recovering within — this useless hammer could not compare to his all-powerful Demon Soul. Deathwing had simply placed the relic in one of his caverns, appropriately hiding it behind a Titanic waygate.
Huln and Igrul lead their warriors into Deathwing’s lair, now mostly deserted since the Mad Aspect’s rampage The drogbar leader brings the tauren hunter before the waygate that is said to house the strange hammer seen by his informants If the search amounts to nothing, they can only hope that the dragon is weak enough to be slain by their small party.
The Hammer of Khaz’goroth is uncovered and recognized as a Titan artifact. As one, tauren and drogbar engage the resting Deathwing in battle, distracting him long enough for Huln to tap into the artifact’s remaining power. Within, Malorne’s chosen senses the power of Earth, as well as a strong connection to a distant dimensional plane a prison for once-violent elemental spirits. Through the hammer, the connection between the corrupted Earthwarder and this elemental plane is apparent, a trap only waiting to be triggered. Huln activates the binding spell suddenly the bottom of the stone chamber cracks and gives way below the enraged drake. The very ground becomes a vortex of dust, crystal, and ore, a scintillating sinkhole that pulls the Elemental Aspect into cavernous Deepholm
For several millennia, the wounded Deathwing would remain banished within the realm of Therazane, sparing Azeroth from his merciless vengeance. Huln and Igrul the Scalebane were praised as champions of their peoples, and for many eras, the tauren blessed by Eche’ro and the liberated drogbar peacefully inhabited the peaks of Highmountain. Contact with the other civilizations of the Broken Isles remained limited: the new kaldorei druids of
After the Sundering, the maddened Black Dragonflight led vicious attacks upon their old allies — but they lacked the leadership and power of their banished master. The most violent and crazed of the Black drake commanders were hunted down by Malygos’s vengeful spellweavers, accompanied by the Red and Green dragons whose fury could not be tempered by the Life-Binder. Extinction began to threaten Deathwing’s kin as his remaining mates were eliminated, save his prime consort, the elusive Sintharia.
The Black dragons who remained at the Obsidian Dragonshrine in the Dragonblight were spared, chief amongst them the arrogant twins of the Mad Aspect, Onyxia and Nefarian. These drakes maintained that they were unaware of Deathwing’s plots, claiming that he had secluded himself in a distant lair, where he was driven insane by the Demon Soul.
YseraandtheGreenDragonflightby Dragolisco (Source)
Over time, many of the Blue Dragonflight would withdraw from their allies into the Nexus, Malygos’s depression casting an aura of gloom and apathy over their minds — although some drakes remained as curious and interested in mortal affairs as ever. The Bronze Dragonflight and Nozdormu busied themselves with maintenance of the timeways, ever preserving the sanctity of the Prime timeline. Only the sister Aspects’ dragonflights remained truly present to occasionally lend aid to valorous mortals; Ysera’s drakes in particular began to forge close bonds with the kaldorei of Hyjal, Ashenvale, and Azuremyst.
Time’s passing over the ages wore at Azeroth’s sundered crust just as new life and peoples emerged upon its surface. After thousands of years of healing from the Sundering, the world was renewed, its civilizations flourishing as its draconic and kaldorei protectors successfully warded off the rare demonic incursions caused by power-hungry mortals.
Unfortunately, before repeated attempts to wield the forbidden Arcane, the Highborne led by Dath’Remar Sunstrider — a sorcerer who had once liberated Tyrande Whisperwind from Azshara — were exiled from Ashenvale.
Sailing across the Great Sea, hundreds of ships would bear thousands of these arcanists to the northernmost region of the eastern continent in 6,800 BDP. At a confluence of leylines, Dath’Remar would pour a vial of the old Wells’ waters into a lake, creating a new font of Arcane energy called the Sunwell. This new Well would allow the exiles to wield sufficient power to fend off the Amani forest trolls who dominated the northern continent. The Highborne would rename themselves quel’dorei, “children of noble birth,” and the kingdom they would establish would be called “High Home” — Quel’Thalas. ***
In frigid Northrend, home to the Dragonblight and the Blue Dragonflight’s Nexus, a hidden evil was once again stirring. Upon the dragons’ return to their ancient homeland from the Dragon Isles, the Watchers were nowhere to be found, and the great halls of Ulduar were sealed. Unbeknownst to them, a mind-addled Loken had sat on his throne for millennia, struggling against Yogg-Saron’s whispers.
The God of Death’s influence had grown in the wake of the Sundering: the world-shattering event had disrupted the tectonic plates below the continent, and the destabilized earth had allowed the Old God’s power to seep from its subterranean prison. These Void energies infused pockets of ore across the continent and drove them to its surface, where they bloomed as a deadly greenish metal — saronite. This mineral sapped the Life energy from the surrounding fauna and flora, a phenomenon that was not missed by a group of Malfurion’s druids. Worried that this strange corruption might spread beyond control, the group’s leader, Fandral Staghelm, proposed that a great bough from Nordrassil should be transplanted upon Northrend’s frozen ground to ward off the evil. Andrassil, “Crown of the Snow,” would grow into a new World Tree over the next few decades, and for a time the formation of saronite was stemmed. Yet, all was not well: Staghelm had not truly understood that the blessings of the Dragon Aspects that empowered Nordrassil were not shared by its offshoot. Andrassil was in fact vulnerable to corruption, which became inevitable once its deep roots came into proximity to Yogg-Saron’s prison. Through Malfurion’s contact with the Demon Soul, the Old Gods had been made aware of the Emerald Dream — and now the God of Death could access the Dream through the roots of this World Tree. Abruptly, the native races of Northrend were filled with a crazed bloodthirst, their dreams having seemingly driven them mad with paranoia and hatred. The druids of the Cenarion Circle would eventually retrace this corruption back to Andrassil; within the tree’s bark, Malfurion sensed familiar whispers. Without hesitation, the archdruid ordered the polluted World Tree to be felled — but while the physical tree’s corruptive influence faded, the dark seed that had been planted in the Emerald Dream would haunt its guardians forevermore.
Incursions From Beyond
y 2,800 BDP, the human descendants of the xiled vrykul formed the Empire of Arathor. An alliance with Quel’Thalas enabled the quel’dorei to teach magically adept humans wer of the Arcane. A united legion of human and elven arcanists would eventually annihilate the forest trolls’ armies in a orm, allowing Silverpine Forest and the eald to be claimed for Arathor.
er the next centuries, the Empire of Arathor ould dissolve and give rise to independent es that soon became the Seven Kingdoms: ancestral Stromgarde, holy Lordaeron, coastal Gilneas, maritime Kul Tiras, high Alterac, distant Stormwind, and magical Dalaran. The as smaller in scale than the rest; initially y trade post, Dalaran had soon become a bustling city-state of vibrant culture, which entually attracted human arcanists. Under the leadership of the magus Ardogan, sorcerers om across the Eastern Kingdoms were encouraged to settle in Dalaran, where they could practice magic away from the paranoid murmurs of the populace; 2,680 BDP marked the establishment of the Magocracy of Dalaran.
Unfortunately, the unchecked practice of magic would cause ripples in the Twisting Nether Although much less powerful than those that had emanated from Zin-Azshari’s Well of Eternity, these ripples would nonetheless attract lesser demons, who entered Azeroth via unstable rifts. The Magocracy called upon their quel’dorei allies to explain the cause of this rise in demonic activity. The descendants of the Highborne revealed to them the cosmic threat of the Burning Legion, and counselled Dalaran’s mages to temper their use of magic, lest they attract a roaming demon lord.
Yet, upon further deliberation, neither the Council of Silvermoon nor the Magocracy of Dalaran truly believed that they could impose meaningful limitations on sorcerers’ use of magic. The quel’dorei themselves had been driven from their ancestral lands because of their need to tap into the Arcane. Instead, high elves and humans formed a covert council that would hunt down invading demons, thereby neutralizing the consequences of rampant magic, if not addressing the problem at its source. For a time, the Council of Tirisfal would successfully control incursions of the Fel into Azeroth — but eventually, a true demon lord would indeed cross into the world.
Kathra’natir was one of the rare nathrezim who had participated in the War of the Ancients. Though his corporeal form had been destroyed by Malfurion Stormrage, his soul — like all demonic souls — had returned to the Nether to begin its reconstitution. Roaming the chaotic realm of Fel for thousands of years, the dreadlord had by chance come across a rift leading into a familiar world: Azeroth. Acts of betrayal and deceit spread through Dalaran like a plague, which culminated in Kathra’natir revealing himself to the Council of Tirisfal. As the nathrezim began rituals to stabilize new Legion portals, the sorcerers of Dalaran sacrificed portions of their knowledge to empower a single mage of their order. The most advanced spellwork was burned into the mind of the half-elf Alodi, who could now freely control the power of the Arcane. Proclaiming himself the First Guardian of Tirisfal, Alodi successfully banished Kathra’natir back to the Nether. From then on, each new Guardian would inherit their predecessor’s power — and they would be expected to do the same for their next disciple after 100 years of service. ***
In 823 BDP, the Guardian Scavell passed on his Arcane knowledge to his prodigy Aegwynn. This new Guardian was thus far unmatched in her skillful wielding of magic, and she hunted down Azeroth’s demonic invaders with ease. As Aegwynn’s century drew to an end, her travels led her to the forgotten lands of Northrend, where she felt a new demonic presence stirring.
In the Dragonblight, Aegwynn witnessed a coordinated phalanx of Legion demons hunting Blue drakes. Venturing to Wyrmrest Temple, she reported the killings to the Dragon Queen and demanded support in destroying these common enemies. At the bones of Galakrond, the Guardian and the dragons ambushed the Legion’s soldiers, laying waste to their small army. Suddenly, an enormous form seemed to advance on the protectors through the raging blizzard — the blazing form of a Titanforged Keeper. Yet, Aegwynn understood that this was no servant of the Pantheon; within the stoneborn avatar, the Guardian sensed a portion of the Dark Titan himself. For hours, Aegwynn and the Avatar of Sargeras exchanged magical blows, with torrents of unleashed Arcane and Fel keeping both the demons and dragons at bay. A destructive spell cast from the Greatstaff Atiesh finally overcame the avatar, and it seemed the defenders of Azeroth had vanquished the Legion once more.
In fact, calamity had only been delayed. Upon its defeat, the Avatar of Sargeras had sent a fragment of its soul into the Guardian, though she did not sense it. Whereas before Aegwynn had been bullheaded and proud, the soul fragment fostered feelings of anger and distrust. When the Council of Tirisfal finally called on her to relinquish her powers, Aegwynn refused and secluded herself far to the south, at a convergence of leylines located within a desolate canyon bordering the Brightwood. There, she erected the tower of Karazhan and cut her ties with Dalaran. In retaliation, the Council founded an order of mage hunters, the Tirisgarde. For centuries, Aegwynn would evade her pursuers, who wielded artifacts of power that almost nullified her own. In 45 BDP, she would eventually develop a relationship with one of the Tirisgarde — Nielas Aran — with whom she would bear a child. Aran and Aegwynn agreed that their son should receive his mother’s powers, but they did not realize a Fel soul would be passed on to him as well.
In the millennium before the opening of the Dark Portal, C’thun, God of Madness, had begun to awaken within the Titan facility that had become the fortress city of Ahn’Qiraj. In the shadow of C’thun’s prison, the southern aqir had evolved into the qiraji, a magically adept and mystical people. Unlike the nerub’ar of Northrend who had forsaken Yogg-Saron, the qiraji continued to venerate their imprisoned master; yet, the passing of eons had eventually forced them to enter stasis. 250 years before the Avatar of Sargeras’s defeat, druids of the Cenarion Circle led by Valstann Staghelm had unintentionally stirred the insectoids from their sleep during an expedition to the southern wastelands. As Fandral’s son roamed the desolate sandstone halls of Ahn’Qiraj, qiraji began pouring into the surrounding courtyards. The God of Madness whispered monotonously to them, promising his faithful the rise of a new Black Empire. The druids escaped into arid Silithus, but it would not be long before the qiraji crossed the gates of the fallen kingdom to invade the surrounding desert.
Valstann contacted his father for aid; the archdruid promptly responded, rallying the kaldorei to march their forces southwards. The opposing armies clashed in Silithus, commencing the War of the Shifting Sands. Fandral enlisted the aid of the Bronze Dragonflight, who resided within the mysterious Caverns of Time in the neighbouring desert of Tanaris; yet, the plea was met with refusal — the Bronze dragons’ numbers were already stretched thin across the timeways, making them incapable of joining the mortals’ relatively trivial war. The kaldorei eventually lost ground to the qiraji and their silithid, who pushed eastwards into Tanaris. As the insectoids tore through the kaldorei’s ranks, Valstann was ripped apart before his father’s eyes, a death that would break the archdruid’s mind and sow the seeds of bitterness.
When the minions of C’thun finally trespassed upon the realm of the Bronze, Anachronos roused his dragonkin to action and called upon the Red, Green, and Blue dragonflights for support. Caelestrasz, son of Alexstrasza, Merithra, daughter of Ysera, and Arygos, son of Malygos, rallied their peoples to defend the timeways from the servants of the Old Gods. The qiraji vanguard were forced back into Ahn’Qiraj, but entering the fallen kingdom itself would surely incur more losses for the kaldorei and dragons. Thus, while the three children of the Aspects crossed into the kingdom alone to stem the outwards flow of insectoids, Anachronos and Fandral’s druids began a ritual to seal the gates of Ahn’Qiraj behind an impassable temporal barrier. A key to the fallen kingdom was offered by the Bronze dragons in case the races of Azeroth would deem it necessary to deal with C’thun’s forces directly in the future; thus, Anachronos crafted the Scepter of the Shifting Sands and the Scarab Gong: when the gong was rung using the scepter, the gates of Ahn’Qiraj would open once more.
Yet, when the scepter was presented to Fandral, the grieving and resentful archdruid shattered it to pieces, decrying the dragons’ belated aid. The son of Nozdormu would keep the scepter fragmented, dividing it amongst the elders of the dragonflights: himself, the Red champion Vaelastrasz, the prime consort Eranikus, and the relic hunter Azuregos.
In 230 BDP, the War of the Three Hammers had culminated in the defeat of the Dark Iron and Wildhammer dwarves, with the Bronzebeard clan claiming Ironforge as their own. Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan, the cunning Dark Iron ruler who had held great sway in the capital before the High King’s death, fumed at his exile and loss of influence. After years of preparation, the Dark Irons launched new attacks against their rival clans: Thaurissan lay siege to Ironforge while his wife, the sorceress Modgud, assaulted the Wildhammer mountain-fortress in the marshlands north of Khaz Modan, Grim Batol. The siege of mighty Ironforge failed as Madoran Bronzebeard had expected, but Modgud’s war fared better: a blood ritual powered by a whispering dagger cursed the halls of Grim Batol, bringing the very shadows to life. Though the Dark Iron sorceress’s forces were eventually defeated, the Wildhammer fortress would remain haunted by dark entities, a malediction that would only fade after centuries.
Madoran Bronzebeard and Khardros Wildhammer joined forces to attack the Dark Iron stronghold in the eastern Redridge Mountains. In desperation, Thaurissan began an incantation to call upon the Elemental spirits dwelling within the lands’ dormant volcanoes. Yet, the Sorcerer-Thane's rage was so great that his spell reached into the Firelands themselves, drawing forth the soul of the most powerful Elemental of Azeroth: Ragnaros the Firelord. The molten form of the Elemental lord erupted from the fiery depths below Redridge, incinerating Thaurissan and multitudes of Dark Iron dwarves. The devastation that was unleashed scalded the lands surrounding the Dark Iron stronghold, which itself was consumed by the lava flows released by the Firelord’s summoning. Before the utter destruction caused by Ragnaros, the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer retreated to their homelands.
Although Madoran offered the Wildhammer a new home in Ironforge, proud Khardros refused and led his people back to the northern marshes. Unfortunately, cursed Grim Batol remained uninhabitable, forcing the clan across the Thandol Span and into the fertile lands of the human kingdoms of Lordaeron. The Wildhammer finally settled in the uncharted hinterlands beyond the highlands and foothills, a region that would be contested by the forest troll tribes that had splintered from the Amani.
In the burning remnants of northern Redridge, the Firelord’s wrath had finally abated. As the lava flows cooled, they formed a new mountain of dark igneous rock. Ragnaros returned to the magma pools deep beneath the mountain to regain his power, a deep realm that would be called the Molten Core. Before entering his long slumber, the Firelord summoned his servants from the Firelands and enslaved the surviving Dark Iron. The descendants of the Sorcerer-Thane would maintain the Thaurissan dynasty and foster hatred for the dwarves of Ironforge — but now they served Ragnaros from within the subterranean city of Shadowforge, carved from the depths of their dark mountain — Blackrock. ***
In Year 0, the Guardian Medivh prepares for his greatest ritual, the one echoed ceaselessly by the voice within his mind. His reclusive nature has long drawn interest from nobles and Kirin Tor sorcerers alike, but not even the would-be apprentices that he sometimes admits to Karazhan have been able to uncover his secrets. One such apprentice, the quick-witted Khadgar, witnesses his master’s genius, labile moods, and eccentric mannerisms longer than any of his predecessors. “Young Trust” and the Guardian embark on several adventures together: they investigate the invasion of the Black Morass by strange green-skinned warriors, as well as the targeted demonic attacks against the Kirin Tor mages of Stormwind.
Ultimately, Khadgar realizes the truth: Medivh is no longer acting as the Guardian of Azeroth, but as the agent who would deliver the world to the Burning Legion.
Binding of the Lifebinder
The warlock Gul’dan led the orcish Horde through the Dark Portal into the world of Azeroth. Although he remained in contact with the mysterious Medivh, the Guardian’s true intentions eluded him. For now, Gul’dan hoped to subjugate this new world’s Elemental forces, as he had done on Draenor. To this end, he led the Shadow Council across the Burning Steppes to Blackrock Mountain, which teemed with fiery energies. The warlocks were unprepared to face the raw power of the Firelord’s lieutenants and his Dark Iron pyromancers, and many perished in the flames. It was the ogre warlock Cho’gall, leader of the Void-touched Pale, who mediated a truce with the masters of Blackrock. Although unknown to Gul’dan, the Horde’s Twilight Hammer clan served the same masters as the Firelord: the Old Gods. Indeed, Ragnaros and Al’Akir the Windlord remained loyal to the Black Empire after its ancient defeat by the Pantheon — they had reveled in the Elemental destruction incited by the Old Gods in the dark age of Azeroth, and wished to return the world to this state of cataclysm.
The Old Gods whispered to the Fire Elementals, ordering them to allow the Horde control of the upper levels of Blackrock; this towering spire built within the mountain peak was an uninhabited relic of the Dark Iron’s domain since the creation of Shadowforge. As long as the Burning Legion’s puppets did not venture into the depths, Ragnaros would spare Cho’gall’s allies from harm. Thus did Blackrock Spire become the bastion of the Shadow Council in the later years of the First War.
Near the end of the war, Khadgar, the halfling Garona Halforcen, and a group of knights led by Anduin Lothar attacked the maddened Medivh in Karazhan. The confrontation was costly: the Guardian sapped away years of life from his young apprentice, transforming him into an old man, then turned his Fel powers upon Garona, torturing her mind to the breaking point. Yet, the corrupted Guardian could not bring himself to slay his old friends, giving Lothar the opportunity to sever his head from his shoulders. Chaotic as Medivh’s e during the battle, Gul’dan had seized the opportunity to probe his mind from hen death unexpectedly came to the Guardian, Gul’dan’s cruciating pain; as his consciousness faded to e. The Shadow Council was now leaderless.
When it became apparent to Orgrim Doomhammer that Gul’dan was no longer giving orders to Blackhand, the shrewd warrior challenged his chieftain to mak’gora. With a final blow, the legendary Doomhammer shattered Blackhand’s skull, giving Orgrim right to the Horde’s title of martial power: Warchief. Yet, Orgrim would not be played as a puppet by the corrupt Shadow Council like his predecessor, those whom he suspected of having orchestrated Durotan and Draka’s deaths. Before dealing with the warlocks, however, the new Warchief of the Horde needed to end the war against Stormwind — and decisive bloodshed was the only option.
Rallied by the impassioned Doomhammer, the invading clans finally united before the high walls of Stormwind for their final assault. As the gates broke down, Garona Halforcen assassinated King Wrynn from within Stormwind Keep, her injured mind compelled to do so by the Fel daggers Anguish and Sorrow — forever after known to the Horde as the Kingslayers. Although Garona had ensured the Horde’s symbolic victory over Stormwind, Doomhammer recognized her as a pawn of the Shadow Council. The halfling assassin was tortured to reveal the whereabouts of the depraved warlocks; despite the Kingslayers’ psychic bindings, the pain allowed her to speak of the council’s lair in Blackrock Spire.
As the Horde recovered from the First War, Doomhammer led some of his warriors across the Burning Steppes to the dark mountain. Upon ascending the spire, he struck down the warlocks before they could utter their spells, leaving only the untrained neophytes alive to cower in fear. Doomhammer spared the life of the Twilight Hammer chieftain, however, since Cho’gall was the only one capable of staving off the madness of the grotesque Pale orcs. As for Gul’dan, Doomhammer only scoffed at his comatose form, allowing him to live for the day when he would reawaken — powerless. ***
Strange it was that the First War had lasted years, and yet none of the northern kingdoms had sent their distant kinsmen military support. Lothar and the other commanders of Stormwind could only speculate that all their emissaries had met grim fates at sea, unlikely as it seemed. Despite an ancient history of fraught relationships between the descendants of Arator — future founders of Stormwind — and the other rulers, it was simply impossible that Lordaeron had turned its back on the southern kingdom upon hearing of its invasion by the Horde.
The truth was even stranger. The Stormwind emissaries had reached Lordaeron unscathed, and had even sought council with the nobles of Capital City. Yet, an influential noble had mocked their claims — Stormwind had never had to contend with any serious threats in the past, although stories spoke of the weak kingdom having trouble defending itself from simple gnolls. Now messengers arrived from this estranged realm recounting tales about a race of green-skinned barbarians, never before seen in the Eastern Kingdoms — it was all simply preposterous. Even King Terenas Menethil could not entertain these fantastical accounts, and the enraged emissaries were turned away. Yet, the noble who had sowed the seeds of doubt in the courts of Lordaeron was no friend of the human kingdoms. His priority was chaos and cataclysm — and the Horde, which he had witnessed firsthand — would be the key to his return to power.
Centuries before the opening of the Dark Portal, Deathwing the Destroyer had breached the Elemental plane of Deepholm and returned to Azeroth. Before his ancient failures and the ruinous state of his flight, the Mad Aspect had no choice but to follow the whispers’ commands. The Deep One had alerted him of the Burning Legion’s new incursion into Azeroth using the orcish Horde; the demon lords would soon order their servants to seek out new fonts of power like the Well of Eternity to facilitate their passage into Azeroth — and the Old Gods would be ready to twist the Legion’s plans to their own ends once more.
Thus, the God of the Deep had instructed Deathwing to stoke the fires of the war, a task that the Aspect had committed himself to using the subterfuge of his humanoid visages. While the kings of Lordaeron believed him to be a noble of some renown, Orgrim Doomhammer and Gul’dan had known him to be a reliable ally who would help further their respective causes. Now that Stormwind had fallen, Deathwing would help bring about Lordaeron’s end as well.
One among the Horde spellcasters had not turned his back to the Elements to embrace the Fel power of the Legion. Zuluhed the Whacked was shaman and chieftain of the Nelghor-shomash — the Cry of the Beast clan. Though once notorious for the taming of Draenor’s rylaks, these orcs had lost access to their winged mounts in the years before the opening of the Dark Portal: Draenor’s lands were slowly corrupted by the Legion’s taint, killing off the fauna that had not already been eradicated by the blood-cursed Horde — or mutating them into wild abominations. Yet, Zuluhed now heard whispers in his dreams foretelling a renewed destiny for the Cry of the Beast. The Elements spoke of an ancient artifact buried deep below the mountains, a relic that could control Azeroth’s own species of winged predators. The shaman saw himself soaring through the skies on the back of an enormous reptilian creature, allowing him to relive the ecstasy of his airborne past.
Controlling the voices of his bound Elemental spirits, Deathwing directed uluhed to the hidden entrance of a cave stem leading into the depths of Redridge. In the bowels of the earth, the Cry of the Beast confronted the creature from their chieftain’s dreams: a red behemoth with eat wings, covered in scales and capable of xhaling a strange fire. Orostrasz was unable o withstand the concerted attacks of the beast-tamer orcs, and would ultimately fall o their blades. With the reptilian guardian slain, Zuluhed claimed the prophesied artifact: a plain golden disc.
Triumphant, the Cry of the Beast returned to their warchief with the relic in hand. The old shaman told Doomhammer of the potential of this newfound weapon. It was clear that they had finally regained the favour of the Elements, as in the time before their people’s fall to the blood curse. Doomhammer congratulated Zuluhed’s people for their impressive feat, and urged them to unlock the secrets of the disc as soon as possible — he would soon lead the Horde to the Burning Steppes, the staging ground from which they would begin their northwards march to Lordaeron to end the human threat to their people’s exodus.
Zuluhed was dismayed when he realized that his shamanic powers did not allow him access to the disc’s inner spellwork. As he probed the artifact, he understood that the strange magic used by Stormwind’s mages might have worked to unseal its power — but the arcanists had all been slain or fled on great boats. Yet, the shaman observed that a more familiar energy inhabited the disc as well: the demonic Fel. The chieftain requested the aid of his apprentice Nekros Skullcrusher, who had renounced the Elements for the way of the warlock. The spells within the disc filled Skullcrusher’s mind — the secrets of the Demon Soul were once more unleashed.
With his madness calmed by ages of dormancy, Deathwing could tolerate the use of his artifact by these mortal puppets; indeed, the dragonflights’ vulnerability to its magics could now be properly exploited. As he had predicted, the Red Dragonflight soon appeared in Redridge, having been alerted to the disturbance of the Demon Soul’s subterranean prison by Orostrasz. Alexstrasza the Dragon Queen and her prime consort Tyranastrasz personally led a group of Red dragons from the Dragonblight to prevent mortal tampering with the forbidden relic. The dragons had borne witness to the Horde’s first attacks on Khaz Modan, but had opted to fly southwards despite the plight of their ancient allies: retrieving the object of Deathwing’s betrayal was the priority.
The Cry of the Beast had brought the Demon Soul with them to the northern marshlands; there, Skullcrusher continued to probe the disc’s powers under Deathwing’s unsuspected tutelage. The siege of the dwarven and gnomish capitals was failing, and Doomhammer was preparing to withdraw his armies to join the orcs who remained in the Wetlands. From its western coast, they would venture into Baradin Bay after building seafaring vessels under the supervision of their ogre and goblin shipwrights. Amani envoys that were returning from Stranglethorn during the First War had also allied themselves with the Horde, under the condition that their warlord would be freed from a human keep in the Hillsbrad Foothills; the Amani would ensure the fleet’s safe passage to Lordaeron’s unguarded southern coast, between the kingdoms of Gilneas and Stromgarde. Alexstrasza and her dragons descended upon the Cry of the Beast, intending to destroy the strange invaders and regain control of the Demon Soul. Yet, Skullcrusher had mastered enough of the artifact’s spells to defend his people from the attack: concentrating on the relic’s connection to the Dragon Queen, the warlock caused her to seize in agony, sending her crashing into the nearby mountains. Swarmed by the orcs and bound in chains, Alexstrasza watched in horror as several other Red dragons were captured; the rest were dissuaded from attacking, as Skullcrusher tortured the Dragon Queen with life-threatening pain when they drew near. Finally, the Cry of the Beast had obtained their promised nelghor — “loyal beasts”. Zuluhed proclaimed that these winged reptiles were called “dragons”, and in honour of their clan’s new destiny, they would rename themselves “Dragonmaw”
Under Doomhammer’s order, the Dragonmaw had transported their dragons to the abandoned mountain-fortress of Grim Batol. Within, Alexstrasza was compelled by the Demon Soul to lay a new clutch of eggs, while her drakes were weakly bound to the will of the artifact and forced to don riding harnesses to act as mounts. In the later days of the Second War, the orcish dragonriders would fly across Baradin Bay to support the Horde’s ground troops. First, however, they would annihilate much of the Kul Tiran fleet by the magical fire of the Red dragons’ breath weapons. In the Eastweald and the forests of Quel’Thalas, the dragonriders would compete for the skies with the gryphon-riders of the Wildhammer clan, who’s stormhammers sent debilitating arcs of lightning coursing through their flesh.
While Doomhammer led the other clans through the Alterac Mountains, The Dragonmaw were ordered to remain at the barrier protecting Quel’Thalas to keep watch over Gul’dan’s forces. Yet, Zuluhed’s clan would be betrayed by the Stormreavers and Twilight Hammer, who used their Fel magics to destroy the dragonriders from below. This would be the event that harmed the Horde’s coordination and sent its armies into disarray. Realizing that Capital City could never be captured with the weakened armies that remained at his disposal, Doomhammer commanded the Horde’s retreat to Khaz Modan. In the shadow of Blackrock Mountain, the Warchief led a final battle against the Alliance and struck a fatal blow against its leadership: a strike to the head from the Doomhammer sealed the fate of Supreme Commander Anduin Lothar. Yet, Lothar’s lieutenant, the young paladin Turalyon, ultimately defeated the Warchief, empowered as he was by the Light’s fury; the leaderless Horde was forced to return to Stormwind and the Black Morass.
While some of the orcs succeeded in crossing the Dark Portal before its destruction by the Alliance mages, several clans remained stranded on Azeroth. Countless thousands were captured and imprisoned within the Lordaeron internment camps. The Stormreavers had all been slain upon the newly risen Broken Shore, or within the Tomb of Sargeras; Gul’dan too was dead. Cho’gall had survived, sailing eastwards with the remnants of the Twilight Hammer, called by the dark god imprisoned beneath the sands of Kalimdor. The Black Tooth Grin led by the sons of Blackhand returned to the Black Morass in time to join the skirmish against Turalyon’s riders, but were unable to enter the portal in time; the clan retreated to Blackrock Spire, joined by Blackrock stragglers and some of the Dragonmaw dragonriders. While Zuluhed had returned to dying Draenor with some of his people, Skullcrusher remained in Grim Batol with the rest, as well as Alexstrasza, her brood, and the Demon Soul. Kilrogg Deadeye’s Bleeding Hollow evaded the Alliance within the marshes of the Black Morass, although the swamplands would eventually be ravaged by the Nether energies emanating from the Dark Portal. The Burning Blade were scattered across the lands; while some blademasters rallied groups of Blackrock orcs, others would roam the lands in search of new purpose. The final orcish clan was forgotten by the Horde and would remain hidden from the Alliance for some years: the Frostwolves led by the shaman Drek’Thar continued to live in harmony with Azeroth’s Elements, concealed within a valley of the Alterac Mountains. As for Doomhammer, he was paraded around Capital City before being shackled and left to rot among the twisting halls and sewers beneath the palace, a realm of poverty and subterfuge dubbed “the Undercity”
The Horde was defeated, and Gul’dan and Medivh, the Burning Legion’s agents, had both perished. The human kingdoms emerged from the Second War stronger than ever, having renewed old alliances with Khaz Modan, the Wildhammer, and Quel’Thalas. As the southern regions of the Black Morass dried and turned to desert, Supreme Commander Turalyon oversaw the construction of Nethergarde Keep, a fortress from which Kirin Tor mages would be able to monitor the rift left by the Dark Portal for signs of a new invasion.
