The Apexis empire, while it was still at its height, permanently shattered the power of the Evergrowth. This allowed other races the opportunity to grow, free from the threat of having their burgeoning societies choked away by the primals. Conflict between these emergent cultures and the arakkoa was rare; they did not occupy the same land, nor did they survive on the same resources. The arakkoa soared through the skies, and those on the ground needed not fear them.
But the descendants of Grond did not live peacefully with one another.
By the time arakkoan civilization had fallen, the children of stone had grown in number and spread across the land. Relatively small populations of gronn, powerful and massive giants who towered above the jungles and forests, still roamed the world. They lived in solitude; no place on Draenor could sustain the hunting needs for multiple gronn at once. When they met, they often fought to the death over territory.
Other creatures, smaller in stature than the gronn, came together to form rudimentary societies. The ogron, though brutish, cruel beings, quickly learned the value of working together. Strength in numbers meant the conquest of their rivals. Isolation meant defeat and death. These early tribes warred constantly. The pride of an ogron was easily wounded, and only blood could repay an insult. Most of the world’s other races were beneath their notice, save when they could serve as food or slave labor.
Even the races that shared a common ancestry with the ogron were not spared. Ogres and orcs quickly learned to fear the attention of the larger ogron. The best fate a conquered ogre clan could hope for was to be sent into battle as disposable combatants to fight against other ogron tribes. Sick, weak, or elderly ogres were typically offered as living sacrifices to appease the gronn and keep them from attacking ogron territories.
The smallest of Grond’s descendants were the orcs, and they stayed far, far away from ogron lands. The largest orc settlement of this time was in a massive cave network beneath Gorgrond. Though it was not a bountiful region, the orcs preferred living a meager—but free—existence to enduring the horrors of life as ogron slaves.
In the centuries after the Apexis society collapsed, arakkoa priests and sorcerers had spread across the land, taking with them many of their race’s coveted crystal shards.
Small conclaves of Skalaxi arakkoa began searching the land for more of these nuggets of knowledge and power. Some sought personal glory. Some sought to preserve the wonders of their fallen people. Some even believed that a new golden age might emerge if the arakkoa could collect enough of this ancient wisdom and build their society anew.
The Skalaxi leader, Yonzi, learned that critical caches of knowledge were buried beneath the ruins of an Apexis coastal settlement in Talador, a place now occupied by ogron. Attempts to bribe or barter with the ogron rulers ended violently. Though far less intelligent creatures, the ogron were quite formidable when it came to size and strength. The arakkoa retreated, biding their time.
Yonzi and his followers observed the ogron tribe from the sky, searching for opportunities to topple the brutes by force. One quickly presented itself: the ogron’s slaves. The ogres, though not as mighty as their barbaric masters, were more intelligent. Most importantly, their enslavement made them angry. Only fear kept them from revolting.
Arakkoa sorcerers began to approach the ogres in secret, offering to teach them the ways of arcane magic. The slaves proved to be excellent students. They were distant descendants of Grond, a creature empowered by the titan Aggramar, and thus they were naturally attuned to the arcane. The Skalaxi were surprised and delighted by this discovery. They had never seen new spellcasting techniques be developed so effortlessly. The ogres held a special affinity for the earth, and they could use arcane power to shape and bend rock and stone to their will.
One of the first ogres to master this new power was named Gog, and the Skalaxi believed he was the perfect leader to inspire a full-scale rebellion. Empowered, Gog strode forth…but not to fight the ogron. He had a far more significant target in mind: the gronn, the giant predators whom all ogres revered and feared as deities.
Even the arakkoa were stunned at his ambition, but they couldn’t argue with the results. Gog single-handedly struck down a gronn, and the story of his bloody conquest spread among the captive ogres like wildfire. He killed another. And another. By the time he defeated his fifth gronn, whispers of his deeds had reached almost all ogre settlements. Gronn were seen as towering monstrosities, practically gods in stature and power. They could not be killed, not by the likes of an ogre. At least, that was what the slaves had once believed.
Gog’s heroics had shattered that belief. If gronn could be slain, what did the ogres have to fear from the ogron?
When “Gog the Gronnslayer” returned to his people, there was no need to spend time convincing the other slaves to revolt. They rose up together against their ogron overlords, igniting a bloody war. There was a catastrophic loss of life on both sides. The arakkoa patiently watched from a distance, eager to claim their crystals from the ogron settlement.
In the end, nearly every ogron tribe fell to their captives. The ogres’ thirst for vengeance and their newfound arcane magics were too much to withstand. The ogron who were not torn limb from limb were forced to scatter across the world to escape.
After the ogres cast off the chains of slavery, the Skalaxi sorcerers quietly moved in, searching for Apexis relics and artifacts in the ruins of the city. Gog the Gronnslayer put a quick end to that. As a sorcerer himself, he had no interest in giving away any potential source of power. The ogres had paid for the land with blood. Gog declared himself “Gorgog”—King Gog—and proclaimed that he was ruler of this city. He renamed it Goria, the “Throne of the King.” Gog commanded Yonzi and his Skalaxi followers to leave the area on pain of death.
The arakkoa did leave, but not for long. Gog’s actions infuriated Yonzi and his kin, and they decided to take the land by force. In the dead of night, the arakkoa sorcerers launched a surprise attack on the fledgling city of Goria. Gog and his apprentice arcanists fought back, bolstered by the countless ranks of newly freed ogres who saw him as their savior. The king defeated the arakkoa and captured Yonzi. The Skalaxi leader’s death did not come slow.
The tales of Yonzi’s gruesome end at Gog’s hands spread across the land. Despite the promise of undiscovered Apexis crystals, further arakkoan incursions on ogre holdings were few and far between after that.
The Gorian Empire slowly expanded over generations. Though the ogres were not focused on conquest, wide swaths of land fell under their control. Roaming gronn and ogron were hunted down wherever they were found, paving the way for new settlements. Cities sprang up throughout the world’s continents. The two largest were Highmaul, located in western Nagrand, and Bladespire Hold, tucked away in Frostfire Ridge. These cities became highly militant outposts that constantly expanded the ogre empire’s borders. An advanced trade network, crossing land and sea, was established to link Goria with the far-flung strongholds.
Goria itself remained the capital and a distinguished place for apprentices to train in the arcane arts. Apexis crystals became highly prized there, the fragments of arakkoan knowledge eagerly sought by the most learned ogre sorcerers.
The ogres’ practice of sorcery and their exposure to raw arcane magic had some unexpected side effects. Though it was very rare, children would sometimes be born with two heads. It soon became clear that these ogres were astonishingly gifted spellcasters, and their appearance was seen as a good omen. In time, Goria’s arcanists even developed spells to replicate this phenomenon, causing normal ogres to grow a second head, increasing their intelligence and aptitude for magic.
The ogre revolt dramatically altered the hierarchy of survival throughout Draenor. In breaking the power of the ogron and the gronn, the Gorian Empire eliminated the two greatest threats to Gorgrond’s orcs. No longer confined to their underground caverns, they forged permanent settlements on the world’s surface for the first time in generations.
The population of orcs exploded. Before long, overcrowding became a serious issue, and Gorgrond’s scant wildlife was hunted to the brink of extinction. Tensions between families simmered, but before they boiled over into a catastrophic war, many of the orcs migrated out of the region. They did not need a comfortable existence—their harsh life underground had made them resilient and strong—but they needed new land to settle.
The orcs who remained in Gorgrond gradually formed several distinct clans: Blackrock, Laughing Skull, Lightning’s Blade, and Dragonmaw. The Blackrock clan lorded over much of Gorgrond. They remained in their ancestral caves, studying the earth around them, developing their knowledge of metallurgy and smithing. The unique blackrock ore scattered throughout the area was difficult to mine and use, but once they learned its secrets, the orcs were able to create astonishing tools and weapons. Blackrock blades were soon coveted for their reliability and durability.
The orcs who migrated east found themselves drawn to Tanaan’s lush jungles. The region was filled with primals, and the orcs discovered that their new home was tremendously perilous. Though there was no shortage of wild game, poisonous plants and venomous animals thrived in the jungle. One mistake could lead to a slow, agonizing death. It became commonplace to hear forbidding tales about mighty orcs who were paralyzed by a single snake bite and then dragged away into the wilds by unseen creatures. Moreover, there were dark caves and hollows that seemed to vibrate with sinister power. Sometimes the orcs who tapped into this shadowy essence found glory. Sometimes they found madness.
Tanaan’s orc population adopted a savage, superstitious mindset. Those who kept their sanity called themselves the Bleeding Hollow clan. Those who truly lost themselves to the dark impulses of the wilds were exiled. Over time, they formed another, smaller clan: the Bonechewers, so named for their willingness to resort to cannibalism in times of hardship. The two clans were never allies, but rarely were they at war. The jungle was a dangerous enough enemy for both.
The orcs who traveled west of Gorgrond settled in the bleak and icy region of Frostfire Ridge, named for its brutal winters and volcanic activity. Some of these orcs believed they should adapt to the environment. Two clans, the Frostwolves and the Whiteclaws, learned to hunt alongside the region’s native wolves, even befriending and training them as companions. Other orcs sought to dominate the land. The Thunderlord clan roamed the frozen wastes in huge packs, often hunting the fearsome gronn. A single kill could sustain them for weeks, but when a hunt failed, the orcs would suffer great hardship.
The orcs who ventured south found the rich, fertile land of Talador. Three clans settled in the region’s mountains and plains: the Burning Blade, the Redwalkers, and the Bladewinds.
DRAGONMAW CLAN
In the Orcish tongue, the Dragonmaw clan is called Nelghor-shomash, or “Cry of the Beasts.” The clan earned its name after learning to tame the fierce rylaks, winged creatures that hunted on the outskirts of Gorgrond. The Dragonmaw fondly referred to them as nelghor, or “loyal beasts.” When the clan later encountered dragons in the world of Azeroth, it would apply this term to those creatures as well. All orcs would eventually refer to dragons as nelghor. The name of the Dragonmaw clan never changed, but its meaning surely did.
A fourth clan migrated even farther southwest, deep into Nagrand’s open prairies. It was known as the Warsong clan, and its orcs roamed the grasslands like nomads, rarely staying in the same place for more than a few months. The Warsongs had to constantly fight against the Gorian Empire’s ogres to maintain their presence in Nagrand. Some generations of Warsongs thrived more than others. The clan had a taste for battle, but when its warriors provoked the ogres too much, the consequences sometimes proved disastrous.
To the southeast, another clan formed in Shadowmoon Valley. These orcs dwelled far from major Gorian settlements, allowing them to live in relative peace. The Shadowmoon clan became fascinated with the starry sky, and they believed they could glean the future from stellar movements. The region’s orcs were a deeply mystical people, and they developed traditions and rituals centered around astrology and ancestor worship.
Shadowmoon mystics frequently set out on pilgrimages across the world, hoping to hear the will of the divine. Many of these travelers received strange dreams and visions near the mountains of northwestern Nagrand. Unbeknownst to the orcs, this was the final resting place of Grond. Elemental energies suffused the area, particularly at the base of the mountains. There, the ancient giant’s head formed a small island in the middle of a tranquil lake.
The first Shadowmoon visitors to this place learned about the world’s primordial spirits of fire, air, earth, and water. The orcs treated these beings with the utmost respect, and they named the site of their discovery the Throne of the Elements.
The birth of shamanism among the orcs was a gentle process. These children of stone flocked to Grond’s remains and learned to guide the elemental spirits with open hearts and a sense of harmony. Unlike the ogres, whose ruthless sorcery tore and shaped the earth, the orcs held their power in absolute reverence. And when the elements granted a shaman power, the results were astonishing. Floods could be turned aside. Strong winds could push back arakkoa raiders. No orc had ever seen such miracles. No orc had ever held such ties with the natural world.
THE THRONE OF THE ELEMENTS
The Shadowmoon were the first to dedicate themselves to the elements, and they transformed Grond’s head into a crude temple. Soon, they spread their teachings to other orcs, and nearly every clan adopted the practice. Young orcs were raised from birth to be stalwart, steadfast allies of the elemental spirits. When they came of age, these fledgling shaman traveled to the Throne of the Elements to seek the spirits’ blessing. They entered trances to attune their minds to the elements. Some orcs were found worthy; others were not.
In the act of reaching beyond the veil of the physical world, a few orcs even found themselves communing with dark forces. These poor souls accidentally glimpsed a realm beyond Draenor—the realm of the Void. What the orcs saw drove them insane. The ones who survived were exiled from their clans and forced to live in seclusion in the caves beneath Nagrand. White skulls were tattooed on their faces, marking them as “dead” to their people.
Those orcs who were welcomed by the elements returned to their clans as respected spiritual leaders. Their counsel was highly valued, second only to the words of the clan chieftain. The bond between shaman crossed clan boundaries, allowing them to mediate arguments and solve conflicts peacefully.
The Shadowmoon clan began a biannual gathering of shaman called the Kosh’harg festival. Soon, this meeting grew to include all orcs. The Kosh’harg became a rare time when the clans could put aside their rivalries, share news, foster ties, and feast in friendship.
Despite the growth and migration of the ogre and orc peoples, no clan or empire ever dared to expand into the Spires of Arak. The broken ruins of the arakkoan civilization were thought to be cursed and haunted, and the winged creatures zealously guarded their holdings.
The arakkoa who still called the region home had become dark, troubled, and superstitious. Though they named themselves the “high arakkoa,” they were but a pale shadow of what their race had once been. The glory of the Apexis empire had long ago faded. Only fragments of its knowledge remained, much of it pieced together incorrectly.
A line of kings ruled over the high arakkoa, sharing power with the remnants of the Anhar order. The priesthood still worshipped Rukhmar, but her teachings had become twisted and distorted by time. The Apexis empire had treated Anzu’s sacrifice with reverence, preserving Sethekk Hollow and studying it carefully to learn its shadowy powers. That respect had long since disappeared.
The high arakkoa now used Sethekk Hollow as a place of punishment and execution. Any who disagreed with the Anhari priests were deemed heretics and cast into the region’s pools, which were still cursed from the blood of the wind serpent god, Sethe. Most of the unfortunate arakkoa who were thrown into Sethekk Hollow died. The others were deformed and rendered flightless by the dark energies that inundated the area. They became known as the Outcasts, and they were exiled from all high arakkoan settlements.
Confined to the ground, the Outcasts were forced to contend with a cunning predator in the region: the saberon. This intelligent feline race roamed throughout Draenor. After the fall of the Apexis empire, many saberon tribes had migrated to the Spires of Arak. They delighted in hunting Outcasts, who could not escape into the sky. For a time, only these cursed arakkoa were in danger from the saberon.
Then came a saberon tribe that made it a sport to bring down the arakkoa who could still fly. The Bloodmane tribe and its mighty leader, Pridelord Karash, had grown bored with preying on the Outcasts. Karash trained his followers in the use of nets, ropes, and harpoons. The Bloodmane targeted isolated high arakkoa scouts at first, honing their craft without warning those who lived atop the Spires of Arak.
Once he was confident in his tribe’s abilities, Karash declared war on the high arakkoa. Bloodmane fighters began ambushing large groups of the winged creatures, slaughtering them to the last. This threw the high arakkoa into disarray; for generations they had imagined themselves immune to threats from any “lower” creatures. The Anhari priests struggled to explain why Rukhmar had apparently withdrawn her favor, and the spires themselves came under siege.
The king of the high arakkoa, Terokk, saw his people falling to despair and knew he needed to take drastic action. Before he committed his soldiers to battle, he launched raids by himself, diving into Bloodmane encampments and eviscerating their defenses before a single one of his subjects was put in danger. He single-handedly turned the tide of the war, inspiring other exceptional arakkoa fighters to follow him against suicidal odds.
After months of whittling away the Bloodmane, Terokk cornered Pridelord Karash and slew him, ending the source of the saberon’s tactical brilliance. The war had been won.
The high arakkoa celebrated their king as a living legend, some even declaring that he must be the reincarnation of Rukhmar herself. The Anhari priests grew nervous—until now, only they had been allowed to speak in the sun goddess’s name. Terokk used his widespread support to build a new city in the clouds. It was known as Skyreach, and it would call back to the accomplishments of the ancient Apexis. Terokk even instituted new laws restricting the authority of the Anhar order, declaring that high arakkoan society must be guided by a thirst for knowledge and wisdom, not by fear and superstition.
That prompted the Anhari to action. In the dead of night, the priests kidnapped Terokk and his daughter, Lithic, and cast them into Sethekk Hollow. The next day, the priests told their people that Rukhmar had withdrawn her favor from the king and cursed his bloodline. They called themselves the Adherents of Rukhmar, and they declared that they were to be the stewards of the high arakkoa’s future. Never again would there be an arakkoa king; the priests would jealously cling to control of their civilization until it ended in fire and bloodshed centuries later.
Meanwhile, Terokk struggled to endure his new life as an Outcast. He had survived the fall into the cursed pools, but Lithic had not. The ordeal had left Terokk physically and mentally twisted. Anguished, angry, and alone, he very nearly succumbed to his grief in Sethekk Hollow, but in the darkness, a voice urged him to move forward.
Terokk gathered the other Outcast arakkoa and sought out the source of the mysterious voice. In time, the fallen king understood that he was speaking to the dread raven god Anzu. This astonished the deformed arakkoa—Anzu was revered as a creature long dead, not a being who could still affect the world. The raven god taught Terokk and his followers the secrets of sorcery and shadow magic, giving rise to powerful Outcasts known as talonpriests.
Empowered by Anzu’s guidance, Terokk led the Outcasts to ancient Apexis ruins and built the city of Skettis on their bones. This small refuge served as an anchor for their territory. In time, they would assert dominion over the forests near the Spires of Arak, and their lands would become known as Terokkar Forest.
It was a dark, tormented existence. The curse of Sethekk Hollow tore at Terokk’s mind, bringing him to the brink of total insanity. He desperately sought a solution to his affliction, resorting to brutal methods to find any cure. When he began to sacrifice his own followers, the talonpriests sorrowfully subdued their leader. They sealed him away in the same realm of shadow where Anzu had once hidden, keeping him alive but protecting the Outcasts from his madness.
In the centuries to come, the Outcasts avoided the high arakkoa. Whenever the Adherents of Rukhmar cast out dissenters and heretics, the talonpriests welcomed them into their society. Slowly, the Outcasts grew in number, until their population rivaled that of the high arakkoa.
For generations, orc clans lived on the fringes of the Gorian Empire, trading blows over territorial disputes but never committing to all-out war with the ogres. For their part, the Gorians had little interest in (or fear of) the orcs. The ogres focused their efforts on claiming fragments of Apexis crystals and any other sources of power they could find in the world. Some orc clans sought out these artifacts, too, but only because of the lavish prices ogre merchants would pay for them.
Gorian sorcery had reached new heights of power and structure. The entire system of ogre rule and justice had been codified in support of magic and the wisdom of sorcerer kings, called imperators.
Ogres were amused by the orcs’ practice of shamanism, seeing the tradition as nothing more than quaint trickery to make the wind blow a little harder or a fire burn a little hotter. It wasn’t until ogres witnessed the might of an elder shaman—turning away a flash flood that would have destroyed an orc village—that they began to understand the true power of the elements.
Rather than seeking to learn this power with the same humility and awe that the orcs had, the ogres decided to take it by force. The Gorian leader of this time, Imperator Molok, sent an army into orc territory and claimed the Throne of the Elements for his empire. The incursion enraged the orc shaman, but the clans themselves were not yet stirred to action. The Gorians had not engaged in wanton slaughter; they had simply driven away the orcs.
The ogres eagerly dissected the Throne of the Elements with their arcane spellwork, examining every inch of the site. Unbeknownst to the ogres, this land was the final resting place of Grond, the massive giant empowered by the titan Aggramar.
The Gorian sorcerers never could have imagined the mix of raw titan and elemental power that still lingered in the ancient giant’s remains, and their careless experiments were disastrous. One fateful day, the dissonance between the ogres’ magic and Grond’s residual energies ignited an explosion. The temple the orcs had carved out of the giant’s skull was blown apart and destroyed. The blast killed every Gorian sorcerer inside the structure and left behind only some standing stones that remain to this day.
This act threw the elements out of balance, leading to far-reaching effects. Huge storms lashed across the world, and Draenor’s native spirits descended into turmoil.
And yet, the Gorians sent more sorcerers to replace the ones who had been killed. Imperator Molok was not deterred in the slightest. He now had proof of the true power of the elements, and he was determined to claim it for himself.
The tormented elementals cried out to the orc shaman for help. Finally, the clans were moved to act.
At the next Kosh’harg festival, there was no celebration or revelry, only mourning for what had happened to the Throne of the Elements. The clans’ shaman struggled together to calm Draenor’s native spirits and bring them back into balance, to no avail. Not only were destructive storms raging across the world, but the elementals had been rattled. Within a few seasons, every clan would undoubtedly suffer a famine the likes of which had never been seen, one that might not ever end.
The Shadowmoon clan’s elder shaman, Nelgarm, made an impassioned plea to all of the clans to act. The elements were calling for help. The reckless ogre sorcerers were still meddling with the sacred Throne of the Elements. The world itself was on the verge of suffering irreversible harm.
The clans agreed to join together, and Nelgarm called upon the elements to bless this unity with their protection. The orcs marched to war as a single people.
The clans first descended on the Throne of the Elements. Utterly surprised by the attack, the Gorian sorcerers retreated with little bloodshed. Yet Imperator Molok was quick to retaliate. The armies of the Gorian Empire moved en masse, attacking and slaughtering every orc encampment they could find. Total war engulfed Draenor. Now all orcs were targets. Every village and dwelling, every male, female, and child, had to be prepared to fight.
The Gorians imagined that this merciless tactic would strike terror into the hearts of their enemies. They certainly were not expecting the clans to rise to the challenge. Small, mobile groups of orc raiders slowly dismantled the Gorian Empire’s network of fortresses and trading outposts, pushing the ogre armies back to their capital city: Goria.
ORC CLANS RALLY FOR WAR
Goria’s fortifications were significant, and the orcs saw no reason to waste countless lives breaking them down. They kept their distance on the hills surrounding the ogre city, content to starve out their enemy. The Gorians believed they could outlast any siege; they had ships and an ocean port, which the orcs could only threaten with help from the distressed elemental spirits. Due to the tumultuous state of the elements, the shaman were not as effective in calling on their powers as they once had been.
But as the months passed, the ogres found themselves unable to maintain their empire. They had been wrong in thinking that they could solely rely on trade via the ocean to support their city. It simply wasn’t enough. The ogres needed access to their network of land-based trade routes, which the orcs had severed. Imperator Molok and his sorcerers revisited their Apexis crystals, searching for a way to break the siege. In time, they discovered the ancient arakkoan legend about the Curse of Sethe, and they began experimenting with ways to induce a similar affliction among the orcs.
They succeeded. A new affliction called the “red pox” spread like wildfire through the orcs’ encampments. This wasting disease was highly contagious, lasted for months, and killed many of the infected. The orcs found their number of healthy combatants dwindling rapidly. After consulting the elements, Nelgarm and his fellow shaman learned that this was not a natural disease; it was an unseen attack from the ogres.
Uncertainty took hold in the clan chieftains as they realized that the siege was now doomed to fail—too many orcs would die before Goria succumbed. And with so many warriors ill, a frontal assault against the city was no longer possible. Time was running out.
Nelgarm and the other orc shaman decided to take a very dangerous step to secure victory: they beseeched the elements to annihilate Goria. Never before had shaman made such a violent request. Yet both the orcs and the elemental spirits understood that Imperator Molok would resume meddling with the Throne of the Elements if the clans failed.
The shaman gathered outside Goria’s mighty walls and witnessed the true fury of the spirits. What happened next would never be forgotten.
A roaring storm churned above the city. The ground groaned and trembled. Over the course of hours, lightning and earthquakes brought down every wall and every building inside Goria. Fire enveloped the ruins, sealing off the escape routes and burning the ships in the capital’s harbor. When there was nothing left but ash and rubble, the earth itself wrenched open like a giant maw, and Imperator Molok and the remains of his great city were swallowed whole.
Untold thousands of ogres died that day. The elementals let none survive. Only whispers of the event would reach the other Gorian cities and outposts, but those whispers would be enough to discourage any further tampering with the elements.
The orcs stood victorious but not jubilant. They had suffered tremendous losses, and they had witnessed a destructive power they never wanted to see again. Nelgarm and the other shaman were particularly frightened by the elementals’ wrath. They said that the need for a unified army had passed and that the clans should go their separate ways.
There was little argument. The clans returned to their lands, but life had changed forever. The red pox never truly disappeared. Every few generations, an outbreak would wreak havoc among the clans.
The Gorian Empire never recovered. The ogres’ remaining fortresses—particularly Highmaul and Bladespire Hold—secured their own territories. They would gradually become more akin to individual city-states than a unified nation. The Gorians sought no retribution for the loss of their capital, for they feared what else it would cost them.
With Goria itself gone, ogre territory was far more vulnerable. Many orc clans seized chunks of their enemy’s land by force. More and more, orcs surpassed ogres to become the most advanced, dominant race in the world.
That would soon change.
Ages before the fall of Goria, events transpired that would one day change the orc race’s future…
Far from Draenor, Sargeras and his Burning Legion defeated the titan Pantheon. Now nothing could oppose the demons and their quest to destroy all life in the universe. Yet Sargeras needed new allies to continue his work. His ranks of demons were wild, difficult to control. He required lieutenants and tacticians who could help him guide the unruly Legion, and he found them among a highly intelligent race called the eredar.
Led by three wise rulers—Archimonde, Kil’jaeden, and Velen—the eredar had turned their world, Argus, into a paradise that held knowledge and philosophy in high esteem. When Sargeras corrupted these beings, most of them willingly accepted their fate. They reveled in the opportunity to act as the Legion’s commanders, and they brought the demonic army into line.
A number of eredar resisted. Velen was the sole leader who did not give himself over to Sargeras. He led other dissidents on a daring escape from Argus—an escape that was only possible with the help of beings known as the naaru. These creatures of the Holy Light were sworn protectors of the cosmos and its inhabitants, and they had foreseen the eredar’s corruption.
For thousands of years, Velen and most of the draenei—or “exiled ones,” in the eredar tongue—fled from the Legion, seeking a refuge in the cosmos. They traveled between the physical universe and the Twisting Nether aboard a dimensional fortress called the Genedar. This naaru-powered vessel could transport the draenei across vast distances.
It had been a dangerous journey. Velen’s draenei had successfully evaded almost all contact with the Legion, and the demons had little luck in tracking them. With three naaru aiding the renegades—K’ure, K’ara, and D’ore—the draenei could sense the approach of their hunters. Every time that happened, the exiles would pull up stakes and disappear into the stars.
Velen knew that his people would never have a chance to resist the Legion with force until they found a world to settle. Until then, the Genedar was the draenei’s only true home.
But traveling through the cosmos required incredible amounts of energy. The naaru’s spirits had to bear the burden of this extended journey, and over time, they weakened. As their radiant energies flagged, the Genedar threatened to fall apart.
The naaru knew that the time for running had come to an end. They found a world the Legion had not yet touched, and they called on their dwindling powers in a desperate attempt to reach it.
Velen and his renegades would name this world Draenor, or “Exiles’ Refuge.”
The final journey to Draenor was catastrophic. One of the naaru, K’ara, lost touch with its connection to the Light, and Void energies began to consume it. Such was the fate that awaited many of these holy beings. Though Light and Void were opposing forces, they were inexorably linked together. When a naaru was weakened or pushed to the verge of death, its radiant energies would dim. The fading Light would then give way to its polar opposite: the Void.
K’ara’s final act was to convince the draenei to eject it from the Genedar. This was not easily done. Void energy now coursed through K’ara’s body, and instinctively, the being went to war against the other weakening naaru. Their energies clashed within the Genedar, and the chaos of the battle threatened to kill anyone who interfered. Velen stepped in anyway, using the Light to shield the two naaru from their corrupted kin and cast K’ara away from the vessel. For centuries to come, the darkened being would drift in the skies above Shadowmoon Valley.
Velen’s heroics had saved the draenei, but there were consequences. The battle had injured him and sapped much of his strength, both physically and mentally. His ability to foresee future events became unreliable, and it would take him centuries to fully recover.
The other two naaru were too weak to land the Genedar on Draenor safely. The vessel plummeted to the ground, killing D’ore and many of the draenei aboard. When the smoke cleared from the crash site, all that remained of the ship was a crystal mountain.
The draenei who survived emerged from the Genedar into a strange new world. The naaru K’ure told them to leave the wrecked ship immediately. The being knew it was decaying much as K’ara had, and it did not want them to be exposed to the Void. Velen and his draenei were truly alone, and as far as they knew, this would be the last world they would ever see.
Velen, injured but unwavering, led his people onward. Their surroundings were vibrant but dangerous, a world filled with many mysteries and wonders. Velen’s first act was to create an order called the Rangari, survivalist scouts who would explore their unfamiliar home in search of resources—and threats—that might impact the draenei’s future.
In time, they found plenty of both.
THE GENEDAR CRASH-LANDS ON DRAENOR
Since leaving Argus, Velen had received constant visions of the future from the naaru and the Holy Light, earning him the name “Prophet.” Countless threats had been avoided because he’d seen them coming and guided his people away from the danger. Now the naaru could no longer lead the draenei, and Velen’s injuries made his foresight unfocused, drifting between possibilities and certainties.
His visions had also grown frightening. When he touched the darkened K’ara, he had seen into the mindset of the chaotic, evil creatures that lurked within the Void. Not only could Velen see possible futures, but now he could see the Void’s desired futures. It was difficult to distinguish the visions of true calamity from glimpses into the Void’s dreams of a corrupted universe.
Velen decided that it would be disastrous if he were the only leader among his people. His judgment was no longer without fault.
Velen formed a council of sages that would oversee different aspects of draenei culture. The first of these “exarchs” was Naielle, the leader of the newly forged Rangari. She led her followers by example, spending most of her time in the wilds with the other scouts.
The second exarch was charged with guiding draenei engineers—the Artificers—in building armor, weapons, and settlements. Hataaru was tremendously skilled, and he had already learned how to shape Draenor’s raw materials. Among his first creations were arkonite crystals. They served as conduits of arcane energy, which brought light and power to draenei society and also allowed them to build constructs to protect their homes from danger.
The third exarch, Akama, was placed in charge of the draenei Vindicators. As warriors of the Light, Vindicators defended the draenei from the dark forces that lurked in their new home.
The fourth and final exarch was Othaar. The Genedar’s naaru were either dead or slowly decaying, but some of their holy energies lingered. The draenei had also recovered D’ore’s remains. They did not yet know whether the fallen naaru was dangerous, or exactly how much of it had been consumed in Void energy. It fell to Othaar to study D’ore and its kin, analyze them, and hopefully learn enough to communicate with the other naaru and draenei beyond Draenor. Othaar became the leader of the Sha’tari, an order dedicated to this cause.
The Rangari scoured Draenor for a place to build a permanent settlement. They discovered a prime location that no other creature had settled, a site protected by mountains and with access to the sea.
Unbeknownst to the Rangari, this had once been the ogre city of Goria. Draenor’s other societies remembered the elemental rage that had consumed it, and none had any desire to resettle that land. The draenei had no such memories, and thus, no such reluctance. Velen led his people there and established the city of Shattrath, a word meaning “Dwelling of Light” in the draenei’s tongue. Artificers labored day and night to erect buildings, crystals, and roadways, laying the foundation for the draenei civilization to grow and expand.
As the draenei worked, a strange phenomenon caught their attention. One of the Sha’tari, Maladaar, sensed that something was happening to the souls of draenei who had died in the Genedar’s crash. The remains of the naaru D’ore had drifted deeper into a Void state, and they were attracting these spirits. Most shocking of all, once the souls arrived at the naaru, living draenei found that they could communicate with their fallen brethren.
Nothing like this had ever happened before in the history of eredar society. Velen immediately directed Maladaar and a group of Sha’tari to move D’ore’s remains to a secluded place. They found a location on the outskirts of Terokkar Forest that was a safe distance from all other civilizations. The Sha’tari then built an immense mausoleum to house D’ore. After they had moved the naaru’s remains within the tomb city, the draenei spirits followed.
The site became known as Auchindoun, “a Home for the Honored Dead,” and Maladaar was named as the fifth exarch on the draenei council. He would lead an order called the Auchenai. Maladaar and his followers would be responsible for communing with the draenei dead and protecting their souls from harm.
As Shattrath City flourished, Velen urged the draenei to avoid settling too far outside the stronghold. He did not want to disturb the orc and ogre civilizations in the region.
Within a few years, he changed his mind. As the Rangari explored Draenor, they discovered more and more signs that the crash of the Genedar had caused serious harm to the world. The impact had unleashed a mix of arcane, Light, and Void energies that were warping the local flora and fauna. Primals and breakers were emerging from their enclaves, fighting openly with whatever creatures they could find. The plant life on Draenor was far more aggressive than on any world Velen and his people had ever visited, and it seemed dangerous to ignore it.
Velen decided that it was the draenei’s responsibility to fix what they had broken. Groups of Artificers, Rangari, and Vindicators established outposts and cities across Draenor, linking them to the world’s arcane ley lines. The greatest of these new settlements was the Temple of Karabor. Tucked away at the eastern edge of Shadowmoon Valley, it would soon become one of the draenei’s holiest and most beautiful sites.
Over time, by using arcane and Light energies, the draenei were able to repair the damage done to Draenor. The primals and the breakers quieted within a few decades, and the harm seemed to be contained.
This expansion brought the draenei into contact with other races. Velen made it clear to the exarchs that he expected his people to avoid conflict with native creatures. But his hopes of keeping the orcs and the ogres free of any ill effects from the draenei’s arrival were quickly dashed.
The Shadowmoon orcs had always been sensitive to signs of divine power, and they saw meaning in the movements of celestial bodies. When K’ara’s remains appeared in the sky, the clan’s mystics called the manifestation the “Dark Star” and worshipped it as a deity.
A few bold shaman tried to access K’ara’s shadowy power. Touching the fallen naaru’s Void energies shattered their minds. The Shadowmoon soon decided that the Dark Star’s power was not meant to be wielded by mortals. Anyone who tried was sharply rebuked, and if they continued, they would be immediately exiled far from Shadowmoon Valley.
The decaying naaru trapped within the Genedar’s crystal wreckage also had an effect on orc society. Just as D’ore’s remains had begun attracting the souls of fallen draenei, K’ure began attracting the souls of dead orcs. Once the clans discovered this, shaman made frequent pilgrimages to the crystal mountain, which they named Oshu’gun, to speak with their ancestors.
Some of the orc spirits, suffused with Light energies that lingered in the Genedar, now had wisdom far beyond what they had known in life. Advice from these ancestors often proved prescient, and clans that obeyed the spirits’ words were usually overjoyed at the results.
This turn of events deeply troubled the draenei. Though D’ore’s remains were emitting Void energies, all that was left of the naaru was a small part of its original form. Yet K’ure was fully intact, and the dark powers bleeding from it seemed incredibly potent. The draenei did not know what the long-term effects of this would mean for the world or the orcs, and the Sha’tari order’s quiet missions to study the Genedar yielded no answers.
Every action they could think to take would potentially cause disaster. If the orcs were cut off from their ancestors, they might go to war; if K’ure were to suddenly fall deeper into the Void, there was no telling what horror might result. In the end, the draenei did nothing.
As they feared, K’ure’s Void energies would later have detrimental effects on the orcs. When the draenei had crash-landed on the world, a small society of orcs who dwelled under Nagrand had taken notice. This society was composed of exiles who’d been banished from their clans because they had tapped into the Void and lost themselves to madness during their shamanic rites of passage. For generations, these outcasts had gathered in caves below Nagrand, their faces tattooed with the white skull that marked them as pariahs.
The exiles expanded their tunnels under Oshu’gun to investigate the strange newcomers. In time, they tapped into the Void energies that bled from K’ure and seeped into the ground.
Through the study of this power, the outcasts began communing with the void lords. These monstrous entities responded to the orcs, bombarding them with visions of apocalypse and revealing the secrets of using shadow magic. The influx of Void energies would gradually turn the exiles’ skin a sickly white, and they would call themselves the Pale.
Apart from creating the Pale, K’ure’s dark energies had little immediate effect on the orcs. In the decades that followed, some clans engaged in trade with the draenei, but most kept their distance. It was not uncommon for orc scouts—particularly young and curious ones—to survey draenei settlements from afar.
Some orcs believed the draenei were divine creatures; others did not. No one considered them to be a real threat. As far as the orcs were concerned, the reclusive draenei were not much more than a passing curiosity.
The ogres, however, saw the draenei’s isolation as a sign of weakness.
The ogres had been aware of the draenei since the first day they arrived. The blazing ball of fire slamming into the ground had attracted considerable interest, and scouts from Highmaul had kept a close watch on the draenei’s expansion across Terokkar Forest.
When Shattrath was first built, there was an explosion of anger within Highmaul. The draenei were newcomers, smaller and weaker than ogres, and yet they were bold enough to build a city on the bones of the Gorian Empire’s great capital? It was seen as an unforgivable insult.
And yet Shattrath’s sleek construction and otherworldly defenses gave the ogres pause. Nothing like the draenei’s technology had ever been seen on this world. Their weakest apprentices had more refined and effective magical techniques than even the most advanced ogre sorcerers.
When a new leader seized control of Highmaul, he declared that he would conquer Shattrath. Imperator Hok’lon, a gifted arcanist himself, believed that the draenei had stolen their power. Perhaps they’d had some skill before, but they had built their city atop Goria. Who knew how much hidden knowledge was left beneath the old capital? It had been the greatest center of Gorian power, the place where all apprentice sorcerers had trained.
Hok’lon incited his people to wage war by publicly sneering at the draenei, calling them “usurpers.” He promised that Highmaul would become the center of a new, enlightened Gorian Empire once the draenei were slaughtered. The ogres would not even need to rebuild their city. The draenei had already taken care of that. Highmaul’s aristocracy threw their support behind Hok’lon, eager to claim the extraordinary new city for themselves.
Though the ogre army that marched on Shattrath vastly outnumbered the draenei, it did not matter. The city’s defenses easily repelled Highmaul’s first attack. There was never an opportunity for a second.
As the ogres regrouped, Rangari and Vindicators launched surprise attacks from multiple directions, stabbing deep into the ogres’ ranks. Akama led an elite force of holy warriors that included two of his greatest followers: Maraad and Nobundo. They found and killed Hok’lon and his generals, leaving Highmaul’s forces in disarray. Rather than slaughter the rest of the ogres, the draenei immediately called off their attack and returned to Shattrath.
Velen then appeared on Shattrath’s ramparts, wreathed in the scintillating Light. He issued a single statement, his voice rumbling through the heavens: “Go home, and you will not be harmed.”
The ogres needed little encouragement. They fled. The grandiose war that was meant to revive the Gorian Empire had fallen after one attack, with an unexpectedly small death toll. The Highmaul ogres never tried a frontal assault on the draenei again.
Before the ogres’ attack on Shattrath, the orcs had seen the draenei as mostly harmless. That was no longer the case.
Word of the swift resolution to the Highmaul aggression spread quickly. The draenei’s command of arcane and holy magics was unlike anything the orcs had ever seen, and that unfamiliarity resulted in suspicion. The gathering of the orc clans at one of that year’s Kosh’harg festivals was quite tense. Some clans resolved to avoid all contact with the draenei. Others decided to treat them as enemies, vowing to attack the strangers if they ever strayed into orcish territory. The fact that the draenei had taken care to minimize ogre casualties was seen as a weakness. A few orc chieftains speculated that the draenei hated fighting and would shrink away from a worthy opponent.
The Kosh’harg ended with no consensus, just unease. The draenei had never shown aggression toward the orcs, after all. Most clans were content to keep their distance.
Yet the Bladewind clan took a different approach. Since they inhabited the area between Terokkar Forest and Nagrand, they knew of the draenei’s favorite trade routes and caravan schedules.
When a number of caravans went missing on a single day, Velen and the exarchs took notice. The burning remains of the traders were soon discovered. Among the draenei dead were orc corpses bearing Bladewind clan tattoos. It was obvious who had launched these raids. Most distressingly, some of the draenei traders were missing; the orcs had taken prisoners.
Many draenei wanted to retaliate. Forcefully. Velen forbade it. He allowed the Rangari to launch covert missions to rescue prisoners, but an offensive campaign against the Bladewind orcs would only lead to calamity. The clan was not large. It would be relatively easy to defeat, but orcs were not known to surrender. The war would not end until nearly all the Bladewinds had died— and then what? Would the other orc clans be cowed? That was not in their nature.
Velen did not want war, but he also knew that the orcs respected bravery in combat. Future caravans were well guarded, often by squads of Vindicators openly displaying weapons that glimmered with the Holy Light. Any orc raiders who confronted the traders were usually defeated. Sometimes caravans fell, and sometimes more prisoners were taken.
The Rangari managed to save a number of draenei prisoners, but not all. These few poor souls were forced into slavery for the rest of their lives. Some of them bore children for their masters. Their half-breed offspring were reviled and scorned by both draenei and orc cultures.
The Bladewinds soon developed a respect for the Rangari and the Vindicators. Raids only took place on lightly guarded caravans or when the orcs were led by the particularly bold (or foolish).
As the years wore on, a new balance took hold on Draenor between the orcs and the draenei.
Blood would be shed on both sides in occasional skirmishes. Yet not all encounters between the two races were violent. An example of this was when two young orcs named Orgrim Doomhammer and Durotan crossed paths with the draenei.
One day, both of these youths would become great leaders. One day, both would change the destiny of the orc race in their own ways.
Orgrim hailed from the Blackrock clan, and Durotan from the Frostwolf clan. They had met at one of the Kosh’harg festivals. As the clan chieftains had discussed current events and trade agreements, Orgrim and Durotan had challenged each other in feats of strength and willpower. Their rivalry had blossomed into a friendship that would last for many years to come.
Though friendship between members of different clans went against longstanding tradition, the Frostwolf and Blackrock elders permitted Orgrim and Durotan to maintain their bond. One summer, the youths met at the border between Frostfire Ridge and Gorgrond. They had been warned not to stray beyond this point, but Orgrim and Durotan were not orcs prone to following the rules.
They set out into the thick forests of Terokkar, where they were attacked by an enraged Highmaul ogre. Orgrim and Durotan were strong, but they could not match the ogre’s might. The brute descended on the youths, but he never had the chance to kill them.
Rangari scouts had been tracking this ogre, who had strayed deep into draenei lands. The Rangari emerged from the woods and felled the brute with their arrows. The draenei hunting party’s leader, Restalaan, admired Orgrim’s and Durotan’s bravery, yet he knew they were in great danger from other ogres who were prowling the forests. He offered a safe haven in the nearby settlement of Telmor.
Orgrim and Durotan were wary of the draenei, but they accepted the offer. They had never been inside a draenei settlement. Few orcs had. They were shocked by the draenei’s hospitality, but even more so by the wondrous technology and craftsmanship of Telmor.
Orgrim and Durotan’s arrival in Telmor was also fortuitous for the draenei. Velen was in the city to meet with Restalaan. After hearing of the two newcomers, he requested an audience with them. Of late, Velen had been experiencing strange dreams of the orcs, in which he saw them united and marching for war. In some of these visions, the Prophet also saw a great shadow slowly creeping over Draenor.
Due to his lingering injuries, Velen was not sure whether these premonitions had any truth to them, but he was determined to find out. While meeting with Orgrim and Durotan, Velen observed the two orcs carefully. Yet he did not find any darkness stirring in their hearts. Much to the contrary, the youths seemed proud and honest.
Under Velen’s orders, Rangari scouts escorted Orgrim and Durotan back to the borders of Gorgrond. Their stay in Telmor had been short, but the two youths had learned much about the draenei. They returned home with tales of the hospitality that had been shown to them, and of the extraordinary sights they had seen.
This event would mark one of the last peaceful encounters between orcs and draenei.
