by Blizzard
The Apexis applied their magics to the creation of mechanical constructs that could do their bidding. The arakkoa had always been arrogant, and they became even more so after their victory. They deemed those who walked the world’s surface to be unclean. The Apexis used their constructs to mine metals from the earth and gather resources from the ground.
Religion also defined the Apexis and their daily lives. The Anhari priests constructed a gleaming sun temple around the mechanism they had used to annihilate Taala. Hundreds of arakkoa gathered at this site each year to commemorate the Apexis victory and honor Rukhmar.
Other arakkoa visited shrines carved into the solid rock near the foot of the spire. There, Skalaxi sorcerers performed rituals to honor the raven god, Anzu, and his ancient sacrifice.
PRIMAL, BREAKER, AND APEXIS TERRITORIES OF ANCIENT DRAENOR
The Apexis culture seemed destined to continue its rise, but such was not the case. A bitter rivalry developed between the Anhar and the Skalax orders as each vied for the support of the greater populace.
The Anhari knew that to seize power over their race, they would need to control knowledge. The order’s leader, Priest-Lord Velthreek, told his followers to gather as many of the Apexis crystals as they could. Over a number of years, the Anhari did so in secret. They hoarded the crystals and stored them within their sun temple atop the spire.
The Skalaxi and their leader, Sorcerer-Lord Salavass, eventually uncovered what was happening. They believed that knowledge was a basic right for all arakkoa and that it should be available to every member of their race. Salavass called for the immediate release of the crystals from the sun temple.
Velthreek ignored the demand. He declared the Anhari the sole rulers of the Apexis. The order would decide who could access the crystals and their knowledge. In addition, Velthreek claimed that he and the Anhari were the living representatives of Rukhmar herself. Therefore, following the order’s teachings was the only way the arakkoa could attain the sun goddess’s favor.
Salavass was a cunning arakkoa, and he foresaw what would happen to his order if they did not act. The Skalaxi would become marginalized in society, and they would gradually lose influence. The sorcerer-lord gathered his followers and struck at the sun temple. If the Anhari would not share the Apexis crystals, the Skalaxi would take them by force.
At the gates of the sun temple, a terrible battle erupted between the two orders. It quickly spilled into the lower levels of the spire. Some arakkoa sided with the Anhari; others, with the Skalaxi. For many months, a civil war engulfed every corner of Apexis civilization. To turn the tide of the conflict, the Anhari harnessed the Breath of Rukhmar. They ignited the colossal weapon and prepared to incinerate the Skalaxi and their followers.
Against the Breath of Rukhmar, Salavass knew that the Skalaxi were doomed. Yet he would not give in. He led a handful of his most gifted sorcerers to the top of the spire. They stormed through the Anhari guardians and reached the Breath of Rukhmar itself.
As the Anhari cut down the intruders, Salavass wove a spell to destabilize the Breath of Rukhmar. It worked, but the result was catastrophic.
A furious explosion erupted from the mechanism, instantly killing most of the arakkoa on the spire and shattering the land. After the light of the blast dimmed, all was dark.
The explosion had split Arak’s single spire into numerous smaller stone towers. The surrounding region was left a barren wasteland. In time, it became known as the Spires of Arak. It would take generations for life to bloom in the area again, and even longer for the surviving arakkoa to recover from what had happened.
The Apexis society was no more, but from its ashes new cultures would arise.
THE REBIRTH OF RUKHMAR
During the height of the Apexis culture, a small group of Anhari priests sought out the remains of Rukhmar. They found her charred bones near the spire, and they used their magics to resurrect the great bird. The Anhari succeeded, but only partially. This new Rukhmar had but a sliver of the original deity’s power and intelligence. Nonetheless, the Apexis worshipped her as the goddess reborn. The Anhari infused her with their Light powers, granting the fire bird a long life so she could soar the skies for millennia.
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.
MAP OF ORCCLAN LOCATIONS ACROSS DRAENOR
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.