by Blizzard
As Gul’dan and his warlocks prepared for the meeting of the orcs, Ner’zhul planted an anonymous missive to Durotan among Shadow Council orders that were bound for the Frostwolf clan. In the message, he urged the chieftain not to follow Gul’dan’s command at the upcoming gathering, or Durotan and his people would suffer a fate worse than death.
The Shadow Council would never know of Ner’zhul’s actions.
A top the mountain that loomed near the Citadel, Gul’dan addressed the gathered chieftains. He unveiled a pool of Mannoroth’s smoldering blood, but he did not reveal its true source. Gul’dan simply announced that the green liquid was a gift from the gracious beings who had taught the orcs fel magic. Now, these same benefactors wanted to give the clans something more. By drinking from the pool, the orcs would be granted a strength akin to that of gods.
Gul’dan challenged the chieftains to accept this gift, and Grommash Hellscream was the first to step forward. Always one to show his fearlessness, the Warsong chieftain drank deep of Mannoroth’s blood. A hush fell over the orcs at what happened next. Grommash grew taller, and his muscles bulged as power flooded his veins. A hellish red glow blazed bright in his eyes. With a mighty war cry, the Warsong chieftain howled for the blood of the draenei.
The other orcs in attendance would not be denied this power. Nearly all clamored to drink and experience the rush of might that Grommash had. Only a few would hold back, including Orgrim Doomhammer and Chieftain Durotan.
Durotan had received Ner’zhul’s anonymous missive, and he had taken the warning to heart. Knowing that speaking out against the Horde at this time would mean death, he stayed silent. Yet he would not allow his clan to partake of Gul’dan’s “gift” under any circumstances. Durotan simply refused to drink, claiming it was his choice to make.
This act of defiance infuriated Gul’dan. He was already suspicious of the Frostwolf chieftain. Now he wondered if Durotan had discovered something about the Burning Legion and its plans to enslave the orcs. Gul’dan’s patience with Durotan was wearing thin, but with the assault on Shattrath approaching, he could not afford killing the chieftain and upsetting the Frostwolves.
Orgrim also rejected the offer to drink. Much like Durotan, he’d grown concerned with the Horde’s bloodthirsty nature and its rampant use of fel energy. The Blackrock warrior had looked on with horror as the magic dried up Draenor’s pristine rivers and killed its bountiful forests. Deep down, Orgrim knew that something was amiss with Gul’dan’s gift.
To avoid drawing suspicion, Orgrim claimed that he was not worthy to drink from the same cup that Blackhand had; after all, he was but a servant of the warchief. Orgrim’s plan worked. Both Gul’dan and Blackhand saw his refusal to drink as a sign of servitude.
HELLSCREAM DRINKS DEMONIC BLOOD
The orcs who drank Mannoroth’s blood reveled in power as their bodies twisted and swelled with might. All hesitation, fear, and uncertainty faded from their minds. These same effects would gradually spread throughout the rest of the Horde. Though not every orc had drunk Mannoroth’s blood, those who had would radiate an invisible aura of fel energy. It would slowly seep into the skin and bones of nearby orcs. Eventually even Durotan, Orgrim, and others who had not tasted demon blood would find their skin turning completely green.
At the gathering place, the orcs who had consumed Mannoroth’s blood beat their chests and screamed for the heads of draenei.
Warchief Blackhand would give them what they wanted. That very night, he ordered the Horde to march on Shattrath City en masse.
The orcs set out, and Gul’dan infused the mountain at their backs with fel energy. The earth groaned and split, and gouts of fire erupted from the ground. Gul’dan claimed it was a sign of their impending victory, just as the erupting volcano had heralded their conquest of Karabor. The sight of the trembling mountain filled the orcs with unbridled courage. In time, this broken mountain would become known as the Throne of Kil’jaeden.
THE MAG’HAR
One group of orcs would remain unaffected by these fel energies. They were individuals who were infected by the red pox and quarantined in Garadar. Among them was Grommash Hellscream’s own son, Garrosh.
Due to their isolation, the infected would not turn green like the rest of their race. These orcs would eventually become known as the Mag’har, or the “Uncorrupted.”
Shattrath was doomed. Velen had foreseen it.
In the weeks after Karabor’s fall, the Prophet had suffered from visions of apocalypse. He had seen a blood-red sky over Shattrath, weeping poison that twisted his people into monsters. He had seen thousands of brave draenei males, females, and children cut to pieces by the orcs. And he had seen Shattrath, their beloved refuge, consumed in a roaring inferno of fel fire.
Though Velen still questioned the certainty of his visions, he would not take any chances. The draenei could not hold Shattrath forever. That much was clear.
At first, Velen called for the full evacuation of Shattrath, but that would only momentarily forestall the Horde. The orcs would continue hunting the draenei until they were sure they’d destroyed them all. Velen and his followers agreed to another plan. Many of the draenei civilians would flee to safety, but the bulk of their military would remain in Shattrath. They would sacrifice their lives to make the Horde believe it had destroyed them. It was a terrible burden to place upon Shattrath’s defenders, but the draenei didn’t shy away from this duty.
Velen vowed to be one of these defenders. He had abandoned Karabor to the Horde, and he would not do the same to Shattrath. He would die protecting the city if need be. The exarchs argued against this. In their hearts, they knew that Shattrath was doomed to fall. If their race had any hope of survival, it would be under Velen’s wise leadership. After a full day of heated discussion, they finally persuaded the Prophet to leave Shattrath.
While the clans were setting out from the Throne of Kil’jaeden, Velen and the exarchs made their preparations. The Prophet led many civilians to Telredor, a remote temple built upon an island in the Zangar Sea. Meanwhile, Rangari scouts harassed the Horde lines, slowing their approach. In Shattrath itself, the Vindicators shored up their defenses.
As the clans approached Shattrath, Kil’jaeden’s ethereal form appeared before them. He no longer saw the need to stay hidden now that the orcs had shackled their souls to the Legion.
Kil’jaeden revealed himself as one of the benefactors who had gifted the orcs with fel magic and other powers. To help them crush the draenei and topple their stronghold, he would once again give them weapons. He granted knowledge of new destructive spells to the warlocks—spells that would drive fear into their enemies’ hearts.
Meanwhile, Gul’dan unveiled a devious weapon his Shadow Council had crafted for the siege. The warlocks had melded their magics with the red pox and created a volatile concoction that would spread the plague to the draenei. The Shadow Council loaded the mixture into crude bombs, which were then lobbed against Shattrath by siege engines.
The bombs exploded against Shattrath’s walls and released a foul mist that burned the draenei’s skin and choked the breath from their lungs. A thick red fog enveloped Shattrath’s battlements and shrouded the approaching Horde army from sight.
As the mist wreaked havoc among Shattrath’s defenders, the orcs flooded through breaches in the city walls. Using the spells Kil’jaeden had taught them, warlocks summoned fiery green meteors from the heavens and sent them crashing against Shattrath’s ramparts. These smoldering rocks arose as enormous demons known as infernals.
Maraad, Akama, Nobundo, and thousands of Shattrath’s other defenders stood firm against the Horde’s onslaught. They knew they were doomed, and their only wish was to take as many orcs as they could with them.
Amid the brutal fighting, the remaining draenei refugees scrambled to flee from the city. Some of these groups were led by Maraad and his fellow Vindicators. Though the holy warriors did not wish to flee the fighting, they knew the importance of saving innoc
ents. Many of the Vindicators did not succeed. Rivers of blood flowed through Shattrath’s streets, temples, and courtyards. No one was spared from the marauding Horde.
It was not long before Shattrath fell. Many of the Horde’s soldiers lay dead alongside the slain draenei. It had been the orcs’ costliest battle yet, but they had won.
Despite the victory, Gul’dan was troubled. Velen had once again escaped. The warlock feared that Kil’jaeden would be furious about this development. Gul’dan had not yet been contacted by the demon lord, and he hoped to track down the Prophet before he was. He immediately dispatched Garona to hunt for Velen, and the Shadow Council assassin committed herself to the task. She would spend years scouring Draenor in search of the Prophet, but she would never find him.
Thousands of draenei perished in Shattrath, but their sacrifices had allowed many civilians to escape.
A number of Vindicators, priests, and Rangari also survived the initial attack. They retreated to the tomb city of Auchindoun in the hopes of defending it from the Horde. Auchindoun was the holiest draenei site in the world, and these defenders could not bear the thought of the orcs desecrating their ancestors or the naaru housed within.
Exarch Maladaar organized the military forces that came to Auchindoun. They fortified the tomb city’s catacombs and awaited the inevitable Horde attack.
Gul’dan knew of the draenei presence in Auchindoun, and he feared that they might call upon the spirits of their ancestors to wage war against the Horde. The warlock dispatched Teron’gor and his most powerful Shadow Council agents to prevent this from happening.
Teron’gor and the other warlocks stormed Auchindoun and met fierce resistance from the tomb’s defenders. Though the warlocks’ powers were mighty, so were the draenei’s Light-given abilities. Maladaar and his followers also received aid from Auchindoun’s spirits. The draenei and their ancestors slaughtered many of the Shadow Council’s agents.
Victory was slipping through the Shadow Council’s grasp. As Maladaar and his forces closed in, Teron’gor called on his remaining allies. Using the new knowledge Kil’jaeden had shared with them, the warlocks pooled their powers and reached beyond the veil of reality. They hoped to summon a powerful demon into the world, one that would strike down their enemies.
In their wild desperation, the warlocks summoned something far different.
An otherworldly elemental creature known as Murmur materialized within Auchindoun, pulled to Draenor from a distant corner of the universe. The shockwave of its arrival ripped the earth asunder, killing many of the draenei and blasting apart the tomb city. Murmur’s destructive energies rolled out from Auchindoun in waves and leveled the surrounding forests.
MAP OF DRAENOR DURING THE WAR BETWEEN THE HORDE AND THE DRAENEI
Exarch Maladaar and a handful of his draenei used their magics to shield themselves from the blast. Though they survived, they no longer had the numbers to resist the Shadow Council. Teron’gor and his warlocks overwhelmed the draenei and bound them in chains. The Shadow Council then contained Murmur deep within Auchindoun. A few warlocks stayed in the tomb city to keep the creature from getting loose and wreaking havoc on the Horde.
In the years that followed, the charred, lifeless land around Auchindoun would become known as the Bone Wastes. It would serve as a bitter reminder of all that the draenei had lost.
A uchindoun’s destruction signaled the death knell of the draenei on Draenor. Though Velen and some of his people had survived, their culture was no more. They were refugees once again, but this time they were trapped on a dying world filled with the Burning Legion’s agents.
Velen ordered his Artificers to reinforce Telredor’s defenses. The draenei smiths constructed a network of arkonite crystals that shrouded the temple’s presence from the Horde.
As the months passed, Vindicator Maraad and other draenei survivors trickled into Telredor. They spoke little of the horrors they had witnessed at Shattrath. They would carry those memories with them in silence, their hearts and minds scarred forever.
Other survivors were burdened by more than just mental scars. Vindicators Akama and Nobundo were among the unfortunate draenei who had succumbed to the Horde’s red pox. The vile concoction had twisted their bodies, causing them to become smaller and shriveled. These cursed draenei even found that their connection to the Holy Light had been severed. The Krokul, or “Broken,” as some of these individuals were called, were not welcomed by the rest of their race. Telredor’s populace feared that the mutants would spread their affliction to healthy draenei. Despite calls by Velen and Maraad to accept the Broken, they were eventually driven from the refuge.
Akama, Nobundo, and other Broken struck out into the wilds to fend for themselves. The red mist affected some of them in different ways. The unluckiest of the Broken degraded into creatures called the Lost Ones. They became even more physically deformed, and they gradually lost their grip on sanity. This was the eventual fate that awaited every Broken. All that the mutants could do was hope to find some means to cure themselves or slow their degeneration.
Other draenei survivors would found enclaves across Draenor. Velen would later travel among these different safe havens, both to prevent himself from being captured by the Horde and to help his people however he could. Despite his efforts, the draenei would live in constant fear of tomorrow. They never knew when the Horde might uncover their hideaways. Telredor would remain the largest and most important of these sites. As time passed and fel energy continued killing the world, the sea around the island would dry up and form a swampy mire called Zangarmarsh.
As the orcs were wiping out the draenei, Warchief Blackhand dispatched scouts to keep him apprised of Draenor’s other civilizations. He planned to conquer them one day, but the destruction of the draenei was paramount. Once Shattrath had fallen, Blackhand turned his full attention to the rest of the world’s inhabitants.
Chieftain Kilrogg led the Bleeding Hollow on a campaign into Farahlon, a lush island that served as the last bastion of the primals. Its isolated location also made it one of the few places on Draenor that were unsullied by fel magic. The forests there were dense, but Kilrogg and his followers were well adapted to fighting in such terrain.
Reaching the island proved difficult. The orcs were not seafarers, and they relied on ogre shipwrights to build vessels capable of crossing the ocean. Once in Farahlon, orc warlocks leeched life from the primals and used the stolen power to set the forests alight. As the wilds burned, Kilrogg and his army slaughtered every botani and genesaur they could find.
Meanwhile, the Warsong and Twilight’s Hammer clans toppled the ogre bastion of Highmaul. Chieftains Grommash and Cho’gall both took part in the siege, and both relished the opportunity to slay ogres.
For Cho’gall, the siege of Highmaul was particularly gratifying. It was an opportunity to enact vengeance upon those who had exiled him from the city. He sought out and killed the stronghold’s leader, Imperator Mar’gok. Both were two-headed ogres. Both were gifted sorcerers. Yet only Cho’gall had learned the secrets of fel magic and the Void. Armed with these powers, he bound Mar’gok to his throne and burned the rival ogre mage alive.
Elsewhere, Blackhand tasked the Frostwolf, Thunderlord, and Whiteclaw clans with wiping out the world’s gronn, ogron, and magnaron, as well as many ogres.
Apart from the Highmaul, most ogres had already joined the Horde. However, there were a few holdouts. Blackhand had no interest in winning their loyalty. He had given them a chance to join him. Now he wanted the brutes dead.
The Frostwolves and the Whiteclaws saw no honor in hunting down the gronn, ogron, magnaron, and ogres. They held most of their warriors back. Yet Chieftain Fenris and his Thunderlords did not shy away from the task. They reveled in the slaughter of their ancient enemies.
REXXAR AND THE MOK’NATHAL
Blackhand also considered annihilating the mok’nathal, but he stayed his hand. One of the half-breeds, Rexxar, had joined the Horde and convinced the wa
rchief to spare his people.
Rexxar was the son of the mok’nathal leader, Leoroxx. The young half-breed did not agree with his father’s isolationist philosophies. Rexxar longed for glory in battle. He also believed that the Horde could help the mok’nathal find new sources of water and food. Though Rexxar would devote himself to the Horde, he would later learn that its purpose was not noble.
One of the few gronn to escape the Horde’s onslaught was known as Gruul. He lorded over a small number of ogres and gronn in Gorgrond. Gruul far surpassed the rest of his kind in brute strength and cunning. From his remote lair in the mountains, he fended off multiple Thunderlord assaults. Casualties grew so great that Fenris abandoned the attacks.
The high arakkoa in the Spires of Arak posed one of the greatest challenges to the Horde. This intelligent race had rediscovered ancient Apexis technology. From this knowledge, the high arakkoa had fashioned an immense cannon atop their lofty capital, Skyreach. The mechanism would harness the fiery power of the sun to defend their lands from the Horde.
Warchief Blackhand called on Kargath Bladefist to deal with these arakkoa. The vicious chieftain formed an invasion force from the Shattered Hand, Burning Blade, and Dragonmaw clans. The lightly armored but highly mobile army stormed the forests surrounding Skyreach, but the invaders were not prepared for the high arakkoa’s weaponry. Upon seeing the orcs approach, Skyreach’s defenders ignited their cannon. A searing beam of fire exploded from atop Skyreach and lanced across the forests, incinerating dozens of orcs where they stood.
Rather than mount another direct assault, Kargath sought allies in nearby Terokkar Forest: Outcast arakkoa. These wingless creatures hated Skyreach and its inhabitants. More importantly, they knew the high arakkoa’s secrets. Kargath struck a bargain with the Outcasts. They would infiltrate the high arakkoa’s city and destroy their weaponry. Once they’d succeeded, the orcs would join the fight and slaughter the remaining high arakkoa. The Outcasts could then claim Skyreach for themselves.