Draenor

This article is about the main-universe world of Draenor prior to its destruction. For what it became after its destruction, see Outland. For the alternate-timeline Draenor featured in Warlords of Draenor, see Draenor (alternate universe). For Draenor in the Warcraft film universe, see Draenor (film universe).

Draenor
Type	World
Races	Orc  Draenei  Ogre Ogron  Gronn Magnaron Colossal Botani Podling Draenor ancient Genesaur Sporemound Arakkoa Saberon Fury
Languages	Orcish, Draenei, Ravenspeech, Ogre
Location	Great Dark Beyond
Status	Largely destroyed; remnants transformed into Outland

“Draenor was a land of magma and metal, stone and steam.”

— Annual 2015

Draenor (/ˈdrænːɔr/ DRAN-or), called Dawgar ("the Known Earth") by the ogres and Rakshar ("the Sunstone") by the arakkoa, was the homeworld of the orcish race and the last refuge of the draenei before their arrival on Azeroth. It was a large, fertile world dominated by vast plains, dense forests, and lush swamps. Besides the orcs and draenei, it was originally home to many other intelligent humanoid races, including the ancient, bird-like arakkoa, the vicious, cat-like saberon, the mighty ogres and their brutal gronn masters, and the aggressive tree-men known as botani.

Due to the fel corruption, the planet was transformed into a barren husk of badlands and hardscrabble vegetation, all under a blood-red sky; the planet was then referred to as the "Red World". When Ner'zhul recklessly opened dimensional portals to find new worlds to conquer, Draenor was torn apart and believed completely lost, however, a large fragment of the world remained intact, which became known as Outland.

Background

Grond and the Evergrowth

Grond fighting the last sporemound, Botaan.

Unlike Azeroth, Draenor formed without a titan worldsoul. Abundant in the element of Spirit, life flourished, creating a savage ecosystem with a fierce and competitive food chain. At the top of the food chain was a carnivorous plant species known as the Sporemounds, which would eventually gain communal sentience with the rest of Draenor's plant life after tapping into the Spirit that suffused the planet's soil, becoming collectively known as the Evergrowth. If any major threat arose, the Evergrowth reacted in unison; however, such threats were non-existent, for the Evergrowth dominated everything in sight.

When the titan Aggramar came across Draenor in his travels, he foresaw its doom at the unchecked expansion of the Evergrowth. Unwilling to leave Draenor to its fate, yet unable to combat the Evergrowth himself lest he risk damaging the world itself, Aggramar created Grond, a mighty servant formed from a mountain in his image. Grond began marching across the world to conquer the Evergrowth, conquering the Sporemounds and tearing them from the earth. Draining the life essence of the surrounding forests and jungles, three Sporemounds arose and walked to face Grond: Zang, Naanu, and Botaan. Although they fought in unison, Grond's elemental might allowed him to crush Zang and Naanu. Zang's corpse would become the Zangar Sea, and Naanu became Tanaan Jungle.

Despite these victories, Grond began to weaken and eventually fell to Botaan; his body crumbled, and much of his corpse then formed a mountain range at the edge of a region that would later be called Nagrand. Grond's death also released the primordial elemental energies that once gave him life, allowing the elemental spirits of Draenor to take physical form. The greatest among the elementals, the Furies, would come to dwell near the remains of Grond's head, which would become known as the Throne of the Elements.

Other life arose from the battles between Grond and the Sporemounds. From the pieces of the Sporemounds emerged a number of plant beings, the most powerful of which were the genesaur. The debris that fell off Grond became the colossals, who, with Aggramar's aid, would continue Grond's fight against Botaan and the new genesaur in the titan's absence. From the bodies of fallen colossals, the magnaron arose, and though they felt no loyalty towards their progenitors, still opposed the Evergrowth and fought the genesaur that crossed their paths. After millennia of constant fighting, the remaining colossals launched a final, suicidal attack on Botaan using titan relics given to them by Aggramar to aid in their battles. The resulting explosion destroyed both parties, scattering their remains. The remains of the colossals sank into the earth and formed veins of blackrock ore, and Botaan's corpse would become the region of Farahlon, the communal sentience of the Evergrowth finally destroyed.

In the years to follow, new beings would arise from those created from the bodies of the colossals and the Sporemounds. When Botaan died, it released spores infused with the Spirit of Life, changing elemental beings into flesh and blood. This would lead to the rise of the gronn, then the ogron, the ogres, and the orcs. From the forests and jungles touched by Botaan's spores came plant creatures, such as the podlings, sporelings, and botani. This era would later be known as the Age of Colossals.

The Apexis civilization

Main article: Apexis

Map of Ancient Draenor in Chronicle Volume 2.

Long ago, the arakkoa were created by the god Rukhmar atop Gorgrond's highest peak. Three thousand years before the opening of the Dark Portal, Rukhmar breathed her last breath, and her children vowed to create a grand civilization that would outshine any other culture on Draenor in order to honor her. Calling themselves the Apexis, they claimed the highest reaches of the Spires of Arak, embracing both Light and Void as natural parts of life. Two factions formed within the Apexis: the Anhar order studied holy magic, while the Skalax studied shadow and arcane magics.

As the arakkoa solidified their power in Arak, they also began to explore the rest of Draenor; though not expansionists, they were curious. Outposts were forged across the land to observe local flora and fauna, and by studying and mapping the forests and mountains they were in awe when they realized that many of these were the remains of ancient creatures that had once walked Draenor. Based on stories from Rukhmar, the Apexis realized the Primals and Breakers were the primordial giants' offspring. They watched the endless warring between the two with pity and fascination. However, they never intervened; they had inherited a touch of Rukhmar's arrogance, and to play a part in the lives of land-dwellers was seen as beneath the Apexis.

The Apexis civilization in the Spires of Arak.

Centuries after defeating the Evergrowth with the Breath of Rukhmar, and 1,200 years before the opening of the Dark Portal, the Apexis had flourished into an empire. They saw themselves as the most powerful force in the world, that not even the mightiest of Primals had been able to contend with. The Anhar and Skalax became the caretakers of wisdom with the duty of cataloging history, the study of magic, and information about the world and its various creatures. Rather than keeping this knowledge in tomes or scrolls, the Anhari and Skalaxi sorcerers combined their magic to develop Apexis crystals. By merely touching one of the crystals, an arakkoa would consume all of the knowledge contained within and even experience the memories of whoever had crafted it.

Though Apexis culture seemed destined to continue its rise, a rivalry developed between the Anhar and Skalax as each vied for the support of the greater populace, and to seize power, they had to control knowledge through the Apexis crystals. After a few years, the civil war engulfed the spire for many months, and to turn the tide of the conflict the Anhari harnessed the Breath of Rukhmar. As the weapon prepared to incinerate the Skalaxi, Sorcerer-Lord Salavass weaved a spell to destabilize the weapon. It worked, but the result was catastrophic: a furious explosion erupted and instantly killed most of the arakkoa on the spire. The explosion had split Arak's spire into many smaller spires, and the surrounding region was left a barren wasteland. 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, and the Age of Order was over, but from its ashes new cultures would arise.

The Gorian Empire

Main article: Gorian Empire

The ogre capital of Goria in Talador.

The ogres believed that they were the first beings to be created by the Forgers, shaped from burning slag when the god-like beings squeezed the light from the great ball of fire that was Draenor.

Two hundred years after the fall of the Apexis, a remnant of the Skalaxi led by Yonzi led to the rise of the ogre Gorian Empire, when they taught them arcane sorcery to rebel against their ogron slavemasters. They did this to obtain Apexis ruins under the city of Goria, but the ogre they had taught - Gorgog the Gronnslayer - killed Yonzi slowly and gruesomely. Arakkoa ventures into ogre lands became few and far between, and the ogres began to prize Apexis crystals.

The ogres ruled from Goria for six hundred years. This was until Imperator Molok attempted to claim the Throne of the Elements and the elements themselves. This ignited a great war between the ogres and the orcs, as the latter came to the defense of the spirits and eventually laid siege to Goria. While the orcs were content to keep their distance on the surrounding hills, starving out their enemy, the Gorians believed they could outlast any siege thanks to their ocean port. However, as the months passed, the ogres found themselves unable to maintain their empire, as trade via the ocean was not enough. Imperator Molok and his sorcerers revisited their Apexis crystals, searching for a way to break the siege. In time, they discovered the arakkoan legend about the Curse of Sethe, and began experimenting with ways to create a similar affliction. They succeeded, and soon the so-called red pox spread like wildfire through the orcs' encampments, culling vast amounts of their forces.

The orc Nelgarm and his fellow shaman, realizing that the pox was an unseen attack from the ogres and that the siege was now doomed to fail, beseeched the elements to destroy Goria. The orcs and the elemental spirits both understood that Molok would resume meddling with the Throne of the Elements if the orcs failed, and so the elements agreed to unleash their fury upon Goria. What happened next would never be forgotten: a roaring storm churned above the city as the ground groaned and trembled. Over several hours, lightning, fire, and earthquakes ravaged the city, bringing down every wall and building, sealing off the escape routes, and burning the ships in the harbor. When nothing but ash and rubble remained, the earth itself wrenched open like a giant maw to swallow Molok and the remains of his great city whole.

Untold thousands of ogres died that day; none were left alive by the elementals. 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 were victorious, but they had suffered massive losses and witnessed a destructive power they never wanted to see again. The need for a unified orc army had passed, and as there was little argument, the clans returned to their lands.

Arrival of the draenei

The Genedar crash-lands on Draenor.

Nearly 200 years before Azeroth's First War, the draenei crashed upon this remote world in their naaru vessel, the Genedar. They believed that this world would be an ideal refuge for their millennia-long exodus and named it Draenor, which meant "Exiles' Refuge" in their tongue; since the native orcs did not have a name for the planet—other than simply "world"—they eventually adopted the Draenei term. The settlers quietly cultivated their society once again and kept their magic hidden, ever wary of being discovered again by the Burning Legion's forces. The draenei also built Shattrath City in the location where the city of Goria once stood. The talbuks that they had brought along from their homeworld of Argus proved capable of surviving on their own on the new world, becoming integrated with the native ecosystem.

Their arrival, however, placed a literal dark burden on the planet. One of the naaru on board, K'ara, was severely injured in the crash and flung into orbit where it entered the 'darkened' stage of a naaru's life-cycle. As a dark naaru, its presence was felt by the orc clan who dwelled in the Shadowmoon Valley who called it the 'Dark Star'. Some of its members even began to channel the darkness that K'ara produced, allowing them to defile the dead and summon Void creatures. In horror, the chieftain of the Shadowmoon clan banned the use of shadow under any circumstances.

Rise of the Horde

Main article: Old Horde

This section contains information that needs to be cleaned up. Reason: Needs a full rework with Chronicles info + sources.

For generations, the orcs lived in a clan-based, shamanistic society that existed in deep harmony with the surrounding natural world, though they frequently clashed with ogre clans and occasionally the reclusive Primals. Their peaceful way of life, however, ended when the Shadowmoon clan's chieftain, Ner'zhul, was tricked into forming an alliance with the Burning Legion. When he attempted to back out of the deal, his apprentice Gul'dan eagerly betrayed and succeeded him. Gul'dan's manipulations transformed the orcs into a unified army of bloodthirsty conquerors, ultimately leading them to drink the blood of the demon lord Mannoroth and become bound to the will of the Legion. The warlock magics wielded by the corrupted orcs turned much of Draenor's vibrant landscape into a dusty wasteland as they, under orders from Mannoroth's master Kil'jaeden, decimated the draenei, enslaved the ogres, and took dark dominion over the world. Velen, leader of the draenei, survived the orcish genocide and fled with the remnants of his people to the fungal swamps, where they once more hid themselves from the gaze of the Legion. Before the Orcish Horde could destroy itself in its bloodlust, Gul'dan, acting in concert with the possessed human Medivh, opened the Dark Portal, connecting the worlds of Azeroth and Draenor. The orcs spilled through into an unsuspecting world and started a new war – one that would ultimately pave the way for the Burning Legion's second invasion of Kalimdor.

Destruction of Draenor

Main article: Outland

This section contains information that needs to be cleaned up. Reason: Needs a full rework with Chronicles info + sources.

The Destruction of Draenor in Shadow Wing.

Despite its surprise assault and demonic backing, the orcish horde was eventually beaten back by the forces of the Alliance of Lordaeron, and Draenor became the focus of a furious counterattack via the same Dark Portal the orcs had used to invade Azeroth. In the midst of the ensuing battle, the elder shaman Ner'zhul attempted to provide his fellow remaining orcs a means of escape by opening more dimensional portals to other worlds; his reckless use of magic backfired, however, and the presence of so many portals began to tear the very fabric of the planet apart, causing massive tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanoes to erupt.

In a desperate bid to save Azeroth from the impending chain reaction, the ill-fated but heroic Alliance Expedition closed the Dark Portal from Draenor, trapping themselves there even as it began to crumble beneath their feet. Draenor's remnants were hurled towards the Nether and they became known as Outland.

Though Ner'zhul's gambit had doomed Draenor itself, it did not doom his people: Many orcs managed to weather the savage storm of Draenor's end, while others escaped the destruction of their homeworld by remaining in Azeroth during the Alliance counterattack. Of these survivors, some would go on to be captured and enslaved, others would eke out a living as free but listless warriors on the fringes of a foreign world, and one would even prove strong enough to rise from the ashes of a broken land. Their deeds would go on to deeply affect Draenor's future – or perhaps, more accurately, its past.

Of the draenei and Alliance present on Draenor at the time, many of the former survived, though mutated, and managed to cobble together a meager existence in the wilds of the shattered world. Others, notably Turalyon and Alleria, were saved by the naaru prime Xe'ra and recruited into her Army of the Light to crusade against the Burning Legion.

Alternate timeline

This section concerns content related to Warlords of Draenor.

Main article: Draenor (alternate universe)

In Year 31 ADP, Kairozdormu brought Garrosh Hellscream to an alternate version of Draenor, thirty-five years in the past. The bronze dragon described it as similar to the past of their own, but "not a perfect mirror image". Believing that Azeroth wasn't strong enough to take on the Burning Legion alone, Kairoz's plan was for Garrosh to gather the orcs into a new Horde, then to cultivate an infinite number of Hordes drawn from all the timeways to destroy the demons. His fatal error came when he turned his back on the former warchief, who immediately stabbed Kairoz to death with the shard of the Vision of Time. The former warchief then manipulated this universe's version of Grommash Hellscream into binding the orc clans into a single force, united by their iron will and called the Iron Horde. Equipped with advanced goblin technology, the Iron Horde eagerly pursued their new destiny as free-willed, but equally cruel and bloodthirsty conquerors.

Geography

• Ashran, known as Deathwing's Lair during the invasion of Draenor.
• Barrier Sea, known as the Devouring Sea during the invasion.
• Farahlon, sundered into Netherstorm when the planet was destroyed.
• Frostfire Ridge and Gorgrond, later merged as the Blade's Edge Mountains when the planet was destroyed.
• Nagrand
• Talador, changed into Terokkar Forest and the Bone Wastes.
• Tanaan Channel, known as the Shadowed Seas during the invasion.
• Tanaan Jungle, scorched into Hellfire Peninsula before the Second War.
• Shadowmoon Valley
• Spires of Arak, destroyed alongside the planet although Skettis remained in Terokkar Forest.
• Zangar Sea, transformed into Zangarmarsh at an unknown point.

Outposts and cities

The territories of the orc clans.

Draenei settlements

• Shattrath City (draenei capital)
• Auchindoun (necropolis)
• Temple of Karabor (sanctum of the Prophet)
• Farahlon
• Sha'naar
• Telmor
• Telredor

Horde settlements

• Hellfire Citadel (Horde capital)
• Black Temple (formerly Temple of Karabor)
• Fortress Shadowmoon
• Fortress Auchindoun
• Zeth'kur
• Zeth'Gor

In the RPG

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

Draenor ceased to be a material world, and its barely-hospitable remnants were rechristened Outland – the torn fragments of a once verdant realm cursed to float in the darkness of the Nether until the end of time.

Notes and trivia

• The land visited in Outland is only what remains of the central continent; others exist on the planet, but were destroyed when Draenor was shattered into Outland.
• The draenei temporarily visited dozens of worlds aboard the Genedar, but not all of them were aboard the ship. After the crash of the Genedar, it was said that there were still other naaru and draenei besides those left stranded on Draenor.
• The rivers of Draenor were filled with moray.
• Interestingly, Varok Saurfang within the Icecrown Citadel raid, has a noteworthy voiceline in which he mispronounces Draenor as "Dray-nor" which is a uniquely inconsistent pronunciation with the rest of the franchise, where it's typically "Dran-or." This is likely the source of a large portion of the playerbase mispronouncing Draenor's name.
  • This is especially amusing when he declares he named his son Dran-osh after Dray-nor.

Gallery

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  A map of the world of Draenor around the Dark Portal.
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  Another map of Draenor.
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  Draenor as seen in the PlayStation version of Warcraft II.

Fan art

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  Draenor from space.

Videos

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• The Ordering of Draenor