User:GoldenYak/The Upper Kingdom Subregions
Upper Kingdom Subregions
Listed below are summaries of the various subzones located in the Upper Kingdom of Azjol-Nerub.
Ahn'Dirac, the Silent Temple
A nerubian place of worship, dedicated to one of the Old Gods, a being whose named must forever remain Unspoken, lest she hear it and awaken. Thus, the nerubians forbade any noise at all within the temple walls, and so it was named the Silent Temple. The temple has been abandoned by the nerubians since the fall of the Spider Kingdom, but it is still inhabited by creatures known as the Voiceless Ones. These octopus-like horrors drift through the air in utter silence, and often descend from the high arching ceilings of the temple. The slightest sound will attract their presence.
The upper areas of the temple swarm with spiders and mindless Scourge remants, while lower reaches of the temple are infested with Undying Tendrils. Any combat in the region will begin to attract the attention of the Voiceless Ones. A particularly lethal creature is of whispered in stories as Fatahn the Murmurer.
Ahn'Kahet Outer Quarter
Ahn'Kahet was once a thriving nerubian city, known as the Old Kingdom. It became the scene of terrible fighting between the nerubians and the undead Scourge, and the years of near constant battle have left Ahn'Kahet a crumbling ruin. The Scourge occupied the upper quarter of the Old Kingdom for years until the fall of the Lich King, and some mindless undead still linger. The lower quarter of the city was held by cultists of the Twilight's Hammer, where they conducted rituals of worship for their masters, the Old Gods.
The outer quarters of the city are being slowly reclaimed by the new generation of living nerubians. Remnants of the Scourge yet remain, and though they are not guided by a necromancer or other intelligent force, they have instinctively flocked to the side of a flesh giant called Grindor.
Ahn'Kahet Fallen Temple
The heart of Ahn'Kahet, the Fallen Temple was a nerubian place of worship for thousands of years. When the Scourge swept it clean and left it abandoned, the Twilight Scourge moved in and began conducting dark rituals, calling up Faceless Ones from the deepest, darkest reaches of the underworld. Though agents of the Horde and the Alliance made efforts to liberate the temple from the darkness controlling it, the Cataclysm forced them to redirect their efforts elsewhere, and the corruption has slowly returned.
The Fallen Temple is much larger than the area formerly occupied by the Faceless Herald, Volzaj. The deeper reaches of the temple are infested with Undying Tendrils, and agents of the Twilight Scourge are calling up more Faceless Ones with their rituals. The Twilight forces at the heart of the temple are conducting sacrifices to aid in the regeneration of the Herald Volzaj. The Faceless One's disembodied essence lingers in the temple, directing their efforts. The leader of the coven is known as Twilight Lord Ansem.
The Burning Pit
Located beneath the volcanic region of Wintergrasp, this cavern is a blazing furnace. Natural stone bridges criss-cross ravines, while rivers of glowing magma flow deep below. The Cataclysm has stirred the volcanic vents to release plumes of ash and cinder into the air, filing the cavern with choking clouds and stifling heat.
Raging fire elementals prowl the area, and molten giants can be spotted wading through the lava flows. A deadly breed of spider, the Lava Crawler, infests this area, and their webbing is not only durable, but resistant to flame - a valuable resource in Azeroth's underworld. An especially large and vicious specimen has been nicked-named Cinderlegs by explorers.
The Cinderbog
This once verdant underground marsh has become poisoned by the clouds of ash from the Burning Pit, turning it into a blackened, festering mire. Giant mushrooms collapsing with rot and smeared with soot tower above murky waterways and hillocks of moss, while everywhere spores and ash fall like black snow.
Water elementals and swamp beasts both dwell in the bog, driven mad by the poisoning of their home. Vicious predatory fish prowl the deeper waters, and they have been driven into a ravenous frenzy as their usual prey has become scarce. A massive specimen of amphibious cave fish called Ashgill has claimed the limbs of several unwary travelers already.
City of Webs
This precinct of the Spider Kingdom has become home to spiders, the verminous creatures ranging from minute to colossal in size. Webs are woven throughout every hallway and arch, every staircase and spire, smothering everything under a shroud of silk. Webs are spun so thickly in some areas that they can be traversed as bridges. The air above the City of Webs is swarming with flying spider-beasts, and the lowest streets are so infested that tiny spiders cover everything like a living carpet.
The flying spiders that choke the air over the city are a hazard to anyone attemtping to enter by flying. Enormous spiders the size of gronn stride through the wider streets and bridges, and the deepest levels are so infested with spiders that anyone venturing there is afflicted with constant distractions from the crawling, biting swarm. The largest spider of them all, Lord Kumongous, has been responsible for many deaths among both the Alliance and the Horde explorers in the area.
Doorward Underhalls
When Baelgun Flamebeard and his expedition ventured into the Spider Kingdom for the first time, none of them imagined the horror they would encounter. When they began to comprehend the full extent of the terrors they would face in Azeroth's underworld, they vowed they would give their lives before they let those terrors free to ravage the surface world. To this end, they seized and fortified a large portion of the Upper Kingdom against all assault. They named it Doorward, a gateway between the light and the darkness that they would keep closed at any cost.
While the upper portions of Doorward are secure, many of the lower halls are still infested with nerubians, mindless undead, and worse. The Doorward Underhalls form a max-level 5-man instanced dungeon.
The Flooded Precinct
When the nerubians began barricading themselves in their temple-cities, they inflicted terrible tolls on the Scourge attempting to dislodge them. The Scourge responded by tunneling into underground waterways and flooded several regions of the Spider Kingdom. The Shadowfrost Falls feed into this new undergound lake, with spires of nerubian buildings piercing the surface. Many ancient nerubian vaults and temples lay drowned in the frigid depths.
Secrets known only to the nerubians lie within the flooded chambers of the Spider Kingdom, as well as treasure and ancient artifacts. Anyone seeking them out must deal with freezing temperatures and vicious underwater predators. A tribe of cave murlocs have begun spreading into the region under the guidance of a shaman nick-named Blackblue.
Ley Line Fracture
The damage done to Azeroth's ley lines by the machinations of Malygos have only worsened with the devastation wrought by the Cataclysm. When Malygos was slain, the unleashed power of the ley lines erupted throughout the Upper Kingdom, destroying several precincts and bathing the surrounding ruins in arcane energy. Shimmering rivers of light spiral upwards into the distant cavernous ceiling, and fragments of nerubian buildings float suspended in the air, kept aloft by the ley line's power.
The ley line fracture has blasted through several layers of the Spider Kingdom, and some ruins stretch as many as seven stories down. Mindless undead and angry wraiths prowl the lower regions, while mana wyrms and arcane elementals have manifested in the upper regions. Arcane rifts are appearing in the ley line stream high overhead, and several blue dragons have arrived in the area to aid adventurers in sealing them. The blues are in great fear of a strange arcane creature they call The Malevolence, who has some connection to Azeroth's ley lines.
Library of Ancient Weavers
The sages of Azjol-Nerub were some of the longest lived magic users in the world, rivaled in their knowledge of arcane lore only by the oldest dragons. The library of Azjol-Nerub held thousands of scrolls woven from spider silk and inked in blood and venom, each scroll containing more lore than an entire shelf from the libraries of Dalaran. Tragically, none of the knowledge saved the nerubians from the onslaught of the Scourge, who ravaged the library as uncaringly as they devastated the rest of the Spider Kingdom. Many irreplaceable records of ancient lore were lost, but the nerubians succeeding in hiding away some of their precious knowledge.
The Library has become a stronghold for the Twilight Scourge, who seek to uncover what the nerubians managed to hide. The lower levels of the library contain elaborate ritual chambers, filled with ancient relics and glowing with nerubian spell circles. The Twilight Scourge have begun performing summoning spells, seeking to draw forth terrible elementals of darkness unlike anything the natural world has seen. The blue dragonflight and the Kirin Tor seek to stop them, but one of their number may find the lure of the nerubian's forbidden knowledge too great.
Naz'Amun, the Crawling City
The heart of the Upper Kingdom. Naz'Amun is composed of a large central cluster of buildings with eight nerubian towers encircling it, each tower joined to the central city by ornate bridges. From above, the entire complex resembles an immense spider, hence it's name the Crawling City. The city is built over a ravine that stretches down into utter darkness, a pit that is crossed and recrossed with nerubian bridges and spider webs.
Naz'Amun is the first region of the Spider Kingdom where a new generation of living nerubians have establish a foothold. These creatures are slavishly devoted to the Old Gods, and have been welcomed into the fold by the Twilight Scourge in Northrend. Some areas on the Crawling City are still infested with mindless undead, who ravage and kill without direction from the Lich King. The 5-man dungeon instance, Naz'Amun the Crawling City, is located here.
Pit of Narjun
Once a well-concealed sinkhole in the surface of Dragonblight, the Pit of Narjun has opened like a terrible maw, becoming a massive passageway leading down into Azeroth's underworld. At the bottom of the jagged, twisted path lies the ruins of Icemist Village, once the capital settlement of the taunka race. The ruins lie amidst tons of fallen ice and stone, and the spirits of the taunka wander among the twisted remnants of their home, lamenting their fate without truly understanding it.
Horde and Alliance forces have set up camps around the outskirts of the ruins of Icemist. The Pit of Narjun yawns widely in the cavern cieling overhead, but no light can penetrate down from the surface through the dark mist that hangs around the region.
The Scourgewall
Built along the northern edge of the Upper Kingdom overlooking the cavern far below, this immense structure is one of the greatest achievements of the nerubian race. Unlike much of the Spider Kingdom, it is a relatively recent construction, built during the war with the Lich King and the Undead Scourge. The structure served, for a time, to halt the Scourge advance against Azjol-Nerub - the nerubians could make hit and run attacks against the Scourge and then scale the wall to safety, while the undead could not follow. But as nerubian casualties began to increase, the Lich King soon had an army of undead nerubians, to whom the mighty Scourgewall was no obstacle at all.
The Twilight Scourge are massing a terrible force at the Scourgewall under the command of Twilight Champion Yebor. They are reinforcing their numbers with troops from the Inner Kingdom, where they are strongest. Horde and Alliance forces have planned bombing runs to thin out their numbers, but they must also contend with flying nerubian creatures. If the Scourgewall is taken, the Twilight reinforcements from the Inner Kingdom will be halted.
Shadowgrasp Cavern
This frigid cavern lies beneath the land of Wintergrasp. The lakes eventually flow all the way underground into the Spider Kingdom itself. A freezing pool lies at the bottom of the cavern, home to creatures that have never seen the light of day.
The vast natural energies of Wintergrasp have reached even this deep place, and elementals appear in great numbers. Air elementals waft through the cavern on currents, while water elementals stride the cold deeps of the lake. Shadow elementals are particularly abundant throughout the cavern.
Shadowfrost Falls
An immense series of waterfalls that flow from the waters of Wintergrasp. The freezing waters falling over the black ice walls of Shadowgrasp Cavern give the falls their name. The constant warfare in Wintergrasp has caused hundreds of bodies to be washed into Azeroth's underworld, and the refuse of innumerable battles litters the nearby riverbanks.
The unusually high natural energies of the region, combined with the lost corpses of hundreds of soldiers lost in battle, has caused hordes of marauding revenants and insane elemental spirits to arise. Creatures of frost and shadow prowl the falls, and the unquiet dead are beginning to stir. The Alliance camp of Glacierfall has recently been established here, with forces there dedicated to keeping the Twilight Scourge from exploiting the gruesome resources of the region.
Shadowgrove
Though the Spider Kingdom is deep under the surface, far from the sun, plantlife still finds a way to survive. Giant mushrooms, fungi, moss, creeper vines, glowpod trees and more grow and thrive, feeding off of underground streams, mineral rich earth, and the ambient elemental energy of the region. The Shadowgrove is one such underground forest which grows along the southern caverns of the Upper Kingdom.
One of the few regions not prowled by mindless undead, rampaging elementals, or marauding nerubians. Instead, the local wildlife supplies all the danger. Cave bats, spiders, and strange lifeforms never before seen by surface dwellers live among the towering mushrooms and glowing plants.
Shadow Web Gate
This large nerubian gate is the only passage through the Scourgewall to the Shadow Web Caverns. The gate is an immense round portal emblazoned with a stylized spider. Living nerubians have seized the region and it's surrounding fortifications, and the forces of nearby Doorward are locked in pitched battle to drive them away. Attacking the Inner Kingdom from the Upper Kingdom would be suicide - the Twilight Scourge forces in Ahn'Saron are too heavily entrenched. The only hope of attacking the Inner Kingdom is to travel through the Shadow Web Caverns and attack on the Twilight's undefended front.
Gatekeeper Krk'avetch is a nerubian champion of the new generation in command of the forces at Shadow Web Gate. He has vowed to hold the gate at all costs to prevent any threat from advancing deep into the Spider Kingdom. Alliance and Horde forces will be forced to go through him if they wish to advanced into Shadow Web Cavern.
The Shattered Precinct
The area now known Shattered Precinct was once the temple-city of Zevan'Lah, where one of the pivotal battles of the war with the Scourge was fought. As undead hordes swarmed through the temple-city, nerubian viziers gathered together in great numbers and focused their magical powers into a single mighty spell, a fiery cataclysm that would have swept the undead from the Upper Kingdom. But the reach of the Lich King was longer than the nerubians realized. As the spell neared completion, the mental force of the Lich King speared outwards, disrupting the delicate balance of arcane energies. The spell detonated within the nerubian ranks, reducing hundreds of the Spider Kingdom's greatest mages to ash in an instant, and tearing apart Zevan'Lah.
The burned out temples of the Shattered Precinct are infested with wandering undead and restless spirits. Zevan the Venomous, the unquiet spirit of a nerubian vizier, has recently manifested himself in this area, his ceaseless screams of fury ringing out amongst the ruins, reliving the final moments of his life over and over again.
Wintergrasp Fortress Undervault
The massive Titan fortress located in Wintergrasp extends deeper than many have realized. The substructure reaches far down into the Spider Kingdom, its foundations having been laid long before the nerubians founded their kingdom in Azeroth's underworld. The Titans designed the upper regions of the fortress, the Vault of Archavon, to guard the relics of their original arrival. The lower section of the fortress, the Undervault, was constructed later for another, darker purpose.
Elementals have been bound into the defense of the Undervault, and will attack anything that approaches. The Vault of the Titans dungeon entrance and the Degaton's Vault raid entrance are located in this area.
Quest and Travel Hubs
Web Wrecker Outpost
In response to the grave new threat posed by the forces of Azjol-Nerub, Warchief Hellscream has reorganized the Horde forces in Northrend into a new offensive - The Nightmare Soldiers. No Horde force has ever set foot in the Spider Kingdom before, and the Web Wrecker Outpost is the first Horde territory to be seized from the nerubians.
The Nightmare Soldiers were forced to establish the Web Wrecker Outpost camp from scratch, and are lacking in many supplies and organized fortifications. They will depend on veteran champions of the Horde to secure supply lines and exploit the resources of the region.
Burning Edge Camp
Entrenched into the black stone walls of the Burning Pit, the Horde seeks to harness the elemental fire power of the region and quiet the raging elements. Goblin alchemists have also identified the silk of the Lava Crawler spiders as a valuable material for fashioning rope and rigging, and are hoping to acquire live specimens.
Flamebeard Reach
Upon learning of the trials undergone by Baelgun Flamebeard and his expedition in Doorward, his old ally Muradin Bronzebeard organized a strike force of Alliance troops to travel into the depths of Azeroth and lend their support. This strike force, the Deep Savers, has established the outpost of Flamebeard's Reach, the staging ground of the Alliance's campaign into the Spider Kingdom.
Glacierfall Point
Established on the frozen shores of the Shadowfrost Cavern, the Deep Savers at Glacierfall strive to calm the raging water elementals of the Shadowfrost Falls and to turn the elemental power of water against the forces of the Twilight Scourge. A salvaging operation has been set up to retrieve the armaments of the souls lost in the endless battles for Wintergrasp on the surface.
Doorward
The fortress of Doorward was once a nerubian ruin. Baelgun Flamebeard and his expedition forces seized the ruin and have repaired much of the outer structure, fortifying it against marauding nerubians, mindless undead, and the other dangers of Azeroth's Underworld. Baelgun Flamebeard himself directs the efforts of his forces inside, and has put out the call for any worthy adventurer to join his ranks and stand firm against the rising darkness.
The upper chambers of Doorward are firmly held, but the lower Underhalls are still filled with dangers. Many brave expedition members have been lost in the depths, driven to madness by dark whisperings or taken by some slavering horror.
Dungeons
Doorward Underhalls
Sealed within the lower levels of Doorward are many dark and dreadful beings that Baelgun's expedition have faced over the years. Many brave souls have ventured into the Underhalls to slay a terrible monster, or to recover the remains of a cherised loved one, only to disappear into the darkness forever. With the devastation wrought by Deathwing's Cataclysm, the old horrors of the dark and been stirred into a frenzy, and are renewing their assault upon the defenders of upper Doorward. Mad howls and mind-wrenching chanting well up from the depths, and the spell-casters of Doorward can sense a loathsome ritual being conducted far below.
Only a short time ago, priestess Mudra Gloryhammer and several of her companions ventured into the Underhalls in an effort to put an end to the evil brewing there, but they have not returned. Baelgun is desperate to find champions powerful enough to finally cleanse the Underhalls of their dark denizens, and has opened his ranks to both the Alliance and the Horde in an effort to find those champions.
Vault of the Titans
An eternity ago when the Titans walked the world, they controlled a technology the mortal races have yet to comprehend. Many arcane artifacts and relics that the Titans used to bring order to Azeroth were left behind when the Titans departed, and the most precious of these were sealed away in vaults and strongholds, entrusted to powerful guardians. In Wintergrasp, a Northrend valley saturated with tremendous elemental energies, the Titans constructed the great Vault of Archavon, an immense structure containing many Titan relics. The Vault extends much deeper than any realize, and portions of the structure extend deep into Azeroth's Underworld.
The forces of Twilight loathe all that the Titans have created, and seek to tear down the Makers' creation. Their mad desecration of the Titans' ancient stronghold may do more harm than depriving the world of ancient knowledge, however. Many Titan relics could be extremely destructive if they fell into the wrong hands. And many of the Titans' servants could cause untold devastation if their fury were to be unleashed.
Naz'Amun, the Crawling City
Naz'Amun was the heart of the Upper Kingdom in the ancient age of Azjol-Nerub, and in the wake of the Cataclysm, the Crawling City has seen a dark rebirth. The shattered towers and crumbling halls are again alive with a new generation of nerubian warriors, under the guidance of powerful spiderlords and viziers. As the queen of the nerubians continues to spawn more and more warriors from her lair in the Inner Kingdom, the ranks of the Crawling City swell by the day. They stand poised to unleash their fury upon the surface world.
The Alliance and the Horde quickly come into conflict with the newly spawned armies of the nerubians in the ruins of the Upper Kingdom. In a matter of days, the armies of the Crawling City will grow to overwhelm even their combined forces. Naz'Amun must be brought down before the nerubians can transform it into an impregnable citadel. An air strike is the only way to breach the outer defenses of Naz'Amun and strike at the leader of the nerubian horde, the diabolical Faceless One Exitar, Baron of the Black.
Raids
Degaton's Vault
The Vault of Archavon contains more than just relics of the Titans' time on Azeroth. Powerful giants created by the Titans in the early days of their reign dwell within the Vault, protecting the inner chambers for reasons known only to them. In the deepest chamber of the Vault, the truth is revealed - entombed in the vault is one of the Titan's greatest champions, a veteran warrior of their ancient struggle against the malefic Old Gods and their dark servants. His body forged of living metal in the image of the Titans themselves, he was named Degaton, the Iron Watcher. Degaton fought countless battles against the eldritch horrors of the Old Gods, but in the end even his will crumbled beneath their corruption. The Titans could not destroy their once-loyal servant, and so instead they entombed him beneath the Vault of Archavon, charging his giant brothers to prevent his escape.
Now, the forces of the Twilight cult have learned of their mighty champion of darkness, and seek to free him from his vault and unleash him onto the world.