Draenor



Draenor was the homeworld of the orcish race and the last refuge of the draenei before their arrival on Azeroth. When the orc shaman 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. That fragment is known today as Outland.

Background
Several thousand years ago, the draenei, a faction of the eredar who opposed the Burning Legion, split from their brethren. They moved from world to world, remaining one step ahead of the Burning Legion, About two hundred and fifty years before the present, the draenei found a tranquil planet in the void. Having at last outrun the bloodthirsty forces of the Burning Legion, the draenei settled the planet and named it "Exile's Refuge" in Eredun: "Draenor". The orcs did not have a name for the place, other than "world", but eventually adopted the Eredun term.

Draenor was a fertile and large world dominated by vast plains and lush swamps. Originally, there were many intelligent races, the most powerful of which were the orcs. The orcs lived in a shamanistic society that was in deep harmony with the surrounding natural world, until power-hungry leaders, led and manipulated by Gul'dan, made a blood pact with Mannoroth, a general of the Burning Legion, turning the orcs into bloodthirsty barbarian conquerors. The warlock magics wielded by the orcs turned Draenor into a dusty wasteland. The orcs, under orders from Kil'jaeden, decimated the draenei, enslaved the ogres, and gained dark dominion over Draenor. Before the Horde could destroy themselves in their bloodlust, Medivh and Gul'dan opened the Dark Portal, allowing the Horde access to the world of Azeroth to start a new war and pave the way for the Burning Legion's second invasion of Kalimdor.

What few draenei survived attempted to load their dimensional ships and launched themselves again into the deep void in search of a new haven.

Eventually the Horde was beaten back by the numerous Alliance forces, and Draenor became the focus of an attack, via the Dark Portal, by an Alliance Expedition aiming to end the orcish threat to Azeroth once and for all. In the midst of the ensuing battle the elder shaman Ner'zhul attempted to allow the remaining orcs on Draenor to escape to other worlds by opening other dimensional portals; however the presence of so many portals tore the planet apart, leaving only torn fragments of the former world floating in the Nether. It ceased to be a material world, and the barely-hospitable remnants was renamed Outland.

Geography

 * Hellfire Peninsula
 * Zangarmarsh
 * Terokkar Forest
 * Brokenrock Mountains
 * Bone Wastes
 * Nagrand
 * Blade's Edge Mountains
 * Fields of Farahlon
 * Deathwing's Lair
 * Shadowmoon Valley
 * Devouring Sea
 * Shadowed Seas
 * Skeletal Coast
 * Coast of Bones

The draenei

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

The Horde

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

Known information and speculation
In the Human Campaign of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal, the humans close the Dark Portal and save Azeroth, but must escape a crumbling Draenor by entering one of the various rifts that have been opened by Ner'zhul, who with his followers have escaped into one of these rifts. In the Orc Campaign, the orcs are victorious and Ner'zhul with his followers travel to Draenor, where they enter a rift into the Twisting Nether to gain new glory. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos does not follow either outcome directly but instead continues the story in Azeroth. It takes a bit more from the human conclusion though as the Horde were not totally victorious on Azeroth, and instead were mostly scattered or taken to internment camps.

Draenor