Maelstrom



The Maelstrom (also called the Blood Sea) is the gigantic rift that was created when the Well of Eternity collapsed into itself during the Great Sundering.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
As the aftershocks from the Well's implosion rattled the bones of the world, the seas rushed in to fill the gaping wound left in the earth. Nearly eighty percent of Kalimdor's landmass had been blasted apart, leaving only a handful of separate continents surrounding the new, raging sea. At the center of the new sea, where the Well of Eternity once stood, was a tumultuous storm of tidal fury and chaotic energies. This terrible scar, known as the Maelstrom, would never cease its furious spinning. It would remain a constant reminder of the terrible catastrophe and the utopian era that had been lost forever...

Additionally, during the Third War, Thrall's fleet crashed and they made an emergency landing on an island near the Maelstrom, where they found a group of jungle trolls fighting desperately against human colonists and murloc invaders. The island was destroyed by Zar'jira, with Thrall and his allies barely escaping.

World of Warcraft


The Maelstrom can be seen on the world map of World of Warcraft, where it sits between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Ship and zeppelin routes go out of their way to avoid the Maelstrom, for fairly obvious reasons.

Cataclysm
Deathwing has used the Maelstrom to reenter Azeroth's physical plane from Deepholm, triggering the Shattering. Thrall is present here on behalf of the Earthen Ring, and is trying to maintain the rift with other key Earthen Ring members alongside Muln Earthfury and Farseer Nobundo. The Maelstrom is a sanctuary, where PvP combat is disabled. The zone can be reached through the quests which lead the player to Deepholm from Stormwind City and Orgrimmar. Once the player enters Deepholm, the Maelstrom cannot be revisited.

A player might think that they could possibly fly from the Maelstrom to visit Kezan or The Lost Isles, but that is impossible: mounting is disabled in the Maelstrom. Thrall and Aggra's piece of land is also surrounded by an invisible wall, so neither can players jump into the water.

Geography


The Maelstrom itself is located in the northern tip of the South Seas, to the northwest of the Broken Isles. At the center of the Maelstrom is a location known as the Eye. The empires of the makrura and the naga, named Mak'aru and Nazjatar, lie beneath it.. They, along with the other regions within the Maelstrom, are considered sub-regions of The Eye. These are all located beneath it, below ocean surface.

It is implied that the Maelstrom is slowly eroding and damaging the artificially-raised Broken Isles, and will ultimately destroy them for good.

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