User:Minionman/Orc history

(This begins after Admiral Proudmoore was killed in the Frozen Throne campaign.)

After defeating Admiral Proudmoore's attack, the orcs did not simply return to durotar. While traveling through Mulgore to rally the Tauren, Rexxar had found that the Tauren were under constant attack by large centaur hordes. While the ogres in the orc army that defeated Proudmoore immediately travelled back to their village, the orc and troll fighters traveled to Mulgore to assist against the centaurs.

The orc, Tauren, and Troll leaders also recognized that, to fend off future threats, it would be important for the three races to work much more closely together. To that end, they established the start of their wyvern network, by creating Wyvern roosts in the Echo isles, Orgrimmar, and Thunder Bluff, for messengers to quickly spread the word should one group be attacked.

The experienced horde soldiers, returning from the fight against Proudmoore, quickly pushed the centaurs out of Mulgore, and established a network of watch towers to watch for future invasions. The orcs also tested different fighting methods against the centaurs, using archers, raiders, and spears against the fast moving centaurs.

Once Mulgore was cleared, the horde soldiers began the process of clearing the land between the two sections of land, establishing the crossroads as a main horde town in the barrens, and expanding outwards from there.

Hellscream's War
User:Minionman/Hellscream's War

Orc relations with the night Elves quickly fell apart after fighting started between the warsong clan over a statue of Grom Hellscream. While most of the orc and Night elf leaders preferred ot avoid fighting, the warsong clan proved stubborn and difficult to control, and the Night elves soon broke trade relations, and declared war on the horde. A few leaders reached an agreement to not expand the war, but Night elf and Horde relations have not recovered for many years, and the two groups still eye each other suspiciously over the ashenvale/barrens border.

Centaur Fighting
The Tauren and centaurs had been just two of many creatures in the barrens competing for living space. Also in the barrens were quillboards, harpies, and other groups that often raided Tauren and Orc settlements. Some goblin groups, including the venture company, also moved into the barrens, a few of these extracting resources with no concern as to whether it effected the horde or other kalimdor dwellers.

Most of these groups were cimple to defeat when they caused too much trouble, but the centaur tribes remained the most dangerous enemy in the barrens. Centaurs regularly attacked horde caravans and small settlements, and occasionally even attacked large settlements. The horde had difficulty tracking the centaurs to their mobile settlements, and also had difficulty choosing where to send its defenders, as the centaurs were skilled at finding and attacking the most weakly defended targets.

As the most numerous horde race, with the longest tradition of organized warfare, the orcs found themselves becoming the main horde group fighting the centaurs. Settlements in the barrens were fortified, and the orcs also began building watch towers near important roads or other such areas in the Barrens, to detect centaur raids and provide protection and rest points for caravans. new weapons and fighting technigues were also developed. The orc wolf riders became the most effective weapon against the centaurs, and foot soldiers learned to fight with spears. Orc metalwork also improved rapidly, producing armor that could resist centaur arrows. The centaurs were soon cleared from the northern barrens enough that farmers and herdsmen could settle there, but centaurs would continue to launch numerous large raids from desolace, and from the southern barrens.

Forsaken Alliance
As trade and travel became more common between the continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, the orcs discovered that other humans in the eastern Kingdoms held similar opinions of the horde as Proudmoore did. Through Theramore, the human nations some allied with the Night elves, and while the agreement with Furion and the ocean's distance kept a large scale war from occurring, the horde members did feel threatened by the enemies surrounding them.

The leader of the forsaken, Sylvanas windrunner, saw this as an opportunity to build new alliances for themselves. The members of thehorde did not accept alliance at first, as they had heard stories of the forsaken's betrayal of Garithos, and other evils committed by them, but as the humans and Night elves began establishing more settlements around Kalimdor, the orcs accepted alliance with the forsaken.

Sylvanas had also attempted to bring the Blood elves into this budding alliance. While the horde races were suspicious of the blood elve's obvious magical dependence, the blood elves were still considered safer than the forsaken, and were already accepted. However, the Blood elves made a poor impression, talking down to the orcs, offering them places to practice demonic magic, and acting as if they orcs still resembled the old, much more warlike horde. The elves continued to make a poor impression the next day, with several spellbreakers loosing weapon contests to orc fighters. However, the orcs were impressed with the Elves ability to make strong weapons out of poor metalwork with enchanting, so offered to buy several enchanted weapons, beginning what would be the zeppelin weapons trade.

The orcs and forsaken almost immediately completed an agreement with goblins to built a zeppelin route between the Undercity and Orgrimmar. The two groups had many reasons for using zeppelins rather than boats. Neither side knew how much of Kul'tiras's navy remained to harass horde ships, the forsaken's control of the tirisfal coasts was tenuous, and the scourge could harass ships as well. The zeppelin tower construction was completed rapidly, and soon, trade, information, and settlers and ambassadors were moving between the Undercity and Orgrimmar.

Expansion
With the barrens, durotar, and mulgore becoming relatively safer, the horde turned its attention to the rest of Kalimdor, and to their alliance enemies. The tauren and trolls did not have high enough populations to settle beyond a few small villages, but the orcs did have enough people to send to new settlements in Kalimdor as well as some Eastern Kingdoms.

Thrall was inclined to accept his agreement with Furion, and settle only a few small areas in the Ashenvale forest, but the rest of Kalimdor was fair game for horde expansion. Areas in the desolace, Stonetalon Mountains, and Thousand needles also held ancestral significance for the Tauren. The orcs, trolls, and Tauren began establishing small, well defended settlements in the areas to the South and West of Mulgore and the Barrens. Many of these settlements had been Tauren trading posts, or spiritual sites, but now were established as larger towns and military outposts. The horde had already established itself in the Stonetalon Mountains before the centaur fighting, and was still allied to the ogre tribe in Dustwallow Marsh that Rezzar had joined in the fight against Poudmoore.

The horde leaders knew about the political difficulties the human nations were having, but also feared what the nations could do if they effectively organized and attacked the horde in force. To spy on the humans, and to potentially threaten them should war be started, Orc scouts travelled to the eastern Kingdoms to establish military outposts. From the undercity, orc settlers moved south, establishing the outpost of Hammerfall, and discovered the old settlement of kargath, leftover from the old wars. The orcs in Kargath, desperate for any offers of help, agreed to join the Kalimdor orcs, and follow their new laws and culture. From the South, orc settlers moved north from the goblin city of Booty Bay to settle Grom'gol base camp, and than moved eastward and rebuilt the abandoned settlement of Stonard.

These new orc outposts in the eastern Kingdoms were close enough to threaten alliance nations should war break out, but far enough that they were largely ignored by the alliance nations, as the alliance had many internal problems and other threats closer at hand.

The orcs from the south had also attempted to befriend and draw into the horde members of the Blackrock clan near blackrock mountain. However, the blackrock orcs were well established and powerful in the area they controlled, and were unwilling to follow the Durotar orcs, who they considered weaklings and cowards. After several Durotar diplomatic parties were attacked, the durotar orcs gave up trying to bring the blackrock orcs into the horde.

Blood Elf Alliance
For four years, the Kalimdor horde continued their expansion and development of Eastern Kingdom settlements. the orcs did not assist in the forsaken fighting in Hillsbrad, but did assist against the Syndicate, in return for forsaken assistance near Hammerfall.

The Blood elves, though not officially part of the horde, still made their influence felt through trade. Quel'thalas grain and fruit helped feed the horde, and enchanting in Quel'thalas was an important part of the best weapons and tools used in the rest of the horde. Over the several years of contact, the horde races and elves grew to respect each other somewhat, and learned to work together on small projects. The horde leaders became more willing to accept the Blood elves in the horde, but still wanted to see that the blood elves had the fighting skill to defend themselves if necessary. The elve's difficult military training was well known throughout the horde, but for several years they had few major enemies to fight.

The invasion of Dar'khan Drathir was watched carefully by horde leaders in Kalimdor. The Kalimdor races were not impressed at first, as the blood elf leader, lor'themar Theron was afraid of making a bad impression, and sent few forces to fight back the invasion. Several kalimdor observers were sent to the Ghostlands and observe the blood elves in action, and were impressed by what they saw. Although individually, the elves would have a difficult time fighting the orcs, when working together the elves were extremely effective fighters, deating much larger groups of trolls and scourge with few losses. When the elves finally captured the Deatholme fortress and killed dar'khan, the orc leaders decided to accept them into the horde. Sylvanas's letter to Thrall, and effective diplomacy, sealed the blood elve's entry into the horde.

Current day
Durotar today is a successful nation, that continues to grow and expand. Though some internal problems threaten the nation, and the fighting continues with the centaurs, Night elves, and some human groups, the nation is still one of the most powerful on Azeroth.