Blade's Edge Mountains

Blade's Edge Mountains is a region in Outland. It is full of knife-sharp mountain crags and axe-cut valleys. It is located north of Zangarmarsh and west of Netherstorm. While inhabited by several kinds of races, it holds in particular a large population of ogres, dominated by the hulking gronns. The zone has three distinct terrain types; rocky valley, forested slopes, and barren plateau summits. Using this definition, the zone has four "mountains" that are interconnected. Likely contains some of the so called "Green Havens". The green glow in the sky is part of the twisting nether - a floating energy that affects the remains of Outland and binds it together in a suspended phase.

As described on Worldofwarcraft.com:
 * The harsh winds that rip through the canyons of Blade's Edge have, over time, worn the bordering escarpments into menacing, dagger-like spikes that lend the region to its name. This foreboding realm is also the homeland of the brutish ogres, who wage constant, fierce battles against one another to gain the favor of their merciless gronn masters.

History
As told by the brief and official description, Blade's Edge Mountains is the original home of the ogres. Apparently originating as a weaker sub-species of the gronn, the ogres were one of Draenor's last giants. Still, the gronn show little love for their children, ruling over the ogre clans with an iron fist. Some orc scholars believe the ogres were once intelligent and the dominant species of Draenor before the orcs rose to power. Before Draenor's shattering, Blade's Edge Mountains was also the home of the orcs in the Thunderlord clan. At some point it was also inhabited by a mysterious arakkoan civilization named Apexis. The Grishna, Lashh'an, Ruuan'ok and Vekh'nir arokkoa are still living there.

Rise of the Orcish Horde
Orcs and ogres share a history, though there is some discrepancy on what relation they had to each other. They were enemies for generations until the rise of the (old) Horde, even prior to the orcs' vicious transformation into savages by the hand of the Burning Legion. Orcs ruthlessly conquered ogre territory, enslaving and killing ogres as they went; the war lasted quite a while, fueled by corruption from demonic forces. Soon the ogres were broken, the race either forced into exile or enslaved and used in experiments. The Horde enslaved and experimented with several of the ogre clans. The warlock Gul'dan decided that the orcs required the ogre's strength in the orcs' war against the draenei, and his experiments created the ogre mages. Several ogre clans passed through the Dark Portal to the Eastern Kingdoms before the First War simply to escape the orcs, although they didn't like the humans much either. To this day, most ogres hate orcs with a passion, remembering the wars they fought against each other.

At the same time, some ogres and orcs were clearly allies; ogres told the orcs that they were being whipped by the gronn and allied with Blackhand and his Horde to rebel back. This also provided the ogres with food and weapons. In fact, when the orcs in their demonic craze razed across Draenor in order to kill any other leaving creatures, sometimes fighting among themselves, the only race they might have called allies was the ogres. The ogres served as massive, single-minded warriors who served as little more than walking siege engines for the orcs as they plundered and conquered. Prior to the demonic corruption of the orcs, even off-springs between ogres and orcs occurred. Having the intelligence and cunning of and orc combined with the strength of an ogre, they were honored by shamanistic orcs for being noble and savage creatures of the land. They were called Mok'Nathal, the most famous of them - Rexxar - later willingly joining the old Horde. Other Mok'Nathal can still be found in a small village in Blade's Edge Mountains.

After the Second War
The ogres were brought through the Dark Portal after the First War to act as enforcers to quell needless infighting between the orc clans. They also brought massive devastation to the human lands as soldiers. However, eventually these ogre clans broke free and went their own separate ways. Today, both the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are inhabited by large clans of ogres. Some of them have rejoined the "new" Horde.

Eventually, Deathwing came to know about the Dark Portal and the world on the other side. As there were no dragons in Draenor, he felt sure that few of its denizens would dare challenge his black dragons. After the orcs' defeat in the Assault on Blackrock Spire, he made a pact with Teron Gorefiend in which the black dragons would aid the Horde in return for safe passage of his flight and his eggs to Draenor. Deathwing, his lieutenant Sabellian and a group of black dragons allowed the orcs to ride upon them in order to retrieve four artifacts which Ner'zhul required for opening new portals to other worlds for the orcs to conquer. When Ner'zhul had them in his possession, he, the remaining Horde, Deathwing and an escort of his black dragons ventured to Draenor through the Dark Portal. Deathwing hid clutches of his eggs all over Draenor, but most of his black dragons settled in Blade's Edge Mountains.

The dragons were however not welcome by Gruul, the leader of the gronn and ogres. They began to destroy both dragons and eggs alike, much to the dislike of Deathwing. Fighting back, he was also encountered by the Alliance Expedition, a military Alliance-force seeking to recover the Skull of Gul'dan which happened to be in Deathwing's property. Deathwing was defeated by Khadgar and escaped back to Azeroth, leaving only a small portion of black dragons to guard the eggs. Notice that this seems to be a retcon of Deathwing's Lair in WarCraft II.

Outnumbered and leaderless, the dragons were torn from the sky by the Bladespire clan's spells and impaled by Gruul the jagged spires. For this, Gruul earned the title "the Dragonkiller". The remaining eggs were affected by the turbulent nether energies when Draenor was torn apart, hatching into the Netherwing dragonflight.

The expedition, whose primary purpose was to retrieve the Book of Medivh, another of the artifacts, later encountered Mogor and his Laughing Skull clan. The clan had stolen the book from Ner'zhul, betraying him at the same time. Mogor also commanded an order of Death knights (possibly by using the book) which held knowledge which Ner'zhul required in order to open multiple portals across Draenor. He sent forces to kill Mogor and subjugate the Death Knights, but The Death Knights were destroyed instead and Mogor escaped. Mogor made a truce with the Alliance Expedition afterwards. In return for the dominance of his clan in the Blade's Edge Mountains and securing the passes across them, he would deliver the book. Khadgar, Alleria, Turalyon, and their strongest warriors reinforced Mogor and the Laughing Skull clan and stopped the Bonechewer clan, then attacked a stronghold of the Thunderlord clan (possibly Thunderlord Village) and destroyed it, gaining the control of the region. The book was eventually handed by Obris to Khadgar, who used with the skull to close the Dark Portal before Draenor's sundering tore apart Azeroth as well.

After the Third War
The ogres in Blade's Edge Mountains are still controlled by the gronn, divided into the Bladespire clan and Bloodmaul clan who are fighting against eachother. The player is supporting the Bloodmaul, aiding Mog'dorg the Wizened through a series of quests which eventually leads the player to (the ability to gain reputation with) Ogri'la. This is a group of ogres who have become intelligent due to the influence of apexis crystals. Possibly, they may be a "revival" of the once intelligent ogres on Draenor.

Deathwing's lieutenant Sabellian is still present in the disguise of "Baron Sablemane", a human. He, like Rexxar who has returned to Blade's Edge Mountains to protect the remaining Mok'Nathal from the gronn and ogres, and Mog'dorg the Wizened, gives quests to kill Gruul's sons. Ultimately, this ends the gronn's control over the ogre clans of Blade's Edge Mountains. Gruul himself is a raid boss. Several humans, orcs, broken, and draenei have begun to worship the remaining black dragons, creating the Wyrmcult. It is led by Maxnar the Ashmaw, a drakonid. The player, helping the Cenarion Expedition which have settled in Evergrove, kills him in a quest due to the Wyrmcult's hostility. Other black dragons are trying to destroy Ogri'la.

The Burning Legion is still heavily present, also being one of the forces threatening Ogri'la. In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Illidan Stormrage, Kael'thas Sunstrider and Lady Vashj managed to seize the Black Temple from Magtheridon by shutting down several dimensional gateways used by Magtheridon to bring demons from the Twisting Nether. In World of Warcraft, it is revealed that one of these gateways was actually located in Blade's Edge Mountains. It seems the Burning Legion has managed to reactivate it - Baelmon the Hound-Master is now using it to summon Wrath Hound-reinforcements. The player helps the Cenarion Expedition by killing him too.

To the north at Bash'ir Landing, a group of ethereals are smuggling manacells for the blood elves ruled by Kael'Thas. The manacells are produced in the blood elf-controlled dimensional ship named Mechanar, and are somehow delivered to the Magister's Terrace. Apparently, Kael'Thas is planning to use the power in them to summon his new master Kil'Jaeden in the Sunwell Plateau.

Mogor is no longer in Blade's Edge Mountains; he is instead leading a group of Warmaul ogres at the Laughing Skull Ruins in Nagrand. He is killed by the player as the final boss in the Ring of Blood. It is unknown if anything remains of the Laughing Skull clan.

Map and subregions




Elite areas

 * Gruul's Lair (large outdoor area)

Arenas

 * The Circle of Blood

Getting There
From Zangarmarsh to the south, take the path through the cave in the northwest portion of the zone.

Travel hubs

 * Sylvanaar


 * Toshley's Station


 * Thunderlord Stronghold


 * Mok'Nathal Village


 * Evergrove

Notable characters



 * within Thunderlord Stronghold.
 * , Rexxar's father, at Mok'Nathal Village.

Quests

 * Neutral
 * Horde
 * Alliance

Resources

 * Herbs
 * Felweed
 * Dreaming Glory
 * Leather
 * Fel Hide
 * Knothide Leather
 * Knothide Leather Scraps
 * Nether Dragonscales
 * Ore
 * Fel Iron Ore
 * Eternium Ore
 * Khorium Ore
 * Adamantite Ore