Touring Draenor with ZeteskRants
Now we’re ready to tour Draenor. This time I’ll be showcasing my Corrupted Dreadwing mount, to continue the trend of matching the mount to the continent we’re exploring. We’re starting off in Ashran, which I’m told was a pvp island, but I’ve never seen another player on it whenever I visit. I don’t visit often because there is no in game reason to,
other than a few vendors and portals. I like the Ogre statues here, there are more across Draenor which I’ll pass by on the tour. It is also interesting to see the mushrooms in the ocean, I think they surround the entire continent here. Warspear is the Horde base here, where you can spend your crystals on mounts like this one, and other cosmetics. Nearby we see the ruins of the portal to Azeroth. When I first played this expansion, the intro part
in Tanaan Jungle before I got to my Garrison confused me a little. For the longest time I thought it was an instanced place I’d never be able to visit again. It wasn’t until near the end of the campaign story that I noticed it was right here on the East side of Tanaan Jungle.
There’s this strange green fire wall that knocked me down, I don’t know what it is or what it is used for. The Iron Harbour shows just how Garrosh’s interference and the Iron Horde have changed history here. We aren’t seeing the completely uncorrupted version of Draenor that is described in the books with Thrall’s father Durotan during his childhood. This version of Hellfire Citadel is definitely much larger and uses a lot more metal instead of stone compared to the one we knew from Outland. Fang’rila is an interesting place, they have cat people with a mount or two locked behind a special currency that only drops in that area.
The buildings of Zeth’Gol resemble the Horde buildings we’re familiar with from Warcraft 3, showing that not all the clans adopted the Iron Horde mentality. The palm trees of Gorgrond were unexpected, but it does give the place more of a primordial vibe. We also get to see some above ground mushrooms and some of those mushroom walker guys from Outland here, but you can tell by the red colouration that this is a different species of mushroom compared to the blue and green ones found underwater, which struggle to survive in Outland above water.
They really did put a lot of effort into making diverse environments within the Gorgrond zone, which I appreciate. The northern area of Gorgrond has more of the Iron Horde’s influence, and we can fly over the area that represents the inside of the raid here. There’s also this excavation pit full of fast respawning enemies, I remember going in circles killing everything over and over again as part of some currency or reputation grind, but I’ve long since forgotten the specifics.
A few more Gronn related creatures are over here in the west, as well as some water elementals. Further west we transition to Frostfire Ridge, the ancestral home of Thrall’s Frostwolf Clan. Oh look, more of those underwater mushrooms! Anyways, there’s some shamanistic looking rocks around here in the lava pools, and when we fly over this mountain, we can see one of the giant Gronn skeletons. Gronn can vary in size dramatically. Over in the Bloodmaul Stronghold we can see some Ogronn, which are more humanoid and tend to stand upright in comparison to the knuckle walking Gronn.
Bladespire Citadel is nearby, why don’t we fly up and take a look? They have a ramp leading up to a guy rolling lava balls, not exactly the most friendly place for visitors. If you look carefully, you’ll see a lavafall going right into a village, I guess they aren’t concerned about sulfurous gas. You can even see the Gronn skeletons on the map in certain areas. Look in this ravine, just as you enter, you are greeted by this cyclops Gronn skull staring back at you, with its gaping jaw hung open as if shocked to see you. And some people have setup
tents in his ribcage, how rude. Well, not that rude I suppose. Further East there’s another skeleton that has tarps connecting his ribs so he’s been made into a larger dwelling. I keep saying he, but I don’t know if Gronn have genders. They probably do, since there are male
and female Earth Elementals in this game, then we should assume everything has genders. Oh look, another skeleton! And here’s the Zangar Sea, which is the flooded oceanwater version of Zangarmarsh. Does that mean that the lakes in Zangarmarsh are salt water? Is the ocean on Draenor salt water? Who knows. We do have a few of the blue green mushrooms growing above water level, which explains why a regularly underwater plant is rigid enough to support its own weight out of water in Outland.
This burning tree caught my eye, then I remembered it was a fire elemental place in northern Nagrand. Back to exploring the Zangar Sea, look at that sunset, and look at the immense size of some of these mushrooms. Can you imagine if such a large mushroom was on Earth in real life? Taller than a 3 story building. I wouldn’t want those growing too close to my house. There are some more Ogronn in northern Nagrand, and closeby we see Highmaul, which is mostly absent from Outland, except for a few fragments on the western space coast. It has some really big Ogre statues, signifying the intelligence and artisanship of the Ogres above the Ogronn. The books implied that as the curse of flesh shrank the races of Draenor, the smaller ones used more teamwork and that led to more ingenuity and technology. The Gronn barely
did anything more than uproot a tree for a weapon. The Ogronn have basic stone housing. The Ogres have more intricate jewelry and statues. The Orcs have advanced leatherworking and rope building, as well as metalworking. Oh another giant skull, neat! Continuing south, we can see Oshu’gun with fewer symbols carved in the ground surrounding it. There are still some, but the forest is much closer to the crystal than it is in Outland. Nearby we have some Draenei buildings, and remember they are space alien squid faces, they are not native to the Draenor planet.
I got distracted by this spear in this skeleton, this expansion had random treasures like that in the overworld to collect. I don’t know how anyone would collect them all without a wiki. Maybe people combed the entire map when the expansion first came out? Here’s that covered city of Shattrath I promised in the Outland video. Not much to see, since we can’t go inside. The Auchindoun is here too, with all its stained glass still intact.
The architecture on these Draenei bridges is nice, but let’s get a closer look at Auchindoun, shall we? I wonder how much of this is Draenei or native Argus architecture, and how much of it is influenced by the Naaru. Those polygonal crystal beings who serve the capitol L Light. Spires of Arak has these thorns which resemble the ones on the border of Terokkar Forest and Hellfire Peninsula in Outland. They look healthier here, but still very dry and sharp, if that makes sense. We have more mushrooms on the coast, and more cat people near the middle of the zone. Further south we see goblin influence, they certainly work fast to get their smoke pumping machines up and running. We can see the remains of a crashed zeppelin.
Don’t worry about the spires, I won’t forget about them, this is just the scenic route. The skybox changes can feel a bit abrupt when flying, but when you’re on the ground and enter the burning area, it makes sense that you can’t see the mid day sky as much through the smoke. Alright, up we go, to the spires, these have Arakkoa architecture, built by the flying bird people before they were mutated and lost their ability to fly in Outland. There is a short story about that on the Blizzard website. Clipping wings and banishing people to the forest floor was their form of justice, but during the story we find out the government was corrupt and some of the banished ones had useful knowledge and they weren’t evil, some of them were more like political exiles rather than actual criminals. Speaking of races getting mutated, if you played Warcraft 3 and were wondering why the Draenei there don’t have tentacle faces like the playable ones in World of Warcraft, or if you remember Akama from the Black Temple raid in Outland, you might consider reading the Unbroken short story. When Shattrath was attacked,
the First Horde used chemical weapons, which poisoned and mutated whoever survived the attack. Slowly over months their hooves splintered and their feet squished out like elephant feet, just nubs on the ground. Their tentacles fell off, their teeth fused together into a single plate, their posture slouched with constant pain. They lost their connection to the Light magic and the Naaru. Their fingers became swollen and stretched. Many of them lost their ability to speak and had
to relearn it. Later, when they had children, the babies were born with these mutations, just like how newborn orcs who have never tasted demon blood are born with green corrupted skin. The Draenor version of Shadowmoon Valley has roughly the same shape as in Outland, but one look will show you how dramatic the ecosystem is. All these trees, grass, swamplands, and clean rivers are plain to see.
And around the Temple of Karabor, the colourful blues and purples instead of the Black Temple which replaced it after Gul’dan sieged the Draenei there. You can even stop by the Exarch’s Rise to see some stained glass depictions related to the Naaru and Draenei history. Players who do pet battles might recognize the location of Ashlei on the map, as the easiest method of farming pet battle experience. Her fight can be
solo’d by a mechanical pandaren dragonling, and includes one enemy which cannot damage you, which means you can put in two level 1 pets and get them massive experience gains. Nearby we see Anguish Fortress, which I think becomes an Alliance location in Outland. When you’re flying around, you can sometimes see the Spires of Arak in the distance. Getting up high allows you some good views of the tree canopy. I always like it when trees are growing midway up maintains, it just makes it feel slightly serene, even if it does contrast with the burning forest nearby. Khadgar’s tower in this little mushroom ravine I don’t think corresponds to anything in Outland. Khadgar was one of Medihv’s students
when the first portal was opened between Outland and Azeroth, and during his fight against Sargeras who was controlling Medihv at the time, Khadgar was unnaturally aged. Later on he somewhat inherits the powers of the Guardian, but it is left somewhat vague. For reference, the Guardian of Tirisfal was a title as well as a ritual performed to grant powers to a mage. When the Elves of Quel’thalas and early human ancestors needed extra strength
to fight the demons who remained wandering Azeroth after the Sundering 10,000 years ago, they grouped up and had six other mages pour all their magical ability into one, who was given the title. The power and title were always handed down before the Guardian died, eventually leading to Aegwynn, Medihv’s mom. The council didn’t like the idea of a female Guardian, but she got the power anyway, and secretly got pregnant and infused the power into her fetus instead of allowing the council to choose the next Guardian. Then she fought the Avatar of Sargeras,
who implanted part of his soul in her fetus, which is how he could later control Medihv. The Eye of Sargeras mentioned came from that Avatar, who Aegwynn buried at the bottom of the ocean in a tomb. Which was later raised to the surface by Gul’dan during the events of Warcraft 2, and revisited in Warcraft 3 as well as World of Warcraft.
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