This video is brought to you in collaboration
with WoWhead.com Tu tu tu tu, tututututtu Hello everyone! As most of you know by, the second warcraft
chronicle is out and it gives a lot of details about the origin of draenor, the evolution
that took place leading into the formation of the horde and the first and second war
on azeroth. In this video I want to talk about the major
origin story, the platform from which the other stories take place and next week we’ll
talk about the changes to the formation of the Horde and some things that stood out for
me. I won’t be going into every single detail,
like I’ve done with volume 1 that’s just incorporated into future lore videos but some
things are pretty awesome and I do wonna share so let’s begin at the very beginning, as
Light and Void clashed together, the physical universe came to be. Some planets had a titan spirit inside of
them which the other titans were looking for, but some did not and the planet that we call
Draenor also called Dawgar (The known earth) by the mighty ogres or Rakshar (the Sunstone)
by the arakoa, that planet came to be without a titan spirit inside. The old gods did not touch this planet, but
it WAS home to the elements, fire, earth, water and air and even the fith element, the
spirit of life which saturated the planet, tempering the violent nature of the other
elements and preventing them from taking on physical forms. It also accelerated the growth of flora and
fauna, making the world a very savage place where the strong preyed on the weak and the
cunning prayed on the strong. Draenor’s greatest predators did not hunt
with fang or claw, they hunted with root and thorn. A strain of plant had sprouted on Draenor
called Sporemounds. Nature simply took over the planet and their
roots dug so deep in search of water that they actually tapped into the element of life
that suffused draenor’s stones and soil. They consumed this primordial energy which
gave them sentience and allowed them to act as a single massive organism. The sporemounds and all other vegetation became
known collectively as the Evergrowth and with their hivemind, they could work in unison. If left unchecked, they would eventually take
over and devour everything on the planet including the elemental spirits, but luckily the titan
Aggramar was hunting for demons and his journey took him near Draenor where he witnessed the
Evergrowth. Despite the planet not having a slumbering
soul inside, it still intrigued the titan and he could not leave draenor to its fate. Similar to when they brought order to azeroth
and battled with the old gods, Aggramar realized that if he himself would step in then he’d
probably do some massive damage to the planet or even destroy it so instead he created a
servant in his image. The goal was not to exterminate draenors plant
life but to temper it and give the planet a chance. Fire, air, earth and water were woven into
a massive elemental storm. The roaring tempest was channeled into Draenor’s
largest mountain which groaned to life and stood up on two colossal legs. This massive being was named Grond and as
he set out to conquer the evergrowth, lakes of elemental fire trailed in his footsteps. He dredged out seas, carved valleys and forged
mountains to separate the evergrowth and he stabbed a sporemound tearing it from the world’s
surface. The other sporemounds shivered in agony at
the destruction of their kin and they soon realized that they needed a new weapon to
fight back so they drained the surrounding forests and jungles of their life essence,
leaving behind only withered tracts of land. Infused with these energies, the sporemounds
arose to walk the world themselves, 3 in total each embodying a different region of the Evergrowth’s
domain. There was Zang, swampy mires and mushroom
thickets glistening across its hide. Botaan, covered in primal forestlands and
Naanu, which wore a fleece of dense jungles. As one the sporemounds moved against Grond,
and Draenor buckled under the weight of warring giants. Grond, like his creator, had an iron will
and the battle was fierce. Zang was the first to fall and in the ages
to come, the rotting body that remained would transform into a fungal region known as the
Zangar Sea and with Draenor being corrupted, eventually known as the zangarmarsh. Naanu fell second and its broken husk would
slowly sink into the earth and become a region called Tanaan Jungle, eventually known as
Hellfire Peninsula. Botaan was the last standing and it sensed
its enemies weakened state, but it needed more power so it started to leech the dwindling
life essence from naanu and zang. This gave it enough power to cover grond in
thousands of small vines, burrowing into the cracks and wounds on his skin and wrenching
them open causing new fissures to erupt across his body. The elemental giant collapsed beneath his
own weight and crumbled to pieces. The bulk of his corpse would form a mountain
range at the edge of a region later known as Nagrand. This colossal battle had a major impact on
life for draenor since bits and pieces from both the sporemounds and grond turned into
whole new creatures. The strongest for the sporemounds were giants
called the Genesaur while the Colossals formed from the rocks that came from Grond. Much of the stony debris that fell from Grond
also contained the primordial elements of fire, air, earth and water and these energies
coalesced into pools of power from which elemental spirits took physical shape for the first
time in Draenor’s history. The spirit of life had kept them in check
all this time but since the sporemounds had started nomming on it, now we see the rise
of the furys, Incineratus (Fire) Aborius (Water), Gordawg (Earth) and Kalandrios (Wind). The four furies mourned the death of grond
and they vowed to dwell in his corpse’s shadow forever, a place we know as the Throne
of Elements. Up above, Aggramar was still keeping an eye
on things and when he saw the colossals emerge, he felt hope. Though the creatures were not as mighty as
Grond, they were many and the titan was confident that they could destroy Botaan and bring balance
to Draenor, if he gave them a bit of help. He made Stone discs from Grond’s remains
and branded with titan runes of power. These objects were fused into the colossal’s
bodies like armor and from it the giants were infused with primordial energy, enhancing
their strength and resilience. As a final touch, he gifted them with knowledge,
the information he had gathered from watching the sporemound fight with grond and the collosals
began their march. This would be the last time that their creator
would watch from above as he felt that a constellar died somewhere in the great dark beyond. This was very serious, something that had
to be checked out and as we know, Aggramar ended up in a confrontation with Sargeras
and lost his life so Draenor... it was now on its own and the war between the colossals
and the genesaur was on. This war would rattle Draenor for thousands
of years with control of the world constantly ebbing and flowing between the colossals and
the agents of the Evergrowth. Both sides took a lot of punches and like
what happened when Gronn fell and the remains turned into colossals, when coossals fell
their remains turned into magnaron, not as large or intelligent as gron but they did
command great power. The colossals tried to recruit the magnarons
to help them in this war, but although the magnaron were against the Evergrowth, they
felt no loyalty towards the colossals. With their numbers falling, the colossals
knew that something drastic had to be done. Most of them gathered to make their final
stand as they rushed into the Evergrowth and swarmed Botaan. In unison the colossals unleashed the energy
stored within their titan relics, channeling it through themselves into Botaan and a massive
explosion ripped through the Sporemound and the colossals. The blast was so immense that it shattered
their bodies and hurled the pieces across Draenor. Botaan’s death rattle blazed through every
root and leaf in the world. Forests withered and hundreds of genesaur
dropped dead where they stood. For one brief moment, the entirety of the
Evergrowth trembled with the shared agony of Botaan’s annihilation. Then there was silence. No thoughts or emotions passed among the world’s
plant life. Botaan’s demise had destroyed the shared
sentience that connected Draenor’s wilds. The colossals had triumphed in the end, but
they had paid a terrible price. No creatures would ever arise from their remains. Drawing on the power of their titan relics
had burned away all life essence from the colossals and seared their corpses. Over time, their broken bodies would sink
into the earth and become veins of metal called blackrock ore. Unlike the fallen colossals, Botaan’s body
still contained potent life energies. Wherever fragments of the sporemound fell
to the earth, forests and jungles bloomed. The majority of botaan’s corpse formed a
vibrant region that would later be known as Farahlon, yep that area we all wanted to see
during warlords but only our followers got the chance. Genesaur and other plant creatures would continue
to thrive in these havens of life, but they would not have a sporemound to unite them
in purpose and guide their collective will. The Evergrowth was no more, but that did not
mean peace for Draenor. When botaan exploded its body had released
countless spores filled with the spirit of life. These spores drifted back to the world’s
surface and warped whatever they touched. They clung to the hides of magnarons and weakened
their bodies. Some of them devolved into half-flesh, half
stone giants called the gronn, who were only moderately intelligent, but because of lingering
spores some of them devolved even further into the one-eyed ogron. They were more intelligent than gronn, but
they were not as strong. The ogron feared the gronn, and they viewed
the hulking beasts as gods. The evolution did not end there, over thousands
of years the ogron transformed into fleshy creatures called ogres. These brutes were smaller than the ogron and
many would become their slaves. From the ogres came another race, one that
we can actually play as, namely the orcs. They were the smallest of gronns line, but
what they lacked in strength they made up with a fierce intellect and a sense of community. By banding together, they survived the savage
world of draenor. So this group, the descendants of grond, the
magnaron, gronn and ogron, they’re known as the breakers and despite being different
from eachother, they still felt their original purpose and they continued fighting with the
primals: the genersaur and the other plant-based life. The primals track their origin back to the
Sporemounds and like the breakers, many of the primals came out of the aftermath of Botaan’s
destruction. The numerous spores released from the giant’s
corpse settled in the wilds and while these spores weakened the creatures of stone, they
had the opposite effect on plant life. The spore gave sentience to existing forms
of plants. The jungles stirred as new beings took shape
and walked the land. Some were small and simpleminded creatures
like the podlings and sporelings while the most intelligent was called the botani. These bark-skinned creatures spread through
Draenor’s wildnerness with faint memories of the evergrowth still lingering in their
minds, but they did not know the full truth of the sporemounds or the battles with grond
and the collosals. Even so, what little the botani did know of
the evergrowth still had a impact on their culture. They worshipped the genesaur as gods, seeing
them as echoes of the great sporemounds. The botani also rejected the idea of self,
believing that their individual souls were part of a collective spirit that interlinked
all plant life on draenor. Along with the genesaur and other plant creatures,
the botani devoted themselves to protecting the forestlands. As they did so, they inevitably clashed with
the breakers and the war for dominance of the land kept on going, something that we
could even see for ourselves during warlords of draenor. So that’s the basic foundation for life
on Draenor, this colosal battle between stone and nature which gave birth to many creatures
and races on the planet. Where on azeroth it was a direct involvement
from the titan keepers and the curse of flesh, here it was done by aggramar and the influence
of the spirit of life. It did more than just evolve the breakers
and the primals, it also gave birth to many kinds of animals and with the end of the evergrowth,
that life actually had a chance to survive. The scattered remains of botaan had become
forest full with the spirit of life and these energies transformed the land and accelerated
the development of new species. The first beasts to rise up were enormous
creatures that wielded extraordinary power over the land. Some of them had an affinity to nature magics,
some tapped into Draenor’s elemental energies while others reached beyond the veil of reality,
touching the forces of Light and Void that permeated the cosmos. Now being such massive beasts also made them
massive targets where as the botani would ensnare them for food to nourish the wilds
or to infest them with fungi that transformed them into their minions while the gronn and
ogron also hunted the beasts for sport. Those that had wings and were able to fly
above all of these predators had a much bigger chance to thrive. It was within Arak where most of these avian
races developed and there three godlike creatures took form: the majestic fire bird Rukhmar
touched by the primordial force of light, the vicious wind serpent Sethe with an affinity
to the void and the cunning raven Anzu who’s keen intellect had lead to him investigating
the magical ley lines on Draenor and the discovery of arcane magic. At first these 3 worked together on claiming
Arak for their feathery kind by kicking out any breaker or primal influence, but over
time Sethe became jealous of Rukhmar. He could not fly as high as high as she could,
doomed to live out an excistance in her shadow so he tried to make an allegiance with Anzu
to bring down Rukhmar, absorb her powers and together they could be the twin kings of Arak. What Sethe didn’t count on was that Anzu
felt no envy or jealousy toward rukhmar, quite the opposite, he adored her and never had
the courage to confess his feelings. With this knowledge he went to her and together
they took on Sethe who in his final moments unleashed a terrible curse. Fearing that the curse might destroy Arak,
Anzu devoured the wind serpent and locked the dark energies within himself. The curse twisted his body and soul, warping
his form and removing his ability to fly. Anzu figured that if he was not worthy of
Rukhmar before, now she would be disgusted with the being he had become. He hid away in the realm of shadows while
Rukhmar tried to find him, tried to thank him. When her search proved to be futile, she decided
to honor his sacrifice in a different way by creating the arakkoa (heirs of Arak). She drew on her life energies to transform
some of her kaliri followers who embodied Rukhmar’s physical grace and majesty as
well as Anzu’s intellect and cleverness. These heirs of Arak would make their home
in what would become known as the spires of Arak and as we’ve seen ingame, the curse
of sethe would play a massive roll in the future of their people. We’ll do a full story of the arakoa at some
point since there’s a lot of interesting things to talk about, but to finish this video
lets talk about the origin of a couple more races. As I mentioned before, Ogres were enslaved
to the Ogron and the Arakoa desired the Ogron to fall. Seeing an oppertunity in their slaves, their
anger at their hate, the arakoa decided to use them to the dirty work and thought them
the ways of arcane magic. Considering that they too came from Grond,
a creature empowered by the titan Aggramar, they were naturally attuned to the arcane
and picked up the new spellcasting techniques effortlesley. With their affinity for the earth, they could
combine their arcane might and shape and bend rock and stone to their will. One of the first ogres to master these new
techniques was called Gog. Instead of simply taking the Ogron, this ogre
had bigger ambitions and decided to go even higher up in the foodchain, target the Gronn. Gog sinle handedly struck down a gronn, and
another, and nother. By the time he defeated his fith, whispers
of his deeds had reached almost all ogre settlements and if one of them was able to bring down
the Gronn, what did they have to fear from the Ogron? When Gog the Gronnslayer returned to his people,
they rose up together and toppled their ogron overlords. The ogre’s use of sorcery and their exposure
to raw arcane magic had some unexpected side effects. Though it was very rare, sometimes children
would be born with two heads instead of one. These two headed ogres were astonishingly
gifted spellcasters and their appearance was seen as a good omen. In time the ogres even developed spells to
replicate this causing normal ogres to grow a second head, increasing their intelligence
and aptitude for magic. Many years later, this technique would be
used by the ogre cho’gall and gul’dan to empower the ogres of the horde during their
invasion of azeroth. The rise of the ogres changed the hierarchy
of survival across draenor. By breaking the power of the ogron and the
gronn, they had elimentated two of the greatest threats to Grongrond’s orcs. They were no longer confined to their underground
caverns and were now able to forge permanent settlements on the world’s surface for the
first time in generations. The population of orcs exploded and overcrowding
became a serious problem, so much so that many of them migrated out of the of Gorgrond
and settled all across draenor in different clans. They found their way to shamanism and the
furys of draenor, something the ogres first laughed at but then came to realise that the
elements were no joke and could offer great power. Rather then seeking to learn this power with
the same humility and awe that the orcs had, the ogres decided to take it by force. They claimed the throne of the elements for
the gorian empire and started disecting it with their arcane spellwork, examining every
inch of the site. Unknown to the ogres was that this land was
the final resting place of Grond a massive giant empowered by Aggramar infused with a
mix of raw titan and element power that still lingered in the ancient giant’s remains. Their careless experiments ended in disaster
as the energies ignited in an explosion. The temple that the orcs had carved out of
the giant’s skull was blown apart and destroyed, but even worse, the elements were thrown out
of balanace. Huge storms started lashing out across the
world and the tormented elementals cried out to the orc shaman for help. The different clans met up at the kosh’argh
festival and decided to unite against the threat of the ogres, pushing them back all
the way to their capital city of Goria. Months passed and despite the ogres thinking
they’d be able to easily survive a long term siege, turned out that was not the case
and they needed to come up with a plan. They decided to use their knowledge on the
curse of sethe and began experimenting with ways to cause a similar affliction among the
orcs. They were succesfull and a disease known as
the red pox spread like wildfire through the orcs encampment. It was highl contagious, lasted for months
and killed many of the infected. The orcs saw their numbers massively dwindly
and knew something drastic had to be done. They asked the elements to anihilate goria
and the elemental spirits understood that there was no other way of stopping the ogres
from meddling with the throne of elements. The shaman gathered outside goria’s mighty
walls and witnessed the true fury of the spirits as a roaring storm, massive earthquakes, lightning
and fire enveloped the city. The elements let none of them survive as the
earth itself wrenched open like a giant maw and swallowed the remains of a once great
city. This means that the orcish clans united even
before the formation of the Horde and the red pox was a disease that would not disappear
and flare up from time to time. Garrosh Hellscream was actually a victim of
the red pox which is why he didn’t join his father during the invasion of Azeroth
and also the reason why some orcs kept their brown skin color since they were separated
from the others as they started to use fel magic, drink demon blood and turned green. With the fall of the gorian empire, the orcs
claimed more and more land on draenor even going as far as rising up from their slave
masters in Highmaul and breaking the ogres hold on Nagrand. This turn of events greatly troubled the bladespire
ogres and their leader Imperator Kelgrok who saw that the ogre influence on draenor was
waning. They were determined to regain control within
Frostfire ridge and to make up for their lack of numbers, their sorceres had conducted cruel
experiments to create new creatures whom they could use to fill their labor force. The most promising result came from selecting
breeding between ogres and enslaved orcs giving birth to the mok’nathal which you might
remember rexxar being a part of. These mok’nathal were forced into servitude
but were eventually liberated by the combined might of the orcish Whiteclaw clan and the
frostwolf clan lead by chieftain Garad who made his two sons Durotan and Ga’nar his
lieutenants. The third son, Fenris, had already left his
clan and joined the thunderlord clan which is why they refused to help in this battle. Together the clans were able to liberate the
mok’nathal but at a great price. Hundreds of frostwolves and whiteclaws had
died in battle, including Ga’nar. He had sacrificed his life, helping many of
the young Mok’natal to escape the besieged frostress. Ga’nar’s death broke his fathers heart,
something that he would never truly recover from, and despite offering the mok’nathal
to join them in Frostfire, the elder declined knowning that the orcs would never truly accept
half-breeds. They settled in Gorgrond where resources would
be scarce, but at least they could live out their lives in peace. I was actually surprised to see that they
stuck with the forced pregnancy route since it seemed like they wanted to get away from
it, but the mok’nathal are confirmed to be a forced union between ogre and orc and
we have another one that’s a forced half breed which is orc and a race not native to
Draenor, the Draenei. They crash landed on the planet while being
on the run from Sargeras after refusing to join the Legion and they build their city
of Shattrath upon the site where Goria was swallowed by the earth. As you might imagine, the ogres were not too
happy about this and tried to retaliate, but the Draenei’s forces and defenses were more
than capable at holding them off and after doing some massive damage, Velen issued a
single statement, his voice rumbling through the heavens: “Go home, and you will not
be harmed.” The ogres fled and would never try a frontal
assault on the draenei against and this soft nature was also evident when the orcs went
on the attack. Before they had seen the draenei as mostly
harmless, but that was no longer the case after witnessing them taking care of the ogres. Some clans decided to avoid all contact while
others decided to treat them as enemies, attacking the strangers if they ever strayed into orcish
territory. The bladewind clan took it one step further
as they lived in the area between terokkar and Nagrand and they knew of the draenei’s
favorite trading routes and caravan schedules. They launched raids on the caravans, murdering
the draenei and taking some of them prisoner. Most of the draenei wanted to retaliate, the
clan was not large and it would be relatively easy to defeat, but Velen forbade it. He did allow their Rangari to launch rescue
missions, but an offensive campain would only lead to calamity. Orcs did not surrender and a war would not
end until nearly all the bladewinds had died – and then what? The others clans would surely take notice
and pick up arms as well so instead they decided to upgrade the protection of the caravans
and save as many prisoners as they could. Not all were saved though and these few poor
souls were forced into slavery for the rest of their lives. Some of them bore children for their masters,
their half-bread offspring scorned and reviled by both draenei and orc cultures. Half orc, half draenei and one of these that
you’re probably familiar with is Garona Halforcen. Those that are familiar with her story know
that it was original said that she was created out of gul’dan breeding program, but that’s
now changed and so have a few other details when it comes to the Rise of the Horde storyline,
but that’s a story we’ll save for next week. Right now we’ve established how most of
the races on Draenor evolved and came to be, next week we’ll talk about the ramifications
of Kil’jaeden tracking down the Draenei and starting events that would lead into the
invasion of Azeroth. That’s for next week though so for now thank
you very much for watching everyone! If you want to read morea bout what we talked
about today then check out the related wowhead article in the description or you could of
course pick up the chronicles for yourself! Until next time guys....see ya!
