A small orc advance party explores Azeroth

Full History

The corrupted Horde had been assembled on Draenor through the designs of Gul'dan and the Burning Legion. Its clans possessed warriors and ambitions, but they did not yet know the human kingdoms on the far side of the magical gateway. When Medivh's and Gul'dan's efforts connected the worlds, the first steps through the passage demanded more than massed strength; the orcs needed to understand what awaited them.

Garona's early chronicle describes a party of seven warriors sent to explore the territory beyond the rift. The scouts encountered signs of settlement and agriculture, evidence that this was neither uninhabited wilderness nor simply another region of Draenor. The discovery of human farms changed the practical meaning of the Portal. It revealed land that could supply raiders and people whose defenses and customs were unknown to the Horde.

Reconnaissance preceded the brutal attacks with which the First War would open. The scouting force's experience belonged to a phase of uncertainty, before the invaders had learned the strengths of human archers, footmen, and cavalry. The Horde would come to understand those strengths in battle and revise some of its tactics after suffering reverses against organized knights.

The passage of a few warriors thus represents a decisive historical threshold. Once the Horde could scout, raid, and return across the Portal, the barrier between worlds was no longer merely a magical achievement. It had become a military road, carrying an invasion that would destroy the peace of Stormwind and reshape the political future of the Eastern Kingdoms.