Thrall’s Horde commandeers ships at Southshore

Full History

Thrall's followers seized ships near Southshore so that the Horde could leave the Eastern Kingdoms for Kalimdor. The action followed Medivh's warning that the orcs must cross the sea to escape a coming catastrophe. Their departure required vessels belonging to people who remembered the invasions of the old Horde.

The orcs had few reasons to expect help from nearby human authorities. Survivors of earlier wars regarded them as a dangerous enemy, and the internment camps still shaped relations between the peoples. Acquiring ships by force was therefore part of the practical challenge of leading a mass migration. Thrall needed to transport warriors, families, and supplies away from the settled human coasts and into an uncertain future.

The voyage set the stage for the encounter with Sen'jin's trolls and the eventual alliance with the tauren. It also explains why the new Horde arrived in Kalimdor as a people seeking a home rather than as an army already established on the continent. The departure from Southshore belongs to the Reign of Chaos prologue, before the later founding of Orgrimmar.