Horde attacks Quel’Thalas

Full History

Quel'Thalas had been established by the Highborne exiles who crossed the sea after the Sundering. Its magical defenses, great forests, and Sunwell supported a kingdom that had survived generations of conflict with the Amani trolls. During the Second War, its relative security was broken when the Horde reached the northern Eastern Kingdoms. The orcs had come from Draenor, but some of their allies had old grievances against the high elves.

Zul'jin's forest trolls joined the campaign because the kingdom stood upon land their ancestors had claimed. This gave the assault a different meaning to the trolls than to the orc commanders. The enemy was not merely a member of the Alliance: it was the survivor of a conflict that had weakened the Amani centuries before. The Horde's attack allowed that older hostility to reemerge in the midst of an invasion threatening many peoples.

The assault caused serious devastation but failed to overthrow the core of the kingdom. Silvermoon remained beyond the Horde's final conquest, and the high elves survived as a major people. Their ties with the Alliance and their memory of forest-troll attacks remained important, though the political relationships of the postwar years would change. The failed campaign also showed the limits of a coalition whose allies pursued their own ambitions.

Quel'Thalas would later face an even more terrible invasion when Arthas brought the Scourge north during the Third War. That later disaster should not be projected backward onto the Second War, which left the kingdom wounded but standing. The two episodes demonstrate how the elves' northern homeland drew danger from different sources: first an ancient territorial enemy aided by the Horde, then the undead armies seeking the Sunwell's power.