Durotan

Full History

Before the Horde, the orcs of Draenor lived among separate clans bound by kinship, custom and the guidance of their ancestors. Durotan grew up among the Frostwolves, learning a chieftain's responsibilities in a world where strength meant more than the ability to win a battle. His friendship with Orgrim of the Blackrock clan crossed the boundaries that usually kept their peoples apart. The two would eventually stand on different sides of decisions that transformed their entire race, but neither forgot the bond formed before those terrible choices were demanded of them.

When Kil'jaeden and the warlock Gul'dan turned the orc clans toward conquest, Durotan watched old customs give way to fear and bloodlust. The shamanic traditions that once connected the clans to the spirits were pushed aside by sorcery, and neighboring peoples became targets of a war that seemed to have no end. Durotan did not possess the power to stop that change across Draenor. He could, however, decide what the Frostwolves would become, and his resistance placed his clan under the suspicion of the Horde's leaders.

The gravest demand came when the clans were offered the blood of the demon Mannoroth. Many chieftains accepted a bargain that fed their power while chaining their people to the Burning Legion. Durotan refused it and forbade his Frostwolves to drink. His choice did not spare his clan every consequence of the Horde's corruption, nor did it end the wars already raging, but it preserved a crucial distinction: the Frostwolves had not willingly bound themselves by that oath. Orgrim also resisted the blood ritual, giving Durotan one old friend who might still recognize what the Horde was losing.

As Draenor suffered under fel magic, the Dark Portal offered the orcs a passage to another world. Durotan brought the Frostwolves into Azeroth despite his distrust of Gul'dan, believing his people could no longer rely on their dying homeland. Their survival did not purchase acceptance. During the First War, Gul'dan expelled the clan from the Horde and warned Durotan against returning or contacting the other orcs. Durotan took his followers north to the cold valleys of Alterac, where the Frostwolves carved out a precarious refuge far from their former allies.

There, Durotan and his mate Draka became parents. Their son, Go'el, represented a future not yet claimed by Gul'dan's corruption. Durotan could no longer remain silent about the Shadow Council and the demons manipulating the Horde, so he sought out Orgrim Doomhammer and told him what he knew. Orgrim heard his warning and offered protection for the return journey. The guards escorting the family proved treacherous: loyal to the interests Durotan had exposed, they ambushed Durotan and Draka and left the infant to die. The human Aedelas Blackmoore later found the child and gave him the name Thrall.

Durotan never saw his son reclaim the Frostwolf inheritance. Thrall grew up in captivity, escaped, found the Frostwolves and learned the history of his parents from the clan's survivors. He later took up the cause of freeing the orcs from their internment camps and became the leader of a New Horde that rejected the Old Horde's demonic masters. Durotan's victories had been few, and the price of resisting Gul'dan had been his life. Yet the principle for which he stood outlived him: the orcs could be a people with memory, loyalties and honor, rather than merely an army made to serve another master's war.