Durotar

Full History

Durotar is the hard-won homeland of Thrall's New Horde, named for his father Durotan. Its arid red canyons and coast were not the ancestral homeland of the orcs; the orcs came from Draenor, suffered demonic corruption and defeat in the Eastern Kingdoms, and then crossed the sea to find a place beyond the old wars. After the Third War and the Battle of Mount Hyjal, Thrall chose eastern Kalimdor for a new beginning. The land's poverty in timber and water made that choice difficult, yet he believed a harsh homeland freely held would be worth more than comfort obtained through conquest. Orgrimmar became the center of this settlement.

The Darkspear trolls, led after Sen'jin's death by Vol'jin, share the region with the orcs. Their story reaches back to the islands where Thrall first encountered them and to their struggles against the sea witch and murlocs. The Echo Isles off Durotar's coast provide a place of refuge and later conflict, while Sen'jin Village stands as a more secure mainland settlement. Razor Hill, the Valley of Trials, and the roads to the Barrens support warriors, traders, and newcomers to the Horde. Quillboar, harpies, and the humans of nearby Tiragarde Keep remind the settlers that the land was not empty or free of enemies when they arrived.

The events of *The Frozen Throne* supply the next major chapter. Rexxar, Rokhan, and their companions helped defend the fledgling nation when Admiral Daelin Proudmoore brought Kul Tiran forces against it. Jaina Proudmoore opposed her father's attempt to destroy Thrall's people, but the episode demonstrated how fragile the postwar peace could be. Subsequent tensions around Durotar and Theramore appear in the eligible novel *Cycle of Hatred*. The original-world settlement is therefore both a refuge and a political experiment: former invaders trying to build a civilization, allied peoples confronting older grievances, and an uneasy peace held by leaders who remember exactly what a new war would cost.