Quick Overview
Skull Rock's danger arose from a conflict within orcish history that the founding of Durotar could not immediately resolve. Places hidden from Orgrimmar's authority offered them refuge, and the caverns of Skull Rock became associated with hostile adepts and dangerous summons. The cavern's history belongs to the aftermath of the old Horde's corruption.
Full History
Skull Rock's danger arose from a conflict within orcish history that the founding of Durotar could not immediately resolve. Thrall sought to build a Horde freed from the demonic dependence that had driven the old clans into catastrophic wars. He restored respect for shamanism and allied with peoples who had suffered under the Legion. Yet not every orc abandoned the warlocks' promises or the methods through which the earlier Horde had sought power.
The Burning Blade and kindred cultists continued to practice forbidden rites. Places hidden from Orgrimmar's authority offered them refuge, and the caverns of Skull Rock became associated with hostile adepts and dangerous summons. Their work threatened a new homeland still struggling to establish order after the crossing to Kalimdor. The danger came from within the very society Thrall meant to reform, not from a foreign army approaching its borders.
The cavern's history belongs to the aftermath of the old Horde's corruption. Mannoroth's death released Grom Hellscream and helped sever a terrible bond, but it did not erase what warlocks had taught or what individual followers continued to desire. Skull Rock embodied the difference between ending a master's claim over a people and persuading every member of that people to abandon his power.
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