Quick Overview
The Barrens are the crossroads of the young Horde, linking Durotar and Mulgore with central and southern Kalimdor. The Crossroads, Camp Taurajo, and Ratchet support trade while quilboar, centaur, and harpies occupy their own territories. Wailing Caverns and the forests along Ashenvale add druidic and postwar tensions to its vast plains.
Full History
The Barrens stretch across central Kalimdor like a great crossroads, connecting Durotar, Mulgore, Ashenvale, Stonetalon, Dustwallow, and Thousand Needles. Their roads have unusual importance because the New Horde has only recently established permanent cities and requires trade, patrols, and mutual defense. The Crossroads is one of its principal inland junctions; Camp Taurajo connects the southern plain with the tauren lands, while the goblin port at Ratchet opens a neutral path to overseas commerce. This was not a country created solely for Horde travelers. Quillboar, centaur, harpies, and other communities lived and fought in the region before Thrall's arrival.
The Third War brought new orcish and human forces to Kalimdor, and the Barrens became part of the struggle for control and survival around the Oracle of Stonetalon and the approach to Mount Hyjal. After the war, the campaign of Rexxar in *The Frozen Throne* again used the Barrens as a passage between settlements, allies, and threats. The quilboar domains around the Razorfen warrens demonstrate that the central plains contain societies with their own traditions and grievances, not simply wandering monsters. The Wailing Caverns carry another story: the Naralex expedition sought to heal the Barrens through druidic power, but the dream and the cavern's denizens became dangerous when that work went wrong.
The border with Ashenvale brings frequent friction with the night elves, whose lands and forests have been damaged by orcish logging. The nearby Stonetalon Mountains draw goblin extraction interests as well as tauren and night elf defenders. Its great breadth is precisely what makes the historical narrative coherent. It is the arterial land of a young Horde, a patchwork of older peoples and sacred sites, and a place where trade and military security are inseparable.
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Through History
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Further Reading
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