Hello everyone!
From the destroyed lands of Desolace we move on over to Feralas, a glimps of what Desolace
used to look like.
One area that most people visit this place for is of course Dire Maul which was once
a proud highborne city called Eldra’Thalas.
This was build thousands of years ago to house the Kaldorei’s arcane secrets.
It was part of the massive night elf empire ruled by Queen Azshara, the Highborne lead
by Prince Tortheldrin were charged with the storage and safekeeping of her most precious
tomes.
These so called Shen’dralar meaning ‘Those who remain hidden” dutifully obeyed their
queen.
They journeyed into the misty heart of Kalimdor’s southern jungles and established their grand
city.
But the queen would dream of a future in which Sargeras and the Legion would walk the world
of Azeroth.
With the use of the well of eternity they made a massive gateway for the Legion to come
in, but not everyone was done with being massacred by the Legion.
A resistance was formed and the portal was reversed, causing massive devestation to the
land, the sundering as they call it, as well as the destruction of the original well.
Eldre’Thalas narrowly escaped destruction.
Only the efforts of Thortheldrin and his followers spared the city.
Together, they wove a great spell to shield them from the destructive forces of the sundering.
Although they had saved their city, the shen ‘dralar soon discovered that they had lost
their fount of power.
Without the the well of eternity to draw on, Tortheldrin and his followers saw their immortality
greatly diminished.
Soon enough they fell into a deep lethargy and languished in their isolated sanctuary.
But not all was lost.
Tortheldrin came up with a plan to revitalize the shen’dralar.
He forged pylons in one of the damaged wings of Eldre’Thalas, constructing a prison to
house a new source of power: a demon named Immol’thar.
To the shock of the other Shen’dralar, Thortheldrin had summoned and bound the terrifying creature
to siphon the demon’s power and give it to his followers.
Any objections were quickly settled once the other shen’dralar experienced the demon’s
energy for themselves.Though dark and volatile, immol’thar’s power was invigorating and
addictive, more so than even the well of eternity had been.
They reveled in their newfound source of power, but they knew that keeping Immol’thar in
their midst was dangerous.
So, they developed a means to use the demon’s power to keep him imprisoned.
For thousands of years, all seemed well.
Yet the cost of keeping Immol’thar restrained required more and more power.
Nearly nine thousand years after the sundering, the demon’s prison crossed a dangerous threshold.
It began consuming so much energy that the shen’dralar were left with none to siphon
for themselves.
Almost overnight, Tortheldrin’s seemingly ingenios plan unraveled, and his access to
the demon’s magic was gone.
Not only had the shen’dralar lost their immortality once again, but they had also
grown hopelessly addicted to immol’thar’s potent energies.
Desperate to regain his power, Tortheldrin plotted with his closest allies and murdered
the other shen’dralar in cold blood.
Their treacherous plan worked.
Having thinned the population, the remaining elves coul draw on Immol’thar’s power
indefinitely.
With the shen’dralar’s numbers diminsihed, tortheldrin and his followers abandoned much
of their once glorious city.
The greater part of Eldre’Thalas fell into darkness and disrepair.
Soon other creatures from the surrounding jungles moved in to stake their claim to the
crumbling elven refuge......
Outside in Feralas we would eventually see both the Horde and Alliance claim the land
with their outposts of Feathermoon Stronghold and Camp Mojache.
Both sides had their quests to go through, but the Chronicles clarify that it was the
Horde who cleaned up Dire Maul.
Scarcely had the horde settled the crisis in desolace when a new source of darkness
emerged.
Deep within the southern forests of feralas, ogre raiding parties were razing settlements
and villages, as well as waylaying any travelers unfortunate enough to cross their path.
Druids also sensed corruption and decay twisting the wilds.
After a series of skirmishes throughout feralas, the horde learned that the source of both
troubles was in dire maul, the ruined elven city once known as eldre’thalas.
Almost fifteen years earlier, an ogre leader known as gordok had led his clan, the gordunni,
to dire maul.
Ogres are not native to Azeroth.
Originally they come from Draenor and they joined the Horde during their invasion.
Not only had they survived the aftermath of the second war, but they had thrived.
The gordunni had turned dire maul into a gladiatorial arena, which proved to be quite popular among
the mercenaries and miscreants of the world.
It was within this arena where King Varian Wrynn claimed victory in the crimson ring
tournament, together with Valeera Sanguinar and Broll Bearmantle.
He became a crowd favorite and earned himself the title of Lo’Gash, meaning ghost wolf
and as we know, that title would be taken even further as he would become the embodiment
of Goldrinn himself.
Gordok had always been a cruel and ruthless leader, but terrible whispers now plagued
his mind, urging him to madness and slaughter.
He had commanded his clan to indsicriminately murder anyone they could find.
The Horde dispatched its forces to scour the gordunni from dire maul.
They had expected only to kill gordok and end his reign of madness, but once they arrived,
they discovered two different sources of corruption lurking in the city.
Once source came from the shen’dralar which shocked those who explored dire maul.
Their presence did not raise alarm at first, for they did not seem hostile.
Yet when the horde discovered that the elves had imprisoned the demon immol’thar and
were feeding on his power, there was no choice but to act.
The horde banished immol’thar to the twisting nether.
In doing so, they cut off the elves source of power and incurred their wrath.
The shen’dralar’s leader, prince tortheldrin, personally led the counterattack against the
horde, but he could not restore immol’thar or claim vengeance.
He fell to the horde’s blades and dire maul became his tomb.
The remnants of the elves fled dire maul for good.
They would spent years wandering the wilds, trying to rid themselves off demonic power
and feel whole again.
Their journey would lead them to reconnecting with the night elves and rejoin their society,
bringing magic back to the elves.
The other source came from the emerald nightmare, the corruption of the emerald dream caused
by the old gods..
The dark energy of the old gods had slipped past the emerald dreams’ borders and manifested
in the physical world.
It was this power that had driven gordok to insanity, and the horde’s champions knew
that eradicating it was the only way to spare feralas.
This part of Dire Maul known as Dire Maul North is probably my favorite because of the
whole tribute run that you can do.
You got the option to do special things, gather special materials to create a suit, to make
a trap, open doors, skip all the bosses except for Gordok to recieve bonus loot at the end.
Of course that was completely optional, you could also just murder them all and still
proclaim yourself as king of Dire Maul.
The west wing is the one that contains the shen’dralar as well as the spirit needed
to be freed for the special paladin mount quest.
The east wing contains mainly magic abusers and the victims of such with the satyr Alzzin
the Wildshaper as its end boss.
He seeks nothing less than the total corruption of Feralas, but until he discovered the Shrine
of Eldretharr in Dire Maul, he had little success.
With the power of enslaved ancients at his command, Alzzin concentrated the vitality
of the surrounding forest into his lair, allowing him to manipulate it at will.
The emerald nightmare did not only whisper to Gordok, we also saw it dominate the land
with 4 different world bosses known as the Dragons of Nightmare.
Once great defender of the emerald dream, they have fallen to the darkness.
Lethon, Emeriss, Taerar and Ysondre.
Heroes of the world rallied together to take on these great beasts, but their connection
to the dream, to the nightmare, made it rather difficult to get rid of them.
Lethon and emeriss were killed during the War against the nigthmare as described in
the novel Stormrage.
Taerar is still very much under the control of the Nightmare while Ysondre seems to have
liberated herself.
After the Cataclysm we uncover that the wilds in feralas are still corrupted and although
we do our best to get rid of the roots, it just doesn’t seem to want to go away.
We even use Ysondre’s tear to seal off the portal into the dream at Dream Bough, a great
tree planted by Fandral Staghelm from one of Nordrassil’s branches, but Ysondre ultimately
will have to face her nightmare and needs our aid to do so.
Together we stand at the Emerald Summit.
She can hide from this no longer.
All she did while a part of that brood... all the suffering she’s caused... must be
repaid today.
While still weak and unnable to assume her true form.
With the risk of being taken by the nightmare once more, she summons Taerar, taunts him
to face us.
The dragon of nightmare does and together we bring him low.
With that, she’s the only one left.
Even if she would choose to remain in this world, she cannot rejoin the green flight.
The touch of nightmare is not easily forgotten, but this victory gives her hope.
Perhaps, in time, she can find peace in a simple life amongst mortals.
Sadly that would not be her fate as with Legion we uncover that the Nightmare truly did take
her again.
Perhaps this time its defeat will be perminant and she will no longer have to fear the dream.
“Ow Ysondre, how cruel fate can be.”
Not only the nightmare but also the silithid can be found within feralas.
The insectoids are connected to C’thun explained as far back as classic since the people at
feathermoon stronghold lost sight of their courier and asked us to track him down.
The search got us in conflict with the woodpaw gnolls.
They had stolen his gear, the information he was carrying but a scribbled note inside
his backpack gave us a clue.
It told us that he discovered insidious bug-like creatures south of the gnoll camps in a place
called the Writhing Deep.
The author felt the need to investigate it personally, as though it was a serious threat
to all of Feralas.
The note is signed, "Raschal of Feathermoon", our missing guy which we save from a cocoon
while also taking out a whole bunch of the bugs.
A small taste of what was to come as during the Ahn’qiraj war, lowering the scarab wall
and assaulting ahn’qiraj, c’thuns forces would invade feralas.
Of course heroes went into Ahn’Qiraj and actually managed to defeat the old god, but
that didn’t stop its minions from causing trouble even after the cataclysm.
The gnolls would find themselves in conflict not only with the alliance and the horde,
but also against the silithid.
Once more champions went out to reduce the bug numbers, making the land just a little
bit safer.
I’ve mentioned a couple of times now the difference between classic and cataclysm as
Deathwing breaking out of the world changed the land quite a bit and the original quests
recieved a revamp.
From studying the map we can see that the Isle of dread has sunk beneath the waves.
This isle was mainly used for the Scepter of the Shifting Sand Questline which opened
up the gates of Ahn'Qiraj.
The chimera living on the island are gone, most likely dead since the only remaining
Chimaerok is Prince Lakma, presumably the child of Lord Lakmaeran, a rare mob found
in the mountain range between Silithus and Feralas, who bears the title .
Feathermoon stronghold is now called ruins of feathermoon.
The cataclysm did a whole bunch of damage to it too while the hatecrest naga finished
the job and forced most of their troops to move further inland.
There they build a new Feathermoon stronghold named after Shandris Feathermoon leader of
the Alliance forces in the area.
Shandris is the adopted daughter of Malfurion and Tyrande, general of the sentinels and
one bad ass that deserves a full story dedicated to her.
The Horde’s main base of operations can be found at Stonemaul Hold where Orhan Ogreblade
is leading the troops.
During Warcraft 3 we saw rexxar claim leadership over the stonemaul ogres and she has called
them here to do the heavy lifting against the Gordunni clan.
They also have a tauren village called Camp Mojache that’s dealing with refugees flooding
in from Thousand needles.
The cataclysm was not kind to that area not to mention the Grimtotem tauren.
They’ve always been hostile and even more so after their leader Magatha got her ass
kicked while trying to take over from Cairne and use Garrosh to achieve her goals.
The warchief of the Horde was not happy with being deceived by her.
She actually expected him to support her cou, but instead he left her to her fate and Cairne’s
son Baine retook Thunderbluff and exiled the crone together with anyone that remained at
her side.
A smaller tauren settlement called Camp Ataya has been added to the north with the druids
of the talon counter part being Dreamers rest.
Thrall was asked by Ysera to go to this camp to help them deal with the elemental unrest.
A task that seemed small to thrall at first, he couldn’t tell if it was a trap or a test,
but he went there all the same and did what he could.
The moment he arrived, the resentment and irritation at the task Ysera had given him
melted away.
These people, these druids, were in trouble and they needed his help.
And for whatever reason the green Dragon Aspect had, she had wanted HIM to be the one to help
them.
And so he would.
The smallest step on his journey to help out the world itself and become the shaman go’el
as we saw him at the end of the cataclysm.
The Ruins of Isildien are now marked in the High Wilderness.
Isildien used to be a large night elf city, but after the sundering only ruins remain.
A pretty cool questline plays out here.
You’re either send because of visions or to find a missing apprentice, either way,
you get in contact with the spirit of Sensiria.
She’s chained to this place, can barely hold her form to talk us.
She desperatly needs our aid to leave the tomb so the heroes that we are, we collect
glowing soil and soul essences, after which it’s time to summon the evil overlord that
keeps her bound here.
Verinias the Twisted, a foul, twisted demon who’s been devouring souls for millenia
is summoned and slain... but as he takes his final breath a little glimps of the past echoes
right infront of us.
10.000 years ago, Verinias realised what their queen was up too and wanted to flee with Dath’remar
sunstrider.
Together with his beloved they could join the resistance and stand up against the demons...It
was already too late.
His beloved had already fallen to corruption, transformed into a succubus and poor Verinias
is transformed into a demon.
Even after she ‘gifted him’ that new form, he insisted on keeping her trapped.
He even hoarded all the souls just so she couldn’t have any, but now...with our aid...she
is free.
She owes us a favor, someday she’ll repay it...sadly not even the return of the Legion
was enough to have her make an appearance so who knows where Sensiria is right now...
A more immediate threat would once again be old god related as Deathwing was in league
with them and recruited powerful foes to bring about the Hour of Twilight.
The moment in which the old gods would break out of their prison and rule the world once
more.
Foes like Ragnaros the Firelord, Al’akir the Windlord but also the twilight hammer
lead by the ogre cho’gall.
The Gordunni in feralas have gotten their hands on a Gordunni orb.
There’s no way the Gordunni made these themselves, someone is supplying them.
Someone is giving them gifts of power, and we need to find out who.
We capture a gordok ogre-mage who, after a bit of motivating, spills the beans and informs
us that it’s Cho’gall and the Twilight’s hammer that’s been busy recruiting the ogres
at dire maul as well as gaining access to the remnants of Eldre’thalas, full of forbidden
powers.
“Behold!
The world you see before you has been judged.
(Fire,water, earth, air!)
All shall perish before the elements!
(Burn and drown and crush and suffocate!)
Join us and embrace the inevitable end.
(The Master’s power calls!)
You will be reborn, stronger than flesh!
(Strength beyond form!
Power in the infinte!)”
“Swear your allegiance to me (The master wants!
He sees and wants and hungers!) and you will be remade in my image.
(Wait! INFIDEL!
A heathen among us!)
An intruder!
YOU!
Show yourself...
Prove yourselves, my ogres!
Slay this insect!
(Blood for the master!
Blood and suffering!)”
We fight with Cho’gal’s disciples, Moltar the Burning and Glak the Quenched, water and
fire, but they’re no match for us so Cho’gall descides to come down himself.
“Enough!
I’ll stain my hands with your blood!
(Hyehahahahaha!
Murder!
MURDER!)”
Placed in a block of ice, we’re helpless and unable to stop cho’gall from casting
his flaming pillar of doom but thankfully Shandris Feathermoon on the alliance side
or Orhan Ogreblade for the Horde show up to save our lives.
Together we bring down Durk the Earthmaster and Glak the Windreaver, Earth and Air, forcing
Cho’gall to retreat.
“Enjoy your hollow victory, insects.
(The darkness comes...)
May it console you as your world rots.”
Ogres only understand strength and we have humiliated Cho’gall right infront of them
so he will not be finding any followers here.
A little ogre dance to celebrate, but the war against Cho’gall, Deathwing and the
old gods would continue throughout the cataclysm.
That’s as far as the story ingame goes, but from the book the traveler we get a small
glimpse of what is going on in Feralas after mists of pandaria.
The ogres still have quite a strong hold on the land and their king Gordok is hosting
fights within Dire Maul.
You might wonder how that’s possible since the Horde already killed King Gordok, but
that appears to be more of a title amongst the ogres rather then an actual name.
Even the classic King Gordok was once known as Ulrok and this one is quite fond of enslaving
and having people fight for him.
In the tale the king is slain and it’s the human Malus that takes over receiving the
title Gordok.
Malus sends out the ogres to track the heroes of our tale.
The entirety of dire maul, each and every hut and stone dwelling, each and every ogre
male and female, ancient and child, all of them are send into the wilderness to track
down his prey.
Through the rain forests of feralas, the flooded canyon of thousand needles and the simmering
desert of tanaris.
Their search leads to quite a bit of deforestation in the land which drives the Feral Scar yetis
and the Woodpaw Gnolls further east into conflict with eachother.
Eventually they’re able to put that aside and ally to fight against the ogres where
as the story takes us out of Feralas and the traveler continues its travels.
I’ll definatly have to make some time to summarize traveler in more detail.
Last thing I want to mention is the micro holiday that takes place, Hatching of the
hippygryphs.
Today is the day that the Frayfeather hippogryphs hatch.
Head to Frayfeather Highlands in Feralas to witness the spectacle firsthand!
Once you get there, you will see many nests with eggs inside them.
Go to one of these nests and get close to an egg.
Sit on it, wait about a minute and you will have hatched an egg of your very own.
It’s not a pet or a toy since this is a micro-holiday after all.
You’ll have a cute little hippogryph hanging out on your shoulder which lasts for about
a day.
A spectral feather that drops from the rare Lorthalium, ancient matriarch of the freyfeather
hippogryphs, that will extend the duration of the buff to 5 days.
Just a cute little thing to do in between but ladies and gentleman that will have to
do.... this is the major story of Feralas.
There are a couple of smaller questlines and stories, like taking care of the harpys, taking
essences to create the egg of hakkar or to create weapons, sending the robot chicken
back to booty bay or the old leatherworking trainer but the major things have been covered.
As always I’ll leave it up to you to decide where we’ll travel next so by all means
let me know which zone you’d like me to cover next in the comments down below.
Subscribe if you like my videos, leave a like if you enjoyed this one aaaaaaand until next
time guys...see ya!