A digital time travel that shattered the timeline of an entire world
In short: What happens when a war criminal escapes custody and travels 35 years into the past? In World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, Garrosh Hellscream didn't just change history; he rewrote the fundamental laws of his world, creating an alternate timeline where technology and corruption forged a new, terrifying empire.
The narrative of Warlords of Draenor centers on a massive temporal paradox. Following the events of Mists of Pandaria, the war criminal Garrosh Hellscream escaped captivity with the help of a renegade bronze dragon, Kairozdormu. He traveled to Draenor, the original homeworld of the orcs, 35 years prior to the rise of the Horde. By preventing his father, Grommash Hellscream, from drinking the blood of the demon lord Mannoroth, Garrosh fundamentally altered the history of the Warcraft universe.
This interference created an alternate timeline where the orcish clans united into the 'Iron Horde.' Utilizing technology brought from the future, the Iron Horde began a war of conquest, eventually building a Dark Portal to siege the present-day Azeroth. To counter this threat, the Alliance and the Horde formed an unprecedented expeditionary force. This alliance of enemies traveled through the portal to the alternate Draenor to dismantle the Iron Horde's machinery and leadership, including the destruction of the Blackrock Foundry and the defeat of the Warlord Kargath Bladefist.
The expansion also introduced significant mechanical shifts to the game's structure. It raised the level cap to 100 and introduced 'garrisons'—player-built, upgradeable personal areas where players could recruit NPCs to complete missions. While the expansion was a critical success, debuting with an 87 Metacritic score and selling over 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours, it faced a complex subscriber trajectory. While initial numbers jumped to over 10.5 million in November 2014, they eventually dipped to 5.5 million by the third quarter of 2015, marking a significant shift in the game's player base dynamics.
Ultimately, the conflict concluded with the death of Garrosh Hellscream at the hands of Thrall in a duel of honor called mak'gora. The expansion's climax saw the adventurers defeat the demon lord Mannoroth and the titan-sized Archimonde, before the villain Gul'dan was flung back into the main timeline, setting the stage for the game's next chapter.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
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