Draenor

 

Draenor was a fertile and large world dominated by vast plains and lush swamps. Originally, there were many intelligent races, like the arakkoa, an ancient race of bird-like humanoids, the giant ogres and their brutal gronn masters, the more peaceful race of mushroom-like sporelings and the shamanistic orcs.

 

Arrival of the Draenei

Nearly 200 years before the First War, the draenei settled upon this remote world that seemed an ideal refuge for their millenia-expanding exodus. They named it Draenor which meant "Exiles' Refuge" in their tongue; since the native orcs did not have a name for the planet, other than "world", they eventually adopted the Draenei term.[6]

The settlers quietly cultivated their society once again and kept their magic hidden, ever wary of being discovered again by the Burning Legion's forces.

 

Rise of the Horde

The orcs lived in a shamanistic society that was in deep harmony with the surrounding natural world, until power-hungry leaders, led and manipulated by Gul'dan, made a blood pact with Mannoroth, a general of the Burning Legion, turning the orcs into bloodthirsty barbarian conquerors. The warlock magics wielded by the orcs turned Draenor into a dusty wasteland. The orcs, under orders from Kil'jaeden, decimated the draenei, enslaved the ogres, and gained dark dominion over Draenor. Velen and a handful of draenei have survived the destruction of their cities by the orcs and fled to Zangarmarsh. There they have been hiding until recently. Before the Horde could destroy themselves in their bloodlust, Medivh and Gul'dan opened the Dark Portal, allowing the Horde access to the world ofAzeroth to start a new war and pave the way for the Burning Legion's second invasion of Kalimdor.

 

Destruction of Draenor

Eventually the Horde was beaten back by the numerous Alliance forces, and Draenor became the focus of an attack, via the Dark Portal, by an Alliance Expedition aiming to end the orcish threat to Azeroth once and for all. In the midst of the ensuing battle the elder shaman Ner'zhul attempted to allow the remaining orcs on Draenor to escape to other worlds by opening other dimensional portals; however the presence of so many portals tore the planet apart, leaving only torn fragments of the former world floating in the Nether. It ceased to be a material world, and the barely-hospitable remnants was renamed Outland.