Shaman of Note: Drek’thar
Well, Drek’thar is our next focus on Shaman of Note, where we look at important Shaman in Warcraft Lore. As opposed to important Shaman in the Super Mario Universe. The events of the great Wars of Azeroth revolve greatly around him, and being Thrall’s teacher means that Drek is one of the heavy hitters of WoW lore, right up with the Menthals and Proudmoores.
Drek’thar’s story starts pretty much when the Orcs of Draenor were standing at a very dark place. He, like Thrall, was part of the Frostwolf Clan. Unfortunately, unlike the wise father of Thrall Durotan, he was ready to go a-kill’n those lousy Draenei on the say-so of another major Shaman, Ner’zuhl (being influenced by Kil’jaden, the guy who we prevent from coming to Azeroth in the Sunwell Plateau). He started playing around with Demons, multi-classing in that way that only major lore characters can. Damn them.
With Durotan’s no-no to drinking the Blood which made the other orcs all koo-koo for cocca puffs they get rejected by the others, and shoved once they go to Azeroth to a remote, barren wasteland in the Alterac Mountains, renowned for it’s swiss cheese. Eventually, when Ogrim Doomhammer took over the Blackrock Clan (the leaders of the Orcs at the time), Drek’thar got him to understand that Ner’zuhl was bad news. Sadly, this détente didn’t work out – Durotar and Thrall’s mom got ganked by Doomhammer, and Drek became the head of the Frostwolves. Promotions aren’t always fun.
Fast forward. Thrall, thought dead with his parents, but actually saved by Admiral Blackmoore, returns to his people’s homeland. It was Drek that allowed Thrall to do that annoying multi-class thing with his Warrior training and his inherent Shamanistic powers. After working to free the orcs who were interred after the end of the second war, Thrall took Doomhammer’s Black Plate armor, and became Warchief of the new Horde, the job he holds until your Alliance raid takes him down for the achievement in Wrath.
After helping Big T set up Ogrimmar and the new Orc/Troll homelands, he bounced around Kalimdor for a while. Eventually, he returns back to the Alterac Mountains, where a troublesome group of Dwarves have started mining, calling themselves the Stormpike. And thus, we get the Alterac Valley battleground, where Drek’thar is the general the Alliance can defeat to win the event. Those Horde-members willing can also find him as part of a questline in Nagrand in the Outlands, where he accompanies Thrall as he sees his homeland for the first time.
If you’d like more info on the Horde’s premier old blind shaman, the WowWiki page was the basis of this article, as well as the novel Lord of the Clans.
I’m getting back into the swing of writing. Let me know what else you’d like to see, and we can work on providing it. I’ll admit right now my WoW playing is very light, with classes starting plus, I’m honestly trying to not burn myself out before Wrath. So get going with some ideas!
