Warlords of Draenor: Cities and geography updates
CM Bashiok had an interesting reply to some lore and geography queries on the official forums, after reaching out to Lead Quest Designer Craig Amai for answers. Some familiar places will indeed make an appearance in Warlords, including the draenei city Telmor, mentioned in depth in the novel Rise of the Horde. Telmor was a hidden draenei city, notable because it hosted two very unusual guests -- a young Orgrim Doomhammer and Durotan, who were rescued from an ogre attack by a draenei party and then taken to the city. Both orcs witnessed the removal of the invisibility spell that shrouded the city, and met with the Prophet Velen himself. Years later, Durotan was asked to use his knowledge of the invisibility spell to reveal the city and leave it open for attack. Telmor was quickly overrun.
There are no remnants of Telmor in Outland today -- but there are other geographical areas that have been described in lore prior to Draenor's destruction, which Bashiok further clarified.
Hay Gartherix! Can I call you Garth? I was reading over your post, and although I'm not well versed in the intricacies of Warcraft lore, I do enjoy learning about it. I reached out to Craig Amai, lead quest designer, who you might have seen on stage at BlizzCon, and he gave me a few tidbits on how these things fit in. So I actually do have some answers for you!
Firstly and most important to me is Zangermarsh. It is being shown on the WoD site that where the Zangermarsh is, the Sea of Zangar resides now. Zangermarsh in someway would have had to have "existed ".even if it was small. here is the passage: "The orcs did not know about the Zangarmarsh. They had not yet sniffed out this hiding place,and if Velen had anything to say about it,they never would." page 323 : Apx one year of Warlock magics.
While much of what we know from Outland used to be under water, there is a small piece of marshland called Zangarmarsh in Draenor, and is relatively close to Shattrath. It would indeed be the logical place for Velen to try to escape to.
Second is Blade's Edge It is shown on the WoD site that Gorgond is where blades edge is. while it looks mountainous in the art. it looks more... Dourtar mountainous that Blade's Edge style. That is an issue in some ways, while the book does not reference the "Appearence" of the mountains, it does reference the name of them."the orges had told them where thier masters lurked and led them to this place-an opening at the foot of the Blade's Edge mountain chain."
page 259 :Apx between six months and one year of warlock magics The Blackrock Clan are going to see the Ogres in BLADES EDGE, to see if they can get some to join them.
The Bladespire Mountains exist in Draenor, and the held theory by historians is that the Blade's Edge Mountains formed as Gorgron and Frostfire were driven into each other during the breaking of Outland. There may well be nods in Draenor toward the name Blade's Edge, and the future that is yet to come.
Last thing the once hidden city of Telmor, i DONT recall it in any Outlands quests and assume it will be in WoD in some way shape or form.
You will be able to visit Telmor in the expansion, Leafshadow and all, though you may be arriving too late to appreciate its full glory...
Hope that helps! :D
While this might seem like nit-picky information to the casual observer, these are all perfectly valid points about Draenor. Despite us never having seen it in its full glory, we've had plenty of descriptions of Draenor over the course of several novels -- and it's nice to see that Blizzard is taking all written work into consideration while putting together the planet for Warlords. Personally, I was rooting for a Telmor being actively defended by Restalaan and the other draenei mentioned in Rise of the Horde -- I hope we aren't too late in our arrival to catch a rare glimpse of novel-only characters coming to life in game.
