The Barrens

The Barrens are a vast, dry savanna of yellow grass, thorny trees and scattered watering holes, stretching from Durotar's border to the mountains of Stonetalon and south to the cliffs of Thousand Needles. Nearly every young member of the Horde passes through them, and few forget the long roads under the hot sun.

At the centre stands the Crossroads, the Horde's largest outpost, where the main roads meet. To the east, on the coast, the goblin port of Ratchet trades with anyone under its boss, Gazlowe, and boats sail from it to Booty Bay. In the south, near Mulgore's border, the tauren hold Camp Taurajo. Not everyone here is Horde: the Alliance keeps Northwatch Hold, a Theramore outpost on the eastern coast, and the dwarves of Ironforge dig at Bael Modan in the south, near a titan excavation of their own.

The land is full of trouble. Kolkar centaurs raid the roads and quilboar spread up from their great thorny warrens in the south, Razorfen Kraul and Razorfen Downs, where something worse than quilboar has taken root. In the north-west, the Wailing Caverns hold a darker story. The druid Naralex led his followers inside to reach the Emerald Dream and make the Barrens green again, and oases began to bloom. But the Dream they touched was tainted. Naralex fell into a nightmare, and his disciples, now the Druids of the Fang, have twisted the caverns and the creatures in them.

Written for this site from the game's lore. Further reading: The Barrens on Warcraft Wiki.