ANTHROPOLOGIST Explores Durotar: The Fight for the Horde’s Soul

[00:00:08]A wounded, tired orcish grunt lies half buried in the surf, waiting for their honorable end. A vengeful Quillbore battle guard armors up, spikes and quills, ready to strike back at foes. A livid pair of orcish politicians argue their ideologies on a collision course.

[00:00:30]Hey there, I'm Mal and welcome to the Worldscribe. I've been playing video games for a long time and as an archaeologist and anthropologist, I can't help but apply those practices to the fictional worlds I play through. In this series, I am applying that lens to the world of Azeroth. And we'll be looking at all of those scenarios and what they mean today. To an anthropologist, a fictional world is much more than just a setting. It is an expression of culture filled with both intentional design of the creators and the unintended consequences of those choices. We aren't focused on the lore found in novels or elsewhere. We're here to analyze the game world and especially its non-player people. We're going to be relying fairly strictly on in-game evidence from buildings to NPC dialogue and environmental storytelling rather than using more curated external materials. These external sources often do greatly expand on the lore, but we want to focus on the society we actually see constructed inside the game world and minimize any preconceptions. While different fantasy peoples may have a long line of tropes and stereotypes, we want to see what they actually have to say about themselves and what their in-game portrayal tells us. Today, we're back in the warm lands of Duratar, the sunbaked clay that is home to the orcs and the dark spear trolls. We'll be nearing the gates of Ormar, though not entering that rather spiky city just yet. And if you enjoy this anthropological approach to gaming, please consider giving us a like, subscribe to the channel, and let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. It all helps us enormously as we build this series. This video in particular has been made possible by the incredibly generous support of our patrons. If you would also like to support the channel, you can find details in the description down below. I post many of my additional thoughts, analyses, and responses that don't necessarily make it into the videos over there. Additionally, you can gain access to our Discord to share your thoughts directly, see sneak peeks, and ask or answer questions. And to tie it in with the themes of Durotar that we see today, tell us in the comments down below which member of the Horde leadership, past or present, you think is going to win a Fistfight Tavern Brawl. My money is on to Langi. We rejoin our cast member speaking with Garok here in Razer Hill.

[00:03:07]We've just finished wiping out an alliance force trying to claim Tyrugard Keep along the coast as their own, and he needs us to continue securing that coastline ourselves. In the aftermath of the cataclysm, immense flooding has occurred along the coastline. It seems this has driven a terrifying number of water elementals into a rage and they are rampaging along the beach near here where several old ships were forced up onto the shoreline. The old orc wants us to get out there and start getting rid of those elementals. Evidently, he has previously sent a good number of grunts, but they had absolutely no success. Gar really seems to only have one solution to any given problem. Throw a bunch of grunts at it. Well, I guess we're going to go stab some unhappy undertoes. Gail Nauseywig, our goblin contact here in Razer Hill, must have also been listening in again. She wants us to go loot some of those wrecked ships for the gnomish tools they contain. Tools she can use. She offers to pay us quite well, and we do need that funding to prepare further archaeological expeditions, so we're keen to get paid.

[00:04:18]Grants are hard to come by these days.

[00:04:21]While we scuttle on over to the scuttled ships and perturbed puddles, let's discuss a little bit. We've already seen that the orcs here are often quite direct in their solutions. If in doubt, use more force. It is only when presented with a problem they cannot solve with more force or more grunts that they will look for another approach. What is interesting is that they will go look for that other approach, but seem to have a cultural pillar around trying the most direct solution. several times just to make sure it's absolutely not going to work.

[00:04:55]We haven't heard honor brought up around this in particular, but I do wonder if it might be more honorable to the orcs to tackle a problem headon than to try to find a clever or intricate solution leading to this repeated bang head here approach. Garok in particular, an old orc who has told us that he's been overseeing recruits coming up from the Valley of Trials for a long time, seems to favor just sending grunts and upand cominging trolls after problems directly, repeatedly, and with little regard for the cost. We can see many of the grunts he previously sent lying on the beach. We check on one, and they are indeed still clinging to life. This grunt tells us that the elementals are stronger than they look and that they come in waves. They ask us to rescue as many of their peers as we can, that Garth back in Razer Hill would be grateful. That's interesting because it does imply that the orcs are at least somewhat loss averse, but still prioritize the head-on solution first.

[00:05:59]In my mind, that reinforces that perhaps there is an old facet of honor at play here. They are honorbound to try the direct approach. The costs associated with it are the costs of that honor.

[00:06:12]However, they don't really want those losses and they want to recover any of the injured that they can. Perhaps then a portion of this societal pillar is the providing of opportunities for young warriors to prove themselves, take on the odds, overcome what their peers could not. That head-on assault is the most direct way to provide those opportunities. Unfortunately, that does mean there is a really nasty attrition rate for the young grunts, especially when circumstances that are far more intense than they're used to exist, like the cataclysm and these raging riptides.

[00:06:49]We can even see some more proof of this when some of the grunts we rescue insist on fighting beside us for a moment, proving themselves and recovering just a little bit before heading back to safety. They even compliment us on our fighting skills, stating it was an honor to watch us fight. One of the rescued orcs tells us they were supposed to die in battle, but do appreciate the rescue.

[00:07:13]That is, well, we know one aspect of honor beyond a shadow of a doubt at least. In the real world, this is a facet that can come about in several ways. One theory being that in a culture that has honor as a social standing, individuals have less or do not possess intrinsic inherent worth. It must be gained and can be lost. This is a very complex theory that I won't get too deep into here, but I will link some scholarly research in the description that outlines some of the mechanisms of this. Some other theories such as terror management theory or TMT are outside my area of expertise. Broadly, this theory states that a good death or honorable death came about as ideas to combat the terror of mortality. Again, these ideas are far outside my normal wheelhouse. I would encourage you to look at some of the sources I will link in the description to learn some more. While we're down here recovering the gnomish tools as well, we can come across a waterlogged, mostly destroyed orcish home, possibly what was originally a ranch or outlying part of Razer Hill. It is entirely torn apart, drowned in the flood. However, we can see that it was quite close to Tiraard Keep, suggesting further that the humans in there were pretty bottled up, that the culturans didn't have great opportunities to sally out. Even though the Horde never managed or perhaps never wanted to wipe them out, the Keep and its forces were likely rather contained. No wonder they needed that Gibbit. Being cooped up in a fortress in the very heart of enemy territory with months between resupplies and garrison rotations would undoubtedly drive many crazy with morale problems and even further challenge. Returning back to Garth, he tells us that our actions have bought Razer Hill more time and that he will pass word of our deeds up his chain of command. The grunts we saved all checked in with him as well, and he calls our rescue of them a noble task. Gail, for her part, is very appreciative of the work we've done for her. She mentions she overheard another orc here. Thonk on one of the watchtowers mentioned lots of work needing to be done. So she recommends we check in with him. Clearly Gail is always keeping tabs on everyone and everything going on here in Razer Hill.

[00:09:39]Before we can head up to talk to Thonk though, Orgnell Soulscar stops us outside the burrow here. He has clearly heard of the burning blade group we encountered back in the Valley of Trials since he is here investigating another coven of them to the northeast. They are teaching new neophites and he wants us to head in there, sack the cave, and return any of their spell scrolls so he can see what they're teaching the new recruits. He offers us a good deal of coin in exchange. So, we decide to reroute a little bit to uh check it out.

[00:10:11]Hey, look, man. Grants are really, really hard to come by right now. Got to fund those digs somehow. It looks like the burning blade has holed up in yet another cavern. Something of a theme with these nut jobs. We start clinging through them and interestingly, it seems like they have taken a little bit of the fell juice. Slaying them gets us covered in fell blood, risking some sort of nebulous transformation and making us much more susceptible to flame and shadow magic. These outer levels of the cave seem to mostly be thugs, melee bruisers guarding the entrance. I wonder if these are low-end recruits, cannon fodder for the cult as they try to find more powerful converts. A little farther in, we can start finding neopights, actual casters who have the scrolls we want. Luckily, we can tear through them quite quickly, preventing us from experiencing the burning love of 500% increased fire damage taken from a fell firebolt. The things I'll do for funding. Anyway, at the deepest reaches of the cave, we find the actual cultist, all with demonic minions. Ooh. Ah. H.

[00:11:14]That's what they mean by transformation.

[00:11:17]It tastes very purple. H. You know, I think they're not prepared for our onslaught. This confirms the malignance of the burning blade is both a very present and probably resurgent issue. I would bet they do get a lot of malcontent orcs who cannot gain honor or fail something in their society's eyes and have to find other means to reach the heights they were promised. In a society where honor is everything, forsaking it for demonic power seems extreme. However, I do have a few hypotheses here. Firstly, systems around honor and honorable death are often utilized by a ruling elite or social elite to help control a militant population. Mythologizing a good death in battle is a shockingly effective way to keep your soldiers in line effectively. While the orcs are no longer beholden to the Burning Legion, and we have questionable information on their preg green Kool-Aid societal structures, I would hypothesize that the Legion exploited and capitalized on pre-existing systems of honor to assist in controlling the orcs, getting them moving and killing where they wanted. It is likely that they twisted the original format, made it honorable just to kill a strong foe or many weaker foes rather than fight for a societal purpose.

[00:12:38]Honorable death in battle again is a really easy way to control soldiers.

[00:12:43]However, I would bet there was a fun new addition of powerful warlocks and fell users. This new class, likely towards the top, would have come with a new required respect, a new kind of honor for those who hold immense raw magical power. With the orcs now trying to redefine their society, get away from that demonic influence, their code of honor seems to be struggling to compensate for this new reality. Those who still hold some hint of the old ways might still feel called to the fell power still see it as honorable in their own way. Thus, you get those handful of warlocks who are loyal to the Horde, but many probably end up joining these pop-up cults trying to receive power from their old masters. I would bet the loyal warlocks face triple the scrutiny because of those cults. To further add to this concern, original nope. Orgnil tells us that these scrolls contain rights very similar to those hot to the horde warlocks, which merits further investigation. He wants us to check in with Gore, the enforcer, in charge of shipping in and out of Orgamar at the Danashar blockade. Apparently, he is quite close to an ominously named Skull Rock and might know more about these ritual scrolls, furthering this investigation. It sounds like we have been volunttoled to take care of it.

[00:14:08]With the payment for our initial work all we were getting. Shame. Well, if he's not going to pay us well to go and investigate more cults, we're going to rep prioritize our development away from that particular department and go help Donk instead. We scoot on up the hill to the watchtowwer where a grunt at the base tells us that Donk is waiting up top for us. Apparently, Gail sent word quick while we were working on deeducating cultists. There are quite a few grunts stationed at this tower, reinforcing its importance to the orcs.

[00:14:40]It commands an impressive view of the area and would serve its all-important purpose as early warning for the great wall of orc. Despite the grunts seeming to know that Gail sent us, Thonk himself seems surprised and taken aback by that fact. He tells us that the cataclysm did more than impact the coastline. It caused the South Fury River between us and the Barons to overflow, flooding Duratar's western basin. Bonk thinks there are still survivors out there, but hasn't had much luck finding them with his spy glass. He wants us to take a look, see if we can find anyone to rescue. We see a ruined orcish home in the distance near some immense brambles.

[00:15:21]A flooded ranch entirely inundated with water. an old orc woman at a ranch that still looks intact but in danger of further flooding and a lone troll caught out in the midst of the flood on a small piece of dry land. We report back to Thonk and he tells us, "Ah, he was using the wrong end of the spy glass. I can see they really put the best and the brightest up here. I guess they do value the ability to run your head into a wall and break the wall above all else." He wants us to head out into the flood plains and rescue the people we saw since he has to stay at his post here.

[00:15:56]While we carefully make our way out there, let's discuss a bit. Clearly, the orcs have some experience with natural disasters. Thong seemed fairly wellprepared, spy glass aside, to look for folks caught in the flooding. The watchtowers also would serve well as a place to see those in distress, not just incoming threats. I would hypothesize that orcish territory is probably denoted by these towers with everything the light touches. No, wait. With everything in their visual range part of the purview of that group of orcs. Thus, with the South Fury doing its thing over here, the orcs in Razer Hill have jurisdiction and are expected to help out. Near the ruined house and Brambles, we can find Regarin ranting about Billboard. Okay. Then he tells us he was told to evacuate, but he will not because the quillbar are a stain upon the land that not even the flooding can wash away. O really putting the cleanse in ethnic cleansing there, my guy.

[00:16:56]Evidently, his job is not yet done. He asks us to go kill a bunch of Quillbore form and finish the job. We've not yet encountered these Quillbbor, but based on Reagarin's actions here, I'm going to assume they and the orcs have no small amount of animosity. Nearby, we assault a quilbore camp pressed up against the side of a cliff and covered in massive brambles. The people themselves appear to be porcupine boar people, as hostile to us as we are to them. Their homes seem to be wood and clay constructions with reed or branch roofs open to let the breeze through. They also seem to have some number of salvaged structures, not nearly as permanent looking. I would guess they have also had to retreat from the flooding and are housing an extra number here at this village. Their magic seems to revolve around thorns in both physical and theoretical ways. the massive brambles that mark their villages being a very physical representation. The thorn spell that many of them carry, however, seems to reflect a small amount of physical damage back at us as we strike. I would hypothesize this is a cultural institution inspired by their quills and perhaps hinting at a particularly vengeful culture that values striking back at foes. As we clear through each settlement, we can also note that many of them have what look like foraging packs and are not denoted as combatants, hostile though they are. It is unclear yet and we have heard very little, but these razor main grounds may be a holdfast of their territory. A hill fort of sorts that allows them to withstand the full frontal assaults by the orcs. A culture of thorniness and vengeance would make them vicious combatants for the very physically focused orcs.

[00:18:45]Indeed, we've wiped out several villages at this point. So, we return to Ragarin to see how he is doing and if we can get him to evacuate now. He seems to calm down for just a moment, but immediately enrages again, perhaps that orcish blood fury. He goes on a barbed tirade against the Quillbour, even going so far as to call them gnomeloving. Hey man, we don't go that far here. He barely utters to us that there are more to the north and southwest. So, we take the hint, head southwest, and find a more heavily guarded Quillbore village. Battlegard watch the outskirts, wielding heavy axes and what looks like spiked armor to pair with their quills. They also bear banners upon their backs, perhaps symbols of their clans or families. The dustr runners we can also find here seem to wield druidic magic striking us with the spell wrath and with some light axes. The animosity here is more than clear, but it does also seem like we are seeing an outburst of that hitherto mysterious blood fury. Hypothetically, it is a state of increased emotion, especially anger, which yeah, makes sense, but one that specifically drives increased hostility and hatred. Ragarin seems physically unable to move on from his place here until his fury is abated with the annihilation of entire villages of Quillbour. Rather than a moment of increased fury and strength and potentially a brief loss of control like the trolls berserking, it seems like the blood fury is instead a deep vendettaike reaction. Whatever the Quillbbor have done to Regarin or his kin, it has triggered this visceral hate. We destroy several more villages. Some of the quillbour trying to flee, others becoming enraged themselves and attempting to stop our massacre. In the end, though, all of them lie dead. Maybe now we can get Reagarin to evacuate.

[00:20:43]Stained in the blood of dozens of the fallen, we return to him. He thanks us for our efforts, appearing much calmer.

[00:20:51]He then apologizes that we had to see him like that and thinks we should leave before he flies into another rage.

[00:20:58]Wonderful. Well, at least we got some useful information on the blood fury. It does seem from his words like it is not an honorable state for the orcs, but one to be apologized for. He also seems to have been living quite far from the main orcish settlements and does not seem to want to return to any of them. I wonder if he lives out here intentionally or is pseudoexiled because of his rages. If he feels the blood fury more keenly than his peers loses control more easily, that would be a likely scenario. For now, though, we need to head into the flood plains again and look for that troll we saw. We carefully pick through the flooded, treacherous terrain to the troll, who tells us he's not actually in danger, but is studying what happens when the river overflows. It seems like some of that darksp spear pragmatism and versatility. He has been watching the plainest striders and is worried about their overall population. Many are stuck on this side of the river away from their grasslands, but are too afraid to cross back over. Zentagi here wants to try to scare the birds back across, but notably he tells us he doesn't really care for violence anymore, so asks if we can help out the plainest striders. A dislike of violence is not a huge cultural step for a dark spear from what we have seen, but nor does it seem very common. Their culture of caution, pragmatism, and resource conservation would provide a clear pathway for such a mindset. However, clearly, Zentagi is on that resource conservation side of things, attempting to recover a portion of the baron's plainest strider population. So, we go and scare a bunch of big birds across the river using knives. Not quite the strangest thing I've done as an anthropologist, shockingly. Zentagi thanks us for helping out and has another ecological problem for us to solve. The raptors of this area, unlike most other species, have thrived since the flooding, doing a bit too well, though. They over hunt the other creatures and are knocking the predator prey population dangerously out of balance. One big nasty raptor in particular, Scream Slash, is the worst disruptor. and Zenagi wants us to take him out. The dark spear would certainly be the experts when it comes to the raptors in their population. So, we'll listen to the expert when he's talking.

[00:23:19]Hunting down the big intelligent Blue Raptor, we aren't quite able to get Blue to calm down with the hand trick. Darn.

[00:23:26]Well, knives it is. Stab, stab, and it's dead. Returning to Zeni, he thinks something about the cataclysm affected these raptors. They weren't always so violent and irrational. Maybe that's why all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are so violent. The Cataclysm. H, that's a wild crossover. They did get hit by a hurricane, though. Maybe it was actually an ancient dragon. He thanks us and says he'll get back to studying the river ecology. That is something particularly interesting. The dark spear clearly have individuals who devote themselves to studying the ecology and landscape of the lands they live in. with their culture of survivorship, their resource management. I would assume that is a very important role to have. Ah, but here we have arrived at Torrren Farm and we can speak with Misha Torquin. We spotted her with the spy glass. The flooding has just barely reached up to her ranch. As we talked to her, though, she doesn't seem overly keen on evacuating. No, instead she tells us today marks the anniversary of her son Kron's passing, which she long refused to acknowledge. She has now seemingly accepted that he will not be returning from his crocalisk hunt. To memorialize the occasion, she would like us to go on another crocalis hunt and bring back 250 of their teeth. I sure do hope these aren't classic crocalisk teeth. I guess I'd have content for the next 10 or so years if they were, though. I guess she's also not concerned about the flooding, more concerned with honoring her slain son. It may be that she is old enough at this point to have reached a state of accepting what comes, just wanting to honor her family however she can. The good news is that the flooding has brought those same crocalisks right up to her front lawn, such as it is. We take one down and find that hallelujah, it has at least 34 teeth. Wrangling a bunch of crocodiles in a wetland with knives to take their teeth is likely more interesting than anything I have done as an anthropologist. I do have to say luckily Azeroth doesn't have stingrays as far as I'm aware. So we should be fine probably. Trophies from a hunt is probably an old tradition for the orcs. one from before the Legion got their fell goop into them and one that is probably important in the new ideology they are trying to build.

[00:25:49]Clearly, Misha here is trying to follow old ways while blending them with the new honor her son as a hunter of crocalisks and not as a conqueror of worlds. But that is all of the folks we can help for now. We did spot an additional flooded ranch when we looked through the spy glass, but Th didn't note it as being important in his report. So, we'll go ahead and report back. We did spot an old grammatron.

[00:26:14]Nope. Grand matron orc in that ranch, but I'm sure she'll be fine. She can probably walk on water or fly or something and doesn't really need our help. Thonk confirms for us that she's fine. He saw her flying away. Wonderful.

[00:26:28]Glad that's resolved. With that, though, all the folks out in the watershed have been helped, though nobody actually evacuated. It seems everybody who needed to evacuate did so long before we got there. 16 years, in fact. Oh, that can't be right. 16 years. God, I feel old.

[00:26:48]Well, we're now ready to head north for Orgnell. Report on the Burning Blade activities slowly. Look, he didn't pay for express delivery. That archaeological fund is still waiting for some gold coins there, buddy. Our road leads us through Razor Wind Canyon. the long dusty path to or remar. We don't spot any major threats in here, but do hear somebody kakawing off in a side canyon. I'm sure that's nothing, just the local bird watching club. We emerge from the canyon safe and sound, but get stopped by a goblin named Reslac camped out here with a wagon. Apparently, he's one of Gazzlo's boys sent to help out the orcs. Their caravans through the canyon apparently keep getting raided by harpies. Ah, well that made does that does make more sense than a large population of bird watchers. Reslac wants us to head back into the canyon and recover sacks of stolen supplies. He also tells us quite interestingly that his boss taught him two lessons. One, if you want something done well, do it yourself. And two, you can get anything done for a price. If this philosophy includes paying us so we can add some funds to the project, I'm in. Who am I killing? Harpies. You got it, boss. He's paying us quite well to secure the canyon supply line, so we get to work.

[00:28:05]So far, goblins have an extremely merkantile culture that also seems strictly hierarchical. We've not seen enough yet to get more than this glimpse, but we'll keep our eyes out.

[00:28:16]The harpies here seem to have a small village built back into the canyons. A mixture of inaccessibilities from both the depths of the canyon and the elevation of their homes, making them quite safe. Luckily, it seems like they can't permanently stay aloft. We start clearing through the ones on the ground, experiencing firsthand their mastery of wind magics. From bolts of lightning to enhancing their attack speed, they certainly make good use of it. Their focus on speed, coupled with the ability to fly, makes it clear just how adept they must be at stealing supplies. They would barely even need to attack a caravan. Just swoop in from above, grab the sacks, and scuttle back into their canyon hidey-hole. Some of them back here are noted as pillagers, reinforcing the raiding culture of the dust wind.

[00:29:03]Others are noted as storm witches, and those are the ones hucking electrical conduits at us. Stop trying to tase me.

[00:29:10]We can see a large number of hatched eggshells lying about. It seems like the harpies might keep them around as some sort of keepsake or a marker of home.

[00:29:20]Motherhood is seemingly quite important given the emphasis on their roosts, nests, and eggshells. I wonder if roosts up higher or those farther back into the canyon and thus safer are reserved for those at the top of the pecking order.

[00:29:35]We encountered mostly weaker harpies and a few pillagers at the entrance with very few nests safely out of reach. It is hard to extrapolate with so little information, but it seems like the older, more experienced, and more powerful harpies do indeed have the safer roosts, while younger, less experienced ones are forced to roost in more dangerous areas. Harpies, of course, draw from henistic mythology.

[00:30:01]This all female myth has changed over the course of time, as all myths do, and we can see roots of that inspiration here. pillagers, snatchers, the all female species. It's no fun to just rely on the mythology to analyze what we see.

[00:30:17]However, instead, I would wonder about parthnogenesis being able to reproduce without a different sex mate. This has notable precedent in the real world, and I would especially point to my beloved little morning geckos as an example.

[00:30:32]Harpies may be able to lay fertile eggs without an opposite sex partner and thus are all technically clones of each other beyond the expected level of individual mutation. Biology is not my focus, however, so I will simply advise you to look up morning geckos to both see how adorable they are for yourself and we can keep on working on acquiring funding. Many of the harpies are perched above us on the canyon walls and safely out of reach. We clear through those we can and recover all of the remaining supplies we can reach before returning back to Reslac. Job's done. He does pay us very well for our work, which is fantastic. He mentions his boss may have more work for us down in Ratchet, so we keep that in mind as a potential source of funding. For now, we're continuing along to eventually check in with Gore the Enforcer at the blockade. We check in with him here in his fortified outpost just outside the gate.

[00:31:26]Surprisingly, he already knows of our actions against the Burning Blade, telling us he has eyes and ears everywhere. I'm actually going to assume he just paid off Gail Nauseywig since she knows quite literally everyone and everything happening in Razer Hill.

[00:31:40]Gore, though, does have work for us and is aware of the other actions of the Burning Blade. Apparently, the flooding took out one of their nearby camps, and he wants us to recover a magical orb that the cultist there had. Why? He tells us he leaves that to the warlocks.

[00:31:56]All he knows is we need the orb. While we're doing that, he also wants us to attach tethers to the corpses of dead thunder lizards that died when the same canyon was flooded. It will give the orcs a clean water source close at hand.

[00:32:10]But before we can head out, Shin Stonepillar, another orc here, stops us.

[00:32:15]He tells us that his associate, Gore, has reckless plans for us that he doesn't agree with. Gore's actions are hasty, uncontrolled, and irresponsible.

[00:32:25]Chin wants to tell us a tale, a moralistic fable, but with an important lesson. The tale is of a wolf that sought an easy meal, finding two battling codos. Deciding to wait for the stronger Codo to defeat the weaker, he jumped in after the stronger had won, trying to get a bite. Angry at the wolf's impetuousness, the strong Codo swiftly killed the wolf before he had a chance to eat. Jyn then explains the moral in case we missed it. hasty, lazy actions have ruinous results. He's been trying to tell the story and its morals to the enforcer, but hasn't gotten it through his thick hellscream worshipping skull. Gore then steps in, cutting off the shaman, and tells us to ignore him.

[00:33:09]While certain powers within the Horde demand that the shaman be present, he assures us that the thrall loving Farer sees no farther than the walls of this outpost. He needs us to clear out the waring elementals to the west to prepare for a shipping route, using their conflict with each other and the weakness this brings to break through them. Well, we have our assigned tasks.

[00:33:31]So, we head out west to clear out the elementals, the dead thunder lizards, and recover the orb from the canyon.

[00:33:38]Let's discuss what we've learned here while we make our hasty action against these elementals. It seems there is a deep conflict among the Horde, specifically with the orcs about whether or not to continue embracing the teachings of Thr or to embrace a different path, seemingly a more marshall one. It does not sound like Hellscream's faction necessarily wants to embrace fell blood like the Burning Blade, but rather the ideas of conquest, strength, and domination that has also been a part of their fell inheritance.

[00:34:10]That path has put them on a direct collision course with the teachings of Thr and the other shamans who have tried to embrace an idealized past from before the demonic corruption. This factionalism and internal division gives much more credence to Vulg and Thrall's discussion. reading between the lines there. It certainly seems like Thraw was warning of some of these factions and their effects and that Hellscream's followers cannot be allowed to tear the Horde apart. Culturally, this division does make sense from an anthropological point of view. Th may have been an idealized leader to the orcs, but his ideology was not one that all of them could easily accept. Over time, especially with any amount of stability, they were likely to grow fractious given their complicated history and intense culture of honor and conflict. I'm not here to do a story or literary analysis, though, just an anthropological one.

[00:35:10]From that point of view, such divisions are not uncommon in societies that have experienced enormous change and conflict, but were brought together by a singular momentous occasion and individual. Over time, as memory of that occasion fades, it is not unusual for fractures in unity to appear, especially if there is not a continued pressure forcing the unity. It seems like Hellscream and his faction are accelerating these divisions, expressly pushing against the ideology of his predecessor and the path that was originally laid out. There does appear to be some political pressure against this change though, the requirement of the Far Seer, for example, with the Enforcer. We'll have to keep an eye out for more signs of these factions, the growing division, and their political pressures. We move over to the Flooded Canyon. Thunder Ridge. Attaching the lines to the drowned thunder lizards is easy enough if you avoid the electrical discharge. Luckily, this water appears to be super inert, and we don't get to experience sudden cardiac arrest. The grunts drag them out once we've have them hooked up. We can also find the drowned body of Fizzle Darkclaw, the Burning Blade cultist, surrounded by his still present minions. We drive them off and attempt to take the orb, but it will not unclench from his hand. With our endless pragmatism and problem solving, we decide to cut off his hand to take it with us. Lovely. It seems like we might be encountering another version of the head-on problem solving that we saw with Garog. This Hellscream faction potentially has embraced the idea of direct, simple, quick solutions to problems, like throwing a 100 grunts at it, or just dragging dead thunder lizards out of a new water source or wiping out a bunch of elementals as they pop up. None of these deal with the root problems, though. They're all the easiest, fastest, most direct solution to the symptoms of the problem. The fable told to us by Shin clearly indicates a caution against this sort of mentality that is being entirely ignored by other orcs for seemingly political purposes. We return to Gore with all of his tasks completed and hand him the goblin's arm, for which he rewards us with gloves since we gave him a hand.

[00:37:31]Since we did also help him out with a bit of the Burning Blade nonsense, he tells us to speak with Margos, another orc who knows of the sect of Burning Blade not far from here at Skull Rock.

[00:37:41]For the other tasks, he tells us to disregard the shaman's warnings as nothing but bedtime stories. The new horde, as he calls it, takes what it wants and does not waste time with such frivolity. Well, that is a pretty direct summation there of what we suspected in our hypothesis. The orcs seem to be having an identity crisis between conquerors who take what they want and disregard all others and caretakers.

[00:38:09]Shamans who act with patience and wisdom to find the best solution, not the fastest. We go seek out this Margos far to the east, camped out by a pond. He knows both of our deeds and that we were coming. So clearly whatever information network is going on here is fairly extensive. Gail Nauseywig must have a lot of friends. He tells us that a large group of Burning Blade are indeed camped out in Skull Rock, relatively near Ormar, and that they're up to no good.

[00:38:40]They have searing collars on magical artifacts that help attune them to their demonic powers. He wants us to recover a number of these artifacts and see for sure what they're doing with them. While we're here, an orc named Vec Nag stomps us. He was sent to find help by his boss, Spike Tooth. Apparently, they're just southeast by a crashed cart. He makes sure to request that we tell his boss that Vecnag sent us, so he knows he's not just slacking off up here.

[00:39:07]Interesting. Well, that is closer. And there was an offer of potential payment.

[00:39:11]So, we'll go check out the spike tooth first to see what he needs help with.

[00:39:15]Oh. Oh, no. Well, his title is slave driver. So, that is a great sign. We haven't actually seen anyone explicitly labeled as a slave in Duratar so far, just peeons. So, we'll keep an eye out for elaboration. When we check in with the large orc, he lambasts Vecnag for not having us bring wheels, nails, and rations. Spike Tooth does further elaborate that he owns gladiators that he puts into competitions around Calumdor. Ah, that kind of slave battleths. His Naga champion here, Gizlania, has lost all of her recent bouts and he wants us to go challenge her, try to get her fighting better.

[00:39:56]Another one, Griswald Hanniston, was with the Northwatch soldiers and got nabbed recently. He isn't battle tested, so he wants us to go pick a fight with him to see if he's worth an investment.

[00:40:07]And last, but not least is Gar Icehorn, a Tonka. Spike Tooth elaborates that he wouldn't normally keep a Tonka as a captive given their closeness with the Horde, but this one is an outlaw and a traitor. He is the best fighter here, and Spike Tooth bets us a fair amount of gold we won't win against him. Well, that's a lot. I would not have strongly anticipated gladiatorial slaves in Duratar given the orc's own recent history, but it seems they have embraced the combat side of things. Well, we need funding for the project, so we get down to it. The Naga isn't much of a threat.

[00:40:43]We've already fought more dangerous ones already. The Wargan Griswald also goes down without too much of a fight. It is notable that the orcs will capture direct foes like Griswald for this sort of slavery. There is significant real world historical precedent for this course of action. Many captured enemy combatants around the Mediterranean during the classical era, for example, were enslaved exactly like this. Gore Icehorn puts up a little bitty tiny bit more of a fight, enraging and growing even taller than he already was. It doesn't help him, however, and we win again. Having now cleaned out Spike Tooth's entire entourage, the slave driver does pay out, but suggests we make ourselves scarce before he reconsiders his policy on horde slaves.

[00:41:30]Wonderful. We scuttle away with a much heavier coin purse and some new tidbits about orcish culture to chew on. The keeping of gladiatorial slaves is again interesting. It suggests arena based fights or dueling spectacles are not uncommon and have a degree of organization to them. I would imagine a nonzero number of orcs may willingly sign up for such to try to gain honor and position. The use of slaves, though, is more interesting. I would guess they are probably common as enemies for the orcs in such fights, acting as the villains and bad guys in narrative matches. All of them seem to have a combatant or criminal background here, though a sample size of three is nowhere near enough to say whether this is a common practice across the industry as a whole. Extrapolating a bit, I would assume captured enemy combatants are the primary source of gladiatorial slaves for the orcs, as well as the occasional mid-level outlaw like Gar here.

[00:42:28]Depending upon the interpretation of peeons, it may also be a place where orcs who have disgraced themselves end up. If you break enough traditions, lose enough honor. You may involuntarily become a gladiatorial fighter. But here we are at Skull Rock filled with Burning Blade apprentices and fanatics. The cult has managed to recruit an impressive number of orcs, and I now wonder if some of them might not be escaped slaves or gladiatorial sorts, or those at risk of becoming such. We know the cult certainly likes their frontline bruisers like these fanatics and the thugs we've seen. We tear through them old hands now at cleaving up cultists. We take their searing collars back to Margos, but when he tries to study them, one of the callers burns in his hands. Instead, he needs us to take it into Orrammar to find Arnack Fireblade, a loyal Horde warlock who is more skilled than he is.

[00:43:25]It seems this cult has managed a more powerful resurgence this time. So, we'll have to keep our eyes out as we enter the city. But that is all for today, my friends. We have completed our travels and studies through the dusty lands of Duratar and now wait upon the gates of Ormar. We shall be crossing that spiky threshold soon to see what lies within.

[00:43:48]Across the lands, we have seen the bang head here protocol of the orcs, a cultural pillar of brute force and direct solutions that was seemingly slowly being worn away by thr and his shamanism, but now back in full force with Hellscream. It seems social standing and worth are not granted at birth to the orcs. They must earn these things through the complex honor system, and they can easily be lost. The direct, hasty solutions that the orcs are being pushed to favor might be a strong part of this. They're being pushed to utilize direct head-on assaults to problems rather than careful, considered solutions that might gain less honor.

[00:44:27]Garok in Razer Hill was a good example of such, sending dozens of grunts into the sea grinder of the water elementals.

[00:44:34]With those grunts, we also saw a conflict between a drive to survive, wanting to make it another day in this harsh world and dying a good death, an honorable death. At its core, we see the struggle played out between the ideology of Thrawl and the ideology of Hellscream, returning to their roots, at least what they believe those to be as spiritual caretakers, or leaning into their identity as conquerors. We saw this dichotomy on full display between Gore the Enforcer and Shin Stonepillar, where the Hellscream faction prioritizes rapid short-sighted solutions to problems while ignoring the structural long-term stability favored by the Thraw Faction. We heard the fable of the Wolf and the Cotto, a direct tale told to us of how the Thraw Faction of Orcs views such hasty actions, reckless, dangerous, and fruitless. They are concerned with the survival of their people, not with conquering the world. There may also be some political maneuvering happening in Orgamar, where these political factions seem to be vying for power and influence. The Thraw faction must still have some teeth able to force the acceptance of Shin at the blockade here.

[00:45:50]I would also imagine from what we've seen previously that this faction has strong support from the dark spear trolls who align deeply with its motives and ideology. However, we also hypothesized about how Orcus ideology could have been turned on them by the burning legion corrupting their system of honor even as they corrupted their bodies. It would have been an easy and convenient mode of control. We see the lingering remnants of this fell corruption in the burning blade. Lurking at the edges of orcish society, ready to scoop up their rejects, the outcast, the power hungry into their ranks. They hide out near seemingly all of the orcish settlements in cave systems, canyons, and probably within as well, keeping an eye on anyone they can turn to their purposes. It is a malignance the orcs seem familiar with, one they're used to dealing with, one that is seemingly a recurring problem. The honor system we surmised likely leaves many orcs behind, making them easy prey to all sorts of cults or other ideologies. Of course, they could also be easy prey for the gladiatorial slave drivers like Spike Tooth. Gladiatorial combat is likely a convenient source of honor for those orcs that seek it out. a controlled battle close to home with fame, fortune, and that honor all ready to grasp. Of course, it probably comes with a cost, something the goblins and their hyper mercantile culture that we've had early glimpses of know all about. We've not seen too much yet, but we will be keeping our eyes out for more hints on this. We also got additional hints about the darkspear, their resource management, their ecological versatility, and that all-consuming pragmatism. Zentaggi confirmed a hypothesis that some darkspear have deeply embraced this ideology to the point of disliking conflict for the costs that it incurs. Of course, this has put them in direct conflict with the new horde and its focus on taking resources, taking what they want when they want, and damn the consequences.

[00:47:59]There were others in the landscape we saw brief glimpses of as well. The Quillbore and the Harpies, both of whom have homes here. The quillbore seemed to have a culture around thorns and quills, a culture of vengeance and retribution that would have them fortify their homes with physical brambles. We saw how a hatred exists between them and the orcs, as well as signs of how the blood fury works and how it may drive orcs into the fringes, unable to safely be around their peers for risk of that hate rising to the surface. With the harpies, we speculated to a matriarchal hierarchy and some potential parthnogenesis if you don't want to get too deep into the mythology there. Their presence deep in the canyon suggests they have a long history in this landscape. That landscape is watched over by the orcish watchtowers with every settlement marked by their gaze. We speculated that it is these towers and the reach of their vigilance that marks the extent of true Orcish territory. With those towers, we also got a hint at Orcish emergency management, how those same defenses could be used to coordinate rescue efforts and keep an eye on civil problems as well as Marshall. But everything we have seen converges at the gates of Ormar, the threshold of centralization.

[00:49:20]Within those gates lies the hearts of their conflicts, the resource string, the ideological factions, the outcasts, the shadows of the past all lurk within.

[00:49:31]Someday soon, we will pass through their spiky metallic exterior to see what we find. But for now, my friends, that is the end of this video. I do hope you have enjoyed this looked at the dusty lands of Duratar. Soon, we'll be wrapping up our look at them with the great city and perhaps the secrets of the rosy past. If you have indeed enjoyed it, please consider liking the video, subscribing to the channel, and leaving a comment about your thoughts, favorite parts, or whatever else tickles your fancy. If you wish to support us on Patreon, and enable us to keep making these deep dives full-time, please check out the link in the description. An enormous thanks to our current patrons Al M, Sninkleberg, Viviverins, Cobalt, Jaxma, Echo Isles, Yosak, Nikon, and Froyo. Our gratitude for your support is immeasurable. Thank you so very much. As always, I have been your host, Mal, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day today. Do no harm and do some good.