| Frostwolf Clan | |
|---|---|
 Frostwolves, the Survivalists | |
|
Leader: |
Drek'thar |
|
Affiliations: |
New Horde |
|
Status: |
Unknown |
|
Population: |
Unknown |
The Frostwolf Clan is one of the oldest Orc clans originally hailing from their homeworld of Draenor. When the Orcs were gathered before the formation of the Horde to drink from the Blood of Mannoroth the Frostwolves were one of the few clans who refused to drink from the corrupting well, sparing their entire clan from the demonic influence that would infect the other clans like a disease. Exiled due to the actions of their Chieftain, they left their homeworld behind and travelled to Azeroth (Planet), moving north until they eventually reached the Alterac Mountains, a location which they still consider to be their home. Led by the venerable shaman Drek'thar, the Frostwolf Clan is in constant conflict with the Stormpike Clan of Dwarves who seek to claim a large portion of the mountains for themselves.
History[]
The Frostwolf Clan traces it's roots all the way back to before the arrival of the Draenei on their homeworld of Draenor. Led by Garad, father of Durotan, the Frostwolf Clan's territory was centered around the plains of Nagrand near the Mountain of Spirits, Oshu'gun. It was in this place that the Frostwolves maintained a strong connection to the elemental forces of the world, and where the young of the clan were taken to see if they had the potential to become a shaman of the Frostwolves.
Sometime before the rise of the Horde under Gul'dan and his puppet Warchief Blackhand, the chieftain of the Frostwolves, Garad, was slain in battle with a group of ogres and a gronn. Following the ancestral right of succession, Garad's son Durotan became the chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan. It was he who was present when Gul'dan presented the orc chieftains and their clans with the Blood of Mannoroth, and it was he who refused not just for himself but also for his entire clan. Following the slaughter of the Draenei, Durotan began advocating a return to traditional orc society, while also publicly condemning the corruption that Gul'dan and his warlocks visited upon his people and for his outcries he and his clan were declared outlaws among the orcish people. Fearing for the continued existence of his clan, Durotan took the Frostwolves through the Dark Portal where instead of aiding the new Horde in their violent occupation of the Kingdom of Azeroth, they traveled north, through the mountainous region of Khaz Modan until they reached the Alterac Mountains far to the north of the Horde's current location.
After the death of Warchief Blackhand and the ascension of Orgrim Doomhammer to the very same position, Durotan, his wife Draka and their infant son Go'el emerged from their exile in the north to warn him of Gul'dan's schemes and betrayal. Orgrim, a childhood friend of Durotan and in ways the Chieftain's best friend, listened to Durotan and agreed with him, but in attempting to see to their safety unwillingly caused their deaths through the actions of his guards, some of whom were serving as the spies of Gul'dan. Durotan and Draka were slain, and Go'el was left to be eaten by the forest creatures although fate would play a different hand for the infant orc, unbeknownst to the assassins who assumed him dead along with his parents.
In the Alterac Mountains however, the Frostwolves did not know of the fate of their Chieftain, his wife or their son. To fill the void left by Durotan's absence, the Elder Shaman Drek'thar took over leadership of the Clan, at least temporarily. Within the mountains of Alterac they practiced the old ways, the ways of the shaman and never involved themselves in the war that the Horde waged against the Alliance further south, not even when the Horde encroached on the Alterac Mountains in their efforts to lay siege to the Kingdom of Lordaeron. As a result, the Frostwolves were spared from the defeat that their kind suffered and were not locked up within the internment camps like so many others of their race. They remained free, and their way of life would continue and remain relatively unchanged.
The Return of Go'el[]
Some twenty years after the exile imposed on the clan by Horde the Frostwolves would gain a visitor that they did not expect, a young orc by the name of Thrall. Thrall, a gladiator from the internment camps who was pursuing knowledge about his lineage, was unknowingly the infant son of Durotan who had survived the death of his father and mother. Discovered by a human by the name of Aedelas Blackmoore, Thrall, as he would become known, was raised within the confined walls of Durnholde Keep where he was trained at a young age to become a capable warrior.
Taken in by the Frostwolves, it was revealed to Thrall who his parents were and who he was by right, the Chieftain of the clan. Drek'thar however refused to hand over the leadership to the newly arrived Orc, instead making a point to ensure that Thrall earned his place before he was given proper rank. Thrall humbly accepted this duty, and worked with the Frostwolves to prove himself while also walking on the path of a shaman, becoming one of the first to be accepted by the elements since the Orcs abandoned them in favor of demonic magic so many years ago.
This cycle continued until the spring of one of the following years, when the Frostwolves would gain yet another visitor, an orc hermit who remained hooded and cloaked, never revealing his true identity. Sitting at their fire, he spoke of what the Orcs had become, raising the ire of Thrall for his cowardly words. Thrall in his anger, challenged the hermit to a fight only for the hermit to reveal that he was in fact a capable warrior. The fight between the pair raged briefly before it ended with Thrall being the victor, and it was only after Thrall's victory that the hermit revealed who he truly was, the former Warchief of the Horde, Orgrim Doomhammer. Orgrim had come to the encampment by invitation of Drek'thar, and desired to test Thrall to see if the reputation he had earned thus far was well earned. Surprised by the results, Orgrim willingly took Thrall under his wing as his second in command with the goal of their new crusade being to storm the encampments and free the Orcs from the control of the humans who herded them like cattle. To this end, the Frostwolf Clan joined forces with the Warsong Clan lead by Grom Hellscream and with the aid of Thrall, who infiltrated several camps to inspire the orcs and drive them to revolt, they freed a great many orcs from the control of Aedelas Blackmoore and the forces under his command.
Following the liberation of the encampments, which would also see Thrall elevated to the position of Warchief after the death of Orgrim Doomhammer, the Frostwolf Clan continued to aid the Horde in settling within the regions that they had claimed as their own. More shamans were recruited from the orcs now that the elements were accepting them once more and many raids were staged to rescue fellow orcs, including one such raid on human city of Stratholme. The Horde however would not stay long within the northern kingdoms and at the insistence of Thrall the Frostwolf Clan along with the other clans that had been freed from the camps stole several Alliance ships and sailed west across the Great Sea. It was there that they engaged the Night Elves, protectors of Kalimdor before eventually being forced into battle against the Scourge and the Burning Legion, forces which had only just ravaged the lands they had left behind.
The following engagements would be considered some of the bloodiest in history, with surviving forces of the Alliance joining with the Horde and the Night Elves to battle against the Burning Legion. The final battle fought at the base of Mount Hyjal, saw the Frostwolf Clan along with the rest of the Horde fight against the demonic army lead by Archimonde the Defiler. The Horde suffered many losses, but eventually with the aid of their allies defeated the Burning Legion and it's leader, at least on this world.
Following the defeat of the demonic and undead armies that had savaged them, the Frostwolf Clan and the rest of the Horde traveled to a relatively unoccupied area of Kalimdor. Naming the land Durotar, after his father, Thrall helped establish a new home for the Orc people including the Frostwolf Clan and even created a new capital for the Orcs, named Orgrimmar in honor of Orgrim Doomhammer. The Frostwolf Clan however, would not stay within the city of Orgrimmar or even within the land of Durotar, instead returning to their homes within the snow covered peaks of the Alterac Mountains. To give the clan a proper leader, one who would be there for the clan and who had led them long before Thrall had emerged from captivity, he named Drek'thar as the leader of the Frostwolf Clan.
Chieftains[]
| Frostwolf Chieftain | ||
| Preceded by Garad |
Frostwolf Clan | Succeeded by Durotan |
| Frostwolf Chieftain | ||
| Preceded by Durotan |
Frostwolf Clan | Succeeded by Drek'thar |
| Frostwolf Chieftain | ||
| Preceded by Drek'thar |
Frostwolf Clan | Succeeded by Thrall |
| Frostwolf Chieftain | ||
| Preceded by Thrall |
Frostwolf Clan | Succeeded by Drek'thar |
Current Status[]
Under the leadership of Drek'thar the Frostwolf Clan has continued to grow in both size and strength. Within recent years, however, their home has come under siege by the Stormpike Clan of Dwarves who insist that the Alterac Valley---in which, the Frostwolf Clan makes their home---belongs to them. This has lead to escalating conflict between the two forces, to the point where mercenaries from both sides have engaged in open warfare within the valley.
Because of the unstable and tempestuous nature of the conflict, a number of Frostwolf Orcs have departed from the valley and migrated to other regions (peacefully or by conquest). Whether these are self-exiles, banished offenders or displaced refugees, it is unknown. One such instance of "renegade" Frostwolf migration was in the Kingdom of Alterac region of Aurellia, the Duchy of Anton Caerwyn IV of the Dominion of Alterac.