First War #4: The Fall of the City of Light

July 16, 2026•Lore•Brendo Arruda

"First War" series — First War #4. The story of Warcraft I, from the clans of Draenor to the fall of Stormwind. The episodes are listed in order at the end of the post.

The fall of Shattrath is the point of no return in the corruption of the orcs. To make sure they would beat the draenei, Gul'dan offered the chieftains a power no magic could give: the blood of the demon Mannoroth. Almost all of them drank. The orcs' skin turned green, and an endless fury took hold of them. With that strength, the Horde attacked Shattrath, the City of Light, and destroyed it.

The blood of Mannoroth

Even after Telmor, the war was not won. The draenei still had Shattrath, a fortified city protected by the Light. Gul'dan knew the orcs needed something more.

He gathered the clan chieftains for a ritual. In the middle stood a chalice with the blood of Mannoroth, a pit lord of the Burning Legion, offered by Kil'jaeden. Whoever drank it would gain a strength and a fury no orc had ever felt.

Grom Hellscream was the first to drink. The other chieftains followed.

What the blood did to the orcs

The demonic blood changed the orcs inside and out:

Their skin turned green. The original brown color of the orcs was replaced by the green that became famous in Warcraft.
Fury became bloodlust. The orcs began to feel a constant rage that only calmed down in battle.
The Horde became bound to the Legion. The blood tied the orcs to Mannoroth, and through him to the Burning Legion.

The blood curse only ends years later, in Warcraft III, when Grom kills Mannoroth in Kalimdor.

Durotan refuses

Not everyone drank. Durotan, chieftain of the Frostwolf clan, refused. After everything he had seen in the war, he did not trust Gul'dan and did not want to hand his people over to a power he did not understand.

Because of that, the Frostwolves were never as corrupted as the other clans. Years later, this decision saves Durotan's son, Thrall, who rediscovers shamanism with that same clan.

The fall of Shattrath

Fueled by the fury of the blood, the Horde attacked Shattrath, the largest draenei city. The defenders fought with everything they had, but the orcs were many and felt neither fear nor pain.

The City of Light fell. Most of the draenei were killed, and the city was left in ruins. Velen survived, but his people were nearly wiped out.

The Broken draenei

Many draenei who survived were struck by the fel magic of the war and changed. They lost part of their connection to the Light and their former strength, and came to be called the Broken. The best known of them is Akama, who later helps Illidan take the Black Temple and then helps the heroes defeat him.

The price for Draenor

The victory had another cost. The fel magic used by the warlocks began draining the life out of the planet itself. The plains dried up, the forests died and the land of Draenor began to rot.

With the draenei almost destroyed and the world dying, the Horde was an army with no enemy and no future. Gul'dan and Kil'jaeden already had the answer: a new world to conquer. That is the subject of the next episode.

Episode timeline

Gul'dan offers the chieftains the blood of Mannoroth.
Grom drinks first, and the other chieftains follow. Durotan refuses.
The orcs' skin turns green, and bloodlust takes over the Horde.
The Horde attacks and destroys Shattrath.
The draenei survivors go into hiding, and many become the Broken.
Fel magic begins killing the planet itself.

Who's who in this episode

| Name | Who they are | |------|--------| | Mannoroth | The Legion pit lord whose blood corrupted the orcs. | | Grom Hellscream | The chieftain of the Warsong clan, the first to drink the blood. | | Durotan | The chieftain of the Frostwolf clan, who refused the blood. | | Shattrath | The City of Light, the largest draenei city, destroyed by the Horde. | | Akama | A Broken draenei who survived and returns in TBC. | | Velen | The draenei prophet, who survived the fall of the city. |

Where to see it in WotLK

Shattrath, in Terokkar Forest: the city was rebuilt on top of the ruins and became the refuge of the naaru in TBC.
Hellfire Peninsula: the land devastated by fel magic, with Hellfire Citadel and the red orcs of the Fel Horde.
Black Temple, in Shadowmoon Valley: Akama and the Broken, at the end of TBC.
Demon Fall Canyon, in Ashenvale: where Grom kills Mannoroth, ending the curse.