First War #6: The Invasion of Azeroth

July 17, 2026•Lore•Brendo Arruda

"First War" series — First War #6. 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 invasion of Azeroth is the start of the First War, the story of the game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. The Horde crossed the Dark Portal and came out in the Black Morass, south of the human kingdom of Azeroth, whose capital was Stormwind. The humans had never seen orcs and did not know what they were facing. The orcs, in turn, were in a strange world, green and full of life. Both sides underestimated each other at first.

A new world for the orcs

The first orcs who crossed the Portal found something Draenor no longer had: living forests, clean rivers and fertile land. For a people coming from a dying planet, Azeroth looked like a prize.

The Horde set up its first camp around the Portal, in the Black Morass, and began sending scouting parties to learn the region.

The kingdom of Azeroth

The southernmost human kingdom was called Azeroth, with its capital Stormwind in the forests of Elwynn. The king was Llane Wrynn, and the commander of the armies was Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, a descendant of the ancient line of Arathor.

Llane, Lothar and the mage Medivh had been childhood friends. No one in Stormwind imagined that one of the three was behind the invasion.

The first battles

The Horde's first attacks were against small villages, farms and guard posts near the southern forests, such as the lands that are now Duskwood and Redridge. Reports reached Stormwind of green-skinned monsters with tusks and huge axes.

Lothar's knights fought back and won many of these first battles. The orcs were strong, but they fought without knowing the terrain, and the humans had fortresses, cavalry and discipline.

Two sides that underestimated each other

At first, each side saw the other the wrong way:

The humans thought the orcs were wild beasts, a band of raiders that would be driven out soon.
The orcs thought the humans were weak, with small bodies and no battle fury.

Both were wrong. The Horde was a huge army that was only waiting for reinforcements through the Portal. And the humans of Azeroth were tough, with a military tradition that went back to Arathor.

The war that dragged on

The First War was not quick. It lasted years, with advances and retreats on both sides. The Horde grew with each new wave that crossed the Portal and learned how to fight on Azeroth. Stormwind was more and more surrounded.

What the humans did not know is that the war was also being fought inside Karazhan, Medivh's tower, just a few days' journey from Stormwind.

Episode timeline

The first orcs cross the Portal and set up camp in the Black Morass.
Scouting parties attack villages and farms in the south of the kingdom of Azeroth.
Anduin Lothar's knights win the first battles.
New waves of orcs cross the Portal, and the Horde grows.
The war drags on for years, and Stormwind is slowly surrounded.

Who's who in this episode

| Name | Who they are | |------|--------| | Llane Wrynn | The king of Azeroth, with his capital in Stormwind. | | Anduin Lothar | The commander of Azeroth's armies, the Lion of Azeroth. | | Medivh | The Guardian of Tirisfal, childhood friend of Llane and Lothar. | | Blackhand | The Warchief who led the Horde in the invasion. | | Black Morass | The swamp south of Azeroth where the Dark Portal opened. |

Where to see it in WotLK

Swamp of Sorrows and Blasted Lands: the region of the old Black Morass, with the Dark Portal.
Elwynn Forest and Stormwind: the kingdom the orcs invaded, rebuilt after the war.
Duskwood and Redridge Mountains: the lands that suffered the first attacks.
Stonewatch Keep, in Redridge: one of the human fortresses in the region, now taken over by orcs.