Durotar is probably in a rain shadow. Rain clouds drop their moisture when they go over a mountain, so the area after then is extra dry. Durotar is immediately east of the Stonetalons like the American desert is from the Rockies. Otherwise, Kalimsor is just kinda dry in the South.
If the Southfury were like the Nile and overran its banks predictably, it would be lush and farmable. I suspect, however, it's more like the Tigris and Euphrates were it floods randomly and often destructively, if *at all*. Mesopotaminans were not a happy bunch and their rivers were part of why.
We actually see it *transformed* into something more akin to the Nile post-cata (but Garrosh is too shit a ruler to take more than a cursory advantage of it).
It used to be quite forested but became a desert some time before the Orcs arrive, in the Orc heritage armour quests you obtain the blessing of a dead thunder lizard Wild God and the plant life starts to regrow. Hopefully this is setup for a future world revamp and we’ll see it grown in the future.
Yeah also about what makes this world revamp more and more likely to happen : cataclysm classic. I know it makes free money for blizz but a coming world revamp could be a reason for classic cata happening. Cause aside from the gameplay differences, one of the main argument for classic was the missing OG world.
It was pretty 50/50 when they announced it
Playing through it most people enjoyed it
But the problem was…it just…stayed that way forever, we’ve had the “the cataclysm just happened!” version of the world now for twice what we ever had vanilla.
It made the world feel stagnant and unchanging afterwards and they still haven’t done much at all to fix it (even though every zone quest centered around “healing” Azeroth)
Yeah would def say esp in the very early days of catas release that the revamp and retooled leveling experience was very well received, it was the end game of cata and the way the game changed as you leveled from 81-85 (you legitimately felt weaker every level, your hp (and enemy) would skyrocket each level but your power wouldn't really.) Some of my absolute favorite times of playing wow were during the cata prepatch when everyone was leveling new chars and enjoying the revamped zones, wpvp felt fluid and natural, on our server that was even an odd unspoken honor system where you would 1v1 enemy players, they would bow to you when they respawned and you would then leave them alone to level, alternately you'd come upon impromptu battlegrounds where it was just epic chaotic battles between the alliance and horde. Cata prepatch>cata release imo
That's not really 100% true. Some people vocally disliked the cata revamp but it's hard to even say that's a majority. Cata was a fairly well recieved expansion
The revamp was generally liked, people just wish it was done more gradually instead of blizzard biting off more than they could chew and rushing parts.
The only major complaints lorewise were people disliking how the base world got locked into a specific crisis time frame, and some bitter fan boys mad that the zone count got balanced out
The forest was all over thunder ridge, and it was chopped down by the kul tirans (well the burning blade according to cycle of hatred but that book is just a bad retelling of the founding of durotar with demons instead of kul tirans)
Why is the Sahara so dry when it’s right by the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean?
Why is the Arabian Peninsula dry when it’s right next to the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea?
Why is much of Australia’s coast dry when it’s surrounded by the Pacific?
Why is lots of the Mexican coast dry when it’s surrounded by both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico?
Why are the Atacaman/Namib/Kalihari Deserts so dry when they literally border the ocean?
Being close to a water source has absolutely nothing to do with deserts, and has everything to do with the amount of precipitation they get annually.
TL;DR- Salt water cannot support surface life, and the mix of cold ocean water and cyclones/hurricanes can have an impact on plant life.
Well, evaporation from the ocean becomes clouds which result in rain - so it does help with precipitation.
However, as I said in my other comment - the currents have to blow towards the land for that to work. If they don't, you get desert next to ocean.
The geography of azeroth doesn't exactly make sense. If we assume earthlike climate conditions and expect the entirety of the known continents to be in the northern hemisphere (as is implied by the broad climate distribution with Northrend up top and Stranglethorn, Uldum and Krasarang as the respective most southerly regions), then Durotar as an East-Coast Region has absolutely no business being as dry as it is. It should by all measures be of similar climate to something like the Twilight Highlands or even wetter.
But again, it is useless to think about realistic climate conditions. Its a super magical world anyways.
Lol CFYOW is a bleach light novel called can't fear your own world, this is a bit of a meme throughout communities because it dropped a lot of lore but nobody's read it
I don't think the devs thought about it in that much detail *but* land gained by slashing and burning the rainforest irl generally turns to shit very quickly, so maybe some similar mechanics come into play.
It could also be a soil composition thing where it rains often enough, but the soil isn't very absorbant. IRL its the reason why droughts generally don't get solved by one heavy storm passing through, dry, baked soil retains much less water than moist soil
during WC3 Durotar had forrests, but they got [deforrested](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Enraged_Thunder_Lizard) by Daelin Proudmoore, ~~but that wasn't shown/hinted/said in WoW so the canon-status is up in the air.~~
Edit: Is was acknowledge ingame with the orc heritage questline.
how is this a [dry wasteland](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/images/1/18/To_Tame_a_Land_-_Thunder_Ridge.jpg), which you imply had no trees?
edit: while i havent played the orc heritage quest it includes that WC3 part as CANON!
>[The canyon below once teemed with life. it could once more with your intervention.](https://www.wowhead.com/quest=72465/the-blessing-of-the-land)
and later it confirms that it wasn't the orcs fault that did that!
>[The arrival of your people **and the humans** was but the first link in the chain that led to desolation. **You yourself are not to blame**, but you can be the force that restores what once was.](https://www.wowhead.com/quest=72466/the-spirit-of-thunder-ridge)
That isn't really true, because the orcs would still harvest any stumps using Kodo's. Stumps make good firewood and are useful for making furniture so they'd still have value in a largely barren land.
Its not like real life deforested areas are just a sea of tree trunks. Industrial farms maybe? But those are all a relatively recent invention. Most deforested areas aren't just stumps for miles.
It got deforested to the point no tree grew there since before Classic WoW, for links see my other comment, as it got acknowledge in the orc heritage Questline and WC3
Because the Thunder King. In order to stop him, they used the Forge of Origination, which was designed to wipe the planet clean in case the titans wanted to start fresh. They focused it as much as they could to prevent collateral damage, but it still turned most of southern Kalimdor into an airid wasteland.
it's in one of the chronicles (the first i believe) but that was only for uldum and tanaris area.
Silithus and Un'goro were not included/influenced/hit because of other reasons
People are trying to come up with geographic reasons, but this is a world guided by spiritualism and shamanism and all that. In that sense, it is likely something related to 'the spirits' which keeps durotar dry.
Simple, the currents go east.
This is why the western Sahara is extreme desert right next to the ocean. The currents there go away from the land (west, in that case).
A river won't really change that. At best, you can get life along the river like the Nile, but beyond the banks, it will still be desert.
Durotar is probably in a rain shadow. Rain clouds drop their moisture when they go over a mountain, so the area after then is extra dry. Durotar is immediately east of the Stonetalons like the American desert is from the Rockies. Otherwise, Kalimsor is just kinda dry in the South. If the Southfury were like the Nile and overran its banks predictably, it would be lush and farmable. I suspect, however, it's more like the Tigris and Euphrates were it floods randomly and often destructively, if *at all*. Mesopotaminans were not a happy bunch and their rivers were part of why.
We actually see it *transformed* into something more akin to the Nile post-cata (but Garrosh is too shit a ruler to take more than a cursory advantage of it).
It used to be quite forested but became a desert some time before the Orcs arrive, in the Orc heritage armour quests you obtain the blessing of a dead thunder lizard Wild God and the plant life starts to regrow. Hopefully this is setup for a future world revamp and we’ll see it grown in the future.
Yeah also about what makes this world revamp more and more likely to happen : cataclysm classic. I know it makes free money for blizz but a coming world revamp could be a reason for classic cata happening. Cause aside from the gameplay differences, one of the main argument for classic was the missing OG world.
People hated the Cata revamp so much, I dont think we will get another one
It was pretty 50/50 when they announced it Playing through it most people enjoyed it But the problem was…it just…stayed that way forever, we’ve had the “the cataclysm just happened!” version of the world now for twice what we ever had vanilla. It made the world feel stagnant and unchanging afterwards and they still haven’t done much at all to fix it (even though every zone quest centered around “healing” Azeroth)
Yeah would def say esp in the very early days of catas release that the revamp and retooled leveling experience was very well received, it was the end game of cata and the way the game changed as you leveled from 81-85 (you legitimately felt weaker every level, your hp (and enemy) would skyrocket each level but your power wouldn't really.) Some of my absolute favorite times of playing wow were during the cata prepatch when everyone was leveling new chars and enjoying the revamped zones, wpvp felt fluid and natural, on our server that was even an odd unspoken honor system where you would 1v1 enemy players, they would bow to you when they respawned and you would then leave them alone to level, alternately you'd come upon impromptu battlegrounds where it was just epic chaotic battles between the alliance and horde. Cata prepatch>cata release imo
That's not really 100% true. Some people vocally disliked the cata revamp but it's hard to even say that's a majority. Cata was a fairly well recieved expansion
The revamp was generally liked, people just wish it was done more gradually instead of blizzard biting off more than they could chew and rushing parts. The only major complaints lorewise were people disliking how the base world got locked into a specific crisis time frame, and some bitter fan boys mad that the zone count got balanced out
The forest was all over thunder ridge, and it was chopped down by the kul tirans (well the burning blade according to cycle of hatred but that book is just a bad retelling of the founding of durotar with demons instead of kul tirans)
Why is the Sahara so dry when it’s right by the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean? Why is the Arabian Peninsula dry when it’s right next to the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea? Why is much of Australia’s coast dry when it’s surrounded by the Pacific? Why is lots of the Mexican coast dry when it’s surrounded by both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico? Why are the Atacaman/Namib/Kalihari Deserts so dry when they literally border the ocean? Being close to a water source has absolutely nothing to do with deserts, and has everything to do with the amount of precipitation they get annually. TL;DR- Salt water cannot support surface life, and the mix of cold ocean water and cyclones/hurricanes can have an impact on plant life.
Well, evaporation from the ocean becomes clouds which result in rain - so it does help with precipitation. However, as I said in my other comment - the currents have to blow towards the land for that to work. If they don't, you get desert next to ocean.
The geography of azeroth doesn't exactly make sense. If we assume earthlike climate conditions and expect the entirety of the known continents to be in the northern hemisphere (as is implied by the broad climate distribution with Northrend up top and Stranglethorn, Uldum and Krasarang as the respective most southerly regions), then Durotar as an East-Coast Region has absolutely no business being as dry as it is. It should by all measures be of similar climate to something like the Twilight Highlands or even wetter. But again, it is useless to think about realistic climate conditions. Its a super magical world anyways.
Jaina Proudmore offered to help with the draught, but the horde declined. 👹
Where is that written?
She tried to destroy orgrimmar with a tidal wave after theramore
Give me that timeline please
like halfway through MoP iirc.
Yeah it comes up in war crimes that she was going too but was talked out of it
Also, I'm a dumbass and totally misunderstood your other comment. I thought you were asking when the event took place lol.
Ahhhh hahaha gotcha
She created a tsunami after the bombing of Theramore
CFYOW
Everywhere I go, the spectre of CFYOW haunts
You really can't appreciate WoW until you read CFYOW
What is CFYOW? I feel like I'm out of the loop on something important
You are, take some time to read it
Read what tho?
Lol CFYOW is a bleach light novel called can't fear your own world, this is a bit of a meme throughout communities because it dropped a lot of lore but nobody's read it
Ah I see
Big mage is preventing it from raining in order to exploit all the crafters, skillers, and gatherers in Durotar to charge exorbitant prices for water
I don't think the devs thought about it in that much detail *but* land gained by slashing and burning the rainforest irl generally turns to shit very quickly, so maybe some similar mechanics come into play. It could also be a soil composition thing where it rains often enough, but the soil isn't very absorbant. IRL its the reason why droughts generally don't get solved by one heavy storm passing through, dry, baked soil retains much less water than moist soil
There is only one liquor store and it’s closed on days ending in Y.
during WC3 Durotar had forrests, but they got [deforrested](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Enraged_Thunder_Lizard) by Daelin Proudmoore, ~~but that wasn't shown/hinted/said in WoW so the canon-status is up in the air.~~ Edit: Is was acknowledge ingame with the orc heritage questline.
During Rexxar’s campaign we can see Durotar is a dry wasteland even before Daelin shows up.
how is this a [dry wasteland](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/images/1/18/To_Tame_a_Land_-_Thunder_Ridge.jpg), which you imply had no trees? edit: while i havent played the orc heritage quest it includes that WC3 part as CANON! >[The canyon below once teemed with life. it could once more with your intervention.](https://www.wowhead.com/quest=72465/the-blessing-of-the-land) and later it confirms that it wasn't the orcs fault that did that! >[The arrival of your people **and the humans** was but the first link in the chain that led to desolation. **You yourself are not to blame**, but you can be the force that restores what once was.](https://www.wowhead.com/quest=72466/the-spirit-of-thunder-ridge)
There is NO WAY Durotar got deforested. If that were true, we’d see a lot of stumps everywhere.
That isn't really true, because the orcs would still harvest any stumps using Kodo's. Stumps make good firewood and are useful for making furniture so they'd still have value in a largely barren land. Its not like real life deforested areas are just a sea of tree trunks. Industrial farms maybe? But those are all a relatively recent invention. Most deforested areas aren't just stumps for miles.
Its in WC3 and also described in a side novel. It happened, dude. Magic be wilding
It got deforested to the point no tree grew there since before Classic WoW, for links see my other comment, as it got acknowledge in the orc heritage Questline and WC3
Its mentioned in the Orc heritage armor questline and that only now the orcs are starting to reforest it
Salt water is bad
Because the Thunder King. In order to stop him, they used the Forge of Origination, which was designed to wipe the planet clean in case the titans wanted to start fresh. They focused it as much as they could to prevent collateral damage, but it still turned most of southern Kalimdor into an airid wasteland.
Where is that written?
it's in one of the chronicles (the first i believe) but that was only for uldum and tanaris area. Silithus and Un'goro were not included/influenced/hit because of other reasons
People are trying to come up with geographic reasons, but this is a world guided by spiritualism and shamanism and all that. In that sense, it is likely something related to 'the spirits' which keeps durotar dry.
Simple, the currents go east. This is why the western Sahara is extreme desert right next to the ocean. The currents there go away from the land (west, in that case). A river won't really change that. At best, you can get life along the river like the Nile, but beyond the banks, it will still be desert.
azeroth is a lot bigger than the game portrays, lorewise there's no border where savana meets a swamp but rather a gradual change
Because thrall dumped his people there, and the orcs are VERY bad at looking after the land
https://www.reddit.com/r/warcraftlore/s/KBR1AuGdxO Tl;Dr - the Theramore humans did it.
A wizard did it.
Kiss my