Orcs are one of the races in the Warcraft Universe — a fictional universe where a set of games and books are set.

Overview

In the Warcraft universe, the Orcs were not savages, but a noble race from the world of Draenor who fell to corruption by a demonic force known as the Burning Legion. Under the legion's influence, the Orcish Horde slaughtered the Draenei, another race home to Draenor, and then were led to the world of Azeroth. After two devastating wars, the Orcs were finally defeated on Azeroth, and rounded up into internment camps, until a young Orc named Thrall rallied them together, and finally broke the Horde free from demonic influence and helped them return to their shamanistic roots.

Orcs have been in all the Warcraft computer games released by Blizzard:

• Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
• Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
• World of Warcraft

They are a playable race in each of the above games.

Warcraft Orcs are nearly identical in appearance to the Orcs in Warhammer. However, Orcs in Warcraft usually have more hair on their heads than Warhammer Orcs, and are generally smarter, possessing an intelligence equal to Humans. Warcraft is one of the few settings in which Orcs are not inherently evil, and can even be heroic.

This, however, was not always the case. The evolution of Warcraft Orcs is one that shifts them rather abruptly, like in the latest installment, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion set Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Evolution of the Orcs

In the first three Warcraft games —Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness and its expansion set Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal— the Orcs were unabashedly and unashamedly evil. They summoned demons, they raised the dead, and they celebrated victory by sticking human heads on pikes. No trace of their supposed nobility was to be found in any of the in-game text, nor in the publisher's manual literature. However, several orc units such as the Peon, the Grunt and their ships would make deliberately cute and/or comedic remarks.

In Warcraft III, their evil actions from the previous games were explained as being caused by their former pact with demons, which had been broken by the time of Warcraft III thanks to their leader Thrall.

It's hard to say where the impetus to take the Warcraft Orcs and "turn them good" came from. Likely it began with Blizzard Entertainment's ill-fated adventure game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, which was never released, even though it was nearly finished, and eventually was turned into a Warcraft universe novelization of the same name. In Lord of the Clans, the player would have taken up the role of Thrall, a young Orc who grew up in human-run prison camps following the events of Beyond the Dark Portal, and who would later become the leader of the Orcish Horde. In this game, we probably would have gotten some sense for the development of the kinder, gentler Warcraft Orc, featured in later games.

Story of Horde

The Modern Horde

In Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, set some years after Lord of the Clans, Thrall, under instruction by The Prophet gathered up many of his fellow Orcs and fled Lordaeron, eventually landing in the barrens of the continent Kalimdor. During the campaign, Thrall made strong alliances with the native Tauren and the Human faction lead by Jaina Proudmoore. This new Horde also made a temporary alliance with the Night Elf Sentinels in order to destroy the Burning Legion. Having been forsaken by their Forest Troll and Goblin allies from the Second War, the Orcs instead enlisted the aide of the Tauren and a group of Shadow Trolls to form the new Horde.

By Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the Horde had settled down in the barrens, where Thrall created the new nation of Durotar (named after his father, Durotan ) and built its capital city Orgrimmar (named after the previous leader of the Horde, Orgrim Doomhammer ). Despite brief tensions with the humans (quelled by the half-orc/half-ogre Rexxar ), the orcs finally knew peace for the first time in their history.

Clans

Blackrock

The Blackrock Orcs are a clan of Orcs in the fictional world of Warcraft. The Blackrock clan was originally led by Gul'Dan's puppet Blackhand the Destroyer, Warchief of the Horde during the First War of Azeroth. He was slain by, Orgrim Doomhammer , chieftan of another tribe, who then led the Horde in the Second War, to defeat. When Thrall finally became warchief of the Horde, it was under the Blackrock name, to honour the great Doomhammer .

Presently, the Blackrock Tribe resides in Blackrock Spire, a volcanic mountain northeast of the human kingdom of Stormwind. They are led by Rend Blackhand, son of Blackhand the Destroyer, who claims to be Warchief by right of succession. Rend is allied with the Black Dragonflight, and enemy to the Alliance, the Dark Iron dwarves, and Thrall's Horde.

Frostwolf

The Frostwolf clan was lead by Durotan, he alone of the chieftans of the Orcish clans refused to drink the blood of Mannoroth the Pit Lord and so was not corrupted by the Burning Legion, his clan was later exiled in the Alterac mountains in Lordaeron where they continued the shamanistic customs now discarded by the rest of the Horde. Durotan seeing the Orcs corruption approached the Orcish warchief Orgrim Doomhammer about the Demons hold over the Orcs however he was assassinated by the sons of Blackhand and his son left to die. Durotan's son was raised by humans and named Thrall. Upon reaching adulthood Thrall escaped back to the Frostwolf clan and there learned of his roots; he then set about freeing the now defeated Horde and reintroducing them to the shamanistic ways, as a result Thrall was named warchief of the Horde.