Fifteen years of exhausted, ugly peace. The Alliance won and did not know what to do next.
What Happened
- Defeated orcs are herded into internment camps across Lordaeron, where they sink into a listless lethargy — the withdrawal of a people cut off from demonic blood.
- Thrall is born in captivity and raised by Aedelas Blackmoore at Durnholde Keep as a gladiator and a tool.
- The Alliance fractures. Gilneas walls itself off behind the Greymane Wall. Stromgarde and Kul Tiras drift. The high elves withdraw to Quel'Thalas.
- Stormwind is rebuilt — and the Stonemasons' Guild, who did the work, are never paid. Their leader Edwin VanCleef takes them underground as the Defias Brotherhood.
- Year 20: Thrall escapes, finds the Frostwolf clan and Drek'Thar, and learns shamanism — the first orc in generations to touch the elements.
- Year 21: Thrall frees the camps, liberates Grom Hellscream, and inherits the Doomhammer. The New Horde is born.
Why It Still Matters
This is where the campaign's grudges are manufactured. The Defias, the Syndicate, Gilneas's isolation, the high elves' departure, and Thrall's entire worldview all come out of these fifteen years. The Alliance's biggest internal problems are self-inflicted debts from this period.
