Draka

Draka was a courageous warrior of the Frostwolf clan, the mate of Durotan, and the mother of Go'el. After her death, she was sent to Maldraxxus where she became a baroness of the House of Eyes. She later joined the House of the Chosen following the Eyes' destruction, and she now acts as a leader of the Necrolord Covenant in their battles against the traitorous Maldraxxi houses.

A Warrior Made
When Draka was born, she was a weak and sickly orc. Not only did her Frostwolf clan-mates discriminate against her, but orcs from other clans also claimed she was a dishonor to the orcish race. Blackhand said that if she was born in his clan, she would have been drowned at a young age. Draka and her family were forced to move to the outskirts of the Frostwolf village by Garad.

As a teenager, Draka asked Mother Kashur if there was any way to strengthen her sickly body. Visited by a vision of the ancestors, Mother Kashur told Draka that there was a way, but it could mean death. Kashur sent Draka on a hunt to obtain a wing feather of windroc, horn of talbuk, and fur of clefthoof. From the three ingredients, Kashur claimed that she could make a potion to cure Draka's illness.

Young Draka started her adventure alone. She had never been allowed to join any orcish hunts, and now she had to learn from the world itself. As time passed, Draka's skill increased and, although still weak, she defeated and claimed her first kill of windroc.

Draka was successful in defeating a talbuk and a clefthoof and obtained all the ingredients she needed. She returned back to Kashur, who revealed the true meaning of Draka's hunt, that the ingredients and potion were not truly needed. The hunt itself had been intended to make Draka a strong and determined Frostwolf orc. In the end, now proud and beautiful, Draka joined a celebration, where she was noticed by Durotan and Orgrim.

Rise of the Horde
Durotan met Draka at the celebration. He was surprised to see her and was not sure whether she was of the Frostwolves. But then he remembered that she and her parents were exiled from the Frostwolf village because she was very sick. But now it seemed that she had overcome her illness.

The next day, Durotan asked her to join him on a hunt, something which often meant that a male orc intended to choose a female mate. Draka responded that she was too young to be anyone's mate. Durotan then insisted that it would be simply a hunt and nothing more.

They set out on their first hunt, where Durotan was injured by a wolf. However, together the two orcs were able to kill the beast. Draka said that she reached her adulthood today. They kissed, marking the beginning of their relationship.

After this, Draka stood by Durotan and his decisions through the years, although she did not like the situation of the orcs. She stood by Durotan when orcs accepted the demonic curse and when the Dark Portal was created. Draka, Durotan, and their clan were exiled and found their homes in Alterac Valley.

Before leaving Draenor, Draka and Durotan visited Durotan's mother Geyah. Draka told her she was pregnant and Durotan added that the child would be named Go'el.

Death
In the year 1, Draka gave birth to Go'el, child of Durotan, shortly before joining her chieftain on his secret meeting in Loch Modan with their old comrade Orgrim Doomhammer. There Durotan explained what he knew - about Gul'dan, the Shadow Council, the demonic bargain and Orgrim decided it was time to stop the evil warlock. He urged Durotan and Draka to take shelter in the north until he sent word to them. Orgrim commanded his guards to accompany the Frostwolves on their journey home and keep them safe. That would be a mistake that Orgrim would regret to his dying day. His guards were not loyal to him, but to the Shadow Council.

The guards had heard every word between Orgrim and his visitors. They decided they didn't need Gul'dan's permission to eliminate the Frostwolves - clearly, he would want Durotan, Draka, and their child dead. After traveling north for several days, the guards fell upon Durotan and Draka. The Frostwolves fought bitterly against their attackers, killing one of them. But the remaining guards struck down Durotan and Draka, and Go'el was left to die in the frigid cold.

Afterlife
Following her death, Draka's soul traveled to the realm of Maldraxxus in the Shadowlands, where she became a member of the House of Eyes. As a warrior, Draka initially found the house's ways of subterfuge and stealth to be a strange fit for her. However, under the training of Margrave Akarek, she eventually grew comfortable with her new role and gained the skills of a master spy in addition to those of a warrior. Her training included spying on the Burning Legion on another world outside the Shadowlands. Draka eventually became one of the house's two baronesses. The other baroness was Vashj, but she and Draka did not get along.

Following the mysterious destruction of the House of Plagues, Akarek suspected that Maldraxxus' purpose was in peril and sent Draka to deliver a vital message to Margrave Krexus of the House of the Chosen. However, shortly after Draka set out on her darkhound, the House of Eyes exploded behind her, taking Akarek with it. Draka found herself surrounded by traitorous Necrolords but managed to fight her way through them and reach the House of the Chosen, where she delivered her lord's final message to Margrave Krexus. The message stated "I offer the key to saving Maldraxxus". Draka was at first confused by this, telling Krexus that Akarek hadn't given her a key, but Krexus realized that Draka herself—being an unyielding warrior and master spy—was "a key to many things". That day, Draka joined the House of the Chosen as its Baroness to continue protecting Maldraxxus. She took the place of Alexandros Mograine, who had been lost to the Maw.

When the Maw Walker arrived in Maldraxxus' Theater of Pain, they found themselves in the middle of a confrontation between Krexus and the margraves Gharmal and Sin'dane—the leaders of the House of Constructs and House of Rituals, who had betrayed the purpose of Maldraxxus by sending their forces to invade Bastion. Draka rescued the Maw Walker from the battle and began transporting them to safety on her flayedwing mount, but the group was shot of the sky and crashed in the Iron Trench. After taking the opportunity to recruit nearby scavengers to the Chosen and dispatch local threats in the form of deathwalkers, Draka and the Maw Walker arrived to the House of the Chosen and met up with Margrave Krexus. While Draka and the margrave discussed strategy in Vortrexxis, the Maw Walker was sent to report to Draka's fellow baron Vyraz. Krexus sensed great potential in the Maw Walker and soon commanded them to take on the trial of reaching the standing stone at the center of the Chosen's citadel, which resulted in the hero uncovering an unfinished blade and a message from Maldraxxus' missing ruler, the Primus. Realizing that this had a deeper meaning, Draka sent the Maw Walker to Bonesmith Heirmir, who helped them forge the object into a finished runeblade. Krexus subsequently concluded that the runes covering the blade were the same as the runes on the Seat of the Primus and sent Draka, Vyraz, and the Maw Walker to investigate. The blade proved to be a key to the Seat, but Vyraz insisted that unlocking the fortress would do the Chosen no good if they lost the war against the other two houses.

Draka admitted that her fellow baron was right and sent the Maw Walker to recruit the aid of her old rival Vashj, search for survivors at the destroyed House of Plagues, and help Vyraz defend the Chosen forces at the Spearhead from the House of Constructs. These efforts resulted in three more runes being awakened on the Blade of the Primus, meaning there was only one left before the Chosen could enter the Seat. Draka and the Maw Walker returned to the House of the Chosen to inform Krexus of their progress, but when they arrived, they found that the citadel had been attacked by Constructs and that Krexus had been killed. Draka insisted that the Chosen now had to open the Seat of the Primus if they were to have any hope of victory, but Vyraz claimed that the Seat was a fool's errand and that the Chosen instead had to gather their mightiest forces, including the missing baron Alexandros Mograine. The Maw Walker traveled into the Maw and managed to rescue Alexandros, but when he was brought to Draka in Oribos, Mograine revealed that Vyraz was a traitor and that it must have been he who slew Margrave Krexus. Draka sent Alexandros and the Maw Walker to confront Vyraz at the House of the Chosen while she returned to the Seat to warn their allies, but the Seat soon came under siege from Vyraz's forces and Draka turned back to bring Alexandros and the Maw Walker with her to defend the fortress. The Maw Walker subsequently used the Blade of the Primus to open the way into the Seat, unleashing the Primus' power and forcing Vyraz's forces to retreat. Inside, the hero and their allies discovered a dire warning from the Primus. Draka asked the Maw Walker to return to Oribos and deliver the warning to the other Eternal Ones. Before parting ways, she told the hero that it would be an honor to fight with them again.

Draka and her forces remained entrenched at the Seat of the Primus even as the combined forces of the Constructs, Chosen, and Rituals moved against them. The baroness welcomed Maw Walkers who had chosen to side with the Necrolords into the Seat and guided them into receiving the power of the Primus. In addition, she welcomed the allegiance of Emeni, Rathan, and other Construct defectors who chose to join the Seat. The baroness later tasked the Maw Walkers with driving back the forces besieging the Seat with help from Ragewing, Bonesmith Heirmir, and Plague Deviser Marileth. This was no long-term solution, since Draka's forces could not hope to continue keeping their enemies at bay using only air strikes, but Vashj devised a plan to more permanently bolster the Seat's defenses: stealing a necropolis. Draka asked the Maw Walkers to assist Vashj with her plan, since the other baroness was more agreeable toward the outsiders than she was toward Draka. With assistance from surviving members of the House of Eyes and defectors from the other houses, Vashj's plan resulted in the necropolis Zerekriss being captured and brought to the side of the Seat of the Primus. Aboard the necropolis, the Maw Walkers discovered the Bindings of Fleshcrafting—one of the armor pieces that once belonged to the Primus—and brought them to Draka. She declared that they should be returned to their rightful place—the statue of the Primus—and that if any more pieces were found, the Necrolords would claim them for their covenant.

After the Maw Walkers and Alexandros helped repel another Construct attack on Bastion, Draka met with Xandria—the kyrian Paragon of Courage—to forge an alliance against their common enemy: Margrave Gharmal. Together, kyrian and Necrolord forces assaulted the House of Constructs with the Zerekriss, with Maw Walkers assisting the two covenants on the ground while Draka remained aboard the necropolis. Once the attackers gained control of the stronghold, the Maw Walkers, Alexandros, and Xandria engaged in combat with Gharmal in order to buy enough time for Draka to focus the Zerekriss' weaponry. During the battle, Gharmal told Draka to face them before mockingly asking if she would beg to join the Constructs the way she had joined the Chosen. The battle ended with Draka using the Zerekriss to fire a single massive bolt of energy at the margrave, killing them. The baroness subsequently investigated Gharmal's private tower for evidence of treachery and made an unsettling discovery: canisters of anima from Revendreth, not plundered but given from an ally. The baroness returned to the Seat to prepare for a journey to Revendreth and asked Alexandros and the Maw Walkers to search the rest of the tower for anything of value, resulting in the recovery of another one of the Primus' armor pieces, the Mantle of Eternal Victory.

Shortly after, Draka received a missive from the Accuser, who wanted to discuss Gharmal's anima reserves and revealed the presence of Maldraxxi conspirators in Revendreth. Draka and the Maw Walkers immediately traveled to the venthyr realm and accompanied the Accuser to the House of Rituals encampment of Death's End. The Accuser explained that the Ritualists seemed to be siphoning Sire Denathrius' anima stockpiles, and also revealed that she would force one of the souls in her care—Kael'thas Sunstrider—to accompany the Necrolords on their mission as a way of humbling him. Draka, the Maw Walkers, and a reluctant Kael'thas worked together to destroy the Ritualist operation before confronting the camp's overseer, the lich Lady Ouix'Ara. Before killing her, Kael'thas got Ouix'Ara to reveal the name of her master, the one responsible for the unrest in Maldraxxus: Kel'Thuzad. The group subsequently discovered that Ouix'Ara had been drawing on the power of yet another armor piece of the Primus, the Pauldrons of Imperium. When the Maw Walkers picked up the pauldrons, an image of Kel'Thuzad briefly appeared to taunt the group into facing him in the House of Rituals. Kael'thas—who had personal grievances with Kel'Thuzad—tried to convince Draka to escort him to Maldraxxus immediately, but she retorted that they had to learn more about the threat first and that once the Necrolords' forces were ready, they would call on Revendreth to join the fight. The baroness and the Maw Walkers subsequently returned to the Seat of the Primus with the pauldrons.

Prince Renathal later recruited Draka to counter the growing threat posed by the Tithelord, the venthyr responsible for providing Ouix'Ara with anima. After a meeting in Sinfall, Renathal, Draka, and the baroness' trusty helhound Deathfang met up with venthyr Maw Walkers at Stonevigil Overlook, where they set about freeing the Tithelord's oppressed subjects. Draka tasked the Maw Walkers with draining anima from the Tithelord's stoneborn to return it to the town's well and helped them kill the head stoneborn, Third Talon Vartox. Upon spotting a carriage running off with the last of the anima, Draka and the Maw Walkers mounted Deathfang and chased after the shipment until they managed to stop it and kill its driver, Provisioner Kraus. Renathal's forces continued to the Tithelord's base, the Caretaker's Manor, where Draka led the Sinfall forces in battle while Renathal and the Maw Walkers pursued their enemy. They managed to kill the Tithelord, but his ally Kel'Thuzad got away with the immensely powerful Medallion of Dominion. While the venthyr began preparing for an attack on Kel'Thuzad, Draka and Deathfang returned to the Seat.

Draka was eventually approached by Balmedar, a lich who offered to help the Necrolords infiltrate the House of Rituals. Draka disapproved of the plan and told Maw Walkers not to trust the lich, but conceded that his offer might be the only way to uncover the Ritualists' schemes. After foiling Kel'Thuzad's plan, Balmedar and the heroes witnessed him overthrowing Margrave Sin'dane, after which he took full control of the House of Rituals and fortified himself in the necropolis Exoramas. Balmedar and the Maw Walkers returned to the Seat to inform Draka of this development. After mustering the covenant's forces, Draka—accompanied by Balmedar, Vashj, Alexandros, Emeni, and the Maw Walkers—led the Necrolords in marching in on the Ritualist stronghold to remove Kel'Thuzad's influence. The heroes and Emeni's abominations destroyed the barricades blocking a side entrance to the house's southern portion, allowing the attackers to push into the Grimoirium and confront Kel'Thuzad's servant, Baroness Ninadar. After empowering herself with anima, Ninadar began battling Draka, Alexandros, and the Maw Walkers until they nearly defeated her, at which point she started draining even more anima and inadvertently destroyed herself in the process. She left behind the Staff of the Primus, which she had seized from Sin'dane during Kel'Thuzad's coup. Balmedar picked up the staff while the attackers continued to the Prime Arcanum, where they were unable to stop Kel'Thuzad from summoning a Maw Infernous. However, the Necrolords received sudden reinforcements from the Venthyr Covenant in the form of Kael'thas and General Draven, allowing them to defeat the creature. The attackers pressed on to Exoramas, where Kel'Thuzad was waiting with the captive Sin'dane. Draka told Kel'Thuzad to surrender or be destroyed, but he merely replied that the plan of his master—the Jailer—was unfolding as intended and that they would not live to see its completion. Draka and most of the other attackers spread out to hold off Kel'Thuzad's skeletal minions while the Maw Walkers focused on weakening the traitorous baron himself, thereby allowing Balmedar to free Sin'dane by returning the Staff of the Primus to her. However, before the attackers could detain the defeated Kel'Thuzad, he escaped to the Jailer with the help of a group of Mawsworn.

Afterward, Draka asked Sin'dane to join the Necrolords' cause as they would need her strength against the Jailer. The margrave agreed and gave Draka the Staff of the Primus—the final item missing from the Eternal One's regalia—as proof of her good faith. Having driven Kel'Thuzad's shadow from Maldraxxus, the Necrolords returned to the Seat to savor their victory, with Draka commending the Maw Walkers and telling them that their deeds would be remembered for all eternity. Back in the Seat, the heroes returned the staff to its rightful place, thereby completing the Primus' statue.

Quests
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Maldraxxus storyline

 * Champion of Pain
 * 1) Land of Opportunity
 * 2) Complete all of:
 * 3) *Arms for the Poor
 * 4) *Memory of Honor
 * 5) *Walk Among Death
 * 6) Trench Warfare
 * 7) The House of the Chosen


 * House of the Chosen
 * 1) The First Act of War
 * 2) Never Enough
 * 3) Through the Fire and Flames
 * 4) Forging a Champion


 * 1) The Path to Glory
 * 2) Meet the Margrave
 * 3) The Seat of the Primus


 * Matron of Spies
 * A Common Peril
 * Her Rightful Place


 * House of Constructs
 * Baron of the Chosen
 * Front and Center


 * House of Plagues
 * The House of Plagues
 * Fathomless Power


 * Ritual for the Damned
 * Among the Chosen
 * A Soul Saved

🇨🇴
 * The Empty Throne
 * In Death We Are Truly Tested
 * The Door to the Unknown
 * Words of the Primus

Necrolords Campaign

 * Loyal to the Primus
 * 1) Taking The Seat
 * 2) Welcome To Our House
 * 3) Power of the Primus
 * 4) A Hero of Great Renown


 * 1) Return to Draka
 * 2) Bringing It All Together
 * 3) No Rest For the Dead


 * Rebellious Souls
 * At Your Service


 * The House of Eyes
 * 1) Securing the House
 * 2) Enemy at the Door
 * 3) Eyes on the Problem
 * 4) The Impossible Plan


 * Grand Theft Necropolis
 * 1) Eyes to the Sky
 * 2) The Maldraxxian Job


 * 1) Search the Place
 * 2) Bindings of Fleshcrafting (quest)


 * Do Not Forget
 * 1) Do Not Forget
 * 2) The Golden Dawn


 * A Golden Dawn
 * 1) Machinations of War
 * 2) Take The Fight To Them
 * 3) Fight and Flight (Necrolord)


 * 1) An Abominable Discovery


 * 1) The Mantle Returned
 * 2) Pride of Place


 * The Wages of Sin
 * 1) Blood from a Bone
 * 2) Accusatory Missive
 * 3) You're Dead To Me
 * 4) Complete all of:
 * 5) *A Farewell to Arms
 * 6) *Drive A Dredge Between Them
 * 7) It's Treason, Then
 * 8) Pauldrons of Imperium (quest)


 * The House of Rituals
 * House of Rituals (quest)
 * The Better Part of Valor

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 * Assault on the House of Rituals
 * 1) Mobilize Maldraxxus
 * 2) Calling in All Favors
 * 3) The Third Fall of Kel'Thuzad
 * 4) Staff of the Primus (quest)

Kyrian Campaign

 * Righteous Retribution
 * 1) Stronger Together
 * 2) Fight and Flight (Kyrian)

Venthyr Campaign

 * Envy
 * 1) An Unwelcome Incursion and Third Talon Vartox (quest)
 * 2) After Them!

Shadowlands beta

 * Covering our Tracks

Dialogue
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 * Maldraxxus storyline

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 * Necrolords Campaign

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 * Kyrian Campaign


 * Venthyr Campaign

On-click

 * Greetings
 * Always ready for battle.
 * Blood and thunder!
 * For the honor of the bladesworn.
 * How goes the fight?
 * Lok-tar!
 * Throm-ka!


 * Irritated
 * Lok-tar ogar. It means "victory or death". In Maldraxxus, it's victory AND death.
 * In the House of Eyes, I learned the secrets OF SUBTLETY!
 * I am the blade in the dark. I am also the blade in your face!
 * Strength comes from loyalty, honor, and-- WILL YOU STOP POKING ME?!


 * Farewell
 * Even here, I protect the weak.
 * Every defeat is a lesson.
 * For Krexus! For Akarek!
 * In the name of the Primus.
 * Only the strong survive.
 * Strength and honor.
 * Strength comes from the heart.

Gossip

 * Iron Trench
 * We must act swiftly. The other houses are sure to strike against the Chosen soon.


 * House of the Chosen
 * Our work has just begun.


 * Vortrexxis
 * Maldraxxus will stand united again.


 * Bleak Redoubt
 * Victory will be ours.


 * Seat of the Primus (Covenant Sanctum version)
 * Maldraxxus will stand united again.
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * say
 * say
 * say
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 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say


 * Stonevigil Overlook during Envy
 * The Tithelord's greed knows no bounds.
 * In Maldraxxus, these actions are unthinkable. Are venthyr not supposed to focus on helping souls atone for their sins? It sickens me further that he forged an allegiance with those of my realm.
 * We must put a stop to this madness.

Alternate timelines
When Thrall fled into a passage in the Caverns of Time to escape an armored assassin, he found himself in the time and place of his parents' murder of an alternate history. Thrall pretended to be one of the bodyguards assigned to protect Durotan and Draka by Doomhammer as they returned home. Draka noticed that he had blue eyes and that he seemed very interested in the infant Thrall she was carrying. When the other bodyguard, Grukar summoned the assassins that attacked Draka and Durotan, Thrall could only watch, as saving them would alter the timeline.

Another appears in the alternate  in the past during the war in Draenor.

Draka from a separate timeline appears in the Warcraft film universe.

Notes and trivia

 * In life, Draka had brown eyes.
 * The Horde warship Draka's Fury was named in her honor by Thrall, as a tribute to the strong orcish women in his life.
 * The birth of Go'el and Draka and Durotan's meeting with Orgrim was originally stated to have happened in year 0, but the date was retconned in Chronicle Volume 2.
 * An unused NPC ID for Draka exists in the game files for The Burning Crusade.
 * Go'el's mother first appeared in the intro cutscene of the canceled game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. However, she was not given a name until the novelization Lord of the Clans. The author Christie Golden doesn't recall giving her name any intended meaning other than wanting it to sound "Orcish & badass".
 * Perhaps coincidentally, "Драка" (Draka) means 'fight' in Russian.
 * The World of Warcraft Bestiary, the Trading Card Game, and Afterlives all consistently depict Draka as having dual-wielded a pair of axes similar to a Savage Axe in life. In the Shadowlands, she is mostly seen wielding two copies of Haromm's Frozen Crescent, except for her time in the House of the Chosen early in the Maldraxxus storyline, where she instead uses an Icy Ebon Halberd.
 * During the development of Shadowlands, the developers realized they had no shortage of famous deceased characters they could feature, but they wanted to avoid making the expansion feel like a simple checklist of deceased characters players would interact with. As such, they wanted to focus on characters that they felt best fit the themes of the expansion's zones, with a mix of some more obvious choices (like Uther in Bastion) and some more unexpected ones where players would have to think about how they fit their respective zones. Draka, an example of the latter category, was picked for Maldraxxus because the developers felt that her story of building herself up to be a warrior in A Warrior Made and dying while trying to protect her son from treachery was the perfect fit for the mentality of the Necrolords. In addition, Draka is a character that, while integral to the storyline of the orcs, had not received a lot of attention in previous material, making her in some ways a blank slate the developers could fill in through the Shadowlands storyline.
 * Lead narrative designer Steve Danuser has suggested that while Draka is currently separated from Durotan in the Shadowlands, the two could potentially find an afterlife they could share together after Draka has completed her obligations in Maldraxxus.
 * While accompanying players in the Iron Trench, Draka's generic name is a skeleton named Chosen Scrapper. While accompanying players in Revendreth during The Wages of Sin, she has the generic name of Maldraxxi Spy. Unlike the Chosen Scrapper, the Maldraxxi Spy retains Draka's appearance.
 * Draka is voiced by Debra Wilson in Shadowlands.

Speculation
As Durotan is buried at the Rock of Durotan, Draka may also be buried there or at least near it.