Throne of the Elements



The Throne of the Elements (or Throne of Elements) is a neutral quest hub in northeastern Nagrand and the home of the four great elemental furies of Draenor. Formed from the head of Grond, the Throne was the location where the first orcish shaman learned to wield the power of the elements. Besides the furies, the Throne currently houses a handful of members of the Earthen Ring.

The first shaman
When Grond was killed by the Sporemound Botaan, the bulk of his corpse formed a mountain range at the edge of the region later called Nagrand. Much of the stony debris that fell from the stone giant contained the primordial elements of fire, air, earth and water, and these energies gradually coalesced into pools of power from which elemental spirits took shape for the first time in Draenor's history. The spirits were initially few in number, but their population exploded after Grond's defeat. The Furies, the four most powerful elementals on Draenor, dwelled near the remains of Grond's head. They lamented Grond's death and vowed to live in his corpse's shadow forever.

Thousands of years later, mystics from the orcish Shadowmoon clan frequently ventured across the world on pilgrimages, hoping to hear the will of the divine. Many of these travelers received strange dreams and visions near the mountains of northwestern Nagrand. The first Shadowmoon visitors to the location learned about the world's primordial spirits of fire, air, earth, and water. They treated these beings with the utmost respect and named the site of their discovery the "Throne of the Elements". The orcs flocked to Grond's remains and learned to guide the elemental spirits with a sense of harmony, and in return received astonishing powers unlike any seen by the orcs before. The Shadowmoon were the first to dedicate themselves to the elements and transformed Grond's head into a crude temple. They soon began spreading their teachings to the other clans, nearly all of which adopted the practice. Young orcs were raised to be steadfast allies of the elements, and fledgling shaman traveled to the Throne of the Elements to seek the spirits' blessing, entering trances to attune their minds to the elements. However, during this process a few orcs glimpsed the realm of the Void, and what they saw drove them insane, leading them to being exiled from their clans and forced to live in seclusion in the caves beneath Nagrand. White skulls were tattooed on their faces, marking them as "dead" to their people. Those orcs who were welcomed by the elements returned to their clans as spiritual leaders whose counsel was highly valued.

Domination of the elements
Hundreds of years later, 400 years before the opening of the Dark Portal, the ogres of the Gorian Empire decided to take the power of the elements by force after witnessing the might of a powerful shaman first-hand. The ogre leader, Imperator Molok, sent an army to drive away the orcs from the Throne of the Elements and begin experimenting on the power there. The ogres eagerly and carelessly dissected the Throne with their arcane spellwork, ignorant to the mix of raw titan and elemental power that lingered in Grond's remains. One day, the dissonance between the ogres' magic and Grond's residual energies ignited an explosion that blew apart the temple the orcs had carved from the giant's skull and killed every Gorian sorcerer inside the structure, leaving behind only a few standing stones that remain to this day. The incident threw the elements out of balance all across Draenor, causing great storms, but Molok simply sent more spellcasters to replace the ones that had been killed by the explosion.

At the next year's orcish Kosh'harg festival, the Shadowmoon elder shaman Nelgarm pleaded for action, lest all of the clans suffer disastrous famines as a result of the elements' imbalance. The clans agreed to join together, and Nelgarm called upon the elements to bless them with their protection. The united orc army fell upon the Throne of the Elements. The Gorian sorcerers, utterly surprised by the attack, retreated with little bloodshed. However, Imperator Molok was quick to retaliate. The Gorian armies moved en masse, and total war engulfed Draenor, and now every orcish male, female and child had to be prepared to fight. The orcs gradually dismantled the ogres' land-based trade networks and pushed them back to their capital, Goria, marking the beginning of a lengthy siege. After the ogres began spreading the deadly red pox among the orcs, Nelgarm, and the other shaman were forced to beseech the elements to completely destroy Goria. Both parties understood that Molok would resume meddling with the Throne if the clans failed, and so Goria was ravaged by earthquakes and lightning storms over the course of hours before the earth itself wrenched open to swallow the remains of the city whole. The orcs, having suffered tremendous losses and being frightened by the elementals' wrath, went their separate ways and returned to their lands.

Blighting of Draenor
Centuries later, a young orc named Gul'dan was exiled from his clan for his physical deformity, which was seen as a bad omen. Only the clan's elder shaman took pity on him, telling him to seek out the Throne of the Elements and find his destiny. After struggling to survive in the wilds, Gul'dan journeyed to the throne and fell to his knees, offering himself up to whatever would end his torment. However, the elements sensed the darkness and fury in Gul'dan's heart and rejected him. Gul'dan was overwhelmed by sorrow, and in that moment, the demon lord Kil'jaeden whispered to him, promising to grant the orc tremendous powers if he agreed to aid the Burning Legion in using the orcs as a weapon to destroy the draenei race. Gul'dan agreed and was taught the ways of fel magic, becoming the first orc warlock.

From what Gul'dan told Kil'jaeden of Draenor's past, the demon learned of a time when the orcs had joined as one in response to the ogres' meddling with the Throne. If Kil'jaeden could re-create that elemental upheaval, perhaps the orc clans would repeat history. The demon lord guided Gul'dan, helping him inundate the Throne of the Elements with fel magic. The corruptive power began to weaken the world's native spirits, and the furies materialized to stop Gul'dan. However, they had never faced a warlock before, and the orc used his magic to drain the life from the furies, crippling and nearly destroying them before they were forced to flee. The fel magic threw the elements into disarray. As the seasons passed, long droughts were followed by heavy rain; floods devastated arid regions in Gorgrond and Nagrand; freak snowstorms covered portions of Tanaan and Terokkar in ice; and rivers and streams dried up, causing game like clefthoof and talbuk to die by the thousands. The orcs suffered immensely from disease and lack of food and water, and the shaman could offer no relief, for the tormented elemental spirits rarely communicated with the orcs anymore.

The Burning Crusade
In the shattered realm of the Outland, the Throne of the Elements still stands and is inhabited by members of the Earthen Ring as well as the four Furies. Elementalist Lo'ap, under the guidance of Watoosun of the Water, instructs adventurers to kill the destructive Lake Spirits nearby and aids them with securing Incineratus' blessing. With the fiery essence of Incineratus himself granted to the adventurers, Lo'ap tasked his agents to set fire to Windyreed Village, whose inhabitants had agitated the water spirits in their efforts to create a marshland in Nagrand. Meanwhile, Watoosun cleansed the water spirits of their corruption; but in doing so, created a twisted spirit essence. Lo'ap sent adventurers to purge Watoosun's Polluted Essence and its offspring, the Lake Surgers.

Gordawg also directs adventurers to kill tainted earth elementals and destroying the one responsible for their corruption: Gurok the Usurper. Elementalist Morgh also sent adventurers to slay Murkblood Putrifiers, who have been using dark shamanism to control air spirits.

During Children's Week, the blood elf orphan Salandria asks Horde adventurers to take her for a visit to the Throne, as she aspires to one day become a mage or warlock, which would require knowledge about the elemental forces. During the visit, Salandria gets a little too close to Incineratus and gets zapped, but is not harmed. Elementalist Sharvak tells the adventurer that it was foolhardy to bring a child to the Throne and that, as a blood elf, she's incapable of a deep connection to the world, but that perhaps her exposure to the elements will give her some insight into their workings.

The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm
Shortly before the Cataclysm, Thrall journeyed to Nagrand in an attempt to discover the source of Azeroth's current ailments. Upon his arrival, he met with his grandmother, Geyah, who advised him to turn to the Mag'har female Aggralan for shamanic instruction. Despite a rough start, the two worked together and Aggra dutifully took Thrall on a vision quest in Garadar in order for him to gain a true connection to the spirits and become a true shaman.

Later, Thrall journeyed to the Throne to seek the counsel of the Furies, but only Gordawg was able to help him. After ingesting a small rock Thrall had brought with him from Azeroth, the Fury of Earth told the orc that Azeroth's elements were afraid of a coming shattering, a cataclysm akin to the one that had broken Draenor.

Adventurers of the Alliance and Horde also traveled here to witness the meeting.

Quests

 * A Rare Bean (quest)
 * Agitated Spirits of Skysong
 * Blessing of Incineratus
 * The Spirit Polluted (quest)
 * Muck Diving
 * The Underneath
 * The Tortured Earth
 * Eating Damnation
 * Shattering the Veil
 * Gurok the Usurper (quest)
 * Murkblood Corrupters

Prelude to Cataclysm
Since Phase 3 of the Elemental Unrest event, the Throne of the Elements was the site of a meeting between Thrall, Aggra and Gavan Grayfeather. Several Disturbed Elements could be found roaming the area during this time. Every few minutes, a conversation would occur.

Notes and trivia

 * Currently, only Gordawg is involved in any quests, though Incineratus is mentioned in two.
 * It should be noted that, although in contested territory, the Throne of the Elements is not a place that one would want to engage in Player vs. Player combat. Should you attack another player while there, the furies will immediately engage and attack you. They have been known to deal over 500,000 damage with one hit.
 * The standing stones at the Throne of the Elements are similar in appearance to the real world's circles and monuments such as . This similarity in appearance can also be extended to the Circles of Binding in Arathi Highlands.