Boralus

Boralus (pronounced "bohr-AH-luhs") is the capital and largest city of the island kingdom of Kul Tiras. It is located on a large strait within the central region of Tiragarde Sound. Boralus serves as the seat of House Proudmoore, and as a center of trade and military power for the entire nation.

Standing as one of the largest ports on Azeroth, the city possesses its own unique personality. A safe port of call in unsafe waters, Boralus Harbor is, aside from Proudmoore Keep, the most heavily guarded part of the city. Merchants from all over Azeroth dock here to trade their goods. It is usually the only place most visitors ever get to see. Recently, it has been characterized by political squabbling and criminal activity, and has become a focus of the Fourth War and an important territory for the Alliance.

The mermaids and the seawall
In its oldest days, when almost no one thought of themselves as "Kul Tiran" and when old folk still referred to Gilneas as "home", Boralus was little more than a collection of houses on a rock. Its citizens—fishers, shipwrights, sailors, and pearl-divers—did not live easy lives, for while the town was sheltered from the south by the escarpments of Tiragarde, from the north by the mountains of Stormsong Valley, and from the west by the delta where the three islands of Kul Tiras met, there was nothing to protect it from the Great Sea in the east. Each year produced at least one storm that destroyed the ships in the harbor and threatened to permanently wipe the rocks clean of both houses and people. It's said that in the morning, the harbor was so filled with drowned bodies that the living simply covered them with weighted nets to sink them down to the seafloor. It was impossible to build a seawall due to the immense depths of the waters between the spit, and the work of repairing the wall after each storm would've claimed as many lives as it saved. The people of Boralus figured that they would have to get by on their wits and bravery alone.

According to folklore, mermaids lived openly near Boralus in those days. The humans falsely believed that the creatures portended storms and drowned sailors for amusement, but this changed as a result of the mermaid Halia and the tidesage Ery, who fell in love with each other and began meeting in secret. One day a great storm unexpectedly came to Boralus. It continued for several days, dashing the ships and their crews against the rocks and sucking the people of the town into the waves. Ery and the handful of tidesages who were present gathered in small boats at the river's mouth to divert the water. The sea priests faltered one by one until only Ery was left, and with Halia's help she stopped a great wave coming for the town. Halia then began constructing a seawall at the bottom of the harbor while Ery continued holding back the water. Halia was soon joined by other mermaids, and together they built the wall higher and higher with rocks, mud, ship debris, and sailors' bones until it broke the surface and continued to rise under Ery's feet, though a number of mermaids died in the process, their power spent. The tidesage eventually collapsed from exhaustion and fell into the water. Without her power to hold them back, the waves crashed into the seawall, but it held steady. Halia saved her beloved's life by slitting her feet and jumping with her into the harbor, prompting the Mother to turn her into a mermaid. As long as Boralus' mighty seawall has stood, its people now swear on mermaids as symbols of highest honor and good luck, as well as sacrifice, for no mermaids were ever seen in the harbor again. On certain calm sunsets when the red is deeply reflected on the surface of Boralus Harbor, old sailors call it "Ery's blood", which presages good weather, in remembrance of the dutiful tidesage and the mermaid who loved her.

Modern history
During the Invasion of Draenor, Kul Tiras was assaulted by an expedition of the Horde of Draenor.

At the end of the Kul Tiran civil war, Boralus was attacked by Priscilla Ashvane's traitorous Trading Company, allied with the Irontide Raiders pirates and the city's gangs. During the siege the city almost fell, but was saved when Jaina Proudmoore managed to summon back the Kul Tiran fleet.

Geography


Boralus is located on a cluster of small islands in the eastern part of Tiragarde Sound, and it is a city beholden to the sea. Roughhewn wooden planks line intertwining walkways, terraces, and stairs. Sea-weathered rooftops and awnings adorn the buildings, while amber-lit windows and walkway lanterns lend honeyed tones to the atmosphere. Stone thoroughfares and hanging colorful nautical flags strike a contrast to the sea-worn brick-and-wood construction, creating a sense of warmth despite the chill of the surrounding sea. The sounds of Tiragarde gulls can be heard crying overhead.

Iron-reinforced locks in the center of Boralus Harbor bar the way from the sea into the inner channels at the heart of the city, while cannons on either side serve as an additional deterrent to vessels approaching with ill intent. Great galleons make their berth in the harbor.

Within the harbor's Tradewinds Market, visitors will find everything they need for an extended stay in Boralus. Merchants from all over Azeroth are drawn here to hawk their wares, traveling well-establishing trade routes between here, the town of Hatherford, and the fertile lands of Stormsong Valley.

Other
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Getting there
A character of any level can get to Boralus by boarding The Relentless in Stormwind Harbor. A two-way portal between Boralus and Wizard's Sanctum in Stormwind City also becomes available upon completing Sanctum of the Sages (quest).

Flight paths
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Boats

 * Stormwind City, Eastern Kingdoms (The Relentless)
 * Xibala, Zuldazar, Zandalar (Wind's Redemption, requires Zuldazar foothold)
 * Fort Victory, Nazmir, Zandalar (Wind's Redemption, requires Nazmir foothold)
 * Shatterstone Harbor, Vol'dun, Zandalar (Wind's Redemption, requires Vol'dun foothold)

Portal

 * Stormwind City
 * Ironforge City
 * The Exodar
 * Silithus

In the RPG
Boralus, Kul Tiras' capital, lies on the island's west coast. The city's population has dwindled since Jaina's and Daelin Proudmoore's exodus, and many houses and surrounding farms lie empty. Currently the city's population stands at four-thousand heads. The people have drawn in away from the fringes and toward the coast; one can wander for a while through the abandoned residential districts and market places in the city's east side. An ideal place for a secret society or hidden cabal as the town is eerily quiet.

Still, Boralus is a friendly enough harbor, though almost all its citizens carry long knives to "gut the murlocs and naga". Kul Tiras's diminished fleet patrols the waterways leading to the harbor, so merchants from Southshore, Menethil Harbor and (rarely) Kalimdor make Boralus a regular stop.

Notes and trivia

 * Kennings Lodge in Tiragarde Sound is the largest supplier of furs and leather to Boralus.
 * A group of gnomes lived in the city. However, some time ago they all went missing. Their abandoned machinery still inhabits the Abandoned Junkheap in Tiragarde Sound.
 * Piracy is considered one of the most vile of crimes under Kul Tiran law. Those caught and charged with piracy are sentenced to death and publicly executed in Boralus.
 * The death penalty by hanging is also applied for thieves in the city, it was notably the case of Flynn Fairwind's mother, Lyra Fairwind.
 * Boralus is the only human capital to not share a name with its nation (e.g. Stormwind, Gilneas).
 * The denonym for something from Boralus is "Boralan".
 * Despite having a capital with a different name than the nation, Kul Tiras is still sometimes described as a city-state.
 * Before the geography of the island was retroactively changed in Battle for Azeroth, Kul Tiras was the name of the capital and not Boralus. The name Boralus only existed in the non-canonical RPG to refer to the capital of Kul Tiras.
 * The dot on the Warcraft II map labeled as "Kul Tiras" may be the current-day Boralus. Both are on the southeastern parts of the island. Chronicle Volume 1 moved the dot to a central location.
 * In the StarCraft universe, is the name of the capital city of the planet Braxis.