Maldraxxus

Maldraxxus, Citadel of the Necrolords, is one of the realms of the Shadowlands, ruled by the Necrolord Covenant. It represents the heart of the Shadowlands' military might. It is home to wicked beings like necromancers and abominations, but not everyone here is evil. Relentless, warlike souls who never yield and are willing to strive against one another for greatness are welcomed here by the necrolords, and the greatest of them are reformed by necromancers into undead soldiers who defend the Shadowlands from external forces and wage war on the enemies of death. The determined rise to positions of power, while the less-promising become fuel for Maldraxxus' weapons. This brutal selection process has created a vast militia with a wobbling hierarchy. The realm's longtime leader—the Primus—has vanished, and five of the most powerful necrolords now vie for the role of advancing the cause of death throughout the cosmos.

Maldraxxus is the birthplace of necromantic magic and home to the forces that were called upon by the Lich King and the Scourge on Azeroth. The land itself provides for the needs of its denizens, and there is some indication the land is to some extent sentient.

Description
''Maldraxxus is a realm of unending conflict. It is a place of brutality and bravery where its chosen are forged by the fires of war to answer a great calling: to protect the Shadowlands against any force that threatens its infinite realms. The First Ones who shaped the cosmos knew they needed to protect the Shadowlands from external threats and beyond. Maldraxxus was their answer. Maldraxxus is home to the mighty. Ours is a station for souls consumed with great determination, or for those who maintain an unending drive to make their mark upon death. Those who strove for greatness in life may have the chance to find it in death. Maldraxxus is a realm where ambition is rewarded and where the strong of body and mind thrive.''

Travel hubs
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Inspirations

 * During development, one of the primary inspirations for Maldraxxus was to revisit the fan-favorite themes of undeath represented by the Scourge in Warcraft III and Wrath of the Lich King, and to see how Blizzard's current artists could depict those themes with World of Warcraft 's modern visual fidelity. Many of the creatures found in the zone are similar to those used by the Scourge but represented in a much purer and more powerful form. Another aspect was to play with players' expectations, as Maldraxxus' aggressive and evil-looking exterior initially belies its noble purpose, but this also caused the team to worry—at least until the first external playthroughs of the zone started—if players would be able to care and empathize with the characters in such an alien-looking place.
 * Steve Danuser wanted the name of the zone to recall the themes of the Scourge and locations like Naxxramas, saying "X is a big letter in terms of that kind of 'scourgey' sound". The prefix "Mal-" usually hints at bad or dangerous things, conveying the zone's sense of danger. However, in line with the heavy metal inspiration used by the artists, Danuser admits that he and the other designers also wanted the zone name to sound like a "really metal aggressive sound" that someone could scream out, because that's what fits the zone's theme.
 * The House of the Chosen draws thematic inspiration from the Scourge's skeletal warriors and death knights, the House of Constructs from its abominations, the House of Eyes from its crypt fiends, the House of Plagues from its Plague of Undeath, and the House of Rituals from its necromancers and liches. Loosely, these are the five wings of Naxxramas.
 * One of the challenges in designing Maldraxxus was the zone's lack of trees, which meant that the artists had to find other vertical forms that serve the same purpose of breaking up the horizon lines. The solution was insect hives on bone legs, mushroom-like bone tumors growing out of the landscape, and areas filled with fungi. Some of the bone tumors are loosely based on rocks found in in California.
 * The objects in Maldraxxus presented some unique opportunities and challenges for the prop team, who had to weave strange organic elements into the traditional construction methods used by other cultures. The team also wanted the objects to feel like they belong in an unfamiliar place while still feeling familiar to players. They drew inspiration from Warcraft III and knew that they would make heavy use of bone as a design material, but also later began including other elements like sinew, flesh, and corroded metal to provide some variety in the designs.
 * The inspirations from Maldraxxus draw largely from within the game itself, other videogame and role-playing franchises, culture, certain real world locations, and the.
 * For inspirations regarding the Primus specifically, see Primus.
 * Another important inspiration for the designers was, with some artists jokingly stating that they designed parts of the zone to look like they could fit on a heavy metal album cover. This aesthetic extended to some of the creatures in Maldraxxus, such as the flayedwings.
 * The name "Maldraxxus" is a Latin-based construction that would mean roughly "Evil Dragon".
 * A lot of Maldraxxus and the Necrolords is based to a varying extent on the Tomb Kings of Warhammer. In particular, the Necrolord cloth set is almost identical to many artistic depictions of Nagash, as well as Egyptian motifs on some members of the House of Rituals (in turn based on the ).
 * The Catholic connection established by the way the Seat of the Primus is translated in Romance languages (e.g. Trono del Prelado, Throne of the Prelate) is further affirmed by the similarity between the interior layout of the Seat of the Primus as a typical . However, the dynamic of a giant enthroned statue is likely based upon the.
 * The, being a way for the Christian Church to divide the entire Roman Empire between five Bishops, could thus have been a basis of inspiration for the dynamic of the five houses.
 * Many of the creatures gesture to real-world mythologies, such as the deathrocs being based on s (as with other instances), the hell hound's basis in, and the recurring motif of spiders for the House of Eyes may be based upon the relating them to both death and collection of stories.
 * Many of the architectural aesthetics of Maldraxxus continue to rely on the ancient and  styles that Warhammer and the parts of the Scourge used, such as the similarity between the  for the House of Constructs, but some elements branch to other cultural manifestations of, such as the Persian  with regards to the cubical House of Rituals.
 * The straight road leading from the Seat of the Primus to the Theater of Pain gestures to the leading from  (originally dedicated to  or ) to the.
 * Similarly, the general geography of Maldraxxus resembles the, including how the Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and Caelian Hills are are closest and connect to each other (House of the Chosen, Constructs, Rituals, Eyes, and Rituals), and there's a large space between the Caelian and Aventine Hills (as between the House of Rituals and House of Plagues).
 * Some Forsaken, Scourge, and Maldraxxus architecture, with the use of bones as architectural structural and decorative elements, resembles the "bone churches" that came about during Medieval and Early Modern Catholicism, such as the in Rome, the  in Portugal,  in Milan, and the  in the Czech Republic.
 * The only weather effect in Maldraxxus, where the entire zone is cloaked in darkness and souls start streaming out of everywhere toward the sky, resembles the Night On Bald Mountain scene from Disney's, based on the composed by Mussorgsky imagining  summoning the dead to a.
 * The quest Calling the Champions, where fire taken from the entrance of the Theater of Pain corresponding to the Seat of the Primus is taken to five unlit torches for each house in front of their house's entrances to the Theater to call the champions to the arena, is a reference to the at Olympia serving the same purpose.