Darkspear Islands

The Darkspear Islands were the former home of the Darkspear tribe of jungle trolls, located somewhere within the South Seas or somewhere else in the Great Sea. The islands were volcanically active.

New home of the Darkspears
The Darkspear trolls were once part of the fragmented Gurubashi Empire in Stranglethorn Vale. For centuries, near-constant famine and warfare plagued the trolls. The Darkspear were not savage and ruthless, and they smaller than most of the other tribes, and so they were easy targets to their fellow Gurubashi, who were immensely cruel to them. At some point after the opening of the Dark Portal, the Darkspears finally decided to abandon the Vale. They sailed west and settled on a remote string of islands.

The Judgement
Sen'jin, Vol'jin, Zalazane, Master Gadrin and more Darkspear had lived in a village in one of the islands for many years. Vol'jin's father had recently had a vision where he saw his own end and realized changes were coming to the islands. Some time after, Vol'jin and Zalazane went into the jungle of the First Home to be tested by the loa living there. They were young, too young to do such a test, but Vol'jin wanted to become a shadow hunter before his father's vision happened.

The two trolls had to fight the jungle creatures and pass the tests the loa put on them. During the next months they would survive in the First Home.

Arrival of the Horde
As the New Horde left Lordaeron behind at the onset of the Third War, Thrall's stolen fleet, which was being pursued by Daelin Proudmoore's fleet, was scattered and heavily damaged by a fierce storm. The ships that remained with Thrall happened upon the islands of the Darkspear, where they landed on a cove to take refuge. After the storm passed, the orcs began to repair the vessels. Here they made peaceful contact with Sen'jin, leader of the native trolls, who believed that he had seen the orc in a vision. The witch doctor Sen'jin explained to them the islands used to be theirs alone, however, some humans of Kul Tiras, who were part of Daelin's fleet and had also been stranded, had recently established an outpost on the islands and were warring with the natives.

Thrall and his forces attacked a nearby human camp in hopes of avoiding drawing the attention of the main outpost, but in the end, other Kul Tiran patrols encountered them. With the help of the orcs, Sen'jin also managed to purified a healing fountain which had been fouled by some strange gasses coming from underground.

Before the Kul Tirans could muster the strength to threaten the orcish camp, as well as to aid the Darkspears, Thrall led a siege to the human outpost, but while the battle was raging, a surprise attack by a group of murlocs caught both forces off-guard, and Thrall, Sen'jin, and their attacking warriors, as well as the human survivors, found themselves captured.

The underground caverns
The prisoners were taken underground, to a cavern system linking dungeons. It had a massive gold mine, a great library and the murlocs' temple to their goddess, the naga sea witch and sorceress Zar'jira, who commanded the Underworld Minions. A troll explained to Thrall that the murlocs would kidnap surface inhabitants and take them into the caverns to be sacrificed to their deity, an appeasement apparently needed to prevent the islands' destruction. Tired of waiting, Thrall forced his way out of the prison and freed his orcish and troll companions while battling the enemy captors and the imprisoned humans.

After crossing the underground fortress, the Horde forces managed to reach the altar to Zar'jira, where the murlocs had taken Sen'jin to be sacrificed. Although they managed to defeat the fish-creatures, it was too late as Sen'jin had been mortally wounded. As the caves began to collapse, Sen'jin told Thrall that according to his visions, it was he who would lead trolls off the islands. Thrall offered Sen'jin and his people a place in the Horde, which they readily accepted as they saw little future on their war-torn island home, but it was already too late for the old witch doctor.

Exodus
After escaping the caves, the Sea Witch, outraged by the defilement of her temple, revealed herself as the island's volcano erupted. The captured Horde forces returned to the orcish landing site while the witch began harrying the camp as the ships' repairs were hurriedly completed. Thrall was forced to hold off waves of murlocs while reaching the varied troll settlements and rescuing their occupants to safety. Eventually, the troll refugees and the orcs got on the ships in time and escaped the devastation brought upon the island. The Sea Witch threatened the sailing ships that the Dark Tide would be coming for them, and there would be nowhere for them to hide.

Aftermath
The island and its settlements were thought to be destroyed and sunk as the Horde sailed away to Kalimdor. However, many trolls decided to remain behind for the time being.

After three months in the jungle of the First Home, Sen'jin's son, Vol'jin, and Zalazane finally returned after succeeding in their trials. Once back to their village, the young trolls saw that it had been attacked. As they walked to the settlement, they saw the troll bodies arranged on the edge of the village while the other trolls put them in positions of peace. Vol'jin and Zalazane walked towards the center of the village and on their way there they saw crews of trolls building lots of ships in a nearby lagoon. Once they reached the village's center while watching all the misery and death, Master Gadrin approached the young trolls and explained to them what happened, yet Vol'jin somehow already knew, as if the loa spirits had shown it to him. Taking charge of the evacuation and with the help of Zalazane, Vol'jin helped his people to prepare for their final leave.

After gathering as many supplies as they could, the Darkspear struck out west after the Horde, hoping to find peace and rejoin their brethren in the distant lands of Kalimdor.

Geography
The island Thrall visited was divided by some smaller islands. It also had an active volcano. There were few troll villages dotting it; a human outpost and some smaller camps; and some ogre and gnoll settlements. An underground fortress occupied by murlocs and gnolls was seemingly located under the volcano.

The jungle of First Home grew on one of the islands and was filled with loa. The village of Vol'jin and Sen'jin was on that same island and had a lagoon nearby.

Inhabitants
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Sentient creatures

 * s
 * s
 * s
 * s
 * Sasquatch

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Wild creatures

 * Alchu bugs
 * Giant spiders (in the underground caverns)
 * Kommu (presumably some sort of animal)
 * Nambu
 * Raptors
 * Salamanders (in the underground caverns)
 * Thunder lizards
 * Wolves

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Monsters

 * Ghosts (in the underground caverns)
 * Rock Golems
 * Skeletons (in the underground caverns)
 * Sludge beasts (in the underground caverns)

In the RPG
The Darkspear islands (not used as a proper noun) were the former home of the Darkspear tribe and were located near the Maelstrom. After Hakkar and his priests were defeated the first time, the remnants of the Gurubashi Empire split up, and the Darkspear tribe set off to claim their own lands, or possibly reclaim them (hinting that they settled on these islands at a previous point).

Horde Player's Guide states that the Darkspear tribe before the Third War lived in the Broken Isles, on an island near the Maelstrom.

During Thrall's expedition to Kalimdor, he was shipwrecked on one lone island somewhere in the South Seas that was close to the Maelstrom. It was here that he met the Darkspear trolls and saved them from zealous murlocs, thereby enlisting them as members of the Horde. Thrall and his orcs were fleeing from a human internment camp when they crashed into one of the Darkspear islands, near the Maelstrom.

The Darkspear refugees had lost their homeland — which had sunk to the bottom of the sea — and they agreed to travel to Kalimdor with Thrall. The alliance between the Darkspear and the Horde thus began.

Speculation
The Spitescale naga may have previously inhabited these islands.

Location
The Warcraft III map suggests the islands were located very close to the Maelstrom in the Great Sea. Later the troll race page on the official website stated they were located in the South Seas. The Ultimate Visual Guides says that the Darkspear tribe were forced to relocate to an island in the Great Sea. Rather than a group of islands, it also mentions one island.

states that Thrall landed there when he was crossing the Great Sea. It also says that the Darkspears relocated on the string of islands (more, rather than one) west of Stranglethorn, which coast meets the South Seas.

It could be speculated that the Darkspear Islands were located somewhere on the border of the South Seas and the rest of the Great Sea.

It should be noted that the Maelstrom in the RPG was part of the South Seas.