Tol Barad

Tol Barad, pronounced (Tohl bar-AHD), is a ravaged island-prison located west of Gilneas.

Early history
More than one thousand and two hundred years ago, Arathor built the citadel of Tol Barad. Prior to the First War, Tol Barad was considered a territory of Stromgarde. During the Second War, the island was a strategic staging area for Alliance forces, from which they struck on the Horde-controlled city of Dun Modr and took it back from the hands of their enemies. The orcs, viewing Tol Barad as an obstacle in their path to the Eastern Kingdoms, mounted a ferocious counterstrike on the island. Unprepared for such aggression, the Stromgarde soldiers were expelled from Tol Barad and the citadel was razed, a charred symbol of the Horde's brutal victory. Despite this, some of the original Stromic population remained.

Following the Second War, what remained of the blackened, derelict battlements was left to languish until the wizards of Kul Tiras claimed the isle for a new purpose. Towering walls were again stacked high from the war-scarred stones, but in their cleverness, the arcanists turned the citadel’s defenses inward, designing a mystical prison to hold the most powerful criminals. A Stromic and Tirasian population of men formed the Baradin's Wardens: charged with ensuring that the deadly prisoners locked away in the mystic Baradin Hold never again walk free on Azeroth. Even the Kirin Tor imprisoned some powerful demons in the repurposed stronghold.

When Stromgarde started to suffer a series of catastrophes, the town of Rustberg was abandoned as its population was recalled home. This settlement later became the base of a group of pirates that struck the towns along the shores of Baradin Bay.

Endless naval battles happened surrounding Tol Barad.

Cataclysm


With the Cataclysm shattering the world, Tol Barad once again became a battleground between the Horde and the Alliance. Warchief Garrosh Hellscream sent the elite warriors known as the Hellscream's Reach to the island, charged with taking it from the humans. Defending it against them were the Baradin's Wardens, the army that originally guarded the prison. However, as the two forces fought for supremacy over the island, something sinister was taking over the prison fortress of Baradin Hold and the whole island in turn. With prison guards murdering each other or letting their charges free, insanity amongst Alliance soldiers, undead corpses rising from their graves and spirits reliving their final battles.

Mists of Pandaria
By the time of the discovery of Pandaria, the Horde managed to score crucial victories off the coast of Tol Barad.

Legion
Despite the Horde's victories off the coast, the Baradin's Wardens managed to eventually claim Baradin Hold and begin its restoration after adventurers cleared out the demons within the hold, but somehow, the demons took over it and it became lost to the inmates, with all its forces in retreat from the prison. Warlocks under the employ of and the Shadow Council arrived to wade through the ruins in order to find the whereabouts of the Eye of Dalaran, which had been lost to the Twisting Nether in years prior. Having resurfaced here by way of a void terror named Occul'tharon, the warlocks defeated the demon and claimed the Eye; only to later be betrayed as one of the warlocks was in truth a member of the Council of the Black Harvest in disguise as Jergosh the Invoker. It was noted by Allaris Narassin that the Horde and Alliance had ceased fighting over the ruined prison by this time.

PvP zone
Added in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Tol Barad is an outdoor PvP zone, very similar to Wintergrasp in Northrend. However, the island is also similar to the Isle of Quel'Danas in that it is a major daily quest hub. Battling for control of the island are the Baradin's Wardens for the Alliance, and Hellscream's Reach for the Horde. Whichever side controls the prison on Tol Barad gains access to more dailies and the dungeon instance of Baradin Hold.

In World of Warcraft, Tol Barad consists of two zones:
 * Tol Barad - PvP zone (location of the battle) as well as a daily quest hub for the faction that controls it. This PvP area is also home to the Baradin Hold dungeon.
 * Tol Barad Peninsula - A daily quest hub for level 85 players regardless of who controls Tol Barad.

Players can enter Tol Barad by portals from Stormwind City and Orgrimmar once they reach level 85 or by means of a mage portal, Portal: Tol Barad.

PvP battle
At the beginning of the battle, the faction that won the last one is set as "defending" while the other is "attacking". Defending players start on top of Baradin Hold (players can float down the central chains or off the edges), and attacking players start on the Blackstone Span. To win, the attacking force must capture all three buildings at the same time: Ironclad Garrison to the north, Slagworks to the southeast, and Warden's Vigil to the southwest. The battle lasts for 15 minutes, but can be extended by 5 minutes for each of the towers the attacking force can destroy using the Abandoned Siege Engine which can be piloted by any attacker who has earned an honorable kill in the current battle. The defender's goal is primarily to prevent the attackers from capturing all 3 buildings, and secondarily to prevent the extension of the battle time by destroying the active Siege Engines.

Buildings are captured by a simple presence mechanic - the faction with the higher number of players near a flag will move the capture meter in their favor over time, very much like Eye of the Storm. The rate of capture based on presence is steady but is affected by two new mechanics. Each time a member of one faction is killed in the immediate vicinity of the flag, the capture meter is "nudged" in favor of the opposing faction. Also, the attacking force gains a 200% capture rate while they control 2 buildings and the defending force also has a 200% capture rate while they control all 3 buildings as of patch 4.0.6.

The time-out between battles is 1 hour. Winner is rewarded per battle and  for weekly quest Victory in Tol Barad.

Questing
Several daily quests become available to the controlling faction in between battles in the center of the map at Baradin Hold. One set of quests is always there, the other focuses on one of three cellblocks around the island.

NPCs
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Sentient creatures

 * Ettin (one, Problim)
 * s
 * s
 * s
 * s
 * s
 * s

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Wild creatures

 * Crocolisks
 * Foxes
 * Rats
 * Snakes

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Monsters

 * Fel beast (one, Svarnos)
 * Observers
 * Ghosts
 * Imps
 * Oozes
 * Pit lord (one, Argaloth)
 * Shivarras
 * Skeletal mage (one, Archmage Galus)
 * Void terror (one, Occu'thar)
 * Wrathguards

Resources

 * Herbalism
 * Azshara's Veil
 * Cinderbloom
 * Whiptail
 * Mining
 * Elementium Ore
 * Pyrite Ore

In the RPG
Tol Barad, the site of many historic battles in the Second War, is an island part of the nation of Kul Tiras and is now home to a magic prison. Wizards from both Dalaran and Stormwind oversee the complex, and prisoners include enemy mages, lesser and greater demons, warlocks and undead war criminals. The wizards do not allow anyone near the island and keep the prison’s existence a secret.

At some point, the naga attacked the prison and even though the wizards fought them off, Zae'Rathis the Mad, a dangerous blood elf evoker prisoner, escaped amid the confusion. Zae'Rathis is now at large and Kul Tiras' citizens are afraid. The wizards suspect that the naga attack was intended to free the blood elf and he may have joined them. Together they would make a powerful force so the wizards are in need of someone to track down Zae'Rathis and destroy him.

The goblins of Bilgewater Port sent the Fearsome Yacht prison ship to Tol Barad in order to imprison there an orc warlock called Dak'mal who had been causing trouble on Kezan.

Notes and trivia

 * As of the end of the Fourth War, the fox on the island is almost extinct. Quartermaster Brazie collects fox kits and gulls to find them a new home or to send messages to 7.
 * In Day of the Dragon, Tol Barad is described as "the ravaged island kingdom of Tol Barad". Despite this, Tol Barad has never been noted as an independent nation, but Duke Reginald Baradin II founded the Baradin's Wardens who guarded Baradin Hold, unlike any of the other human kingdoms. It does, however, appear to have its own unique cultural emblem, the owl, separate from those of both Stromgarde and Kul Tiras.
 * Before Cataclysm, Tol Barad was, lore-wise, in Baradin Bay, between Hasic and the shores of Khaz Modan. When asked about this discrepancy, Matt Burns suggested that maybe Tol Barad and Baradin Bay were named after a common historical figure, indicating that he was merely speculating and that it wasn't canon. The existence of Duke Reginald Baradin II gives more fuel to this speculation.
 * According to the maps in, Tol Barad's location was always southwest of Gilneas.
 * The Kul Tiras architecture introduced in Battle for Azeroth resembles the buildings on Tol Barad, especially in color scheme. It is unknown if this is intentional or coincidence, but it is fitting since Tol Barad was once Kul Tiran territory.
 * The player can summon Stromic Footmen and Fallen Grunts as nods to the battle of Tol Barad of the Second War. The grunts are presumably members of the Black Tooth Grin clan, though the battle may have happened when the clan was coming back from the Broken Isles rather than early in the war like originally depicted.
 * The Warcraft II game demo has a mission called Tol Ronal that is situated in Khaz Modan. If not a separate location, it could be an earlier, production name for the island.
 * In Cataclysm beta, Tol Barad's depiction in the Eastern Kingdoms map was smaller when compared to its zone maps. The Cataclysm live version changed the depiction so it had the same size and layout. The new continental maps added in Battle for Azeroth change it back to the Cataclysm beta size.
 * Tol Barad was initially planned to appear in Wrath of the Lich King, but it didn't make it into the game until Cataclysm because Blizzard felt that it didn't fit the story of Wrath of the Lich King.
 * This zone is not affected by the cross-realm zones feature.
 * Although Tol Barad is visible on the map of the Eastern Kingdoms, it is housed in a separate instance and thus cannot be accessed by flying from Vashj'ir or the Ruins of Gilneas. Instead of the two islands, the main map only has fatigue water at their supposed locations.
 * There is a third island south of here, though it is just unimplemented terrain (see the minimap in the gallery below).
 * "Tol" is for "isle" (as in Tol Brandir) and "Barad" is Sindarin for "tower" (as in Barad-dûr) in the Lord of the Rings legendarium by . "Tol Barad" would thus mean "The Isle of the Tower" in Sindarin.

Speculation
The strange, dark magic that has raised many of the inhabitants of the island's north, both recently killed and long dead, as various forms of undead is almost surely the same cause behind the insanity within the prison complex. It is possibly the result of the powerful demons held within Baradin Hold, but many of these creatures appear to have been let out by their own jailers, the deranged Wardens seen across Tol Barad, in league with at least some of their former prisoners. As such it could be feared that whatever ancient horrors lurk beneath the Great Sea are behind the madness of all Tol Barad. Alternately, Alizabal and the other demons did do it.