Stormreaver clan

Stormreaver clan
Main leader	None
Formerly	Gul'dan †
Race(s)	Orc
Theater of operations	Broken Isles
Formerly	Stormwind City Balor
Language(s)	Orcish
Affiliation	Independent
Formerly	Burning Legion, Old Horde
Status	Defunct

The Stormreaver clan was a small but powerful orcish clan created by Gul'dan at the onset of the Second War. Most of the clan was destroyed when Gul'dan ventured to the Tomb of Sargeras in search of the power therein, being either torn apart by the demons dwelling in the Tomb or slaughtered by the Black Tooth Grin forces sent to exact vengeance on Gul'dan for abandoning the Horde during its critical time.

Its clan colors was blue.

History

Gul'dan, Chieftain of the Stormreaver clan.

The Second War

After the First War, Gul'dan knew that he would need an army of loyal allies to reach the Tomb of Sargeras, as well as protect him from the rest of the Horde's inevitable wrath when it learned of his intentions. Gul'dan convinced Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer to grant him permission to form his own clan, claiming that he would keep his activities visible to the entire Horde as opposed to the secrecy he had practiced as leader of the Shadow Council. He and his clan members would be forced to fight on the front lines alongside the other orcs. Doomhammer correctly suspected that Gul'dan planned to use the new clan as a means to expand his own influence, but the Warchief was confident that he would stay one step ahead of the warlock by planting his own spies among the clan (though unbeknownst to Orgrim, Gul'dan would later win these spies to his side through threats, promises of power, and other means). Furthermore, Gul'dan would need a clan of his own to make an impact in the war since opinion among the orcs had turned against him and no existing clan would accept him or his followers into their ranks. Gul'dan jumpstarted the Stormreavers by recruiting the lesser warlocks and necrolytes who had survived Doomhammer's onslaught of the Shadow Council, though he sacrificed some of them to create the first death knights.

During the course of the Second War, the Stormreavers held domain over Stormwind City and the island of Balor. After the Horde's successful conquest of Khaz Modan, Orgrim prepared to build a fleet to launch a surprise attack in the heart of humanity's territories. Many orcs had reservations about crossing the sea, but the Stormreavers urged their allies that it was the best course of action and that the voyage would be safe. Orgrim welcomed the assistance but remained wary of Gul'dan's motivations. The Stormreavers also captured giant sea turtles from the South Seas, to be used as a submersible orcish craft after being pacified by potent spells of control. According to Aegwynn, Gul'dan and the Stormreavers were rumored to be amassing a great navy in order to find the Tomb of Sargeras.

The Tomb of Sargeras

The Stormreaver clan banner in color.

Gul'dan finally found an opportunity to break free from the warchief's control when Orgrim was preparing to abandon the siege of Silvermoon City and instead march west to Lordaeron's Capital City. Gul'dan convinced Orgrim and Zul'jin that the Stormreavers had found a way to destroy the magical barrier around Silvermoon, and that it would only take a few more days. Once the Stormreavers succeeded, Silvermoon would fall and Zul'jin's forest trolls could exact their vengeance before rejoining the rest of the Horde's forces. Orgrim was loath to leave more of his forces behind at Silvermoon, but with the Alliance forces scattered, Lordaeron was ripe for the taking and he could not allow the opportunity to pass him by. Doomhammer left the Stormreavers to unravel the barrier but ordered the Dragonmaw clan to also remain behind and force Gul'dan's forces to march west if the shield had not come down within three days. The Warchief also gave the Dragonmaw permission to feed Gul'dan to their dragons if he disobeyed.

A few days after Doomhammer left, Gul'dan gathered his Stormreaver and Twilight's Hammer allies and told them of his plans to seek out the Tomb of Sargeras, promising unimaginable power to all who followed him. Nearly all members of the two clans pledged their support. The Dragonmaw briefly moved to bar his path, but neither side risked fighting and instead, the Dragonmaw set out west to rejoin the main Horde force and warn Orgrim of Gul'dan's betrayal. Upon hearing the news, Orgrim sent the Black Tooth Grin clan to hunt the traitors down. Gul'dan's followers ventured south, took control over a portion of the Horde fleet in the Hillsbrad Foothills and sailed west, but the Black Tooth Grin were close behind and boarded the rest of the orcish vessels to follow in his wake. After a hard journey across the sea, Gul'dan and his followers raised the Tomb of Sargeras from the depths with a great ritual. Not long after, the Black Tooth Grin approached the island. Gul'dan ordered Cho'gall and the Twilight's Hammer to hold off the pursuers while he and the Stormreavers entered the tomb. In the darkened corridors of the complex, Gul'dan and his followers were torn apart by demons — a punishment from Sargeras for dooming what would have been a momentous victory for the Horde and their Burning Legion masters at Capital City. Only a few Stormreavers survived the encounter and quickly fled the tomb after retrieving their master's head, believing that it held great power. Outside, the Black Tooth Grin cut down many of the Twilight's Hammer and grievously wounded Cho'gall, forcing the ogre and his few surviving followers to flee west into uncharted waters. With vengeance served, the Black Tooth Grin orcs boarded their ships and sailed back east. As proof of their victory, they retrieved Gul'dan's skull from one of his followers.

Aftermath

The slaughtered inhabitants of the Stormreaver and Twilight's Hammer encampment near the entrance to the tomb were later raised into undeath by the vile magics of the demons and kept reliving their last battle. By the time following the Third War, the few remaining Stormreavers wandered the Broken Isles. One such hermit is Drak'thul, a former warlock who wandered the isles in solitude, haunted by the ghosts of his slaughtered comrades, and who claimed to be the last of his kind. He was encountered by Maiev Shadowsong when she journeyed to the Broken Isles and offered to tell his tale to her if she silenced the ghosts tormenting him. Other Stormreavers survived in the Tomb itself, with several necrolytes having raised hosts of skeletal orcs to protect themselves, and outside of the tomb as small communities.

Known members

Name	Role	Status	Location
Gul'dan	Founder and chieftain	Deceased	Died in the Tomb of Sargeras
Drak'thul	Hermit and ex-warlock, one of the last known surviving clan members	Alive	Broken Shore
Rakmar Sharpfang	Unofficial leader of the necrolytes	Deceased	Unknown
Urluk Cloud-killer	Killed by Gul'dan shortly after entering the Tomb of Sargeras	Deceased	Died in the Tomb of Sargeras

In Warcraft II

This section concerns content related to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness or its expansion Beyond the Dark Portal.

Chieftain: Gul'dan the Warlock

Clan Colors: Blue

Background: The Stormreavers are a small but powerful clan whose origins are fixed in the history of the Horde since its coming to Azeroth. As the last of his kind, the Warlock Gul'dan maintains absolute control over this clan. Gul'dan, who secretly ruled the Horde through his unwitting puppet Blackhand, has found that the shrewd Doomhammer harbors no trust or fondness for him. This forced Gul'dan to found the Stormreavers in order to protect himself from any action Orgrim might take against him. With the support of his clan, Gul'dan intends to find the lost Tomb of the Daemonlord Sargeras. It is legend that this Tomb contains unimaginable power - power which Gul'dan means to possess.

Domain: Stormwind, Azeroth and Balor, Azeroth

In the RPG

This section contains information from the Warcraft RPG which is considered non-canon.

When Doomhammer crushed the Shadow Council, Gul'dan was forced to pledge his service to the new Warchief of the Horde. This did nothing to ensure the warlock's safety, however, and the former leader of the Shadow Council drew power-hungry orcs to him to form his own clan simply to give him some measure of protection from the remainder of the Horde. These would-be warlocks harbored little loyalty for Gul'dan, but their desire for power led them to sacrifice their lives in his service. He trained a select few in dark magic, but most of the clan served as little more than fodder or bodies for his experiments. When the orcs lost at the Dark Portal, Gul'dan brought his clan to the Tomb of Sargeras, where they were slaughtered by the Tomb's guardians. There are rumors (true ones, in fact) that one or two warlocks survived, but the clan has no meaningful presence in the modern world. The Stormreaver Clan's color was blue.

Twilight's Hammer clan was formed by Cho'gall, the leader of the ogre magi and loyal follower of Gul'dan. This gave the Twilight's Hammer a strong tie with the Stormreaver Clan, although their methods and goals proved much different. While the Stormreavers emulated the secretive ways of the old Shadow Council, the Twilight's Hammer proved to be a destructive juggernaut, nearly unstoppable in battle.

In Warlords of Draenor

The subject of this section did not make it out of the alpha stages.

The official site for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor described the alternate Gul'dan as the leader of the Stormreaver clan, stating that "The outcasts he leads, the Stormreaver clan, now fight to wrest their "rightful place" in the Iron Horde from Gul'dan's former master Ner'zhul... and to tempt a great army of orcs into infernal corruption." However, as this contradicted the Stormreavers' previous origin of having been formed after the Horde's initial invasion of Azeroth, early beta testing saw the Stormreavers replaced with generic Shadow Council forces and all references to the clan removed.

• Despite this, the Warlords of Draenor webcomic Gul'dan and the Stranger depicts Gul'dan surrounded by guards wearing blue garments reminiscent of the Stormreaver clan.
• During the Warlords of Draenor alpha, the description of the Archaelogy artifact  [Barbed Fishing Hook] read: "This arm-length fishing hook has less in common with a traditional fishing hook and more with a halberd. The Stormreaver clan are the master navigators and fishermen of Draenor, and judging by the size of this hook their prey is no less savage than those of the landlocked clans." This description matched with the maritime capacity displayed by the clan during the Second War.
• They would attack an area called the Court of Lights in Talador, probably an area near Auchindoun.
• The datamined Stormreaver clan mobs were: Stormreaver Looter ([1], [2]), Stormreaver Fearmonger, Stormreaver Disciple, and Stormreaver Warlock. A Stormreaver quest credit was also associated with an unused ID of Grandmaster Vorpil, Shadowmaster Grieve, Throg ([3], [4]), and Firemaster Detest.

Notes

• Since the Stormreaver clan was originally founded as a group of warlocks and necrolyte, it had no grunt caste of its own, using the members of the Twilight's Hammer as warriors instead. Gul'dan also used the Altars of Storms to fill out his own ranks with ogre magi, more than the other clans.
• Several things point to the Stormreaver clan having been maritime-based, or at least partially so: its banner being a storm over raging tides, the fact that the clan was the one who captured and pacified the giant turtle battle subs of the Old Horde, its assignation to the island of Balor and finally its ability to launch a great naval expedition to the Broken Isles.
• Early concept art for the Broken Isles additionally showed an area called Stormreaver Bay, a port and a possible entry point for the continent. Stormreaver Bay was opposed to a nearby Kul Tiran settlement, the two factions being the most "maritime" ones of the Horde and Alliance.
• Garona Halforcen was originally said to be a member of the clan, but her clan of origin was changed to the Bladewind clan in World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 2.
• The Last Guardian indicated that the Stormreaver clan as led by a warlock already existed during the early stages of the Horde's invasion of Azeroth, as Khadgar suspected that Garona was reporting to them. This contradicted the origin of the clan established in Warcraft II and later affirmed in Chronicle Volume II and may thus have been an error.
•  [Stormreaver Shadow-Kilt] drops from Lieutenant Drake in Escape from Durnholde Keep.  [Stormreaver Warblades] drops from High Botanist Freywinn in the Botanica.
• In the bonus campaign for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, some of the cultists that killed Morg Wolfsong in Durotar use the same model as Stormreaver units. Cultists of the Stormreaver clan can also be found on the Echo Isles.
• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness depicted the Stormreaver clan as very active during the Alliance Northlands campaign, appearing in every single Alliance mission there, notably on the side of Alterac, even participating in the defense of Alterac City.

Speculation

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

• The name could have been the name of Gul'dan's original clan that he wiped out after accepting Kil'jaeden's offer of power.
• While it may be a simple case of model reuse, the Founding of Durotar campaign shows some Stormreaver warlocks on the Echo Isles and Durotar. It is, therefore, possible that some Stormreaver survivors traveled to Kalimdor and founded the local branch of the Shadow Council. Though  [1-10] Report to Sen'jin Village mentions Burning Blade's evil on the Echo Isles.

Gallery

• 

  The Stormreavers entering the Tomb of Sargeras alongside Gul'dan during the Second War.

• 

  The model used by all modern Stormreaver units, including Gul'dan, in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

• 

  A camp of Stormreaver hermits on the Broken Isles.

• 

  More Stormreaver cultists on the Echo Isles.

See also

• Stormreaver Wreckage