Chapter 94: Northeron Heights

After the Feast of Winter Veil ended, Azeroth entered a new year. This year was remembered by later generations and was known in history as the First Year of the Dark Portal.

This year, Garin was knighted and successfully became the Grand Duke, gaining the right to territorial autonomy.

During this year, Azeroth was in turmoil, the grand stage of history was about to begin, the troubled times began, and heroes from all races stood out.

In this year, the portal connecting Azeroth and Draenor was completed. When it was first opened, the huge energy directly blew the huge Swamp of Sorrows into two parts. Only one third of the swamp remained in the north, and the southern part became a cursed land with no grass.

This year, the Horde under the control of Gul'dan is about to send a vanguard scout force into Azeroth to establish an advance camp in the swamp.

In this year, Durotan and his Frostwolf tribe were exiled by the Horde for resisting Gul'dan's rule. Under the leadership of the patriarch, the Frostwolf clan fled northward, and finally stopped in the Alterac Mountains, and began to live a secluded life.

This year, the talented young wizard Khadgar was chosen by the Kirin Tor Council, ostensibly to be an apprentice to the Guardian Medivh, but in reality, he was sent to spy on the secrets of the Guardian's magical tower, the Tower of Karazhan.

Although the Dark Portal is about to open, this year is still a calm year, and all the undercurrents are brewing in the darkness.

The ostensible chieftain of the Orcish Horde is Chieftain Blackhand, but in reality the Horde is controlled by the Shadow Council founded by Gul'dan.

This year, Gul'dan's main focus was on maintaining the stability and durability of the Dark Portal to ensure that the orc army could cross the distance between two planets and reach Azeroth.

During this year, the Storm Kingdom was immersed in the beautiful dream of becoming the second most powerful nation in human history, with a wise king and powerful guardians above and elite legions below. The nobles were living a life of singing and dancing and drunkenness.

Garen had thought about whether he should directly send his two legions to raid the camp built by the tribal vanguard, annihilate the orcs' vanguard, and then let Gandalf find a way to close the Dark Portal.

In the end, he gave up the idea because he couldn't defeat the guardian Medivh. Medivh was the strongest being among humans, and his strength was already at the level of a demigod. Garin couldn't understand how the legendary Lothar led his Iron Horse Brotherhood team to kill the demigod mage possessed by the demon king Sargeras?

In the end, Garin could only blame it on the plot killing. He didn't dare to bet on it. If the Heart of Origin had been upgraded to a third-level castle with the trump card of summoning the king, Garin would dare to give it a try.

For now, forget it, just focus on expansion and building branches. The battle between the orcs and Storm Kingdom will not start until the next year after the Dark Gate, and they will be defeated in the fourth year after the Dark Gate.

With Stormwind City blocking the way, the north is still relatively safe. Galen plans to develop peacefully for a few more years. When Gandalf and Aragorn grow to the legendary level, he can take them to the south to join in the fun.

Garin was observing the hand-drawn map in front of him. This was a map that Garin had asked Varokal to remake based on the map in the Warcraft game in his previous life.

Garin's gaze was fixed on the Hinterlands to the north and the large area of ​​land east of the Wetlands.

There is no need to think about Sintrangarin. The forces here are complicated. To the west is Aerie Mountain of the Wildhammer dwarves, to the south is Shadranor, the largest stronghold of the Witherwood tribe, to the east is Jintha'alor of the Evilbranch trolls, and to the north is one of the entrances to Azeroth's unique Emerald Dream, where a dragon army is stationed.

It is a good place, but if you want to gain a foothold in Sintland, you must eliminate one of the forces and then occupy their gathering point.

The first thing to exclude is the Aerie Mountain of the Wildhammer dwarves and the north where the Green Dragon Legion is located. We all belong to the camp of lawful justice and will be allies in the future. We will meet each other sooner or later, so we should maintain friendship.

The Witherwood Tribe of Shadranor has at least 20,000 trolls. Garin said that they cannot defeat them now. The Evilbranch Tribe is stronger than the Witherwood Tribe. Jinsalor is a ladder city, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is not cost-effective to fight, so it is better to give up first.

Garen looked at the land that was only separated from the Arathi Highlands by the Sardor Strait. It was located to the east of the wetlands and was called "Northron" by the dwarves.

It was once the site of an ancient dwarven fortress. Later, the Wildhammer dwarf city of Grim Batol was polluted by dark magic. Some dwarves followed the Wildhammer clan north and built a new city in the Hinterlands. Some dwarves were unwilling to leave, so they established several villages in the forests and plains east of the Northron Highlands.

In recent years, in addition to sending caravans to follow the kingdom's trade team to Ironforge to do business, Garen also transported some beer to the Wildhammer villages in the east. He was very familiar with some of the situations in Northron.

Logistics Chief Harmon has a very close relationship with Chief Flamebeard of the Wildhammer Dwarf camp. After all, their favorability was increased by drinking wine.

The dwarves settled here more than two hundred years ago and can be considered the natives of this land. The forests here are dense and the mountains on the plateau are rich in mineral deposits. What attracted Garen most was the source ore in the highland mountains, a rare and precious ore. Deathwing used it to build his full body armor and confidently came out of Deepholm to fight a war of destruction.

From a topographical point of view, the entire highlands are traversed by a huge river. This river, called Valar, originates from the mountains in the east and flows in an inverted V shape to the Forbidden Sea in the east.

There are several dwarven villages in the central and northern parts of the Highlands, and the only unowned lands are two large islands in the northeast and southeast.

The Future Alliance occupied the southwestern island and established a military base called Beachhead. On the tribal side, the goblins built a workshop on the northwestern island to collect oil from the sea.

In addition to these two islands, Garin also set his eyes on the estuary of the Valar River, which was formed into a delta by the river. This is a natural port, which will be occupied by the Dragonmaw clan of the orcs in the future and the Dragonmaw Port will be established.

Garin's idea was to occupy these three unowned lands, rely on each other, and form a horn. At the same time, radiate to the south, where there are rich forest resources and mineral veins, and far away from the dwarfs' activities, there will be no territorial conflicts.

The most important point is that after the Three Hammers Civil War, the Wildhammer dwarves began to live with griffins. They get along with the griffins as equals, instead of treating them roughly as animals or mounts. As a result, the griffins are extremely loyal to the Wildhammer dwarves, and this friendship gave rise to the world-famous Griffin Knights.

Maybe he could ask Harmon to continue using fine wine to improve the favorability of the Flamebeard Dwarves and see if he could get a Griffin Instructor over here. After all, their Flamebeard Griffin Knights were highly skilled, second only to the Wildhammer's Thunderclaw Griffin Knights.

As long as he could trick a Griffin Knight into becoming his instructor, no matter how he taught, the future sky overlord of the third-level castle, the Griffin Knight, could appear in front of the public openly.

I, Jialin, am really a smart guy!