Part 20: You mean, ogres aren't native to Azeroth?
You mean, ogres aren't native to Azeroth?
To recap, here's the briefing video to mission 4...
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As you may have noticed, the theme for our Lore today is ogres! First off, what the hell? Ogres? Really? What sort of impact would this possibly have on lore, Azzur? Well, obviously it's going to be worth a lot more come Warcraft II, when the Horde will actually see ogres as units, but they still have serious role lore-wise.
Before the dawning of the First War, and even before the opening of the Dark Portal by Gul'dan and Medivh, various clans of ogres lived on Draenor. However, the majority of these clans were enslaved by their predecessors, the gronn. Gronn, as you can imagine, are massive, powerful creatures that aren't all that bright, much like their "children" the ogres.
Gronn in comparison to ogres...
Many of these enslaved ogres snuck through the Dark Portal when it was opened, seeking freedom in the new world. However, those that remained behind still sought freedom by any means necessary, even if it meant getting assistance from their enemies, the orcs. Thus, before the assault on Azeroth really got underway, Blackhand (doubtlessly under orders by Gul'dan) and the orcish Horde helped to free many of the ogres from their merciless gronn masters.
During the First War, Gul'dan and his warlocks were experimenting endlessly with the ogres to create a more brutal killing machine. These experiments resulted in the strange two-headed ogres that we'll see later on in the series. These ogres are brought through the portal after the First War to act as a police force to the restless orcs.
As for the ogres who passed through the portal before Gul'dan could conduct his experiments on them; they held a hatred towards orcs thanks to their prior history on Draenor. You see, it is speculated that before the draenei came to live on Draenor, and before the orcs came to power, the ogres ruled the land, who were in turn ruled by the gronn.(?) Thus, the orcs beat the piss out of the ogres while under demonic influence. I'm starting to think orcs just pass everything off as "demonic influence." So we can see why many of the ogres aren't a big fan of orcs.
Our supposed timeline of rulers of Draenor/Orcoplis/Ogreville.
Ogres at this point, however, are still the unintelligent brutes that we all know and love. It isn't until much later that Gul'dan's machinations with elven magic gives birth to the first ogre magi, spreading intelligence and magic among the ogres. But that is a story for another day...