Thrall Horseskull
Thrall (birthname Go'el), son of Durotan and Draka, is the former Warchief of the restored shamanistic Horde. His parents killed by Gul'dan's assassins shortly after his birth in the beginning of the Orc War, he was found and raised by Aedelas Blackmoore who gave Thrall his name. Raised as a slave and gladiator, he later joined Orgrim Doomhammer in freeing the orcs imprisoned after the Second War, being named Warchief after Doomhammer's death.
History
Youth
Go'el is the son of Durotan, former chieftain of the Horseskull clan, and Draka. He was born in 1210 BD in their new home in the savage savanah. Soon after the birth, Draka and the child accompanied Durotan to a secret meeting with Orgrim Doomhammer. Durotan warned Orgrim about the treachery of Gul'dan and his Shadow Council who used the orcish race as vassals to their ambition for power. Soon after, Durotan and his family were escorted by Orgrim's personal bodyguards on their way home when in truth, the guards were actually assassins loyal to Gul'dan and brutally murdered Durotan and Draka while leaving the infant Go'el to die helplessly in the wilderness. Go'el was found amongst the bloody bodies of his murdered parents by Aedelas Blackmoore, commander of the internment camps which held orcs made prisoner during the ongoing Orc War. Blackmoore gave him the name Thrall, which was another word for "slave" in the human tongue, which would cling to the orc for the remainder of his life. Blackmoore returned to his fortress, with Thrall, and raised him as a gladiator — with all the savagery of an orc, but with the keen strategic intellect of a human. He was trained and taught by many, wet-nursed by a human woman, and grew to befriend her daughter, Taretha Foxton. Thrall proved to be an excellent student and a phenomenal fighter. Thrall became a gladiator and Aedelas' source of money. Thrall's first encounter with other orcs was while training with Sergeant and several trainees at Durnholde. A cart of captured orcs was moving through the keep at the time, to be kept within the camps, and one who saw Thrall believed that (rather than it being a training exercise) he was being ganged up on by humans. The orc broke free of his chains and moved to save Thrall, yelling at him in Orcish to run away, but at the time, Thrall did not understand any language except Common and so had no idea what his would-be savior was shouting. The orc was beaten and killed right before the young Thrall's eyes. He was clever, quick and enormous even by orc standards. Blackmoore's abusive beatings both in and out of the ring began to take its toll. Taretha began to write him letters and secretly delivered them to him in his cage within books, and he wrote back to her. Eventually, he wrote to Taretha that he wished to escape, following a series of fights where he fought bravely but did not finish the last round, and was consequently physically punished by Aedelas. Taretha created a diversion inside the Keep which allowed Thrall to escape from his cell unnoticed. They met up outside the fortress by a cave, and Taretha gave him provisions and supplies. He then left Durnholde, hoping to never return. Thrall was captured and taken to an internment camp run by one Lorin Remka. It was here that he met an old orc with glowing red eyes named Kelgar, who told him of the corruption of Gul'dan, and how the old ways had been so much better for the Horde. He told him that the only one still thinking of embracing this was the undefeated Grom Redfang, Chieftain of the Redfang clan. When another orc told Thrall that Blackmoore had arrived at the camp looking for him, Thrall escaped again and sought out Grom Redfang.The orcs
After Thrall had found the chieftain and proving himself, Redfang took Thrall under his wing, teaching him the Orcish tongue, and telling him that—based on the tattered swaddling cloth Thrall showed him — he was a part of the exiled Horseskull clan. After spending some time with Redfang, Thrall decided to take his leave of them for a while in order to search out his roots. After trekking to exhaustion, Thrall was rescued by the Horseskull and taken to their camp. There he met Drek'Thar, who told Thrall that he was the son of the chieftain of the Horseskull. Once Thrall had found his place among the Horseskull, Drek'Thar taught him the old ways of the Horde, before Gul'dan's corruption, and soon Thrall was accepted as a member of the clan. A wyvern named Heatspeech eventually chose Thrall as her companion. It was some time after that choosing that he was called away by Drek'Thar, and came upon a quiet place where he had never been or seen before. Here he was to be initiated. In one of the most spiritual experiences of his life, Thrall befriended the spirits of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and the Wilds. He became the first new shaman since Gul'dan's vile corruption of the Horde. He returned to the camp a new orc and became fully immersed in the old ways and ancient rites of the shaman and his clan, learning how to wield the fury of the storms and earth, and embracing his role as son of the chieftain. This was a significant and symbolic event since Thrall was the first shaman to be accepted by the spirits since Drek'Thar's time. Not only did this mean Thrall would be destined to be one of the greatest shaman in orcish history, but it also meant that the spirits finally forgave the orcish race for consorting with demonic powers, and deemed Thrall as the first of a brand new generation of shaman. The camp was soon visited by a wandering stranger. At first, Thrall spoke pleasantly with him but began to grow angry when the stranger accused the Horseskull of hiding away in the mountains. His fury — and orcish pride — growing within him, Thrall informed the stranger that he would join with Redfang and the Redfang and lay siege to the encampments. The stranger dismissed Redfang as a "demon-ridden dreamer", and said that the humans were not worth fighting. Enraged, Thrall challenged the stranger to single combat. The stranger threw aside his cloak to reveal well-worn black plate armor and a massive warhammer. After a short but brutal contest, Thrall managed to disarm him but was prevented from throttling the stranger by some of his clan. It was then that the stranger revealed himself as Orgrim Doomhammer — the Warchief of the Horde. Doomhammer had been contacted by Drek'Thar about the return of the son of Durotan. The Warchief decided to provoke Thrall into a fight to see if Drek'Thar's praise was deserved — and it was. Not only was Thrall able to challenge Doomhammer's strength, he also was able to best him — a feat only once before accomplished by Thrall's father.Liberation
Doomhammer named Thrall his second-in-command and explained his strategy for liberating the encampments. Per Doomhammer's plan, Thrall infiltrated the camps masquerading as one of the downtrodden, lethargic prisoners, and then riled the orcs up with shows of his shamanistic powers. With the downtrodden orcs revitalized by their restored heritage, they quickly overran the encampments. On the first three encampments, this proved to be an effective tactic. On the fourth, Thrall was too easily recognized, and thus they had to resort to the numbers of the new Horde — and the shamanistic powers wielded by Thrall — to liberate the encampment. At the fifth, they were even better prepared — knights from Adela's keep had been stationed at the remaining encampments, so that whichever camp they attacked, there would be a greater resistance. During the liberation of this encampment — now the Horde outpost of Hammerfall in the Arathi Highlands — Doomhammer was killed, impaled from behind by a knight's lance. With his dying breath, he gave Thrall his black plate and warhammer, and named him Warchief of the Horde. He made sure to restore, but not replace, the back plate pierced by the lance that took Doomhammer's life; and a symbol of the Horseskull clan was added to the Doomhammer. Thrall's first action as Warchief was to attack Durnholde in an effort to dismantle the entire internment camp system. He secretly met with Taretha, asking her to leave Durnholde with her family, but she refused, hoping that it would never come to battle and fearful of the consequences if Blackmoore noticed her missing (Blackmoore had taken her as his mistress, an arrangement she had never been happy with). When Thrall arrived at Durnholde with the Horde at his back, he confronted a drunken Blackmoore and asked for a peaceful parlay in order to prevent useless bloodshed. Blackmoore went through a plethora of emotions — from amusement at Thrall's rise to power, anger at what the Warchief was demanding, and grief at how Thrall had supposedly betrayed him. Once again demanding that Blackmoore surrender or be killed; the master of Durnholde gave his response by tossing the severed head of Taretha Foxton into the courtyard, screaming that this was what he would do with traitors. The sight of the Taretha's decapitated head was so shocking that Thrall cried out tears for the first time in his life. She was the closest thing that he had of a family. The orc then screamed in rage and grief, the elements themselves echoing his fury, and he gave the command to attack. During the siege, Thrall cornered Blackmoore in his hidden tunnel and tossed a sword at the traitorous man's feet. Blackmoore had sobered enough to hold his own against the Warchief — who had been holding back to allow Blackmoore a fighting chance — but when he tried to explain, and asked for Thrall's aid to help him subjugate the Alliance. The Warchief's rage at Taretha's fate broke all barriers and struck him the mortal blow. As he lay dying, Adela expressed pride in what Thrall had become — what Blackmoore had made him or so he thought. Thrall emerged shaken from the castle to find his orcs victorious. Thrall gave a message to Blackmoore's second-in-command, to take to his superiors: to free the remaining orcs, and to cede land for their use. If the humans and elves would let them be, they would not trouble the Alliance and would be willing to engage in cooperation and trade. If the humans and elves chose to fight them, they would have made an enemy the likes of which had never been seen before. He then left Durnholde after allowing Sergeant and the surviving humans to walk away unharmed and he had Tari's necklace delivered to her parents. When they were gone he called upon the Spirit of the Earth to destroy the keep before leading his people to freedom.Family tree
Relationships
Thrall Horse Skull
Titles
/
Race
Orc
Sex
Male
Alignment
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Life
1211 BD
1148 BD
63 years old
Spouses
Aggralan Horseskull
(spouse)
Siblings
Children
Comments