Hillsbrad Foothills

The Hillsbrad Foothills are green, rolling farmland in southern Lordaeron, split between the Alliance town of Southshore and the Forsaken town of Tarren Mill. The zone covers levels 20 to 30, with quests reaching into the low 40s in the mountains to the north. In the first months of World of Warcraft, the road between Southshore and Tarren Mill was the most famous open-world battlefield in the game.

Geography

Hillsbrad lies on the southern shore of Lordaeron, below the Alterac Mountains and west of the Arathi Highlands. It is a land of fields, orchards and pine-covered hills, with a long coast on the south and the waters of Lordamere Lake on the west.

• Southshore, on the coast, is a human fishing town held by the Alliance. It has an inn, a gryphon master and a strong guard.
• Tarren Mill, in the north-east hills, is a former human village taken by the Forsaken. It has a bat handler and an apothecary's lab.
• Hillsbrad Fields, in the west, are farms still worked by human farmers loyal to the Alliance.
• Durnholde Keep, in the east, is a ruined fortress now held by the Syndicate, a band of thieves and exiled nobles.
• Dun Garok, in the south-east, is a dwarven fortress guarding the mountain pass toward the Arathi Highlands.
• Azurelode Mine, Nethander Stead and Darrow Hill fill the rest of the hills. Purgation Isle lies off the south coast.
• Thoradin's Wall, an ancient wall, marks the border with Arathi in the east.

History

Before the fall of Lordaeron, Durnholde Keep was the site of internment camps for orcs captured after the Second War. Lord Aedelas Blackmoore, the keep's commander, raised a young orc slave as a gladiator. That orc was Thrall, who escaped Durnholde, freed the camps and later became Warchief of the Horde. A human girl named Taretha Foxton helped him escape, and paid for it with her life.

The Third War brought the Scourge to Lordaeron. Tarren Mill fell, and The Forsaken now hold it. Southshore survived, guarded by the soldiers of Stormwind and Ironforge, and became the last Alliance foothold in the south of the old kingdom.

Quests and notable NPCs

Hillsbrad has about 50 quests in our database, split between the two towns. Several chains send players north into the Alterac Mountains.

Tarren Mill (Horde)

• High Executor Darthalia leads the Forsaken in the long Battle of Hillsbrad series, which sends players to kill the farmers of Hillsbrad Fields, including Farmer Ray, and then to assault the dwarves of Dun Garok (Battle of Hillsbrad). She also posts Dangerous!, a bounty on Southshore's Clerk Horrace Whitesteed and other civilians.
• Apothecary Lydon of the Royal Apothecary Society brews new plagues in the Elixir of Suffering, Pain and Agony chains (Elixir of Suffering, Elixir of Pain, Elixir of Agony).
• Krusk, an orc sent by Thrall, frees orc prisoners from Durnholde in The Rescue and searches for a lost link to Thrall's past in Infiltration, Gol'dir and Blackmoore's Legacy. The chain ends with Lord Aliden Perenolde, the killing of the Alterac noble Lord Aliden Perenolde, and Taretha's Gift, the return of Taretha's pendant.
• Melisara sends players after the ogre leader Mug'thol in The Crown of Will chain.

Southshore (Alliance)

• Magistrate Henry Maleb runs the fight against the Syndicate, a chain that crosses into the Alterac Mountains and ends with Baron's Demise, the killing of Baron Vardus.
• Marshal Redpath posts bounties on the Crushridge ogres in Crushridge Bounty and Crushridge Warmongers.
• Lieutenant Farren Orinelle wants the murlocs and naga of the coast cleared in Down the Coast and Stormwind Ho!.
• Bartolo Ginsetti in the town sells and makes the yeti-fur cloak of Bartolo's Yeti Fur Cloak.

World PvP

Hillsbrad was designed as contested territory, with towns for both factions within a few minutes' ride of each other. On PvP realms in early 2005, before battlegrounds existed, players from both sides fought long running battles between Southshore and Tarren Mill. Raids on the opposing town's quest givers and flight masters were common, and the fights became one of the defining memories of early World of Warcraft. The introduction of the Honor System and the Alterac Valley battleground in 2005 drew most of that fighting away.

Dungeons

Hillsbrad has no dungeon of its own. The nearest is Alterac Valley (Alterac Valley), the battleground entered from the Alterac Mountains just to the north.

Getting there

Alliance players usually arrive from the Wetlands, crossing the Thandol Span and riding west through the Arathi Highlands. Horde players come from Silverpine Forest, following the road around Lordamere Lake. Both towns have flight points.

Later history

In the Burning Crusade expansion (2007), the Caverns of Time in Tanaris let players visit Hillsbrad in the past and help Thrall escape from Durnholde. In Cataclysm (2010), the Forsaken destroyed Southshore with plague, and the zone was rebuilt.

Sources

• Hillsbrad Foothills, Warcraft Wiki
• Durnholde Keep, Warcraft Wiki
• Tarren Mill vs. Southshore, Warcraft Wiki