The Barrens

The Barrens is a huge, dry savanna in the middle of Kalimdor and the main leveling zone for Horde characters from about level 10 to 25. Orcs, trolls and tauren all pass through its crossroads town, and many Forsaken cross the sea to join them, so for years it was the busiest low-level zone in the game. That crowd gave rise to "Barrens chat", the zone's famously chaotic general chat channel.

Geography

The Barrens stretches from the edge of Ashenvale in the north to Thousand Needles in the south, with Durotar and the sea to the east and Mulgore and the Stonetalon Mountains to the west. It is flat yellow grassland broken by thorny trees, dry riverbeds, termite-mound hills and a few oases.

• The Crossroads, an orc fort where the zone's two main roads meet, is the hub of the northern Barrens.
• Ratchet, a goblin port on the east coast, is neutral and serves both factions.
• Camp Taurajo, a tauren town in the south, is the second Horde hub.
• Far Watch Post guards the bridge from Durotar, and Mor'shan Rampart guards the road north into Ashenvale.
• Northwatch Hold, a Theramore fortress south of Ratchet, is the Alliance's foothold.
• The oases: the Lushwater Oasis (over Wailing Caverns), the Stagnant Oasis and the Forgotten Pools are all quest areas.
• Bael Modan in the far south is a dwarven dig site, and the Field of Giants holds silithid hives.
• The Great Lift at the southern tip lowers travelers into Thousand Needles. Razorfen Kraul lies near the southern edge, and the entrance to Razorfen Downs is just beyond it.

History

The Barrens was once lush forest, before the Sundering and later wars scorched it. The druid Tonga Runetotem at the Crossroads, who sends players to study the oases in The Barrens Oases and The Forgotten Pools, is investigating why strange life is now returning to those pools.

After the Third War, the orcs built the Crossroads to protect their trade routes between Orgrimmar and Mulgore. They share the plains with the Kolkar centaur, the Razormane quilboar, harpies, and the humans of Northwatch, all of whom fight the Horde for control of the roads.

Quests and notable NPCs

The Crossroads

• Sergra Darkthorn, the hunter, sends players after the zone's beasts, starting with Plainstrider Menace and ending with the white lion Echeyakee in Echeyakee.
• Gazrog wants raptor heads in Raptor Thieves, part of the hunt for the stolen silver that leads to Stolen Silver.
• Darsok Swiftdagger fights the Witchwing harpies, ending with Serena Bloodfeather in Serena Bloodfeather.
• Mankrik wants vengeance on the Bristleback quilboar in Consumed by Hatred and asks you to find his wife in Lost in Battle.

Regthar Deathgate and the Kolkar

West of the Crossroads, Regthar Deathgate runs a campaign against the centaur. You collect bracers in Centaur Bracers, then kill the Kolkar leaders: Barak Kodobane, Verog the Dervish and Hezrul Bloodmark. The final quest, Counterattack!, is a defense against a Kolkar war band led by Warlord Krom'zar.

Camp Taurajo

Jorn Skyseer teaches the ways of the hunt with Cry of the Thunderhawk and collects trophies from four rare beasts. Ishamuhale is a quest he gives; the other three start from the trophy itself when you loot it.

Nearby, the friendly quilboar Mangletooth blesses players with Agamaggan's power in exchange for Blood Shards and offers Betrayal from Within against Nak, Kuz and Lok Orcbane. Gann Stonespire wants the dwarves of Bael Modan driven out in Gann's Reclamation, and Feegly the Exiled, a dwarf thrown out of the dig, wants you to steal back the [Tear of the Moons] from its keep.

Ratchet

• Gazlowe, the goblin in charge of the port, has a bounty on Baron Longshore in WANTED: Baron Longshore.
• Sputtervalve and the goblin engineers of the Tinkers' Union send players after a stolen shredder: Ignition and The Escape, escorting Wizzlecrank home.
• Captain Thalo'thas Brightsun wants Northwatch Hold punished in The Guns of Northwatch and his captured sailor rescued in Free From the Hold.
• Brewmaster Drohn brews a Stormstout keg for Chen's Empty Keg, a nod to Chen Stormstout from Warcraft III.

Barrens chat

Barrens chat is the player name for the General channel in the Barrens, and by extension any channel that fills up with nonsense.

Almost every Horde character ran through the Barrens between levels 10 and 25, and the zone's long, empty roads meant a lot of time spent walking with nothing to do. The General channel covers the whole zone, so hundreds of bored players shared one chat window. The mix of new players asking questions and veterans happy to mislead them made the channel famous. Typical subjects included:

• "Where is Mankrik's wife?" Mankrik's quest Lost in Battle gives no map marker. His wife's body, the Beaten Corpse, lies in a small tauren camp in the southern Barrens, and new players asked about it constantly. The question became a running joke and is the main reason Mankrik is remembered at all.
• Chuck Norris jokes, which could take over the channel for long stretches.
• The stolen silver for Stolen Silver, and "where do I learn" questions about spells and professions.
• Arguments about music, politics and the other faction, and puns about tauren and cows.

Players could leave the channel with /leave 1, but many kept it on for the entertainment. Barrens chat faded once Cataclysm (2010) split the zone and new leveling tools spread players out, and it came back with World of Warcraft Classic in 2019, when the Barrens again filled up with fresh Horde characters.

Dungeons

• Wailing Caverns (Wailing Caverns), under the Lushwater Oasis, is the first Horde dungeon, for roughly levels 17 to 24. The druids Ebru and Nalpak start its quests at the entrance.
• Razorfen Kraul (Razorfen Kraul), a quilboar warren of giant thorns, sits on the southern edge, for about levels 24 to 33.
• Razorfen Downs (Razorfen Downs), the quilboar's undead-ridden burial grounds, is reached at the border with Thousand Needles.

Getting there

• From Durotar: take the bridge over the Southfury River past Far Watch Post.
• From Mulgore: follow the road east toward Camp Taurajo.
• By wind rider: Devrak at the Crossroads is the zone's main flight master, and Ratchet has one too.
• By boat: Ratchet's dock has a ship to Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale, usable by both factions.

Later history

Cataclysm (2010) tore the Barrens in two. A giant fissure opened, and the zone became Northern Barrens and Southern Barrens, with Camp Taurajo burned by the Alliance.

Sources

• The Barrens, Warcraft Wiki
• Barrens chat, Warcraft Wiki
• Mankrik, Warcraft Wiki