Thousand Needles

Thousand Needles is a deep canyon in southern Kalimdor, filled with hundreds of tall, thin stone spires, covering levels 25 to 35. Tauren, centaur and the Grimtotem clan live among the mesas in its western half, while its eastern half is the Shimmering Flats, a dry salt lake where goblins and gnomes race rocket cars. It is mostly a Horde zone, though the racing camps welcome everyone.

Geography

Thousand Needles lies below the southern edge of The Barrens, with Feralas to the west, Dustwallow Marsh to the northeast and Tanaris to the south. Its floor is far below the surrounding plateaus.

• The Great Lift, a pair of huge elevators, carries travelers down the cliff from the Barrens in the north.
• Freewind Post, the Horde town, sits on top of a tall mesa in the middle of the zone, connected to its neighbors by rope bridges and a lift.
• Whitereach Post is a small tauren camp in the west.
• Darkcloud Pinnacle, a high mesa in the northwest, is the stronghold of the Grimtotem clan.
• Highperch, in the far west, is a wyvern nesting site on the canyon walls.
• Splithoof Crag and the camps around it belong to the Galak centaur.
• Roguefeather Den is a harpy cave.
• The Shimmering Flats, the eastern half, is a white salt pan. The goblins and gnomes have built the Mirage Raceway there, a racetrack with grandstands and two pit crews.

History

The tauren have lived in Thousand Needles for a long time, and Freewind Post was built to watch over the trade routes between the Barrens and Feralas. The Grimtotem, a tauren clan that refused to follow Cairne Bloodhoof, hold the high mesas and see the land as theirs alone. The Galak centaur raid anyone who crosses the canyon floor.

The Shimmering Flats is a neutral playground. A goblin team and a gnome team, each backed by its own engineers, race their cars across the salt and argue about who cheated.

Quests and notable NPCs

Thousand Needles has about 58 quests in our database, from level 25 to 46.

Freewind Post and the canyon

• Cliffwatcher Longhorn posts Pacify the Centaur against the Galak centaur and a bounty on Arnak Grimtotem of the Grimtotem in Wanted - Arnak Grimtotem.
• Lakota Windsong has been kidnapped by Arnak and needs an escort out of Darkcloud Pinnacle in Free at Last, ending with Thalia Amberhide at Freewind Post.
• At Highperch, the young tauren Pao'ka Swiftmountain needs an escort home in Homeward Bound, and Elu wants wyvern eggs in Wind Rider.
• Hagar Lightninghoof sends players to find an [Alien Egg] guarded by serpents in Alien Egg.
• Kanati Greycloud at Whitereach Post is the target of a centaur assassination plot in Assassination Plot and Protect Kanati Greycloud, and Motega Firemane asks players to kill Arikara in Arikara.
• The Sacred Fire has players gather Incendia Agave for Magatha Grimtotem in Thunder Bluff.

The Shimmering Flats

Both factions can do the racing quests.

• Gnome team: Fizzle Brassbolts wants scorpid venom in Salt Flat Venom. Wizzle Brassbolts waits for crash helmets in The Brassbolts Brothers.
• Goblin team: Pozzik wants vulture bones in Load Lightening. In Keeping Pace, Zamek creates a diversion while you steal Rizzle Brassbolts's plans, and Razzeric, the goblins' eighteenth pilot, wants a [Seaforium Booster] in Razzeric's Tweaking.
• Kravel Koalbeard trades in rocket car parts (Rocket Car Parts), runs errands to Booty Bay, and sends players to deliver [Kravel's Crate] to Hemet Nesingwary in Stranglethorn Vale in Hemet Nesingwary.
• The Indurium chain sends players to Martek the Exiled in the Badlands and on to Uldaman, ending with Indurium Ore.
• Trackmaster Zherin wants the salt flat basilisks thinned out in A Bump in the Road.

Dungeons

Razorfen Downs (Razorfen Downs), the quilboar's ancient burial mound, sits on the northern edge of the canyon by the Great Lift, for roughly levels 35 to 45. The Scourge has taken over the Downs, led by the lich Amnennar the Coldbringer.

Getting there

• From the Barrens: ride the Great Lift down from the southern tip of the Barrens.
• From Feralas: a road climbs east out of Feralas past the night elf outpost of Thalanaar, entering near Highperch.
• From Tanaris: a road runs north out of Tanaris onto the Shimmering Flats.
• By wind rider: Freewind Post has a flight master. Alliance players have no flight point in the zone and usually fly to Gadgetzan or Thalanaar.

Later history

In Cataclysm (2010), the canyon flooded. The spires became islands, Freewind Post was cut off, and the races ended. Classic shows the dry canyon as it was before.

Sources

• Thousand Needles, Warcraft Wiki
• Mirage Raceway, Warcraft Wiki
• Freewind Post, Warcraft Wiki