Stranglethorn Vale

Stranglethorn Vale is an untamed, dense jungle dominating the southern tip of the Eastern Kingdoms, south of Duskwood. Once the seat of the great Gurubashi Empire, the rainforest is now strewn with crumbling troll ruins, savage beasts, and competing encampments of goblins, pirates, and soldiers. Control of the region is hotly contested by local troll tribes, the Venture Company, and rival factions carving out footholds in the heat.

For millennia, the vale was governed by the mighty Gurubashi Empire from their capital city, Zul'Gurub. That dominion shattered when radical priests summoned Hakkar the Soulflayer, plunging the region into a catastrophic civil war. Though the Zandalari stepped in to crush the blood god's uprising, the empire splintered beyond repair. Today, the jungle is overrun by warring successor factions—most prominently the Bloodscalp in the northwest and the Skullsplitter in the east—both zealously slaughtering outsiders to reclaim their ancestral home.