Unforgotten Places – Ashenvale, part II

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In Ashenvale, part II we will go through the eastern parts of this area. Starting from Raynewood Retreat and all the way to Forest Song and beyond.

Raynewood Retreat

Raynewood Retreat is an Alliance controlled outpost, built originally by the Night Elves. It is there to protected Ashenvale from the corruption that flows in Felwood to the north. The area surrounding the retreat is populated with Laughing Sisters who are protecting Keeper Ordanus. Keeper Ordanus is one of the sons of the Forest God Cenarius. Both the Keeper and the Laughing Sisters are wanted by the Horde and adventourers regulary try to raid the Raynewood Retreat. Evidently the hair of a Laughing Sister is used by the Horde to create robes for their mages.

Silverwing Grove

Silverwing Grove and the Silverwing Outpost are located in the south of Ashenvale, close to the entrance to the Barrens. This is the location of the Alliance entrance to the Warsong Gulch battlegrounds where the Silverwing Sentinels battle the Warsong Outriders that want to turn Ashenvale to a wast logging camp.

Splintertree Post

The Splintertree Post is the main Horde encampment in Ashenvale, located between the Raynewood Retreat and Forest Song. The camp is mostly populated by Tauren and Orcish guards and scouts. This place can give travellers some trouble when they travel to Forest Song for the first time, before they get the flight path there. This place is also one of the more frequent targets for Alliance retaliation raids even though not as popular as Crossroads in the Barrens.

 Warsong Labor Camps

In the southern Ashenvale, east of the entrance to the Barrens, are the Warsong Labor Camps. This is where the Horde has harvested trees since Grom Hellscreams time, it was he who first established this camp. Today there are logging camps almost all the way to the Southfury River.
Demon Fall Canyon

Even further to the east from the Warsong Logging camp, and to the south of Forest Song is a demon infested area. It was here that the demon lord Mannoroth battled with the two orcs Grom Hellscream and Thrall. A memorial stone was erected in the memory of Grom, who died while striking the final blow on the demon.

Forest SongForest Song is the eastern camp for the Alliance in Ashenvale and it is located almost at the border to Azshara. It is recomended that during your first visit to Forest Song to also visit the camp and flight master in Azshara as it is directly on the other side of the border.
Forest Song is the residence of one of the ancients, Gnarl. Other residents are Night Elfs and a team of Draenei architects who are building a new town for them. The leader of the Draenei seems to be Architect Nemos. The location between Satynaar and Bough Shadow gives visiting adventourers little peace.

Bough Shadow - Portal to the Emerald Dream

One of the portals to the Emerald Dream is located close to Forest Song in a place called Bough Shadow. The area is crawling with dragonkin and inexperienced adventourers are quite often never heard of again if they decide to travel here.
From time to time one of the Dragons of Nightmare, also known as the Emerald Dragons, will visit this place.

 

So, this was all of Ashenvale. There are places in the area that were not covered in this article, but most likely you will stumble across some of them during your own travels.

Unforgotten Places – Ashenvale, part I

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Ashenvale has a special place in my heart, the first thing that struck me about the place was its contrast against its neighbour Darkshore in the north, it was from there that I first entered the forest. But now that you start to think about it, the whole area is in contrast with all of its neighbouring lands. Be it Barrens to the south, Azshara to the east, Stonetalon Mountains to the west or Felwood to the north.
Back in the day before I got hold of my first Striped Frostsaber, it took quite a while to travel through it on foot. Back then the only flight path was located in Astranaar and to be honest I have spent many nights mending my feet at the inn there.

The Zoram Strand
Located to the north east of Ashenvale lies a small region on the coastline. The place is mostly populated with various naga but a smaller Horde camp can also be found here. Along the border to Darkshore lies the Blackfathom Deeps, once a great Night Elven temple but is today overrun with naga and the cult of the Twilight’s Hammer. The cult seeks there for clues of the Old Gods. The cult can also be found around the Ruins of Ordil’Aran close to Maestra’s Post.

The Shrine of Aessina
This shrine was built for the spirit of wilderness, Aessina, by the Night Elves. The shrine itself is visited by both Night Elves and dryads. North west of the shrine is a small cottage where some members of the Alliance reside. Among these are Sulan Dunadaire and her brother William as well as some Night Elves of the family Edune.

Old Scars

As with most other places in Azeroth, Ashenvale has seen its part of war and still harbors scars from long forgotten battles. Among these is the Fire Scar Shrine, still the home demons from and members of the Shadow Council. Another place is Satynaar, the main settlement of the three satyr camps in eastern Ashenvale.
If this wasn’t enough, Ashenvale is also under the influence of the evil taint that is spreading through the lands from Felwood. Most of the furbolgs around the forest have been corrupted with the taint.

Astranaar

The major Alliance village in Ashenvale is Astranaar. The town itself is located on an island in the middle of a small lake and built like most other Night Elven towns. The architecture is common around the whole region.

Ruins of Stardust
Directly south from Astranaar lies the Ruins of Stardust, similiar to Astranaar, the city once lied on a small island in the middle of a small like. The only thing that is still there are the ruins and some bog beasts roaming the lands. The area around Stardust has been tainted by the same corruption that has taken over Felwood.

Mystral Lake

A little bit to the east from Stardust lies a lake called Mystral Lake. On the western side of the lake is a cave that leads to Stonetalon Peak and on the north side lies a house called Silverwind Refuge.
The lake itself is the home of a large number of water elementals, so please watch out when travelling around this region but the Refuge is worth a visit as there are hunter, herbalism and alchemy trainers that reside there.

Greenpaw Village
Last place for part one is Greenpaw Village, located between Mystral Lake and Raynewood Retreat. This is the home of the Foulweald, a tribe of corrupted furbolgs lead by Chief Murgut.
Both the Horde and the Alliance are constantly trying to limit the size of the various corrputed furbolg tribes that reside in Ashenvale.

 

Next time we will cover the eastern parts of Ashenvale.