Chapter 346 |
Unfallen City is the Northern Fortress of the original timeline’s future, and also the seat of Abbendis in Kalimdor.
The Northern Fortress is located by the mountains and water, situated in a valley that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. In terms of geography and natural environment, it is actually better than Stonetalon City to the slightly north and Theramore to the southwest.
This is also why, back then, whether it was Daelin or Jaina, after establishing Theramore, they still wanted to build a Northern Fortress at this location.
On one hand, it is closer to the inland of the Barrens, helping to curb the tribes; on the other hand, the location is simply perfect for building a fortress.
As long as fortresses and artillery platforms are built on both sides of the valley, the bay, and small islands, even thousands of troops would find it difficult to capture.
However, for various reasons, neither Daelin nor Jaina managed to complete the defensive setup around the Northern Fortress in the early days. It wasn’t until the late Alliance period, when the Stormwind Kingdom took over, that large-scale construction and completion began.
Now, under Josh's reminder, Abbendis obviously would never repeat the mistakes of the Proudmoore father and daughter. Early on, he built this place like an iron bucket—Abbendis now boldly declares that no mortal kingdom in Azeroth, not even two elven kingdoms combined, could possibly capture this fortress if he is prepared!
Hence the name Unfallen City!
Although Josh thinks that when translated into Chinese, Unfallen City sounds a bit like “Tribe City” and feels awkward, this is their fortress, so he doesn’t dare to voice too many opinions.
Just in terms of territory size, excluding Northrend, the Barrens, Durotar, and Mulgore regions already overwhelm any human kingdom and are second only to the Night Elf Empire.
The third war invasion led by Archimonde and the Burning Legion had not yet occurred; the world trees of Felwood and Mount Hyjal were still intact; the furbolgs of Winterspring were not yet corrupted; the Stonetalon Mountains had not been cut by the Horde; and Feralas (originally part of Feralas, destroyed in three invasions) had not been devastated.
Before this, the centaurs in the region had been suppressed by the Night Elves. After the Burning Legion invasion, the Night Elves abandoned the area, which then came under complete centaur control. So these areas remain vast Night Elf Empire territory.
This is also one reason Abbendis does not want to antagonize the Night Elf Empire. Though the current Night Elf Empire is not at its peak (before the Sundering), it is still flourishing.
While not afraid, there is no need to provoke them.
Of course, the cities and fortresses Abbendis built in these regions—except Taurajo, which kept the Tauren tribal name—obviously did not keep their original names. Due to productivity reasons, their scale and quality are also far inferior to before, especially Theramore and Tiragarde.
The former was the city name given by Jaina when she came to Kalimdor, and its name’s meaning combines “Thrall” + the suffix of Proudmoore.
Its implication is the alliance of Thrall and Jaina Proudmoore’s families.
However, later with Daelin Proudmoore’s arrival and betrayal by his daughter, the name took on a hint of irony.
The latter was established by Daelin Proudmoore to attack Orgrimmar, named after Kul Tiras’s Tiragarde Sound.
Abbendis has no relationship at all with the Proudmoore family and, due to maritime expansion competition in recent years, the two sides have a semi-hostile status, making it impossible to use such names.
Thus, the original Theramore was renamed Westguard Fortress—because it lies at the westernmost edge of the territory.
Tiragarde Fortress was renamed New Uldugath, undoubtedly a Vrykul name. The main garrison is Vrykul, and the castle lord is one of the original leaders of Uldugath Fortress, the plunderer Ingvar.
Because the Dragonmaw clan’s King Emiron and Queen Angrboda were early sold to Josh by Abbendis and defeated and killed, plunderer Ingvar has become the actual highest leader among the Vrykul under Abbendis.
All the above intelligence about Abbendis’ Kalimdor territories had already been known to the Night Elves over the past few years—whether sentinels, the Cenarion Council, or the Watchers, all had investigated the relevant information.
This was also due to the diverse and complex races in Abbendis’ territory, who did not reject any outsiders—although Abbendis began through gray industries, as his power expanded, it began transitioning toward large-scale commercial trade.
Among the three Night Elf factions, the Watchers had the clearest understanding of Abbendis’ situation.
Just like Abbendis’ upcoming expedition to the Broken Isles, the Watchers were the first to receive exact intelligence—of course, this does not mean Abbendis was not discreet, but this expedition’s scale was too large to hide, and Abbendis did not want to hide it.
After all, this was his business, and the Watchers, once they took off their armor, were just ordinary Night Elf civilians, whose aura was not as conspicuous as that of sentinels or druids.
However, the information they could get was only about the general situation of Abbendis’ territory. Abbendis himself and deeper secrets were heavily guarded; even Maiev Shadowsong personally acting would find it hard to obtain much information.
Especially since Abbendis is not a people-friendly lord—in this medieval fantasy world of Azeroth, warlike races like the Vrykul respect strength but do not tolerate kindness.
Being too people-friendly as a lord is not a good thing.
Therefore, to outsiders, Abbendis is a mysterious and fearsome lord, with many terrifying legends about him.
It is precisely because of Abbendis’ mysterious aura that Maiev Shadowsong, leader of the Watchers, is extra wary of him.
“Tyrande, I must remind you again, if this human lord harbors any evil intentions, he will become a serious threat to us!” As the elaborately decorated Night Elf general’s transport ship slowly approached Unfallen City’s harbor, Maiev Shadowsong, disguised as a Night Elf maid by shedding her Watcher armor, said to Tyrande standing before her while looking at the towering fortress, the grim artillery platforms and towers, and the bustling port.
After learning the exact news that Abbendis was leading troops to the Broken Isles, Tyrande sent an envoy to personally visit Abbendis to find out his true purpose!
Although Maiev and Tyrande had a long-standing feud dating back to the Ancient War period, Maiev chose to cooperate with Tyrande this time to get close to Abbendis and understand this mysterious human lord who forcibly united so many different races.
“But at least they haven’t shown any hostility toward us yet, right?” Tyrande gently stroked the soft fur on her white tiger mount’s head as she responded.
“Don’t forget the lessons of the Ancient War! Tyrande, this human lord is very suspicious!” Maiev emphasized again.
“I understand, Maiev! But you have to know, we can’t take hostile measures against a powerful mortal lord just based on suspicion!” Tyrande said helplessly, not knowing why Maiev had such strong hostility toward this human lord.
“Hmph, suit yourself!” Maiev snorted coldly and then fell silent.
Not just because Tyrande’s words made sense, but also because the ship was about to enter the harbor.
Unfallen City’s port is large and busy but well-guarded. Normally, ships must wait a long time to enter.
But since Tyrande and company were envoys, they had privileges, and soon a small boat led their ship to a dock exclusive to emissaries.
It was not coincidence but likely deliberate that a neighboring dock also had an elven-style ship anchored, but its red paint and red flag with a golden phoenix identified it as belonging to the Quel’Thalas High Elves.
Although both are elves and distant relatives, the two houses had a love-hate relationship stretching back tens of thousands of years.
Seeing the Night Elf ship arrive, some agitation arose on the High Elf ship, but since this was human territory and the real authority on board was absent, the agitation soon subsided.
The Night Elf side noticed this but Tyrande merely glanced briefly at the other ship and paid no real attention. Maiev didn’t even look.
Some Night Elf crew members quietly spat curses at the other ship.
It’s safe to imagine the High Elf crew probably cursed back at these purple-skinned distant relatives.
“Welcome to Unfallen City, honorable Priestess! I am Baine Bloodhoof, Chief Sheriff of Unfallen City! The lord has been awaiting your arrival. Please follow me!” The one welcoming Tyrande was a heavily armored and very sturdy Tauren commander—the second-generation leader of the original Tauren timeline, Baine Bloodhoof.
Many might think that as the second-generation Tauren chieftain, young Baine Bloodhoof should be very young or not even born yet at this time but the reality is otherwise.
Bane is not only not young at this time, but even older than Abbendis, already thirty years old.
When he eventually became chieftain in the future, he was already “elderly” at over sixty.
In Azeroth, Tauren are not immortal but generally live longer than humans, often exceeding a hundred years.
For example, Baine Bloodhoof, according to Blizzard’s official data, was born 79 years before the Dark Portal opened and was 74 years old now, dying at 107 during a duel with Thrall.
So a 74-year-old chieftain Cairne having a 30-year-old son is perfectly normal.
After the Tauren were subdued by Abbendis, Baine Bloodhoof became his close follower for a long time and now serves as Chief Sheriff of Unfallen City.