Location: The Black Temple, Shadowmoon Valley
Have you ever wondered about the astronomy of the Warcraft universe? We know a lot more now than we did back when Vanilla WoW first came out. From Ulduar, we have seen a full rotating globe of Azeroth, and we know exactly where Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms lie, and we know that apparently the Blue Child comes and goes when it pleases. But what about Draenor? Granted, the red homeworld of the Orcs is accessible via the Dark Portal at any point, but where is it in terms of its relation to Azeroth? My original guess would have been that it’s no where near Azeroth. No closer than say Mars is to Earth.
However, deep within the depths of the Black Temple, you can see Azeroth from Outland. Not just as a twinkling star, but as large as, if not larger, than Outland’s moon. Which would put Azeroth a little further than the Moon is to Earth. Moon. Not Mars. So apparently Outland is actually pretty close to Azeroth. Which would give some ground to form all kinds of theories on why the Dark Portal actually works. What with two close quarters worlds, you could make an argument that it would easier to link them. Granted, that argument would be founded entirely on nonsense with no actual facts to back up why since the only way the Dark Portal works is “magic” and when dealing with “magic” there’s no reason that proximity should matter at all.
But that’s not the real issue here. The issue is that if I can see Azeroth from Outland (Granted, it’s only within Shadowmoon Valley, and even then only inside the Black Temple) why can’t I see Outland from Azeroth? I mean, I know it’s a floating rock and not an entire planet but since it’s supposedly as big as the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor combined and I can see both of those continents from Outland, you think there would be a weird floating shape in the sky or something. Maybe the Blue Child was supposed to be Draenor but then it got blown up and became Outland which is why the Blue Child was removed in Burning Crusade, but then why was Blue Child in Vanilla WoW which is after Draenor, which was the ‘red planet’ not blue, was destroyed? Where is Outland in the Azerothian sky?!
It’s not there. Do you want to know why? Because Outland does not exist in the physical plane. Do you know where it is? Well, where do things go when there’s no good way to fill in a plot hole? That’s right! The Twisting Nether. So apparently, not only was Draenor destroyed at the end of Warcraft II, it was blasted into another dimension as well. So why can you see Azeroth if Outland is in another dimension? Well, there’s a theory about that. You know how the Emerald Dream is kind of a parallel version of Azeroth? Well, some think that the Twisting Nether is that for the Great Dark Beyond (Outer Space). That doesn’t really sate me, but it’s better than “No clue, dude.” Besides, you think if that Draenor was so close to Azeroth that it would be mistaken for a moon someone would have said something about it, the second war wasn’t THAT long ago. Khadgar hasn’t kicked the bucket yet for Pete’s sake.
So, you can’t see Outland because it’s in the Twisting Nether. It does explain a few things, like netherdrakes, why the big vacuums in Netherstorm can suck magic out of thin air, or how Kael’thas was able to make contact with Kil’Jaeden. But wait! Then why did Illidan have to close the portals in Outland to lock out the Burning Legion’s reinforcements? Doesn’t the Burning Legion live in the Twisting Nether? So that’s kind of like locking a door to a house that’s missing 3 of its 4 walls. There’s no reason Kil’Jaeden couldn’t have just shown up and kicked Illidan’s butt for failing. Instead, Kil’jaeden makes a deal with Kael’thas to get summoned to Azeroth to continue the attack from the War of the Ancients… I think. I’m not even going into the plot holes that surround the Fury of the Sunwell, that thing deserves it’s own post.
So ultimately I’m left with a planet whose appearance makes no sense, which trying to explain causes the a size-able chunk of The Frozen Throne make no sense, all because the plot device that is the Twisting Nether makes no sense. Am I making any sense here at all?!
Vrykerion 
I think you’re on the right track, it just needs a little more refining.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the game Warhammer 40k, but in the lore of that game there is normal space (equivalent to the Great Dark Beyond) and warp-space (demonic dimensional wibbly stuff, equivalent to the Twisting Nether). In 40k lore there is an area known as the ‘Eye of Terror’, which is a point where warp-space collides with normal space, and as such exhibits weird properties where the regular rules of time and space do not apply. People who entered the Eye of Terror 10000 years ago come out thinking only a few years have passed, up becomes down, and generally things go wonky.
I think Outland could exhibit a similar principle. It is not *in* the Twisting Nether as such, but the explosion of Draenor ripped open a lot of space/time stuff and as such it is kind of half in the Twisting Nether and half in the GDB. Its not properly in the Twisting Nether, but the Twisting Nether is bleeding through and messing up the normal physical (and magical) laws.
This would explain several things. Demons still need portals to get in properly, but its much easier for them to break through than it would be to say.. Azeroth, because there’s all this magical/fel energy to feed off and the material world is less… material (stable?).
It would also explain why we can catch that glimpse of Azeroth from the Black Temple, its a weird occurence caused by the TN/GDB overlap. Draenor was never that close to Azeroth, but in the sky you are looking through a kind of Twisting Nether portal to the space around Azeroth, possibly even influenced by the magic-Stargate-esque wormhole conduit thingamy that connects the Dark Portals.
Theory b: Illidan, in his nutty state, wants to look at Azeroth and mutter to himself about vengeance and getting jiggy with Tyrande again. He used magic to make a vision of Azeroth appear over his capital. This would explain why it conveniently happens to be there. Its also not incompatible with the first theory, as if Draenor is “inbetween” and everything is a bit mesed up, it should be dead easy for Illidan to open a wormhole/portal/visiony thing.
Theory c: A wizard/titan/demon/Hogger did it.
p.s. Turned into quite a rant on your blog there. Hope it was helpful!
.-= Wulfy´s last blog ..Dealing With Death =-.
I was actually reading up on some comparisons with Warhammer while researching this post (Yes, I do research. Stop looking so surprised. 😛 ) and it’s completely possible that Outland rests on kind of a half and half point, and perhaps that is the most sensical conclusion. 🙂
The real issue comes from how Blizzard established the Nether, which is another dimension of purely chaotic magic. Which essentially means there are no rules for how it works. Anything can happen in the Nether and at no point can you ever say “Well that’s not possible” because anything is possible. Hence why I’ve relegated it to plot device instead of an actual plane of existence.
Funny thing about Theory B though, while Azeroth is clearly in view while in the Illidari Training Grounds of the Black Temple, however at the Temple Summit where Illidan is, it’s obscured by heavy clouds. The film student/creative writing major in me so wants to dissect that for a deeper interpretation, but my brain says that it’ll probably turn up as a dead end as I don’t think Blizzard would put that much emphasis on little metaphors like that in their raids for the 2% of people who notice this stuff.
No! Don’t give up! It means something! Blizzard has given us the clues and they must be deciphered!!
.-= Wulfy´s last blog ..Dealing With Death =-.