Lorewalker Moo' - The Highmountain

The Tauren are one of Azeroth’s oldest races, predating even the titan’s arrival on Azeroth. How did a tribe end up on the broken isles, and why are they so keen on being highmountain?

Before the sundering Azeroth had a super-continent named Kalimdor, while the old gods ruled their black empire, the Tauren roamed and found peaceful homes away from them. When the elves and trolls formed their empires they did the same; Finding peace in the plains of Mulgore, or the high peaks beyond the edge of elven land. They let the other races waste their time fighting over scraps of land or glory.

While they may not fight other races often, they are rarely united themselves. Wherever they settle they soon separate into tribes that focus entirely on one aspect of their culture. Nowhere were these facts seen more than in the peaks near Suramar. The tribes quickly splintered across the mountain range and warred among themselves constantly. This continued until the war of the ancients.

As we saw in Ebonhorn’s visions in Thunder Totem, the Tauren clans were attacked by the legion. This forced the clans to respond, and much like the alliance they came together to respond to the invading threat. Uniting under the leadership of Huln Highmountain, the greatest warrior among them, they joined the war effort.

The resistance forces among the elves were initially prejudiced against the primitive Tauren, but when Commander Jarod Shadowsong took control he brought them into the fold. He had the sense to see that any ally against the legion is worth having, and big beefy meatshields were definitely useful. At this stage of the war the wild gods had got involved, and Cenarius came to Huln.

Cenarius rarely fought directly, but empowered and aided the defenders. He saw the shamanic Tauren as respectful of nature and worthy of his help, so he empowered Huln Highmountain and his united tribes with nature’s blessing. This gave the mountain Tauren tribes their distinctive stag horns.

When the war was over, Huln was named leader of all Tauren on the mountain and they were named in his honour. The old tribes kept their identity however, and while Huln’s heir would always lead the Highmountain from the city of Thunder Totem, over the years they drifted apart to become more of a loose alliance. This again mirrors the alliance, which drifted in the peace between the end of the horde war and the scourge war.

The highmountain tribe is an alliance, the people uniting as needed and maintaining their own identities. Nothing like a good war to bring people together.