The absolute center of Draenei culture is the Prophet Velen. It was Velen who saw the disastrous consequences of Sargeras' offer to the Eredar, and thus spared a huge swath of his people from being corrupted into twisted abominations: Man'ari. It is through Velen that the worship and power of the Light was introduced to the Draenei. Making even such ancient figures as Malfurion and Tyrande seem young by comparison, Velen has led his people for 25,000 years, traveling from planet to planet, hoping that they will finally find the one world on which they might finally escape the Burning Legion, or, even better, a world that might stand against the Legion with them (hint: Azeroth.)
We don't know if Velen of the alternate Draenor will interact with our timeline's Velen, but given his prophetic powers, it wouldn't surprise me if the two had a sort of synchronized mind, allowing Velen to recognize us upon our arrival even while figures like an unbroken Akama treat us as strangers.
But even without taking into account all the time-travel/alternate universe shenanigans Garrosh has wrought, what we have here is an opportunity to see what a thousand years of Draenei colonization looked like on Draenor. When we first came to Outland, the entire planet was a ruin, and so it was not all that surprising that places like Shattrath, Karabor and Auchindoun were all in shambles. Even Shattrath, a safe-haven protected by the Naaru, the Sha'tar, and the competing Aldor and Scryer factions, was still really just a ruin that had been transformed into a refugee camp.
While the Black Temple was tainted with horrific demonic corruption, Auchindoun was the most utterly ravaged of these central Draenei locations. Just as the summoning of Ragnaros to Blackrock Mountain (was it really called that before the Orc clan with the same name showed up? How convenient!) devastated what used to be a much larger Redridge Mountains, the summoning of Murmur created the Bone Wastes.
Auchindoun was once more than just a haunted ruin. It was a great cemetery, and a sort of temple to the dead. The Auchenai Death Priests were not necromancers, but more undertakers.
For a race that lives for tens of thousands of years (making it seem that they don't really age,) death must feel like a particularly frightening concept (hell, it's pretty scary to those of us who only last a century on the outside.) Death for the Draenei must only come through violence, injury, or disease, meaning that every Draenei death is a real tragedy, and not a natural inevitability of time.
Thus, Auchindoun must have been an extremely holy site, and that makes the prospect for a demonic presence there somehow even worse than usual.
The history we've gotten regarding the millennium between he arrival of the Draenei and their near-extinction at the hands of the Horde is a little light. What we've generally heard is that the Draenei and Orcs were never quite friends and allies, but they were not enemies either, and occasionally traded back and forth.
By seeing an intact Draenei civilization during the rise of the Horde (albeit a different Horde,) we might get a little more insight. Were the Draenei taken completely by surprise? Or had they been expecting something like this? In the original timeline, the Orcs overwhelmed them and used demonic magic to massacre and mutate many of the Draenei. The use of some kind of Fel-Chemical Weapon was what led to the Broken and Lost Ones. Fel magic has been replaced with advanced technology, but as allies of the Naaru, perhaps the Draenei are better-equipped to fend the Iron Horde off. Plus, there's a new factor in play.
The Draenei faced the Old Horde alone in the original timeline. This time, though, they're getting the full might of the Alliance. History will not be repeated, not if we can help it.
But as a final note, I figured I would leave you with this:
If you go to the Warlords of Draenor website, there's a tantalizing clue to how the story might be going forward. Velen has been seen as unimpeachable, infallible: the rock on which the Draenei civilization was built. Yet, read this quote from his character blurb on the WoD website:
As the ancient leader of the draenei, the prophet Velen has spent hundreds of human lifetimes carefully weighing and recording the futures he foresees so that creation itself does not fall. Velen’s guidance preserved his people during an exodus from their homeworld, Argus, but his wisdom is in question after the arrival of the Iron Horde on Draenor. What value is a prophet whose visions cannot prevent calamity?Might the Draenei be losing their faith in Velen? Might new voices rise up in their ranks, suggesting a new way forward? The Draenei have always been content to remain benevolent advisors, offering help even where they seem unwanted, but always with an aim for peace. With the Iron Horde marching against them, will they abandon their peace-loving ways and bring the wrath of the last of the true Eredar?
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