Outcasts, Broken, and Sethe

We obviously don't encounter many of the "Broken" Draenei on Draenor. In our timeline, the Horde used a mysterious "Red Mist" at the siege of Shattrath that caused many of the defenders (those who stayed behind, unlike Maraad, who was tasked with escorting civilians out of the city) to be horribly mutated, transforming their bodies into the Broken, or for those who were perhaps hit with a larger dose, transforming them into the "Lost Ones." (Fun fact: in Warcraft Three: The Frozen Throne, all of the "Draenei" seen there use essentially the Lost One model we have in WoW. Akama was later retconned to be somewhere between your standard Broken and a Lost One, and Burning Crusade retconned the Draenei to be related to the Eredar.)

Beyond the physical transformation, the Broken were unable to call upon the power of the Light anymore. Paladins and Priests who had literally spent tens of thousands of years using the Light to protect themselves were suddenly cut off from the power that had kept them safe and given them hope.

And this severance created an uncomfortable segregation within the normally nearly-utopian Draenei society. With the Light being so central to Draenei culture, those who were unaffected worried that without the Light, the Broken would become a threat to them. Without the Light, after all, the Draenei would have become Man'ari, like their brothers and sisters on Argus. Of course, this became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy - driven to desperation, some of the Broken did turn to Warlock magics - some even joined the Shadow Council (though how many of these people had been members of the Sargerai before is up for debate, though I think most surviving Sargerai Warlocks most likely made the full transition to Man'ari Eredar demons, like Socrethar.) However, most of the Broken remained loyal to their people, and Nobundo, a former Vindicator Paladin, answered the call of the Elements of Draenor, who taught him Shamanism and gave the Broken an avenue to inner peace. But the Red Mist's effects were irreversible, and though people like Nobundo were certainly good and honorable, the Light was still inaccessible.

I think the general assumption was that the Red Mist was some sort of foul Warlock magic - the technique being - thankfully - lost to time.

Yet our journey to Draenor has revealed that the Red Mist actually has nothing to do with demons or Warlocks. Though I don't know if it has been confirmed exactly, all signs point to the idea that the Red Mist is in fact the blood of Sethe.

The sequence of events on Draenor isn't quite the same, though. It seems that Garrosh's interference pushed Gul'dan's Blood of Mannoroth Gambit to earlier in the war against the Draenei. In all likelihood, the original Horde had already conquered the Arrakoa and claimed the Blood of Sethe before they made their assault on Shattrath and Karabor. Yet the Iron Horde has a relatively small presence in Arak - and one that seems less like an invasion and more just the Shattered Hand's ordinary base of operations.

Anyway, it turns out that the Draenei were not the first ones to be transformed by Sethe's evil essence. The Arrakoa had, in recent centuries, become a cruel society of elitists, and political enemies were cast down - literally - into the ever-flowing blood of Sethe. The Wind-Serpent God had been slain by Anzu long ago, but his blood had cursed the land on which it spread. Anzu himself was cursed and made unable to fly. And those Arrakoa who were exposed to the blood were twisted and transformed as well.

The Outcasts are really just the Arrakoa equivalent of the Broken. Just as the Broken had their connection to the Light cut off, the Outcasts turned away from the magic of the Sun and embraced the Shadow.

Admittedly, something must have changed here - Draenei players who run through the blood are not transformed. This could be a mere gameplay/story separation, but it could also be that the blood had to be altered in order for it to work on other species.

It's a shame that the story of Arak is all limited to the zone itself. It seems like there's a lot more potential backstory there. What exactly is Sethe? Or Anzu and Rukhmar for that matter? It seems to me that the latter two could be Draenor equivalents of Ancients or Loa (which I've always maintained are essentially the same kind of entity - ditto Celestials.) And if that's the case, Sethe could be Draenor's equivalent of Hakkar the Soulflayer (actually, wind-serpent Loa tend to be bad guys. We worked with Quetz'lun, but she was clearly not a good guy.)

We know that Draenor had a Titan presence - and they most likely had a large role in the creation of the Ogres and their Breaker ancestors (Magnaron, Gronn, Ogron,) as well as the Primals and probably the Arrakoa (the Apexis ruins look very Titan-esque.) But then we still don't really have a solid understanding of the relationship between the Titans and the Ancients/Loa/Celestials on Azeroth, so I don't know how much we can infer about what's going on with the ones on Draenor.

Still, it's a fascinating connection and insight into the history of our Horde. And it answers the question of why the Red Mist disappeared - it was lost when Draenor broke apart and the Spires of Arak were cast out into the Twisting Nether.