Darkshire

Darkshire is a once-quaint little woodland village located in Duskwood, but it has fallen on literally dark times. The surrounding forests have been filled with an evil malaise that cloaks the land in constant darkness. The walking dead choke the graveyards, and foul creatures known as worgen have overrun many of the outlying farmsteads. Even worse, Stormwind has all but abandoned the village and the surrounding area, as most of the Stormwind army is currently off fighting on the Horde/Alliance front. This has left the stubborn people of Duskwood little choice but to defend themselves.

The small town now numbers a scant 3,500 people (according to the WOW RPG books) a great deal of them refugees from Raven Hill. Lord Ello Ebonlocke is the elected mayor of this town. His daughter, Commander Althea Ebonlocke, runs the Night Watch, a local militia that works to keep the roads free and the creeping darkness back for as long as possible. They strike against the undead and worgen that plague the land. The people of Duskwood are a jumpy and suspicious lot, but they are desperate for any aid they can get against the evil that now surrounds their homes.

Possible Prior History

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The old kingdom

According to the [The Story of Morgan Ladimore], Darkshire did not always have that name. It is possible that Darkshire might have been the town of Grand Hamlet or Sunnyglade. Both towns played roles during the First War. Grand Hamlet was supposedly destroyed by orcs, whereas Sunnyglade was sacked, the citizens taken as slaves. They were then rescued and the town rebuilt, though it likely would have been destroyed when the Horde fully overran the former kingdom of Azeroth. The obvious ironic similarity in the names (Sunnyglade, Darkshire) might indicate Sunnyglade as this gloomy town's former identity.

It is possible that the dark times began with a slaughter of noble houses of Darkshire at the party in Medivh's tower of Karazhan, not far from Darkshire. Several notable names can be met as enslaved ghosts within the tower, including possible brother or father of current mayor, Ebonlocke, and relatives of all councilmen in current Town Hall.

Darkshire and PvP

Due to Darkshire's focal location on the roads of Duskwood, Horde players are forced to travel through and around the town in order to reach the Swamp of Sorrows to the east for their next questing zone after Stranglethorn Vale. On PvP servers, level 18-30 Alliance players questing in the area often avoid running through Duskwood all together by traveling to Sentinel Hill in Westfall and then flying back and forth to Darkshire since it's not only shorter, but because there are also level 35+ Horde players that traffic Duskwood's roads. Questing in Duskwood can be an inconvenience to Alliance players who are constantly under assault by the Horde at the Ravenhill Cemetary; however, Horde must go through Alliance's city, Darkshire, which now spawns level 65 Darkshire Guards, in order to reach their own respective questing zones.

Although Duskwood is classified as Contested Territory, it contains no Horde flight point and only one source of Horde quests, the tower of Beggar's Haunt, northeast of Darkshire along the road to Deadwind Pass.