The Storm Peaks Introduction & Zone Description

The Storm Peaks have treacherous paths, powerful winds, jagged cliffs and hungry monsters. They are also home to the storm giants, one of the oldest races in the world and the keepers of the Titans' legacy. The two biggest dangers in the Storm Peaks aren’t necessarily its inhabitants. The wind is fierce and constant, and can easily tug someone off a cliff. One look at those paths it has cut through the cliffs and one realizes how deadly wind can be. The second danger is sunlight. The peaks are covered in ice and the light reflects from every angle. Up here the ice is everywhere. Wearing dark glasses is the only way to survive — otherwise a person is blinded every time he moves his head, and before long he'll step wrong and tumble off a cliff or down a ravine. The weather doesn’t help — it’s either clear and sunny, with the nasty glare, or dark as night and pouring, with sheets of freezing rain, hail or snow battering down and making every surface as slick as oil.

One would think the Storm Peaks were mountains, but that’s not entirely accurate. While they do have the highest elevation of any region in Northrend, certainly. On the edge of the peaks one can look out over Icecrown Glacier to the west, Crystalsong Forest to the south, Zul’Drak to the east, and the ocean to the north. But they aren’t mountains. They are cliffs. The “peaks” are the spots where wind has not cut away the ice and rock, as opposed to the narrow paths it has carved. Through large parts of this region a person can literally leap from peak to peak, provided the wind does not throw him over the edge. Ulduar, like much of Northrend, is sparsely inhabited. The giants stay hidden, their golems don’t bother anyone unless someone approaches the giants’ homes, and the magnataur and wendigo are infrequent and large enough to spot from a distance. It’s a good place to be alone with one's thoughts if they don’t mind the biting wind, the searing cold, and the repetitive stretches of ice and rock. The peaks are handsome in an austere way. Little grows here — a random bush sprouting in a nook along a cliff face, a few tough blades of grass in a crack. Everything else is stone and ice. Animals appear to be rare, and its unknown what the wendigo and magnataur eat to survive. Perhaps they eat each other and any travelers they can find.

No one lives here except the storm giants, their golems, and beasts like the wendigo and magnataur. The latter have caves they’ve found or dug into the ice and rock. The giants have their city, Ulduar, and the Temple of Storms.

Alliance

Frosthold Frosthold is an Explorers' League base camp for the Alliance in southwest Storm Peaks, south of the Temple of Storms, northwest of K3. (Flightpath here)

Horde

Grom'arsh Crash-Site The Grom'arsh Crash-Site can be found to the east of the Temple of Storms, southeast of the Snowdrift Plains, west of the Terrace of the Makers, and north of the Engine of the Makers in the Storm Peaks. (Flightpath here)

Camp Tunka'lo Camp Tunka'lo is located in eastern Storm Peaks, above and to the north of Dun Niffelem, to the south of the Plain of Echoes and to the southeast of the Temple of Life. (Flightpath here)

Neutral

K3 K3 is the neutral goblin base camp at southern base of the Storm Peaks. The goblins are out to loot the titan machines in the peaks but are having problems with the local wildlife. (Flightpath here)

DunNiffelem Dun Niffelem dominates the eastern portions of the southern foothills of Storm Peaks. Inhabited by the Sons of Hodir, it is the eastern end of the Valley of Ancient Winters, below and to the southeast of Brann's Base-Camp and to the west of Frostfield Lake. (Flightpath here)

Bouldercrag'sRefuge Bouldercrag's Refuge is a neutral base with two separate flight points for each faction. It is located on a ledge above the Snowdrift Plains, just to the southwest of the Temple of Wisdom in northwest Storm Peaks. (Flightpath here)

Brann'sBase-Camp Brann's Base-Camp can be found just to the west of Dun Niffelem above the Valley of Ancient Winters in central Storm Peaks. What's left of a ravaged portion of the camp can be found at the base of the valley and serves as a trailhead of the path leading up to the camp proper.

Ulduar Both Horde and Alliance factions have a small settlements next to Ulduar with a Flight Master and a few NPC to repair/buy reagents/etc ... (Flightpath here)