Where the King Leads

Stranglethorn Vale was high in the north and low in the south. A massive river cut through the mountains from Light Forest, flowing all the way south before emptying into the South Seas through the bay on Stranglethorn Vale's western side.

This river had no name within Stranglethorn Vale. The Jungle Trolls who lived here generally called it the "Great River."

In truth, the river naturally had its own name, though it had been given by humans. It was called the Elwynn River—as the name implied, it passed through Elwynn, one of the core regions of the Stormwind Kingdom, and was therefore called the Elwynn River.

The Elwynn River was the largest river in the entire Eastern Kingdoms. Its source lay in the eastern Redridge Mountains. It flowed west through Westspring before turning south through Stranglethorn Vale and finally entering the South Seas. Its lower reaches were also known as the Nefriti River.

The section called the Nefriti River lay within Stranglethorn Vale. In the Common Tongue, "Nefriti River" meant "the greatest river, like an ocean."

This was because the middle stretch of the river within Stranglethorn Vale was nearly wider than an ordinary lake. One could not see the opposite bank at a glance, and it looked like the surface of the sea.

Stranglethorn Vale's abundant year-round rainfall greatly increased the flow of this stretch of the Elwynn River. Thus emerged what was nearly the widest river section in the world, as well as the one with the greatest volume of flowing water.

Humans called this stretch of the Elwynn River the Nefriti River. The trolls... simply and directly called it the Great River.

The mountains and plains along both banks of the Great River were forever shrouded beneath dense emerald-green canopies, their layered forests dyed green like jade.