Southshore

For the town seen in-game, see Ruins of Southshore.

The main supply center to the Battle of Alterac, Southshore is often under siege by the Horde.^{[TCG src]}

Southshore
Type	Town
Population	2,000
Leader(s)	Magistrate Henry Maleb
Race(s)	Human
Language(s)	Common
Affiliation	Alliance
Location	Southern Hillsbrad Foothills
Characteristics
Facilities
Inn	Inn
Inn	Inn
Mailbox	Mailbox
Mailbox	Mailbox
Stables	Stables
Stables	Stables
Anvil & Forge	Anvil & Forge
Anvil & Forge	Anvil & Forge
Travel
Flight Master	Flight Master
Flight Master	Flight Master
Status	Destroyed

Southshore (aka South Shore, often abbreviated as SS) is an Alliance coastal town located in the region of Hillsbrad Foothills serves as the chief Alliance base on the northern coast of Baradin Bay. It is known for its sea turtles, which are a delicacy. ^{(APG 218)} Though only a small town, Southshore is the largest settlement in the whole Hillsbrad Foothills. A small Alliance garrison is berthed within and does its best to drive the Syndicate and Forsaken forces from their land while protecting Lordaeron’s southern regions from the Scourge in the north. They do a good job with their few forces, and the nearby farms thrive. Southshore’s town council takes an active role in all things, and Magistrate Henry Maleb is a particularly driven and wise man. Maleb and Marshal Redpath, the Alliance commander, are consumed with fights against ogres in Alterac and murlocs. In addition to its role as a base for Alliance military forces, Southshore is Hillsbrad’s mercantile center. Southshore’s small privateer fleet keeps the waterways around the shore clear, allowing ships to dock at the town’s harbor and keep the economy strong. ^{(LoC 98)}

It is also one of the few existing relics of the once-great human nation of Lordaeron. With the remains of the city-states of Dalaran and Stromgarde, Southshore is one of the few Alliance controlled towns in Lordaeron.

The survivors of Stormwind arrived at Southshore after fleeing their destroyed kingdom of Stormwind in the First War. It was transformed into a busy seaport during the Second War. ^{(W2ToDOSG 105)} But was attacked and burned to the ground by the rampaging Horde, though it was later rebuilt. To this day the people celebrate Hordefall, signifying the defeat of the Horde in the Second War.

Southshore contains an Alliance garrison within and it does its best to drive away surrounding enemies, which include the Syndicate from Durnholde Keep and the Forsaken, which now inhabit the former human settlement of Tarren Mill to the northeast.

In Cataclysm

This section concerns content exclusive to Cataclysm.

Ruins of Southshore

Southshore is destroyed by the Forsaken Blight in Cataclysm, and is now called the Ruins of Southshore.

Southshore in the Past

This section concerns content exclusive to The Burning Crusade.

In the Burning Crusade expansion, adventurers are asked to help preserve the timeline by aiding a young Thrall escape from his cruel masters at Durnholde Keep. They are transported to Hillsbrad — seven years in the past. Instead of heading straight to Durnholde, however, players may explore a portion of Hillsbrad, including both Tarren Mill and Southshore.

There are many familiar faces in this past Southshore. Bartolo Ginsetti talks about the "world-famous" cloaks he will be making and Nat Pagle idly fishes off the dock. A trio of familiar characters run around as children: Sally Whitemane, Renault Mograine, and Little Jimmy Vishas. There's also Herod the Bully wandering around somewhere.

Inside the inn, there's a hushed conversation between Highlord Alexandros Mograine, Isillien, Fairbanks, Brigitte Abbendis, Arcanist Doan and Tirion Fordring about the rumors of undead far to the north, and the forging of the Ashbringer. Upstairs, Stalvan Mistmantle snores away, while a young Taelan Fordring carries his father's hammer proudly. Phin Odelic studies with a cabal of Kirin Tor mages, and every so often a pair of mages will walk through the town: Kel'Thuzad as well as Helcular. There's also a familiar goblin merchant working on completing his Overwatch Protector "Mark 0."

In the town hall, you can also find Nathanos Marris and Raleigh the True.

Warcraft II demo

This section concerns content exclusive to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

In the Tides of Darkness demo, the second Alliance level called Southshore is an early version of the retail's Southshore mission. The retail version reused some of text from the earlier version of the mission briefing but was modified. For example the reason for the construction of the Southshore naval facilities is a bit different in the two versions of the mission. The retail versions of the missions also have redesigned maps.

Note: The Tides of Darkness demo represents missions from an early version of the game (perhaps the beta version) left out of the released game and later released lore. Some of the ideas evolved into the different maps seen in the released version of the game.

The demo version of the mission describes southern islands found south of the Southshore region. While the islands in the demo are not given names, these may have developed into the idea of the Channel Islands (though not the parts in the Zul'dare region as those are south of Hillsbrad (based on the location of Zul'Dare shown on the Second War map).[1] Another possible area they developed into could be the region near Tol Barad, which is southeast of Southshore. Tol Barad is shown to have at least two islands according to manual map.

Note that most drawn maps do not even show the Channel Islands, so the full extent of the island chain is unknown. A few concept maps show the channel islands stretching all throughout the area between Hillsbrad and Southshore.[2] This map also shows Tol Barad to be a huge island chain southwest and close to Southshore.

The demo mission maps for Southshore show the islands as being to the southwest and very near Southshore's shore. Although the Warcraft II battle maps like most maps in World of Warcraft games are not necessarily to actual scale, and may be limited by game mechanics (note that most Warcraft II maps don't even show the Channel Islands). The Second War map only shows a single island east of the Southshore dot (the dot may represent the general area of the region or the township). It may be possible that this island may correspond to these "islands".

While not directly related, the Tides of Darkness mission map of the third Horde level, called Southshore, shows at least two islands are located in a similar configuration. The Orcs were gathering oil from a hidden location on these islands, in order to fuel for ships participating in the final attack on Hillsbrad.[3]

In the demo map, you start on one small island and take over a much smaller island. In the Alliance level called Southshore, you attack from Southshore to that much smaller island.

Significance

This section concerns content exclusive to World of Warcraft.

Hillsbrad tabard

This mostly only applies for the pre-Cataclysm version...

For the lower-level Alliance players (those not seasoned enough to dare entering the Western and Eastern Plaguelands), Southshore was one of two of the northernmost Alliance havens — the other being Aerie Peak. For utilitarian purposes, Southshore far outstripped Aerie Peak considering the array of its services and its location as well as being the drop-off point for players beginning the long trek on foot to the Scarlet Monastery. But it was far less safe, sometimes being the location of raids going between the town and its Horde counterpart, Tarren Mill, to the North.

An NPC quest giver named Marshal Redpath stood outside the Southshore Town Hall. It was unknown if he was related to the Redpaths whose history was so interlaced with the Eastern Plaguelands. Inside the inn, Lieutenant Farren Orinelle mocked Redpath for telling him to take care of the local murlocs.

Vanilla wow Southshore

Facilities

This section concerns content exclusive to World of Warcraft.

This mostly only applies for the pre-Cataclysm version...

• Trade Supplies vendor
• Armorsmith (towards the Horse Stables)
• Horse Breeder
• Stable Master
• Inn
• Mailbox
• Flight Master

Buildings:

• 1 Two story house
• 1 Town Hall (without Clock)
• 1 Stable
• 2 One story houses
• 1 Inn/Tavern

Travel connections

This section concerns content exclusive to World of Warcraft.

This mostly only applies for the pre-Cataclysm version...

Flight

Ironforge

Menethil Harbor

Refuge Pointe

Aerie Peak

Chillwind Camp

Quests

This section concerns content exclusive to World of Warcraft.

This mostly only applies for the pre-Cataclysm version...

A number of quests involved the Syndicate and ogres in Alterac Mountains start in Southshore. Also, a few quests that could be found at the inn, involve killing the nearby murlocs and naga. After the 2.0.1 patch, a new quest was available in the inn from a Draenei named Huraan.

For a full list of quests see Hillsbrad Foothills quests.

Notes

• A level 44 elite undead, Helcular's Remains, sometimes spawned in the Southshore Graveyard to seek revenge. This was caused by a Horde quest chain.
• Southshore was famous for being raided by horde players. Usually the attacks were carried out by merely one or more high-level players, but entire raids consisting of 20-30 players had been observed. This unfortunate attribute of Southshore was further fueled with the seasonal event Hallow's End, which involved a Horde-quest asking players to bomb Southshore with stinkbombs. The Alliance had a responsive quest which asked Alliance players to clean the mess up. Although Southshore had a history of being raided by the Horde in the lore-part of the game, there was little profit in raiding Southshore for players. Thus, it was not certain why Horde players go through the hassle with assembling people for raiding it, or why Southshore of all villages had been chosen for this...

Trivia

• The stable master Wesley located next to the entrance of the inn is believed to be a nod from Blizzard to the movie  The Princess Bride. The main character of the movie is named Wesley, has fair blond hair, and wields a rapier just like the one the stable master is holding. Also in the movie Wesley is a stable boy, thus he is a Stable Master in WoW.

Patch changes

• Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Largely destoryed in the Cataclysm to become the Ruins of Southshore.
  
• Patch 1.4.0 (2005-05-05): Properly named the intact watchtower near Southshore.