Drust

Drust
Concept art of a Drust shaman
Faction/Affiliation	Independent, Heartsbane Coven, Thornspeakers
Character classes	Druid, Warrior
Racial capital	Thros
Racial leader(s)	Gorak Tul
Homeworld	Azeroth
Area(s)	Drustvar, Tiragarde Sound, Fate's End (Kul Tiras)
Sources: Battle for Azeroth

The Drust (sometimes written in lower case) were a large, hardy race who lived in Drustvar. When the human sailors from Gilneas arrived in Kul Tiras thousands of years ago, the Drust, led by Gorak Tul, waged war against the human settlers. However, not all Drust agreed with the war, and the druidic Thornspeakers left Drust society.

Gorak Tul eventually lost the conflict, and his Drust were all slain by the human invaders. But they did not depart Azeroth, they remained as a spirits and over time, the Drust have slowly been trying to make their way back to the mortal world. Recently, they made a pact with Lady Waycrest, helping her save her dying husband in exchange for assisting them. On the Drust's part, all they desired was vengeance against her people.

Background

Before the reign of Gorak Tul, the Drust practiced druidism. In the opinion of the druids, Gorak Tul's twisted ways brought disgrace to the Drust. The Drust fought many enemies over their history, including beings that looked like themselves or great beasts, smaller beings that resembled gnomes in stature, and naga.

Around 2,700 years ago, humans from Gilneas arrived on an island that they would later call Kul Tiras. The Drust already lived on the island when the humans arrived, and from Drustvar they enacted raids against the humans' fledgling hamlets. The Drust barbarians attacked the human settlers unprovoked. When the humans landed they tried peace but the Drust went to war immediately, and only a few tolerated new neighbors. They glorified the slaughter, attacking unarmed civilians. Not all of the Drust agreed with the war. Members of the order of the Thornspeakers left the Drust to join Kul Tiran society. Some of the humans' Kul Tiran descendants heard the call of the wilds and sought to learn the ancient ways, and so the Drust Thornspeakers taught them the ways of druidism.

The Drust assaults carried on for many years, until the humans of House Waycrest decided something had to be done and began a war against the Drust. But though the Waycrests were hearty folk, the Drust's death magic was strong and the humans began to lose the war. House Waycrest researched their magic and created the Order of Embers to fight them. To counter the Drust magic, the Order of Embers used weapons of silver.

In time the Drust would be forced to withdraw as they lost numbers to the human settlers. When their great leader Gorak Tul ran out of living warriors, he conducted a ritual to create stone constructs to fight for him as part of his desperation to win. The Drust settlement of Gol Osigr would become the place of their final defeat. Colonel Arom Waycrest, who later became the first Lord of Drustvar, led the humans' final assault on the Drust and stabbed Gorak Tul himself. As he was stabbed Gorak Tul's power was broken and, with it, his connection to his stone constructs which shattered. But though wounded and broken, Gorak Tul did not die.

In modern times, the story has been warped. The modern Kul Tirans believe that the stone constructs were used for a longer period than just near the end of the war, that Arom had killed Gorak Tul, and that Gorak Tul's living army fell soon after his death instead of earlier on.

The Drust would live on as spirits, trying to return to the physical world. The Waycrests had wiped out the Drust, but could not destroy Gorak Tul. For countless years he waited to enact his vengeance from within Thros, until Lady Waycrest provided the means.

Battle for Azeroth

This section concerns content related to Battle for Azeroth.

Stricken with grief due to her ailing husband Arthur, Lady Waycrest called out to any power that could save him. Gorak Tul answered her cry and promised that death would never part the couple, for a price. Gorak Tul taught the Drust's ancient death magic to Lady Waycrest, who in turn formed the Heartsbane Coven. The coven's magic awakened the remaining stone constructs and stirred the Drust's spirits, drawing them back to fight once more as skeletons. Other Drust spirits were put into wicker constructs.

But Lady Waycrest was merely a vessel for Gorak Tul's power, and her death opened the Rupture, the doorway for the Drust to enter Azeroth. At the Rupture Gorak Tul was able to raise his people from the dead, but he was slain nonetheless. However, upon his death Gorak Tul revealed that it was only a vessel and he still existed in the Blighted Lands. Even so, the Heartsbane Coven was broken and Drustvar was released from Gorak Tul's power.

When Jaina Proudmoore was exiled to Fate's End by her own mother Kathrine, Gorak Tul captured her and dragged her into Thros. When the people of Kul Tiras sought to rescue Jaina and turned to the Drust druid Ulfar for help, Gorak Tul attacked him and the Thornspeakers who he had taught the Drust's ways to. Gorak Tul was not happy that Ulfar had shared their gifts with the humans, but Ulfar himself saw Gorak Tul's twisted ways as bringing disgrace to the Drust. Within Thros, Jaina was being tormented by memories of her past. After she was saved by her mother, Jaina and the adventurer slew Gorak Tul in his own domain, presumably ending his threat for good.

Culture notes

• Tomes were often kept by the strongest of the Drust, preserving the incantations of their magics and serving as conduits for harnessing their power. Scholars have tried to translate the ancient language transcribed within these tomes, only to find themselves going mad as they furthered their understanding of what had been written.
• The Drust would often use various animals in their rituals, mostly for their organs. Bonesaws were pivotal in breaking through some of the larger animals' rib cages in order to extract the heart of the beast.
• When the Drust wished to enchant the minds of their enemies, or prey, they would often do so subtly by leaving small tokens around their targets. Curious objects, when focused on by the holder, would summon a haunting vision of a dancing spectre. This spectre would entrance all who watched it, rendering them docile and easy to dispatch.
• Many tools have been discovered that the Drust used in their rituals. One such tool was a sickle, used for ripping through the bellies of their sacrifices, spilling their entrails and allowing the Drust to use their organs in dark rituals.
• Used to inflict doubt in the enemies of the Drust, this fetish was paramount for twisting the minds of their enemies. Those afflicted would question their motivations, their ideals, or their courage and would often find themselves at the end of a Drust blade before finally rediscovering their resolve.
• Used for both combat and ancient ceremonies, the blades of the Drust are fearsome objects. When wielded by a Drust, this blade can quickly find it's way into any vital organ within a matter of seconds.
• As the Drust became more skilled at trapping souls within objects, so did they become more adept at creating constructs of death in which to trap the souls. Revenants are amongst the fiercest of these creatures. Their bodies constructed from pieces that can no longer decompose, these creatures never tire and will hunt their prey for all eternity.
• When the Drust were first learning to attach souls into constructs, they used the bones of their dead as hosts. Once the ritual was complete, these fetishes were said to glow with an eerie blue glow, presumably with the essence of the soul's power made manifest.
• When a soul is called from the afterlife, it is free to roam the material realm if it is not restrained within moments of its arrival. The Drust created prisons for these souls for later use in their dark rituals, during which time the soul would suffer within, become a twisted version of what it once had been.
• Since time immemorial, the Drust have used runes to shape their magics. This remains true of the spells woven by Gorak Tul and his ilk.
• The Drust's bodies and skeletons are marked with magical runes in Drust language.
• Drust sacrifices included great horned creatures, possibly stags but possibly something else.
• The Drust worshiped a great tree, Gol Inath.

Known

Notable

• Gorak Tul
• Ulfar
• Korvash

Types

• Awakened Dead
• Drust Evoker
• Fallen Defender
• Vengeful Bones

Notes and trivia

• In the Battle for Azeroth alpha, during  [20-60] Pieces of History Drust used a mix of human and vrykul models wearing primitive outfits. In the final version of the game, they use pale human models.
  • Skeletal Drust look like skeletal vrykul.
• The Old Drust Road and Gol Thovas in Tiragarde Sound and Fate's End in Stormsong Valley show that the Drust's presence on Kul Tiras spread further than Drustvar.
• The Drust's magic was once called "druidic death magic" when they were first introduced at BlizzCon 2017. It seems that it has since been changed so the Drust Thornspeakers represent the druidic aspect, while Gorak Tul's Drust represent the death magic one.

Speculation

This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.

• Drust Stele: Conflict showing Drust fighting "beings that look like themselves or great beasts" very likely refers to the civil war between the Thornspeakers, who could adopt druidic form, and the other Drust.
• Drust may have been related to vrykul. The concept art shown at BlizzCon 2017 resembled a tattooed, slouched vrykul wearing animal fur and limbs. The Drust architecture concept art also greatly resembled vrykul architecture from Wrath of the Lich King concept artwork. Moreover, their buildings and structures re-use Stormheim's Bonespeaker building models, and are etched with the same runes and patterns as the vrykul's. Their giant and revenant stone constructs are also engraved with vrykul runes and patterns. In a vision of the past in-game, the Drust use pale human models, but their skeletons use vrykul skeleton models and armor.
• Thros fiends may have been Drust in life.

Gallery

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  A Drust Evoker.

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  Concept art of a Drust structure.

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  Concept art of Drust structures.