Sholazar Basin

Sholazar Basin (pronounced SHOL-uh-zarh) is a tropical jungle basin in the midst of Northrend. It is found between Borean Tundra and Icecrown. The region's climate and safety from the Scourge is maintained by pylons, erected by the Titans. The whole history of Sholazar is that of a cradle of life, with at least some of the titan keepers taking an interest in the development of creatures great and small.Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, pg. 110
During the war against the Lich King, one pylon in the east has fallen and the Scourge took this opportunity to invade from Icecrown to the north.
In Sholazar Basin, adventurers can take part in a faction war between the wolvar Frenzyheart Tribe and the gorlocs, arctic cousins of murlocs. The various gorloc tribes have gathered together to form the group called the Oracles. Adventurers are only able to choose one side at a time, but are allowed to easily change to whichever faction they wish to be allied with.
==History==
When the Titans shaped Azeroth, Freya designed Sholazar Basin to be an area for experimentation along with Un'Goro Crater and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. All three locations were places where the power of the Well of Eternity had coalesced. The Wild Gods emerged from these cradles of life.World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1
===Exploring Azeroth===
Following the war against the Jailer, the brothers Bronzebeard met the Avatar of Freya who told them that the situation about the blighted Lost Lands was better than they were during the war against the Lich King, and healing slowly.Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, pg. 116
When Muradin Bronzebeard wondered why Sholazar Basin and Un'Goro Crater were shaped so similarly, his brother Brann theorized that it could be to see how two similar setups diverge over time, like a science experiment. Or that there was one thing the titans and their keepers were trying to accomplish, and making two different places to work on it was better than one. However, these theories led Brann to wonder what they were trying to learn.Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, pg. 123
==Geography==
After the bitter cold of the rest of Northrend, Sholazar Basin is like stepping onto an entirely different plane. It's a beautiful place, tropical, hot, and beard-curlingly humid. This is all the doing of the keepers and the magical artifacts they left to protect the basin from both ill weather and foul creatures like the Scourge. All of this for the benign love of the life they've created.
A dense jungle, named the Wildgrowth Mangal, shot through with small streams spreads across the basin's central area.Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, pg. 117 Around the basin, spaced out to make a rough ring if you were to connect them like dots, are the so called pillars, though they look far more natural to the topography than the name conjures. They're tall, narrow buttes that rise up from the relatively flat basin floor, each with a thin, elongated device hovering over it, swirling with magic.Exploring Azeroth: Northrend, pg. 119
===Maps and subregions===
*Bittertide Lake
*The Bonefields
*The Bones of Nozronn
*Death's Hand Encampment
*Dorian's Outpost
*Frenzyheart Hill
*Frenzyheart River
*The Glimmering Pillar
*Hardknuckle Clearing
*Kartak's Hold
*The Lost Lands
**The Avalanche
**The Blight Line
**The Lifeblood Pillar
***The Sundered Shard
**Mosswalker Village
**Rainspeaker Rapids
*The Lost Passage
*The Makers' Overlook
**Hall of Communion
**Chamber of Observance
*The Makers' Perch
*Mistwhisper Refuge
*The Mosslight Pillar
*The North Sea
*The Path of the Lifewarden
**Nesingwary Base Camp
**Swindlegrin's Dig
*River's Heart
**Lakeside Landing
*Sapphire Hive
*The Savage Thicket
*The Seabreach Flow
*The Skyreach Pillar
*Sparktouched Haven
*Spearborn Encampment
*The Stormwright's Shelf
*The Suntouched Pillar
*Waygate
*Wildgrowth Mangal
**Rainspeaker Canopy
*Wintergrasp River
===Travel hubs===
; Flight paths from Nesingwary Base Camp (only available after completing quest chain that starts with Need an Engine, Take an Engine)
*River's Heart, Sholazar Basin
*Death's Rise, Icecrown
*Fizzcrank Airstrip, Borean Tundra
; Flight paths from River's Heart
*Nesingwary Base Camp, Sholazar Basin
*Death's Rise, Icecrown
*Fizzcrank Airstrip, Borean Tundra
*Bor'gorok Outpost, Borean Tundra
===Regions adjacent to Sholazar Basin===
Zone name 	Faction	Level range	Direction 	Access
Borean Tundra 	 	68 - 80 	Southwest 	By foot, or by flight path
Wintergrasp 	 	67 - 80 PvP	South 	By flight path
Un'Goro Crater	 	40 - 60 	Far to the Southwest	By entering the Waygate (must first complete the quests that open the Waygate).
Icecrown 	 	67 - 80 	Northeast 	By foot or flight path
==Notable characters==
Sholazar Basin is home to several characters of note. At Frenzyheart Hill, High-Shaman Rakjak leads the Frenzyheart Tribe in the fight against local fauna and their hated enemies, the Oracles, led by High-Oracle Soo-say. The wolvar are not the only new arrivals to the basin, as Hemet Nesingwary leads his band of hunters in search of new game, targeting Broodmother Slivina as the ultimate challenge to a hunter. Artruis the Heartless leads the Scourge attack on the region, but is continually held at bay by the mysterious Avatar of Freya.
==Quests==
==Resources==
===Herbalism===
*Adder's Tongue
*Deadnettle
*Goldclover
*Tiger Lily
===Skinning===
*Borean Leather
*Arctic Fur
===Mining===
*Rich Saronite Deposit
*Saronite Deposit
*Titanium Vein
===Fishing===
*Barrelhead Goby
*Nettlefish
*Pygmy Suckerfish
==Wild creatures==
Many fearsome and exotic beasts dwell in the steamy jungle of Sholazar Basin. Goretalon rocs glide through the Basin and Sapphire Hive wasps buzz and go about the business of protecting their hive. The gigantic and bad-tempered shardhorn rhinos graze while hardknuckle gorillas forage nearby. Sinuous emperor cobras and massive dreadsabers stalk their prey through the undergrowth, both of which are deadly apex predators and more than a match for an unwary traveler in the Basin. Mangal crocolisks also make their home in the Basin's waters and should be treated with caution as well.
The Basin has more than a few unique beasts of such singularly impressive size, strength and or beauty as to earn them the distinction of being named. Some of these include:
*The mighty dreadsaber Shango.
*The black-furred lion Pitch.
*The towering green devilsaur King Krush.
*The poisonous emperor cobra Venomtip.
*The incredibly elusive and beautiful mate of Harkoa herself, the spirit beast Loque'nahak.
*The fiercely protective protodragon Broodmother Slivina.
Rare elite NPCs associated with the achievement:
*Aotona found in Wildgrowth Mangal.
*King Krush
*Loque'nahak
==Reputation==
Sholazar Basin is the home of both the Oracles and the Frenzyheart Tribe. Both are constantly at war with eachother, and players will choose to align with one faction at a time through one of the main quest chains of the area. Players can switch their chosen faction by repeating the last quest in the starting chain and killing/saving the character of the opposite faction (A Hero's Burden). Sholazar Basin also has its own hidden reputation, which is currently unused, that will increase as faction dailies are completed, and will not decrease if a player decides to switch factions.
==In the RPG==
thumb|Map of Sholazar Basin in Lands of Mystery.
Sholazar Basin fills the northwest corner of the Borean Tundra and is difficult to believe it is part of Northrend. Like Kalimdor's Un'Goro Crater, the Sholazar Basin is an anomaly. To get there you will have to climb a nasty ridge to reach it. Once you top that ridge, however, you will be looking down into a lush tropical jungle. Hot springs dot the basin and you will have to watch out for steam vents and geysers — they will cook the flesh from your bones in an instant if you get caught in one. Thick vegetation fills the basin, and birds and small animals are everywhere. So are insects.Lands of Mystery, 93 In the past, the Dragonblight was the most fertile region in Northrend followed by Sholazar Basin. After it became a wasteland, the Basin took its place.Lands of Mystery, 99
A high elf scholar that once visited Kaskala believed the Titans used the Sholazar Basin as a testing ground. Some of their experiments, or at least the remains of those experiments, may still exist. Thus, the basin is a potential treasure trove of knowledge and power.Lands of Mystery, 94
==Notes and trivia==
*In Lands of Mystery, this area was treated as a subzone of the Borean Tundra instead of its own zone.
*To open up the flight path at Nesingwary Base Camp, there is a 2-part quest chain from Weslex Quickwrench that you have to complete first.
*Given Blizzard's fondness for pop-culture references, Sholazar may be a nod to the of . Both are tropical paradises formed in arctic regions by a powerful race of creator-beings.
*At the co-ordinates , a hatch with the numbers "5 9 16 17 24 43" can be found as a reference to the series .
*The naming of subzone The Lost Lands may be a reference to the , which both Sholazar Basin and Un'Goro Crater seem to be based on.
*Sholazar Basin, like Un'Goro Crater, is littered with mysterious Titanic crystals that can be activated through structures or watchers when the need arises.
==Gallery==
Nesingwary Base Camp.jpg|Hemet Nesingwary's camp.
Sholazar Basin Art Justin Kunz 4.jpg|Concept art.
Sholazar Excavation.jpg|Swindlegrin's Dig.
Sholazar Basin 2..jpg|Waterfall in River's Heart.
Sholazar Basin Flora Art Justin Kunz.jpg|Flora concept art.
Sholazarconc.jpg
Sholazar Basin Art Justin Kunz.jpg|Concept art.
Sholazar Basin Art Justin Kunz 2.jpg|Concept art.
Sholazar Basin Art Justin Kunz 3.jpg|Concept art.
==Patch changes==
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==References==
==External links==
 
Category:Valleys
Category:Jungles
Category:Titan facilities
Category:Northrend
Category:Lands of Mystery
fr:Bassin de Sholazar