Maraudon

Maraudon (pronounced MORE-uh-don)http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/3813779.htm is a 5-player dungeon, consisting of three wings (the Wicked Grotto, Foulspore Cavern, and Earth Song Falls), located in the Valley of Spears in Desolace. It is a combination of ancient centaur burial grounds, as well as a primal temple dedicated to the elemental earth. Added in patch 1.2, Maraudon was the first dungeon to be added after the release of World of Warcraft.
==Adventure Guide==
According to legend, Zaetar, son of Cenarius, and the earth elemental princess Theradras begot the barbaric centaur race. Shortly after the centaur's creation, the ruthless creatures murdered their father. The grief-stricken Theradras is said to have trapped her lover's spirit within Maraudon, corrupting the region. Now, vicious centaur ghosts and twisted elemental minions roam every corner of the sprawling caves.
==History==
Maraudon was originally a massive cavern below the meadows of Mashan'she. Before Princess Theradras took up residence here, the mountain giant Landslide cultivated crystal gardens in the cavern.Landslide (mountain giant)#Adventure Guide The giant crocolisk Rotgrip is also rumored to have lived in Maraudon's waters for millennia.Rotgrip#Adventure Guide
In the ancient past, Princess Theradras hid in these caverns to avoid being imprisoned in the Elemental Plane, and she eventually fell into a deep slumber. 1,100 years BDP, tauren shaman awakened Theradras after mistaking her voice for that of the Earth Mother. She emerged from the depths and drained Mashan'she's life energies to restore her power, turning the region into the wasteland of Desolace. Zaetar, son of Cenarius, emerged from the Emerald Dream to investigate and entered Theradras' lair, where he encountered the princess and fell in love with her. Together they sired the first centaur khans, who in turn murdered their father. When Theradras chastised them, the centaur begged for forgiveness and promised to revere Zaetar's memory. Fearful of Cenarius' wrath, Theradras entombed Zaetar's body in her secret sanctuary, the Crystal Caverns of Terramok.Patch 1.2.0: New Dungeon - Maraudon Influenced by the Old Gods, Theradras also trapped Zaetar's spirit and used its energies to transform her home into a den of corruption and suffering.World Dungeons: MaraudonPrincess Theradras (tactics)#Adventure Guide The area immediately around Zaetar's Grave was spared from this and instead became a verdant paradise due to the life energies permeating Zaetar's body.Seed of Life (quest)Princess Theradras (quest)
The centaur named the cave system "Maraudon" and would forever after treat it as holy ground, even after they proliferated across Desolace and the rest of Kalimdor. The cavern/temple is guarded by the Maraudine clan and is one of the most sacred sites in Desolace. The centaur clans protect the place with their lives,Shadowshard Fragments (Horde) and only the most devout among their people—spirits and the most sacred priests and priestesses—are allowed to enter its holy halls.The Pariah's Instructions (quest)The Pariah's Instructions Its subterranean tunnels are populated by the ghosts of the first khans as well as Theradras' own elemental minions. The caverns are known for their prized crystals,Tinkerer Gizlock#Adventure Guide which can be used as powerful reagents for arcane magic.
The satyr Lord Vyletongue and his Putridus followers—agents of the Burning LegionCorruption in Maraudon—journeyed into Maraudon after hearing of its corruption. Vyletongue earned Theradras' trust by creating various minions for her, such as Noxxion and Razorlash,Lord Vyletongue#Adventure Guide who worked together to taint parts of the complex that had not yet withered under the princess' influence.Noxxion#Adventure GuideRazorlash#Adventure Guide At one point, Zaetar's nephew Celebras and his dryad sisters traveled to Maraudon in the hopes of freeing their uncle's spirit, but they instead became corrupted by the caverns' dark energies.Celebras#Quotes
===World of Warcraft===
Following the Horde's rise to power, Theradras worried that her centaur children might be driven to extinction. She infused them with her power and drove them to claim new territories outside of Desolace. Horde adventurers traveled to Desolace and learned from the Magram clan—the only clan not loyal to Theradras—that Maraudon was the source of the corruption in the region. The Horde's champions helped the Magram suppress the other clans in Desolace before traveling into the depths of the burial ground and defeating every creature inside it, including Theradras. This ended the spreading corruption in the region and eased the centaur's violent bloodlust. This also freed Zaetar's captive spirit, but he chose to remain in Maraudon.
During the Elemental Unrest, Theradras returned as Crown Princess Theradras and aided the Twilight's Hammer by sending earthquakes to the surface world. Alliance and Horde adventurers entered Maraudon with King Magni Bronzebeard and Garrosh Hellscream and killed her.Earth Girls Aren't So Easy
After the Cataclysm, Kherrah was held prisoner in the upper area of Maraudon by the Maraudine clan.Behind Closed Doors
===Bloodsworn===
After the Cataclysm, another powerful elemental emerged in Maraudon. He created a new race of centaur, called the perfect ones, to spread across Azeroth and reclaim it from the other mortal races.Bloodsworn, intro The perfect ones and their ruler, Aratas, used Maraudon as their base of operations as they planned to invade the cities of the Horde,Bloodsworn, pg. 68 all while the elemental stayed hidden deep in the caves, gathering his strength and bolstering the perfect ones' ranks daily. Aratas forbade the "older breed" of centaur from entering Maraudon; only he and his kind were welcome in the temple.Bloodsworn, pg. 99 To stop the centaur, a team of the Horde's Garad'kra militia attacked Maraudon and defeated most of the perfect ones, but Aratas captured their leader Shagara, retreated into Maraudon, and summoned his elemental father. With the drifter Malgar's help, the Garad'kra managed to kill Aratas and use his magical spear to destroy the elemental, saving the Horde.Bloodsworn, pg. 100 - 135
==Wings==
The different wings, although part of the same contiguous instance, can be directly accessed through three different portals from the overworld in Desolace. Entering Maraudon takes the player through a tunnel (simply titled "Maraudon") until they come to a crossroads at Zaetar's Choice. Heading north leads to the upper Wicked Tunnels and the portal to the Wicked Grotto, heading east through Earth Song Gate leads to the lower Wicked Tunnels and the portal to Earth Song Falls, and heading south leads to the Foulspore Pools and the portal to Foulspore Cavern.
===Wicked Grotto===
The Wicked Grotto's bosses include Tinkerer Gizlock, Lord Vyletongue, and Celebras the Cursed. Meshlok the Harvester, a rare boss, can sometimes be found near Celebras's area. Only Lord Vyletongue is required to get this wing's Dungeon Finder completion reward.
Groups of non-elite imps patrol here, so AoE capability can be handy. Some satyrs use Gouge, incapacitating the tank and causing all the monsters to attack the next person on the threat list. Vyletongue himself comes with stealthed guards, and he teleports around the room during combat.
===Foulspore Cavern===
The Foulspore Cavern's bosses include Razorlash and Noxxion.
This wing's denizens are mostly oozes, lashers, and dryads. Things to watch out for include some of the plants' knockback abilities, as well as the oozes, which must be kited and killed by ranged DPS. These oozes have an aura which does a large amount of damage every three seconds.
===Earth Song Falls===
The Earth Song Falls' bosses include Landslide, the bonus boss Rotgrip, and the dungeon's final boss, Princess Theradras.
This is a lush area filled with wildlife such as hydras and crocolisks, as well as mountain giants.
==Geography==
===Maps===
VZ-Maraudon.jpg|Caverns of Maraudon
VZ-Maraudon-s1.jpg|Zaetar's Grave
WorldMap-MicroDungeon-Desolace-MaraudonOutside.jpg|The Wicked Grotto (exterior)
WorldMap-MicroDungeon-Desolace-MaraudonOutside1.jpg|Foulspore Cavern (exterior)
Maraudon preinstance corrected.jpg|A pre-instance guide to Maraudon.
Maraudon subregions.jpg|An atlas guide to Maraudon.
===Subregions===
Earth Song Falls • Foulspore Cavern • The Noxious Hollow • Poison Falls • Vyletongue Seat • The Wicked Grotto • Zaetar's Grave
==Quest guide==
Quest name 	Quest giver 	Zone location 	
Alliance quests 	Alliance quests 	Alliance quests 	Alliance quests
Adventurers Wanted: Maraudon	Hero's Call Board 	Any Alliance Capital City	
Horde quests 	Horde quests 	Horde quests 	Horde quests
Adventurers Wanted: Maraudon	Warchief's Command Board	Any Horde Capital City 	
Neutral quests 	Neutral quests 	Neutral quests 	Neutral quests
Corruption in Maraudon 	 	Instance entrance 	
Servants of Theradras 	 	--- 	
Princess Theradras (quest) 	 	--- 	
Note: the last two quests (Servants of Theradras and Princess Theradras (quest)) are automatically started when you complete each of them through the new quest pop-up.
Quest name 	Quest giver 	Zone location 	
Alliance quests	Alliance quests	Alliance quests 	Alliance quests
 	 	Theramore Isle, Dustwallow Marsh 	
 	 	Nijel's Point, Desolace 	
 	 	Nijel's Point, Desolace 	
Horde quests 	Horde quests 	Horde quests 	Horde quests
 	 	Valley of Spirits, Orgrimmar 	
 	 	Shadowprey Village, Desolace 	
 	 	Sar'theris Strand, Desolace 	
Neutral quests 	Neutral quests 	Neutral quests 	Neutral quests
 	 	Kormek's Hut, Desolace 	
 	 	South of Mannoroc Coven, Desolace	
 	 	Outer caves, Maraudon 	
 	 	Poison Falls, Maraudon 	
 	 	Zaetar's Grave, Maraudon 	
==Guide==
This is a quick guide to doing the Maraudon instance for Alliance characters. Horde information has been added where possible.
===Quick run down===
Maraudon can be split into several sections. At the start of the dungeon, you'll kill the mobs without blinking. You will eventually find an area with purple glowing rocks on the left, orange on the right. There is also a central entrance which takes you to the Princess, but for a full run-through, you won't do that at first. Following the rocks, you enter an orange area or purple area, which lead to orange and purple entrances to the instance.
You can do Orange or Purple Maraudon at level 32 or 33. On the other hand, the Princess requires at least a couple of level 39s. I can't emphasize this enough: bring ample AoE. There are a lot of points where you get attacked by a lot of non-elites, and AoE attacks are vital.
===Orange side===
A couple of notable things: the bright green Creeping Sludge move very slowly and hit very hard, so its best to stay out of melee range, with a tank kiting them, and have your ranged DPS take them out one at a time. These aren't very difficult to kite around since they do move very slowly. A few tips:
*Melees should only attack mobs that are nearly dead
*Ranged attackers should unload everything they got and kite. Arcane Missiles are really useful here.
*Anyone with a slowing attack (including Mind Flay) should unload it on the leading mob.
*It is possible to run away from these things forever. As long as you run in a circle. In the middle of a very bad battle, I saw a paladin get seven of these to follow him around the instance. We picked them off one at a time and prevented the wipe.
You've got to kill Noxxion for (Servants of Theradras. About halfway through he will split up and spawn some non-elite elementals and will re-form after you've killed them.
After Noxxion, you must kill (Razorlash) for (Servants of Theradras.
===Purple side===
Inside is a very easy instance that drops a lot of green AH fodder. Vyletongue himself has four stealthed guards. Two of them can be pulled without aggroing him. He's easy, anyway. He must be killed for Corruption in Maraudon.
Do note, however, that the Satyrs can gouge your tank, which can be disastrous if you aren't prepared.
You'll notice that there's a lot of information about the orange side and not very much about the purple side. That is, quite simply, because the purple side is very easy in comparison.
===Celebras===
You get to him either by pushing on in the orange or purple sides. A bit of an insane battle because he keeps summoning non-elites. A lot of AoE is the only way to go here. No more monsters will appear, so this bit is completely safe. Phew, now you're halfway through the instance. If you push on, you'll fall into a big lake.
===The Princess===
Prior to Patch 3.0.8, you could access the final part of Maraudon directly using the by bringing it to an alcove in the middle of the pre-instance area and using it. It would then open a portal to take you to the shallow part of Earth Song Falls. After the patch, the portal to Inner Maraudon is simply open to all without need for the staff.
The first part of this area is full of interesting bosses to kill, but they're all pretty easy apart from the Princess. The ordinary mobs present more of a challenge:
*The basilisks in this area silence all the time. Casters should stand much further back than they usually do.
*The rock elementals splinter and produce non-elites. AoE is very effective. Aggro management is essential if you don't want to kill your healers.
There are a lot of patrols. Always wait for them, because they'll wipe even a good group very fast. The worst is that you can get pincered at T junctions by patrols going different ways.
The princess herself is a level 39 elite, but has a kick like a mule. She has two main notable attacks. She fears melees quite a lot and has a large range AoE attack. Nature protection potions are extremely useful here. If your party is underlevelled, make sure you buy some before going after her. Although fast, she's very kitable. As long as you can stay away from her, a hunter or mage can pound away without difficulty. A good way of maximizing that is to actually have your ranged casters on opposite sides of her, although this can obviously cause problems for your healers. Important: Make sure you're not close to the edges, or else you can get knocked off and down into the river below.
Having killed her, you'll finish the quest Princess Theradras (quest).
===Other interesting bosses===
For details of the items these mini-bosses drop, see Maraudon loot.
A few other bosses need a mention as they drop blue items. Some, of course, are more interesting than others:
*Rotgrip can be found by jumping off the waterfall after you kill the Princess. He's a big crocolisk that hits pretty hard but otherwise is pretty straightforward. You may want to pull him to surface to eliminate problems with breathing underwater.
*Tinkerer Gizlock you can do by going up, past Zaetar's Grave, and clearing some non-elite snake clusters. He has a channeled fire attack that you can back away, but otherwise is straightforward.
*Landslide is up in the central cavern, after you climb up several ramps and fight off a patrol and several stationary guards. He's tricky in that he summons additional non-elites rock fellows, but they all spontaneously combust if you kill Landslide, so kill Landslide as soon as possible while distracting the little guys. Also, he occasionally has an AoE stun attack which can be annoying.
*Meshlok the Harvester is a rare spawn between the orange and purple zones who drops some very nice rogue/hunter armor. He is a little bugged and sometimes will be hard to see without using a "/target Meshlok" macro. He can be soloed by a skillful 49-52 rogue on a stealth run (bring some free action potions to prevent getting stunned).
==Useful resistances==
Just about everything in Maraudon uses nature spells or poisons. Equipping gear with good nature resistance isn't necessary but will make your life easier.
Against the princess, shadow resistance is helpful for the tanks to prevent the Fear effect. Once again, this is handy but not necessary.
==Resources==
Herbs:
*Stranglekelp
Ore:
*Mithril Deposit
==Dungeon denizens==
* Basilisks
* Bog beasts
* Centaurs
* Crocolisks (one, Rotgrip)
* Diemetradons
* Dryads
* Earth elementals
* Frogs (critters)
* Ghosts
* Goblins (one, Tinkerer Gizlock)
* Grells
* Hydras
* Lashers
* Larvae
* Keepers
* Mountain giants
* Oozes
* Roaches (critters)
* Satyr
* Schools of Fish (critters)
* Snakes (critters)
* Treants
* Turtles
* Water elementals (one, Noxxion)
* Worms
===Encounters===
Bosses	Monsters	NPCs
*Wicked Grotto
**
**	
*
*
*
*
*
*
*	
*
* Poison Falls
**
** (Rare)	
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*	
* Foulspore Cavern
**
***
**	
*
*
*
*
*
*
*	
*
* Earth Song Falls
**
**
**	
*
*
*
*
*
*
*	
==Loot==
==Achievements==
*Maraudon (achievement)
*Maraudon Guild Run
==In the RPG==
Maraudon is a holy place to the centaur — it is the tomb of Zaetar, keeper of the grove and son of Cenarius, and the house of Princess Theradras, an earth elemental.Lands of Mystery, pg. 32
Zaetar rejected his keeper heritage when he joined with the princess of the chaotic earth elementals, Theradras. Their unholy union gave birth to the misshapen and cursed centaur who promptly slew their father for his part in their misbegotten creation. Fearful of Cenarius' wrath, the grief-stricken Theradras sequestered her dead lover's body in her secret sanctuary, the Crystal Caverns of Terramok,At the Stonemother's Call where she watches over him to this day. Travelers who come to Desolace have little trouble spotting Zaetar's tomb, for the blessing of nature that permeates his being transformed his resting place into a verdant paradise of flora and tranquil pools. Today, this tomb is now trodden by the hooves of Zaetar's children who have claimed this great cavern as their sacred stronghold Maraudon.
Within the tomb is a maze of underground caves and tunnels, populated by the spirits of the long-dead centaur khans. Earth elementals, basilisks, and rock borers also inhabit the site. It is rumored that satyrs and other emissaries of the Burning Legion have moved into these caverns as well.
Although each of the five centaur tribes (known as Black tribe, Brown tribe, Green tribe, Red tribe, and Yellow tribe) maintained its own stronghold elsewhere in Desolace, this was once the region's capital (shortly after the Battle of Mount Hyjal,Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft The Roleplaying Game, pg. 33) when there were no other cultures of any note in all of Desolace.Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft The Roleplaying Game, pg. 194-195 At that time, the centaur had run all others down in their unceasing lust for conquest. However, now that Desolace has no affiliation, and members of other civilizations have moved back in, it is only one of several major settlements.Lands of Mystery, pg. 31 Desolace no longer has a capital.
Maraudon has a vast gathering of palatial tents surrounded by a palisade, the Valley of Spears, it once served as a cultural center and meeting place for all centaur.Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft The Roleplaying Game, pg. 195 However, in recent times, many of the centaur tribes are at war and now it is inhabited only by the Maraudine clan. They are the protectors of Maraudon and only the bravest and mightiest of the tribe's warriors are chosen to guard the tomb of Zaetar.Lands of Mystery, pg. 33
Behind a series of spiked barriers in the center of this mesa stands Terramok, an ancient titan vault rumored to hold Theredras, former princess of the vile earth elementals and legendary mother of the centaur race. Some even claim that Theradras guards the tomb of her husband, the keeper of the grove killed by the first khans. The only permanent centaur resident is Krullaran the Prophet. The centaur of Desolace turn to the khans for protection, but they look to Krullaran for guidance. Many believe he communes with the titans and possesses insight to the glorious return that the centaur will someday make to the northern lands.Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft The Roleplaying Game, pg. 195-196
==Notes==
*It is possible to run out of the instance after jumping down Earth Song Falls; simply follow the tunnel directly to the west of the falls. It will be full of Deep Borers and take you upwards toward the neutral turtles at the top of the falls. There is another, smaller tunnel leading further up to Celebras.
*If players /camp (note that this boots you from your group) behind the final keeper of the grove spirit (after defeating Princess Theradras) and then log back in, it is possible to appear inside of the orange side of the instance and avoid having to hearth. Note that it may not work, leaving one group member stuck inside.
*Before patch 4.0.3a, Maraudon did not get many groups until the Dungeon Finder debuted, the biggest reason being that most people do not have a flight path to Desolace. This may be because most people between levels 30-39 head to Stranglethorn Vale instead of leveling in Desolace. Other reasons were that the instance was too far to get to even though it's possible to get there from Feralas. The instance itself is also very long to go through.
*The Dungeon Finder previously referred to the three wings as "Purple Crystals," "Orange Crystals," and "Pristine Waters."
==Patch changes==
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*
*
*
==References==
==External links==
 
Category:Instances
Category:Caves
Category:Temples
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