Thrall, wise shaman and the war chief of the Horde, has sensed a disturbing change . . . Long ago, Azeroth's destructive native elementals raged across the world until the benevolent titans imprisoned them within the Elemental Plane. Despite the titans' intervention, many elementals have ended up back on Azeroth. Over the ages, shaman like Thrall have communed with these spirits and, through patience and dedication, learned to soothe roaring infernos, bring rain to sun-scorched lands, and otherwise temper the elementals' ruinous influence on the world of Azeroth. Now Thrall has discovered that the elementals no longer heed the shaman's call.

While Thrall seeks answers to what ails the confused elements, he also wrestles with the orcs' precarious future as his people face dwindling supplies and growing hostility with their night elf neighbours. The fate of Azeroth's great races is shrouded in a fog of uncertainty, and the erratic behaviour of the elemental spirits, troubling though it is, may only be the first ominous warning sign of the cataclysm to come.