Horde Cultural Beliefs About the Afterlife
Tauren
According to the beliefs of the Dawnchaser tribe, tauren who either die in childbirth or while saving lives become one of the yeena’e – ‘those who herald the dawn’ – in death. True to their name, the yeena’e are responsible for helping An’she, the tauren sun deity, bring about the dawn every morning [Short Story: Bleeding Sun].
The first daytime appearance of both of Azeroth’s moons after a tauren's death signifies that they have officially passed on and joined the yeena’e [Short Story: Bleeding Sun].
Troll
When trolls die, their spirit is claimed by the loa of death, Bwonsamdi, and taken to a realm in the afterlife called ‘the Other Side’ [Quest: A Desecrated Temple]. At this point in time, very little is actually known about the troll underworld, although there are few secrets about its overlord, the aptly named loa of graves.
Bwonsamdi is an incredibly fickle being and has been known to spare or claim souls purely on a whim [Item: Bwonsamdi Voodoo Mask, NPC: The Matron Shaazula Dialogue, Quest: The Will of the Loa]. It is loosely implied that being the death loa’s “friend” guarantees trolls a place of privilege in the afterlife, regardless of the deeds they do while alive [Tales of the Loa: Bwonsamdi]. In other words, placement in the troll afterlife is almost certainly not dictated by one’s morals so much as it is by Bwonsamdi’s partisan judgment.
The Sandfury desert trolls worship another loa of death, Mueh’zala, although much about him and his role is still shrouded in mystery [Object: Tablet of Theka, Page: Mueh’zala].
While non-canon, the RPG actually contains quite a bit of information on troll funerary rites and widely held cultural beliefs about the dead. Many trolls are wary of malignant spirits and assume ill intent from them, so a vast majority of troll death rituals involve ways of distracting, capturing, or even harming spirits to prevent them from hurting the living and, to a lesser extent, the dead. For example, before the Darkspear joined the Horde, they used to ritually mutilate their own bodies when one of their kindred died. This self-inflicted pain served to distract malevolent ghosts and ensure that they failed to notice the newly deceased pass on, allowing them to find a place in the afterlife without harassment [RPG: Horde Player’s Guide, pg. 93].
A somewhat similar ritual happens when the Zandalari intern their dead royals in Atal’Dazar. Tradition dictates that friends of the deceased must walk the Golden Road and praise the accomplishments of the fallen so that their spirit is welcomed by the ancient kings and queens at rest in the royal tombs [Quest: Vol’jin, Son of Sen’jin].
More lore from the RPG claims that trolls prefer not to cremate their own because they believe their bodies provide them with a tie to the physical world, so by destroying the bodies of their kin, they are setting their spirits adrift and confused for eternity [RPG: Horde Player’s Guide, pg. 94]. In light of that, it is worth noting that Vol’jin was cremated – although not by his own people – and, essentially, that his spirit did briefly go missing for a short time afterward [Quest: The Lost Spirit, Quest: Spirit Call].
Orc
Like the trolls, orcs follow certain rituals to ensure their brethren’s safe passage into the afterlife. Unlike the trolls, however, the RPG dictates that orcs burn their dead as a way of cleansing them of any impurities and weaknesses before they pass on [RPG: Horde Player’s Guide, pg. 61]. Although the RPG is not canon, it is worth noting that some orcs, especially the Shadowmoon orcs, actually prefer to bury their kin in-game whereas others traditionally cremate their fallen. For example, Varok Saurfang said his son, Dranosh, would have a funeral pyre next to the pyres of his ancestors in Nagrand - although Varok himself supposedly only got a burial [NPC: High Overlord Saurfang Dialogue, Quest: Old Soldier]. Moreover, Thrall had the bodies of Orgrim Doomhammer and several other orcs burnt on funeral pyres, but he did say that he was unfamiliar with traditional orcish customs regarding the afterlife [Lord of the Clans, Chapter Seventeen]. Both Nazgrim and Grommash Hellscream, however, received burials [Quest: The Firstborn Rises, Object: Monument to Grom Hellscream].
According to the RPG, when an orc dies, those present must roar as loudly as possible to alert the deceased’s ancestors that they must come and escort them to the spirit world. However, if the orc’s death occurs during a battle, their allies will wait until afterward so the roar is not lost in the sounds of conflict [RPG: Horde Player’s Guide, pg. 90]. Beyond that, if an orc dies with any unfulfilled duties, their close friends and relatives are responsible for completing the duty so the fallen spirit can enter the afterlife with their honor intact [RPG: Horde Player’s Guide, pg. 90].
As with many of the other mortal races, little is known about the orc afterlife, although orc ancestor spirits play a very significant role in their culture. Orc shamans of every clan used to visit Oshu’gun – the ‘Mountain of Spirits’ – where they could communicate with their ancestors who had passed on [Rise of the Horde, Chapter One, World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume II, pg. 55]. That said, it is not clear if the orcs thought of Oshu’gun as their afterlife or merely a mystical location where they could talk with their fallen.
It is said that orcs who die in brutal combat enter the spirit world in unrest, which may cause their spirit to linger restlessly in the physical plane [Quest: Golmash Hellscream].
Shadowmoon orcs traditionally bury their dead in burial grounds in Shadowmoon Valley [Page: Shadowmoon Burial Grounds]. Orcs belonging to other clans, however, intern their fallen in the ancestral grounds near Oshu’gun [Page: Ancestral Grounds].