Something went terribly wrong when the Exodar landed on Azeroth.
One has to simply take the road inland from the majestic city-ship to find out how deep the devastation caused by the crash landing reached inside the very fabric of the land and the life it hosts.
Every area where a piece of the ship landed bears crimson scars, spreading like a disease around gigantic crystals. Watching the effect these crystals have on their surroundings brought chilling memories from the Fall of Gnomeregan. Radiations from the crystals turned innocent wildlife into mad mutated masses of flesh. Even flowers were altered in some unspeakable way.
This is far worse than the disease that turned so many of my countrymen into Leper Gnomes, although the effects are strangely similar. Could there be a link between the Catastrophe and crystals of power ?
From what I can tell, the crystals seem to have been used as an energy source, possibly to power part of the ship, much like the way we use steam. They could even have been used to propel the ship, although their exact means of travel still eludes me.
It seems that the crash released these power crystals from whatever containment they were in, setting them free to grow and corrupt the land around them.
Most crystals still hold an impressive amount of power. This hasn’t been lost on the few surviving tribes of furbolgs and satyrs, already using the most powerful crystals for some mystical rituals. The blood elves sent scout parties to set camps in the northern parts of the islands, where the corruption is the strongest. I even ran into a party from Venture Co., already at work studying the crystals and tap into their power for profit.
The Draenei survivors I met outside of Exodar seemed willing to help heal the land from the effects of their own creations, but something tells me we are far from seeing the end of these power crystals in Azeroth.