The hydras of Draenor: A curious observation.

[Rakurai]

As a member of the "No beta" club, I've been forced to simply watch streams and videos, so I'm unable to look into this myself, and thought maybe some of the hydra fans around these parts might be interested in this.

In any case, Ive seen this gigantic hydra rampaging through Shadowmoon Valley in a pursuit of a bored player in multiple videos. It appears to be the progenitor of all the Shadowmoon hydras, judging from them all bearing the prefix of "Echidnean", and has health worthy of a 10 man raid boss.

Doing some Wowhead searching seems to indicate that all of the hydra broods of Draenor have a similar leader figure of sorts, though I've yet to actually see them. Considering the remote location of the aforementioned one (Along the southwestern coastline of Shadowmoon), the others are presumably also hidden away quite well (Or alternatively, simply not implemented yet) Among them are:

Gorgrond and Nagrand hydras (Lernaean): Lernaea. Located underwater off the southern shore of Nagrand, towards end of the beach east of Ironfist Harbor. Has 43 million HP.

Tanaan Jungle hydras?: Keravnos (Saw a picture of him in the unfinished Tanaan Jungle taken via Far Sight, but also a more recent, but tiny one of it on the side of a hill in what appears to be Shadowmoon Valley, along with someone mentioning having spotted it while on a flight path to Talador from aforementioned zone.)

Spires of Arak hydras (Varashian): Varasha Vignette mob in a cave in the Shifting Mire, summoned by disturbing her eff.

Unknown: Typhon

I'd love to see a screenshot of these beasties if anyone happens to run into them or is bored enough to go look for them.

[Krysteena]

I guess it'd make sense that the hydras would have some sort of leader, the big daddy, shall we say? but that's an interesting find. I'm also not in the beta, but could it be possible that each area you've referred to has a certain colour of hydras? So Gorgrond (if I'm thinking of the right area) would suit having a green hydra. Showdowmoon valley does have purple ones.

That giant hydra you referred to is supposed to be a world boss, but I could see us having zone hydra bosses instead, at least where there are hydras. They have some fancy names too, but I recognise the first one. Like Echidna. Isn't he/she from Greek mythology and is said to have multiple heads?

[bluddy]

The real question is, are these gigantic hydra ancestors tameable as some sort of weird prize pet?

Typhon wil probably be the allfather or allmother of all Draenorian hydras. Typhon is the ancestor of all monsters in Greek mythology.

Edit:

Echidna is the mother of all monsters in Greek mythology and it was Typhon who impregnated her. They both rallied an attack on Olympus.

Echidna is usually depicted as a half snake/half nymph. Typhon is pretty much too complex to visualise here, he's part viper though. and dragon heads. and human torso. and oh just leave it.

[Rakurai]

There's a rare red hydra named Gennadian up in the Gordal Fortress in Talador, being kept as a pet by the ogres there.

That makes me think it might be possible that the red hydras can be found somewhere in Talador, though if they're anywhere, they'd be on the beaches and islands in the southernmost reaches of the zone, as that's the only area I haven't seen people explore before. Though I suppose it's also possible they smuggled it in from Nagrand.

[Rakurai]

I think know where Lernaea is now, and it's not where I was expecting. The waters off the southern coast of Nagrand near Bladefist Harbor have a variety of different Lernaean hydras there, though I never actually got a glimpse of the hydra itself due to the streamer not being a very thorough explorer.

There's also a cave on the shore with a rare blue hydra named Gaz'orda in the same area.

EDOT: They're apparently also on the northern shore, though there's a subzone called the Lernaean Shore there, as well. Considering that Echidna is found on the Echidnean Shelf in Spires of Arak...

[Krysteena]

I think know where Lernaea is now, and it's not where I was expecting. The waters off the southern coast of Nagrand near Bladefist Harbor have a variety of different Lernaean hydras there, though I never actually got a glimpse of the hydra itself due to the streamer not being a very thorough explorer.

There's also a cave on the shore with a rare blue hydra named Gaz'orda in the same area.

EDOT: They're apparently also on the northern shore, though there's a subzone called the Lernaean Shore there, as well. Considering that Echidna is found on the Echidnean Shelf in Spires of Arak...

Ahh. I see what they're doing. They're naming the hydras after the area in which they're found. Or vice versa. Remind me to see to that rare blue hydra when things go live. I quite like that variant

[Rakurai]

Finally saw Lernaea and edited some details about it into the first post.

Red hydras still remain an enigma.