The Horde has not been this much of a menace since the Second War. Under Thrall, the Horde mostly reformed. The influence of Mannoroth's blood was no longer there, and the Horde expanded to encompass several other races, giving them roughly equal status with the originating Orcs. The Orcs had a proud warrior culture that was tough to totally squelch (and in a world like Azeroth, having a strong warrior culture is perhaps a necessary evil,) but the martial bent of the Horde was turned inward, toward protecting its civilians and lands, and lending a helping hand to the various good neutral factions that needed champions.
While the current conflict between Alliance and Horde can be traced to the Wrathgate Incident and the Battle of Undercity, the war did not truly begin in earnest until Thrall stepped down and left Garrosh Hellscream in charge as Warchief.
Today, the Horde war machine is much more homogeneous, as there is a clear preference in the leadership toward Orcish commanders. Really, you only tend to find enthusiastic soldiers of the Horde in Orcs and Goblins, the latter of which I think are more interested in the spectacle of war (and explosions) than any real ideological bent.
The Trolls are super-alienated. The Tauren lost their beloved leader to Garrosh's reckless inability to take advice. The Undead are actually kind of profiting from this chaos, as it leaves very little time for Garrosh to rein in Sylvanas' machinations. The Blood Elves... Well, we're going to hear more about them in 5.1 I believe.
And even among the Orcs, there is a cultural divide. There are some (mostly the older generation, who remembers what it was like in the Old Horde) who are none too happy about the way things are going. Thrall's Shamanism had done a great deal to return the Orcs to their roots, but that's mostly been tossed out the window in favor of militarism.
At this point, however, the majority of the Horde still seems to be standing behind Garrosh. Whether that is actually the case or not is a good question. After all, Garrosh seems like the type of leader to quash any sort of dissent. As adventurers, we tend to be out with the military on the front lines, and what we've been seeing (and participating in) is a rabid war against the Alliance.
Time and time again, though, we've been seeing the Horde doing stuff that we're probably not ok with. I'll talk a bit about Theramore, but I think Stonetalon Mountains demonstrates this the best.
What is the point of a military? Well, this may be a fairly modern notion, but it's one I believe in real life: the point of a military is to protect civilians. If there is no true, actual danger to fight, the military should stand down. They should remain vigilant, but when a military abandons its charge to protect the people, it has ceased to be a military and has become a group of well-armed brigands.
Stonetalon is all about Garrosh's war machine. Under Warlord Krom'gar, you rise through the ranks, preparing a massive Goblin bomb to be used against an entrenched Alliance outpost. You are told that this is a military target, and so your actions are justified.
However, later in the quest chain, you meet a Tauren elder who informs you that no, that is not a military target, but a peaceful civilian school that welcomes everyone. His son is there, so he asks you to bring him back. Yet when you try to do so, you discover that the boy is dead, murdered by one of Krom'gar's lackeys. You return to find that Krom'gar has set fire to the Tauren's village and murdered his wife. After confronting the lieutenant who did the job, Krom'gar arrives to punish you and watch the bomb go off, killing dozens of innocent, young druids.
Now, Garrosh arrives right after the bomb goes off, chastising Krom'gar for this horrific lack of honor (and sense even. What was the point in destroying the school?) He then tosses the Warlord off a cliff to his death.
That's all well and good, and good riddance to one of the most detestable people you'll ever interact with. The thing is that, even though Garrosh punished Krom'gar, the Warlord seems surprised at this reaction. Krom'gar has been doing things Garrosh's way.
Now, Theramore is a bit more complicated, because while Jaina has been committed to peace, it's still a large military presence on the doorstep of Horde territory. In this case, I think the parallel is much closer to Pearl Harbor, where the idea was to launch a sneak attack to knock Jaina out of the war before she could join in, only to create a far more powerful enemy than you intended to deal with.
But these attacks on the Alliance aren't really what I think is going to inspire the revolution. Members of the Horde may have less reason to hate the Alliance than vice versa, but the hatred is still there and still deep. While some may take exception to massacres like Stonetalon, Theramore, and Southshore (which admittedly is Sylvanas, and not Garrosh,) I think the big problem is how Garrosh treats his own people.
So, what can we expect in Pandaria? As of 5.0, it's mostly just expeditionary forces, but we've been assured that the main armies are going to be clashing in later patches. If my predictions are correct, Theramore will be the last decisive victory Garrosh ever has. The next major battle will be his Stalingrad, and as we all know, dictators start to go crazy (and people living under dictators start to get pissed off) when the military victories stop flowing.
If I were writing for the game, we'd see unrest start to arise over the course of the expansion. People are starting to call for a new Warchief, or some (Vol'jin, for example) might begin to talk of secession. Garrosh is not a consensus builder, so rather than talk it out like Thrall would do, he'll try to have Vol'jin (or whoever) arrested and start clamping down on this sort of talk.
Then, at some point, player characters would become part of an underground resistance.
They would still be able to move freely through Orgrimmar, but I could envision a series of quests (even dailies) where you help dissidents escape the city and distribute leaflets or free political prisoners. How cool would it be for you to break Vol'jin out of jail?
While the Alliance is doing the Trials of the High King (with a controversial leader learning to lead a diverse people,) the Horde could be doing The Resistance, setting to work on toppling a corrupt leader.
In the end, all of this culminates in Hellscream's Fall (or whatever they'll be calling the final raid.) And it will make sense on either end - the Alliance is conquering a foreign menace while the Horde is overthrowing their oppressor.
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