5.1 is going to seriously bring the Lore. For now, Pandaria has been largely devoid of Alliance/Horde influence, with the exception of Jade Forest, Krasarang Wilds, and parts of Kun Lai. Even the parts in Krasarang are less part of the total Horde/Alliance forces and more independent expeditions spearheaded by non-flagship races of the factions. (I love that, for example, the Alliance and Horde shrines are guarded by Night Elves and Tauren, rather than the standard Humans and Orcs. Purple and Brown, rather than Blue and Red. Reminds me of how I really wish the main Horde force in Northrend had been the Forsaken.)
In 5.1, the main military forces will be landing (I believe on the shores of Krasarang) and a whole lot of stuff is going to go down. At the moment, we're only piecing things together from sound files and quest strings, but there are a couple big events that are at least potentially coming to the game. These are super spoileriffic, and so I'll avoid talking about the specifics save one, which relates to a question that has been on everyone's minds once Blizzard confirmed that yes, Garrosh's tenure as Warchief ain't going to last long (I also think that any previous ideas of him being forcibly retired but not killed are unlikely, given the depravity to which he is going to sink.) Namely: who gets to be Warchief when Garrosh gets taken down?
Now, there are a few possibilities:
Thrall: Thrall was the embodiment of the Horde's redemption, putting the days of demonic bloodlust behind them, and even reaching out to the non-Horde races to aid in the Third War and several other major world conflicts. Things were not by any means perfect under Thrall, and pockets of Alliance/Horde conflict certainly existed even then (the Forsaken war on humanity was pretty brutal even before they started employing Val'kyr to raise and brainwash the dead.) But Thrall is fairly beloved by all, and especially after the Cataclysm, he's respected by members of the Alliance as well. Thrall re-taking the seat of Warchief would be a "return to normalcy." The one issue is that Thrall proved that while he is a likable and honorable leader, his tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt has been disastrous. He trusted Sylvanas to both control her people and to use her deadly arsenal for defense. He trusted Garrosh to uphold his legacy of establishing the new, more thoughtful and diplomatic Horde, and that the younger Hellscream would flourish once he had a chance to prove himself. One of these led to the Wrathgate, the other led to the Horde's downward spiral into fascism. And that's not exaggeration: Garrosh runs a Horde where military status is equal to political status, and where dissent is crushed by force and intimidation.
Varok Saurfang: The most badass Orc alive, Saurfang is far older than Thrall and Garrosh. He's certainly a popular character, too. Saurfang remembers the early days of the Horde, and committed atrocities while under the influence of the blood of Mannoroth. Having lived through that, and the shock of guilt as the bloodlust wore off in the Alliance's internment camps, Saurfang has a great deal of perspective on what it means to be Horde. We also know that he promised to be there to take Garrosh down if he ever began steering the Horde in the direction of the Old Ways. Saurfang? That time is now. That said, there are two things that might limit his ability to lead: One is that he is quite old at this point. The other is that Northrend took a lot out of him. Saurfang's son, Draenosh, was memorably killed by Arthas at the Wrathgate (before Putress' betrayal.) The elder Saurfang saw his own son, with whom he had been reunited only recently, turned into a Death Knight of the Scourge, and then killed a second time by... well, us. If that doesn't take a lot out of a man, I don't know what does.
Vol'jin: Ah, and here we come to the radical, yet potentially awesome new Warchief. Vol'jin, as you should probably know, is a Troll, rather than an Orc. He became the leader of the Darkspear tribe when a Naga sea witch murdered his father, Sen'jin. He has been a loyal friend and ally of Thrall's from before they even reached Kalimdor, and was instrumental in the foundation of the Horde as we know it today. While there had been precedent for Trolls within the Horde before (most notably the Amani, who were ruled by Zul'jin, who the totally unrelated Darkspear player characters invoke in one of their /charge emotes, despite the fact that, at least for a time, Horde players could slaughter the guy on a regular basis,) nearly all the Trolls in the modern Horde are Darkspear.
Outside of the lore, we also know that Vol'jin is getting an updated model in 5.1, not to mention that the next tie-in novel is going to center on him.
Perhaps one of the most endearing aspects of Vol'jin as a potential leader is that, like Cairne, he saw through Garrosh's bullshit from the get-go. Unlike Cairne, however, Vol'jin never challenged Garrosh for the seat of Warchief.
(Sidenote, clearing up the story of how Cairne got killed: When Garrosh was named Warchief by Thrall, Cairne was none too happy. After getting a look at the policies Hellscream was going to put into place, Cairne challenged him to a traditional fight for the position of Warchief. While Thrall and Orgrim had had a non-lethal version of this fight, and Garrosh had actually challenged Thrall for the position in the lead-up to Wrath of the Lich King, Cairne demanded to do it the old-fashioned way, with a fight to the death - a pretty rash move by Cairne, which, given his personality, was probably a bluff to get Garrosh to see just how much he was pissing people off. Garrosh accepted, however, and the two prepared to fight. However, good old Magatha Grimtotem, who used to live on Elder Rise, but is now found as part of a quest chain in Thousand Needles, had Garrosh's blades poisoned, so that after getting only a scratch, Cairne was doomed to die. Garrosh was willing to kill Cairne through honorable combat, but Magatha's meddling robbed him of a chance to prove his strength, and of course didn't do much for Tauren-Orc relations. I imagine this is the main reason why Garrosh is willing to let the Tauren into Orgrimmar proper, despite the fact that Cairne was just as opposed to him as Vol'jin is.)
New troll players post-Cataclysm get their own Kiddie Pool area at the Echo Isles, where they learn that Vol'jin and Garrosh had a heated exchange and actually threatened to kill each other. The result is that Trolls are forced into the ghetto that the Valley of Spirits has become (though frankly, I think it's one of the coolest parts of Orgrimmar these days) and Vol'jin is in self-imposed exile on the Echo Isles (which admittedly is like a five minute drive from Orgrimmar.)
Anyway, coming back to 5.1: Apparently part of the Horde quest chain is that the Kor'kron (who are looking more and more like the SS) are hunting down Vol'jin. The troll leader is doing... something that they perceive as a betrayal of the Horde, but given who we're dealing with, is probably just Vol'jin trying to do something sane.
If anyone's well-positioned to lead a resistance against Garrosh, it's Vol'jin. We might love Thrall, but he can't escape the fact that this whole mess is partially his fault. Thrall would, certainly, cause a lot of divided loyalties among the Orcs, but the strength of Vol'jin as a leader is that he gets to finally say "You know what? The Horde is not just Orcs anymore. You brought us in to serve as your allies, but we aren't just going to be your lackeys. You want our strength? Then you have to start treating us with some respect."
I can't imagine that anyone (except the more assholish of Orcs) would raise any objection to that.
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