Sylvanas should have been the leader of Horde forces in Northrend.
In Wrath of the Lich King, each player faction had a kind of conglomerate reputation/organization. The Alliance Vanguard and the Horde Expedition were each kind of meta-factions. You raised your reputation with them by raising other reputations (though you could also get rep purely for the top-level one by running heroic dungeons without a reputation tabard.) While the Valiance Expedition was pretty central to the Alliance effort - the starting towns in each of the beginning zones were both under their banner - the Horde forces were more clearly divided.
In the west, there was the Warsong Offensive, led by Garrosh Hellscream. Despite the very explicitly incompetent leadership of Garrosh (his strategy was simply to attack, with no regard for logistics,) it was this command that led to his ascension as Warchief.
In the east, however, there was the Hand of Vengenace, the Forsaken faction.
The Forsaken, more than any single playable race that is not its faction's flagship (Orcs and Humans,) with the possible exception of the Night Elves, is an independent and powerful force in its own right. Sylvanas has a tight grip on Tirisfal, and she is very effectively spreading her influence into the Plaguelands, Hillsbrad, and Silverpine (though Gilneas still defies her.) And if there was any group that would be absolutely furious with the Scourge, it would be the Forsaken. The Humans might hate Arthas for killing their friends and family. The Forsaken hate him for killing the Forsaken.
Yet the Forsaken, as a major force in Northrend, essentially only made it up to level 71 or 72, ending with the Wrathgate Incident and the (sadly now excised) Battle of Undercity. From there on out, the Horde was really mostly just your standard Orcs, spiky buildings, and lots of Red and Brown. And if you had quested in Borean Tundra and stuck to the western parts of Dragonblight, it would have been that way for your entire time in Northrend.
So what's my point?
There is a tendency in WoW for Orcs and Humans to always hog the spotlight. Yes, the original game twenty years ago was just Orcs fighting Humans, but long, long ago the world of Azeroth was spiced up with the addition of new races and new histories. (Fun fact: Azeroth in the first game was originally just the Kingdom we now call Stormwind. And later, it extended to describe the continent we now call the Eastern Kingdoms. I think it's settled down finally to just mean the planet.)
The Dwarves, Trolls, Gnomes, Tauren, Night Elves and Undead have been playable races just as long as Orcs and Humans have, but they don't tend to get as much of a focus.
Well, in Warlords of Draenor we're finally seeing a change to that, at least on the Alliance side.
Warlords of Draenor is the first expansion where it doesn't feel so much as being about Orcs vs Humans, and more Orcs vs Draenei. The Draenei, who were a super-cool addition in BC (albeit one that required a major Retcon regarding the Eredar,) didn't even have all that much to do in their starring expansion (*cough* Worgen *cough.*) They were not totally invisible in BC, but they definitely played third fiddle to the Orcs and the Blood Elves.
The Draenei get to be a lot more this time around. Shadowmoon Valley and Talador are both clearly Draenei territory. Indeed, I don't even think Talador has an associated Orc clan, which all the other zones do. We get to see what Draenei civilization on Draenor was actually like before (well, more like while) it was destroyed. But not only that, Draenei actually get to play a key role in the goings-on of the expansion. Yrel in particular seems to level up with us, and while she still defers to us as the commander of the Alliance Mission in Draenor, she's the Alliance NPC you'll be interacting with the most.
Really, other than the base in Ashran, the only Human-themed areas you'll come to will be your garrison and the various outposts (these are the towns where you get to choose a building and you'll get a zone-wide ability and different quests based on your choice.)
The Karabor-based Draenei really are the main Draenor-native Alliance faction, which is an awesome change.
Now, the premise of the expansion kind of requires this. This is a Draenor not only before it got turned into Outland, but also before there was an Alliance Expedition. There are only two playable races who are from Draenor (even if the Draenei aren't from there originally,) so it would only really make sense for the two major players would be those races.
Of course, the downside to that is that the Horde is forced to deal with Orcs, Orcs, and More Orcs. The Orcs are a little more interesting thanks to the fleshing out of the various Orc clans, but it's not exactly a respite.
Still, my hope is that going forward (especially given how annoyed pretty much everyone is that they have to go with an Orc/Human theme for their garrisons,) is that we'll start to see other races standing in the spotlight.
The Horde has a Troll Warchief now, so it really seems like the next major Horde offensive should be Troll-themed. Focusing on a race should be done intelligently - much as I love them, it wouldn't make sense for the Worgen to lead the charge against the Burning Legion. But if we ever got our Emerald Nightmare expansion, then the Night Elves and Worgen would be the perfect pair to run the show.
The Orcs and Humans tend to be center-stage because they've been fleshed out the most, but that's a kind of self-reinforcing state. Let the Orcs and Humans (mostly the Orcs, as that's kind of what the Humans are doing this time around) cool their heels next expansion (players and the occasional NPC excluded, obviously) and let the other guys get a turn at the wheel.
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