I was fighting the Fel Iron Horde today and I was thinking: what exactly is the difference between this Horde and the one from our timeline?
Obviously, our Horde drank the Blood of Mannoroth and reaped the consequences, but it seemed to work a bit differently.
The influence of the Burning Legion is extremely apparent in Gul'dan's Iron Horde. Tanaan Jungle has undergone a transformation that is reminiscent of our Shadowmoon Valley. Indeed, it even seems that Gul'dan B is seeking out the Cipher of Damnation - an absurdly powerful spell that clearly transcends worlds, as it was used by Emperor Thaurissan on Azeroth to summon Ragnaros to the Molten Core. The Cipher's use on Outland created the volcano called the Hand of Gul'dan (the spell always seems to involve summoning a planet's resident most-powerful-fire-elemental and then creating a volcano) and turned Shadowmoon Valley into the burned-to-a-crisp hellscape it is today, severing the bonds with the elements that had been so important to Orcish culture (I'd wager this act of destabilization probably contributed to the destruction wrought by Ner'zhul - as if Gul'dan perforated the planet and Ner'zhul ripped.)
The Fel Iron Horde is filled with the look of demonic power - green fire is just about everywhere, and the demons aren't really hiding. In fact, the Shadow Council is not particularly shadowy right now - Gul'dan is recognized as the Warchief, instead of making Kilrogg his puppet Warchief like our version did with Blackhand. Of course, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's Archimonde, instead of Kil'jaeden, who is in control of the Horde. In our timeline, Kil'jaeden probably pushed Gul'dan to use subtlety to make the Horde feel as if they were in control of their own actions and conquering for their own purposes. Archimonde has never placed as much emphasis on subtlety (see: destroying Dalaran the moment he was summoned in the Third War,) and so has cast aside all pretenses that the Iron Horde is anything other than a small branch of the Burning Legion.
The other things is that the Fel Orcs just look different. These Orcs aren't green, nor are they red, but are instead a weird sort of grey. In our timeline, the color-changing nature of Mannoroth's blood seemed to work by first making the Orcs red immediately after drinking it, but then leaving them Fel-green afterwards - almost as if most of the blood got burned out of their systems. Essentially, the green skin of orcs is indicative of some kind of chemical (or magic equivalent of chemical) change where the blood loses its potency, but the consumed material remains. This would also explain why even non-blood-drinking Orcs like the Frostwolves would also get this condition, as there would be so much blood in the environment that non-potent blood remains would gradually work their way into anyone who spent much time around it. The blood only really provides its "beneficial" properties while it's fresh, and this manifests in the bright-red skin coloration that we saw in Grommash and his forces in Warcraft III as well as Kargath's Fel Horde in Outland, who were drinking the blood of Magtheridon, rather than Mannoroth, but still a Pit Lord.
Why is Kilrogg B, and his line of Fel Orcs, grey then?
The answer may lie in the fate of Mannoroth. While Blizzard has effectively extended the dreadlord immortality functionality to all demons (and opening a whole can of worms by revealing that there's only one Twisting Nether shared by all universes,) it clearly takes a lot of time and energy for a demon to manifest a physical avatar with which to interact with the world. Gul'dan might have thus saved Mannoroth some time by reassembling his physical body that was killed by Grommash and Garrosh in the Warlords of Draenor cinematic. But because this body is kind of undead as far as demons go, the blood has turned - begun to decompose in some way.
So perhaps these Fel Orcs are grey because... the blood they're drinking is rotten. More rotten than it is already, given that it's freaking demon blood. Gul'dan's still green because he drank it while it was still fresh and Mannoroth was still alive. Anyway, pretty gross no matter which way you look at it.
Speaking of things that come back from the dead:
I've pointed out a few times that the way that demons come back from the dead is almost exactly how it works for elementals. We fought Ragnaros in the Molten Core, but "killing" him there really just sent him back to the Firelands. One can think of it this way: the elementals and demons that we interact with in the physical world are not the actual beings, but are really kind of remote controlled units - avatars - that these powerful magical creatures use to manifest. Killing an avatar is a pain to the person whose avatar it is, but it's just a setback - in time, with effort and resources, they can build a new avatar.
We've seen evil things do this (demons) and morally neutral things do it too (elementals.) But what about good things? The Naaru clearly go through cycles of light and dark, but on the rare occasions where a Naaru truly dies, it seems to leave a body behind. M'uru's spark was used to reignite the Sunwell. Of course, one could argue that this was sort of akin to just cycling back to the Light side, but let's set Naaru aside for a moment.
There are plenty of "big bad" supernatural villains in Warcraft, but they usually have a good counterpart. Naaru seem to be the direct opposite of Void beings (which, despite being favored by Warlocks as minions, are explicitly not demons.) The Titans are often juxtaposed against either demons or Old Gods, but they treat the OGs more as their direct opposition - demons only really became a threat to them after one of their own turned evil and enlisted their aide. But the third category of "big powerful good guys" might be the best fit for the demons' opposite numbers. And in fact, the biggest war against them in our history is named after the big fighters on our side: the Ancients.
In Mount Hyjal, you're tasked with holding of Twilight's Hammer until Jarod Shadowsong and the other Ancients are able to finish bringing Cenarius into the world. But Cenarius was dead: he was killed by Grom Hellscream during the Third War after the Warsong Chief had a relapse and drank Mannoroth's blood again.
In fact, the Ancients don't seem to stay dead, really. Ursoc died during the War of the Ancients, but he was also in Grizzly Hills, getting corrupted by Yogg-Saron until we were able to kill him, which then freed him.
This all seems to point to the idea that the Ancients we interact with are really just avatars. And there's a perfectly convenient place for their true essences to inhabit - the Emerald Dream. In a very odd way, it might be that Demonology Warlocks who transform into something resembling a Dreadlord are actually more or less doing the same thing that Druids do when they transform into something resembling Ursoc or Ursol.
This would of course have huge implications. If the Emerald Dream was created by the Titans, then it would stand to reason that they created the Ancients as well. Could it be that Elune is actually a Titan - not a construct like Freya, but an actual Titan? One whose role is to oversee the Ancients? (We know that the Celestials are basically the same kind of thing as Ancients, and I think it would make sense if the Loa were as well.) It would definitely explain Elune's place in the Warcraft cosmos and also justify why she, instead of anything encountered on Azeroth (barring the Old Gods,) is referred to as a literal goddess.
But getting back to Draenor and our current struggle:
Someone in some comment section (sorry, I don't remember where, but I would assume Blizzard Watch) pointed out that on the Warlords of Draenor site, Yrel is described as having a "dark secret." (Actually I can't seem to find where, but let's just roll with it.) Yrel, so far, really hasn't revealed any such thing. Beyond some early doubts at her ability to lead, she has been an exemplary Draenei Paladin, and went from acolyte (albeit one being personally trained by Velen himself) to Exarch in a fairly short amount of time.
Yrel is very young for a Draenei - she was apparently born on Draenor, which means she's less than three hundred years old. For context, many Draenei (including all Draenei Death Knights, given Valok the Righteous' attempts to talk sense into you before you are forced to kill him) personally remember Argus, the planet they left behind 25,000 years ago, making Yrel less than an 80th the age of my Death Knight (even if we ignore the fact that he could well have been several thousand years old when they left.)
But given how absurdly long Draenei live, it's possible that they don't really age. It might make sense that as a species, the Eredar just hit adulthood and as long as they don't get hit with any big infections or injuries, they'll continue to live indefinitely. Sure, Velen looks "old," and he almost certainly is, even by Draenei/Eredar standards, but this might be explained in other ways. Archimonde and Kil'jaeden are probably around the same age as Velen, but they look fine (though they're also demons now, so who the hell knows?)
Ok, onto the crackpot theory, and this is cribbing a bit from the commenter who I really wish I could credit: Suppose Yrel's lying about her age and who she really is. What if, rather than 300 years old, she's actually more on the order of 25,000? What if she really does have a dark secret, and that secret is a key to the Horde's creation? What if she is Kil'jaeden's daughter?
We don't use the word Eredar to describe the Draenei that much because it tends to be associated more with the Manari Eredar demons who are arguably the top-ranking demons in the Burning Legion. But it might be more accurate to call the Draenei Eredar than their demonic kin. Kil'jaeden, before accepting Sargeras' deal, would be indistinguishable physically from the Draenei. It's not that crazy to think that maybe he had a family. Of course, most likely his family would have gone with him, getting transformed into demons and joining the Legion.
But among the Eredar Triumvirate that oversaw a practically utopian society, the two closest members were Velen and Kil'jaeden, calling each other brothers (and to be fair, I'm only assuming this is metaphorical.) If Kil'jaeden had a family - a daughter - one could imagine Velen acting in a kind of avuncular capacity. And when Velen was granted his vision by the Naaru, he presumably tried to convince his fellow leaders of the dire threat Sargeras posed. But clearly Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were not willing to listen.
But maybe Velen turned instead to Yrel (who in this hypothetical is Kil'jaeden's daughter.) Unable to convince the father, Velen succeeds with the daughter, and Yrel comes with Velen and the other Draenei as they flee Argus.
The pursuit of the Draenei has always been Kil'jaeden's obsession, while Archimonde has been fairly apathetic toward them. You could explain this as simply a difference in personality, or even the sense of betrayal Kil'jaeden felt at Velen's dissension.
But if Velen "stole" Kil'jaeden's daughter, well. That would be a hell of a motivation to scour the universe for the Draenei, and ultimately led to the transformation of Draenor and Azeroth in turn. And it would also make Yrel's journey more exciting - here, the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Eredar in history, has overcome the doubt she felt because of her history and has come to lead her people as their greatest champion. She would be the successful foil to Garrosh Hellscream, managing to overcome the shadow of her father by accepting that she is not the same person. And it would also set up an amazing confrontation later on... if we can set aside the crazy alternate-universe nature of this story.
(Ok, clearly there are some problems with this theory - like Yrel's sister Samara (though there's nothing inherently wrong with the idea that Kil'jaeden has two daughters) and more importantly, the fact that plenty of Draenei know Yrel and would probably remember seeing her for thousands of years if she were lying about her age.)
(Ooh! Ooh! In an older voice file, she refers to Velen as her uncle. Maybe this was a plot they considered doing but then decided against it?)
Damn. Can we bring Yrel back with us? I mean, she's probably needed by her people, but I just think she's so cool.
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