For nearly twenty years of World of Warcraft, the lands of humanity within its setting have seemed fairly defined.
As we learned in Wrath of the Lich King, humans, in a process similar to Dwarves and Gnomes, began as Titanforged constructs, created (probably) by the Titans upon their arrival at Azeroth as part of the vast army of beings meant to defeat and contain the Old Gods and bring down the Black Empire. According to Chronicle, elaborating on an idea introduced in Wrath, the Curse of Flesh was essentially introduced to the creation forges in Ulduar that led to these constructs gradually mutating into fleshy beings - Earthen became Dwarves, Mechagnomes became Gnomes, and the Vrykul turned into... non-metallic Vrykul.
Weirdly, the process for humans in particular seemed to be a two-step one, as not only were there flesh-cursed Vrykul, but at some point later on, the Vrykul started having stunted, small children. King Ymiron, who ruled over the Vrykul of Northrend, wished to have these children culled, but there was an exodus of Vrykul following Keeper Tyr, fleeing the madness and corruption of Keeper Loken, and this was an opportunity for those with human children to save their offspring, ultimately settling in what would come to be called Tirisfal Glades - named as such because it was where Tyr fell to a C'thraxxi monster of the Black Empire.
The human tribes there eventually unified in order to survive against the aggressions of the Amani Trolls to the north, ultimately forming the Arathi Empire, centered in the Arathi Highlands, and spreading across much of the Lordaeron subcontinent. Eventually, that Empire would fall, with seven human kingdoms splitting form one another - Lordaeron, Gilneas, Alterac, Dalaran, Kul Tiras, Stromgarde (this one being the remaining vestige in the Empire's old heartlands) and Stormwind, far to the south.
This leaves us with an interesting question:
What the absolute hell is this Arathi Empire that has sent its expedition to Hallowfall?
It's not that humans have never been seen elsewhere - the Wastewander Bandits in Tanaris and Uldum seem to have been established in Kalimdor possibly before the Third War.
But there's very little indication of where the "Arathi" we encounter in Khaz Algar are actually from.
What there is an implication of, though, is that they might be bad news.
While the Arathi that we encounter in Hallowfall are generally friendly, there are a few little red flags that pop up here and there.
I'll admit, as someone who is very skeptical of organized religion (I have no problem with people having religious beliefs, mind you, but the institutions of religion are prone to corruption and can have a coercive influence on their societies) the zeal of the Arathi makes me a little nervous.
But while I get the impression that anyone in the Empire is expected to be a devout worshipper of the Light, I actually think that there might be more of a racial angle here (not to say that religious zealotry and racism never go hand-in-hand). In the level-cap optional sidequests in Hallowfall, where Faerin Lothar teaches you and Anduin an Arathi board game, she expresses surprise that Anduin is friends with a dragon. Anduin says he'd like to come visit her empire some day, and she says that she's not sure that all the diverse races of the Alliance (and I guess Horde) would be welcome there.
To be sure, the Arathi appear to have a lot of half-elves among them, and many, including Faerin, have signs of some elvish ancestry. But this might be the exception that proves the rule - high elves were considered an acceptable part of the largely human society, to the exclusion of all else, which, honestly, kind of describes the era of the original Arathi Empire, when the only other peoples they were typically interacting with were Trolls (I don't know when humans first made contact with dwarves and gnomes).
We also get another line during the other level-cap side quest there, when you go to have dinner at General Steelstrike's daughter's house. Among the many memories and accolades they display, there's one commendation for Steelstrike's part in putting down an uprising somewhere in the empire.
Now, sure, uprising could be a number of things - our fight against the Defias in Vanilla could be seen as an uprising (though that story is also somewhat nuanced - Van Cleef's methods were questionable, but his grievances were pretty freaking legitimate). So I'm not saying that this necessarily means it was a brutal crackdown on a group of benevolent freedom fights.
But... it kind of seems like it probably was.
Let's also just consider the terminology we're using: it's the Arathi Empire, and it's led by an Emperor.
There's an odd nuance to the connotation of the word "Emperor" in the English language. We tend to like Kings and Queens more than we like Emperors. Emperor, I think, harkens back to the era of Rome, which, in the middle ages, when modern nation states like England were taking form, was looked back on as a period of corruption and depravity - a pre-Christian world that fell because of its moral failings. Emperors, thus, are seen as tyrants, while Kings (and Queens) are seen as righteous, benevolent rulers. Even during the height of the British Empire (which, to be fair, was called an Empire,) the sovereign of said Empire was referred to as King (or Queen - for some reason the UK's ruling queens tend to have very long reigns, though after QE2 we're probably not going to see one for a very long time). It's not as if the British Empire was actually benevolent - talk to anyone in about a quarter of the world whose country is still recovering from British colonialism (the US being a weird case because the dominant culture is one descended from the colonists rather than the indigenous people) and the British were every bit the evil empire you might imagine. But in terms of self-image, it painted itself in this preferable form.
Oddly, there's an exception to this when it comes to East Asia. What we've translated as Emperor in those places tends to be actually seen more the way that European kings are. Hence why Shaohao of Pandaria, whose culture is clearly inspired by China's, can be a fully benevolent Emperor while this Arathi one is almost certainly going to be a villain.
Now, let's talk about Faerin.
Faerin Lothar has alluded to her family - she stowed away on the Hallowfall expedition as a child, in part because she felt that her family didn't think much of her. But what her family actually does remains unknown.
But that name, though.
Anduin Lothar was the great hero of Stormwind, the original leader of the Alliance forces. He was also a surrogate father to Varian Wrynn after King Llane was assassinated. Anduin Lothar was, essentially, supposed to be the absolute most awesome human who ever lived, and whose death at the hands of Orgrim Doomhammer actually rallied the Alliance to rout the Horde at the end of the Second War.
What's interesting, though, is that Lothar is said to have been the last descendent of the original Arathi kings. Also, if the movie is to be considered canon, he was literally Varian's uncle on his mother's side, meaning that Anduin Wrynn is also descended from the Arathi Kings.
All indications seemed to show that Anduin Lothar was the last of his line - he didn't have any children himself. But now, suddenly, we've got a new Lothar.
A name associated with the Arathi Kings. And a woman with that name who is from the mysterious Arathi Empire.
I think Faerin Lothar is the heir to the Imperial Throne of the Arathi Empire. I think she's a princess. And I think her dad (or I guess mom - things aren't necessarily patriarchal) is the Emperor.
This is super long-term story foreshadowing, as I suspect we won't be going to the Arathi Empire until the whole Worldsoul Saga is wrapped up (meaning I'm going to be in my mid-40s) but let me slap this prediction down here so that in 6 years or whatever I can point to it:
I think we're going to go to the Arathi Empire (possibly on that continent hinted at during Dragonflight). We're going to discover the Empire is a brutal regime, despite having very good people living under it and even serving the empire.
And we're going to have to depose the Emperor and put Faerin on the throne.
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