I wish Blizzard’s writing team gave an update on which clan is leading who. Blackrock clan, Dragonmaw clan, Warsong clan, Frostwolf clan, Shattered Hand clan.
These were all the original clans within the Horde, apart from the Dragonmaw and Blackrock who joined later in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, aswell with a couple of blademasters from the Burning Blade clan.
I would like to see these clans reintroduced… The Iron Horde is nice, but the aesthetic of the Green Orcs is slowly losing its dominant aspect within Orc society. Drek’thar was seen in Legion, so who was leading the Frostwolves at that time? Garrosh was the last known leader of the Warsong clan, apparently a level 30 quest mob that the Alliance kill is now suddenly the leader of the Dragonmaw clan, no whereabouts of the Blackrock clan if they even exist in current state.
Agree, Blizzard all the time pushes the story so fast, that they forgetting to give updates about their own World. I got same interests regarding Silverwing Sentinels organization. Do they still exists? If yes, who is leader?
Regarding Drek’thar, in Cata he was so old, that he needed wheelchair. But in Legion he still alive and still a leader of his clan.
In Cata he refuse to fight on the Sylvanas side. I wonder what his clan was doing in BfA. Again an dark spot from Blizzard.
I think they’re more or less homogenised under Thrall and Geya’rah at the moment. Both of which have their roots in the Frostwolf clan.
It’s a bit difficult to tell if each of the other clan identities still has a notable representative at this point in time because as you said, Blizz have yet to make an individual stand out for any of them independently since the original Chieftains as we know them.
This doesn’t mean they can’t choose to do so in future however if it suits the story at the time. Thrall already stated he didn’t personally want to lead, so leadership of the orcs is currently up for grabs in my book.
We might see various contenders vying to fill that power vacuum left behind by himself and Saurfang and this is probably where we could see a resurgence in tribal clan identities until they settle on a new leader than can unite them once again. If not for the all orcs then at least for the green ones.
I think Thralls struggling to identify as the racial/Horde leader in the SL novel is a foreshadowing of this as it could indicate he no longer inspires the same leadership qualities he once did. This could either be down to his own lack of faith, or a general feeling of dissolution amongst the orcs following the aftermath of the Fourth war.
Who knows, maybe even orcs from the same clans in the MU and AU might form a closer bond and elect someone who represents both of them equally well. This is if we can assume each pairing will share closer cultural similarities to each other, than as opposed to the similarities they may share in common with a rival clan.
You have to much trust in Blizzard’s writing team. They are not able to manage a war between Alliance and Horde, do you expect them to manage the differences between orc clans?
Much like it will probably happen with Forsaken (and how it happened with Trolls), Orcs will be probably left in a limbo state without real development regarding their cultural and societal state.
Back in the day, with Thrall around, they barely got any attention beyond him. As things are right now, odds are that they remain benched for quite some time.
They may have some role if Blizzard finally pulls the “Evil Light” plot. But then we may have the Maghar taking up the protagonism.
Going on a more On Topic note: the entire clan system was abolished of sorts after Thrall took on the mantle of “Lord of Clans”. Orc clans could still have representatives, but they ceased to have proper leaders.
And the only representatives left, would be Eitrigg for the Blackrock, Jorin for the Bleeding Hollow, Drek’thar for the Frostwolves, Rexxar for the Mok’nathal, and probably Nazgrel for the Warsong.
Given there are no other Warsong figureheads left, yeah, it would make sense to have one of Thralls top generals representing them.
Thrallmar already has him as leader of the ones that left for Outland.
Yeah and pretty much is not like every Clan has a leader anymore since they are homogenized as such. Its more of an Orcs Band Together at this point.
The lack of a Clan system doesn’t take away from the identity or the roots of a character for that matter though… You can perfectly be a Blackrock Orc, a Warsong Orc, you can be a Maghar from Au, or a Maghar that was left behind in Nagrand with the Pox and avoided being corrupted from the Legion (Garrosh was as such), so I don’t see any real “problem” in the lack of Clan leaders not being there, since Clan identity is pretty much present.
Lets just say that even if its not whats causing the problem, its not part of the solution.
Removing distinct clan features to further a more homogenised take on the orc race, doesn’t exactly help regarding creating a richer view on their culture.
There are a series of traits that need to be discarded or ignored in order for this joint approach to work.
These differences were so relevant that they made orc clans fight and kill each other.