Just a question, weren’t the night elf and tauren druids turning the Barrens into a jungle? And didn’t Botani settle there too?
What happened to that?
There’s been no elaboration on any of this lore for a decade. The Botani since BfA.
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It’s both. Orgrim and Grommash have committed atrocities exceeding those of Garrosh or Sylvanas, slew kings, heroes and deities, and yet they’re still called heroes by the entire Horde, Thrall including. If he wanted peace to be remembered in the first place, do you think it was a good idea to have named his capital after warlord who devastated Stormwind, conquered Lordaeron, burned through Khaz Modan and was steps away from dominating the entirety of Eastern Kingdoms? If anything, Drek’Thar deserved such honours for preserving the orcs’ shamanistic traditions and making Thrall into who he was, but as is it doesn’t seem like much more than the Frostwolves remember the name anymore.
And even as region after region is discovered, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to leave the accursed wastes behind. With the recent developments one could ponder the idea of settling in Townlong, Nazmir, Stranglethorn or any other place with enough free space and resources. If only Garrosh’s escapades in Pandaria started with the actual help against the mantid…
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My response to that is that orcs revere their leaders as embodiments of strength and venerate their deeds as demonstration of their strength. It’s not the atrocities of Grom and Orgrim that are being celebrated, but the might that they demonstrated. They were great leaders of the Horde because they were strong and victorious, not because orcs see all of the murderous stuff that they did as inherently good.
Less “might makes right” and more “might deserves respect.”
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Her super-duper-uber ranger companion (no mom, it’s not Nathanos 2.0 I swear!) is still out there, so a prison break seems all but inevitable.
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Also both Grom and Orgrim ‘redeemed’ themselves. Orgrim in freeing them from the internment camps, and dying in the process; Grom for killing Mannoroth. The Alliance will say “that’s not enough to wash out the bad” and yeah probably not, but Thrall knew them as heroes. They failed, and they did better, and then they died for the Horde. No big surprise he’d want to name stuff after them.
Don’t ask me about Bladefist though.
Hammerfall is where Orgrim died (you know, Doomhammer’s fall) so the Mag’har setting up there isn’t just for kicks and giggles, it is place of symbolic significance for the orcs.
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Something something, Shaw and SI7 trying to knife Thrall while he was trying to fix the elements…
Yes, I just replayed the Goblin Starter Zones, why do you ask? >_>
-Arrives, refuses to elaborate, hurls Blastmaster 5000 into chat, leaves-
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Symbolic significance can be respected in other ways. The Demon Fall canyon is deep in Kaldorei territory, but they allow pilgrims there and back. Just like the belves allow all their non-voided kin to visit the Sunwell. Establishing a route from Hilsbrad under the same premises would have made much more sense. Settling in Arathi like that sounds like a pointless endeavour, too volatile to approve by anyone able to think straight.
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So either orcs are mindless drones who slavishly follow the queen bee and have no agency. Or the run on a mindset of Rule by the Strong which is Might makes Right, which is an inherently violent mindset, in which case you’ve just agreed with me.
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The funniest thing about this is that if they succeeded the Goblins could’ve just killed Gallywix and actually unshackled themselves from an immense despot. But because Thrall survived he put him in charge leading to a decade of terrible problems for Goblins and the Horde.
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Well it’s not pointless, is it? It’s arable, farmable land - there’s real, tangible value in that. It’s also a symbolic place for them, it’s of direct value, and it’s not like Stromgarde has any real grip on the zone beyond their castle walls. Syndicate, pirates, ogres, trolls…
I am curious though, if the Horde did forge another alliance with the Witherbark, would everyone agree that the Stromic humans should leave Arathi? Probably not. I’m sure despite being troll ancestral land, they’d say “no they should share it with humans, even if it’s ‘causing problems’.”
Metzen’s characters stopping despots getting killed, smh.
First Thrall, then Varian.
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The lead-up and story of Cataclysm/MoP really is a showcase of Thrall’s terrible decision making. Why anyone wanted him back as Warchief is a mystery to me!
Arathi was an awful place for Geya’rah to chose, even though it has some resources and symbolism. As was said above; all she’s done is insert her people into a place surrounded by hostile Alliance to the west and south, mountains to the north, and the sea to the east. The Mag’har have trapped themselves into a future of inevitable conflict, with no way out.
Almost anywhere else would’ve been a better choice. Hell, why not share the abandoned wilds of Suramar with the Nightborne? It seems perfectly habitable, with allied Elves and Tauren close by, along with other friendly peoples and resources to trade.
Both the Alliance and Horde have this weird obsession with Supreme Leaders, mind you.
Which, from American writers, I find both a bit odd and amusing. That regardless of who is designated ‘goodie’ or ‘baddie’, there’s a Most High Rank.
Councils and actual equal footing lesdership seem to come a lot later, if at all.
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The secret american yearning for the british monarchy.
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It isn’t wrong to have a single leader of an alliance in a state of total war as is. Why did it have to be the leader of a human kingdom that was unable to make most of it liveable until his death, and why his successor had even an idea to disappear for five years without any and all consequences or even care for his subjects all while there were far more suitable candidates around is a different question entirely.
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True+real.
Part of this is a result of it being a fictional story. Which is easier to write: a compelling supreme leader, or a compelling dozen of characters each with interpersonal relationships, beliefs, and ideologies?
There’s only so much ‘writing space’ (and headspace for your readers to keep track of the writing). It’s why the Horde Council is a disappointing sigh of a concept. Nothing to it, they don’t show up, instead it’s still just Thrall.
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According to Vakosh no, because even without the humans the Amani trolls would’ve lost control of the region anyway so for humans it was free real estate.
Also, according to the most recent short novella, the Arathi made Strom in the Arathi Highlands because it lacked forest trolls, so they were “save” from their foresty ambush tactics. So the Amani that became the Witherbark only showed up later.
Also a Alliance dwarf farm town between the mountains and sea. There is literally no way to turn without running into Alliance held lands.
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This is no excuse to not think the matters through. Or at all.
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Not sure about the british part, but the rest isn’t so secret these days. 
I dearly hope “core” Azeroth zones get another update eventually. There is so much potential around the original continents that just doesn’t seem to ever be realized, or even acknowledged half the time.
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I was fairly confused for a moment there