I am currently trying to learn more about orc lore and reading about the history of orc warlocks there is something I don’t quite understand. As we all know orc warlocks were originally Guld’an followers of the Shadow Council and the Stormreaver clan, but both got eventually purged. The Shadow Council after the First War and the Stormreaver clan by the demons of the tomb of Sargeras, and then by the Horde as punishment for having left them while victory was in their grasp.
Yet comes vanilla and orcs are one of the races with warlocks with trainer hanging out in Orgrimmar. How did that happen ? Were some Stormreaver spared ? Where those warlocks simply from other clans ? But why didn’t they follow Gul’Dan then ? And even then why did Thrall accepted them when he lead the orcs to Kalimdor since their magic was responsible for the downfall of shamanism and they were the symbol of the Old Horde which Thrall was trying to move away from.
Probably in all likelihood. The Blackrock clan had their own warlocks and even Drek’thar for a time embraced fel magic.
I’m pretty sure Thrall accepted them out of a “better the devil you know” mindset, and because he recognised the ones who knew the most about demons and the legion were of course other Warlocks.
Garrosh actually berates Thrall for this decision as well.
There’s also the potential that Forsaken warlocks helped train/remind Orcs of the dark magics they had lost as well.
You are actually half correct with this. Gul’dan, Shadow Council and Stormreaver Clan were warlocks, yes. But they weren’t the only ones.
Stormreaver Clan was a clan of warlocks Gul’dan himself created, that’s sadly all I know. Besides that all of them died except a very few.
Shadow Council was Gul’dans inner circle. So the ones he trusted the most.
Other than them, pretty much all clans had warlocks. Because of what is said above, the elements stopped answering.
This is the lore as of I personally know it. Thrall allowing them I think was to give them a second chance, while keeping an eye on them. Then how a warlock got to join the Horde can vary. One of the orcs from the camps, or came later together with Blackrock Clan. Or perhaps didn’t pick up until Grommash and Warsong Clan drank the blood again.
If there are any Stormreaver Clan members, they’re very likely to be in the number of tens, maybe even less. Drak’thul was one of the few that avoided not only getting torn apart inside the Tomb of Sargeras but also surviving not being found by the rest of the Orcish Horde that had been sent to hunt Gul’dan’s Stormreavers down, but also just… LIVING on the Broken Shore.
I want to recall reading that there are more Stormreaver Clan members found surviving within the Tomb of Sargeras itself, but it is assumed that the majority of them were wiped out during the Legion Invasion.
Honestly, seeing as how both Shadow Council and Stormreavers have a lot of history in uh… Hiding and/or running away from the people that want to murder them, I’d make the bold claim that RPing a Stormreaver Warlock could be possible, perhaps they were forgotten about in due time or so.