Attacking from the south would have meant fighting through the Scourge, meaningless. Zul’jin wanted to gain control over the Sun’well because he realized it was the source of power for the Blood Elves and he wanted it gone.
Then he didn’t know the Sunwell was already corrupted by Kel’Thuzad when he attacked so it was pretty much useless to the Blood Elves anyway because of the undead energies, so the Elves wanted to destroy it anyway.
Oh and by the way I just remembered ANOTHER good lore reasons because the Amani can never join the Horde…they are…cannibals. 
So when Thrall was Warchief, he said no cannibalistic culture can ever join the Horde, and the Darkspears had to abandon cannibalism. But I am pretty much sure the Amani would never abandon it as it is their own way of life and tradition of their tribe, and they cannot be reasoned with, unlike the Darkspears or Zandalari.
So the Amani unlike the Revantusk and Darkspear will never abandon cannibalism and therefore will never join the Horde.
(For the Forsaken cannibalism is different because they are undead and not living beings and it is just their racial skill for healing themselves during battle. But the Amani who always eat Elves, Humans or other humanoids just for the pleasure of doing it or because they think they can steal their souls and powers in this way, those cannibals will NEVER join the Horde as Thrall said.
I forgot it was also in Blood of the Highborne.
Like you said he didn’t know that and the Sunwell was cleansed in BC. His assessment was rather smart. He realized what was important to his opponents. Of course he didn’t know about the situation.
All the retcons don’t help either.
The Darkspear were cannibals too.
Interesting enough it’s strange in the Amani’s case. It seems they are consuming the hearts of slain enemies in a ritualistic way go gain strength (according to a Blood Elf npc. He then wants zombie hearts for himself… so… yeah that happened).
On the other hand there is a Revantusk npc saying Zul’jin would punish cannibals. Of course this could be blind veneration.
Remember some Orcs in our Horde were also cannibals in the past.
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:eyes the Forsaken:
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Afaik nothing indicates that the pre-Horde Darkspear tribe was inherently more “reasonable”, more “civilizable” than the Amani tribe. They had cannibalistic traditions, abandoned those upong joining the Horde because such was the rule set by Thrall. That’s pretty much it.
Actually the Darkspear are likely the most “savage” Troll tribe in the Horde - the Revantusk despise cannibalism and the Shatterspear basically lived in peace with the Kal’dorei until recent times.
In any case, traditionally having cannibalistic tendencies is certainly not something that would unquestionably prevent a race from joining the Horde. The Forsaken arguably do wayyy worse on a daily basis
(And slavery is still a thing in the Horde)
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Thrall made an exception for the Forsaken because they being cannibals is inherently part of their undead being that cannot be suppressed, meaning they do it not for pleasure but for healing themselves in battle if they need to regenerate their undead structure and necromantic magic sustaining them. Also they just eat the corpses of the enemies (and maybe of their allies too?? not sure 
) who are already dead on the battlefield , they don’t capture a living being and cook it in a cauldron, so rather than cannibals maybe we should just call the Forsaken “scavengers” like some animals like the vultures or hyenas… 
Basically, it’s just the regenerative ability of the Ghouls in WC3 that Blizzard wanted to port in WoW for the Forsaken for flavour (although the Forsaken are not exactly Ghouls, but something in between Zombies and Ghouls I think), but they didn’t really think of the Forsaken as a cannibal culture for this reason.
However, if you are a cannibal in the TROLL sense…meaning commonly eating the flesh of other humanoids races or even other Trolls just for your cooking pleasures, or just because you believe that in this way you will obtain their strength and/or magical power in a ritual way…then, in this case you WILL NOT be accepted into the Horde. Indeed the Darkspears had to drop it in order to be accepted, but I’m pretty sure the Amani are too prideful to abandon their culture and ways just to join an organization they largely despise anyway.
Now that is a more convincing argument against the Amani joining the Horde. The story could go in many different directions though. As Erevien said now that the Zandalari have joined the Horde, the tribes under their responsability (i.e. all of the tribes, including the Amani) are the closest they have ever been to having peaceful interactions with the Horde. That doesn’t necessarily mean joining the Horde, I doubt they will, though some could (maybe the Firetree and Smolderthorn, as the Dark Horde is gone now, what else can they do ?). But for example formerly hostile Troll NPCs could turn yellow to Horde players
I’d say considering the Zandalari’s recent allegiance, it’s hard to imagine the relationship between the Horde and the “lesser tribes” not changing. That is, if devs do want to come up with a coherent writing, though. Which is a bit… yeah
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All I read here was “Thrall is a hypocrite” because he denies the Trolls their culture but allows the Cannibal Corpse Party to join the Horde.
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All Troll tribes will join the Horde in due time. After the Zandalari joined everything is fair game.
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He denied it because for the Orcs cannibalism is particularly bad as it reminds them of the period they were under the influence of the demon blood and the Legion…quite a lot of them were cannibals back then (not just the Bonechewer).
For the Forsaken, they are usually treated as scavengers rather than cannibals as they are not living beings as I said. By the way, it’s not like the Darkspear Trolls cannot practice cannibalism anymore…some of them probably keep doing it, just not…in the open… I remember in Vanilla there was a Witch Doctor who imprisoned some Night Elves in Stonetalon Mountain and it was heavily hinted they were his next dinner
(by the way, I think some Worgen are cannibals too…not when they are around Stormwind or any other Alliance race of course, but some of the more savage of them and the ones who cannot control their feral instinct certainly practice cannibalism, I remember Worgen of the pack fighting in Silverpine and Gilneas saying they were salivating at the prospect of eating some good crunchy Forsaken bones)
If that happens the Blood Elves might just leave the Horde eventually if Blizzard ever makes a WoW 2, then. I read somewhere (I think it was in “Exploring the Eastern Kingdoms”) that the common opinions and consensus of the general Blood Elf population is not very happy with Silvermoon being in the Horde after the Fourth War, and with the fact that Lor’themar is busy with the Horde council all the time…they still very much dislike the Alliance of course, but officially bringing their sworn enemies into the Horde (implying they now have to share Quel’thalas peacefully with the Amani) might be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back and in a new game they could decide to leave the Horde and create an independent elven confederation with the Nightborne of Suramar and maybe some other elven factions who want to join them…
You’d be mistaken on this front I’m afraid.
Because Forsaken aren’t people : ')
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Can’t wait for the day that all troll tribes join the Horde, but unlike Boringnea I think the Blood elves will still remain with the Horde.
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You know, I don’t think I’m the boring one since I’m the one suggesting that a thousands-years-old rivalry amd war between Thalassian Elves and Forest Trolls over their lands SHOULD continue, while you all want them to be suddenly friends and hug…that’s boring
and the only way it could maybe remotely happen is if every member of the Amani tribe, upon joining the Horde, accept to move to Kalimdor or Zandalar forever, because, as I said, there’s no way these two races start to coexist peacefully in Quel’thalas…it wouldn’t make sense…
what do you want to see? The Blood Elves owning half of the Ghostlands while the Amani own the other half? Blood Elves and Amani fighting together against Scourge or Night/Void Elves? Or the Amani just join the Horde and they stay “peacefully” inside their Zul’Aman borders, meaning they aren’t going to help the Blood Elves and Horde in any meaningful way anyway? How would they be useful in that case?
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Joining the Horde doesn’t solve all conflict.
They can still bicker and border skirmish over the territory while uniting (through the Horde) against common foes of their homeland.
Just look at the relation between Forsaken and blood elves (some belves were openly disgusted by the Forsaken), or the belves and the Darkspear trolls (they bicker and talked down to eachother all the time).
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Zandalari were a common enemy in the past. Didn’t stop Blizzard from making them playable for the Horde. Amani just need to let go of their grudges and we can call it a day.
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If the next expansion is indeed Blood elf centred, I’m sure Blizzard will succeed in watering down Blood elf identity even further.
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I want to see all Troll tribes united under he Horde. I want skins for all of them.
At the very least Revantusk should be playable. The Firetree and Smolderthorn tribes could also be options, since the Dark Horde was defeated and some of their Blackrock Orc allies joined our Horde.
Heck it would even make some sense to ally with the Frostmane tribe simply for strategic reasons and to have a foot in Dung’Morogh.
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Oh Ice Trolls too now? You know in lore they are even more savage and power-hungry than the normal Forest Trolls? So if it’s difficult for the Amani to join, how can any tribe of Ice Trolls join? 
And a Horde outpost in the middle of the territory of the Dwarves seems a bad decision…the Dwarves have the bad custom to shoot at everything they want even if it’s not really hostile or a threat for them, like young ice trolls…so it’s better to wait that Ironforge falls into a civil war and the Dwarven clans start to fight themselves once again as I think eventually will happen when the son of Moira grows up, even if Blizzard usually ignores the Dwarves anyway, and nothing bad ever happens to them probably because Blizzard either think they are the best race on the Alliance, or because they are too boring…
That’s exactly what Revantusk Village is though… A Horde outpost in the middle of Dwarven territory. And as far as we know they’re doing pretty okay against the Wildhammer. So I don’t think that’s quite a problem.
Same goes for “savagery”… While I do think it is a relevant criterion when it comes to playable races, lorewise the Horde has no problem having Hozen, Ogres, Gronn and Ogron among its ranks, so I’d argue Ice Trolls are hardly beyond its limits. Plus Ice Trolls being the ultimate unga bunga Trolls sounds kind of myth now, according to several quests the Frostmane seem rather sound of mind and the Drakkari had built an impressive empire
That being said I agree that decent story continuity would make the Amani/Blood Elves cohabitation a no-no, though there could be several ways around it. I’m torn between sticking to the well-established, well-documented racial hatred and saying “who cares the Amani are the coolest kids in town”
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I know but in the very core territory of the Dwarves near Ironforge, it’s impossible right now…maybe there was a chance if the Horde had won the warfront and conquered Stromgarde. But now the Alliance has it so any Horde expansion south of Arathi is impossible. Not until the Orcs decide to leave the Night Elves alone and come to help the Forsaken and Blood Elves in the Eastern Kingdoms, alone they can’t do much against the Alliance currently.
Really? In any case I doubt the Drakkari can ever join, maybe the Frostmane but as I say right now there’s no way the Horde could help them anyway, so recruiting them would bring no benefits to them as a tribe.
I would dislike it like many other Blood Elves fans but with Lor’themar I think a deal could be possible in theory, IF the Amani are willing to accept the right conditions…like, if they want to join, they would have to stop any hostility against Blood Elves and start to work alongside them to protect and restore Quel’thalas.
For example these two are very simple conditions (I didn’t even want to ask the Amani for more lands or reparations of war for example) but I am not sure they would have humble enough to be willing to accept even those two…unless the Zandalari do something to convince them in a more direct way, but even that is iffy…
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