I think what we can take away from Garrosh and his Northrend lieutenants as well as the characterizations of Varian thus far is that Blizzard was tired of all the various faction leaders being such unmitigated good guys.

I'm not sure about this line of reasoning... while Blizz has certainly increased in-faction strife (Jaina vs. Wrynn, Garrosh vs. Thrall), I don't really think they're aiming for any sort of civil war scenario, at least not in the short term. What we are most likely to see is both sides grudgingly cooperating until Arthas is defeated, at least. Not to mention that the Jaina and Thrall "hidden" alliance is probably still stronger than the other conflicts - I don't see Thrall openly attacking the Alliance unless Jaina officially leaves it, and without Jaina's support it doesn't look like Wrynn can mount any sort of credible effort against the Horde.

About Garrosh, we must also remember that Thrall still looks to be solidly backed by Cairne, Vol'jin and Sylvanas. While the latter might conceivably betray Thrall if she thought it would facilitate Arthas' destruction, I don't think Garrosh could easily claim legitimacy over the Horde even if he somehow deposed Thrall. One thing I don't remember - when he fought Thrall in the pre-LK event, did he challenge him as leader of the *orcs* or of the *Horde*? Because they are not the same thing.

Hmmm... how about if both rage boys deciding to storm Theramore at roughly the same time? That would generally be regarded as a bad move... and seeing how Jaina has quite a lot of friends, that might actually lead to the Alliance and Horde banding together against their own unruly elements, of all things...

Nathantos Blightcaller needs to be promoted to the Forsaken's top general/military adivser now Varimathas has been killed. I was a little disappointed with the Forsaken's prescence in Northrend, other than the Apothecary society. There doesn't seem to be any unifying ranking military figure, they just are spread out. I'd have loved Sylvannas to visit New Agamand for a while, or another ranking Forsaken figure. Even an appearance of Putress before the Wrathgate would have been nice.

The promised exploration of Tauren lore through their Taunka ancestors seems to have fallen flat as well. The only interesting one I found was the guy at the Taunka village in Storm Peaks, the Bronze champion guy. It's pretty interesting to read about him as a champion of the Bronze and I can't help feel with the signs of a Bronze dragonflight betrayal imminent that we'll see him again, hopefully in a helpful manner.

Most of all I'm currently disappointed with the Blue Dragonflight "war". There’s so much unanswered, where are the other Blues? There are loads of blues that are quite prominent that have disappeared or aren’t present. For example where is Kalecgos, and what are his loyalties in this? Other of the more famous dragons like the two from Ahn’Qiraj, one of whom is Malygos’ son, and who could forget the dreaded whelp Awbee! There is also Azuregos who presumably isn’t dead from a lore perspective given the interactions during the Sceptre quest line and given the regaining of the flights sanity through the Netherdrakes (or just through time/the repopulation of the flight if you don't want to believe the retcon). I actually completed the Focusing Iris quest yesterday and was quite impressed by the finishing text:



Magic is now without its guardian. That line makes me think we may have caused a knock on affect allowing another powerful creature that previously couldn’t access magic/ley lines to gain more power, Azshara would be a good bet given the predictions for the next expansion. Also theres the potential that with magic running hectic now it may simply weaken the barriers allowing the legion to access Azeroth even easier.

Yeah, I'm aware of that... still, there are some clues around that there's no way a single faction can hope to defeat Arthas by itself. And I wouldn't call what's happening in Icecrown a "war"... more like "frontier skirmishes" (since there are no indications from either Wrynn or Thrall that forces are being mobilized en masse - it's just the commanders in Icecrown causing trouble). And I still think that whenever we actually get the Arthas raid, there will be a Very Bad Event(tm) preceding it to remind us of our common goal.

I've said this before, but the organized military campaign that dominates the "first act" of the expansion ends disasterously at the Wrathgate. The story then becomes the "adjunct" groups - mainly the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade and the player heros - making their way through the exotic parts of Northrend while the armies try to come up with a (probably pointless) Plan B.

Wrathgate is kind of like Amon Hen in Fellowship of the Ring - original plan dies here and new, unanticipated adventures begin. You don't see the armies again until Icecrown because they were never planning on going into the "side zones," but now the plucky adventurers do. Zul'Drak, Storm Peaks and Sholozar have no military significance to the original plan of marching legions of mechanized infantry up to the Wrathgate and breaking it down.

An unspoken truth - well, unless you talk to the Ebon Blade NPC's - is that much of the official military campaign against Arthas is moronic. It's also become self-destructive after the Wrathgate, and I'm sure that's amusing Arthas greatly. But really, this thing never had a chance of succeeding because it either doesn't know or doesn't appreciate what it's up against. The Wrathgate was going to end disasterously with or without the RAS surprise attack.

Yes, and I'm glad you brought up the fact that patch 3.0 was merely the "first act" of the expansion. Everything is going to hell in Icecrown at the moment, with open war between both factions. However, we have no idea how things will be at 3.X when we finally march into the Citadel, there is plenty of time for the story to hit rock bottom and both sides being forced into a grudgingly alliance to take down Arthas.

This is purely wishful thinking, but I'd like to see some more "major name" npcs from both sides biting it between now and the final content patch, it would only be fitting to show how much of a threat and impact the Lich King is to have on the world.

My question is, does the leader of the Horde have to be an orc? Consider the Forsaken. They have 2 simple objectives.

Destroy the Scourge that made them into monsters.
Defeat the Alliance that hunts them as monsters.

We're working on the first, and Sylvanas has to be thinking of the second. I doubt she had anything to do with the Wrathgate betrayal, but she certainly knew everything the RAS was working on. If Garrosh manages to survive up to Icecrown Citadel Thrall may not be as secure as he thinks. The Forsaken have contacts within the discontented Grimtotem clan of tauren. The Blood Elves are tied to the Horde through the Forsaken.

So picture this. Thrall dies of a mysterious, incurable illness. Garrosh's orcs, the Grimtotem, the Forsaken and Blood Elves all support Sylvanas as the new Horde leader. In return she makes sure Garrosh and Magatha gain control of their respective nations. We have a new, much darker Horde that will very soon be in open war with the Alliance.

The Horde is an Orc organization first and foremost. The Orcs formed it during the First War, and they include other races into it from time to time. During the first War, the Orges for example were in the Horde, black dragons were included, etc etc, right now the Horde is composed of...well you know what it's composed of. The Orcs have the largest standing military presence within the Horde as well. Fairly sure they'd never answer to another race's leader.

While I don't buy this scenario myself, to play devil's advocate here for a moment... would they have to?

The orcs have no paladins or priests -- light-based casters with a special potency versus undead. Modulo Death Knights, they're not exactly experts on the undead.

If the Forsaken managed to get an undead orc up on the throne... who was a pawn of Sylvanis... without "outing" him...

Why bother with that? Garrosh seems just smart enough to think he can play with the big boys. If he gains power someone will be pulling his strings. The Burning Legion or Yogg-Saron are the best bets, but if they were to go with the major coup his puppeteers could just as easily be the Forsaken/Grimtotem/BE alliance. Someone earlier said they didn't want him to just repeat Grom, this could mix in some Blackhand and the Shadow Council.