You're putting a pretty one-sided spin on things. The Horde is a completely different culture from the humans. It's entirely fine to not agree with them, but when you try to argue that they're corrupt just because of the way their culture is, you need to take a step back and cool off. The Horde is a group that believes in power. It's not absurd for a culture like that to indulge in blood sport and slaves, and while you or I may find it morally reprehesible, calling them corrupt for it is purely subjective.

Many negative things you point out in the Horde can be countered with a lot of positive thing (talking about the main body of the Horde, since that seems to be what you're talking abotu as well. Orcs, Trolls, Tauren). Firm belief in honor, respec for strong opponenets and the wise, a strong connection with nature, etc.

Variann Wrynn's best friend was a prodigal paladin called Arthas Menethil. Guilty by association? Or is nuance possible on the Alliance side of things?

That being said, hierarchy does not work the same in the Horde and Alliance. The different clans of the Orcs for example are closer to the different kingdoms the humans used to have then to the current chain of command of the Alliance.

Could Watcher Tyr be buried under Light's Hope Chapel? It fits with Tyr's Hand being nearby and Tyr being the Light/Order Watcher.

With the modern day Horde they are all united under one banner with Thrall as the Warchief of all. I've never heard of a particular clan in the Horde, not even Hellscream's not answering directly to Thrall and/or following his orders. This extends over to all of the factions within the Horde, Blood Elves/Forsaken included, it's understood that Thrall is the overall leader of the entire Horde and his final word dictates all 5 factions below him, yes this includes Sylvanas who cannot make a move without the backing of the Orcs and the numbers they bring. The Horde in general is one gigantic faction of convince, you start with just the Orcs, they included the Island Trolls from the Echo Islands, then they included the nomadic Tauren, then the outcast Forsaken, followed by the broken Blood Elves of Silvermoon. Each faction kind of needs the other, and it just so happens each of them bring a lot to the table, which makes them frighteningly powerful as a whole.

The Alliance is a bit different, it's quite obvious that Varian and King Magni talk and speak to each other as equals, one does not hold a higher weight then the other. I imagine that the same can be said of Tyrande and the Night Elves, they don't answer to Magni or Varian, they're the oldest race in the Alliance. The Gnomes aren't really a nation, they have no nation, they don't even have a monarchy, they've always been a minor race, but similar to Horde factions they bring a lot to the table in terms of technology. Valen and the Draenei also do not answer to anyone. From my understanding the Alliance was formed due to the Humans in general, they're the diplomatic types and they keep the whole thing from falling apart and also coordinate with the other factions, which is odd considering until recently Stormwind was ruled by a Black Dragon for all intents and purposes.

Underneath Light's Hope are the bodies of 1,000 champions of the light who had fallen in the past, they were moved there after Arthas killed Terenas to prevent the Lich King from raising them for his army, this was explained in Ashbringer #4

Did it occur to anyone that we probably won't see Warcraft IV until say 2015? :P

Thrall's leadership over the Horde is not that complete as you suggest. Thrall's grip on the Orcs themselves is in no way as strong as Wrynn's grip on the humans for example. Just look at the fight between Garrosh and Thrall just before WotLK hit ( Garrosh Hellscream - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft ). He is still Warchief because he is unbeaten in single combat, he has 'respect' because he is the strongest (and wisest to some).

Looking at the New Horde, Thrall's moves and choices are very much dictated by other factions. While you say Sylvanas cannot make a move without a backing of the Orcs, this is true. But conversely, Thrall's decisions are dictated by the concerns of all. As you say "each faction kind of needs the other", and Thrall knows and acts accordingly more then any other.

While reading the last couple of pages, I cant help but feel that many people still view the two factions in wow like they are reading a Tolkien book; The Alliance are the forces of good uniting together against the evil horde of monsters. The fact that the 4 races that compromised "good" humanoids in Tolkiens books are almost the same you had in vanilla wow, and the 4 races that compromised the "evil bloodthirsty horde" seem to complement this just exacerbates the situation.

These factions are not black and white, and the horde are not inherently evil and the alliance arent inherently good like most want to believe. Both sides in the conflict are doing what they believe right. To say that the horde are evil and that Varian Wrynn has seen the dark and gruesome side of the horde because they support slavery and hold arena combat in high regard makes them monsters is more than slightly shortsighted. Looking back on human history itself can show you this isnt so. It seems to me that the horde has a feel to trying to build its own identity and civilization from nothing.

To me, at least by the end of TBC, it seems that horde and alliance are trying to come to some kind of amicable coexistence. They dont love each other, but at the very least it seems that they are trying to come to terms with each other. People also tend to blame Thrall and Sylvanas for the actions of the Royal Apothecary Society, saying that both should have been aware of their impending betrayal or that these were somehow involved. This isnt the case however, and shouldnt be blamed upon them. Very recently, the whole of the RAS were saviors to both the alliance and horde, with them being the engineers to the ending of the scourge plague.

You know it's a shame we don't know the details of what happened when Orgrim Doomhammer killed Blackhand(What was his first name, geez) and took over the Horde. Would Hellscream have to kill Thrall to take over the Horde or just defeat him in single combat? Thrall's leadership is as complete as it can be in my opinion, even if they disagree or squabble with him, they ultimately all answer to him, and his word is law(Similar to how Hellscream's word is law in Northrend atm, scary Orcs!) In the novel Old Hatreds Thrall killed an Orc who tried to incite open war with Theramore, and Thrall acknowledges that many of his people disagree with his way of thinking and leadership, BUT they still follow his word to the letter.

Well that just goes back to what kind of person Thrall is in general. He cares, my point was that none of the 5 factions in the Horde can make a move without his say so. If you look back at the second Scourge invasion for instance you could see Hellscream and Sylvanas lobbying for an assault on Northrend, and trying to convince Thrall to send the Horde's armies. You know Hellscream wouldn't have defied him....well maybe he would have, but NORMAL Orcs who don't want to take over the Horde wouldn't defy him. :P Sylvanas also came off as requesting that it be done, as opposed to just moving her Forsaken out there without him, or telling him "This is what I'm doing, VENGEANCE RAWR, are you on board?"

For some reason, the discussion of Horde breaking apart reminds me of claims that Sylvanass goes rogue and attacks Horde and Alliance alike.

The argument against both is that Blizzard can't do something that affects lots of Horde players.

Unless Blizzard makes World of Warcraft II or Warcraft IV I'm fairly sure there's no way it can happen.

Two things:

Why is Cairne so irrelevent?

It's quite understandable why High Tinkerer Mekkatorque is irrelevant. And more importantly to my second point, can the Gnomes ever become relevent as more than "the research guys" while their capital city is being desecrated? The gnomes are incredibly unfleshed out and they seem very one-dimensional dealing mostly with Gnomeregan.

They have already moved away from Aldor/Scryer type choices with Wrath. Introducing such a choice where Orcs can join Alliance and Humans the Horde, is game changing (and anything game changing can be game destroying too).

Cairne has not been involved prominently in anything till now. I agree though that Cairne is not irrelevent.