I for one am assuming there are going to be some bad things ahead for the horde in terms of lore such as Thrall leaving etc., because at Blizz Con Chris Metzen said "theres gonna be some dark times ahead for the horde." He said this during the panel after the opening ceremony, discussing how the goblins would be a type of comic relief for them.

Since Metzen pretty much tells the story of WoW how he sees fit I'm going to take this as the horde are about to take a few hits.

Med'an is going to be the new Aspect of Magic. I would have thought that was fairly obvious by now.

Plus, you know, it's not like the Forsaken suddenly forgot how to make Blight.

During the panel about all this, Blizzard went out of their way to say things like "Recognize that black metal? Who likes that sort of thing?" (in reference to the shot of the entrance to Orgrimmar) and then also when they showed the picture of the Zoram Strand they specifically mentioned Garrosh by name, saying he was expanding and fortifying the Horde's holdings.

Based on those comments there's basically no doubt that Garrosh is involved with the Horde's expansion; what we don't know for sure is what his specific role is - warchief, just a high up general type, etc.

And where did you get this irrefutable, conclusive information? If I recall correctly, didn't Metzen note that Malygos wasn't about to be replaced by someone/something that wasn't a dragon?

If anything, Med'an is being built to be the next major leader / protagonist of the overarching Warcraft story arc. He's more or less the next Medivh / Thrall / Mal'furion, a character who everyone will be able to rally behind to finish off a massively great evil. He's more than likely not going to be an Aspect, or for that matter, even a Guardian, though being the next Guardian, or an eventual one, seems to be the most likely case.

I suspect that Thrall might just be a part of the Council, and not an actual Guardian, but it's pretty safe to assume that Garrosh is about to get a much larger control over the Horde.

I am curious, and it may be a dumb question, but given the comments about the next Aspect of Magic and who it will be i wonder; Doesn't Norgannon need to return to Azeroth to appoint that? Is there some other way for someone to become the aspect?

I realise there is scope in the Ulduar/Algalon storyline for a return of at least some of the titans. I just wonder if that kind of event can possibly happen in the short term - given the long term narrative the titan story has so far had - or whether the identity of the new aspect is something which may be a long way off?

The 'Heart' recovered from Malygos is what they will use to empower the next Aspect. I'd imagine that is the case for all of the Aspects also.

Did you guys read the lore texts about Thrall and Garrosh on the official Cataclysm site? (Link here: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - Features - Lore ).

I mean Blizzard is painfully obvious at hinting to Thrall's removal from his current position. Yes it's only hints, but so far we know that Thrall is being captured and subsequently rescued by Goblins to make their faction entrance. Afterwards, who knows. Boubouille mentioned somewhere that the Thrall/Garrosh thing won't be right from the start, so this might be a ongoing lore theme unfolding during 4.x version cycle. But there are lots of hints that something is going to happen there. I for one rather believe that this is going to happen, as all the other bits that were leaked from mmo-c were right, so why not this also?

What I envision right now is that simply Garrosh vs. Varian is going to be the petty faction conflict line and Thrall/Jaina/others (Rhonin, Khadgar, others?) are going to deal with the real dangers. So in a way, not that much difference.

Regarding the dark days, he just mentioned "there are, in this expansion, some dark days ahead." He didn't specifically mention the Horde in that. The only Horde-centric comment he made was when he introduced the Goblins when he said "the Horde may need some comic relief coming up soon, and goblins fit perfectly." Personally, his mention of the Horde needing some comic relief just led me to believe the part about Cairne dying was true.

While I love that big old cow and blame Blizzard for not giving him even a slight role in transpiring events - plus hideous gear - I'm all for Cairne dying. Preferably in a blaze of glory, such as squishing half of Garrosh's elite guard before finally getting overpowered.

Back to Thrall-Garrosh: with Med'han perfectly incarnating (even now) the Aspect of Magic - Malygos is even hinted not to have had any kind of influence over non-arcane magic - that leaves us to know if Thrall will indeed "lose" his post as Warchief by joining the Council of Tirisfal and maybe even becoming the new Guardian. That's my opinion. In the screen published here, he was wearing quite the castery gear, kilt and all. Clearly, those aren't prisoner clothes the SI:7 made him put on (I still find it hard to believe they can force him to do anything). So he does seem to be joining the Council - an insurrection would be hard to believe, he's got a lot of influence over old warlords and overlords like Saurfang, trying a coup would probably end with the orcs' decimation rather than Thrall's demotion - which might mean Rehgar dies. As to his promotion to Guardian: pardon my orc fandom, but if you can think of someone more messiah-like, unifying and all-around powerful, I'm all for hearing about that being. Hell, I'll vote for him.

Turalyon. I just finished reading both Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal, and as far as I understand it he's meant to be some kind of super-Paladin. Jarod might also count for pure unifying ability as well, in a pinch.

I'm thinking that they are holding Turalyon and the other windrunner sister in their back pocket for a future content patch / expansion, dealing in some part with the outlands. In fact given that deathwing had spent time in outlands it would not suprise me that a 4.1 or 4.2 patch would take us back to a changed and updated outlands.