I actually don't see Thrall coming back as the Warchief. Perhaps he'll stay as leader of the Earthen Ring, maybe even merge it with the Cenarion Circle as a sort of super council for nature and elemental issues in Azeroth. He is trying to mould Garrosh into his replacement, and this is his trial by fire. I think Thrall would love to be able to leave the Horde in capable hands to focus more on the greater threats to Azeroth, much like Stormrage does. I don't even understand how Shaman's powers are going to function in the Elemental realms, but I guess that one will be left unexplained.

My predictions for Cata are Garrosh winning over the respect of Baine and Vol'jin through his actions, making a few blunders but otherwise steering the Horde in the right direction, eventually ousting/killing Sylvannas (because as much as I hate to admit it, she is being manoeuvred as an arch villain down the road) and the Blood Elves are pretty much a separate entity that Blizzard refuses to actually bring into the Horde anyway so no idea what will happen there.

On that topic, I couldn't remember of the top of my head. Has Thrall ever met Malfurion Stormrage? Maybe in the comics or something?

Was there anymore info on the Duskbringer a few pages back? It came up on the official forums and people on beta checked the location and said he wasn't there. Seems to have been done on a private server.

Too many posts to quote since I posed my question, but I tend to lean toward Kaejin on this.

I think Garrosh's reaction to the badge is based on something that we do not know that Thrall and Garrosh previously discussed; however, I am not ruling out Garrosh betraying Thrall either, but I think if Garrosh wanted Thrall out he would do it with honor and challenge him directly.

On to other things:
Currently I have taken my Gob from Azhara -> Ashenvale -> Stonetalon -> Southern Barrens -> Dustwallow -> 1k Needles -> Tanaris -> Un'goro. He is 53.

I say this because the Horde vs Alliance storyline is very tight and very good up to S. Barrens. It obviously peters out once you leave Horde territory, but you really get a sense and feel for the War. One nugget I wanted to touch on was that the Alliance struck the first blow and started the War before the Cataclysm. I might have screenshots lying around for those that haven't seen this but you come across this conversation at Hunter's Hill in Southern Barrens where you basically find out that Theramore (I assume under Varian's command) strikes out sacking Horde settlements up the Gold Road into the Barrens and the only thing that stops them is when the Cataclysm hits as it separates the Alliance army and forces them to retreat giving the Horde time to react.

You as the player take part in this through some awesome guerrilla warfare with Orcs and Tauren (so awesome).

Granted I am sure that there will be justification of this through the excuse of the Wrathgate, but I am wondering is there any Alliance take on this through their questing? I plan on letting my Gob sit until the 50-60 zones are done and ready; so in the meantime I am going to get a Worg up through the Alliance side of things, but has anyone gotten through these areas and has any light to shed on the subject? Is this Horde propaganda or more of Blizzard keeping the colors gray?

Not to sound whiny, but I do hope we get a more palpable feeling of threat out of this launch event. On the other hand, the WotLK one, while "for the lulz" (apparently, the fact is a bunch of citizens getting turned to ghouls was quite horrific), was pretty much one of the most amusing things I've done in WoW. But when the time for invasion came, we saw Thrall arguing with Garrosh while bringing down wyrms and roundhouse-kicking abominations. The Cataclysm event is starting on the right foot, it seems, with all the subversive, end-of-times cults.

In other news, here's what people mean when they say Deathwing treats his kin as dogs:



Atramedes (which is a strange name for a Black Dragon), a Blackwing Descent boss.

Edit: Also, this Entering the Elemental Plane: Deepholm - World of Raids Forums

Seems Thrall is indeed in charge of keeping the world (as in, giant ball of rock and water) in one piece. We now have the reason why he leaves the Horde.

Collateral damage from Deathwing's "gotta go", perhaps? Or, being a vortex of energy as well as water, perhaps it was a natural spot for the veil between planes to rip.

Wowwiki to the rescue, it seems, check out the 2010 update. He enters through the Maelstrom...perhaps Blizzard needed a reason to have us visit that zone.

Deathwing Scar - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft