I strongly doubt we will only have H:A questgivers in the first zone only. These could be other parts of the mentioned fleets that battled when they discovered Pandaria, or reinforcements, as questing in the first zone lore-wise probably takes some days to weeks.
But that just to offer a different explanation, the "5.1" is indeed weird - why would a content patch add stuff in a levelling zone? Another Hyjal/Firelands Invasion-type of phasing?

Theramore being the new Wintergrasp would be quite interesting, actually.

On a related note, the Azshara's Crater battleground is going to be interesting as well, because that's firmly in Horde territory. In fact not only is Azshara protected Horde area, but it's implied the Crater (based on it's old vanilla location) would be right near Ogrimmar. I am not even sure how Alliance would have access to it considering the Warsong encampments are also nearby.

I mean, no matter how you slice it, any Alliance presence in Azshara is going to be a huge threat to the Horde.

It's just a Battleground isn't it? Like one you queue for? I don't think it's an open world pvp spot like Wintergrasp/Tol barad.

It is, but that doesn't mean there isn't "lore" behind it. In regards to Azshara Crater I mean. Of course Azshara Crater has been around since vanilla, there were npcs in Azshara for both sides. The Battleground itself was never released because it was too similar to Alterac Valley. But either way, lore wise Azshara Crater is right above Ogrimmar.

So the point was, in terms of lore, there would be a pretty compelling Alliance force somewhere nearby.

The simplest way of replacing Theramore as a usable port in southern Kalimdor is probably just to use Feathermoon v2. As for Theramore itself, I wonder if this is what that "Scenario: Alcaz Island" datamining from a while back was about. If so, then some--or perhaps all, if we just log in one day and Theramore's gone--of the events surrounding the attack might take the form of one of the PvE Scenarios we're getting for MoP.

I sincerely hope it's a world event, something along the lines of the Alliance side defending Theramore while Jaina evacuates people and escapes herself, while the Horde pushes into the city, and with phasing it catches on fire, sky turns red, something similar to Westfall, but more epic.

As long as the fire actually stops this time around.

Times like these I wish I had posting rights on the official US forums so I could join topics like the Horde storyline bias one (It's the second version of the topic, and it's on over a hundred pages at the moment).

The end of Cataclysm cinematic was posted at MMO-C.

Sort of an odd ending. The Dragon Aspects are stepping down, hinting at Thrall's child being the next protector. It seems strange because we clearly did not succeed in finding the real bad guy behind Deathwing, the Old God that he and his minions served.

Together with the Reply-Code Alpha, the disabled reorigination device, the removal of the Ulduar Watchers, the end of the Dragonflights might be the last nail in the coffin of Titan control over Azeroth. A resounding victory for N'Zoth, it appears?

Which will give the theme of the WoW expansion after MoP. Return of the Titans, N'Zoth and Sargeras. The theme of the end of the dragons and the dawn of the Mortals is one of the major fantasy themes and was in WoW from the beginning. MoP is basically an interlude storywise until the grand final. A Titan vs. Old God war that would hurt the mortal races and their war against both of them would be a great idea and would allow for a lot things to happen.

I don't think Deathwing ever actively served an old god. He did things that the old gods liked and did it under their influence, but I always got the strong impression that he did what he did because he thought it was his idea.

Interesting bit: In the Well of Eternity 5 man, did you notice that Deathwing is essentially bitch slapped by the old gods to keep him away from the Demon/Dragon Soul? We are then able to take it back to the future and use it to battle Deathwing. I think we're missing part of the puzzle that might revealed during the raid battle itself.

a) The Old Gods either want the Dragon/Demon soul to escape their prison in the future; or
b) The Old Gods know that if the heroes of Azeroth use it to defeat Deathwing, then the end result will be the removal of the power of the aspects, one of the last safeguards left by the Titans and one of the last obstacles to their ultimate attempt to escape

This seems to indicate that all the aspects (and perhaps dragons as a whole) are no longer immortal and no longer have their powers over time, magic, life, or dreams. In fact, if Ysera does not have any more powers, what the heck will happen to the Emerald Dream???

Without seeing whatever story is covered in the fight itself, I think what this cinematic does is address what was wrong about the end cinematic in Wrath.

• In Wrath, the end cinematic barely acknowledged that the players had a role in what happened. From all appearances, Tirion did it himself and was busy talking with Burning Bolvar.
• By contrast, this ending for Cata is much more strongly geared to playing up the importance of the players in particular and the mortal races in general.
• In Wrath, King Terenas statement that "there must always be a Lich King" created a sense of "what? So what was the point of our struggle to get here?"
• So here in Cata, there is a very strong sense of the dragon aspects burning themselves out by pouring so much power into defeating Deathwing. So losing their immortality and demi-godhood not only makes sense, but gives the players the sense that they didn't just prevent the world from being invaded (as with Sargeras in SWP) or replace one undying tyrant with another (Bolvar) but that we, the players, have CHANGED something fundamental about the world.

Admittedly, I can understand wanting to give the players a sense of agency without also coming up with a way to put the players into the cinematic. I thought that the overabundance of time spent on Aggra being pregnant with Thrall's baby was a little indulgent; if there hadn't just been a lot of rage over how Thrall isn't seen as a hero for the Alliance, I think it would have worked better.

On that note (about Thrall not being an Alliance hero): I think the Elemental Bonds questchain might have worked better if the Alliance had a character they were familiar with working with them. Imagine if it was Jaina who was taking us through the whole process. Keep the romance with Aggra, hell, keep Aggra there the whole time, don't change the story, but just let the Alliance take orders from Jaina and have Jaina also be involved, since she has just as much reason to want to save Thrall's life as anyone. (The possibility for dialogue between Aggra and Jaina sounds really compelling to me, so pity we'll never see it.)

I think the Elemental Bonds questchain was something that worked for the Horde (because Thrall's their boy) and lore-nerds like us did it for the story alone, but it's something that rank-and-file Alliance players didn't have any connection to because it's unknown Orc-girl giving us orders to save Thrall so we can get Phat Lewt. Having someone from the Alliance more strongly involved in that chain would have strengthened it's meaning for Alliance players, I think.

It'll be interesting to hear the post-mortem from Metzen and Kosak on where Cataclysm didn't live up to their expectations in terms of story delivery. Strong story is going to be really important going into MoP, because if that expansion is competing against Old Republic, story execution and player agency is going to be KING.