The “Glory” of the Horde

Warning: Parts of this posts include potential spoilers to Cataclysm and the WoW Comics. You have been warned.

Shortly after I finished my post about why the Alliance should have pride in being part of the Alliance, I received this in my inbox:

Dear Pathetic Alliance Lover,

I’ll give you some credit. You got a lot of guts to write that.  Defending a bunch of smelly dwarves, ankle biting gnomes, space goats and spineless humans.  But the reason your failure of an Alliance lacks the pride is that they have been utterly decimated by the power that is the Horde! But the worst part is that you defended that loud mouth moron of a king.  I doubt you would even extend that kind of courtesy to the Horde.  Say, defending the son of the greatest warrior the Horde has ever known?  Could you do that?  Could you prove to the Horde that I…  I mean, that Garrosh is just as fit to be warchief as that human lover Thrall?

Signed, Totally Not Garrosh.

P.S. Basic Campfire sux.

Needless to say I was a bit surprised, this mysterious stranger is asking me to make a case that Garrosh would make a good warchief?  Well, I enjoy a challenge – and while I know a lot of people don’t share my opinion of Varian, I know for a fact that no one agrees with me when I say: I would support Garrosh as the war chief of the Horde.

I know how that sounds, but believe when I say it boils down to a matter of perspective.  I can’t think about this from the same point of view as having pride in the Alliance or saying that I understand where Wrynn is coming from on these issues.  I am looking at this matter strictly as a member of the Horde.  I’ve played lots of hordies over the years, heck my first loremaster was a blood elf warlock.  So what I’m about to say, understand I am saying this as someone who is vastly aware of the issues the Horde is facing.

A lot of people have likened Garrosh’s thinking to that of the Old Horde.  By that I mean the days back before Orgrim Doomhammer took up the mantle of Warchief.  When the Shadow Council was secretly running everything and the Horde fought amongst each other as much as they did the Alliance.  I feel this is a misunderstanding of Garrosh’s political views.  Garrosh is someone who believes foremost in seeing the Horde become the dominant force in the world. Many players would take issue with this at first glance, but I question their outburst at Garrosh’s views.  After all, isn’t that what the Horde was doing far before Garrosh entered the scene?  They attempted to seize control over Ashenvale from the Night Elves, they attempted to drive the dwarves from the mountains of Alterac, and they would generally terrorize and kill any Alliance force that showed up near their doorstep.

Now would I characterize all Horde as being this way? No certainly not.  Just as I wouldn’t say every human isn’t a blatant orc hater.  The fact of the matter is, when you as a player of the Horde enter Warsong Gulch, or come across a flagged low level Alliance attacking a Horde NPC…  what is your first instinct?  I’m gonna take a stab and nine times out of ten it’s kill the Alliance.  Garrosh is the embodiment of that thought process.  He knows the Horde is stronger than the Alliance, and he doesn’t see why they should partner with them if they can simply remove them from the equation.

I know I probably have some people looking at the screen funny when I say the Horde is stronger than the Alliance.  I better have something pretty big to back that one up right?  Well, how about this: the Royal Apothecary Society’s new plague. Yes, yes, yes. Putress jumped the gun with the Wrathgate incident. The point is that it was commissioned by the Dark Lady herself and it was meant to be used against the living… just not as part of a coup to allow a demon to overthrow the Undercity.  At no point in the Battle for the Undercity or any of the follow up states what happened to the rest of the plague.  It just falls by the wayside during all of this.  I have no doubt that the plague is still in the hands of the Horde, and make no doubt that it is a valid I-WIN button for the Horde if they choose to use it.

That being said, I can also see why Garrosh doesn’t agree with Thrall’s way of doing things.  I have no doubt in my mind that Garrosh views Thrall’s politics as being very “human” in nature.  After all, concepts of diplomacy and mercy where brought to the Horde by Thrall’s tutelage under a human.  Garrosh on the other hand was raised by the Mag’har.  The Mag’har were a group of orcs that never took part in the blood pact with the demons but still operated as an orcish society I would imagine.  That being said, an orcish society is ruled by the concept of one’s honor and honor is decided by one’s strength and prowess in battle.  Is it that hard to see that Garrosh finds no honor in a truce with the enemy?

A truce that has hardly held in anyway except for shallow political masquerades.  Beyond the talks of the faction leaders, there is no validity in the so-called truce that the Horde and Alliance have had in the seven years since the Battle for Mount Hyjal.  As soon as your out of the cities, the bloodshed begins.  Quests to sabotage and attack the opposite faction are common.  So what is the point in having the appearance of this truce?  The only thing it has prevented is a declaration of war and honestly, a declaration is about the only thing that’s missing from the battle thus far.

I think the dislike of Garrosh is easily measured by his distance from Thrall. After all, people love Thrall and Blizzard worked very hard to ensure that.  In almost every incarnation of him from Warcraft III to Lord of the Clans to his very brief cameo in Of Blood and Honor, he has proven to be a charismatic leader who cares for all living things and wants nothing but peace.  If it doesn’t seem too bold to say, Thrall is closest thing Warcraft has to historic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln.  Beyond that even because honestly I don’t think Thrall has any flaws.  Can you name any?

While a flawless leader may seem ideal, the problem is that the actions of Thrall’s people do not reflect his views – they reflect Garrosh’s.  So when people complain about Garrosh possibly taking Thrall’s place as Warchief, all I can think is that the Horde wants to have its cake and eat it too.  Who wouldn’t?  Be the bloodthirsty barbaric warriors who rampage and destroy the enemy while having a leader that it is a carefully carved image of diplomatic leadership.  Sounds like the perfect deal to me.  Garrosh throws a hammer in the mix by actually acting like the Horde acts.  He believes that the stronger should rule, the weaker should perish.

Some will argue that this isn’t the way you should go about things as a leader, and to be fair I wouldn’t want this in a president or prime minister or anything like that in the real world, but this isn’t the real world. It’s Warcraft.  You know? Orcs vs. Humans!  Heck, even before the orcs there was Humans vs. Humans, Dwarves vs. Dwarves, and Elves vs. Everything (Seriously, War of the Ancients and the War of the Shifting Sands and I can’t imagine they enjoyed the trolls company much either…  that was the majority of the other sentient species of Azeroth at the time).  This is not an enlightened world where politics rule supreme.  The Alliance will attack the Horde on the sight and vice-versa.

Ultimately, I think Cataclysm will demonstrate this better than anything.  When the chips are down, resources are running low, and desperation in the face of total destruction sets in I have no doubt that war is bound to break out between the two factions.  Look at people who rush the door to get their hands on a Tickle-Me-Elmo or shoot someone for their launch PS3.  Now imagine if those things were vital to being able to live?  Yea.  I think Garrosh is what the Horde needs, even if the Horde doesn’t think so.  Thrall on the other hand serves better as a non-faction diplomatic figure.  Especially with rumors about him joining the Council of Tirisfal or even replacing Med’an as the Guardian of Tirisfal (Since the foreshadowing seems pretty much set on the fact that Med’an has to die in those comics).  I see that position as the perfect fit for Thrall.  One where he exists outside of the political structure of the factions and can provide diplomacy without appearing as a hypocrite by the actions of his people.

Granted, I don’t know how many people will agree with me on this.  My wager is approximately no one.  Hopefully this will appease Mr. Totally-Not-Garrosh (Is that a Sindoreian last name?) and maybe get some people thinking.