I was told that my speculation was not welcome in the story forum, so I’m posting my theorycraft here. Hopefully that’s okay, it this is not where things like this belong I appologize in advance.
Not so long ago in the day’s ending Battle for Azeroth, secret finders found a collection of pamphlets spouting ridiculous conspiracy theories from a group called The Scarlet Brotherhood. These pamphlets were odd because they were the equivalent of an Azeroth rag magazine at the time and everyone dismissed them. They speculated that Anduin was secretly in a tryst with Sylvanas, and they had conspired to kill Princess Calia Menethil. There were truth among the lies however. In hindsight, Sylvanas and Anduin did become closer, although not romantic. and they are now, in the Shadowlands epilogue working together in the Maw, having developed an unexpected friendship, while Anduin feels like he cannot be the leader his people want him to be.
Calia having grown closer to the Forsaken, gifts Genn a sign of Goodwill, offering to ask the Forsaken to move troops out of Gilneas so that it can be reclaimed. When I went back to read these old pamphlet’s my jaw hit the floor, epecially the one titled The Cursed Old Wolf.
The Scarlet Brotherhood have already infiltrated Genn Greymane’s people. They will take the opportunity Calia gave Genn to launch an attack on the Forsaken, when they succeed they will also attack the Gilneans, they have no love of the Worgen, only see them as a means to an end.
Within these pamphlets there is also foreshadowing an Alliance civil war. With Anduin gone, the topic will come up about who should be king. The two strongest candidates are Turalyon and Genn Greymane. The Scarlet Brotherhood have already claimed that even though it pains them to side with a worgen, they will be trying to prop Greymane up as High King. Turalyon is a formidible military commander but he has no experience ruling a kingdom.
The Scarlet Brotherhood themselves want to put forward a third option- They claim to have the legitimate heir of Lordaeron in a safe place in Tirisfall, and they believe this male child, who they claim is also from noble Arathi lineage. Calia states in the novel Before the Storm that she had a daughter not a son, and she believes that her child is dead, killed by the Scourge invasion that ravaged Lordaeron.
These pamphlets seem to be the ravings of a mad man, one very close to the inner workings and politics of the Alliance. I would like to propose that the person who wrote these pamphlets is Joseph the Crazed (or Awakened.)
Joseph helped the Alliance purge the Scarlet Monastery in Mists of Pandaria. His moviations seem to be motivated by righteousness, he saw the error and terror of the Scarlet Crusade as evil and wanted a reform. But the more the player interacts with him the more insane he gets, it’s not demonic possesion that’s afflicting him, we have no concrete answer as of yet but my guess is void. His motivations quickly decend into jealousy and paranoid ramblings. The same kind of paranoia present in the pamphlets. He nervously reasons that he and “his boys” were forced to kill the other Crusaders and that he deserves the title of “Scarlet Champion”. He begins talking to himself, and ecstatically proclaims himself the new Scarlet Champion. In his final incarnation, he is found dancing in the middle of the Cathedral as the battle rages on, and goes on to reveal his plans to turn the Undercity into a “Scarlet paradise”. -Wowpedia.
Jospeh is already plotting the fall of the Forsaken and the rise of the Scarlet Brotherhood. One of the key points here connecting Joseph and the Scarlet Brotherhood is his insanity. If it’s void that is making him go crazy- the influence of N’Zoth for example. He could come to believe that he is the lost hier of Lordaeron and therefore Undercity and Tirisfal is rightfully his. Another interesting connection is his connection to a character named Captain Nials, who’s name spelt backwards is Slain, as in “killed” could this be a sublte hint that this character is hiding something? Could she be Calia’s long lost daugther? The one Calia herself assumes is dead?
Joesph had written her at least one letter which went unanswered. She did make an appearance in Battle for Azeroth in the Battle to reclaim Stromguard after the failure of the Gathering. Joseph could have got the story of Calia’s daughter’s survival from his previous aquaintance with her, and used that story, twisted in his own madness to prop himself and his own delusions.
The Epilogue of Arthas Rise of the Lich King still has some secrets to share. In the epilogue Arthas was shown visions of the future. One of those visions was rather simple and overlooked at the time but it’s the following:
A symbol appeared, one Arthas knew the L of Lordaeron impaled by a sword, but depicted in red not blue. The symbol changed, and became a red flame on a white background. The spark seemed to spark to life on it’s own and ingulfed the background to reveal the silvery waters of a expanse of sea. -Arthas Rise of the Lich King Epilogue
This is symbolism. The L symbol of Lordaeron imapled by a sword is the traditional symbol of the Scarlet Crusade, this symbom morphes into a red flame on a red background, which is the symbol of the Scarlet Renegades. Spark that burns that away. Fire is a symbol of transformation, creation and destruction. The destruction of something old to create something new. the fire burns away to reveal a sea which symbolizes formlessness, the unfathomable, and chaos.
The very next propehcy Arthas gets is something large and sinister rolling under the waves of this sea, which most likely symbolizes N’Zoth bound under the waves off the coast of Lordaeron.
With Calia’s recent reclaimation of Undercity, and her loyalties and goodwill to the Alliance, she may be handing the keys to the city in a way over to her own enemy and to an organization that is going to try to kill her and take Lordaeron for an illigitimate imposter king. But I do hope there may be some silver lining where Calia gets reunited with her long lost daughter.