Thrall literally chose Orgrimmar to be stationed in Durotar for the orcs, to punish his people as a ‘Penance’ ordeal for their past.
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While true it’s also a retcon to older lore. The older lore was he chose Durotar because it reminded the Orcs under his care of Draenor. It gave them land they would be somewhat familiar with since the land wasn’t that far off from they would have seen on their homeworld
I miss the older lore like that. Sure it was simpler, but it did a lot for world building
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Mind you too, that the original Draenor was said to be a relatively fine world: Savage, but not desert wasteland – Until the fel had its toll on much of the world.
- The Barrens would’ve probably been better suited to their world. Harsh yet far more sustainable. Despite its name, the Barrens isn’t exactly barren as one would think – but nonetheless.
However yeah, I liked a lot of the older lore too … Some things I think improved, especially with Chronicles — However the enormity of changes that they made in Shadowlands, I absolutely despise. 
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And Durotar is doing just fine when it’s not nearly completely flooded anyway.
You’re not entirely wrong, but (and maybe this is bias speaking) it doesn’t feel so egregious Alliance side.
Night Elves joining the Alliance didn’t make much sense. Their hand in logging in Ashenvale is never brought up, and the Alliance was full of mages, whose art was one the Night Elves had long ago proclaimed taboo within their own societies.
Draenei… It’s not as if they didn’t have a reason not to join the Alliance, but why the Alliance accepted them is only tricky until you bring up that they’re a race so inundated with the Light that it’s part of their racial toolkit. After their similarity to Eredar is overcome, they’re pretty much every Alliance race’s toolkit turned up. More Light than humans, more Technology than Gnomes, more Magic than Elves, etc…
Worgen, by virtue of being Gilneas, had an uphill battle, but at least Blizzard gave us a book dedicate to explaining why they were accepted back, exploring past grievances and how they were overcome.
Dark Irons were already in the Alliance as of Cata, so them becoming playable was at least seeded into the setting properly.
Void Elves were a mistake. I’ve picked their, “narrative,” apart so often I don’t feel a need to go any deeper than that.
Kul Tirans were courted by the Alliance, but no one in the Alliance had much reason to not want to ally with them. Kul Tiras certainly had reason to want nothing to do with the Alliance, but that was pretty thoroughly explored in the leveling experience.
Mechagnomes… could’ve been neutral if I’m honest, but there was never any feeling of why the Alliance wouldn’t want them, or why they’d not want to join the Alliance (other than ostracizing their new Goblin friends).
Who am I missing… Oh right, Lightforged. I mean, they’re just Draenei turned up to 110% with the Light, so yeah. Nothing weird there.
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Thrall doesen’t know how Draenor looked since he never been there until WoD.
I don’t agree but that was very descriptive. I could see it.
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Alliance-side, there’s also the example of Death Knights. To their credit, back in those days the devs did at least remember to put in things like the DK’s first visit to Stormwind, where you get the “My family died to the Scourge!” event. But after that, it’s all happy and good.
And frankly, I think there could have been more ongoing tension with the Dark Irons. Inter-dwarf politics is really sadly neglected (and I know a lot of dwarf fans agree with me on that).
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I mean, that wasn’t unique to the Alliance, but a fair point to be certain. If anything, Tirion vouchesafing them probably had more impact on changing Alliance minds than Horde ones.
I agree. We didn’t see much between Moira’s Dark Irons and the other dwarves. The formation of the Council of Three Hammers, though, did get its own novel and explained their presence in the Alliance fair sufficiently.
It’d have been nice if there could have been more in game content and presence to solidify that. It wasn’t until MoP we finally got some.
The orcs he led did
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Theres also the fact that the mechagnomes that weren’t part of the resistance just kind of got let in despite collectively working on a worldwide annihilation device.
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This implies all Mechagnomes either actively worked towards world destruction, or against it, and leaves no room at all for Mechagnomes who were just living lawfully in their city, minding their own business.
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Who lied to him it seems otherwise they wouldn’t claim the Barrens looked like their old home. Because it doesn’t. Frkn Gorgrond has more vegetation the Barrens or Durotar both.
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Are we painting all members of a race with the sins of their leadership or not?
its not like Mechagon’s aims were hidden.
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Seems to change from one poster to the next, to be honest.
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Wait, what? Where was this?
It’s in a novel—The Shattering, I think. But it often gets overstated. It was more like Thrall wanted the orcs to work hard to build a life in Durotar as a positive outlet for their energy. I don’t think Thrall himself ever uses the word “penance” (though he does use “atonement”). The word penance comes from some other character.
The very first story of why Thrall chose Durotar as the orcs’ new home was that it reminded them of their homeland. This got retconned when TBC came out and most of Draenor didn’t resemble Durotar very closely.
Here’s a link to a post with quotes from The Shattering:
It’s also worth noting that all this talk of “penance” comes up right at the time the devs are trying to give Garrosh a motivation to be warlike. Probably not a coincidence.
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Might be a fun angle for the story to take that Garrosh, being an orc from the lush plains of Nagrand, doesn’t think Durotar resembles Draenor at all and can only see it as a punishment. That could be a fun point of contention in-story between different orcish clans based on the biomes of their homelands, where some see all the opportunities that Durotar provides, but others see only a downgrade from what they’re familiar with.
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It probably doesn’t help that the Mag’har were isolationists for good reason, and he spent all his life (he’s older than thrall lol) looking at every outsider with suspicion due to being ancestral enemies/Legion/Justifiably miffed Draenei/Illidari/Alliance remnants, etc.
Its not an excuse, of course, as Saurfang Jr grew up in the same exact circumstances and was a bro from the start. But it explains his mindset and rationale for throwing away Thrall’s ideals the second they don’t magically give him what he wants. (also he was primed to fail due to many, many factors outside of his control)
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It reminds me of the WoD cinematic with Kilrogg and the Bleeding Hollow clan, where they’re cowering in a swamp from the Arrokoa (who have this really badass depiction of being like if a Yautja had wings). Kilrogg’s “we were never meant to live like this!” to his father would probably be echoed a lot from the Orcs who came from more fertile grounds than Durotar could offer, especially those Orcs whose clans saw people protecting resources as a challenge to be met with an axe.
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