Aight.
So, SoO happens. Garrosh is captured and put on trial.
Wrathion is inspired by Garrosh’s true horde - not by its ideals, but the shear fact that, with proper motivation, orcs can advance faster than most azerothian races and command an immense amount of power. Channeled correctly, he believes this could work in Azeroth’s favor against the legion. He decides a plan to use the hourglass of time to travel to draenor and begin his plan.
He explains all of this to Anduin, who is 100% on board. The idea of an advanced orcish race, saved from the demonic corruption, fits his ideals perfectly.
However, Wrathion makes a mistake. He boasts of his plan, snidely and proud, to a chained Garrosh…who, in a rage, breaks free and escapes. He works with Kairoz (influences by N’zoth, who knows that the iron horde can potentially weaken Azeroth) and they travel to Draenor. In a rush, Anduin and Wrathion travel as well, before any of the other leaders can react.
It’s barely a day later, and the dark portal glows red. Iron horde forces stream from it, driving machines rivaling Gnomish engineering in ingenuity, and goblin engineering in raw destructive power. It takes the combined forces of the alliance and horde to push them back from the blasted lands. Out of the portal, a messenger moth subtly flies out, bringing two things to storm wind - a black dragonscals and a lock of golden hair. Varien immediately mobilizes a force to assault draenor, and Vol’jin agrees to aid him, knowing that this is a threat that must be faced by ALL of Azeroth, just from the small scouting party sent by the Iron horde.
So, draenor itself.
This isn’t draenor 30 years ago. This is a modern alternate timeline, and things are…very different.
Garrosh has rallied the warrior and raider clans to his cause, and over the decades has taught them all he knows of his technology…and they have only grown since then. They have adapted Draenei crystal shaping to reinforce their steel, and through the weaving of magic and intellect, have created a lifestyle for themselves unthought of in modern Azeroth. These would be the Warsong, bleeding Hollow, Laughing Skull, Bonechewer, shattered hand and Blackrock clans. They currently hold Tanaan, Gorgrond, and half of Talador.
On the opposite side, Wrathion and Anduin have befriended the Draenei and other orcish clans. They have told these people of the coming future, and what they may be able to do to avoid it. Velen confirmed their words, but questioned the idea of taking a different path. It was a risk, but they all took it. This is the Wild Horde. The Iron Horde seeks conquest, and does so through destruction and oppression. The wild horde seeks balance, and to protect the world they live on. This would be made of the frostwolf, shadowmoon, Burning blade, thunderlord, and stormreaver clans. Their alliance with the Draenei has given these clans access to higher tech, allowing for advancements of the same scale as the iron horde, but much less destructive, and more inspired by the Draenei. They claim much of talador, Nagrand, frostfire ridge, and shadowmoon valley, though all but Nagrand are constant battlefields.
When we arrive, said battles are nearly lost. The iron army looms in the jungles of Nagrand upon forts built on the shoulders of Gronn. We see the smoke rising from the temple of karabor to the south. Legions upon legions of orcs in strong plate armor stand between us and our allies.
In terms of outside threats - we have the empire of Highmaul, the Everbloom, the Twilight’s Hammer, and the Arakkoa.
Ogre garrisons dot the entirety of draenor, very much occupied and defended, but even grander architecture lies abandoned across the continent. Massive archways, aqueducts, and forgotten cities. What the ogres lack in technology, they more than make up for with their complete mastery of the arcane. We’re talking nightborne levels, with the high imperator being alllmost Aszhara level. Almost. They seek to strengthen their empire once again by taking advantage in the chaos.
The everbloom is very much the same as in retail - though more emphasis is put on the spore mounds. Gorgrond is dominated by the corpse of a gigantic plan being, forming its forests and jungles, but inside life is violent and hungry. It wishes to reawaken, and feast on the succulent world soul of Azeroth as it consumed Draenor’s.
The Twilight’s hammer was an old orc clan…before its disastrous disappearance. Sometimes, at night, you might spy a pale, gaunt figure watching you from the shadows. Or perhaps dreams of darkness and death plague your sleep. Or…perhaps…you hear the whispers of a fledgling god, for the first time allowed to dig her claws into the flesh of a world.
The arrakoa are certainly the greatest threat. Magic, technology, spirits…they are masters of all. Their only drawback is their caste system and their prejudice, which has accidentally resulted in the destruction of a few of their spire cities. These massive contraptions cling to the windworn rock of Arak valley, churning steam and glowing with a strange light, and you can see hundreds of forms flying about them, working avidly. They seek to recreate the weapon that destroyed the sporemounds, to wipe out all those beneath them.
Then, of course, Gul’dan and the legion.
The reason the Iron Horde and the Wild Horde are enemies is because of him and the sargerai. Draenei spuds sought to cause chaos and discord among the two cultures, leading them to a destructive and costly war. Gul’dan has decided to lay low, disguising himself as a crippled shaman named “Sar’thul”. He acts as a “spy” for Anduin and Wrathion, using his disability as a motivation, saying he wants to do what he can, if not fight. However, he is always in the background, pulling the strings, adding a casualty or two where he can without drawing attention to himself.
Raids:
Highmaul Keep
The Heart of Rot
Skyreach,
The Blackrock foundry,
Bleeding Hollow Barrows,
Steelforged Citadel.
How does it end?
Khadgar does eventually figure out Sar’thul’s secret, but it is during the last raid, an assault on The iron horde’s command center. Garrosh and the chiefs have gathered what forces they can to push us back, and the fight is fierce and brutal, but as we finally bring an end to Garrosh, an unnatural silence falls upon the throne room.
Out of the shadows, Gul’dan approaches. He reveals his treachery, and then, to the shock of all attending, uses his considerable power to imbue Garrosh’s broken body with a fragment of sargeras’s soul, leading to one final fight where Garrosh (his soul trapped in just body, which is enslaved by the dark titan) orders us to finish him, as he finally understands his crimes, and must pay. We do the deed, and though we search for Gul’dan…nothing is found but a gnarled staff, broken on the citadel’s floor.
The Iron Horde is soundly defeated, and the remaining chiefs surrender everything, in order to not damn their clans. Due to the way the twisting nether works, both versions can exist in tandem, and draenor joins the main universe, now as a normal part of history.
End p1