Hey all, I’m going to apologize in advance for the stream of consciousness this is my first time posting here.
But this thread is going to be a deep dive on horde political theory, and I will be presenting my case that due to the actions of both Garrosh and Sylvanas; The Horde’s loss in the forth war will be the spring board that launches them to be the preeminent power on the planet.
First I’m going to touch in on what the Horde is.
The Horde first and foremost is a centrally governed Empire. Even though in its council form the chief executive’s power is diminished, the Horde still represents a political union unlike the purely military alliance. This allows for the creation and integration of infrastructure without the need for redundancy as well as a more efficient allocation of resources. This will come into play later.
As the Horde was established in the resource poor central Kalmindor, they faced a similar problem to many rising powers in our world. That being they are right up against an established great power in the night elves and don’t exactly have a whole lot of room to grow. Especially as they great power resides on the most resource rich area of the continent. The horde other problem is that their territory is comprised mainly of wide open flat terrain with few to no natural defenses. Compounding this is that Theramore is Blue-water port with a straight shot into the indefensible horde heartland.
On top of all of this, the Horde at the time was a new nation. There was no established infrastructure, no vehicle for rapid troop or supply movement throughout the empire, and also what I imagine to be a weak economy. Compared to the untouched kingdom of stormwind, the industrial powerhouse of Khazmodan and the millennia old Kaldorei, The horde was an infant on a barren rock surrounded on all sides with a dagger to the throat. The only light of hope they had is that the night elves are an empire on the decline.
In order for the Horde to succeed, they need to accomplish 3 things
- Industrialize and build infrastructure
- establish hegemony in Kalmindor and secure the resources from northern Kalimdor
- neutralize theramore and Northwatch To secure the horde heartland
This is the only way forward as a ascending power, and would explain why horde foreign policy has remained relatively consistent from Thralls horde to Sylvanas.
Garrosh
With the Horde Expedition north over, the cataclysm brought great change to the horde as added the bilgewater to their ranks and began the industrialization process; the outbreak of war showed exactly the hordes natural disadvantage. The horde and the Night elves began a brutal meatgrinder in ashenvale and stonetalon while stormwind and theramore flooded troops into the barrens to relieve pressure on the north. This contained virtually all the major fighting to the Horde’s home territory, leaving the EK alliance nations untouched as the horde just didn’t have the manpower fighting a two front war, to strike at the eastern kingdoms beyond Lordearon which was an forsaken offensive done virtually alone.
This changed with the bombing of Theramore, which while horrific, was the most game changing moment for the horde. By using the manabomb Garrosh wiped out the alliances only bluewater port on the eastern shore of the continent but the irradiation ensuring that it cannot be rebuild, leaving northwatch the only alliance holding south of ashenvale, but it much more easily containable and just doesn’t have the capacity to facilitate invasion removing the proverbial dagger in the neck.
This in my opinion also led to the relatively favorable post war treaty following the SoO the night elves despite winning the war ceded both Azara and stonetalon to the Horde. They claim it was a gesture of goodwill to fix the resource issue, but no nation gives up territory for the sake of it not after winning. In my opinion it was because they knew they had no way of forcing them out. The night elves took losses in the war and from the cataclysm, and because of their recently lost immortality they don’t exactly have a new generation ready to go or on the way… they couldn’t afford to risk prolonging the war over land they had no hope of holding on to now that the alliance no longer has a way of opening a southern front, or even getting troops to the battlefield without sailing all the way to darkshore.
Sylvanas
If Garrosh showed that the night could bleed sylvanas put them the out to pasture with the war of thorns Not only did she run through the whole of their Lands but the burning of Teldraisill while evil and monstrous was the fatal wound the future of the Night elves as a great power on Azeroth. The Genocide wipe out a massive chunk of the population, one that is not every easily replaced. While they won in darkshore, they aren’t immortal anymore and sooner or later the army of the black moon will need to go back to normal life, and when a generation passes they just wont have the numbers anymore to be the threat they once were.
This isn’t all that she did; she brought in the most most game changing allies as well. Both, the Maghar and Suramar. More specifically the Iron Horde engineers and Occuleth. The Iron horde tech is exactly what the horde needs to secure and industrialize their land and Telemancy can provide a stable portal network connecting and integrating the horde even further and as an empire this would help bring the unity the horde needs. With that said these two gave the Horde their only win condition in this war, Survive.
With a mortal wound dealt to the Night elves and the alliance failing their decapitation strike in lorderaon (leaving the forsaken holdings mostly in tact) the Horde needed to only survive the war as a political entity. In a generation they will have replenished the troops and have finally developed and industrialized the country.
With her up and leaving before another civil war sparing the horde from weakening itself further and leading to an armistice, the horde survives and by holding on to much of the forsaken land prevent the alliance from threatening Quel’thalas. Thus preventing a mortal wound themselves and buying the time they need.
Thanks to Sylvanas the Horde might have lost the war but they achieved the grand objective and set themselves up for a Horde Century.
TL;DR: The by destroying Theramore and mortally crippling the night elves they succesfully eliminated all threats to continued growth as a nation, and by bringing in Suramar and the AU Maghar they have the know how to industrialize and connect the empire in ways they never could before. Once the Tree burned they only needed to survive the war not win.