Just a brief followup to yesterday’s post about potential successors to the position of Warchief, based on things commenters said here and on Twitter, and also at least one thing that I forgot.
Several readers pointed out that the position of Warchief going to a non-orc would leave the orcs with an opening to have a racial leader of some sort. That’s an interesting possibility, and one worth thinking over. The position of ‘Warchief’ is an orcish one, dating back to ancient times on Draenor, although the post was unfilled when the orcs were massacring the draenei under the influence of the Burning Legion. A lot of the Horde’s structure, such as it is, is based on originally-orcish culture - but that doesn’t mean the Horde can’t evolve. Worth thinking about, definitely!
I, for one, am kind of ashamed that I forgot one of my primary candidates: Nazgrim. No title on this one, because he goes up through the ranks a little more each time you see him. He first appears in Grizzly Hills as Sergeant Nazgrim, where he gives you tasks alongside Conqueror Krenna. After the fall of the Lich King, Nazgrim receives a promotion to Legionnaire, and is the leader of the expedition that ends up being shipwrecked and captured in Vashj’ir; he does escape, with your help, and is the questgiver for the Horde inside Throne of the Tides. After all that, in Mists of Pandaria, he’s General Nazgrim, and hangs out in Grommash Hold with Garrosh and the other advisors. He’s one of your primary questgivers in the pre-Pandaria and Jade Forest areas, and shows up again in Kun-Lai Summit. Interestingly, Nazgrim has his own, special voice files in Mists of Pandaria. Seems like Blizzard is definitely setting him up for important things - maybe Warchief is the next step up the ladder for this enterprising orc.
Ratshag also brought up Nazgrel, who I (and seemingly Blizzard) had forgotten about after his role in Thrallmar. Nazgrel, like Rexxar and many others mentioned in these two posts, is an orcish hero. Nazgrel was an advisor to Thrall, a participant in the Third War, one of the initial founders of Durotar and Orgrimmar. He’s extremely anti-Alliance, unlike many of the folks I named, and believes in victory through war - though he held off out of obedience to Thrall. He’s actually worked with Rexxar on a number of occasions, and as of the Burning Crusade he led the thrust into Hellfire Peninsula, where he’s the primary questgiver in Thrallmar… and there he’s been ever since, hanging out in his wolf hat, waiting for a chance to be story-relevant again.