The Lore Deposit

I don't think everyone entirely understands the situation on Draenor we will be going to, so let's just lay it out for everyone.

We, Alliance and Horde, are going to murder the leaders of various military and quasi-military organizations for the sake of our own safety.

Instead of containing the threat, we are going to remove it entirely. One brown-skinned and grey-skinned orc at a time.

We aren't going to ask anyone smart for help on this. No Dragonflights. No Ancients. We aren't going to go getting Cenarius to give us a hand with this, nor are we going to get Kalecgos to help because he's an idiot and disbanded an entire Dragonflight.

Right, so we're going to go murder an entire civilization the same way we always do as adventurers, but let's be realistic about it. A fel-corrupt branch of a species is going to go back in time after the worst defeat to their morale and cultural pride in ten years, towing with them a rag-tag group that dealt the blow to their morale and cultural pride, confront their own ancestors at the very height of their culture, and attempt to keep their ancestors from wrecking the world this fel-corrupt branch of the species inhabits.

Fuck that shit I am so glad I am Alliance.

So what's the other side of the story? Probably the single-best thing Blizzard has ever given its players. An empowered, united front of races from across the universe seek to quash an invasion of their homeland (adopted or otherwise) by venturing to the invaders homeland and dismantling their war machine so that they can know peace. And also it's a mirror-universe retelling of the tragic war which brought together this united front of races from across the world (and later universe).

The way the story's being written, I expect to see tits and hot girl-on-girl action. Because Blizzard is giving the Alliance complete and total fanservice.

I can hear you out there. "But no, strange ore node made of exclamation marks and keyboard strokes, it's orc fanservice! They go back in time and meet their dads and play the guitar at the dance!"

No they don't and shut the fuck up with the Back to the Future comments. The orcs are going back to relive the worst parts of their history and the founding of their race as a bunch of assholes. Except this time they're doing it of their own free will. It isn't demon blood that makes them come through the portal. It isn't Sargeras in the body of a certain Awesome Dude convincing them to do it. It isn't their abandonment of the elements and spirits that drives them to do it.

One brown-skinned motherfucker comes through a timegate and is all "YO MOTHERFUCKERS I GOT SOME TEXAS INSTRUMENTS CALCULATORS YA'LL WANNA DO MATH AND TAKE OVER EVERY WORLD EVER?"

And we're jumping right into the middle of it.

Arakkoa archaeology items from the Alpha servers have given us a glimpse into the workings of the arakkoa on Iron Draenor, and the situation we see is one from our own history. Corruption spreads through their society. The fallen king Terokk spreads the seeds of discourse and shadow through their ancient civilization. Anzu speaks to those Talonpriests willing to listen, telling them to hide from the sun and its abandonment of them.

Sethe subverts the arakkoa at every opportunity, stealing them from a vengeful and cruel sun and the society built around it.

But let's back up for a minute from what is essentially Twilight Cultists with feathers and beaks. These are not the arakkoa we are familiar with; hunched avian creatures without the ability to fly or the warmth of the sun on their backs. These are troggs to the dwarves; Wretched to the sin'dorei. The arakkoa we fought in Outland (the remains of Draenor) are corrupt not only from the power of the Twisting Nether, but also the Old God influence of Sethe, a previously unnamed force.

The same applies to the ogres, ravagers, and sporebats. Great mushroom forests lay at the edge of the water in many parts of Iron Draenor, while only a boggy marsh with massive fungal growth remains in what was once the Zangar Sea. Boars native to the Tanaan Jungle turned even more violent with the fel energies of the Burning Legion, driven to the brink thanks to the planets destruction.

But the Draenor we visit isn't corrupt in these ways. The Burning Legion has lost its grip on Iron Draenor, and seeks to reestablish it. But they have the same force to contend with on Iron Draenor as they had at the Well of Eternity ten-thousand years ago; as Neltharion did the bidding of the Old Gods to bring them forth instead of Sargeras, so too does Terokk seek to bring his ultimate master forth.

What I do know is, while the Divine Bell was being spirited away from Darnassus? Dalaran was in-transit from Northrend to somewhere. This becomes obvious because Dalaran was going over open water while you, Horde or Alliance, visited the city to purge it of Blood Elves or save Blood Elves from the purge. It's obvious. There's water under the city. You don't even have to look hard. It's in the ocean; over The Great Sea as it's known in-universe.

So yeah. Your bachelorette party? Didn't happen there. Your Magus Senate? Trapped aboard a floating island which may or may not be accessible. Your portals? Oh man, there's some confusion!

So portals don't move. In fact, portals as far as the Player Character is concerned are NOT permanent creations. You, the PC, will not be opening portals that stay open for longer than a few minutes tops. This is no Chappa'ai; it's breaking the universe because you're too lazy to walk or fly there.

Portals do not move for a very good reason; they're stuck in the fabric of space and time. You move it, you rip space and time and that's bad. They act as two points, an entry and an exit, and are strictly one-way in nature. Arcane spellcasters in the Warcraft universe learn to attune  themselves to specific locations (Stormwind, Darnassus, Ogrimmar, the Undercity) so that they may transport themselves there OR open a portal to that destination.

So portals don't move. At all. This has been proven through an entertaining spell which Mages can learn to teleport to the original location of Dalaran. The Dalaran Crater. You summon a portal to it, it transits the object or person there, and they fall. Bam. Because the teleportation function was attuned to spit you out where there used to be a floor. Now there's just air. Which you fall through. Because science.