Characters / Warcraft The Horde Garroshs Horde

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A character subpage for the WarCraft universe, including World of Warcraft. For the main character page, see here. For the Horde character page, see here.

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After Thrall left the Horde in order to fight against the Cataclysm, he left the brash, hotheaded Garrosh Hellscream in his stead. Since Garrosh's reign began, the orcs of the Horde have gone from a warrior society trying to survive in a world that hates them, to a bloodthirsty, warmongering force that seeks to subjugate and dominate all in its path, and a focus on orcish supremacy within the Horde itself.

In Cataclysm, Garrosh's new campaign led to a rekindled conflict in the forest of Ashenvale, and a new conflict in Gilneas when Garrosh forced his hand upon the Forsaken, making them war with the now Worgen kingdom and effectively driving the Worgen into the arms of the Alliance.

In Mists of Pandaria, Garrosh's Horde has alienated the rest of the Horde's people to the point of revolution, where the other races are rising up to dethrone Garrosh and return themselves to their noble path. As a result of this, Garrosh has taken to calling himself and the members of the Horde still loyal to him the "True Horde".

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General Tropes

• Aesop Amnesia: Garrosh's crew in general, but the Dragonmaw Clan take the cake, as they explicitly joined Garrosh's Horde to seek redemption.
• Beast of Battle: Garrosh and his followers make extensive use of powerful beasts and other creatures found across Azeroth for war, such magnataurs, Proto-Drakes, molten giants, or krakens, who are subjugated either by force, blackmail, or dark magics. In Mists of Pandaria, they have begun to try doing the same to giant dinosaurs coming from Pandaria, with one of the bosses of the Siege of Orgrimmar being a giant devilsaur named Thok the Bloodthirsty that Garrosh has tried to submit in vain. It's telling that the Iron Horde created by Garrosh later used so much the creatures of Draenor as living weapons.
• Black Magic: Dark Shamanism, which requires the Shaman to, instead of the traditional method of working with the Elemental Spirits and borrowing their power, to force the Elemental Spirits to submit and take it for themselves. This ends up in corrupted, deadened versions of the Elements that the Dark Shaman wield (they still don't use the deadened form of the Wilds/Life since that's Fel magic which they absolutely hate).
• Canis Major: The Kor'kron army uses big wolves as mounts. Said wolves are bigger and more ferocious than the wolves previously used as mounts by the orcs of Orgrimmar.
• Category Traitor: They view the rest of the Horde as essentially this.
• Culture Blind: They believe that the Horde has gone soft and that it should be more like it was during the First War, namely being excessively brutal and xenophobic and willing to kill everyone in order to lay sole claim to the planet. They conveniently ignore the fact that the Old Horde was only like that because of the manipulations of Gul'dan and the Burning Legion. Before being corrupted, the orcs were a brutish but peaceful race that only fought to protect themselves.
• Fantastic Racism: Starting from MOP Towards every non-Orcish race.
  • They view the Trolls as weak parasites who were leeching off Orgrimmar's prosperity while Zalazane was in control of the Echo Isles. Ignoring/forgetting how the Trolls had earned their keep over the course of the Horde's many campaigns, and even saved the Horde from starvation and annihilation by taking up arms against its enemies alongside the orcs during the Horde's early days of founding Durotar and Orgrimmar.
  • They see the Forsaken as evil abominations because of the Wrathgate betrayal^note although it was part of a coup against the Forsaken leadership and the Banshee Queen in particular, and they view the use of the Blight as dishonorable.
  • They dislike the Blood Elves for their seeming scrawniness and lesser strength, while also hating how Thrall constantly sent aid to them to help rebuild Silvermoon despite them needing those resources back home.
  • Starting from MOP, view the Goblins as small weaklings, as evidenced by Malkorok's rant about them, as well as greedy, money hungry thieves and looters. Though this rant occurred as a response to the foreman of their excavation in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, who attempted to reminding Malkorok that there was a contract and that its stipulations stated that he simply had to pay them properly for their service, especially as part of the excavation crew had died while unearthing what Garrosh sought there.
  • The Tauren and more peace minded Orcs were exempt from this during Cataclysm, but in Mists of Pandaria the line was drawn with the Tauren backing Vol'jin's rebellion^note and were it not for the risk of Baine being assassinated and replaced with a puppet, or the risk to Tauren still in Orgrimmar, Baine might have rebelled earlier — by the Theramore campaign he was already treating Garrosh's orders with an Exact Words interpretation. and once the peace minded Orcs in Orgrimmar start to speak up, Garrosh ends up having some of those Orcs either beaten in broad daylight, or outright assassinated.
• Final Solution: On how to deal with the Alliance. After his Theramore gambit backfired, Garrosh adjusts his goal from driving the Alliance forces out of Kalimdor to waging a war of total genocide. When the other races of the Horde begin to revolt, the True Horde simply adds them to the list of extermination.
• Glory Days: They see the time when the Old Horde was a machine of conquest and destruction as this, believing that it's what the Horde should be and conveniently glossing over the wrongness of the reasons for the formation of the Horde, such as the Draenei genocide and Gul'dan's manipulations, and the atrocities committed by the orcs at the time. This mentality is also seen in the new architecture of Orgrimmar with the city new buildings being made of iron, having spikes and an intimidating design similar to Hellfire Citadel.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Many of the members of the True Horde were former members of the Dark Horde and of the Twilight Hammer who had renounced their former affiliations and sworn allegiance to Garrosh and the Horde, while the Dragonmaw clan under Zaela joined with the explicit purpose of redeeming themselves after a particularly dark past. These members fell back to their old demons, or never changed their ways, with them sharing Garrosh's warmongering and xenophobic views, and supporting his plans and methods.
• The Horde: Unlike the modern Horde, which is more of an alliance of different races, the True Horde lives up to its name, being a conquering war machine composed of battle hungry orcs.
• Master Race: After MOP, believe themselves to be this.
• Our Orcs Are Different: At least, from Thrall's more peaceful orcs: Garrosh has brought the worst of the orcish race to the forefront and the more peace-minded orcs still in Orgrimmar were either keeping their mouths shut to save their own skin or being quietly assassinated for treason.
• Planet Of Copy Hats: Many orc characters were pretty much retconned to have the exact same personality as Garrosh.
• Police State: By the time of Tides of War and Mists of Pandaria, Orgrimmar has become this with Garrosh ruling with an iron fist and the Kor'kron beating and imprisoning all those who disagree with Garrosh and his decisions or who do not take part in the war machine he has created.
• Scary Scorpions: The Kor'kron have a Scorpion mount that players can purchase, and Scorpions are frequently seen alongside Orcs, with a machine in the Siege of Orgrimmar resembling one.
• Secret Police: Under Malkorok's command the Kor'kron has turned from just being Garrosh's personal guard into his own political police with them arresting, beating and even sometimes killing all those who are caught disagreeing with Garrosh and his aggressive policies even without any intent of revolt, or those who do not take part in the war machine against the Alliance.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Garrosh had previously shown development, and that he disproved of the slaughter of civilians, but with MoP this was all thrown out the window. The racism aspect was also rather last minute, jarring for characters like Zaela and Bloodhilt, who had been previously been courteous or even protective of the other races of the Horde, yet underwent a personality 180 in Mists of Pandaria.
• Token Evil Teammate: While they were still aligned with the rest of the Horde.
• Villainous Legacy: The Iron Horde of which the "True Horde" was basically a prototype with it being an orcish-centric and supremacist organisation, its reliance on Helix Blackfuse's technology, its use of Beast of Battle, its complete opposition to Fel Magic only to use other dark magics such as Dark Shamanism and Old Gods' magic, etc...

Garrosh Hellscream

Garrosh Hellscream

(former) Warchief, Son of Hellscream

Clan: Warsong

Class: Warrior

Voiced by: Patrick Seitz (English), Sergey Chikhachev (Russian)

Abesik Kampfyr won the election, Garrosh won the Mak'gora.

"My people should have taken this world long ago, during the First War! But they fell to corruption in their weakness. They asked the pitiful races of Azeroth to join the Horde. I will succeed where they have failed, and no power in this world can stop me!"

Son of Grommash Hellscream, Garrosh spent the earlier part of his life in the traditional orc village of Garadar on Draenor. As the years passed, Garrosh became the heir to the chieftain position of Garadar. However, he was greatly ashamed of his father’s legacy, realising that Grom’s actions condemned the orcs and drove Draenor to destruction. This all changed during the events of The Burning Crusade, when he met Warchief Thrall. Thrall showed him a vision of his father’s sacrifice against Mannoroth, and how Grom freed his people of the demonic curse. With renewed vigor, Garrosh was stirred from his stupor, and took pride in his heritage at last.

Choosing to go to Azeroth with Thrall, Garrosh became a warrior of the Horde. However, his renewed vigour brought out his father’s fighting spirit in him, and unfortunately his hot-headedness. He believed the Horde should be taking a harder line against their enemies and gathering resources, and crush anyone who stood in their way; namely, the Alliance. He came to resent Thrall’s passiveness towards the humans and their allies, and butt heads with the Warchief on the issue many a time.

When the Lich King attacked Orgrimmar directly, it was Garrosh who suggested a direct offensive on Northrend. As such, he became the leader of the Warsong Offensive, and led the Horde forces against the Scourge. While his tactics were considered reckless and often times costly, he made great advances in his battles, and became hailed as a hero by orcish soldiers and citizens alike. However, his aggressive actions directly provoked the Alliance, and he became a key player in re-igniting conflict between the two factions.

After the war in Northrend, Thrall was forced to step down as Warchief to deal with the growing elemental chaos. With no-one else suitable to take his place, he chose Garrosh as his successor. Since becoming Warchief, Garrosh has been a very polarizing figure. He has made great gains for the Horde, gaining them more supplies and land than they’ve ever had since the orcs settled in Durotar. However, he has also stepped on the toes of the orcs’ allied races, including the trolls, the tauren and the Forsaken. Time would tell whether his legacy was be one of prosperity for the Horde, or if he would doom them to failure. He EPICALLY failed.

In Mists Of Pandaria, Garrosh's tyranny has reached new heights as he begins to (attempt to) kill anyone who doesn't agree with his plans, the deaths he (seemingly) caused with the addition of using an artifact that can summon Sha outside of Pandaria has crossed the Moral Event Horizon, causing the Horde to turn on him and ally with the Alliance to dethrone him and his remaining loyalists. He's the final boss of the expansion, in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

However, Garrosh is not killed. After escaping his trial, he flees back in time with the help of the bronze dragon Kairozdormu to the old pre-First War Draenor. Banishing Gul'dan and uniting familiar Orc chieftains into the Iron Horde, Garrosh has his eyes set on conquering the Azeroth of the present with his army from the past.

He has one final encounter with Thrall, trying to settle the score in a Mak'gora and lashing out everything that happened to him and blaming it to Thrall, which ended with him being struck down dead with lightning via Thrall's shamanistic magic.

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• Aborted Arc: He infamously went from developing into a more mature and tolerant leader to suddenly becoming a xenophobic, genocidal tyrant. Blizzard has admitted that they originally wanted him to have a more heroic and redemptive character arc. However, they felt that the end result would have made him too much like Thrall and they wanted him to remain Thrall's darker counterpart, so Garrosh became "what was needed for WoW, from a story character development perspective."
• Admiring the Abomination: During the exploration of Pandaria, Garrosh develops a certain admiration for the Mogu, who conquered and ruled Pandaria with an iron fist and used powerful but dark magics, even saying that he has much to learn from them.
• Age Is Relative: Older than Thrall, even though the former calls him boy and he seems immature when they're working together.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In his fight against Thrall Garrosh suffers a Villainous Breakdown, and one can really hear the sadness, pain and anger in his voice. Even after everything he's done, it's hard to not feel sorry for him.
  Garrosh: YOU made me Warchief! You LEFT ME to pick up YOUR! PIECES! YOU... FAILED... MEEEE!
  • After the Echo of Garrosh fight, a Bronze dragon expresses this sentiment as the Garrosh we know is considered one of the worst incarnations of Garrosh, with several others becoming Great Heroes and Warchiefs.
• All There in the Manual: Garrosh's faction leader short story, Heart of War, fills in a lot of the gaps of Garrosh's development between Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King; namely, why he began to resent Thrall's leadership and why he grew to hate the Alliance^note namely, Alliance encroachment on what he (and an orc fisherwoman) considered rightful Horde territory and what they considered to be insufficient counteraction from Thrall.
• Ancestral Weapon: Gorehowl.
• And I Must Scream: His fate in Shadowlands. Since his death he's been chained up in the depths of Castle Nathria, being used as an "old reliable" to keep the realm just barely alive enough while Denathrius fed the plane's Anima to The Maw. Instead of being broken down with the goal of redemption to go to a better afterlife, he's being torturously milked for his life essence for no greater cause than feeding the bad guys' decadence, and no sign of being released any time soon, even after Denathrius' fall.
• Anti-Hero: At first with Thrall as his mentor, he was brash and violent but it was moreso aimed towards his mentor's goal.
• Arch-Enemy: He has a few. It's a Running Gag among the fandom that so many people have sworn to slay him:
  • First, Varok Saurfang, who swore he would kill Garrosh if he took the Horde down a dark road. Apparently this was sidelined by Saurfang being a broken man after his son Dranosh's death, resurrection, and final death.
  • Varian, who is presented as Garrosh's opposite in the Alliance, leader of their respective factions in the war and most multifaceted Foil. The two have fought each other several times and Garrosh developed a particular hatred for Varian after having lost to him in Ashenvale, with him swearing to kill Varian himself before making a plan to annihilate Stormwind in Warlords of Draenor.
  • Cairne Bloodhoof, who challenged Garrosh to Mak'gora after he was accused of ordering the deaths of Night Elf and Tauren Druids. Cairne ends up dying, as Garrosh's axe was secretly poisoned by Magatha.
  • Vol'jin, after Garrosh relegated the Trolls to the Slums, gave Garrosh perhaps the most well known threat of "firing the arrow that pierces his black heart."
  • Jaina, after the bombing of Theramore.
  • Thrall, who, while he never actually vowed to slay Garrosh, tries to, and sees it as correcting a mistake. He finally succeeds after challenging Garrosh to mak'gora during the Siege of Grommashar.
  • Lor'Themar was also quite ready to take up his blades after the Divine Bell incident resulted in the purge of Dalaran.
  • Heck, Garrosh managed to turn the pandaren of Pandaria against him faster than the Horde incursions in the southern Jade Forest had^note presumably because the Horde forces in the northern Jade Forest behaved more level-headedly and also helped out the pandaren elsewhere, cemented by his march on the Vale of Eternal Blossoms/Sorrow.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Garrosh often relies on brutal and reckless tactics, and on the use of unusual and powerful weapons such as monsters like Magnataurs or Krakens or Molten Giants in battle, or extremely destructive weapons such as the giant mana bomb he used to destroy Theramore. The problem is that such uses are often costly (with him losing many soldiers to bring Magnataurs from Northrend), or are one-use tickets (he had no use of Molten Giants or the mana bomb and of the Focusing Iris after he used them at Northwatch and Theramore respectively), and lacks real strategy or backup plan when his trump cards get foiled. He quickly lost the battle of Ashenvale after the Worgens killed his Magnataurs, or after Jaina killed his krakens with water elementals, and plan for revenge with the Iron Horde quickly turned into a humiliating failure.
• Ax-Crazy: Besides his talk of honor and showing the way of a true warrior. Garrosh has always been unhinged due to his temper to where he always settle matters with seeking to kill whomever he deemed to be an issue, but he wasn't as bad as he was when he became the Warchief of the Horde. This is where his lust for bloodshed had thoroughly increased to drastic proportions as he was more than willing to murder anyone who got in his way and drove himself mad with power to wreak havoc across Azeroth. At this point he threw his honor and glory out the window as he started to enjoy all of the carnage he had caused and feeling not an ounce of regret to how many innocent people he had led to their deaths.
• Badass Normal: Manages to be a threat without being any sort of demon, dragon or lich and without having any magical capabilities whatsoever. All he has is his axe and his power as a warrior — and that's really all he needs.
• Badass Boast: He gives one late in the battle against him.
  Garrosh: Anger, hatred, fear, they are weapons of war. The tools of a Warchief. Yes, yes, I can see it now. I can see the future of this world. A world ruled by the Horde, my Horde! The old one calls to you. The heart will be your end. See the visions of fear, despair and doubt as I have. You will be trapped for eternity. The true horde will come to pass, I have seen it! I have seen mountains of skulls and rivers of blood, and I will have my world!
• Bald of Evil: In Mists of Pandaria, the bald head is more of an evil cue.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Gets a new model in Mists of Pandaria that turns down his looks just as he drops completely off the deep end, it turns down his chin, gives him a bigger, wrinkled forehead, ups his ears, and overall gives him a sinister look compared to his old brutish one. Partly averted, as he becomes an antagonist around that time.
• Berserk Button:
  • Speaking of his father's faults is a big emotional blow to him. Considering his history of his feelings about his father, it's understandable, his father took the Horde down a very, very dark path, and everyone seems to understand this, except Garrosh^note who ironically completely understood that up until Thrall told him about his father's heroic ending, then he turned around and completely forgot it!, who gets really defensive about it, as both Thrall....
    Garrosh Hellscream: Gragh! I cannot take this! While you talk and deliberate, our enemies grow stronger! Were it my choice, I would have put all our available forces onto that frozen rock and conquered it for the Horde!
    Thrall: If this is a trap, it is one I will not blindly walk into! Do not make the same mistakes as your father, Garrosh!
    Garrosh Hellscream: After all that he did for YOU and YOUR people? MAK'GORA!
  • ... AND Taran Zhu have found out.
    Garrosh Hellscream: Step aside, Pandaren! You confront a force beyond reckoning!
    Taran Zhu: Your father dabbled in powers 'beyond reckoning'. [CAMERA ZOOM] Where is he now?
    Garrosh Hellscream: ... RAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!
  • Any "cowardly" tactics, used by either side push his Berserk button. He drops a Horde commander off a cliff for using a powerful bomb on a civilian target, calling the tactic dishonorable. He steals a powerful object from the blue dragonflight, has a very powerful mana bomb developed and dropped on Theramore. Questioned In-Universe how he could go through such a change.
  • Use of fel magic is another big no-no, as the player finds out the hard way in Splintertree Post questline in Ashenvale... though that's because due to his family history he knows to avoid another race-wide corruption of the orcish race^note and his story in Warlords of Draenor is specifically about preventing this for the alt-Draenor orcs. This is apparent in 5.3 and 5.4, where all the warlocks in the Cleft of Shadow are sequestered by the Kor'kron Guard, and in Siege of Orgrimmar, they've all been executed.
• Big Bad: In Mists of Pandaria.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Is this to AU Gul'dan and to the Burning Legion. In the "Blank Scroll" short story it is shown that even if he should succeed at making orcs the dominant species of Azeroth it would lead Azeroth to its destruction after a new invasion of the Burning Legion. In Warlords of Draenor, Garrosh manages to foil Gul'dan's plans of making the orcs drink the blood of Mannoroth but it's in major part due to Gul'dan having no clue of his identity and origins. Once Gul'dan escape and figures out what is really going on with Garrosh and the Alliance and Horde of MU Azeroth, he ends up becoming the main threat again by taking over the Iron Horde, imprisoning Grommash, and making the orcs drink Mannoroth's blood after all. Also, once in Azeroth, Gul'dan learns about his and his MU counterpart's mistakes, while Garrosh was incapable of learning from his, and succeeds at allowing the Burning Legion to invade Azeroth once more and proves to be a far more serious threat that Garrosh was on Draenor.
• Black-and-White Insanity: One of Garrosh's problems from the start was his inability to see the Alliance as anything but an enemy to fight for the Horde's survival and well-being, glossing over the wrongs that the Horde committed against the people of the Alliance and treating even Jaina Proudmoore as an enemy, despite her diplomatic efforts and friendship with Thrall having helped the Horde many times and saved many lives even to the point of helping them against her own father. This trait only worsened with time as he became more and more aggressive and alienated progressively the non-orcish races of the Horde and even some of his own people to the point that by Mists of Pandaria he has fully adopted a With Us or Against Us attitude with him treating all those who don't submit to his bellicose and tyrannical methods as his enemies.
• Blood Knight: Garrosh fully embraces the violent tendencies of orcs and encourages the mindset to everyone who follows him. His warlike behavior to always challenge his foes in combat happens often as he uses it as a means to end whenever he decides to do anything. His lust for battle is so strong that he will often go out of his way just to fight in the battlefield rather than actually leading.
• Body Horror: Subverted. After fully absorbing Y'Shaarj's, he becomes covered in blue, fleshy growth with eyes intermittently placed... but it's actually armor created from the Old God's power. After he's defeated, it dissolves and he looks perfectly normal.
• Book Ends: His story ends where it all started, on the future location of Garadar, where he is killed by Thrall in a Mak'gora.
• Brutal Honesty: Unlike Thrall who preferred to keep his opinions while keeping discreet tabs on his less trustworthy allies Garrosh had no qualms about speaking his mind and didn't even try to hide his disdain for the Forsaken.
• Byronic Hero: Of the anti-heroic and eventually, villainous variety. He is very passionate, follows his own code even when it causes conflict with others, and cares nothing for what others think.
• The Cameo: Afterlives: Revendreth shows Garrosh (not named, but it is very clearly him) as one of the sinners being drained of his anima to feed Revendreth's starving populace.
• Can't Take Criticism: One of Garrosh's flaws is his unwillingness to listen to people whose opinion is different than his, causing him to ignore wise advices and more pragmatic solutions from his advisors and allies the great majority of the time. As his reign as Warchief goes on he becomes more and more intolerant of people disagreeing with him and criticizing his opinions, by the time of Tides of War he has already begun to have dissidents beat up and imprisoned for criticizing his decision to attack Theramore, and early in Mists of Pandaria, he orders his Kor'kron to assassinate Vol'jin should he disagree with Garrosh's plan of using the Mogu flesh-shaping magic which is an incredibly dark form of magic. Koak, a Dragonmaw orc that was separated from his clan, lampshaded this by saying that while Thrall just demanded loyalty Garrosh wants complete obedience.
• Casting a Shadow: After obtaining Xal'atoh, Desecrated Image of Gorehowl he gains this ability.
• Character Development: According to Word of God Garrosh is easily swayed by the people around him. So far this has translated to his behavior reflecting who he spent time with in the previous expansion. For example, in Wrath he is a belligerent war monger who is seen with either Thrall or Saurfang. Come Cataclysm and he has calmed down somewhat and emphasizes that the Horde behave honorably. Unfortunately, he also sends away most of the cooler heads around him and begins to associate with Rend's former followers which makes him much worse come Mists.
• The Chessmaster:
  • When he's not being hot-blooded, he's actually proven himself to be a master of this trope. For example, he knew that the blood elves would consider leaving the Horde and rejoining the Alliance^note King Wrynn of Stormwind was keeping an open line of communication between himself and the blood elves of Quel'Thalas. Garrosh then started a plan to seize the Divine Bell from the Alliance with the unwitting help of the Sunreavers, knowing that the Alliance would put the blame on them instead of him. The Alliance then purged the Sunreavers from Dalaran, and drove the blood elves back into the arms of the Horde. Garrosh managed to get the Divine Bell, stopped the blood elves from leaving the Horde and rejoining the Alliance, and reignited the mutual hatred of the blood elves and the Alliance, sabotaging any other attempt at a diplomatic relationship between the two with just one move.
  • The short story Hellscream brings this back to the fore: while his father Grommash's alt-Draenor counterpart witnesses a vision of the original timeline, Garrosh murders an alt-Draenor orcish shaman and blames the death on the vision, using that as a pretext to snap alt-Grommash out of said vision riiiiiiight before he could see that the post-Second War period wasn't the end of the orcish people, much less that there was more to Thrall's story than a mere gladiator slave who learned to read and dreamed of escape...
• Combat Pragmatist: Is not above to subdue monsters (Magnatauren, Kraken, Proto-drakes etc.) to give him an strategic advantage in battles.
• Culture Blind: Despite his pride and bluster about his heritage, Garrosh knows very little about any orcish traditions or customs other than the fact that they're warriors. This is best exemplified when Magatha Grimtotem was able to lace Gorehowl with poison before Garrosh's mak'gora with Cairne Bloodhoof because he was unaware of the customs on how shaman blessed weapons. Cairne even lampshaded it by pointing out how he, a Tauren, knows far more about orcish culture and customs than Garrosh. This is also seen in his treatment of and lack of reverence for elders and the elements, with him being often disrespectful of older orcs such as Eitrigg or Saurfang, and viewing the elements as tools to be used in battle, ignoring that respect of elders and ancestors and reverence of the elements are two of the most important aspects of orcish culture.
• Deader than Dead: In his last moment, he defiantly takes up Soulrender Dormazain's sword and strikes him down, with the blow reducing both of them to soul ash.
• Defiant to the End: He picks up Soulrender Dormazain's weapon after the raid defeats him, breaks free from his chains and strikes him down, as the former kept trying to make Garrosh submit. The strike apparently obliterates both of them.
  Garrosh: I submit to no one! Not you, not the Jailer, and not that 'coward Thrall! FOR THE HOOOOOORDE!!!
• Depending on the Writer: Infamous for how his characterization flip flops depending on the writer. This even gets lampshaded in Tides of War.
• Dirty Coward: Varian calls him one when he fights him after he blew up Theramore, pointing out his tendency to bring in monsters to help him fight.
• Discard and Draw: The sight of his father's axe Gorehowl, thrown aside like so much garbage in favor of a Sha-based parody of it, is the clearest sign of how far he's fallen in Mists of Pandaria.
• Diving Save: How he saves his father Grommash from the explosion of a dying Mannoroth in the Warlords of Draenor cinematic trailer.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Garrosh's fall into villainy and eventual downfall and death were caused by his standards and values being based on the ones of the Old Horde and his inability to understand the extent of the Old Horde's wrongs. To Garrosh what his father and the other orcs did wrong was of drinking the blood of Mannoroth and using Fel magic making themselves slaves of the Burning Legion, not that the Horde was founded on a wrong cause and that the Orcs slaughtered the Draenei and many other innocent people, as well as forsaking their culture and morals to become a machine of war and destruction and use dark magics in the first place. As such he repeats the same mistakes and take the same path that his father and the other chieftains of the Old Horde did, only with a slightly different form.
• Dual Wielding: Initially wielded two axes. In Cataclysm, when he is promoted to Warchief, he is given his father's Ancestral Weapon, Gorehowl.
• Dug Too Deep: In patch 5.4, he unearths a Sealed Evil in a Can in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, corrupting the entire zone with Sha influence. This becomes the catalyst for the Siege of Orgrimmar, provoking both the Horde and the Alliance into decisive action.
• Entitled Bastard: He, more than anyone else, embodies this attitude of the Horde in their belief that they're entitled to the fertile land of Ashenvale. In Siege of Orgrimmar, he implies that he feels the Orcs have a claim on all of Azeroth.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Used excellently against Overlord Krom'gar in the ending of the Stonetalon Mountains storyline as Garrosh surprises everyone once again, killing him, for bombing a neutral druid settlement because there were civilians and children there, and saying that he is not a "murderer".
  • He also finds Gallywix distasteful, but keeps him around because he's deemed easy to control.
  • He also opposes Sylvanas's usage of plague and raising the dead.
  • In an Ashenvale quest, he has a similar attitude regarding fel magic. He also has the warlocks in Orgrimmar executed.
  • In "Breath of Darkest Shadow", Blademaster Ishi, possessed by the Sha, rages about wanting to kill Alliance children in their sleep. Garrosh says, "There is killing, and then there is murder."
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While not evil at first, Garrosh has never reaĺly understood why others such as Thrall or Cairne prefer peaceful solutions over violence, and he's genuinely confused by Varok Saurfang's remorse over slaughtering the Draenei and that Baine Bloodhoof would spare Magatha Grimtotem's life after her part in his father's death and attempt to kill him.
• Evil Is Petty: In War Crimes just before the verdict of his trial must be rendered Garrosh asks to take the stand himself and acknowledges the arguments made by Tyrande Whisperwind and Baine Bloodhoof to either accuse or defend him and also the discussions he had with Anduin about how people can change. He then states that he regrets... nothing. He then proceeds to shout a particularly shocking and spiteful speech when he declares that he doesn't regret any of his actions such as destroying Theramore, devastating the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, causing the deaths he is responsible for and states that he would do it again a hundred times. While Garrosh knew that Kairozdormu would rescue him, he had nothing to gain from this speech outside of being spiteful. In Warlords of Draenor, his formation of the Iron Horde and their invasion of Azeroth are also motivated mostly by his desire of vengeance against those who deposed and imprisoned him. He also convinces Grommash to attack the Draenei, despite knowing that they had no intentions of attacking the orcs, unlike the orcs in the original Draenor who formed the Old Horde because they were manipulated into believing that the Draenei had nefarious intentions against them.
• Evil Weapon: Gains one in the Siege of Orgrimmar, where he actually abandons his father's axe Gorehowl for a copy made by Y'Shaarj called "Xal'atoh, Desecrated Image of Gorehowl." It's shaped almost exactly like Gorehowl, only with Sha corruption all over it. Here's the original,◊ and here's the copy.◊
• Face Death with Dignity: Deconstructed. Garrosh's refusal to repent for his actions during War Crimes is due to the belief this would be shameful. Also, that he's going to die anyway soon so why not die on his feet?
• Face–Heel Revolving Door:
  • In The Burning Crusade Garrosh is depressed because he blames his father and the Horde for selling his people out to the Burning Legion. Until Thrall showed him that it was Grom who freed the orcs from the blood curse he could not even accept being an orc, much less a Hellscream.
  • Then, in Northrend in Wrath of the Lich King, Garrosh suddenly becomes a warmonger who believes that Might Makes Right and even advocates killing human children because doing so would deprive the Alliance of their future soldiers — and therefore give the Horde an advantage. He also picks a fight with the human king, Varian Wrynn, at a diplomatic meeting. (His Heart of War story ameliorates how bad he was during his tenure in Warsong Hold, but still concludes with him militant in believing that the Alliance won't stop encroaching on them back at home.)
  • In Cataclysm, Garrosh surprises everyone once again, killing one of his generals, Krom'gar, for bombing a neutral druid settlement because there were civilians and children there, and saying that he is not a "murderer". Suddenly killing Alliance children doesn't seem to be such a good idea to him...
  • But then comes the next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, and suddenly Garrosh has no problem doing exactly what Krom'gar did, only on a larger scale, which is dropping a mana bomb that completely obliterates Theramore (lampshaded in Tides of War). And that's not the end of it — the entire expansion was basically dedicated to showing just how evil he has become.
  • In the new expansion, Warlords of Draenor, Garrosh will stay a Heel, though the writers admitted that they pushed him too far in one direction. To make up for this, they want to portray Garrosh in a more positive light and give the players more insight to his character. Which resulted in three things. One, saving the Orcs from Fel corruption by Gul'dan as in the original timeline, two, by explaining that all of his mistakes are a result of not being ready to lead and forced to take command when Thrall stepped down, and three, killing the bronze dragon Kairozdormu (otherwise known to the players as Kairoz). So two steps forward, one step back apparently. He still rules Nagrand as the Quest Chain end boss whom Thrall kills in spectacular fashion. It's a shame, really, as there was so much potential in his story. He was so out of focus throughout the Nagrand quests that in the end it was more a relief that he was finally dead rather than a bittersweet passing for an important character.
• Fantastic Racism: Garrosh always had a strong disdain for the Forsaken and to a lesser extent for the Blood Elves and the Trolls. He also already hated humans and the rest of the Alliance with a passion, viewing them as nothing but enemies and oppressors for him and the Horde. In Cataclysm, he also begins to evict the other Horde races from central Orgrimmar and to put them in districts believing them to be unable of defending the capital. In Mists of Pandaria, he became prejudiced against all non-orcs in the Horde. By then, Garrosh believes the only reason the Orcs lost after the First War is because they allowed 'lesser races' into the Horde.
• Fatal Flaw: His aggressivity and impulsivity that make him quick to anger and prone to use brutal but often ineffective methods that endanger him or put in situations worse than before, his lack of diplomacy and foresight that cause him to alienate his own advisors and allies and ignore more practical solutions to the Horde problems than violence, and above all his pride that prevents him from learning from his mistakes and causes him to go even further in his dark and bellicose path and eventually to completely alienate the rest of the Horde leading to his downfall and imprisonment, and eventually to the failure of the Iron Horde and his death.
• Fate Worse than Death: Even after his end, life hasn't let up on the orc. His soul has made it to Revendreth, where he should have a chance at redemption. But with the anima drought caused by the Jailer, the elite of Revendreth forego trying to rehabilitate Garrosh and use him as a "workhorse", constantly draining him of his significant anima supply to fuel their realm. Then we find him in the Sanctum of Domination, being tortured by a Mawsworn to convert him to their cause.
• Foil:
  • Seen as one to Jaina, who has a strong center while he does not. And when her center crumbles (the bombing of Theramore) is right around the point Garrosh stops changing his views.
  • He's also one to Varian. Varian is characterized as a Father caring for his son, Garrosh is a son trying to live up to his father's legacy, Garrosh rules through fear and oppression, Varian rules through his own merit (and thereby is accepted by others as legitimate) and negotiating. A further parallel could be seen in that both he and Varian started out as hot-headed new arrivals, but while Varian cared alot for his (fortunately reasonable) son and was willing to listen to the people around him, Garrosh quickly antagonized the other Horde leaders in rapid succession, despite being told to "listen to his advisors" when he ascended to power. Both were designed as "Anti-Thrall" characters, took charge in the Cataclysm, pushed their faction towards war with the other, and at the beginning of Cataclysm, start out as mirrors that slowly diverge, as Varian learns and tames his anger while Garrosh finds himself pulled deeper into the abyss. Even arguably inconsequential factors such as their fighting style (Dual Wielding to using Shalamayne and Gorehowl in two hands respectively) mirror each other.
  • To Vol'jin. Both are interested in the Horde's survival and prosperity, but have different ways of achieving said goal. Garrosh wants to find it through war, subjugation, and conquest, while Vol'jin wants to find it by pragmatic and less costly means. Vol'jin is willing to share Azeroth, while Garrosh wants the entire world for himself. Garrosh is also a bulky fighter while Vol'jin is a lithe, agile speedster.
  • Garrosh served as a foil to the more honorable Saurfang in Northrend.
  • He can also be seen as one to Gul'dan, with both having their motives defined by a moment of weakness in their youth (Gul'dan being crippled and physically weak for an orc, Garrosh having contracted the Red Pox)that caused them to become obsessed with power, and both travelled to another world and timeline (in AU Gul'dan's case) to cause significant changes here. However while Gul'dan remained physically weak but became an extremely powerful warlock and preferred ruse and manipulation to get his ways, Garrosh became a very strong and aggressive warrior who preferred force and radical solutions to reach his goals. Unlike Gul'dan Garrosh cared for his people and wanted to do best for them, though it had to be in his way and considered those who disagreed as enemies. Also while Gul'dan was able of learning of his mistakes and of becoming an even greater threat, Garrosh was unable of learning of his which caused him to be defeated again with less power that he had as a warfief and die.
  • Blizzard admitted they originally wrote Garrosh as a foil to Thrall, but he evolved beyond just that.
• Four-Star Badass: While his tactical and strategic skills vary according to his moods it's undeniable that Garrosh is a very formidable warrior fighting with great ferocity and able of taking down many enemies in battle.
• Freudian Excuse: Big time. While he was a child, Garrosh got infected with the Red Pox, a highly contagious disease, which is the reason he wasn't able to go to war with his father and the Horde, but instead was put into quarantine with the other sick orcs. When Kargath came to the quarantine city in search for warriors, he told Garrosh right to the face that he is weak, pathetic and not a real orc and that he would do them all a favor if he would just die. Some time after that, Geyah revealed to him that his father was the first one to drink the demon blood and the one who doomed their race, which send him into a deep depression. When Thrall finally arrived and told him that his father was actually a hero, Garrosh snapped out of the depression, but now had to live up to his father's legendary legacy — one which he didn't even know of. Given this history, it's not a surprise that Garrosh became obsessed with strength and "true" orc values and that he constantly tried to prove himself to everyone.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: During Garrosh's duel with Thrall, Thrall tells Garrosh that he failed the Horde during his destructive reign as Warchief. Garrosh responds by telling him that Thrall had made him, a man with no experience in leadership, the Horde's Warchief during a severe crisis that he wasn't equipped to deal with, and that it was Thrall who failed him. When Thrall has Garrosh in his death grip, Garrosh states that Thrall was responsible for making him into who he was. Thrall responds by telling him he had chosen his own destiny and then kills him. While Thrall regards filling Garrosh's head with an idealized view of his father and people and later appointing him as Warchief his greatest mistake in life, he knew Garrosh let the power go to his head and caused too much death and suffering to be left alive.
• Frontline General: Garrosh largely prefers to lead his troops from the front and to fight directly in battle rather than staying at distance from harm. While his formidable fighting skills and luck generally allows him to come out of the fight unarmed this attitude combined to his hot-blooded and Blood Knight personality has also put him in serious danger such as during the Twilight Highlands storyline where his airship fleet is destroyed by Twilight dragons, when he led an attack on Quilboars or an offensive against the Night Elves in Ashenvale. In the two last cases Garrosh would have died if Baine and his Kor'kron guards respectively hadn't pull him out of the fight.
• General Failure: In Twilight Highlands, he gets most of his airship fleet shot down on the way over. In Baine's short story he also takes a strike team of Kor'kron soldiers to attack a tribe of Quiboars in their lair while being greatly outnumbered by the boar-men and Baine warning him that Quilboars are fierce enemies which results in his strike team being decimated and he only survives due to Baine's intervention. He is thought to be this in Tides of War, hesitating outside Theramore and resulting in many casualties, but he's actually...
• General Ripper: He actually does have a plan for causing considerable casualties on the Alliance, by luring their best forces to Theramore and blowing them up.
• Generation Xerox: An invoked in-universe case. Garrosh and Grom are largely different people. Garrosh is bulky where Grom is lithe, weak willed while Grom's iron will is well known, and likes to seek out advanced technology and special magics to aid his cause when Grom always defaulted to hitting things with his axe. Many of the similarities between them, like Garrosh wielding Gorehowl, having a tattooed chin, and being a fervent champion of the orcish people came about from Garrosh intentionally emulating his father. Grom, while unaware of their relationship, implies that the trope is played straight for Garrosh and his mother, as he keeps being reminded of her whenever he sees Garrosh.
• Genius Bruiser: Although sometimes overshadowed by his Hot-Blooded nature, he is actually very intelligent and charismatic.
• Glory Hound: Downplayed as Garrosh does war to get real results, but he clearly enjoys it when he is acclaimed by others as seen in "The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm" where Cairne Bloodhoof is annoyed by his lack of modesty after returning from the victorious campaign of Northrend, and in "Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War" where is he shown to "drink in it" each time he is cheered and applauded by the people of Orgrimmar and orders an entire week of festivities dwarfing the celebration for the return of the troops from Northrend after destroying Theramore, in great part because this time the Alliance was the enemy fought.
• Gone Horribly Right: Cairne marched into Garrosh's throne room and started slapping him around in front of his subjects. Desperate to save face, Garrosh challenged him to a Duel to the Death to get him to back down and reassert Garrosh's image as an unchallenged leader. Unfortunately, Cairne jumped at the chance to avenge druids he believed killed by Garrosh's orders and left Garrosh with little choice and little incentive not to go through with it.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Garrosh's hatred of the Alliance is fueled by his jealousy of all the things that the Alliance has access to which the Horde has not.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Garrosh had always had an ill time controlling his temper in the past when he was younger, but now since his sanity has been driven downwards literally anything can make him angry as he'll lash out over the smallest things.
• Hated by All: All of the Alliance and a good percent of the Horde despise him, eventually erupting into a revolt by most of the Horde that is backed by the Alliance.
  • According to at least one Bronze Dragon, during the Mag'har recruitment scenario, this is actually inverted in several different timelines where Garrosh instead becomes a great hero and is remembered as a Great Warchief.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Word of God states that there was a strong chance Garrosh would have accepted his fate and tried for some form of redemption after Anduin Wrynn saved his life by preventing him from eating poisoned food in War Crimes, but then Kairozdormu just had to come to him with his plan to go an alternate Draenor just a few hours later...
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: He never wears any head protection.
• Heroic BSoD: Was essentially living in one until Thrall (after being prompted by the player) visits him in Nagrand.
• Holier Than Thou: The reason behind his Moral Myopia. Because he never had to endure the Demons' corruption like Thrall and the other orcs from the Old Horde, Garrosh was firmly convinced he had a higher moral ground than them and as such was completely justified in all the acts he committed as long as he rejected fel magic and followed the orcs' more traditional ideals. This is in part why he was unable to become The Atoner.
• Hot-Blooded: Most definitely. It causes diplomatic problems, to put it lightly as he is way too impulsive and hot tempered. This often leads him to getting riled up very easily whenever his emotions are triggered or if he feels something is out of line. This also plays a key factor in battle where he's often shown screaming at the top of his lungs as well as declaration speeches which show how passionate he is about his goal.
• Hypocrite: Despite is hatred of fel magic, he has no problem with his people or himself using Void/Twilight energies such as the Sha or dark shamanism, both of which are Black Magic just like fel magic.
• Humiliation Conga: A minor one but in Baine's leader story Garrosh decides to involve himself in a crisis with the Quilboars raiding water convoys between Mulgore and Durotar despite Baine's assurances he'll deal with it peacefully. Disdainful of Baine's diplomatic approach Garrosh launches a raid on the Quilboars lairs with only a Kor'kron's strike team despite being vastly outnumbered and Baine's warning that Quiboars are not to be underestimated. Evidently Garrosh's raid end up in a failure with his Kor'kron being decimated while he is nearly killed only to be saved by Baine who then resolves the conflict just by giving a new source of water to the Quilboars right under Garrosh's eyes. Having seriously underestimated his foes, been nearly killed and sacrificed elite soldiers for nothing and seeing Baine's way triumph over his Garrosh is naturally too embarrassed and furious to speak upon his departure.
• I Am the Noun: Believes that being the Warchief makes him the Horde, which he expresses to Lor'themar in Tides of War.
  Garrosh: I am the Horde's warchief, Lor'themar. And as such, I am the Horde.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Behind his arrogant, bellicose and stubborn attitude Garrosh is implied to be in truth insecure about his own capacities as a warrior and leader and is constantly trying to get validation from others and to find the right way serve his people and preserve their pride and history while also doing something that would have made his father proud. This is shown in his short story "Heart of War" where he can't let go of his mind the fact that he disappointed Thrall with his attitude at Dalaran and tries to not disappoint him again, after his duel with Cairne with him finding out that he did not win fairly due to Magatha Grimtotem having poisoned Gorehowl and him seeming to have gleamed a number of Saurfang's creeds on honor when he executed Overlord Krom'gar. However that also means that he is willing to take more and more desperate and ruthless actions when doubted by the rest of the Horde and that his current methods aren't enough to get what he wants for his people, and makes him dangerously malleable and susceptible to bad influences such as Malkorok's.
• I Regret Nothing: In Shadowlands he says that everything he did, he would proudly make again, in spite of Revendreth's attempts at making him repent for his sins.
• It's All About Me: A somewhat minor case, but after Cairne dies, he seems primarily concerned about his personal loss of honor^note since anyone could point to Cairne's poisoning, however unwitting on Garrosh's part, and Cairne's son, Baine calls him out on that.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Oh boy. In their final Mak'gora, Garrosh points out that everything he's done is directly related to Thrall. Thrall made him Warchief of the Horde, despite Garrosh himself feeling as if he wasn't ready, then Thrall up and abandoned the Horde during the Cataclysm, leaving Garrosh in charge of a city with limited resources^note the Wrathgate issue caused the night elves to cut off trading with the Horde, thus no lumber, a neighboring ally who only recently got their home back from a powerful witch-doctor (Darkspear trolls), another whose land was being invaded by centaurs and quilboars (tauren), and two however-nominal allies which was too far away to even matter to the bulk of the Horde of Kalimdor (blood elves), one of which most don't trust anyway (the Forsaken). While Garrosh is no saint^note which is what Thrall hangs his denial of responsibility on on, he does point out that he was given a failure from the start.
• Karmic Death: Garrosh had cheated during his Mak'gora vs. Cairne Bloodhoof via a poisoned blade (albeit unwittingly). Thrall returns the favor by calling upon the elements (which is normally forbidden in a Mak'gora) to kill Garrosh.
• Kick the Dog: Garrosh has been doing a lot of puppy kicking in Mists of Pandaria; besides the Would Hit a Girl example below, there's his willingness to attack and mortally wound Anduin. Another, easier to overlook one is when his blademaster lieutenant Ishi gets possessed by the Sha and killed by players, Ishi's last words are "I have failed you, warchief." Rather than acknowledging his loyalty, sacrifice, or sorrow, Garrosh coldly states "Yes Ishi, you did."
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Having the warlocks beneath Orgrimmar executed, though before that he'd already had them held in lockdown.
• Magic Pants: When Garrosh takes in Y'Shaarj's power, he increases immensely in size, but his armor still manages to hold together well enough to stay on him. Strangely, the damage disappears once the layer of sha-flesh is removed upon his defeat.
• Meaningful Name: Garrosh means "Warrior's Heart" in orcish.
• Mirror Character:
  • One of the main reasons Garrosh turned out so bad was because he had a Holier Than Thou mentality and was convinced that because he never was corrupted by the Demons, he had to be the good guy. Which is a flaw ironically very common in the Alliance.
  • He often makes clear his hatred of warlocks due to their role in corrupting the orcs. However, he has his Dark Shaman torture the elements to the point that Thrall couldn't call upon them. And when he went to alternate Draenor, he convinced his father to go to war against the draenei and Azeroth in hopes of conquering both worlds. His drive to make the orcs the dominant race caused him to commit actions similar to that of Gul'dan.
• Moral Myopia:
  • Tends to gloss over the old Horde's atrocities against the Alliance while being indignant about the actions the Alliance takes against the Horde. He also sees the orcs as being unfairly denied good land and resources while having to eek out an existence in a reddish desert, but correspondingly disregards the night elves' own claim to said land.
  • In Cataclysm, he punishes an orc warlock for using fel magic to win a battle, saying he doesn't want to consort with demonic powers to be strong, like his father did. However, in Mists of Pandaria, he has no problem personally harnessing and using the powers of the Sha, which are based on the powers of the Old Gods. Some of his minions also use a twisted form of shamanism called "Dark Shamanism", which forces the elements into submission and results in them becoming "dead" versions of what they once were (water becomes polluted, fire becomes ash, etc). Worse, the "dead" version of the Life Element is Fel itself yet Garrosh still uses the "dead" versions of the other Elements regardless. Not to mention that Dark Shamanism originated in the Fel Horde to begin with.
  • Baine Bloodhoof's leader short story As Our Fathers Before Us has Garrosh demanding that the tauren of Thunder Bluff export water from Mulgore to Orgrimmar, but when Baine asks why the orc nation's own Southfury River won't suffice, Garrosh admits that it's not drinkable... thanks to certain goblin projects in Azshara which are polluting said river, but which also he considers too vital to "the war effort" to either stop or at least move out. Funny, from an orc who once upon a time resented Thrall's 'weakness' for the orcs of Durotar having to scrape in the desert and supplement that with imported foodstuffs...
• Motive Rant: He goes into one in the final confrontation with him in the Underhold, saying that the Orcs could have taken Azeroth, but they grew weak, relying on the other races of Azeroth.
• Named Weapons: Gorehowl, his father's axe.
• Never My Fault: He blames everyone else for his failures, and blamed Thrall for how he is in their final fight.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Him ordering the invasion of Gilneas by the Forsaken led the Gilneans to go back to the Alliance, giving the Alliance a formidable strength boost in the savage and powerful Worgens. During the conflict in Ashenvale Garrosh manages to get the upper hand on the Night Elves by bringing Magnataurs only for Varian to arrive with Worgens reinforcements with the lupine creatures being able of tearing through the Horde ranks and of taking the Magnataurs down.
  • After using the Focusing Iris to create and power the super mana bomb to destroy Theramore, he doesn't try to retrieve it after Theramore's destruction, thus allowing Jaina to find it and to try using it to destroy Orgrimmar with an army of enslaved water elementals as revenge for the destruction of her city. Though Kalecgos and Thrall are able of talking her down from flooding Orgrimmar Jaina still uses the Iris and the enslaved elementals to kill the krakens summoned by Garrosh's dark shamans on the Alliance fleet and to allow the Alliance to take Northwatch back.
  • His increasingly aggressive and ruthless methods of ruling and warring against the Alliance and racism against non-orcs eventually alienate the non-orcish races of the Horde causing them to become discontent with him before finally rising in rebellion after he ordered Vol'jin's assassination and the occupation of the Echos Isles by his Kor'kron. This causes him to be deposed and imprisoned.
  • Garrosh orchestrated the creation of the Iron Horde on alternate Draenor with the precise goal of getting revenge on the Alliance and Horde that deposed him. This backfires horribly as the Iron Horde's invasion attempt is thwarted, the Alliance and Horde invade Draenor and start beating back the Iron Horde and that Thrall and the adventurers track him down to Grommashar, resulting in his final defeat and death. Had Garrosh given up on his desire for vengeance the Iron Horde may have succeeded at conquering Draenor and the people of Azeroth may have not found him again. A more negative result of his actions is getting alternate Gul'dan teleported to the main timeline of Azeroth, which led to the Burning Legion invading the world.
• Noble Savage: Deconstructed: His main motivation as a character is honor and keeping his people free of any corruption. However, his concept of honor is perpetual war because a real orc is a killer, and, once he learned that other races of the Horde don't share his views, he started to look down on all non-orcs, becoming a Fantastic Racist.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • To Thrall in Warlords of Draenor. Then Thrall turns it around on him Now in a gif!◊
  • Delivers an absolutely brutal o the player with the intent of beating you to death with his bare hands before being challenged to Mak'Gora by Thrall, leaving them stunned and bleeding profusely form their face.
• Not Me This Time: When Cairne confronts him about the druids meeting being attacked by (seemingly) Horde forces and all but one of the druids being killed, Garrosh's reply amount to "IF I had done it, i'd be bragging about it". To his credit, he's telling the truth there, the meeting was attacked by Twlight Hammer cultists posing as Horde forces to incite conflict between the two factions. Sadly, Garrosh's callous attitude toward the the event still makes Cairne think Garrosh is not fit to rule the Horde, and challenge him to Mak'Gora.
• Oh, Crap!: When he sees Grom plant Gorehowl in Mannoroth's head, since he knows that's how Grom died in the main timeline. Garrosh is quick to tackle Grom away from the explosion.
• Older Than He Looks: Garrosh looks and acts younger than Thrall, but he's actually significantly older, having been a teenager before the First War when Thrall was born.
• Only Six Faces: During Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. Mag'har orcs have one single skin tone and one single face option for each gender, so Garrosh looks like a clone of every other Mag'har. He gets a unique model in Cataclysm and in the final patch of Mists of Pandaria he receives an upgrade.
• Outside-Context Problem: In Hellscream, he seems to just appear in the Warsong camp on alternate Draenor from out of nowhere, no one knows him and he has no history that he is willing to lay bare, telling tales of weapons that have yet to be created and events that no one yet knows are about to take place. Not even the spirits of the planet know what to make of him, and his appearance sends them into a panicked frenzy.
• Perma-Stubble: Looks the part, although it's a Tattoo.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He hates Gallywix but keeps him around because as he's interested only in turning a profit and thus considered easy to control^note though Gallywix eventually declared that Garrosh's tenured denied the Goblins their security and profit, unlike Cairne and Vol'jin who don't like what he's doing, Sylvanas who fears for her people, and Lor'themar who clarifies that he's loyal to the Horde and not necessarily to the Warchief.
• Precision F-Strike: Towards Sylvanas after showing him what the Val'kyr could do by resurrecting their fallen enemies. He proceeds to tell her how disgusted he is of this action and asks what difference between her and the Lich King, to where she responded with a sarcastic quip which causes Garrosh to call her a bitch.
  Garrosh: "Watch your clever mouth, bitch.'"
• Pride: His greatest flaw, which, when combined with his stubborn nature and lack of positive influences, led him to become a racist genocidal warmonger that caused chaos across two worlds before he was put down, and in spite of it all he outright refused to admit regretting ANY of it even when on trial. It's bad enough to the point where he manages to manifest and fuse with the Sha of Pride without being corrupted or losing himself, and even comes away fine from the experience. He's SO prideful that when he ends up in Revendreth after death, he ends up chained in a dungeon and repeatedly milked for anima by the drought-stricken Venthyr, since he's got so much to give and he's so adamant about doing no wrong, to the point he's called one of their 'old reliables.'
• Psychopathic Manchild: Under his tough and strong facade, and despite his great intelligence (at least when he's calm) and warrior skills, Garrosh is very immature for his age, being prone to childish tantrums when things don't go his way or when he or his father suffer the slightest insult or contradiction as well as having an increasingly self-centered and unnnuanced view of the world and being unable of admitting his faults and learning from them. It's telling that despite being older than Thrall it's Thrall who actually mentored him and even call him "boy" sometimes.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: He's very fond of this trope, using it multiple times during the game across many expansions.
  • Twice in Cataclysm, the first one in Stonetalon Mountains: "You. Are. DISMISSED!" [drops Kromgar off a cliff]
  • Then again in the Twilight's Highlands intro quest when his airship is attacked by a twilight dragon. "Get. Off. My. SHIP!"
  • Then again in Mists of Pandaria during his boss fight: "I. WILL. HAVE. MY. WOOOOOOORLD!"
  • And again in his fight against Thrall in Warlords of Draenor. Mixed with Punctuated Pounding. "''You LEFT ME! TO PICK UP! YOUR! PIECES! YOU! FAILED! MEEEEEEE"!
• Pure Is Not Good: Introduced as one of the last few 'uncorrupted' Orcs, has little patience for users of fel magic, manages to make use of old god artifacts without being corrupted/driven insane by them, and is not completely without a code of honor. Still manages to be a massive threat through his hotheadedness alone. His leader short story implies that his inability to comprehend a The Atoner mindset^note though egged on by the plight of orcs disgruntled with Thrall's leadership contributed to him not comprehending why his people shouldn't just take whatever they want, or why they might want to help others in similar situations.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Garrosh is the aggressive and wrathful red to Thrall's peaceful and cordial blue.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Gives one to Thrall during Siege of Orgrimmar.
    Garrosh: You are weak. We are the orcish Horde, the true Horde. We die bloody and thrashing on the field of battle, like true orcs should. You are an orc no longer, and speak for none but yourself. You betrayed your people to forge your fragile alliances and I will take great pleasure in tearing them apart.
  • He does it again, this time much more heartbreaking since it sounds like Garrosh is on the verge of bawling, during his and Thrall's final fight. With Punctuated! For! Emphasis! included, and during a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.'''
    Garrosh: All I ever did, I did, for the Horde!
    Thrall: You FAILED the Horde!
    Garrosh: YOU made me Warchief! You LEFT ME! TO PICK UP! YOUR! PIECES! YOU! FAILED! MEEEEEEE!
• Racial Face Blindness: Calls your character 'young lady' regardless of actual gender when you first report to him after finishing Tranquillien's quest lines. In his defence, Elves are basically aliens to him, having spent most of his life on Draenor, but it still shows his ever too-present tendency towards diplomatic ineptitude and Fantastic Racism.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: Garrosh strongly believes in that, noting that he never feels more alive than when giving death, and frequently talks about bloodlust or satisfying the Horde's thirst for Alliance blood
• Revenge: His main motivation in Warlords of Draenor is to get revenge on the Alliance and on the Horde rebels who defeated and imprisoned him at the end of Mists of Pandaria, with him having created the Iron Horde and relied AU Draenor to Azeroth with a new portal in order to invade the world and get his vengeance.
• Rousing Speech: Garrosh is very good at dishing these out. His ability to inspire the orcs is a large part of why he's been able to go as far as he has.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder:
  • See Hamuul's Deadpan Snarker entry, and this example.
    Garrosh: And now, can you tell me what my decision to wait has brought us?
    Hamuul: Defeat?
  • He also gets this when he asks Sylvanas whether there is any difference between her and the Lich King. She snarkily responds that the difference is that she serves the Horde.
• Screaming Warrior: Garrosh lives up to the name "Hellscream" in this regard. He's known to belt out some impressive battle cries before charging into the fray.
• Shoulders of Doom: Tides of War reveals that his shoulder armor is made from Mannoroth's tusks.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Three in rapid succession during his fight with Taran Zhu.
  • When Taran Zhu declares that the tauren, trolls and other Horde members he fought with aren't like Garrosh, Garrosh says that "They are no longer part of MY HORDE!".
  • After Taran Zhu, having been wounded by Gorehowl, says that the world will come for Garrosh, Garrosh declares that he's counting on it, and that he will slaughter his enemies with the terrible weapons at his disposal.
  • When Taran Zhu says that Garrosh will answer for his crimes, Garrosh yells "I answer... to NO ONE!" before dropping the Heart of Y'Shaarj into the Pools of Power.
• Smug Snake: While definitively a great warrior and a very smart tactician when he's in a good mood, Garrosh is also very arrogant and sure of his genius while often failing to measure the consequences of his actions and underestimating his foes, not counting that he has a volcanic temper and is prone to childish tantrums when things don't go his way. During the Alliance-Horde war he frequently underestimate the strength and resolve of the Alliance such as in Ashenvale, or after the destruction of Theramore, which he thought would have demoralized the Alliance but which instead enraged it and strengthened its resolve, as well as other enemies such as the Darkspear rebellion, the Qilboars or the Burning Legion. This causes him to alienate the rest of the Horde and eventually be deposed, and later to form the Iron Horde in order to invade Azeroth and get revenge only for it to be beaten back and for him to be finally killed by Thrall, before Gul'dan takes control of the Iron Horde anyway.
• Spanner in the Works: To the alternate timeline Kil'jaeden. In Warlords of Draenor, he foiled the demon lord's plan to bring the orcs under the Legion's sway by having them drink demon blood and go to war with the draenei. They still of course want to conquer all of Draenor and worlds beyond as the Iron Horde, but they won't be doing it for the Burning Legion.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Goes from "Mopey Kid" to "Racist Warmonger" to "Decent Warlord" to a "totally evil Villain" over the course of four expansions, though to the Alliance he went Heel at Wrath of the Lich King, while to the Horde he stayed a Token Evil Team Mate until Cataclysm where he mellowed out, and was overshadowed by Gallywix and Sylvanas in heinousness... then Mists of Pandaria undid his development making him an outright villain.
• The Strategist: Overshadowed by his extreme methods and hatred for the Alliance, but he is shown to be pretty good at strategy when he wants to be.
• Symbolic Weapon Discarding: Garrosh discards his Ancestral Weapon Gorehowl in favor of a Sha-empowered knockoff named Xal'atoh. It's taken as a sign of just how far off the deep end he's fallen, as even his previously overbearing pride in his heritage has been subsumed by his lust for power.
• Tiny-Headed Behemoth: His ingame model is infamously this, based off his appearance in the WoW comic where many orcs and humans had this appearance.
• Top-Heavy Guy: His model in Cataclysm is this. What makes this odd is that Garrosh noted to be the splitting image of Grom, who was rather skinny for an orc.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: And how. After being passive and weak-willed in The Burning Crusade, he jumped straight to flipping off Thrall and telling him how to run the Horde, and provoking fights with the Alliance for little reason. It's revealed in the Heart of War short story that he was upset by Alliance encroachments on Horde territory which Thrall seemingly did nothing about, and how the Orcs seemingly had to struggle to survive in barren Durotar while Ashenvale was just nearby.
• Token Evil Teammate: Along with Sylvanas and Gallywix, was this to the Horde leaders.
• Trademark Favorite Food: When held as a prisoner in Pandaria during the War Crimes novel, Garrosh came to love Pandaren curry, especially the star fruit you add to the dish. This is a plot point as Sylvannas planned to poison Garrosh.
• Turn Out Like His Father:
  • A lot of people were worried about this. Garrosh has always been described as 'his father's son', although in Grom's defense, the demon curse expanded his natural hyper-aggressiveness and violence (although he was stated to have been aggressive and quick to anger even before). Garrosh has no such excuse.
  • Sort of a subversion with his physical appearance. Grom was thin, described as almost sickly looking, and Garrosh is large and bulky. Grom had long, flowing hair, and Garrosh is bald (But he used to have a single topknot). Grom fought with a warrior's grace and agility, and Garrosh focuses on 'in your face' brute force in his combat. Grom had green skin, Garrosh is brown. Garrosh tried to be more like his father by adopting his signature tattoo and Ancestral Weapon.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm:
  • Highlighted in his take on the orcish Battle Cry. Instead of "never surrender and fight to the death", his phrasing implies "succeed or I'll kill you."
    Garrosh: Live by these words! Lok'tar ogar: victory...or death!
  • This reaches a climax in Mists of Pandaria, where both Alliance and Horde lay siege on Orgrimmar in order to bring him down.
  • In Tides of War, he orders (or at least allows) dissidents to be jailed, tortured and sometimes killed, and enforces conscription on everyone, calling draft dodging treason.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • In the short story "As Our Fathers Before Us" he decides to attack a tribe of Quilboars that raided water convoys despite Baine having found a possible peaceful solution and warning him that Quilboars are not foes to be underestimated. Garrosh and his strike team of Kor'kron attack the Quilboars only to find out that they are indeed fierce warriors whose ferocity surprises even Garrosh, evidently Garrosh's group is quickly outnumbered and massacred despite putting a good fight. Had Baine and his warriors not come to rescue him Garrosh would have been unceremoniously killed by the Quilboars.
  • In "Tides of War" he greatly underestimates the Alliance's strength and resolve as he assumes that by destroying Northwatch and Theramore and setting a blocus to isolate the Night Elves will break the rest of the Alliance's resolve. It bites him in the ass as Varian and the other Alliance leaders only become more determined to fight and depose him and quickly launch an expedition to break the blocus and attack the Horde directly. Though Garrosh manages to regain the upper hand by having his Dark Shamans summon krakens to attack the alliance fleet his plan is foiled by Jaina who survived the destruction of Theramore and uses the retrieved Focusing Iris, the same item Garrosh used to destroy Theramore, to have an army of water elementals kill the krakens and allow the Alliance to take Northwatch back leading to an epic Villainous Breakdown with him streaming his disbelief at the Alliance still fighting and winning fights against the Horde.
• Unstoppable Rage: Many times Garrosh has lost his cool and has lashed out in a very angry manner but as the Warchief his rage knows no bounds and seeks to destroy anything in his path going from angry to out right genocidal.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By creating the Iron Horde and connecting alternate Draenor to Azeroth, Garrosh allowed alternate Archimonde to send alternate Gul'dan to main timeline Azeroth in order to kick off the biggest invasion of the Legion yet. If you're not feeling generous, said Legion invasion ended with Sargeras plunging his planet-size sword into Azeroth, causing a devastating conflict between the Horde and the Alliance for the control of the resource it spawned and awakening an Old God, N'Zoth. And said Legion invasion and conflict allowed Sylvanas Windrunner to gain power and resources for her own schemes, culminating with her breaking the barrier between the world of the living and the Shadowlands (to be fair though, Zovaal the Jailer and the loa Mueh'zala had as much responsibility if not more in the latter). Garrosh's actions indirectly caused a hell lot of shit even long after his death. Dragonflight is the first Expansion Pack not to be impacted by this chain of events.
  • If The Blank Scroll short story is any indication, if Garrosh had any success in making Orcs the dominant race on Azeroth it would have resulted in the Old Gods and the Burning Legion being able to destroy all life on the planet unopposed.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Magatha in The Shattering. Baine even wonders if this means Garrosh is collaborating with Magatha, and so decides to go to the Alliance-affiliated Jaina rather than risk dealing with him.
  • It's possible Garrosh is this to Y'shaarj as well. Sha feed off negative emotions, which Garrosh has in spades and would generate plenty of if his goals came to pass, so Y'shaarj could have been using Garrosh to expand Sha influence. It would certainly at least partially explain why Y'shaarj didn't attempt to forcibly take control of Garrosh even when the orc absorbed all of the Heart's remaining power during the climax of the siege of Orgrimmar.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: He wants to build a glorious future for the orcs — and damn anyone who gets in the way of that future.
• Vague Age: Garrosh is treated in-story as if he's much younger than Thrall, with the latter orc even calling him "boy" on more than one occasion. The problem with this is that Garrosh was of fighting age by the time the First War began, meaning that he was at least a teenager by the time Thrall was born. Granted, his in-story treatment could be more due to the fact he's simply much less emotionally mature than Thrall is.
• Villain Has a Point: He's hated in universe and out for trying to have Vol'jin killed for "treason"... and as War Crimes mentions, by that point Vol'jin had openly defied his authority multiple times and explicitly threatened to murder him.
• Villain with Good Publicity: To the Orcs, at first; while more lucid characters like Cairne and Vol'jin can tell right away he is being a terrible warchief, a lot of orcs genuinely admire him, mainly because he takes a very pro-active approach in expanding the Horde and is more concerned with improving his people's lifestyle than peace. He however gradually loses this; by Mist of Pandaria, only part of the Orcs still stand by his side, while the rest of the Horde eventually rebels against him.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • During the final battle of the Siege of Orgrimmar:
    Garrosh: The True Horde WILL come to pass. I have SEEN it. IT HAS SHOWN ME. I HAVE SEEN MOUNTAINS OF SKULLS AND RIVERS OF BLOOD. AND I WILL... HAVE... MY... WORLD!"''
  • And again during his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against Thrall just before his death:
    Garrosh: YOU made me Warchief! You LEFT ME to pick up YOUR! PIECES! YOU... FAILED... MEEEE!
• Villainous Friendship : With Malkorok in Tides of War and Mists of Pandaria as he generally talk to the blackrock orc in the casual way and often laugh with him, Malkorok being the only leader he trusted about his true plan to use a super mana bomb to destroy Theramore and one of the very few he fully trust anymore, and as he gifted a portion of the power of the Heart of Y'Shaarj to him.
• Villainous Valour: In Warlords of Draenor, when Thrall challenges Garrosh to a Mak'Gora, Garrosh faces him without fear though it leads to his death.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: As Warchief he never wears a shirt.
• War Is Glorious: Firmly believes in this which is one of main reasons of his conflict with Thrall, Cairne Bloodhoof and his son Baine who are strong advocates of peace and loathe unnecessary violence.
• Warhawk: His solution to any problem is to use force and he dismisses diplomatic and peaceful solutions as weak or cowardly causing him to ignore Cairne, Baine, and Eitrigg's reasonable advices or the fact that Jaina Proudmoore's efforts at keeping peace with the Horde saved a lot of his people lives and that she has helped them many times including against her own father. Even before the war against the Lich King he was already an extremely vocal supporter of open war against the Alliance, something he put in practice as soon as he was made Warchief.
• Weak-Willed: Word of God says that Garrosh's Fatal Flaw is that he has a "weak center". He is trying to prove himself, and covers up his self-perceived inadequacy through bravado and extreme actions. His eagerness to prove himself in front of others leads him to becoming highly suggestible to their ideas, whether for good or ill, and his Hot-Blooded nature has driven off most of the "good" influences. This also explains some of the inconsistencies in his ideas across time, as he shifts his ideals based on who he associates with.
• We Have Reserves: Due to the Forsaken's status as undeads and his strong disdain for them he has no issues using them as meat shields during the assault on Gilneas with him ordering the Forsaken to assault the areas of the wall the most exposed to enemy's fire so they can open the gate without wasting the lives of any of his living soldiers until Sylvas arrived and convinced him to let her take over the invasion without sacrificing her subjects like that. His disregard for the Blood Elves' lives and welfare is also what pushed Lor'themar Teron to consider rejoining the Alliance.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Depicted as such during the prologue of War Crimes when he dreams of seeing an uncorrupted Grom Hellscream... only to be awoken before Grom can vindicate or condemn him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • He claims that everything he did was to ensure the future of his race.
    Garrosh: This is the difference between you and me, Vol'jin. I won't let my people starve to death in the desert. I will stop at nothing — NOTHING — to ensure a proud and glorious future for the orcs and anyone with the courage to stand with us!
  • Though this is also ironic, considering he's wrong... Vol'jin and his people saved the Horde from starvation during the founding of Durotar. If anything he alienated a people that would otherwise probably have been happy to do it again.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist : Despite claiming that he did everything he did for the Horde it becomes clear that it's far from true. While he clearly cares for his people he never considered the other races of the Horde as equals to the Orcs and even had contempt for the Forsaken, the Blood Elves and the Trolls from the start. While his distrust of the Forsaken and Blood Elves is not without good reasons, the Taurens and the Darkspear Trolls have never been anything but loyal true allies to the Orcs who contributed heavily to the Horde. Also despite having wise and more cool-headed advisors he constantly ignores their advices and becomes increasingly aggressive, stubborn and ruthless in his ambitions and methods and starts to openly mistreat the other races of the Horde and imprison or kill all those who disagree with him which eventually causes most of the Horde to rebel against him. His formation of the Iron Horde is motivated by the idea of creating his own perfect Horde which is an orcish-centered instrument of conquest just like the Old Horde minus the Fel Magic and affiliation with demons, and by the desire of getting revenge on the members of the Horde who rebelled against him and the Alliance.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Gives one to Overlord Blackscar in the short story "Heart of War" when he finds out that he expressed approval for Horde soldiers attacking the Alliance forces trying to take the Death Gate^note the Alliance forces were already in pitched battle with the Scourge only to be attacked from behind by the Horde, so although Garrosh is pleased that the Alliance did not seize the Death Gate... the Scourge won that fight, and tells him that he has one more chance before he demands his head. Receives one from aine Bloodhoof and Eitrigg, for contributing to Cairne's death.
  • Also gives one to Sylvanas when he learns she's going use the Val'kyr to raise dead humans as a part of the Forsaken.
• Willing Channeler: Garrosh is mutated by the Heart of Y'Shaarj partway into his boss fight, but Word of God has said on multiple occasions that he is in full control of himself and that it is not Demonic Possession.
• With My Hands Tied: He winds up on alternate Draenor and confronting the Warsongs and his father without having the means to remove his Shado-pan shackles from when he was in custody. Doesn't stop him from proving his conviction by fighting off a group of four other orcs trying to pummel him into unconsciousness.
• With Us or Against Us: Has fully developed this mindset in Tides of War with him declaring that all people in the Horde shall either be following him and the Horde or against him and thus be considered an enemy, and allowing Malkorok and the Kor'kron to imprison and beat those in Orgrimmar who disagree with him. By the end of the novel he orders for all people of the Horde, even those who aren't able to fight, to take part in the war against the Alliance or to be arrested for treason by the Kor'kron. This is what prompts him to order Vol'jin's assassination after the troll chieftain expressed his horror at Garrosh wanting to use the Mogu's flesh-shapping dark magic.
• Would Hit a Girl: Backhands Kelantir Bloodblade, albeit a blood elf paladin for speaking out against him. This is portrayed as something of a Kick the Dog moment not because Kelantir is female, but because all she did was meet with like-minded individuals to discuss legitimate concern about the Horde's plans.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Garrosh has no qualms about killing a 15-year-old Anduin Wrynn and made the fact known several times. When the two finally meet face to face, Garrosh destroys a powerful artifact and the rubble falls on Anduin, breaking every bone in his body. Thinking the boy was dead, Garrosh was quick to go out and gloat.
  • One could argue how much Anduin counts as a child, since he's already fifteen-years-old and could be considered an adult. On the other hand, Garrosh seems to see him as such, calling him a "whelp" and telling Alliance players, "Your Alliance must be at its end if you're sending your children against me."
• You Can't Fight Fate: Despite his efforts to prevent the orcs from drinking Mannoroth's blood, he only succeeds in delaying the inevitable. In fact, his interference arguably made things worse, as he provided the old Horde with modern technology, which would be put to use by the Burning Legion.

Nazgrim

See the Knights of the Ebon Blade's characters page.

Malkorok

Malkorok

Clan: Blackrock

Class: Warrior

"THIS! This is what has diluted the sanctity of our precious Horde! To die in the service of the Horde should be a great honor, but YOU see it as another opportunity to line your filthy pockets!"

Garrosh Hellscream, in an attempt to bolster his forces, recruited the evil Blackrock Clan of Orcs from Blackrock Mountain. Malkorok, one of the leaders of the Clan in modern times, had faithfully served Warchief Rend Blackhand in the past, and now serves as Hellscream's second, accompanying him everywhere, and is the new leader of the Kor'kron Guard.

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• Authority Equals Asskicking: He's Garrosh's second in command for a reason.
• The Atoner: Averted. He joined the Horde and became the leader of the Kor'kron after having renounced Rend Blackhand as his warchief and admitted his crimes under him, but has in fact not changed his ways at all. His inclusion in the Horde, alongside other former members of the Dark Horde, is an indication of Garrosh and the Horde taking a really dark path after the cataclysm.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: His new model for the Siege of Orgrimmar raid has his right hand (likely the crippled hand, as his other is perfectly fine) completely removed and replaced by a blade.
• Black-and-White Insanity: To an even greater extent than Garrosh, seeing all those who disagree with his warchief as enemies or potential enemies, to the point that Garrosh himself has to restrain him from antagonizing other Horde leaders too much several times.
• Blind Obedience: To Garrosh, and he expects the same from everybody else in the Horde.
• The Brute: Although he's far away from being stupid, he otherwise fits this trope perfectly.
• The Bully: Constantly antagonize and beat up, alongside four other Kor'kron, those who question Garrosh's decisions and methods in Orgrimmar, taking pleasure into using his strength to dominate and beat them.
• Casting a Shadow: He gains this ability after being infused with the Blood of Y'Shaarj.
• Canon Immigrant: He was first introduced in the Tides of War novel.
• Chewing the Scenery: He doesn't chew the scenery, he eats it alive.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Tides of War, Malkorok tossed grenades into the Razor Hill inn, exploding it and killing everyone inside, because of two soldiers who were grumbling about Garrosh.
• The Dragon: He's Garrosh's second in command during Tides of War and Mists of Pandaria expansion being the only advisor Garrosh really listen to while he ignores the advices of Eitrigg, Baine and Vol'Jin and leading the attack on the west gate of Theramore. He was also aware of Garrosh's true plan with the Mana bomb while the other Horde leaders were left in the dark about it.
• Dual Wield : In Tides of War he is shown fighting with two axes in each of his hands. This is not seen in the game as he loses his right hand and has it replaced by a blade before the fight against him.
• Empowered Badass Normal: In the Siege of Orgrimmar Raid, Malkorok was empowered by the power of the heart of Y'Shaarj.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The reason he's so mad at Grizzle is because most of his workers died but he still wants their payment. In Malkorok's eyes, Grizzle uses his dead workers to make more money and therefore disgraces the honorable death in the service of the Horde his workers had.
• Foregone Conclusion: It was painfully obvious that this guy would end up a raid boss after the first time he appeared on page. He was introduced as Garrosh's most loyal subordinate shortly after the Siege of Orgrimmar was first revealed.
• Four-Star Badass: He's the leader of the Kor'kron Guard, the elite force of the Horde and fittingly is a very strong fighter.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He's pretty scarred with one big scar right across his face.
• Handicapped Badass: He's missing two fingers on one of his hand.
• Hate Sink: A brutal, bullying, obnoxious, overzealous and smug orc who cruelly beats and imprison or even murder all those who disagree with Garrosh's actions and methods, with no positive quality to boot.
• Hook Hand: His boss model now has a blade in the place of his right hand.
• Jerkass: A textbook definition, at that. Shortly after he is made leader of the Korkron he start using his status to beat and imprison the citizens of Orgrimmar who do not agree with Garrosh's decisions and plans. He shirks on the payment for his Goblin workers because some died, and "the Warchief does not compensate the dead," effectively ruining Garrosh's relationship with the Goblin workers, who were getting paid dirt change anyway. Also challenged Baine Bloodhoof to mak'gora for severely criticizing Garrosh's use of molten giants at Northwatch Hold, though Baine took it instead as a pretty blatant attempt at sanctioned murder.
• Neck Lift: Does this to Grizzle when he complains.
• Only Six Faces: He was pretty detailed described in "Tides of War" and has a quite unique appearance. Ingame, he uses the generic model of a Dragonmaw orc with its tattoos covered by armor, seemingly because the Dragonmaw textures look better than the actual Blackrock ones.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • "Stand. And. FACE ME!"
  • Also "The True. Horde. Cannot. Be. STOPPED!"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: See above quote. He dishes his out to Grizzle Gearslip when the latter pointed out that Malkorok had shirked the payment for the contract.
  Malkorok: Your kind DISGUSTS me. Small. Weak. Honorless as thieves. Be thankful the Warchief still tolerates your presence at all.
• Top-Heavy Guy: After being mutated into a boss in Siege of Orgrimmar. For reference, he makes dire trolls◊ look proportionate by comparison.
• Undying Loyalty: To Garrosh that he serves with tremendous zeal. After Garrosh got the power of the heart of Y'Shaarj Malkorok volunteered himself to be infused by its power and to become a Dire Orc. His last words are of saying that it's a honor to die for his warchief.
• Villain Respect: When the Horde used the Molten Giants to crush Northwatch Hold, Malkorok was genuinely impressed and respected that Admiral Aubrey would rather fight to the end than to flee, unlike many of his men.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: In the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.
• Yes-Man: Again, to Garrosh as he always follows Garrosh's orders without any question, constantly praises him and beats and imprison possible dissidents to please him, something he was already doing when serving Rend Blackhand.
• You Don't Look Like You: Tides of War describes Malkorok in great detail, with missing fingers and some nasty scars across his face. In game he uses a typical orc model with the Dragonmaw (not Blackrock) skin, though with a suit of armor covering the Dragonmaw body tattoos.

Zaela

Warlord Zaela

Clan: Dragonmaw

Class: Warrior

She's very feminine, and she'll beat the crap out of anyone who disagrees.

"I don't know how Garrosh Hellscream does it. He must possess great strength to hold together a force as diverse as the Horde... I should like to know him more."

Leader of the Dragonmaw Clan, she began as the leader of a rebellion against the Clan's former leader, Mor'ghor, who was a corrupted Fel Orc. After the Horde helps her Clan defeat Mor'ghor, she devotes herself and her Clan to the Horde's cause. She appears multiple times more throughout the Twilight Highlands.

In Mists of Pandaria, she can be seen outside of Orgrimmar, using the Demon Chain to subdue a Proto-Drake. Her own mount Galakras is a boss in the Siege of Orgrimmar.

She reappears in Warlords of Draenor, but only serves a small role as the final boss of Upper Blackrock Spire, dying for Garrosh and the new Iron Horde he's made.

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• Artifact of Doom: Narkrall found the Demon Chain, the chain that used to be attached to the infamous Dragon Soul created by Deathwing and still has some of its horrible power within. After his death, Zaela claimed it to battle the Twilight's hammer.
• Dragon Rider: The main theme of her and her Clan is that they subdue and tame Dragons to be ridden as mounts (though it should be noted in the original Warcraft II, the Dragonmaw just tamed Dragons). In times past, the Dragonmaw rode Red Dragons, but since their freedom and the destruction of the Dragon Soul, they enslaved and rode the Always Chaotic Evil Black Dragons. Now that most of those have been killed, they ride Proto-Drakes.
• Eye Patch Of Power: Has one in Warlords of Draenor.
• Face–Heel Turn: After being depicted as heroic and reasonable in Cataclysm, Zaela became completely evil in MOP.
• Fantastic Racism: Averted originally where Zaela even admires Garrosh for being able to hold together such a diverse group of races and species. She was even close friends with the forsaken Cozwynn and had no issue with Garona's draenei heritage. Played straight in Mists Of Pandaria where she became a fantastic racist who hated non orcs without explanation. For example, War Crimes has her say Vol'jin is dumb because he's a troll.
• Flunky Boss: Most of the fifth boss fight in Siege of Orgrimmar involves with dealing with the Dragonmaw mooks at her disposal.
• Hypocrite: She's aligned with Garrosh's Horde, despite the fact that the reason she liked Garrosh in the first place (see above quote) no longer applies, since his bad treatment of the Horde's diverse races is the reason why he's being overthrown. May go under Retcon as
• Killed Off for Real: In Warlords of Draenor, in the revamped Upper Blackrock Spire.
• Quickly-Demoted Woman: Basically MOP makes her evil out of the blue, and dumps her out of the Horde.
• Rebel Leader: Originally leads the Dragonmaw Rebellion against Mor'ghor.
• Ship Tease: Many players see her dialogue, such as in the above quote, as a possible affection growing for Garrosh Hellscream, and many people pair her up with him.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only Orc clan leader to be female in the series.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Compare the unprejudiced Reasonable Authority Figure from Cataclysm to the Psycho, and Xenophobic Bad Boss in MOP. To list below her changes in characterization:
  • In Cataclysm, Zaela wanted to break free her clan from corruption, while in MOP=''] was supportive of the orcs using Old gods corruption** In ''Cataclysm'', Zaela was close friends with Cozwynn(undead human) and worked alongside Garona Half Draenei with no issue. ** In ''[=MOP and beyond, Zaela hated all races of the Horde and expressed the belief that non-orcs were dumb in warcrimes.
  • In Cataclysm, Zaela admired Garrosh for being corruption free and managing to hold together such a diverse group of people. Whilst in MOP, Zaela loved Garrosh for using corrupting himself with Old God artifact and alienating the races of the Horde.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Zaela falls off her mount and vanishes during the boss fight against Galakras. Normally we could safely assume she died, but Word of God has said on Twitter that she survived. So currently Zaela's just missing.
  • Goes into The Bus Came Back since she joins Garrosh in Draenor.

Blackfuse

Siegecrafter Helix Blackfuse

Affiliation: Blackfuse Company

A mercenary Goblin engineer who put his genius in the service of Garrosh.

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• Animal Mecha: He built the Iron Juggernaut, a giant scorpion-shaped war machine players have to defeat during the Siege of Orgrimmar to enter the city.
• Evil Counterpart: He is to Garrosh what Gazlowe once was for Thrall.
• Evil Genius: His engineering genius ingratiated him with the warmongering Garrosh, despite the latter despising all non-Orcs.
• Eyepatch of Power: He wears an eyepatch.
• Humongous Mecha: During his encounter in the Siege of Orgrimmar, he fights in his mecha, which uses a model similar to the Sky Golem, just bigger, darker and with more built-in weapons. He also conceived the Iron Reaver by reverse-engineering plans from the Burning Legion's own Fel Reavers, although he wouldn't live to see it built.
• One-Man Industrial Revolution: His tech allowed Garrosh to turn the semi-primitive Orcish Horde of Draenor into the Iron Horde.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He isn't very expanded upon as a character, yet he provided Garrosh with the tech he would use to create an alternate Draenor.
• Token Minority: He and other Goblins in his service are the only non-Orcs Garrosh accepts in his True Horde.
• Villainous Legacy: The Iron Horde's technology in Warlords of Draenor owes much to his pioneering after his demise during the Siege of Orgrimmar in Mists of Pandaria, particularly with their prominent use of Iron Stars. The Iron Reaver of Alternate Draenor's Hellfire Citadel was built following his plans after he reverse-engineered it from the Burning Legion, although he didn't imagine it would be powered by Fel.
• War for Fun and Profit: Like most other Goblins, he is driven by profit.

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