Not going to massively comment on these, but I'll note that some stuff I set up in advance, but doesn't necessarily use. I quoted what Darkstorm said in a suggestive manner, and I noted the similarities with the quotes then, these aren't WoGs necessarily.
I know, however with only guesses to go on its best to consider every possibility.
Few things.
Blue masks, fiery hands, a headless wolf and a shrieking hawk, meaningless symbols as your unconscious thoughts replay the events of the last few weeks.
On the one hand yes, these are things we saw in a dream, but connection currently blocked or not Grok is a seer, so might they have some meaning?
No idea, but I felt I should raise the possibility.
"No." your father says immediately and as he shakes his head his eyes leave afterimages of redness in the dark tent. "If anything he sought the elders, what desire would he have with you?"
You doubted that, if so why had he attacked you afterward? Why not depart after he knew the elders were all dead?
This also stood out to me, but why is he so quick here? As it says he immediately disagrees that we were the main target of the attack and as for what desire he has, well I can't speak for every murderous wraith, but if they (for some reason) blame the burning blade or have orders to destroy it wholly I somehow doubt that he's limiting himself just to people who fought in say the 1-3rd wars.
+ We're the son of the clan's chief, irregardless of our relations with him, killing us (if we assume his goal is to hunt the burning blade) is just common sense.
I can certainly agree that Grok was not the initial target, even that the elders
were the primary one, after all first contact with Jub was spotting him climbing the mountain towards them, and riling up the centaur would certainly indicate that he was going for a significantly bigger group. But since the elders died (I think before Jub reached them) Grok's line of questioning makes a lot more sense, while throwing Feldad's into very odd territory.
So the question becomes, is he just trying to comfort Grok, hide something from Grok, or is he simply misunderstanding the situation or some combination of the three.
I imagine it may relate to
who raised Jub, since there are three viable categories (that I know of anyway) which I've mentioned before.
1. The Scourge, who were responsible for killing him when Arthas wanted to reach that demon gate. Necromancy is kinda their thing, shadows are not too far off and the scourge is certainly a waste not want not kind of organisation. But the point then stands why is he not in his original body and why the burning blade? A possible answer could be that the bit of the Lich King that is Ner'zul holds some grudge, or it could be that Jub retains enough will power/has enough authority to act on his own, but even then why not create his own army of the dead to march on the blade if he was part of the legion? It answers the how, but unless Ner'zul holds a grudge that feldad knows of we've no real indicator beyond Jub's own grudge for why he'd be set on us.
2. The Burning Legion, not as known for necromancy, but certainly still capable of it. Hell I even recall them using it back during the war of the ancients. In this case though we can probably look to first-generation death knights, who were human corpses that Gul'dan imbued with the souls of the dead members of his shadow council. Jub (presumably) was some level of warlock and the burning legion may well have been willing to res him
or there were surviving members of his faction of the black rock clan who could do it for him. It'd explain why he's is how he is in his specific configuration, and there is some potential to explain why he's after the Blade. He was noted as rather unstable, so he may see it as some kind of purification of the blade back to good ol "loyal" demon times. Given feldad's likely loyalties, its also most likely to explain why he's so quick in his answer
3. The Old Gods, as ever the dark horse option, I've no real way of proving or disproving it save lack of visible tentacles on Jub's part
Of course its possible feldad scried him, but I'm not sure how much info the duo gave, certainly no idea if it was enough for him to identify and scry him.
"Remain here, I will deal with this, whatever happens leave me to it, I will shield you."
Anyway one final point to relate back to the weirdness going on with the horde at the moment.
I think whatever is going on, it kinda cinches it that what is going on
is a threat to us in some way, but not a threat to our life and limb in any traditional sense. If it were then I imagine he'd remain here, so this is defo a political question one I
think he doesn't assume will turn into violence.
However, he's certainly unsure of what's going to happen "whatever happens" after all and I also think that he knows whatever will happen is going to blow back onto us in some manner or at the very least will be detrimental to him. Shield is very different to say the more general protect in implications and in practical terms, shields can be circumvented or even just can't block everything.
What I
think is going on is that Grok is at the centre of a very complicated web of politics, little of which threatens his personal physical health, but certainly impacts his freedoms and mental stability.
There are a few possibilities.
Thrall having seen an echo of the cipher of damnation with all the Gul'dan resonances that implies has either gotten enough evidence or feels he can't allow Neeru to stabilise his position so is trying to have him arrested, certain clans are rallying to Neeru's side for assorted reasons. Whether or not Neeru knows Thrall has that evidence is another matter.
Alternatively, Neeru's trying to do something to defy Thrall for whatever reason, perhaps with hopes of preempting that evidence.
Whatever is the case, Neeru likely suspects he's in a much worse position than he appears. He's only got one clan properly backing him if his words are accurate and the loyalty of the other two he spoke of is dubious at best while the burning blade are not the most popular clan at the best of times. The recent victory has likely given an upswell of approval, but while he's talked about the chain of contingency, a lot of people are going to blame the burning blade regardless. And then there's the vulnerability of him being an agent of the burning legion (probably) with the battle for mount Hijall and the warsong's second corruption still relatively fresh in people's minds.
However, Thrall's probably got the same deductive reasoning as Neeru and hopefully blames the Kolkar, while in the past, publically at least, he's talked about the old traditions of the burning blade (ones that likely didn't ever exist, but that's neither here nor there). If nothing else he seems to approve of Grok personally, our aid to the trolls, trying to learn the elements over fel even in a way he likely disapproves of and trying to show dedication to the horde and clan simultaneously.
Given that there are changes to canon, I'll not discount the possibility feldad isn't a traitor, but assuming he is "shielding" Grok could take a few forms. Distancing himself from us, trying to get us out of the city via exile for example. Thrall meanwhile could well see us as a hope of salvaging the burning blade from fel corruption in some form. There maybe an ironic coincidence that neither especially wants to hurt us, but both certainly want to influence us to their own ends.
On Grok's end the big problem that I can see is that if Feldad
is a traitor then there's not really a win scenario. If he's exposed then its a horrible betrayal for the honourbound Grok, right after he seems to have finally earned his father's approval heaped ontop of everything else, practically anything after that is just the icing on the trauma cake. It feels like the kinda topper that could just about shatter Grok for good given how fragile he currently is.
In other words, there's a lot of things right now, none of them are good for Grok. Some are good for the horde, but unless Neeru's recent display has convinced him to stop working for the demons, the road to recovery seems to have gotten immeasurably longer.
