| abstract | - Wolf riding as a practice had been extinguished during the second war due to Orc's enslavement by the Burning Legion that has concluded that the Horde has lost the first war because of not being bloodthirsty enough, which was even manifested by the fact that some worg riders like Rend and Maim along with some shamans that retained some connection with the nature and have seen the destructiveness of the Burning Legion's influence on the Horde had even decided to come to light. That was an alarm that the Burning Legion could not ignore. Measures were taken to make the Horde completely devoid of feelings or any sensibility towards nature. The process of making the Horde into most brutal and inconsiderate force has thus reached it's peak, and whole enslaved races were left with only minimal sense of self in some half animalistic sense. Since to "domesticate" a wolf, one has to make a psychical connection akin to friendship to the animal and since the enslavement period orcs were becoming crazed bloodthirsty brutes and thus began to lose the touch with nature which culminated during the second war. These changes had the terrible consequences on the lives of the orcs as a race. One of these changes being the alienation of their wolfs that had started to desert them and act hostile toward bloodthirsty orcs, whose shamans that used to be those able to communicate directly to worgs turned into warlocks or if they couldn't adopt the dark magic into mere peons - lacking the strength of Grunts. Until the beginning of the Second War The Horde had effectively lost it's most mobile force, but it's masters had tried to find a way to keep that force intact by constantly trying to find the way to control the minds of the old orcish mounts. To buy themselves some more time dreadlords even ordered for wolfs to be caged and taken from Draenor into Azeroth during the invasion, wanting to save time and counting on the Legion's ability to find the way to successfully alter worgs to serve the bloodthirsty horde. Seeing that such great number of caged worgs were a great strain on the Horde's supplies, the orc chiefs had decided to let them go into the Azeroth wilderness, without Legion finding the way how to control their minds. Burning Legion had tried to compensate the diminishment of the mobile orcish force with the addition of ogres - that weren't that mobile but were much stronger. It is discussed even today among Stormwind military theorists and veterans alike that if the Horde had possessed the worg riders at that time with such levels of blood thirst, their mobility would enabled them to slaughter the great part of the human population much before they even had the chance to evacuate, and thus seriously damage supply basis of the Alliance armies, which could in turn dangerously lead into question the very outcome of the whole conflict. After the Orcs have lost the war - and with losing the war - regained their mental independence, they were shocked and disorientated at first, but soon enough, the splinter groups of The Horde that had managed to evade capture by the human forces and were hiding in deep forests and mountains had started to hone again their natural senses. It didn't past long before their warlocks and former shamans had started to meditate and regain their natural abilities once more. After the Thrall - a first shaman initiated since the corruption - had united all of the orcish splinter groups hiding in the Alterac mountains and freed his fellow orcs from internment camps set up by the alliance, he led them with some ships of the unguarded human fleet into Kalimdor. With him he took many wolfs joined by the "spirits" to the renewed horde. These joinings had been occurring during the process of uniting the splinter groups and liberating of the internment camps. Many local and Dreanor originated wolfs alike have been joined to Thrall directed Horde, on the journey to Kalimdor and thus, the Orcish Worg riders have been instituted once again. Since that time worg riders have became essential part of the Horde's armies, even the class above grunts; being used as scouts, flanking forces in open battles, chasers of fleeing enemy infantry, and raiders of the enemy's rear. Horde has also retained the "trashing" capabilities with the addition of Minotaur race into their ranks, which made them a diverse and even relatively specialized force compared to the threats that they faced in their new homeland. Another great tactic employed by the worg riders against fast horse archer centaurs was using worgs as attack dogs. Riders would dismount and wait in their camps for centaurs to arrive. Worgs would be waiting farther away until the centaurs approach the camp and start shooting at the entrenched dismounted riders. The worgs would than sneak through long grass of the Barrens and first encircle the unsuspecting centaur raiding party before swiftly attacking the centaurs and killing younger ones while slowing others so that raiders could finally jump out of their shelters and catch some of the centaurs to put them out of their misery. Another place where worg riders and especially their worg's senses have became Horde's valuable strategic asset is in the conflicts with the elusive Night Elven rangers. Being mostly archers and prone to all kind of cunningness and ambush they were lethal antidote for Orcish grunts and even trolls alike, since they could became nearly invisible during night and uncatchable at all times, while Orcs mostly excel in melee and wear only light leather armor, considering plate armor as a sign of cowardice akin only to despised humans - which in turn made them an easy target for the night elven rangers that avoided melee combat altogether - seeing orcs as undefeatable in that department. The Horde had instead relied on the worg scent tracking ability to discover the Night elven ambushes and their hidden camps and deep forest villages that were discovered and than put to fire. Worgs were in matter of fact the essential factor in the Horde's invasion of the Ashenvale forest during the cataclysm and remain so in defending the newly acquired territories in the Ashenvale forest despite the halt in the invasive operations after the Vol'jin's ascendance to power. Will these hard earned holdings be returned to The Night Elves in the incoming peace talks remains to be seen. What is for sure though is that Night Elves will remember the orcish raiders and their worgs very well for times to come...
|
