Although Patrick was still sealed within the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, he had overcome the whispers of the Old Gods himself. He had neither been controlled by N'Zoth nor influenced by the Sha.
Of course, what Patrick did not know was that, for some unknown reason, N'Zoth was also unable to control him.
Meanwhile, the various powers of Azeroth had already brought their armies to the frontier and were advancing into Pandaria in full force, beginning this operation to save Azeroth.
Neither the Alliance nor the Horde had been idle, committing all their elite forces. Varian had deployed the Alliance's First Legion, one of its finest units, whose predecessor was the Iron Horse Brotherhood. But during the First and Second Wars, Lordaeron's underhanded scheming had scattered the combined army pursuing the orcs across the Eastern Kingdoms to hunt down the fleeing orcs.
Precisely because of this, when Anduin Lothar went to capture Orgrim Doomhammer, he had no soldiers at his disposal despite being commander-in-chief. He could only take to the battlefield himself, giving Orgrim Doomhammer an opportunity to kill him.
During the First and Second Orc Wars, the Iron Horse Brotherhood had played an enormous role, but had also made enormous sacrifices. In particular, during the Battle of Blackrock Mountain in the Second War, the people of Stormwind City and the Iron Horse Brotherhood, enraged by Lothar's death, pursued Orgrim Doomhammer. As many as two thousand died indirectly in noncombat circumstances alone, falling into traps through exhaustion on the march, plunging off cliffs while taking shortcuts, or drowning while crossing rivers. Only then did they finally drive the orcs back to Draenor.
After the war, the destroyed Stormwind City was rebuilt, and the Iron Horse Brotherhood should have been reestablished as well. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood no longer possessed its former