Baine Bloodhoof, I am sorry for your loss. You have my deepest condolences.

     So still making my way through 'The Shattering' novel.  Cairne has been killed by the treachery of Magatha Grimtotem, that bitch.  I just had to go and see Baine just to let him know how sorry I was that his father had to be taken from him in such an awful way.

     If you haven't read the book, I'll try not to spoil too much.  Let me start by saying that Christie Golden does a really good job writing her WoW novels.  I hear alot of negativity about Richard Knaak but I like everything that I've read of his also.  In 'The Shattering', the first half of the book has a lot of buildup of Cairne and pretty much how awesome of a guy he is.  So Cairne is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread.  Garrosh is portrayed as young and brash, but he still respects Cairne for the great leader that he is although they have more than one disagreement.

     After the slaughter of the druids in Ashenvale, Cairne pretty much flips his wig and blames Garrosh and challenges him to a duel (both Ashenvale attacks are actually Twilight's Hammer framing Garrosh).  Garrosh accepts, but only if it's to the death.  So long story short, Magatha asks to be the shaman that "blesses" Garrosh's weapon Gorehowl.  The stank ass cow blesses it with poison.  Cairne is pretty much kicking Hellscream's ass when he finally receives a flesh wound.  He instantly gets all messed up and out of it and Garrosh does his Mortal Kombat finishing move and almost cleaves the defenseless tauren in half.

     OK so that isn't even the last of it.  Once Cairne is dead, she has the Grimtotem clan attack Thunder Bluff and some surrounding towns and basically just murder everybody in their sleep.  How heroic of her.  Luckily, thanks to Stormsong, a Grimtotem with enough sense to realize that what these retards are doing is wrong, Baine escapes the purge with his life.

     The more I read about and play as Horde, the more I find myself gaining a new found respect for them.  Just as the Alliance in game, I myself have always hated them and just considered them as monsters and beasts.  If you take the time to see both sides of the story, you see that there is so much that you have been missing.  The tauren are a majestic and honorable people.  The orcs are a strong and proud people who live, laugh and love just like any human or dwarf.  I shudder to think how many cool stories and lore that I missed out on before the Cataclysm revamp of the old world.  Now I'll probably never know, but I plan to enjoy my time leveling though all the Horde content and gaining a new appreciation for these "monsters and beasts".