While most of the Alliance believed that the orcs were incapable of shipbuilding and would only engage in land battles, Alaric was among the few who thought otherwise.
Guided by the original timeline, Alaric had a deep understanding of the personalities of key figures in the Horde and the strategies they might employ.
Therefore, he was not surprised when Orgrim chose to launch an amphibious assault. However, he found it impossible to convince the rest of the Alliance.
The Alliance's proud commanders, though they acknowledged the Horde's combat prowess, still regarded these green-skinned invaders as primitive savages.
They even found support for their views in the historical records Alaric had gathered on orc society.
Based on the orcs' history in Draenor, they had lived for millennia on a single, unified continent without any concept of seafaring.
Thus, the commanders refused to believe that a race with no prior naval experience could suddenly conceive a plan for a maritime invasion.
It could be said that these commanders, though arrogant, were indeed outstanding strategists.
They were correct in their assessment of the orcs but mistaken about Orgrim.
This Warchief, known even among orcs as a "master of ambush and deception," was far from an ordinary barbarian leader.
Fortunately, with Jaina as a mediator, Alaric had a close relationship with Admiral Daelin Proudmoore, the commander of the Alliance navy.
At Alaric's repeated insistence, the admiral dispatched scouting ships along the Wetlands' coastline—the most likely location for the orc shipyard.
The Wetlands was a vast coastal marshland formed by the river delta of Loch Modan, with countless branching waterways that made it an ideal hiding place for the Horde's fleet.
However, no matter how well hidden a fleet might be, its sheer size made it impossible to keep secret forever.
Especially with Alaric directing the search, the Alliance navy's reconnaissance efforts were precise and effective.
Soon, the Horde's carefully concealed fleet was discovered, and at the same time, Orgrim was informed that his secret was exposed.
The Warchief had anticipated many scenarios in which his plan might be compromised, but he had not expected it to happen so quickly.
At this stage, the Horde's fleet was not even half-completed.
With his strategy prematurely unveiled, Orgrim grew increasingly concerned about the future of the war.
Although he had long prepared a secret weapon to counter the Alliance's naval forces and ensure the Horde's successful landing, the premature exposure of his plan cast a shadow over his confidence—the Alliance was proving to be more formidable than he had expected.
Out of caution, he made slight adjustments to his strategy, reallocating forces between his main assault and diversionary attacks.
Though these changes would make direct battlefield confrontations more challenging for the Horde, they also ensured that if his plan failed, the orcs would not be utterly devastated by a single defeat.
He sincerely hoped that his contingency plans would not have to be enacted—for that would mean the Horde was in deep trouble.
In fact, Orgrim's secret weapon against the Alliance's naval forces, intended to escort the Horde fleet safely to shore, was discovered by sheer accident.
Under the covert guidance of the treacherous black dragon, Deathwing (Neltharion), the Dragonmaw Clan had uncovered a mysterious and powerful artifact in the abandoned dwarven city of Grim Batol—the Demon Soul, also known as the Dragon Soul.
Since the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, when Deathwing betrayed his kin and the Dragon Soul vanished, the dragons had been searching tirelessly for this dangerous artifact.
With the exception of the wise golden dragon queen Talonixa and the traitorous Deathwing himself, every guardian dragon had once infused their power into the artifact, allowing it to control all dragonflights—except for the black and golden dragons.
Such a perilous relic could not be left missing forever, and so, within the Red Dragonflight, a special force had been dedicated to its retrieval.
Upon discovering the Dragon Soul, these dragons immediately informed their queen and attempted to seize it from the Dragonmaw orcs.
They assumed that a primitive race like the orcs would never be able to unlock the artifact's secrets.
But they were wrong.
Alexstrasza and her followers had not expected that one of the Dragonmaw leaders, Nekros, had already learned about the artifact in detail through dreams guided by Deathwing.
The black dragon not only revealed the true power of the Dragon Soul but also taught Nekros how to wield it. Deathwing told him that with its power, the Dragonmaw Clan could enslave Alexstrasza and all the other guardian dragons.
Thus, the red dragons, like lambs to the slaughter, were captured in Grim Batol.
Using the Dragon Soul, Nekros quickly subdued more red dragons, and his ambitions grew—to enslave Alexstrasza, the Life-Binder herself, and eventually control all guardian dragons, ruling over Azeroth.
Alexstrasza would have personally tried to rescue her captured kin and reclaim the Dragon Soul—if not for Alaric.
Upon learning of the artifact's rediscovery, the red dragon queen immediately recalled Alaric's past warnings. Thanks to his guidance, Talonixa had remained by her side, despite the disappointment of many hopeful red dragon suitors.
Thus, she did not recklessly rush to Grim Batol, avoiding the tragic fate of the original timeline.
If the goal was to reclaim the Dragon Soul, the simplest solution was for Talonixa to act, as her power had never been infused into the artifact and thus she would not be affected by it.
However, out of respect for Alaric, the guardian dragon sisters decided to let him determine how to handle the matter.
And so, while training troops under Lothar in Hillsbrad Foothills and teaching Jaina magic, Alaric once again entered the Emerald Dream to meet with the guardian dragons.
After an intense exchange, he learned of the situation from the exhausted dragon maidens.
In his moment of post-battle clarity, Alaric devised a plan that would strike at both Deathwing and the Horde in one decisive move.
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