Doomhammer's triple-headed hydra of Horde armies had successfully cordoned off Ironforge from any further Alliance support, and his Dragonmaw and Twilight's Hammer armies had begun to breed their own red dragons in Grim Batol. They owned the seas between Khaz Modan and Lordaeron and established a beach-head in Hillsbrad to begin their encroachments north. The war so far had been filled with easy victories for the Horde, and Doomhammer knew it. With the loss of the Ironforge dwarves, the Alliance had begun to crack, and Doomhammer felt the time was right to completely fracture it. It was time to take out the Elves.

This was not going to be an easy task for the Orcs to accomplish. On their own, they had managed to gain very little intelligence about the kind of fortifications that the Alliance had managed to develop in the area, and they didn't know the lay of the land. However, what he did have was worth far more: an army of bloodthirsty maniacs at his disposal and all of the threats and intimidation inherent in that throng. It didn't take long for the army in Hillsbrad to gain intelligence on a local human ruler whose loyalty to the Alliance was not nearly as great as his fear of the Horde.

Lord Aiden Perenolde was associated with the royalty of Alterac, a mountainous, central region of Lordaeron. Initially reluctant to allow Alterac to join the Alliance, he eventually conceded the point when every other ruling power pledged their services to fight the Horde. However, his loyalty to the Alliance was not great; he was far more concerned with the perpetuity of Alterac than in waging a losing war with the Horde, so he struck a devil's bargain with them. In exchange for Alterac's continued existence, he would supply the Horde with information on Alliance supply lines, maps and armies.

The results of the betrayal pleased Doomhammer, and so he let the human king live. However, Perenolde wanted the throne, and he began to run the politics of the Alliance into his favor. He caused a peasant uprising in the mines at Tyr's Hand, which caused supplies of much-needed war materials to dry up. He kidnapped mages of Dalaran, which was ostensibly under the Alterac's political protection. He was willing to stop at nothing to gain control of the Alliance and declare fealty to Doomhammer, but he knew that there was one driving force that would stand in his way – Sir Uther Lightbringer, the leader of the Order of the Silver Hand.

Perenolde had much to fear from the Silver Hand, the paladins who maintained a position of both gentle cleric and ultimate battlefield warrior. They would never stand for such a betrayal against the Alliance. Perenolde knew that if he cut down the Lightbringer, then much of the Silver Hand would fall away. It was not an easy task. The Lightbringer was situated in a training camp along the shores of Darrowmere Lake where many of the paladins were tutored. Perenolde had to send capable fighters who could never be traced back to him to assassinate the Lightbringer, so he sent pirates along the shores of Darrowmere Lake to assassinate Uther.

These pirates attacked the Lightbringer while he was traveling back to the camp, but they failed spectacularly in their mission. Not only did they fail to kill Uther, many of the pirates were captured and gave up information about who had hired them to assassinate the leader of the Silver Hand. Uther was able to persuade the pirates to give up as much information on Perenolde as they could in exchange for leniency in their prosecution. The pirates were easily convinced to give up the traitorous lord, and Uther set out to bring Lord Perenolde to justice.

Uther was enraged at Perenolde's betrayal, and he suspected that the entirety of Alterac's people had sided with their king in his collaborations with the King. He sent word to Stromgarde, who dispatched Thoras Trollbane's army to deal with the villainous ruler of Alterac. The Lightbringer's suspicions were only half-true. General Hath, a high-ranking general of the Alterac army, remained loyal to the Alliance, caring nothing for Perenolde's ambitions of kingship. He ordered the forces under his command to stand down, but other sections of the Alterac populace took up arms against Trollbane's forces. It was an unacceptable outcome, and Trollbane immediately attacked with the full brunt of his force. The under-trained militia of Alterac was unable to counter the attack of a fully-armed and highly-motivated Alliance army, and the soldiers under Trollbane's command immediately imposed martial law on the region.

At this point, the historical record becomes muddled. Some report that the entirety of Alterac City was put to the torch, while other sources write that parts of the city were left standing. Nevertheless, what is clear is that the entire population of Alterac was exiled, forced into a diaspora. With their city in ruins and their royalty destroyed, the nation of Alterac was essentially vaporized. Any political capacity belonging to Alterac was immediately discontinued, including its ambassadorships and legions. The nation of Alterac was no more.

While this may seem tragic, neither the story of Lord Perenolde nor the saga of the people of Alterac was finished at this point. Anarchy always breeds vice, and the situation in Alterac was utter chaos. Stromgarde wanted to annex out the eastern half of Alterac, while other members of the Alliance petitioned to install Lord Perenolde's son, Aliden, to the throne. Genn Greymane, the obstinate and irritating king of Gilneas, wanted to install Perenolde's nephew, Isiden, to Alterac's throne. It was a political maelstrom, and only the addition of Deathwing – in a human guise – could have twisted it any more fervently.

Deathwing wanted the kingship of Alterac in order to cause chaos within the Alliance. His pawns in the Dragonmaw clan had successfully captured his mortal enemy, Alexstrasza, and he found it in his best interests to lay claim to a region of Alliance territory. Through some magical trickery, he had taken human form and managed to convince the rulers of the Alliance to grant him control over the region of Alterac. However, his plan never came to fruition. The defeat of the Horde at Grim Batol threw all of Deathwing's plans into disarray, and he disappeared from Azeroth for a considerable time.

Alterac, as a political entity, has faded into memory. Aliden Perenolde took command of the Syndicate, a group of Alterac exiles who banded together for protection and revenge. Isiden Perenolde, who had the backing of Genn Greymane, never had much of a chance of re-establishing Alterac's infrastructure.

So, one of Doomhammer's plans fell through. He had hoped to infiltrate and destabilize the Alliance from within by continually pushing Perenolde to do more destructive things. However, it was only a faint hope, and he had not truly committed to it. He was far more proactive than that. While the Alliance dealt with the fallout of Alterac's betrayal, he had given orders to Zul'jin to unleash the entire Amani tribe upon Quel'Thalas, the homeland of the elves.

Next week, we'll discuss the Horde's invasion of Quel'thalas and how the Alliance finally fought back against the invaders.

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