(This starts after Admiral Proudmoore is killed in Frozen throne.)

Though the Tauren and Orcs had already worked together during the burning legion invasion, they were only truly unified into a strong alliance by Proudmoore's invasion. In return for the Tauren's assistance against Proudmoore, the other two horde races sent fighters to Mulgore to drive out the remains of a centaur invasion, and assist against other types of attacks.

To cement their alliance, the orcs and Tauren established two wyvern towers between Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, for communication and fast movement, and established several watch towers in Mulgore to watch for future invasions. Ambassadors were sent between the three horde races to further bind the alliance.

Soon, outposts like Camp Taurajo were established where orcs, Trolls, and Tauren lived together. The three races also traded weapon, farming, herding, and other technologies. Economic trade also began to flourish between the races, with Mulgore becoming a major food supplier to the Kalimdor horde.

Tauren warriors became much more deadly with these trades. Before, most Tauren wore leather armor at most, if wearing any armor, and fought with crude stone weapons, large totems, or occasionally large axes. With increased contact between Tauren and Orcs, many Tauren warriors began wearing thicker metal armor, and using metal tipped spears, metal poleaxes, and other metal weapons. Soon, specialized weapons were being built to take advantage of Tauren combat techniques, and for fighting centaurs or other fast moving enemies.

Contents 1 Unifying the Tribes 2 Druidic Teachings 3 Forsaken alliance 4 Expansion 5 Grimtotem Conflicts

Unifying the TribesEdit

While most Tauren tribes had some contact with each other, and had sent some warriors to assist the orcs at Hyjal, it was mainly the Bloodhoof, Runetotem, and Thunderhorn Tauren who settled in Mulgore and fought with the Orcs against admiral Proudmoore. Members of the other tribes generally respected Cairne Bloodhoof as a leader, and were happy to work with orcs, but saw a unified Tauren nation based in Mulgore as too easy a target for centaurs. Before Proudmoore's invasion, the centaur invasions had confirmed this fear, and most other tribes stayed disperssed.

After the invasion, however, news of orc and troll assistance against centaurs spread throughout the tribes, and many Tauren saw the advantages of moving to Mulgore and joining in the alliance. Members of the Ragetotem and Wildmane tribes made the journey to Mulgore, and settled in Thunder Bluff and other towns in Mulgore. The Wildmane tribe had experimented somewhat with farming, and quickly developed techniques to produce as much food as possible in Mulgore without damaging the land. Mulgore's bounty soon attracted members of more tribes, and within a few months, almost all of the Tauren Tribes had established themselves heavily in Mulgore, with representatives of all tribes meeting in Thunder Bluff with Cairne Bloodhoof.

The change from nomadic, loosely organized, small groups of Tauren to a settled society was a major upheaval for most of the Tauren, and many resented or were suspicious of the changes. Some who disliked the changes simply remained nomadic, others isolated themselves from the new Tauren society, and some groups joined the society and attempted to influence it to return to nomadic ways. The most vocal in opposition, however, was the grimtotem clan. Unlike other Tauren tribes, the grimtotems had enjoyed more success against centaur attacks, and had even killed several centaur leaders in Thousand Needles. The grimtotems saw no reason to need the orc and troll alliance to fend off invaders, and instead wanted the Tauren to learn new combat techniques, organize themselves, and drive all other races out of Southern Kalimdor.

At the time of the alliance with the horde, the leader of the Grimtotem tribe was Cashek Grimtotem, who was vocal about his tribe's opposition to the orcs and troll,s and aggressive at attacking supposed "enemies of the Tauren". He was killed, however, under suspicious circumstances, and replaced by Magatha Grimtotem. Magatha was more subtle about her oppisition, moving to Thunder Bluff, and joining Cairne Bloodhoof as an important Tauren leader.

Druidic TeachingsEdit

In addition to defense and trade, the joining of the horde provided other benefits for the Tauren, by bringing them into contact with more of the outside world. At this time, the orcs and Night Elves were still on friendly terms after the war against the Burning Legion, and orcs and Night elves routinely traded with each other and traveled to each others border cities. Tauren engaged in this trade as well, exchanging fruit, tools, hunting and forestry techniques, and other goods and information with the Night Elves in Ashenvale.

Many Night elf Druids knew stories of the Tauren from long ago, but were surprised to hear that the Taurne had their own stories, telling of lost druidic practices, experience with the natural world, and other information that suggested that the Tauren could make good druids. A group of Night Elves, led by Furion Stormrage and Keeper Remulos, travelled to Thunder Bluff to find worthy candidates for Druidic training. The night elves, on demonstrating their powers, gained many volunteers, and were surprised that almost all had the capability to become druids. Stormrage and Remulos brought the Tauren to Moonglade, to train them alongside Night Elves. The Tauren proved quick studies, learning the druidic arts as quickly as their fellow Night Elf trainees.

Unfortunately, Hellscream's War interfered, and for a time, the Tauren trainees were trapped in Moonglade, and faced suspicion from Night Elves who visited the region. when some fights broke out between visiting night Elves and Tauren druid Trainees, the leaders of Moonglade petetioned the Night Elf leadership to be made independent. After several weeks of political wrangling, the Night Elf leadership agreed to make Moonglade an independent region, provided that druids trained in Moonglade did not assist in any wars against the Night Elves. The moonglade leaders agreed, and made all trainees agree to an Oath to not use any of their training against the Night elves, or to attack Ashenvale in any way. While some druids later broke the oath, few enough did so that the Night Elf leadership did not bother to attempt to force Tauren out of Moonglade.

For the first year or so of training, Tauren Druids were expected ot spend most of their time in Moonglade. However, a group of fast learning Tauren Druids, lead by Hamuul Runetotem, developed several new techniques, better suited to the dry lands of Kalimdor than the Night Elf forest based techniques had been. Hamuul Runetotem began teaching these techniques to the next round of Tauren druid trainees, and his skill impressed Keeper Remulos. After two years, enough experienced druids existed in Kalimdor to allow Tauren to start learning in their Homeland, rather than in Moonglade, and trainees were only called to the Moonglade region for a few, very importent techniques, such as their first animal shapeshift.

The sharing of Tauren and night Elf techniques proved useful for both sides when the Eastern Kingdoms were contacted. The Eastern Kingdoms had suffered serious damage at the hands of the scourge invasion, and scars from the horde invasion, and formation of Blackrock Mountain, still remained. While night Elves and Tauren had to remain in their respective alliance's territory, techniques shared between the two groups allowed both groups to repair the land more effectively than either could have alone.

Forsaken allianceEdit

Despite the cooperation in Moonglade, overall the night Elves and Tauren began to see the other as an enemy, thanks to Hellscream's war and the alliance with the orcs. As well, the increased contact between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms brought the Tauren into competition wtih most of the human nations.

By and large, most Tauren, having just achieved some peace and security from centaur invaders, did not wish to join in further wars, and many traditionalists gained followers , angry at how the Tauren were becoming embroiled in wars due to their orc allies. Tauren warriors avoided involving themselves in orc started wars, and Cairne sent ambassadors to human nations in an attempt to avoid war.

When ambassadors arrived, however, they were often treated with scorn. Most humans saw the Tauren as simpleminded, primitive savages, and brushed off any attempts to negotiate. This dismissive attitude was insulting to many Tauren, but they still preferred to avoid unnecessary warfare.

Within a few months of contact, however, several dwarves landed in Kalimdor with the intention of searching for long lost artifacts. the dwarven party was captured by orcs, but convinced orc leaders that they were in Kalimdor for a peaceful purpose, and were let go. Tauren did not see any threat, and allowed the Dwarves full access to their lands. The Dwarves, however, destroyed a Tauren village to set up their digging site. When confronted by the angry Tauren villagers, the Dwarves were dismissive, arguing that they had work to do, and couldn't let a "pointless little savage village" stand in the way. Fighting soon started, and the dwarven excavators were killed or captured after the so called Thunderhorn village Battle.

The raid enraged most Tauren, and Cairne's ambassadors demanded explanations from the human nations and Dwarves. The human nations and dwarves remained dismissive to the Tauren, and some ambassadors were angry that the Tauren had not willingly abandoned the village to the Dwarves. In response, Cairne removed his ambassadors, and sent many of his warriors to Eastern Kingdoms outposts being established by orcs. Many Tauren isolationists changed their viewpoints, and now enthusiastically supported full alliance with the orcs.

As the diplomatic situation developed between the human nations, orcs, and night Elves, the Forsaken and Blood elves in former Lordaeran watched with interest. The forsaken themselves had been fighting humans, and the Blood elves were experiencing their own political difficulties with the human nations, and with Night elves. The two groups also viewed the horde races as primitive and simpleminded, but still saw useful allies against the human and night elf alliance.

Most races in the horde were suspicious of the forsaken motives in seeking an alliance, but all eventually agreed to the alliance, if only for extra help against the human enemies. In the Tauren case, most were vehemently opposed, but somewhat surprisingly, Magatha grimtotem argued aggressively for an alliance. To demonstrate the forsaken's trustworthiness, she even allowed several to reside in Thunder bluff, in caversn found in several of the Mesa's. Eventually, swayed by arguments that the forsaken were mainly seeking a way to live peacefully as undead, other Tauren leaders agreed to an alliance with the forsaken.

Diplomacy with the Blood elves followed a different series of events. Most Tauren were extremely suspicious of blood elves at first, horrified by their obvious magical dependence and possibly demonic taint, but gradually softened towards opposing an alliance with them. Though the blood elves did not have a single patron among Tauren, as Magath was ot the forsaken, many Tauren did know about the corruption and redemption of Grom Hellscream and the Warsong clan, and expected that with proper teaching, the Blood elves would follow a similar path.

Unfortunately for the blood elves, they negotiated poorly, making a number of diplomatic gaffes that suggested that they too saw the horde races as simpleminded savages, and Blood elves were left out of the horde at first. However, Tauren Druids were requested to assist in healing the scourge damaged sections of Quel'thalas, and increased contact between the two races softned opinions towards each other.

ExpansionEdit

The During this time, Mulgore faced several raids and invasions of Harpies, Centaurs, quillboars, and other groups in Kalimdor. The horde easily defeated these attacks, and Mulgore became one of the safer regions in Kalimdor. With less defenders needed for Mulgore, the horde focused its attention on the Central Barrens, located between mulgore and the Orcs and Troll settlements nearer the coast.

With increased security in the Barrens, outposts like Sun Rock Retreat, Crossroads, and Camp Taurajo bbegan to grow significantly larger, as members of all horde races sought new opportunities in the Barrens. The Tauren, orcs, and trolls proved good cultural fits for each other in large cities as well as small outposts, and the Barrens soon flourished with trade, herding, and other activity.

Outside of the Barrens, the three races had different priorities for further settlement. The orcs preferred to expand into ashenvale and dustwallow marsh, to more easily pressure the alliance should full scale war break out. The Trolls preferred to expand along the coasts, to find good fishing locations. The Tauren preferred to expand into the Centaur controlled regions of Thousand Needles and Desolace, to completely tame the centaur threat.

The orcs focused much of their effort on the Eastern Kingdoms, contacting the remaining orc clans there and establishing new outposts, but still had enough resources to assist the Tauren and trolls in their endeavors. The Tauren focused their expansion on outposts near centaur controlled regions. The old trading towns of mojache and Freewind Post were settled as military outposts, and old spiritual sites of Sun Rock in the Stonetalon Mountains, and the Kodod graveyard in Desolace, were built into larger towns as well. The Tauren could not directly attack the centaurs for some time, until the horde became better established and could support larger fighting forces, but they did prove useful for spying and otherwise watching centaur movements. Many centaur raids were spotted from these outposts, and defeated before they could approach the more settled sections of the barrens.

Grimtotem ConflictsEdit

While most Tauren tribes had expanded in the ways described above, the members of the Grimtotem tribe saw this expansion as too slow, and too dependent on the orcs and trolls. In several locations in Kalimdor, the Grimtotems established competing outposts to the main Tauren outposts. The grimtotems refused to use much of the new technology and fighting methods learned from orcs or trolls, but instead developed their own fighting methods, based more on aggression and willpower than on particular formations, armor ,weapons, or other such techniques.

While the grimtotems were not any more successful fighters than the other Tauren tribes, their strict discipline kept the group together extremely well, and most grimtotems became more and more isolated from the rest of Tauren society. A few grimtotem leaders, such as Magatha, remained in contact with other Tauren, supposedly to avoid conflict, but also to gain followers and, some other Tauren thought, to spy and seek assassination targets.

For several years, the grimtotem and other Tauren managed to avoid conflict, but over time grew more distant from each other. Many grimtotem members were killed in fighting against centaurs or other enemies, but managed to replace their numbers somewhat through recruitment. Rumors, however, had begun spreading about grimtotem activities. It was suggested that they were working with some sort of undead ally, either the scourge or forsaken, and many deaths of town leaders amongst the Tauren were suspicious enough to be considered possible grimtotem killings.

War with the grimtotems became more open when several Tauren settlements in the Stonetalon Mountains were attacked by grimtotem. Grimtotem leaders in Thunder bluff claimed that these attacks were accidental, caused by commanders working on their own, low level horde leaders in the effected areas sent soldiers to root out the grimtotem. Evidence later showed that the unprovoked attacks had simply been ordered by individual grimtotem, and were not part of a plan by higher up leaders, but the attacks were not unusual for what the grimtotem had apparently been planning. Other evidence showed that the grimtotem had plans to destroy Troll villages, cause damage to Orgimmar, trigger a war with Theramore, and otherwise cause damage in Kalimdor.

While a full scale war agsinst the grimtotems would have been difficult to carry out, much fighting took place near Grimtotem outposts in Thousand Needles, Feralas, and the Stonetalon Mountains. In open fights, the grimtotem Tauren were poor fighters compared to the rest of the horde soldiers, but were quite good at hiding, and many Tauren expect that the grimtotem conflicts will continue for a long time to come.