In an attempt to destroy Stormwind from afar, the Grim had developed a plan to use Ragnaros’s energies, contained within a cannon shell, to be fired from Bilgewater Harbor against the White City. The plan was derailed due to the efforts of the Praetorian Guard, a highly trained Alliance military outfit that struck several successful raids against Grim depots that housed the materials needed for the superweapon.

With the final destruction of the Grim’s warehouse of Living Flame, a vital secondary ingredient to the Doom of Stormwind, work on the weapon was halted. The Grim’s efforts had been thwarted.

However, a battle lost does not mean the war. While the Praetorian Guard had been making gains against the Grim’s project, the Grim had been studying and working to counter the Guard’s tactics. These bore fruit in Tol Barad, where the Grim, in conjunction with other Horde forces from the Crimson Fang and the Dragonhawk Brigade, blocked, then reversed a Guard push into the North island. Eventually the Guard had to abandon Tol Barad, leaving the Horde dominant.

During these battles, the Grim’s other forces were not idle. The Raider war groups, the Reapers and the Slayers, steadily cut their way through Deathwing’s minions, as surely as death itself. Recently, the Annihilators, a third war group, have been mobilized, reinforced by allies from the Dragonhawk Brigade. On the fifteenth of December, the Reapers slew Deathwing himself, alongside other Horde forces. The Slayers have continued to clear out Deathwing’s minions from his bastion, while the Annihilators are close to destroying the remainder of Ragnaros’s forces.

While the battle with the Alliance was fought on the open field, two Grim war groups emerged near the end of the year of the Cataclysm. The Siegebreakers had started early after Deathwing’s return, to serve as a focal point for the Grim’s coordinated efforts on the battlegrounds. The Pillagers began in the second half of the year, as the Siegebreaker’s numbers swelled beyond that of a single war group.

While the Superweapon’s failure ended the Grim’s intentions of ending the war in one blow, the debacle has simply galvanized the followers of the Mandate to spread out their efforts, attacking their foes on all fronts. The Onslaught now takes the war to Deathwing’s remaining minions, small-scale strikes against fortified delves, raids against Alliance capitals, and recently an incursion into Ashenvale. The Grim realize the war between the Horde and the Alliance, sparked to a flame by Garrosh Hellscream’s belligerence, will soon become a blazing inferno, and they stand ready to implement the steps necessary to achieve the final fulfillment of the Mandate. This is a time of transition and changes, and the Grim are preparing for the imminent battles to come. Peace through Annihilation.