War between horde and alliance

[Deleted]

I recall that cataclysm was advertised as an open war between factions, and there even was new war camps introduced. But now it is MoP that started the open war. What happened to cataclysm war?

[Rivin]

The Cataclysm Alliance/Horde war occurred...it just occurred at lower levels. Once you reached the 80+ zones it was mostly discarded in favor of defeating Deathwing and his minions.

[Thage]

I recall that cataclysm was advertised as an open war between factions, and there even was new war camps introduced. But now it is MoP that started the open war. What happened to cataclysm war?

Cataclysm's war happened in the 1-60 experience, where it was especially prevalent in the Forsaken, Orc, Night Elf, and Worgen storylines (and to a lesser degree, the Goblin storyline). However, at level 60 the Player Character is sent to Outland, then Northrend, and by the time they're back on Azeroth, they're either shipwrecked and caught up in the brewing storm in Vashj'ir, or Hyjal has fallen under large-scale attack and they go to protect the World Tree. No rest for the wicked/weary, and the Player Character gets sent to other areas with more pressing matters than the Alliance-Horde war, which heats back up in the Twilight Highlands as a three-way scrap between the Alliance, Horde, and Twilight's Hammer, but Vol'jin puts it on the backburner to deal with the Zandalari and later, the Alliance and Horde call a ceasefire to deal with Ragnaros and Deathwing (supervised by the Cenarion Circle and Dragon Aspects, respectively).

In MoP and its leadup Tides of War, though, there's nothing stopping them from duking it out (and the Alliance goes to Pandaria specifically to mobilize against the Horde's plans to conquer it and stripmine it for resources). Things are rapidly deteriorating, though, and the Horde's about to go through a bloody civil war between Garrosh and his supporters, and the revolutionaries who back Vol'jin, Baine, and Lor'themar (and possibly Sylvanas, Ji, and Gallywix or Sassy). At the same time, the Alliance takes advantage of this civil war to send in a team to take Garrosh down as well; time will tell whether it's a coordinated strike or if there will be encounters between the faction that boil over into bloodshed (Metzen did confirm that at least once, the factions will meet each other before setting up a wary ceasefire in the interests of taking Garrosh out, and would potentially help each other in minor ways without there being a direct coalition in play).