Thats what I want to return to.
But I think my disagreement with Benedict is that he is treating the Alliance like a buffet where he wants the Worgen dish to be included in his forsaken content as friendlies against an enemy thats more concerning to Forsaken narratively than Worgen or Alliance in general.
Alliance stories need to stand on their own and explore their own issues, the last thing Alliance needs is more of their issues being controlled or dictated by Horde issues. By all means put the worgen in their dark gothic forests and zones, let them hunt monsters and and run around in their top hats and 4 paws. But not at behest of their new undead friends that took their kingdom in the first place.
The worgen need that as much as the forsaken need Calia.
Maybe, but Blizz doesn’t tend to split resources that way very often. I don’t think it likely they will deviate from expansion/patch themes that both factions tackle simultaneously.
The fact is at time of writing I’ve no idea where she belongs because she’s barely a character.
Before The Storm turns 4 years old on June 18th. That was far and away the most characterization we got from Calia and frankly it wasn’t much of one. The most interesting thing she’s done is die.
Since then she’s;
Helped Derek Proudmoore cope off screen
Correctly identify the Undead Nelves were troubled
Correctly identify Hyjal is pretty and this Tyrande lady sure seems cross about something
Correctly identify Nathanos Blightcaller was not personable
Correctly identify Oribos is weird
So. Since dying nearly four years ago all she’s done is point out the obvious. I’m certain she’d make a great seeing eye undead for Illidain but beyond that I can’t tell you what she would or wouldnt be good for.
Okay… well, that is Forsaken and Worgen fighting against Scarlets or whatever else. I think the only reason he mentioned Scarlets specifically is they have a rageon for reclaiming northern Alliance holdings in the most heinous ethnostate way possible, which would not include Gilneans with a bit of goodboi in them.
Its very contrived, Like I compared it to Night Elves and Orcs working together to defeat the grimtotems.
Night Elves should be fighting Orcs loggers, demons, satyrs and corrupted forest elements and help Furblogs. Not some taurens showing up all the way in Ashenvale. It makes little sense.
Worgen have much bigger grievances with the Forsaken being a looming threat to their North. They would probably watch both them and Scarlets kill each other as they rebuild their wall and clean up the blight and hunt down any intruders. In Stormsong Valley blizzard managed to squeeze in 3 separate factions for the Alliance player to fight against. I am sure they can think of something besides the Worgen being Forsaken assistants in their issues.
And if we are deadset on having Worgen and Forsaken stepping back from hostility in a way that wouldn’t require Calia (who still makes zero sense to me as a means to defuse that, but I won’t stick on that point) we could have The Forsaken unBlight Gilneas and withdraw to Lordaeron. Genn goes “not enough, chumps” and continues to (rightly) harass their forces. Scarlets start off with the Worgen, Genn realizes fighting Scarlets plus Forsaken is game over. Forsaken fight the Scarlets instead of the Gilneans, then tell them to get the hell out of Lordaeron, Genn tells them to keep the hell out of Gilneas, and they go back to skirmishes in Silverpine or Hillsbrad occasionally.
that goes against the forsaken identity though, they tend to blight places rather than undo it. Maybe its a more pragmatic action, Like they can’t make any more blight or they need more than usual and try to relocate it from gilneas against the scarlets. Add a little of that dark comedy into it.
Not really a fan of rebuilding a dozen houses as a good will gesture when hundreds of houses burned. But this a subjective issue, some people may welcome it.
It would be a peace offering. Blight kills everything, so having a means of detoxifying it would not be unreasonable, if seldom seen, especially since they would need it to reclaim their own home. Mind you, this is only if we are deadset on softening the faction conflict somewhat (which is what you argued Calia would be there for).
I always assumed the Worgen would be violently taking back their homeland to add more agency to their race since twice now they have had their teeth kicked in by the Horde.
If their Home is given back like a token prize or a bargaining chip it doesn’t do much to fix this issue of theirs since they need to prevail over what their aggressors in a small capacity.
I feel like the Horde giving back the land totally invalidates that.
Alliance was passive when they lost their land and they were passive when they got it back. They need to be more proactive.
I really got a kick out of that braggart and bully line comimg back in the Sylvanas novel. When at least from what we saw, Natty Blight seemed way more competent than him.
“Sylvanas! He keeps calling me madame and made fun of me for rhyming sometime with night-time! Your pet must go at once!”
I just don’t get the point ultimately, all these gymnastics to make the Worgen like the Forsaken enough to join them in their fight against the Scarlet Crusade that wants to retake Lordaeron and restablish their glorious human kingdom.
I feel like the goal for both the Worgen and NEs is to re-establish themselves, re-affirm their racial identity and redeem themselves despite their massive setbacks.
I don’t think a rapprochement with Forsaken with the goal of fighting the scarlets achieves that.
The point is to preserve both the Forsaken and Worgen without ignoring past grievances. If the peaceful alternative that doesn’t involve Calia is just impossible to fathom for some reason, have the Worgen learn that the Forsaken have developed a new, potent antiBlight, raid them for it, then use it on Gilneas themselves.
Scarlets are just a buffer to rationalize why the two aren’t killing one another off completely (which the nature of the game won’t allow) but keeps them both in their rightful homes.
I think if these zone quests are just restricted to killing murlocs, big wild game, and the occasional “go poison the forsaken mushroom farm” stealth mission or “kill that patrolling abomination” is going to be very fun.
In Silverpine the Forsaken were on the receiving end of many Worgen raids… perhaps we can emulate that but for the worgen to be the raiders.
No massive race ending invasion. Just raids, reconnaissance and the like.
And its in line with Genn as a character, sure there is peace but he likes to push the boundries.
In Dark Mirror it seems like Lorthemar was the jealous one. I lowkey love that they had this rivalry. My favorite part of the Sylvanas novel was this part.
Sylvanas: “I have an idea.”
Lorthemar: “Don’t you dare.”
Sylvanas: “too late, I already did it, I made him a Ranger Lord.”
Please tell me you have seen this comic? https://imgur.com/gallery/CA0ijPr It perfectly encapsulates their quirky friendship