Okay, I legit cracked up and now want to make some of some trailer park rotters with their undead dogs sitting on their laws glaring over at a trailer themed for the Scarlet Crusade.
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IF they’re going to do that, they won’t do it until after the “Light as Antagonist” expansion. We know that Blizz explicitly directed Christie Golden to put a Light Zombie into BtS, and by far the most likely reason for that is to set up that character for use in a Light-based storyline.
I might buy that if her backstory showed any sign of “commitment to her people.”
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Be sure to give them ridiculously bulky looking collars with spikes and name at LEAST one of them BRUTUS.
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And Calia is part of that.
If they couldnt figure out a way to make anything else work, I’ve no idea why Calia will be any different.
Naaru necromancy was a silly idea to begin with. Particularly because you do have undead that are Light worshippers. Like Faol and Bartholomew. Who maintain their faith despite having it as shaken to it’s core as feasibly possible. That is immense strength and dedication to one’s convictions.
Calia on the flipside was saved from the Maw by the Light. And also she didn’t mention anything about that even though Siras and Zekhan do. Because this was probably a hack job done without so much as an outline.
Seriously you send Death Knights into the Shadowlands to grab stuff like Putress’s soul in Legion. Getting in and out of there was so easy you send interns to sort out problems inside it. Because none of this was planned ahead.
Hell just look at BFA. Teldrassil, the Undercity, Azerite, Azshara and N’Zoth ultimately had nothing to do with the main storyline. Beyond tangentially contributing souls to the Jailor’s plan to factory reset all of creation via body count.
Zandalar and Kul Tiras pop up in Ardenweald but that was the last completed Covenant. So clearly somebody remembered chapters of a story are supposed to lead into eachother. Thusly the Drust are the bad guys and Bwomsamdi pops up to continue to be the only good thing to come out of this mess.
An Orc killing some musician playing soldier in Eversong during the 2nd War had more of an impact on the events of the past two expansions than anything the players fight, achieve or even see in game.
I do not look at that and feel hope for the future of anything caught in the suck of this failure vortex. Least of all the Forsaken who had their whole society retconned in a few pages offscreen in a sold separately book. Because they do not care.
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Yup, things are a mess under the creative lead of Alex. There were terrible contradictions and more. Tons of content failed to even launch due to how toxic the work environment was.
Let’s hope moving forward they can close the book on his broken legacy and the new writers now operating and creating content are free of the restraints and toxicity he cultivated.
That said, Calia and her story long predates Alex. She has been a long-standing figure in lore. Though Calia was not handled well under him, most other characters were not handled well either. He was a terrible writer.
The story of Lordaeron, the Scouring, and the Forsaken deserves to be more than shallow story blight throwers for an authoritarian dictator who calls herself Queen.
The Forsaken story was not reconned offscreen. The Before The Storms book touched on things that should and have existed, but were overshadowed by the need for cheap bad guys on the Horde. The Forsaken deserve to be complex, and have depth. The Before The Storms book was a breath of fresh air in terms of the depth written about and given to the Forsaken as a people.
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The Forsaken stress in Deathknell that they do not force anyone to join. This is demonstrated all over the place. The Rotbrain encampment is flagged neutral for the player until they decide to attack. Lilian Voss is free to leave despite being very dangerous. Apothecary Judkins was a government scientist who was allowed to quit over moral disagreements then work for the Argent Dawn. Presumably most if not all of the Argent Undead did something similar.
It was Sylvanas’s most interesting character trait. You could call her a lot of things but not tyrant. She understood on an exquisitely personal level what it was to be enslaved, and would not visit such an agonizing indignity on her fellow undead.
Then in BtS the Forsaken are suddenly a book burnimg police state. Some Forsaken talk about how they’d prefer to just die. Which is a thing that was always an option. In Deathknell you straight up see a newly risen go Screw this and drop dead.
Oh also now you’ll be murdered not only for trying to leave. But even if you just happened to see other people trying to leave.
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During the Gathering in Before the Storm she mentions she wants to relate to her people and Vellcinda Benton corrects her naivete. She’s affirmed to be fully committed when she noticed Parquall Fintillas wanted to defect with Ol’Emma’s sons. She lost her life for her people. I get that all this lore is in the books, and the Legion questlines didn’t do her justice. That’s Blizzard’s fault.
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“During the Gathering in Before the Storm she mentions she wants to relate to her people and Vellcinda Benton corrects her naivete. She’s affirmed to be fully committed when she noticed Parquall Fintillas wanted to defect with Ol’Emma’s sons. She lost her life for her people. I get that all this lore is in the books, and the Legion questlines didn’t do her justice. That’s Blizzard’s fault.”
This.
In the book Before the Storms Calia really makes it clear and known she is dedicated to the Forsaken, and sees them for who they are. There are various quotes that affirm this which were previously quoted in this thread.
The Forsaken are the story of the fall of Lordaeron and its Scourging. Calia belongs with the Forsaken.
I like Sylvanas, but she is not of Lordaeron and the Forsaken were not her people. She was a pretender to the crown who seized power, and I love her for that wicked move. I liked the Dark Lady as a character. However under the era of Alex as the Creative Director, he just trashed her narrative and story.
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So firery is her love for her people, she does absolutely nothing for them until maybe next week.
My idea was to have her turning up in Orgrimmar and Dazar’Alor, offering dailies that would help the Forsaken refugees. She’d just be a mysterious cloaked figure at that time.
Eventually she would then reveal to the Forsaken all the deranged ish Sylvanas had done to not just other undead but specifically her own citizenry. Really should’ve been her instead of Baine. Or Voss. Or Nathanos. Any Forsaken character really, could’ve been duck mothering Dumass. Because trying to subvert the free will of an undead is the highest crime in their society. Derek being a line in the sand that cannot be crossed makes sense for them. For Baine it’s just really weird here’s where he draws the line, of all places.
Hell with the whole mystetious hooded figure thing they could’ve done the ole’;
But instead she what. Hangs out in Boralus helping Derek? Then only even comes to Tirisfal because Voss makes it happen.
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You make a great point there, and I wish that they would have capitalized on that using the World Quest system. Breakcrumbs make for great reveals after all!
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So badly handled is the content by Blizzard that they didn’t write stuff, that should have been written. Thank you Alex for being a terrible director for this game.
That said, Calia IMHO - should reclaim the crown. The Forsaken canuse her claim to cement their land claim and weaponize is politically. Furthermore, Queens and Kins normally operate with a Council. Throughout human history across cultures and periods it is normal for a King or Queen to rule with a council at their side.
The Council should include various Forsaken figures such as Voss to act as advisors. This is normal government.
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Establishing a council of advisors is very important. It’s a method of representing all facets of the Forsaken/Lordaeron, and it provides a gallery of characters to play on each other.
Having your cake and eating it too. Also court intrigue, but that’s asking for a bit much from Blizz lol.
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None of that is backstory. I’m talking about all those years when she was off … somewhere, doing … something. She hasn’t been established to have a burning concern for the people of Lordaeron before it suddenly springs onto the scene in BtS.
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It’s certainly tempting to put all blame on the r@pist and serial abuser. Though frankly as this had been going on since 2013 and was only addressed after the state sued them for labor violations made it public knowledge I’m really not interested in making him the fall guy. The whole company was toxic it’s not just the one cretin.
Problems like these are systemic.
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Yea, Blizzard should have and didn’t.
That said, players have asked for Calia for many years: https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/BlizzCon_2013/questions#The_Menethil_Family.2FKing_Terenas_Menethil.27s_Crown.2C_where_are_they.3F
We can’t change the past. Lots of things were not handled well with longevity in mind. We do know Calia had to be in hiding for fear of Sylvanas killing her. When Sylvanas did find Calia, Sylvanas killed her.
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That said, you are correct: it was toxic from the top down. There were also many innocent people in the work place just trying to do their job and pay their bills. I know a few of the people who worked under him: it was terrible. Many of them women who suffered really terrible work conditions. To throw a blanket statement that all of Blizzard was bad and evil punishes victims of that toxic work place setting: there are many of them.
I’ll say it again: Calia Menethil is one thing. Light Zombie Calia Menethil is another.
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Agreed. Why they chose to do that…I don’t know. That said, give me a few to reference the scene from the book. I swear she is a mix of light and shadow.
That said, undead still can and use the light. Its canon lore, always has been. The Cult Of Forgotten Shadow actively embodies light and shadow in canon lore.
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But it’s not one of their core themes. Making their leader a Light Zombie pushes it WAY to the front.
IRL basis
Eg Afrocarribean elements of trolls etc
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