I highlighted this because I think this a fascinating way to go about it. Keeps the Crusade relevant, without making clowns out of the entire organization
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Stormwind choosing to assist Stromish revanchists rather than their actual allies in their hour of need is one of those implied plotpoints that could make an excellent story if Blizzard wasn’t fiendishly afraid of rocking the Alliance status quo or digging into it’s flaws on more than a superficial level.
But seriously, I actually like the revived Stromgarde, because it’s unintentionally hilarious.
By Marran’s own admission, they can’t handle random raptor encounters without the Alliance leaving a large military presence behind. They’re so useless. She sent children out to die against battlehardened veteran orcs who didn’t want trouble. Utterly bungled the attempt to silence Jaina.
Stromgarde is the Wimp Lo of WoW. And that’s great.
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It explains SOO MUCH about the decisions that Stromgarde makes. Whether militarily, sending aid, or even rebelling
They’re so hilarious incompentent that if it wasn’t for the resident murder hobos, they would still be a dead worthless kingdom nobody cared about
This is actually demonstrated in the quest chain and world as you walk through the human settlements. You see people talking about the problems and shunting blame to everyone who’s different.
This isn’t the old Scarlet Crusade driven by anti-undead fears, these guys are driven by racist ideals and fears. There’s a very strong vibe of “You will not replace us” throughout the speeches and racist hate you get hit with.
Same way any racist organization does. By doubling down on their hate and blaming others for not being loyal enough or being deluded because they don’t have the same views as the racists…
Another thing to keep in mind is the Red Dawn is recruiting people who are being told the current lack of food and supplies is the fault of the Horde, while in truth it’s both more complicated and being exaggerated by the Red Dawn who are stealing supplies from everyone to feed only those who swear allegiance to them and their leader.
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It does sound like the Red Dawn is set up fairly well in this regard (though I’m only glossing over spoilers right now, and saving the fine details for when I get to play through it), which is good. I don’t think it all carries over to the Scarlet Crusade at this time, though. Hopefully it will, and they’ll be a dramatic villain instead of a silly one!
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Far as I can tell the Defias, Scarlets, and the Syndicate all teaming up with Stromgardi extremists to make a human supremacist super group.
So they’re like 1/4th of the threat here.
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New Faction? >.>
Why wouldn’t it surprise me if instead of just giving us new body types, Blizzard instead gives up 4 more unique models for humans only and call them different races like they did with Kul Tirans.
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One one hand, I like having the villain groups of the setting be aware of each other and willing to work together.
One the other hand, I’m worried it will dilute the theme and goals of each one. Are the defias still focused on (or at least justify themselves by) taking out Stormwind, its House of Nobles, and the Wrynns? Are the Syndicate still focused on the wrongs done to Alterac? Are the Scarlet Crusade still trying to reclaim old Lordaeron for the ‘pure’ living humans? Are they working together because their own goals intersect, or just because they’re all villains?
It sounds like the Red Dawn is getting some attention on its methods and goals, but I hope it’s not a case of “let’s consolidate all the human villain groups into a single faction”. I really like having separate groups with their own distinct geopolitical goals.
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It seems like blizz is consolidating all the villain groups. Which I get why, if one followed the lore of these groups, individually they pose no credible threat to anyone anymore.
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I wonder if the Arathi Empire on Azeroth’s backside will eventually send a Battalion of Airships to land in the “Old Homeland” and be immediately met by the Red Dawn who show them the horror of their ancient homeland being overrun with…
- Brown-people-with-Tusks
- Goth people with Skin Conditions
- Goth Elves who worship the Darkness
- Filthy Liberal Stormwindians
- Short People
- Furry Gilneans
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Unfortunately it seems they are uniting all of them into the Red Dawn who are just a human supremacy group who hates any non-human race, be it elf, dwarf, orc, troll, undead, etc
I do and don’t like the idea. On the one hand, it makes little sense for the Defias and Syndicate to join this group because they aren’t racist against non-humans… it just feels like they are being thrown in to give a reason for the Red Dawn to have more numbers in their ranks. While it does make sense that the Scarlets and some of the Stromgarde people who hate non-humans to unite.
But on the other hand, if they have these different groups unite but they each have their OWN goals, that would be cool. Like they are using each other to help accomplish their goals.
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I think it works fine for the Syndicate and Scarlets.
The Defias confuse me more though as they had ogres, goblins, Tauren and I think even Gnolls in their organization before so suddenly going all 1488 on us seems pretty left field.
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The Defias had an alliance with the gnolls. I think the intention was to have the gnolls distract everyone until their ship was ready
But still, they were known to ally with anyone who had a grudge. Weren’t really pick about who it was with either
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I would love to have the SoD original instances (Demon Fall Canyon, Karazhan Crypts and Scarlet Enclave) in retail, even if it is done via classic timewasting weeks or you can unlock them via secrets with a toggle or object that teleports you in. For example, the former has the vanilla Scarlet Monastery wings while the latter has old Scholomance.
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Yeah, the Red Dawn are almost certainly going to be the chaff cannon fodder rubes glorious vanguard the Arathi Empire uses to make their inevitable invasion easier.
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Wasn’t just Gnolls either. The Kobolds were also allied with the Defias Brotherhood. Where the Kobolds take over the mines in Elwynn to steal the precious ore within.
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Because its blizzard. The same blizzard who decided that the Horde, and even the Alliance totally needed another version of Dwarves, who really are just short humans, instead of you know anything else.
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Have we considered that perhaps, the Scarlets keep showing up again because Gnomes invented a social media platform called TinkerTock, and the Scarlets have been recruiting the youth with based edits with slowed and reverbed music?
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I think you may be on to something. I do recall reading something about this on the Daily Copper Wire about some high elf names Banjamin Sharphero using similar tactics.
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Benedictus voss hype edit (they don’t talk about his daughter)
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