The Baine DF quest chain was written up over on Wowpedia.
Edited on 2/24/23 to include Wowhead link.
- The Windtotems are revealed to have been nomads, who worship Ohn’ahra.
- Bovan Windtotem had a vision from Ohn’ahra and led his tribe to the Ohn’ahran Plains.
- The Nokhud deceived the tribe by offered gifts and friendship before backstabbing them.
- Bovan and others members of the Windtotem were captured, with others slain.
- After not hearing from Bovan, Baine journeys to the Dragon Isles to find him.
- Scout Tomul joins us in searching for the Windtotems and Baine is not pleased with this.
- The Nokhud and Primalists alliance still continues and the Nokhud forces are still fighting against the other Centaur in the plains.
- They attacked and captured the Windtotem because they believed that they came to aid the Green Dragonflight.
- The Primalists are still determined to enter the Garden Bough and invade the Emerald Dream Portal.
- After rescuing the Windtotem, the tauren regroup at Toghusuq Village with Tagar Bloodhoof, Cairne’s second in command from War3, serving as their leader.
- Ironhoof from the Bloodsworn comic is amongst the tauren in the village, and more willing to trust the Maruuk over the other tauren. For example Tagar refuses to allow Tomul into the village, while citing how every Centaur they’ve met so far has been hostile, and Baine refuses to even enter a friendly Centaur camp.
- Tomul is frustrated by this and doesn’t understand the hostility.
- After it is discovered that Bovan was taken to Nokhud Hold, Baine rushes off to rescue him, while Tomul refuses to take part in what she sees as a suicide mission.
- We arrive to late and only find Bovan’s corpse.
- Baine just snaps, we go on a Nokhud killing spree and then slay their leader, Jamoku.
- In the midst of the fighting, Tomul returns with Shikaar reinforcements to aid us.
- After the fighting, we retreat to Toghusuq Village, where a funeral is held for the slain Tauren and Maruuk Centaur from the conflict.
- Many Tauren note that the shared funeral is a surreal experience, with most warmly or tentatively open to to the idea of peace with with the Maruuk and Baine hopes that the Earth Mother would embrace the Maruuk. However Tam Windtotem is cynical and believes that it was only a matter of when, not if, the Maruuk betray them and attack.
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With the summary completed, I wish to list some observations.
- I rather like how we saw the return of old faces such as Tagar and Ironhoof, though I am a bit salty that Bovan just returned to be killed off.
- The distrust and hatred of the Maruuk by the Tauren because of their Centaur and Nokhud made perfect sense to me.
- I honestly hope that Toghusuq Village wasn’t just phased for the quest chain and becomes the new home base for the Windtotem Tauren. After all the village seems to have just been used for the “Honor Our Ancestors” achievement, so why not make it a new home and show the world moving forward.
- I am a bit concerned by Tam Windtotem cynically opinion on the matter of peace, mainly because Blizzard is a suspect in that manner. Like there’s apart of me that wonders if they have him expressing it to show that they understand not every Tauren present would give peace a chance or if they will lead it into a betrayal or something.
- Its unclear who will lead the Windtotem with Bovan dead, Tagar does promise to stay and watch over them but it’s actually not clear if the tribe will accept him as their chieftain and what not.
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Why they bringing back characters from WC3? I thought 9.2 was suppose to be the “ end of the WC3 saga”
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Because just because a “saga” ends doesn’t mean some old characters cant come back?
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Oh, thank the Earthmother. Even after the WC3 tauren characters were datamined, I couldn’t help but worry that Baine would be looking for Anduin. It’s refreshing to see Baine avenging his people and sharing their collective distrust.
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Its fun seeing Baine go full John Wick on the Nokhud in this quest, at one point he basically runs in and solo charges an army of them; saw him do a giant heroic leap stomp and literally explode a centaur into paste.
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Whenever I see Racial Hatreds not ordained by God I want a literally untouchable(even by WoW’s known higher powers) Higher Power to order them to get along then when they object citing wrongs dealt to them smite the Racists severely and painfully making examples out of many of them and have them all suspended by the throats unleashing such wrath upon them that they are too afraid to even be understandably Racist in fear of said Higher Power’s punishment.
This is nothing more than interference with the continuation of the Story to my mind! I want no more delays! Now!
I am very conflicted about Baine. I really dislike how he has been portrayed, and his appearances have been grating for years. But I want to like Baine… Blizzard defies me to like Baine. I want to like the Horde, but Blizzard keeps killing off major characters, and Baine is one of the few people left from Vanilla. Cairne was awesome - and sadly, Baine is all that is left of Cairne’s legacy. Baine even had an appearance in WC3. I do not know if he can be redeemed in the eyes of Horde fans, but I am open to attempts.
I like that they are giving Baine a bit of an edge. Anger and good ol fashioned Smashy Violence is nice to see from him, when his people are in danger. I am pleasantly surprised he did not just wave off his people as legitimate targets. I mean, good. Sure. It is a start.
But it does feel a bit hollow. A big criticism of Baine is that he is an Alliance Bootlicker and Anduin Groupie. Baine is going to have to kick Alliance butt at some point if he is ever going to shake that reputation among the fans. It is sort of how Gilneas fans argue that they do not want Gilneas back peacefully - they want to punish the Horde as they get it back. Seeing Baine actually fight for his people is a welcome change from his reaction to Taurajo - but it is not against the Alliance, so it does not help shake his boot licker status.
Maybe the next Faction War, without Anduin in the Alliance, Baine will be able to fight them properly.
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Glad it makes Baine look good but i’m curious why he doesn’t still use Perith? 
Ghost Cairne is terrible as it restricted Baine from abandoning Garrosh. 
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Wasn’t he some NPC in the Tauren starting zone? Maybe that was added after Vanilla?
At any rate, he was certainly in WC 3. Which is even longer than Vanilla, anyway. At least he was around. Not many in the Horde roster are even just around anymore.
From what I understand it was a personal matter to Baine that he wanted/needed to do with his own eyes.
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Doesn’t sound like a bad questline.
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I guess Blizzard got tired of people making jokes about Baine being useless. Is this the beginning of the bad boy Baine arc?
But seriously it is nice to see him involved in the storyline and especially interacting with the Maruuk Centaur. I was kind of afraid that Blizzard had forgotten them as they don’t have any story questlines in their renown battle pass thingy. I was kind of hoping we would be helping to rebuilt the Nohkud with a leader who isn’t an patricidal murderer.
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The questline seems surprisingly good in a vacuum. I find myself not hating the dialogue.
But it doesn’t take place in a vacuum, and it’s awkward because it’s Baine. I really do think he’s beyond hope in my eyes, and I can’t help but wonder if the quest would’ve been better had it been some other WC3 tauren taking the lead instead of him. Same story, no character baggage. It’s also unfortunate that such a quest is only happening now, and not during 9.0 itself when there could’ve been a now-missed follow-up with Kurog.
It’s this weird overlapping venn diagram of him doing stuff that should make sense as a tauren, or even Baine if you were just coming off of his WC3 story, but doesn’t make sense that it’s coming from the Baine we actually know of in WoW because we don’t really see him as a competent fighter before this, as well as his racist backsliding after previously seeing him idle in Stormwind of all places just a couple of expansions ago.
I’m hoping the Ohn’ahra vision Bovan got doesn’t amount to “the tauren should make peace with the centaur”. Not because that’s inherently a bad idea, but sending a tribe there to get half of them viciously murdered should make that backfire pretty hard.
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I have a feeling it’s going to be a predictable let’s be friends storyline.
Baine isn’t any different then he was before.
This was a chance to give Baine personality and texture.
Sounds like a complete waste to me. Baine is just a complete dud of a character and should have been left at thunder bluff twiddling his thumbs like he’s famous for, before just writing him out of the story completely. I mean if that’s what they are doing with him 10/10. Otherwise would have been a good opportunity to introduce a brand new character, prefferably a shaman to take his place.
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In Baine’s defense, I am also displeased whenever Scout Tomul decided to accompany me. It’s like they forgot to write the part of her story arc where she stops being insufferable.
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