Beyond Battle Lines: Embracing Unity in Azeroth's Story

Lore Story Forum
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Champions, Azeroth needs ye’! (Please read that in Magni’s voice! :stuck_out_tongue: )

I’ve been a long-time fan of the rich and vibrant world of Azeroth (Since Christmas 2004). Today, I want to share something that’s been on my mind and, perhaps, on yours too.

I returned after a 2 year hiatus to catch up with Dragonflight, and I’ve been deeply touched by the quests that showcase cooperation between the Horde and the Alliance. It’s been a beautiful reminder of the potential for unity in our beloved fantasy world. Seeing characters from both factions come together, not as enemies but as allies, really tugs at the heartstrings (at least for me).

Our real world in 2024 feels increasingly divided, with tensions and conflicts shadowing our daily lives, so moments of unity in WoW feel especially poignant. They offer us an escape, a glimpse into a world where cooperation and understanding triumph over endless mutual conflict.

Don’t get me wrong, the clashing of Horde and Alliance has been a cornerstone of WoW lore. It’s thrilling, it’s dramatic – but sometimes, it feels a bit forced, like we’re looking for reasons to keep the fight alive. But must we always be at odds? Must every disagreement lead to war?

I believe many of us cherish characters from both factions. We’ve journeyed with them, fought alongside them, and their stories are as much a part of us as our own avatars’. So, when the game steers us towards unnecessary conflict, it doesn’t just feel like a betrayal of the narrative – it feels like a betrayal of our comrades.

In a fantasy realm where anything is possible, why not dream bigger? Why not envision a richer dynamic between the existing factions?

I yearn for the end of the old faction war trope. Let’s rally not against each other, but against the colossal challenges that only a united Horde and Alliance can overcome – Not necessarily a big meanie, but more in-depth conflicts that permeate the world.

Let’s share our thoughts and keep the spirit of cooperation between the factions alive, both in-game and out.

For the Horde, for the Alliance, for Azeroth!

Sincerely,
A fellow ‘champion’!

Edit: Having considered your feedback, I believe it has helped me refine my argument in this response below. Sorry for the lengthiness, and thank you, everyone! :heart:

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You may speak for some hitherto undefined “many of us”… but you do not speak for me.

I am a Horde fan. But if you asked me to name my favorite Characters, they are:

Malfurion, Maiev, and Muradin. The Triple M Squad.

The Blood Elves, the Trolls, the Forsaken, the Vulpera… they make the Horde a great Faction to be a part of in a MMO. But I separate that from individual characters I enjoy.

Muradin in the Warfront was an awesome foe to face, even though he is among the Characters I enjoy the most. I guess it helps that no Major Characters were harmed in the Arathi Warfront, despite the fun banter.

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I just don’t want any more faction war stories because they’re so tiresome.

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There’s two ways to take the idea. Either:

  1. Factions merge together and we have a status quo similar to GW2 or FF14 where all races and nations, or at least most, are working together towards a common goal. Even with the occasional points of friction.

  2. The game starts breaking up the players from the factions so that we’re more free to choose our place in the world. Alliance and Horde might still not get along often but Azeroth’s heroes/mercenaries are free to collaborate as much or as little as they like across faction lines.

Between the two I think the latter offers a better experience with more potential. But the former would be far easier to execute and you know what people say about paths of least resistance. I’m thinking this “reuniting of the scattered elven tribes” business in Midnight will give us a taste of what exactly Blizzard has planned for faction relations going forward.

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I definitely agree with your second point. The rigid racial divide in the game is a bit off-putting for me. I appreciate having two unique factions, each with their distinct styles and tendencies, which can fluctuate between tense stand-offs and cooperative efforts. My ideal scenario is one where players can select their character’s race without being locked into a specific faction. This would allow players to choose their faction allegiance independently, enriching the game with more personalized and varied narratives.

However, if I’m being completely honest, part of my reason for this preference is somewhat self-serving. I dream of a united Quel’thalas for the Thalassian elves, where each elf can choose their own faction. Switching factions could be an engaging process, involving a brief questline in addition to any service fees. This concept could potentially be expanded to other races as well. Just look at how well it’s been implemented for the Dracthyr!

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We might find out as soon as Gilneas. Personally I absolutely hate it, but to each their own I suppose.

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I mean, I genuinely dislike this new “go neutral, conflict/tension/divide always ought to be resolved for unity and unification are inherently desirable” direction with all my heart but it does seem like this is what they are going for lol so good for you I guess

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war in warcraft

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Hasn’t really done wow any favors in the past. Just look at how reviled BfA is

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What I absolutely loathed about BfA? Mostly the Gameplay. Azerite Armor and Azerite Essences were like a double layer of :poop: on top of the story issues. Oh geez, and those stupid Corruption Effects at the end… what even was that expansion…

As far as the story, the Faction conflict was bad for a lot of reasons, but that doesn’t make it bad, in and of itself.

Didn’t feel like a full throated faction conflict when most everyone on both sides felt the “MoP 2 Horde vs Horde Again” coming full steam.

People were choosing Sylvanas and the Loyalist side out of spite, because of how the Faction Conflict was handled. Not because they hate conflict. They wanted a Horde they could fight for, and instead got a Horde that wants to lose and be saved by the Alliance.

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That’s a fair point about how BfA was handled. I personally prefer more scenarios like stormheim, where you can decide for yourself who was right or wrong in that particular situation

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I think a lot of us, and myself absolutely included, have hastily (and perhaps wrongly) assumed that WoW cannot do a full-on Horde - Alliance war properly because they tried it twice, and it was unsatisfactory twice. Sure, Cata/MoP’s unnumbered Xth War looks better in hindsight, but that isn’t saying much when the only available comparison is BfA’s cluster of crap.

But even at the time, Cata/MoP had a lot of major issues. Like, where’s the fighting even happening? Pandaland is so far away, but it’s where all the conflict is happening, and it’s only happening on one shoreline. And as soon as this non-War war is picking up steam, the Horde’s the evil guys. Garrosh is looking for WMDs where ever he can find them. And then it ends without even killing the bad guy, and starting the process of ensuring the retrospective view of the entire debacle is painted as nothing but Horde aggression.

BUT!!!

I’m coming to see what you and others are saying. Yes, what we’ve had was not too good. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Even in stick sportball, you get three strikes before you’re out. We have a fowl ball and a strike. Maybe it’s a little too early to say the concept is already out.

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I will say that it’s very telling that Metzen, Warcraft’s dad coming back into it’s life to try and help the franchise get back on it’s feet, is pretty clearly avoiding the idea of the faction conflict. TWW might have been too far in development to change that much but neither Midnight or TLT seem to have much narrative space for it either. Like somewhere along that decision making process Blizz decided it would be easier to get people to care about WoW’s cosmology again after SL then try and reinvigorate the faction conflict after BfA.

Maybe after the Worldsoul Saga is done they’ll give it another shot. But that would be after close to a decade of real life time, and a over a decade of in-universe time, of the factions being at peace. Of cross-faction guilds being a thing on top of any other restrictions, language barriers, city guards being hostile, etc… that they might remove in the meanwhile. There were a lot of people that thought returning to the faction conflict after Legion was already a bad and awkward idea. That would only be worse after coming together to save the world from the Void Lords and Pantheon.

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I appreciate the points you’ve all raised. The main challenge in portraying a war among well-known and beloved characters is the difficulty of accepting such conflict within what feels like a family. It’s tough to create a convincing narrative without completely disconnecting from one faction. We know and care about characters from both sides, and though some find the idea of a faction war appealing, the reality of writing it convincingly is quite limited. Whether it’s a comedy of errors or a misunderstanding; the contrived reasons for conflict in BFA for example, where characters turn against friends simply for being on the opposite side, was hard to stomach (I rolled my eyes so intensely at Rexxar’s reasons for suddenly hating ex-friend Jaina, that I’m pretty sure they’re still stuck cross-eyed, lol!)

That said, I see ways to refine the faction war concept. One approach could be to remove racial barriers in choosing factions. For instance, as a Sindorei enthusiast who respects Anduin and Jaina, I should be able to join the Alliance. Similarly, as a human who admires Orcish honor in battle, aligning with the Horde should be an option. This way, factions can be seen as ‘the other side, which also includes my friends,’ rather than ‘the side I hate.’

This approach opens up new angles for the faction structure / narrative, steering clear of baseless animosity. Another point of concern is the real-life toxicity among players who take these faction rivalries too seriously, even outside the game. Playing both factions, I’ve faced unsettling PvP interactions, receiving hateful whispers that seem earnestly OOC/RL (and very scary).

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I think option two just won’t go down well, because people enjoy the faction identities, I don’t think people actually want dissolution of the factions into one big one. We can all be friends and open up all cities to everyone, but we’ll still have two independent nations; a Canada and USA relationship.

The key is to not just causally remove in-game faction barriers without much lore surrounding it, but to make it an actually significant part of the story with a compelling narrative. Some political intrigue would be good.

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I mean, is that not exactly Umbric? Along with his tag alongs. Sindorei who always longed to be Alliance, anyway.

You have that fantasy. Godspeed.

You have self declared your extreme Alliance fansyndrome- more power to you. That may be why events in the Horde leave you bewildered.

As a Horde Fan - seeing The Champion of the Horde get his hands dirty and speak ill of the Proudmoore Ice Witch was a good thing.

And Garona being there too! It was a literal Rogues Gallery. They were there doing the hard work skeptically and reluctantly- that sort of speaks to what Blizzard made Horde Players feel like.

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BfA narrative sucked because it was rewritten to be a second horde civil war. The faction war that was sold to us in the cinematic was massively popular given by how well recieved the cinematic was.

The BfA cinematic sold us the beginning of a war that would last for a while if not forever, portraying the 2 player-factions as the main characters of WoW again; returning WoW to its roots.

What we got instead was horde civil war 2.0 which lead to the abolishment of the factions in the narrative, as the horde has been absorbed into the alliance so the single-faction marvel narrative could exist.

BfA was sabatoged by horrible writers so they could take WoW into their own direction, which has been a complete failure so far, and slapping Metzen’s name on the story won’t magically make it better when the concept is the problem.

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Cursewords,

I believe there may be a slight misinterpretation of the spirit behind this thread. The intention here isn’t to sow division or stir up antagonism. In fact, I’m an avid player of both factions and hold a deep affection for characters from each side. The harsh tone of your response is perplexing; it’s as if there’s an expectation that discussions must inevitably devolve into hostility. Rest assured, that’s not the case here.

Let me clarify: I admire the Horde, especially the version that Thrall cultivated—a group of diverse beings united by a common goal of doing good. It’s a narrative that resonates with many of us. As for being labeled with an “extreme Alliance fansyndrome,” I must confess, I’m at a loss. That’s not how I view myself, nor is it reflective of my stance, which celebrates unity and cooperative spirit in the game.

Seeing the factions collaborate brings me immense joy, and that’s the perspective I wish to share and discuss.

Moving forward, I’d be grateful if we could maintain a civil and friendly tone. After all, despite our characters’ allegiances, we’re all part of the same community here! :heart:

(Edit - Adding this PS below since I don’t don’t think it merits a separate post! I rather other people give their opinions! :smile: )

P.S. Playing my Sin’dorei Paladin in Dragonflight, I was excited about the marriage of Lor’themar and Thalyssra—Lor’themar being a character I greatly respect. But also, having grown up with Alleria as a prominent (and probably first) female hero character in ‘Beyond the Dark Portal’, her treatment during the Quel’Thalas scenario was quite disheartening. I have a deep appreciation for both Lor’themar and Alleria, characters with rich backgrounds and shared objectives, and it’s unfortunate to see their potential dynamic undermined by the faction war narrative. I really hope for really good things for all Thalassian elves in Midnight! Fingers Crossed

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Lord have mercy…

And Rexxar made you cross eyed….

Maybe it isn’t “my tone” or Rexxar, but your… understanding. Take a breath, maybe.

Sure. I didn’t call your tone harsh.

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I’m not quite following the argument you’re presenting here, but regardless, I appreciate your passion!

I hope you have a good rest of the weekend. Cheers!

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