Blizzard destroyed the identity of the Horde for this?

Lore Story Forum
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INTO THE SHADOWLANDS

THE BROKEN MACHINE

The machine of death is broken, and players entering the Shadowlands will find the realm of the dead in disarray. In the natural order of things, souls are sorted and sent on to an afterlife realm appropriate to the lives they lived, but now, but over the past few years, all souls who have perished— including the innocents slain at Teldrassil —are being funneled directly into the Maw. The Shadowlands are starving for anima even as the Maw continues to grow from the glut of fresh souls.

Sylvanas has been seemingly perpetrating acts to bring about great amounts of death and destruction. In partnership with the Jailer, they have been working toward a common end for some time.

There was a point in time where you felt like the faction conflict was just a conflict of interest between two global powers. Where no matter which one you supported, you could feel a sense of pride, conviction, and righteousness in doing it.

Even the Horde, a collection of monster races too stupid or evil to deserve sympathy or admiration in most fantasy franchises, emerged from Warcraft 3 having defeated the greatest galactic threat the world had ever seen on two continents. As a Horde player, it felt like the world was a better place because we existed, and we deserved a right to life and freedom as much as the Alliance.

And then BFA happened. The Horde commits an act of genocide against literally children right out of the gate and proceeds to ignore the event for the rest of the expansion. A small, way too late, resistance is finally formed to counter Sylvanas sabotaging the very foundation of the faction’s identity (freewill, honor, brotherhood) while the rest of the Horde never even disavows her - she disavows them.

Blizzard forced the Horde to suffer through another unwanted identity crisis, the end of the Horde’s iconic leadership role, the removal of multiple major Horde characters from an already dwindling cast, the destruction of any remaining semblance of moral parity with the Alliance, and an enduring sense of guilt and failure, just so they could write two expansions about Sylvanas and her mad 400D Chessmaster skills?

Really? The Horde was turned into a warcrime simulator just to make Sylvanas look more impressive and important?

How did this help the Horde story in the slightest? How has the Horde become better than before Sylvanas was made Warchief?

It hasn’t, and I remain dumbfounded as to how anyone ever thought this was a good idea.

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They learned that one man/woman shouldnt have all that power

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It gets even better:

    INTO THE SHADOWLANDS

    THE BROKEN MACHINE

    The machine of death is broken, and players entering the Shadowlands will find the realm of the dead in disarray. In the natural order of things, souls are sorted and sent on to an afterlife realm appropriate to the lives they lived, but now, but over the past few years, all souls who have perished—including the innocents slain at Teldrassil—are being funneled directly into the Maw. The Shadowlands are starving for anima even as the Maw continues to grow from the glut of fresh souls.

    Sylvanas has been seemingly perpetrating acts to bring about great amounts of death and destruction. In partnership with the Jailer, they have been working toward a common end for some time.


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The worst part is they did that and then followed it up with, at least by the looks of things, another WoD style expansion where we won’t even be on Azeroth anymore and likely won’t hear from the new Horde government at all.

So they tore the Horde down, replaced the Warchief with a council, and seem to have no plans to actually explore this new Horde Council for the entire next expansion. So we can’t even see what this new Horde identity is even like for the foreseeable future.

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Yeah, I’d say it’s more comparable to Legion, where we work with third parties to save the world, not the factions.

Yes, I was referring to that.

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It is a bit of both. In Legion we at least interacted with our factions in Stormheim and a bit through quests. We won’t be in the same realm as our government this time. So just as Vol’jin was basically absent all of WoD so will this council be missing for Shadowlands.

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Kanye’s wrong, though.

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I’ve always been a Horde fanboy (after being a Forsaken fanboy), but BfA has left me not caring one bit about the Horde as it stands now. I’m glad the factions aren’t merging, but all of the remaining Horde characters are so completely toothless and subservient to Anduin and his world view that it’s just…boring.

I’m happy for the Shadowlands and new lore and I’m excited to see what’s coming, but I agree with you OP.

The Horde died for nothing.

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Kanye is never wrong, this is why the alliance is more powerful they always heed his words

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Hmm you know it is almost funny sylvanas went from mad about being damned to being willing to damn everyone just to save herself

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Apparently she claims she will ‘free us all’.

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She’s just as bad as Arthas and deserves to be in the Maw along side him. Thankfully that’s her guaranteed ending, whether she chooses it herself or is condemned there against her will.

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I don’t buy it she will “free” us to likeky suffer in the maw or serve her as slaves

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Will Alliance and Horde have different Leveling zones?

No. We really told the story of the Alliance and Horde in Battle for Azeroth. The focus of this expansion is everyone going to the Shadowlands to face this new danger that’s being unleashed. Certainly, you’ll still be playing as Alliance or Horde but it’s about the heroes of both factions working together to take on the threat. The faction war is behind us.

The Covenants don’t care about Horde and Alliance. There’s no Horde Covenant or Alliance Covenant, players are going to choose which Covenant they align with.

We want each expansion to tell its own story and lead into the next one, and the Shadowlands has a whole new set of mysteries to unlock and new things to figure out. If you were a loyalist before, it’s not going to be something that directly impacts how your gameplay is going to shape out. It’s all about getting in there, finding out about these covenants, and seeing what the cause of Sylvanas’ actions were in the big picture, and who these new forces are that she’s aligned herself with.

The wording here makes it pretty clear that we’re not revisiting any of the faction threads. That story is done.

Welcome to the Sylvanas Expansion. Enjoy your stay. :slight_smile:

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I just don’t know why they did it. The war of thorns ruined everything. It was lore wise the most supid thing they ever did, and the horde will forever carry this burden of being evil because Blizz refuses to continue on it.
Just like the Night Elves continue to feel like useless punching bags and the alliance itself feels like it has the mentality of a 5 year old child.

There would’ve been many ways to fix this. What if the horde character time traveled with the bronze dragonflight and helped evacuate all civilians in that event? That would surely help, the tree could still burn. That would be one option. There are several other ways to make the horde look less evil / a threat to this world, but Blizz simply needs to pick up this plot again and not pull a WoD 2.0 on it and pretend like it never happened.

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Thank you! I will! :bone::skull_and_crossbones::skull::ghost::wine_glass:

Except for the part where we obviously rescue the Night Elves who died at Teldrassil from The Maw. Because of course we do.

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Bro we owe Bwonsamdi like eighty trillion souls.

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We’re good for it! Warchief BaineThrallwhoeveritdoesntmatteranymore will be leading us into a genocide any day now. In the end, Bwonsamdi always wins.

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He’s gonna win by claiming ownership of those elf souls when we free them from the Maw.

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the weird thing here is that they said that wanted to resolve faction conflict this expansion…

but… what did they resolved?
there was no need to ruin both factions to get into this point.

apparently saurfang cgi cinematics reedeemed the horde?
despite the fact that he started the war in the first place…

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