If that’s the case, they have not the faintest clue what they’re screwing around with.
Which, sadly, is also believable.
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Probably don’t care, either, really. All that matters in the corporate world is that sweet cheddar.
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Yeah, I’m only speaking from a player’s perspective. I don’t reckon I did any of that stuff IC either. It wasn’t even about Tyrande or being mean, it was more how they presented Liandrin and their little growing friendship.
It made me think that by some wild turn of events Horde would get them and Alliance would get High Elves… but we know how that turned out 
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… why the hell didn’t Saurfang just challenge Sylvanas to a Mak’gora?
This just came to me, call me a troll all you want (Even though I’m a snooty elf get it right) but Sylvanas is dumb enough to slide into Arthas, Saurfang would probably have no problem with her.
Honestly, until Lordaeron it’s hard to say if he had a chance or even the desire. He’s an old Orc - he was probably so sick of the Horde that Sylvanas led he probably wasn’t even remotely interested in trying to lead it. Considering how many times he has probably seen, first hand, things like this happen? He’s probably sick of the Horde. That’s what I’d assume at first, at least.
Otherwise, writing. Blizzard sucks at it. Besides, I doubt Sylvanas would honor a Mak’gora anyway and Saurfang may’ve very well had that thought himself. He could challenge her only to be shot down in the back, or poisoned like Cairne.
Well considering how he’s brought it up, mentally, in a good war? Clearly poor writing or blizz is gonna pull a fast one lol. He could have challenged her after Darnassus-- as per their page on wowpedia-- it tended to happen to settle a dispute about honor.
If there was a time to throw down the mak’gora it’d be after burning teldrassil. That would’ve been a cool curve ball. Saurfang leads the Horde and Anduin now has to deal with the fact that him delivering them Sylvanas on a pike isn’t enough.
And suddenly i have come up with another avenue on how BfA could be better
It’s in A Good War, it describes Horde shamans fanning the flames.
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Would’ve been nice if the nightborne WERE forced to pick… eg, a simple hook like “suramar has tons of azerite it turns out and someone is gonna take your city from you if you don’t make friends”
I never got the impression Thalryssa was playing with a full deck anyway. Even thoughts in her cutscene are mostly organized into 80% “Got my city is so pretty. They’re going to burn my city. We need to fight for the city.” and only 20% “Oh and the Legion is bad I guess.” Most of her early quests are just about providing her and her close associates with creature comforts until they can return to “her” city.
Even in the face of salvation and chastising Valtois for talking down to you (because you, the PC, are useful) she picks at the unaffiliated night elf offering them a potential hope and remains fixated on “MUH CITY.”
Honestly, the whole time we worked with her (even as a Blood Elf Paladin at the time) I just got the feeling she was going to Starscream us once she got the place back with how fixated she was, and be the true second-to-last boss of Nighthold.
I don’t care that they picked a side and it isn’t my current side. It’s hard to feel intimidated by - or that anything was lost from not allying with - the person who clutched my boots while I hand fed them mana amphetamines.
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Cheers, I’ll look that up, because if that is the case, then holy heck there’s gonna be some serious questions asked.
If these were Earthen Ring Shamans or just Horde Shamans who refused to join the Earthen Ring, that’s gonna be an interesting plot-point to pursue if Dark Shamans are on the rise in the Horde again.
[quote=“Ursuola-wyrmrest-accord, post:187, topic:52010”]
The next time I want to invade Canada to cut down all their trees, I’ll be sure to tell them how racist they are when they throw me out.
[/quote] The difference here being that we know Canada is inhabited. The Warsong thought the forest was uninhabited. They saw whisks which they believed to be ghosts. When the night elves told them to leave, they stayed hidden and spoke in a tongue unknown to the orcs and the orcs believed the “ghosts” to be the ones making the noise. The eves then ambushed the orcs and when thy realized the orcs were strong capable fighters, they summoned a demigod to slaughter them. Ashenvale was 100% self defense and I don’t think anyone can say that peoples don’t have the right to defend their lives.
I mean, I don’t want to be THAT guy but Orcs were alien invaders who arrived with the express purpose of slaughtering the native inhabitants of Azeroth.
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“Burn it.”
The warchief’s words cut through Saurfang’s thoughts. He stared at her.
Burn . . . what?
Nathanos looked just as confused. They exchanged glances. Sylvanas faced them with white‐hot anger in her eyes.
She shouted the order again—past Saurfang. “Burn it!”
Nathanos turned without a word and motioned to the siege crews.
It happened fast. Faster than Saurfang could comprehend.
A troll mage spread fire across the payloads, and with a pull of a lever on half a dozen siege engines,
the Horde flung death into the air.
“No,” Saurfang whispered. He watched, speechless, as fire arced across the ocean.
Every single payload hit its target. Orange flames began to spread across Teldrassil.
Silence fell over the Horde. Even the cries of the captured night elves vanished. Everyone watched in disbelief.
“No,” Saurfang whispered again, louder.
A second volley launched, and that broke the shock that had paralyzed him. “No!” he roared. “Stop firing! Stop!”
It was too late. The second barrage hit, and within moments, the lower half of the World Tree was engulfed in flames. The fire moved as if it were alive, climbing the tree, scrambling toward the city in the heights of its branches.
“Why . . . ? Why . . . ?” Saurfang breathed. He looked again at Nathanos. The Forsaken’s eyes were wider than the orc had ever seen.
Sylvanas had her back to Saurfang, watching the fire spread. Saurfang tried—desperately tried—to rationalize her order.
Did that dying elf tell her something? Were they planning to resist? Is the Alliance about to arrive with reinforcements?
A dozen different explanations rushed through his mind. They all died quickly. There were no sails on the horizon. A couple of kaldorei ships were frantically moving away from the World Tree as burning branches rained down upon them. Even the captured ships were awkwardly steering out of the way.
They had not expected this.
Nobody had.
What about Sylvanas?
That thought struck Saurfang cold.
Was this her plan all along?
No. It couldn’t have been. She’d had a strategy in mind. Conquering the World Tree—taking it intact—would have been a brilliant move. Destroying it was . . .
. . . madness .
The entire tree was now engulfed in flames. Shimmers of blue and white grew and faded as the fire burned hotter and hotter. The edge of the fire circled around the tree. And then, the city of Darnassus began to burn.
Saurfang heard screams. The heat reached across the water, along with the terrible smell of an uncontrolled wildfire. The captured night elves on Darkshore shrieked and wailed, now begging and pleading for the Horde to rush into the tree, to save their families from certain death.
The sounds washed together, a symphony of horrors.
Men, women, children . . . the fire would not care. Fire had no honor, no reason, only the urge to consume until there was nothing left.
Everyone still in Darnassus would die.
And with them, every hope the Horde had of winning a clean war against the Alliance. Teldrassil was supposed to be the wedge that would destroy Stormwind. Now, it would be the Alliance’s rallying cry until every nation of the Horde was rent to dust.
Anduin Wrynn would declare war immediately—and every one of his allies would answer his call.
The Alliance would stop at nothing in their search for vengeance.
-Copied from the ‘A Good War’ short story.
Apart from a Troll Mage lighting the ballista bolts, nothing else from the Horde troops except two volleys from the Horde obeying a direct command from their Warchief.
I’m not sure where you got the impression that the Horde actively made the flames worse, it describes even the Horde troops standing there stunned at what is going on. I’m also not entirely sure how mere arcane fire was enough to decimate a World Tree, but I assume there’ll be some sort of ‘The World Tree was actually dying!’ or some such drek from the writers.
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My mistake I think it may actually be in Elegy not a Good War, it’s only mentioned very briefly though
I’ll look the novella over in a bit
While they were corrupted and basically mind controlled, yes. Thralls horde was fleeing and trying to put an ocean between them and humanity and simply survive in relative peace.
I think a lot of times what a player knows colors what their character knows. Only two of my characters are (currently) actively participating in the war. Only one of those has a concept of ‘the bigger picture’. The others? They know what’s reported officially and what’s rumored. That’s it.
Here you go
"Rut’theran Village, its docks crowded with night elves, was the first to be consumed. Those not killed outright tumbled into the water, screaming in agony as the cold brine brought not relief but only further shock . . . then death.
The arcane-touched payloads crashed into the branches of Teldrassil, each bough the size of an ordinary tree itself. The fire caught quickly. Shaman in Darkshore conjured winds to amplify the flames. Sparks danced like vicious imps from bough to bough, leaving crackling crimson and orange in their wake."
From Elegy, so yeah Shaman were fanning the flames
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Facepalms
Jesus, Blizzard, I like a stirring storyline but even I don’t dump on half the players at my table to make the other half feel good about themselves.
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Well, edgy kids need to seem edgy and say edgy things, so…
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SNORT Yeah …no kidding.
That’s another thing that’s kind of killed my enthusiasm for the expansion. All those edgelords just started coming right out of the woodwork it feels like. Makes it hard for me to want to RP Horde side- at least in places like Orgrimmar. I can tolerate war talk suddenly entering my RPs elsewhere as long as it doesn’t -dwell- on it, since… well, I want to focus on -other- storylines.
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