They did plant descent into zealotry seeds during Shadows Rising. How they actually spin that, I dunno.
I forget which dev, but one of them has said in the past about the Alliance having troubles: “Just wait.”
If they send a dark Anduin back, that’ll be a huge press on Turalyon. Add in returning Sylvanas with Anduin and man, Genn, Turalyon, and Alleria will go nuclear.
So, the extreme story spin I can see:
Anduin rejects the Light to break free of Domination.
Calia is consumed by the Light to help Zovaal and dies. Quite possibly at Sylvanas’ or Anduin’s hands to stop Zovaal.
Anduin and Sylvanas become friends and come back to Azeroth together, where Anduin tells Genn, Turalyon, and Alleria to stand down.
Tyrande also lets Sylvanas go.
At about the same time as Teldrassil being restored, UC is, and Sylvanas is back as Forsaken leader. With Anduin’s blessing.
Alliance Civil War!
Throw in Alleria and Turalyon going after each other because of the story, for good measure.
I’m seeing a lot of the next expansion (or one after) playing out this way too. The players fit the roles too well.
Xe’ra is the big bad supernatural villain we can take down in the final raid. She’ll be assisted by the largely unlikable army of faceless mooks that are the Scarlet Crusade and the previously unnamed nobles of Stormwind.
Naturally, she’ll be opposed by Anduin, Velen, and the like. But since her big super power is manipulating people either covertly or overtly, she can potentially turn anyone to her side, have them, do any terrible thing, and Blizzard can still have them escape consequences because they were being controlled at the time. I expect Turalyon to be her pawn early on, only to find himself in a situation where he has to choose between Xe’ra and taking Alleria’s life and finally choosing his wife.
…
At the same time, Blizzard’s teased us twice now with Alliance marches on Lordaeron being the catalyst for the next conflict, only to not deliver. The first time was at the end of WotLK where following the Wrathgate incident, Varian held the Horde responsible and declared war. BfA was similarly also originally sold as kicking off with a big Alliance assault on Lordaeron.
The day that the Alliance gives up the moral high ground is the day the Horde ceases to exist as an independent faction because that’s the only thing that keeps bailing the Horde out when it loses wars.
The orcs were depicted as bloodthirsty monsters during BfA; they were literally itching for a battle. Nothing has changed.
Voss says the Alliance deserves to fall, I haven’t seen anything that implies she doesn’t still feel this way. Talanji wants to flat out execute Jaina and would kill the entire Alliance to get to her. Rohkan thinks being diplomatic with the Alliance is disgracefully. The Mag’har agrees with Talanji and Rohkan according to Shadows Rising. Rexxar has already signed up to defend the Horde in the next war, no matter who starts it. Gazlowe, is fed up with human invasion and absolutely wanted to keep Shaw in Horde custody unless they Alliance gave up something; he was outvoted by the rest of the council.
Let’s say Night Elves were destroyed as a nation and as people - maybe Anduin knew the path towards peace lies in the rest of the alliance surrendering?
If only some backwater dev had not written that both Warfronts had been won them offscreen, leaving all of the player base unanimously dissatisfied.
If they want the story to matter, why didn’t they take this as an option to open the flood gates? If the Night Elves were truly broken people, they would fit right in the horde.
Having Forsaken Night Elves betray the horde and Alliance in a Not!WrathGate would be the most forsaken thing they could do too, it could respark the war!
Really? I mean I could point out that Genn launched an unprovoked attack and that when something they both want pops up (like Azerite) the Alliance has no problem with killing Goblin miners. But instead let me point out that they Alliance talks about eliminating the Horde. Like all the time. Both in what Blizzard writes and what we see posted here.
So you are saying that the side that assumes the right, and talks about the necessity, of eliminating the other side would never start a war?
Now I’m sure there will be a ton of “they deserve it” posts couple with “Alliance has done nothing wrong” replies. But that is, in fact, only more expression of the Alliance believing they have a right to start a war. Not a good argument that they wouldn’t.
That said, one can totally see Alliance starting a war, but Blizzard will only ever have the Horde do it. It really is the only reason the Horde exists, to be fodder for the Alliance. [Hence my giving up on playing Horde.]
The Alliance absolutely 110% has the right to start a war. Especially since the only theoretical positive from passivity in the face of Horde aggression is that it could theoretically lead to diplomatic gains if the Horde is appreciative of the Alliance’s restraint, but given that no matter how restrained the Alliance is the Horde is going to convince themselves that the Alliance is evil, there’s no point in trying to curry diplomatic favor.
Even after the previous war where the Horde received, by all account, a butt-whooping, they still don’t appreciate the Alliance’s restraint even after getting a vivid demonstration of Alliance power. That does not leave the Alliance many alternatives aside from making force the chief factor that determines relations with the Horde.
Even Anduin seems to know that his current strategy of “give the Horde council time and maybe the Horde will finally chill out” is a massive gamble.
We will continue the war. And we will finally wipe out the alliance for good. Horde will control all of azeroth in the end. It is the only good and reasonable outocme.
Only if it follows the inverse pattern as when the Horde starts wars, which is the Alliance “losing” but being allowed to keep its territorial gains and poached characters.
