Faction Attraction!

[Sarestha-wyrmrest-accord (Sarestha)]

Think back to when you first played WoW - your first experience with this game. The character creation screen stands before you as you are faced with your very first decision - what faction shall I play?

Many, like myself, are factionally ambidextrous, and love both factions equally, but we needed to choose a faction at one point, for our first ever character!

What did you choose? What inspired that decision? Is your first faction still your favourite? What kept you engaged in your faction, or alternatively caused you to lose interest in it, and switch to the other side?

[Diszy-moon-guard]

My first faction was Alliance. I don’t really have any faction loyalty though, as both factions have some great lore!

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

@Sarestha-wyrmrest-accord

The character creation screen stands before you as you are faced with your very first decision - what faction shall I play?

I was familiar with the Warcraft franchise but not WoW. One of my childhood friends was really into it WoW and let me watch him arena back in BC. One day he let me make a character on his account and well, I chose Draenei. Since my friend was a Horde player, he was pretty bummed haha.

Legit, if Draenei didn’t exist, I don’t think I would have even played the game. Draenei are also the only reason I slide toward Alliance more.

I played Alliance, but I knew the lore and story of a lot of the races from the WC3 years, but I adored Forsaken. But…I couldn’t play Horde and Alliance on the same server and I didn’t try Horde until WotLK rolled out. Hell, I still adore the Forsaken over a lot of the other races, but… they’re not Draenei.

I’ve always been more of a filthy neutral than team Blue/Red though.

[Yonara-wyrmrest-accord (Yonara)]

I went into the game wanting to play a Night Elf, as such I went where they were.

A bit extraneous but I specifically wanted to play a Night Elf Mage, not realizing such a combo wasn’t playable at the time. I never really cared much about the factions at the time; I didn’t even know until later that WoW was based on an existing franchise, so I had little reason to care. After years of playing this game I still don’t have very strong feelings towards either faction. In the early days I was a bit wary of the Horde, simply because I wasn’t too crazy about the races and knew little of their lore at the time and so had little experience with the faction.

As I learned more about the individual stories of each race I came to appreciate most of them to some extent, regardless of faction. Overall it’s always been the races I’ve been most interested in, rather than the factions they’re a part of.

[Flizix-wyrmrest-accord]

I just went Horde because I liked Thrall in WC3
My child brain didn’t put much thought into it .-.

I’ve been playing Alliance since Legion though, it’s kind of fresh compared to what I’ve played since 2004.

[Juspions-wyrmrest-accord]

I started as Horde because that’s what my friends played and I COULD BE A GIANT MINOTAUR WOMAN!?? Now I’m into being A GIANT BLUE SPACE MAN so I’m pretty much back at where I started.

[Sarestha-wyrmrest-accord (Sarestha)]

I’m not sure which to count honestly. My account, or my friend’s account before I could afford a sub

If we’re counting my friend’s account, the first character I officially played was an undead priest named Crazyprophet. I got him to about level 20, I don’t recall the exact level. That was during WOTLK.

If we count my actual account, at the beginning of cataclysm, decided that I was enthralled by the idea of being both a human and a werewolf, so I was 100% sold on worgen. I made a worgen warrior. Named Crazyprophet. He was my main for many years. Even kept his non-RP name for nostalgia. Still awaiting everyone to mass report his name

But yes, I suppose my “FIRST” character creation was an undead, and my inspiration for that was a great love of the story of Lordaeron in Warcraft 3. I found it fascinating, and wanted to find out why the Forsaken joined the Horde.

But, in terms of actual faction? I can’t decide which I prefer now. I know I lean towards the Blood Elves and Forsaken in the Horde, above the more traditional Horde races. The Alliance I tend to like as a general rule, though less passionately than I like the Forsaken. So I guess, I can’t really decide which faction is my favourite now!

[Crazyprophet-wyrmrest-accord]

As mentioned above my old Alliance main has a non-RP name, come at me reporters!

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

Heretic!

[Chakris-wyrmrest-accord (Chakris)]

Rolled a belf paladin because i was a big Zelda nerd and just wanted to be Link.
That was towards the end of tbc

Then i played wc3 to get caught up on the wotlk lore and alliance just struck me as generic fantasy so ive never rolled Ally outside of worgen. And tgat so i could see the starting zone

[Alynsa-wyrmrest-accord]

So my first choice wasn’t really a choice. A good friend suggested I play. They kept telling me how great the game is, and I kept saying no. So while visiting them, they asked me to just take a look. They logged on to their Hunter, shot a deer in Aldrassil, and… I was hooked.

No, not because they killed the deer!! It was all so pretty, okay?

So to play with them, I had to play Alliance, and if I’m playing, might as well play with my friend.

But they stopped playing not long after and here I was, a lone night elf priestess in Darkshore. While smiting and kiting murlocs on the beach, I saw a pair of strange figures on the beach. I’d seen humans, seen gnomes, swore I saw a dwarf, but these people were playing something else. Something cool. Something exotic and tall and blue and hunched over like a monster ready to eat me.

I rolled my troll hunters shortly after. Just to see, y’know? Orcs looked so cool, trolls looked 100 times better, and allegedly there were minotaurs and zombies too. I didn’t see any of those until I got a quest that sent me too…

Orgrimmar.

I had been to Darnassus, and it was beautiful. But Orgrimmar? It made me feel something deep in my core. I had grown up on fantasy books and AD&D. I knew elves and dwarves and gnomes. Allegedly I’d even met some humans irl too. And their architecture wasn’t foreign to me.

But Orgrimmar? This was a whole type of other. This was Org before the spikes and chains and chains hanging from spikes and spikes hanging from spikes, hanging from chains on more spikes. Old Orgrimmar.

That was when I chose, for me, the Horde.

[Kattani-wyrmrest-accord]

I started in BFA. Bf wanted me to try. So I went horde for him. I love the horde. The rough and dirty tribal horde though. They have no civility. They have no manners. They are. Crass and rough and take no prisoners. I love the drums of warsong gulch. I love the savage mystic histories of the trolls.

It’s rough and it’s home. Tbf though I get bored easy so I consume it in small doses between bouts of league. Which is why I like RP. No commitments really.

[Chonga-wyrmrest-accord (Chonga)]

Coming out of Everquest playing a druid… the very very first character I made was a Nelf druid. I hated it. I died constantly and eventually managed to fall off Darnassus unable to get my body back…I was used to corpse runs but I remember trying to jump up the tree or fall off it again to get my corpse…I didn’t know about spirit rezzing.

I eventually made a female undead rogue and stayed with her all the way through to wotlk.

Another funny thing I would do constantly was try to “yell for help” EQ had an emote ("/yell") that would alert a nearby player to hopefully aid you so I would end up constantly yelling out things like WSADDSDS and dying.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

@Chonga-wyrmrest-accord

fall off Darnassus

Good times…gooood times…

[Tamanii-wyrmrest-accord (Tamanii)]

Simply put, the Horde for me delivers on an aesthetic and approach to fantasy I haven’t really gotten in any other game.

I remember initially going through my character options and thinking all the Alliance races looked so boring and generic compared to the Horde, where I could be an orc, a troll, a minotaur, or a zombie.

Also , it didn’t occur to me then, but I later realized that when making a Horde character, I wasn’t being constantly reminded of how lousy character options for non-white people are. Trying to not look like a white person with a dark tan is a challenge. But in the Horde. Well none of the races really resembled of any real world ethnicity, so it was never even a factor. That was actually quite liberating!

The Horde also had the Shaman class, which from what I can remember from the commercial featuring William Shatner, was a master of the elements. That sounded pretty cool.

So I made a Tauren Shaman. I was playing alongside some friends and made the treacherous trek across the barrens so I could level up with them Durotar

Then I got to Echo Isles, which is where I saw what WoW trolls were all about. Voodoo/Mesoamerican/Islanders with dinosaurs? Sign me the heck up! I made a Troll hunter that same day and played pretty much nothing for Trolls until very recently.

I eventually made my way over to Alliance because I wanted to try the Paladin class. I made a human Paladin, and while the experience wasn’t bad it was just a lot less interesting than anything I’d seen Horde side. Usual fantasy stuff.

[Falconfury-wyrmrest-accord (Falconfury)]

I saw the cinematic and really wanted to be the elf that could turn into a cat.

Indeed, the character I made that day still exists, albeit under one of many different names she’s had and on her third server. looks at portrait

[Sarestha-wyrmrest-accord (Sarestha)]

@Falconfury-wyrmrest-accord

I saw the cinematic and really wanted to be the elf that could turn into a cat.

Indeed, the character I made that day still exists

Oh wow, I love that! Such a lasting legacy on that toon!

[Araghar-wyrmrest-accord (Araghar)]

I could say I chose Horde when I played Warcraft 3 and did the Rexxar campaign I thought “Wow this is the coolest thing I have ever seen.” Thrall was also my favorite hero before he became Go’el.

But that would be a half-truth. I joined the Horde because I was a Scourge player in Warcraft 3. The Undead and their lore (and the fact zombie casters were cool, like the Lich hero) drew me to them. I had been a Forsaken since the early days and adored every ounce of it.

Plus, the Alliance to me is ‘the good guys’, and that is boring. Elves, Dwarves, Humans, shorter Dwarves–those were the races I saw and I thought ‘Man, Orcs and Trolls and Zombies are so much cooler I wanna go there.’

And I did. And I have stayed. For good or ill.

[Autai-wyrmrest-accord]

@Araghar-wyrmrest-accord

But that would be a half-truth. I joined the Horde because I was a Scourge player in Warcraft 3. The Undead and their lore (and the fact zombie casters were cool, like the Lich hero) drew me to them. I had been a Forsaken since the early days and adored every ounce of it.

[Enyetof-wyrmrest-accord (Enyetof)]

Jumped in right around the end of Burning Crusade, hadn’t played any of the RTS games at the time. Looked at the Horde, thought “Oh, hey, these guys seem pretty cool. Monster races.” Haven’t looked back since. Then played Warcraft III. “I made the right choice.”