Over the multiple expacs, we’ve seen that players respond to the overarching story in different ways. Some people dive deep into the story of the new expac and see how it relates to their own characters, some people mostly just stick to whatever they were doing beforehand.
In WotLK, we saw a lot of people RPing as though they’d joined the Argent Crusade, for example. In Cataclysm, we saw less people joining the Earthen Ring and whatnot.
So, has BfA affected your character’s story much? Have you responded to the war at all? Or are you mostly just ignoring it?
I find myself more in the latter camp these days. Beyond my personal distaste for BfA, there’s just…not many places it can go, you know? The factions are basically being reduced to stereotypes, so I feel like a cartoon villain if I support the war on my Horde character and a ineffective do-nothing if I support the war on my Alliance character.
So I’ve been basically just kind of…puttering around, existing. But it’s been harder to find hooks to relate to. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of people in the same boat, with even the most gung ho of Lok’tar Brogars mostly doing other stuff with their time.
But how widespread is it? Tell me, how are you spending the expac?
3 Likes
My Paladin has long been a monster hunter. His main focus was Scourge, but Forsaken, cultists, and demons have also been his prey. He worked alone for a long time. So when the Order of Embers was revived to fight a growing menace related to death magic, he was a natural fit.
Despite how much I detest the writing in BfA on all fronts, I’m rolling with the punches. Atos was a firm Sylvanas supporter, convinced of her hero status from her days in Quel’thelas, and was none the wiser that the burning of Teldrassil had gone down the way it had until people started disappearing from the streets.
He typically doesn’t get active in politics unless he sees reason to be. Now, he’s silent, and goes about his days trying to figure things out without asking too many questions and putting his family in any danger.
I should add for any unfamiliar with him; Atos is not a combatant or in any sort of military, or wasn’t. He only recently enlisted for training and doesn’t go for it till sometime this Summer, so he’s not in the know about these things more often than not.
6 Likes
I’m presently on a bit of a WoW break, but Sarestha’s story has taken some interesting twists this expansion. The most profound is that, while she was intended to be a Sylvanas Loyalist, she became a staunch opponent of the Banshee Queen when it became apparent she was willing to twist the minds of free-willed undead to achieve her own will.
In that sense, my character who once approved of the burning of Teldrassil, due to a devout and unyielding form of fanatical loyalty to the saviour of free-willed undead, the restorer of Lordaeron, has turned into someone willing to subtly oppose the Queen, and encourage open rebellion in order to save what she believes to be the moral cornerstone of her kingdom - free will.
4 Likes
My Horde-rolled characters (I say Horde-rolled because none of them willingly identify with the Horde as an entity anymore) have become either tremendously disgusted and wary of it, or are so sick to death of its continual plunges back into baffling genocidal tendencies that they’re full of ennui and have almost given up speaking against it.
2 Likes
My character has seen how the war has affected things. And is looking towards a third party to fix it.
Only he can save us from what is to come.
2 Likes
Xins has actually successfully become both sympathetic to the Night Elves, but more anti-Alliance and militaristic in general.
Post War of Thorns, he was more or less one portal trip away from defecting to the Alliance and becoming Tushui, but only did not because he saw many horde were also angry and disgruntled about the act.
The attack on the still then neutral Zandalari Empire and Dazar’alor, however, has more or less ensured he will never so much as consider becoming Alliance. A combination of seeing their own rhetoric, hearing their own people bark about genocide and punishing those who don’t align with Alliance ideals and seeing the weakness of his Tushui kin in not so much as mustering a peep against it and excusing has left him resolved that every single Alliance war mongers -needs- to be put to the sword for actual peace. Regardless of what they say, he sees Alliance unable to respect neutrality, be hypocritical and prone to become Imperialistic and intends to treat it as such.
As for 8.2, it’s safe to say he’s likely to back Green Moses without much of a second thought, cause he’s still mad about Teldrassil.
Tam is a civilian and doesn’t really go out into the greater world unless she’s visiting one of the larger cities, but she’s still impacted by world events. The destruction of Kezan, Garrosh’s imposition of martial law in Orgrimmar and the siege of Orgrimmar were major events in her life.
The fight against the Iron Horde and Legion happened in far off places she’d never even heard of, so outside of some of her friends going off to war, it didn’t impact her much.
The war hasn’t changed things radically, but it has impacted her. Hearing stories about Zandalar and then being shocked at how different it was compared to her idealistic expectations has been a thing. The higher number of people congregating in neutral towns like Booty Bay has also challenged how she feels about humans. And she’s been in a couple of arguments with friends over the war, with some of them leading to a falling out after she feels insulted after they question her ignorance (a sore spot for her).
But geopolitics have never been something she’s been regularly involved with or especially interested in. She has other stuff going on.
1 Like
Both my characters have changed a lot with BfA especially. Zhii used to try to take a some what diplomatic approach with the Horde and after Darkshore and Stormsong…well… he does not try that anymore.
My recently rebooted ex-criminal Pandaren is in this really interesting place, where… initially, he took refuge in the Horde merely because he was less likely to be imprisoned or executed provided he wasn’t taking Horde ships. It was, for him, the “safer” of two risky choices.
Then Teldrassil burned. To begin with, he doesn’t respond well to acts of arson, which tend to rapidly dredge up crippling flashbacks of past trauma; but most of all, despite his record of robbery and moderate mayhem, he couldn’t even process death and destruction on the scale of Teldrassil. It was so far beyond the scope of what he understood about violence that it was a major factor in the start of his slow, painful process of questioning what kind of person he wants to be and whether or not it’s too late for him to choose a different life for himself.
2 Likes
Korr was sort of conceived of as a character when I read Chronicle v2, as part of my thought process on why orcs are the way they are. They seem to inherently contain so much anger, and a need for violence, and just as I was considering that a lot, Korr considers it at length also. His ideas about it are in fact a major reason for his exile. Or at least one of the things that led to it. To put it in his own words,
“The Legion did not enslave us. We ran to them with open arms, grateful for a chance to have a reason to fight, to conquer. They did not instill us with violence. They simply gave it direction. If that is what it is to be an orc, then maybe we should be trying to become something better.”
Basically, he is a millennial orc. Perhaps a bit too sure of himself, but also willing to examine issues that generations before him have been willing to ignore, if not embrace as a positive thing. Throughout BfA, Korr sees Sylvanas as nothing but the next person to use orcs. He’s equal parts angry with her for exploiting that weakness, and angry with his own people for once again refusing to see what’s going on. He wants orcs to be more than weapons, and BfA is a good platform for that kind of introspection. Can orcs be more than a fighting force, simply waiting for orders from the next tyrant to hold the reigns? And if they can be more, what? What is their purpose?
7 Likes
Zhii would be more then happy to help your Pandaren on the right path ![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
1 Like
cough only gonna be right until 9.0 given rumors cough
What are these rumors? Does Alliance accidentally kick over someones sand castle while Stormwind is getting bombarded with plague? XD
The rumors are that Sylvanas was secretly committing genocide and waging mass war to imprison N’Zoth and don’t you feel bad for judging her.
2 Likes
LOL!
…Wait…is this true? Please don’t tell me this is true…
It was an unconfirmed leak on 4chan. But it’s stupid enough that it’s probably true.
2 Likes
Oh, thanks, I hate it so much
2 Likes
I can see the end of the expansion now;
Sylvanas’s camera crews come out of bushes. We’ve been Punk’d.
Both factions unite. The new banner is a face with an egg on it.
6 Likes