So two characters just took on the mantle of leadership for their factions, and it got me thinking. I noted back in BfA that Talanji got the short end of the stick compared to her counterpart in the Alliance. She became queen, but her only living family member had to die to make that happen. Meanwhile, Jaina actually got a lost family member back, and her mother just stepped down and appointed her. She has two siblings and a parent, while Talanji has no one. I was all for letting Talanji take the mantle, but I really liked King Rastakhan and wished we could have kept him the same way we kept Katherine Proudmoore.
And now we have two new leaders ascending the same way, Shandris and Tess. Their parents didn’t have to die, and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t want them to. I just wish Blizzard remembered that when dealing with Horde leaders. Aside from Thrall, I don’t think any of them has a living family member.
The Horde has a lot of dead parents, Thrall’s parents are dead, Baine’s parents are dead, Mayla’s parents are dead, Vol’jin’s dad is dead and he also has some kids out there but only one of them have ever been named and none of them have ever been remotely important, I’m sure everyone in the Desolate Council has dead parents(possibly some undead ones too!), Nothing is really known about Lor’themar and Thalyssra’s parents, but I assume they are dead too. Ironically, Overlord Geya’rah’s mom was still alive the last time we were in Alt-Draenor, she might be the only one with a living parent!
They’re a weird case because they lead two separate factions. I don’t even know if they are cohabitating. I think Mayla and Baine might be in a similar situation.
I guess the difference here is Shandris, Malfurion, and Tyrande were a family under the Night Elf banner. Jaina, Katherine, Derek, and Tandred are all Kul’tiran. Tess, Mia, and Genn are all Gilnean. In terms of filling out a roster of characters, the Alliance has a lot of spares while the Horde can barely manage to beat a 1 leader to 1 faction ratio, and the couples are just maintaining that number. If any of them die, we’ll still be treading the familiar ground of not knowing who the leader is for a while.
Yes, but I want to put an emphasis on families. For as much talk we do about the Horde being a family, we don’t really see any families within it. Everyone’s an orphan.
BfA had an orc father and son traveling around. I thought that was nice and showed a much needed perspective that humanized the Horde. It was small but to me it felt huge. I want more of that.
Is it cozy in there? In my brain? I’ve always wondered how cozy it’d be, and given you seem to know my thoughts and type them before I can, I figured you must be staying up there so already know.
Of the core races, Thrall is currently the only racial leader with children. Though if we include the non playable races, the Taunka fit since Roanauk Icemist has his wife and son with him in Northrend, and I think that’s it race leader wise in general.
Perhaps Midnight give us a new Torntusk, so that the Revantusk leaders can have an heir and successor for leadership to Revantusk tribe.
Just remembered Vol’jin has a son and he’s just one random mindcontrolled Troll guy we beat up in some Cata questline and never hear from afterwards. https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Yenniku
Well, the Forsaken won’t be helping there. Calia’s a mother but she has yet to even give a hoot about the child she apparently had with the man she loved.
The only family the Forsaken can offer the horde is in Northrend: a Forsaken family of settlers, two men and two women walking together with the same last name and their blighthound.
Didn’t think I’d love living rent-free in a mocha Elf brain so much tbh, can I make it my new racial capital ? Maybe this one will have a flight master ???
I think the main reason the Horde doesn’t have any traditional family themes/characters is because, aside from Orcs and Tauren, their races haven’t been really fleshed out to include what that even looks like and the story has never really had an opening to explore it. Adding to the fact that the Horde houses races that have complicated political splits due to calamitous events (Quel’thalas, Suramar, Lordaeron, Troll tribes, etc.) which would typically point to awkward family structures in many cases.
I have always loved the Horde because it felt like a chosen family. Although I think it’s important for worldbuilding to give us examples of how say… a Troll family would look like, I’m also okay with them just being a rag-tag bunch of best buddies and giving us really cool characters without needing blood heritage to back that up.
I am not sure exactly what you want her to do? Her child is dead(probably alive and with the Scarlet but that is for later), do you want her to weep or lament constantly about her loss?
Lordearon has given us so many siblings over the years who want to murder each other because one is Forsaken and the other is still living. So wholesome.
I would expect you of all people would care, since that child is the heir of Lordaeron.
Whatever her fate, that’s a pretty big deal for Blizzard to just blow a raspberry at, after Golden introduced her.
At the very least, she could have some idle speech text when you try and talk to her about how’s she’s organized a search party in Tarren Mill to find the long lost Menethil heir.
Again, the ingame view of her daughter is she is long dead and gone. Yes, meta wise I expect she is alive but I dont think it is rational for Calia to be chasing what she would believe to be ghost.
Why would she search for a person she reasonably believes is dead?
Well, in the real world, we like to see the body to confirm someone is dead. In this world, that doesn’t even mean they’re gone, what with all the other types of undead her daughter could take the form of, like ghost children and other spirits.
And if she does consider that child and husband dead and gone and smote from the planet, then the least she could do is mention that she’s gonna honor their memory somehow. Doesn’t need to be her whole personality, just a simple one time mention will do.