Part II
I continue with my reimagining of the reclaiming of Gilneas. If you want to read the first part, you can find it in these forums under “How I would have reclaimed Gilneas. Part 1,” here we go:
Chapter 1
A week after the first part, players are called to the base camp in Gilneas, where we see Turalyon and Lady Voss already in the area. As we arrive at the camp, we hear them talking. Turalyon says,
“The entire area is a sea of enemies; attempting anything without caution could be very dangerous.”
Lilian replies,
“These undead are mere brainless minions; they must have a leader directing all their movements. If we can neutralize them, clearing the area won’t be complicated.”
Calia also intervenes, “We mustn’t forget the Scarlet Crusade; their presence in the area is also a problem.”
Turalyon says, “We need two fronts: one to deal with the undead and the other to solve the Scarlet Crusade issue. I’ll handle the latter. Voss, I’ll need your help to gather all necessary information.”
Lilian responds, “Alright, no problem.”
Then we notice an old Worgen sitting down who suddenly stands up and joins the conversation. It’s Lord Darius Crowley.
“I’ll take care of Gilneas. I know the area down to the smallest detail. The city is chaotic, and entering without information would be very difficult. I’ll go to the Tempest Reach and find what I need there.”
All non-Worgen players will approach Turalyon and Lilian Voss to handle the Crusade.
I’ve attached this image to show how the map is distributed:
ibb . co /3C5V r7w, only if you want to see the map, write that without spaces and it’ll be it
Turalyon and Lilian’s mission is simple: we go to Keel Harbor to try to find information about the reason for the Crusaders’ occupation of the area. It will start with gathering enough materials to begin the interrogation. Turalyon and Voss will gather information in their own ways. Both the Horde and the Alliance will complete the same missions.
Turalyon will seek to be more cautious and use the Light to get the information they need. He will send players to gather flowers and materials dropped by members of the Scarlet Crusade, while Lilian Voss will take a more direct approach, sending us to collect roots and venom from the area’s spiders. We deliver the materials, and both give us the same mission,
“Thanks for the materials. It’s time to find out why the Crusade is here.”
The next mission will take us to the Cabal, where we’ll capture some Crusaders, and Turalyon and Lilian will take turns “interrogating” them. We’ll have the following interactions,
“This Crusader will be interrogated by me, observe Turalyon starts channeling against the Crusader, who begins to scream in pain Speak, what is the Scarlet Crusade doing in this area?”
“Aaahhh, you won’t know anything, Lilian Voss,” and the Crusader dies.
After this scene, Turalyon says,
“What was that? Is torture the way you seek information? I’ll handle the next one.”
When we find the next Crusader, Turalyon begins to channel a beam of Light and says,
“By the Light, tell me what you’re doing here.”
The Crusader starts to scream,
“Aahhh, how can you use the Light like this? I won’t tell you anything,” and falls to the ground exhausted.
“May the Light embrace you in its glory,”
Lilian Voss says,
“What’s the difference between this and what I did?”
Turalyon replies, “The Light will reveal the truth, Voss. They dedicated their lives to it, but they use it for extreme ends. What I do is seek the truth in their souls.”
Voss: “It seems like another form of torture, though the Crusaders only know that.”
“The Crusader you interrogated recognized you. Do you have something to hide?”
“The truth is no. Before becoming undead, I was part of the Scarlet Crusade many years ago. I tried to return, but they only saw a monster.”
“My wife Alleria went through something similar, but she chose to be what she is. I imagine you had no choice.”
“That story is in the past. What interests me is the present. There’s another Crusader; we must interrogate him.”
We approach and weaken the Crusader. Lilian begins to channel her attack,
“Tell me, what are the Crusaders doing here?”
The interrogated begins to scream,
“Aaahhh, you won’t know anything, Lilian Voss.”
Turalyon approaches and starts channeling the Light,
“Tell me, Crusader, what are you doing here?”
He calms down and says, “It’s so warm… the Light is beautiful.”
Both stop channeling their attacks, and the Crusader continues, clearly in a trance-like state,
“The Crusade came to this place after the destruction of the Helm of Domination. The undead in the area are of interest to the Inquisitor, who is ordering troops from Greymane Castle. We were ordered to keep our distance and eliminate any enemies who try to approach.”
Then he comes out of the trance and attacks us, which the players defeat.
Turalyon, with a slightly sad voice, says,
“May the Light embrace you in its glory. Now that we know where their leader is, we must investigate.”
Lilian replies, “The geography of the area prevents a direct approach to the castle on foot. The best solution is to scale those mountains.”
Turalyon starts channeling and summons a vehicle from the Army of the Light, saying,
“Get on, it will only take us close. Let’s go.”
We head to the castle, flying very low and landing in the cemetery next to Greymane Castle. Lilian hides us in the shadows to advance to the entrance. Once inside, we hear some Crusaders say,
“I don’t know what the Inquisitor is looking at through that telescope,” “She’s been there a long time; we need to give her time.”
Lilian Voss, after hearing the castle inhabitants’ conversations, says,
“We should go to the observatory; that Inquisitor seems important.”
On the way there, there are many elite guards, and we have to sneak past them to reach the observatory stairs.
At the top is the Scarlet Crusade leader in charge of Gilneas, looking through the telescope. Turalyon and Lilian tell us it’s time to go, but the Inquisitor says,
“Lilian Voss, did you really think your presence would go unnoticed by me?”
At this, the group’s invisibility is removed, and Lilian raises her voice,
“I never thought I’d see you in this position, Fairbell.”
“And I never thought I’d see you as a disgusting undead, though now you should call me Inquisitor Fairbell. I see you brought help; killing the King of the Alliance is an opportunity I never thought I’d have so soon.”
Turalyon responds, “I’m here on a mission to atone for your sins against the Light.”
“You don’t truly understand the Light; it is everything and will obtain everything.”
She starts attacking us and is mysteriously stronger than we expected. Lilian says,
“How did you get this power? It’s too much.”
The Inquisitor says, “The undead can be more helpful than you think.”
Turalyon shouts, “This is getting us nowhere casts a great flash of Light that blinds everyone we have to go.”
We see him carrying the player and Lilian Voss, jumping into the sea. The Inquisitor shouts:
“Finish them!!!”
We fall into the water, and Turalyon says, “Get on!”
He summons a Light machine that immediately takes us back to the Cabal, dodging Light attacks from the Crusaders. Once we arrive, Lilian recovers and says,
“We should have defeated her; now they will regroup!”
Turalyon says, “Dying is not an option; we still have much to do. The attack must happen as soon as possible before their reinforcements arrive.”
Lilian sighs and says, “You’re right… it’s time to return to the camp.”
Both summon their mounts and head to the camp. As players, we can go elsewhere if we wish, but we can also accompany them and listen to their conversation.
Turalyon starts speaking, “I see you knew this Inquisitor Fairbell.”
Lilian calmly replies, “When I was a recruit, she used to be very reckless. She was very strict in following all the Crusade’s rules. Despite not having much power, she rose through the ranks with her loyalty. I never imagined she could reach such power.”
Turalyon says, “I feel there’s more; there’s a story you’re hiding.”
Lilian says, “I don’t have to tell you anything, human.”
“That’s true, but if we’re going to fight her, I need to know more. If it’s not too much trouble, would you tell me?”
“Fine, when we started in the Crusade, she and I were of the same generation. We mutually supported each other to improve in power and rules. My death came by her hand. I was trained for everything but betrayal. I remember the last thing she said, ‘Your power must be mine,’ and she buried me in the Shadow Tomb of Darkfield. She didn’t expect the Forsaken to return me to undeath. Her power is different; I never knew a Crusader so strong.”
“Thank you for sharing, Lilian Voss. You have earned my trust. It’s true; I’ve never seen anyone use the Light that way. It wasn’t just Light
Arriving at the camp, Lilian finishes by saying,
“I understand why you are the king of the Alliance, Turalyon. We must focus on our mission; it’s time to prepare the attack,” ending this part of the story.
Chapter 2
Meanwhile, while everything with Turalyon and Lilian was happening, the worgen players meet with Lord Darius Crowley and Genn Greymane near the Stormglen Village. We find them talking, and Lord Darius says,
“You didn’t have to come, Genn. You’re too old to help.”
To which Genn responds, “Look who’s talking, Crowley. Are you sure you can keep up?”
“Old Genn, you haven’t changed a bit.”
We hand in the quest to Lord Darius, and he says,
“This place is teeming with undead. We need to gather information about these aberrations of Sylvanas. First, we must destroy any influence of that rotten magic and reduce their numbers. Genn and I will investigate; meet us near the bridge to the lighthouse when you’re done.”
We accept the quest and start with a classic dose of WoW: defeating NPCs and collecting items. In doing so, we find some pages, which we identify as notes from Sylvanas. Several of them read,
“I’ve always been fascinated by how the worgen curse is immune to the plague. I have several specimens here to experiment on.”
“I’ve tried many ways to raise worgen corpses, but nothing works. There’s something I’m missing.”
“I’ve attempted to create abominations with parts from non-cursed bodies and several worgen, but only with a few parts. The abomination doesn’t work; I need to do more experiments.”
“The abomination with worgen parts has extraordinary power. Extra parts must be used, which I cannot detail here, but it’s not cost-effective to make these types of abominations; too much magic is needed.”
“I’ve tried again to raise worgen. The power observed in the abomination shows that somehow their curse can enhance undeath.”
“I found the solution. It’s not possible to raise worgen because their curse is not a curse; it’s a spell of life, which goes against undead. But it gives me ideas on how to use it to my advantage.”
“The wild gods are the solution. Creatures are related to life, but they have their counterparts in death. In the Shadowlands, I can find the answer in one of their realms. The time to liberate this world is approaching.”
Once we finish the quests and collect 7 notes, we meet with Genn and Darius near the bridge. We hand in the quest to Lord Darius, and he says,
“With all you’ve done, we’re sure our backs will be covered, at least for a while. I chose to come to this place because I feel a great power emanating from here, similar to Sylvanas’s power. It’s likely that one of the undead leaders is here. Come, don’t fall behind.”
Genn and Darius start walking towards the lighthouse, and we follow them to continue the quest.
Upon arrival, we see the place is full of undead. Genn says,
“This place used to be beautiful. I liked coming here to watch the sea.”
Darius responds, “I came here to feel free. In the city, I felt trapped, a prisoner of my own identity.”
Genn, with a somewhat sad voice, says,
“Sometimes I think that wall only brought us problems. But without it, the undead plague would have ravaged the city. The worgen curse was a problem, but now it’s part of who we are.”
Darius simply responds, “It’s all in the past, old friend. The present is to deal with these undead.”
We delve deeper into the area, and we see how the undead become more aggressive and stronger. At the end, we see a large abomination with a worgen face. Genn says,
“Damn you, Sylvanas. What have you done? We must destroy that abomination.”
We fight the abomination, and just before killing it, it starts to speak,
“King…”
With these words, we all stop, and the creature continues,
“I recognize you… King Genn Greymane. Where am I? Where is Sylvanas? What is happening?”
Genn, very serious, says,
“Sylvanas is dead. The city was avenged, and you’ve been a subject of her experiments. I’m very sorry.”
The creature starts writhing and says,
“I feel her cursed magic… I don’t know how much longer I can withstand her influence!”
Lord Darius says, “You must tell us what you know. Who controls all these undead?”
The abomination says, “He calls himself Baesh Shadowreign, a powerful leader who seeks to control all the undead now that the Helm of Domination has been destroyed… aaahhgg. He has three commanders in the city who contribute to his power… if you don’t defeat them, he is invincible. Hurry… kill me before I completely lose my mind. I wish to die as a Gilnean.”
Darius, before ending the creature, asks,
“What is your name?”
“Juden Softfang.”
“Juden Softfang, in the name of King Genn Greymane and the city of Gilneas, I grant you an honorable death,” ending the creature.
Genn remained silent during the whole scene. Once Darius finishes with Juden, he starts saying, “Sylvanas… her crimes will never fully be repaid. It’s time to reclaim our city. Let’s go, we have what we need. Let’s return to the camp.”
We hand in the quest, and we can return to the camp. But if we follow Genn and Lord Darius, who run in their worgen form, we can hear a conversation between the two.
After a period of silence, Lord Darius is the first to speak,
“In the end, I could keep up with you, Genn, like in the old days.”
Genn, with a small laugh, says, “I’ve been thinking a lot about the Second War lately, Darius. You always had my back. Seeing those monsters being forgiven, I was afraid. Afraid they would come back and destroy my city, my people. Even though my decision left us with this landscape… this fate.”
Lord Darius waits a moment before starting to speak,
“Genn, I know I haven’t been an easy friend to have. I led our own people into a civil war. What you told me when the worgen curse almost consumed us, I’ve always kept it. I understand that we were unlucky. That wall protected us from becoming Forsaken, and it allowed us to become worgen, something I carry with pride. The past defines us, but it doesn’t chain us.”
Genn finishes by saying, “Always so wise and steadfast, old friend. We are both just old wolves.”
We remain silent until we’re close to arriving. Once we’re near Northgate Breach, Genn says,
“We’re not ones to talk about these things, but I’m glad to have you as a friend, Darius.”
To this, he just laughs and says, “Haha, you’ve always been very sentimental, Genn, ever since I’ve known you.”
We arrive at the camp and see Turalyon and Lilian Voss arriving right behind us. Turalyon says,
“You beat us by a bit, Genn. I hoped to finish this mission before you.”
Genn says, “We’ve obtained what we need. It’s necessary to plan an attack.”
Lilian also says, “Our mission was equally successful, but I have no doubt that Scarlet Crusade reinforcements will arrive soon.”
To which Genn responds,
“Then we must hurry. Thank you for your help, champion. We’ll call on you when we need your assistance.”
We hand in the quest, ending the story of the week, ready to start the final attack the next.
Chapter 3
I finished the second part the way I would have done the reclaiming of Gilneas. The problem I saw with the live version was that the characters missed many opportunities to develop here, like Genn, Darius, Tess, Calia, Lillian Voss, the lore of the area, the undead, the worgen, the Scarlet Crusade, what happened in the area for so long. Blizzard, as always, is slow to expand the world’s story, not just the current expansion.
You may have noticed that there are things that never happened in the actual story. That’s because in my mind I have a WoW story that I’ve always wanted to share. If you want to follow my version of WoW, you can find me on YouTube as My Warcraft, where I will be uploading a reimagining of the Warcraft universe, from Vanilla to Shadowlands. It will be a huge process, but it will be worth following.
P.S.: Once we finish the second week’s quests, we stay a while to listen to two conversations that happen in the camp. The first is between Lillian and Calia.
The conversation starts with Calia asking Lillian,
“Tell me more about what happened at Greymane Castle,”
“I met an old acquaintance from my previous life; it was interesting to see her again,”
“This undeath thing still feels new to me. Every place I go that I used to know is different. How did you feel when you saw your friend again?”
Before answering, Lillian sighs, indicating it was a simple encounter,
“I don’t give importance to the life I had before becoming what I am. Whenever I see someone I knew, I see that they are part of someone else’s life. My current life is what matters to me.”
Calia takes a breath and says,
“That’s still hard for me to fully understand, but with the help of the Forsaken, I’ve found a new purpose in life, and my current duty is to think about these lands.”
Lillian finishes by saying, “Then let’s get to work.”
The other conversation we would see is between Genn and Turalyon. The old wolf is looking out of the camp, and the Lightforged approaches to greet him,
“How are you, Genn? You seem on alert.”
“Hello, Turalyon. I didn’t notice your presence. Do you need something?”
“Not at all. It’s just that with all the duties of being king, we haven’t had a chance to sit and chat at any time. The Genn I remember was a fierce warrior, ready for any battle.”
“I remember an enthusiastic young priest who convinced everyone to unite against the Horde. We are not what we used to be, Turalyon.”
“When I finally completed my mission and returned to Azeroth, nothing was the same. Allies had become enemies, and enemies had become allies. Everything I once knew no longer exists. All I have left is the Alliance.”
“The same happened to me, old friend. When you left for the Dark Portal, I ordered the construction of that wall. When we were forced to leave, everything was different; even my home changed forever.”
“I understand you very well. The future exists to leave the past behind. I had a home in the Army of the Light, which also had to go. Now we have the opportunity to retake Gilneas and return your people to their true home.”
“Thank you, my King. We must focus on our work here.”
Turalyon finishes by saying, “Drop the formalities, Genn. We are friends before we have any titles.”
Genn says with a laugh, “Alright, Turalyon, I’ll keep preparing everything for the final attack.”