The Horde needs Ashenvale only for resources, specifically lumber.
For every other purpose, it has just been terrain to plow through on their way to fight elves.
Drive them out. Counter balance the loss by having the Tauren druids, who get nowhere near enough attention to begin with, turn Gally’s pleasure palace and a tolerable amount of Azshara into a verdant, sustainable grove that they will work with Orgrimmar to harvest responsibly.
It even fits with the Tauren theme illustrated in the heritage armor quest regarding balance between light and shadow, and would distinguish them from the more one sided approach taken by the Night Elven druids.
The Horde leaves Ashenvale for good and Hyjal and Moonglade go back to being nelf only lands. Those races on the Horde who claim to be allies of nature and respectful of the elements would surely support this, given the incredibly destructive way the logging was done in Stonetalon, Azshara, and Ashenvale, to say nothing of the strip mining.
If lumber is an actual issue, the Horde can get it in one of their many, many other territories or those places they gained as a result of their allied race additions. Like Eversong, or Highmountain, or Suramar, or Zandalar, or maybe one of the dozens of islands they probably claimed via expeditions. Or Azshara and Stonetalon, still, since they were gifted those in the treaty they violated within two years, unless they’ve completely clearcut them already.
Honestly, the entirety of their reasoning for getting lumber from Ashenvale always seemed to be less “we need the lumber” and more “you have it so we want it”.
Ok, still does not change my opinion on the matter though, still a massive slant towards one side, where the only ‘victory’ the horde had the entire expansion was framed as a massive war crime.
Not really down for ‘losing’ anymore.
Honestly, its not that hard to handle it fairly and ill tell you how,
Since the alliance won arathi , the horde and alliance trade territories arathi for ashenvale.
That’s entirely unfair, Horde already owns pretty much all of Kalimdor, and they don’t need the lumber from Ashenvale at all, as stated above. Arathi offers practically nothing, it would just be tossing night elves under the bus AGAIN for the sake of… getting a Stormwind clone human kingdom up and running.
No you are not getting Arathi! Arathi is just as much Alliance as Ashenvale. If you really want a win you can get your stupid Barrens back. Arathi’s rightful heir is even an Alliance member.
Alliance lost Theramore while Horde lost nothing equal. Goblins got their own zone and small town while the Worgen continue to squat in other cities. Don’t think it’s asking a lot for the Alliance to get Ashenvale back. At least the Forsaken could reasonably get Undercity back since we’ve seen frost magic can neutralize the blight. Night Elves aren’t getting Teldrassil back.
You have something I want, we have something you want. Hell, when the peace talks happen, have someone sabotage it, and let the nelfs be oh so heroic in stopping the saboteur.
Its really about HOW you’re asking for it back. How being a very keyword here, and why I think the OP has some bias.
I have zero problem giving it back as long as the forsaken are given something. If anyone has anything to complain about its them this expansion, not only lost their lands but their main character cast too.
As of right now in the OP I see them asking to beat the horde again and not even a single mention of the forsaken.
ALSO, the Forsaken didn’t lose anything, nothing north of Arathi is held by the Alliance, they were pushed out of Tirisfal and retreated. The Forsaken still hold Silverpine, 90% of Tirisfal, and presumably Hillsbrad and Andorhal. The only thing they lost was Undercity, which is entirely intact structurally and can be fixed with that Blight cure Macguffin Blizzard is hiding.
So here is what im reading in the OP, night elfs single handedly kick the hordes butts. Boom they get their territory back the end. Not a single mention of anything the horde gains, and the forsaken are really, really hurting right now. An expansion full of loss (characters/story/theme) for the horde and being asked to lose again? Naw nty.
How could you not think think this is bias, other than a desire to be contrarian?
My problem is the HOW in the op. NOT that the night elfs get ashenvale back.
Im also a huge patron of getting over and out of this expansions story ASAP, and this post does not accomplish that.
I’m not a Night Elf player so I can’t really speak on their behalf. Maybe if Anya decides to come by and check out this topic again she can give her input, but let me throw out a possible change to the scenario.
The Horde offers Ashenvale back to the Night Elves as a gesture of good will. Or maybe everything west of the river. While waiting for a response, the Night Elves launch a full scale assault on Ashenvale. The Horde are undermanned and unprepared due to their majority of their forces having been moved elsewhere throughout the war. The Night Elves get their convincing win not because of any specific skill advantage or amazing tactics, but simply because they hit the Horde when they were waiting for a response to their peace offering and lack of troops. Worried that the Night Elves might try to push for Org, the doomsday weapon mentioned in the OP is used by the Horde to stop the advance and force the Night Elves to walk away with what they have.
The Night Elves get to show their savage “give no ****s and take no ****s” attitude that Night Elf fans miss and the Horde get to finally have a situation where they have the moral high ground for having tried to do things the peaceful way.
Give it up. Your not going to come up with a ‘fair’ situation. The closest is the Horde just withdraw.
The idea of a new Night Elf Antagonist NPCs is kind of a joke. First, they would have to come out of no where and there would be very little chance of them actually being reliably treated as an antagonist, particularly since Alliance players would view said character as a great hero and lose their minds if they got set up as raid fodder. Remember how negatively Alliance players responded to the idea that Sky Admiral Rojers end up a villain for horde players?
Just let it go and move on. Horde players have to as well after this farce of a story destroyed the credibility of their faction’s identity. Trying to polish a turd won’t make it any less a turd.