How to save Draenor in three starting experiences

Lore Story Forum
1

Battle for Azeroth kinda threw all of Draenor in the trash just to justify brown orcs. This hurts me emotionally and needs to be fixed.

Rather than devoting a whole new expansion to it, I believe the lore can be salvaged with new starting experiences for playable Ogres, Naga, and Draenei/Orc Demon hunters.

The Ogre and Naga starting experiences would cover two halves of the same story.

Ogres

On the Ogre side, a civilization of Ogres living in Farahlon are panicking because every star in the sky suddenly went out at once. We’ll call them Skymaul for the pun.

For most Skymaul ogres, the stars disappearing is a is a sign of the end times, however for the Ogre Magi of Sky Maul it proves their existing theory that their universe is only a few decades old, and that Draenor and it’s surrounding space is all that exists.

Since Draenor and it’s surroundings came into being when the alternate timeline was solidified, those stars never actually existed. But the light from them was traveling dozens of Light-years of empty space providing the illusion of stars being their until the last of that light finally made it to Draenor.

After trying and failing to explain this to their single-headed brethren, the Magi began devising a plan to bring Draenor into the main timeline.

The Ogre starting experience follows the player as they help with the ritual to save the planet. The actual tasks you get are pretty much the same whether you’re playing a one-headed or two-headed Ogre, but if your playing a two-headed ogre you’ll get more in-depth explanations for why you’re doing what you’re doing.

This mostly consists of gathering reagents, clearing a ritual site, and working with emissaries from the Coilfang Naga, who are working in Outland towards the same goal.

Naga

In the main universe the Coilfang seek to put a stop to Outland’s ongoing destabilization. Hearing about Draenor from the Outland Draenei, they make contact with the Skymaul and work together on the spell to bring Draenor into the main universe.

Similar to the Ogres, players spend their experience preparing for the ritual. As the ritual effects all of Outland, the Coilfang cooperate with the Draenei to prepare for the ritual, and get invited to join the Alliance rather than continue being enemies after it’s completion.

Once the ritual succeeds Draenor is pulled into the main timeline, and Outland is pulled out of the Twisting Nether to join Draenor’s many moons in the upper atmosphere.

Demon Hunters

Draenei, Lightforged Draenei, Orc, and Mag’Har orc demon hunters come about when Lothraxion realizes an AU Xe’ra has made it into the main timeline.

Since Sire Denathrius died Lothraxion has been something of a free agent, a life he quite enjoys and wishes to maintain. AU Xe’ra threatens that, so he contacts the Illidari and informs them another Xe’ra has entered the timeline, and will almost certainly attempt to lightforge Illidan as the last one did.

The Illidari go to Draenor’s Shattrath and begin a quiet invasion. Using Fel to break Xe’ra’s control on the Lightbound, they create a new contingent of Demon Hunters who ultimately kill the Naaru goddess.

With Xe’ra gone, the Lightbound Empire falls into disarray. Yrel contacts Velen for answers to what exactly happened to her under Xe’ra and how a being of pure light like her could cause so much suffering. Velen offers his own advice as well as Alliance aid. A similar story unfolds with Exarch Hellscream and the Horde.

2 Likes
2

Not exactly how I would’ve done it but it’s a good idea; I really hope Blizzard doesn’t just move past Draenor entirely, it was nice going back to Outland in the Draenei heritage quest and see how things have got on for them in the last 20 years, and I’m still chafed that they seemed to kind of just abandon WoD when it had so much potential.

But yeah, anything that’d give us playable Ogres and Draenei/Orc demon hunters would be rad. I’m a bit ambivalent about Naga though but these are good ideas.

5 Likes
3

Draenei demon hunters sound awesome. With the Man’ari skin, I would be very tempted to make one :dracthyr_nod:

1 Like
4

Not very keen on most of this, but the notion of plucking Outland out of the Twisting Nether and becoming a moon would be neat.

1 Like
5

I don’t like this, except for the idea of making Outland a moon (though I hope the magic would compensate for any gravitational shifts).

6

We can use “magic” for the grav situation. Like…dragon aspects magic.

7

Any chance you could explain why?

8

Just retcon the Mag’har to be, you know. The real Mag’har. The people that were in The Horde since TBC. One of them used to run The Horde, perhapse you’ve heard of him.

Why oh why did they feel the need to bring in WoD’s Mag’har of all the neat stuff in that setting. You have a Roman Empire themed ogre nation. Ogre. Roman. Empire.

5 Likes
9

Alternate Realities don’t work the way you’ve outlined, for one. They are fully realized universes, they just collapse without an anchor. They aren’t localized bubbles of reality that only exist within a certain distance, as outlined in your Ogre writeup. Furthermore, with Nozdormu having his Aspectral powers returned, the Bronze Dragonflight would be back at full potential in their capacity as janitors of the timeways. This means that incursions into our timeline from alternate timelines would need to be stopped at the source, otherwise our reality would be overrun. Even all of that operates under the assumption that the ogres have a way of figuring out there is a “main timeline”—something even alternate Elisandes are not privy to.

Playable ogres, if they’re ever given the green light, need to come from the Ogres already in the Horde. Namely, the Stonemaul.

Naga are antagonists and were defeated in Serpentshrine. Any purpose they had for being in Outland got taken out behind the shed along with Kael’Thas and Illidan. Reminder: that purpose involved sucking up all of the water into their reservoir, which would have sped along the doom of the peoples if not the world itself. There’s really no avenue here for them (even if they survived) to act in a benevolent capacity. If salvaging Outland is a possibility, it would come from the Mag’har and Draenei. (Just to note again, I think plucking Outland out of the Twisting Nether and turning it into a moon of Azeroth would be pretty dope)

Denathrius didn’t die. He very much escaped thanks to the Dreadlords, whom we learned Lothraxion has always been serving in SL.

Xe’ra lightforging Illidan is … I don’t even know how that could be a plot point. The Legion is defeated, Illidan is at the Seat of the Pantheon with the Titans and Sargeras. He pretty easily blasted Xe’ra into dust once before, even if the world cared about Illidan enough to try to intervene. This sounds more like a Caverns of Time dungeon than an actual story beat, tbh.

1 Like
10

WoD is the anime arc not in the original manga

11

The Ogres have no knowledge of timelines, nor do they have the ability to integrate the timelines.

The Naga and Draenei are firmly enemies by the time of WoD. Same with Naga and the Alliance. This means they would not trade information with each other or ally. Plus, like the Ogres, they do not have the power to merge the timelines.

To be blunt, this part reads like a personal power fantasy and Illidan fanboying/fangirling.

We don’t know what Lothraxion thinks of Xe’ra or her death, so its presumptuous to assume he opposes her completely. You also assume that an AU Xe’ra would want to Lightforge Illidan even with the Legion dealt with and Sargeras trapped. Just as other AU counterparts, she might act differently with knowledge of the MU timeline. You’re also assuming she directly controlled the Lightbound even when those personally Lightforged by Xe’ra, such as Turalyon, were not controlled by her and could freely disagree with or challenge her. Finally, given how easily she was jobbed to death by Illidan in Legion, hard to see her as a threat even if she’s copiously villain-batted.

What little we know of Yrel and “Exarch Hellscream” suggests they freely chose to serve without duress. We now know the Lightbound were partly formed in response to the deterioration of AU Draenor, they thought Lightforging everyone would stop that. This wasn’t some “purge the non-believers because they don’t follow our way” negative religious stereotype. Finally, the Mag’har weren’t all innocent victims given the Iron Horde, so it’s wrong to frame them as such.

12

I’d do something smaller and simpler: pull Alternate Draenor into the mainline world, yes, because it’s weird that it’s the only area in lore we can’t “go back” to. Have Outland be a floating set of flying islands above it.

But instead of having a big war or quest where Xe’ra and Yrel become the main enemies, just have them already be dead by the time we move it. Make a point about the futility of war. The world of Dreanor is now just left to pick up the pieces after all their major empires have crumbled. The orc tribes are scattered, Yrel’s army was destroyed by the Mag’Har and vice versa, and now the only “government” is scattered villages and tribes just trying to make the best of things.

In other words, Outland and Draenor are now in mirroring situations: post-apocalyptic words, one ravished by fel, the other broken by light. This gives the people of both worlds something in common, and allows them to figure out how to move forward together.

Outland desperately needs Draenor to survive, but Draenor needs Outland to survive too. It needs new people, new ideas and new territory so people can spread out and rebuild.