So while the “Is Sylvanas 100% evil?” topic is endlessly fascinating, as always, I finally found a statement I’ve been looking for–the implication that BfA was going to end the faction conflict for good. This is the interview that really turbo-charged a lot of speculation that Blizzard would do away with Horde and Alliance altogether with the Fourth War. (Ha!)
Note: The article has a lot of other interesting stuff about their plans for gameplay, some of which also may make you feel lied to. But the part below is the main part of what they said about story.
From November 9, 2017:
https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-answers-some-of-our-biggest-questions-about-world-of-warcraft-battle-for-azeroth/
PC Gamer: For a long time the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde has been ignored in favor of dealing with external threats, like the Burning Legion. Why is now the right time to respark the animosity that started it all?
Alex Afrasiabi: We feel the Alliance-Horde divide is foundational and fundamental to World of Warcraft as a franchise and as a story, but we danced around it for a very long time. We’ve had run-ins, we’ve had close calls, but we’ve never been able to finish it—to have that resolution. We’re coming out of this expansion, Legion, and the world is not in a great place—the players and the factions themselves are not in a great place because there is all of this old animosity that hasn’t been resolved. It’s time to resolve it.
In terms of a threat, one of the things we talk about is, in Warcraft, do you take part of what you kill and become it? When we look at WoW, we’ve done so much with so many big external threats. We’ve taken out Old Gods, Dragon Aspects, Elemental Lords, the Lich King, Illidan—at least once, and pretty soon maybe a Titan. So when we talk about what’s the biggest threat in this world, is it the Titan or is it the Dwarf Paladin that put a hammer in that Titan’s head? We’ve got tens of thousands of almost-living gods [players] now running amok on this planet with very different ideologies. That seems insane but that also seems awesome to me. And that’s how this expansion was born.
As these battles begin to play out, what are the consequences for one side or the other?
Afrasiabi: The loser is deleted, they’re just done [laughs]. It depends on the content type, right? Warfronts, for example, are a type of large group PVE, and maybe there’s some things we can do in the Warfront maps that will reflect your side’s victory or whatever. But in the world itself, we will absolutely see the outcome of the big kick-off events of this expansion. As we push forward more and more into where this expansion is going, we’ll probably see more stuff happening around us as a result of this big faction war.
Ion Hazzikostas: We are willing to permanently change the world where it makes sense and where it helps push that story forward. Actions need to have consequences.
But after the almost world-ending events of Legion, won’t the back-to-basics conflict of Battle for Azeroth feel less dramatic?
Hazzikostas: Uhh, did you see that intro cinematic? [laughs]. Honestly, this is war. What’s even more terrifying than a single big bad is a vast army of world-destroying forces like Alex alluded to.