I feel the Horde needs a feel-good moment before SL ends

Lore Story Forum
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Alliance completely aside - they probably need one too, but that should get its own thread - but man, it’s actually hard to focus on SL’s story and immerse myself into it while being Horde.

We left BFA at this awful, awful bummer of a place where not only were we failures, but we were also duped by an evil overlord for a second time. The vulpera recruitment questline was a good peek at what the Horde is like now, but whenever it comes up that I’m Horde in SL - putting a Horde flag on my Necrolord abomination, for instance - I just feel awful. Garrosh, Teldrassil and Sylvanas are all hanging over my head in a way that isn’t interesting or fun, it’s just frustrating.

The night elves have had a rough go of it but are able to immediately continue their story in Ardenweald by saving Tyrande and the souls of those who died during Teldrassil. I think it would be neat if, in Maldraxxus, Thrall gets his power back and a bit of a morale boost from seeing his mother reform the Necrolords to be the ideal Horde - might makes right, but only insofar as it protects the weak.

It would also be cool if Baine got a point or Calia bonded with the Forsaken part of her character rather than just the human and Light parts. I don’t see Baine having much to do with this expansion unless he recruits spiritwalkers, though.

I really can’t wait for the expansion after next to not feel awful about my faction.

Edit: After I wrote this, I did the Ardenweald campaign intro quest on an alt where I re-enact the Burning of Teldrassil and Ysera weeps.

This feels really bad and not fun. God, give me a reason to like being Horde, pls. :frowning:

Edit 2: Now in a play where I’ve been fighting villains the entire time, I’m forced to be Anduin and mow down toy Horde siege weapons. hnnngh

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I’m with you 110%. Faction pride is a thing of the past. Both factions need a very good feel good moment that makes us happy to be who we are without wanting to hate the other side. We also need to try harder to stick to a Cold War like state. Things will improve but then they will inevitably blow up in our face again. Sadly after the travesty that was BfA it’s hard to leave anything in the past for either faction.

This will be when Lor’themar abolishes the council and turns into a Saturday morning cartoon villain and tricks us into blowing something relevant up and causing a war where we are guilty. Blizz will bring the faction war back and there is only one faction that is allowed to start those.

Also hopefully this post will go better than I expect it to.

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I wouldn’t put it past Blizzard to do that. Him and Thalysra will be the new prime evils of the Horde and Alliance will be there to save the Horde from itself AGAIN!

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I too would love to see a core shift for the Horde toward regaining our primary faction fantasy. It has taken a steady beating and worsened progressively since late WotLK, and I completely sympathize with an utter lack of not only faction pride but even the simplest immersive ambience of feeling like this is even the Horde at all. I loved the core fantasy of the Horde in WC I and II just fine, playing the role of the villain, but I love all the more the core fantasy of a shamanic Horde core with outcasts and outsiders brought to bear. If we don’t get back to that soon I guess I’ll just content myself with nostalgia and surmise, for yet another expansion, that there’s just no Horde for old Orcs.

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Well… funny you should mention Thrall…

Spoiler-y On Thrall

Thrall does get his powers back, he uses them in a big way to break free from his tormentors at the climax of your mission to extract him from Torgast.

Between that and intentionally having him loose his Axe I think he is going to be taking back up the Doomhammer and his Worldshaman role.

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One thing that might be considered weird on this forum considering where peoples’ priorities normally lie, but…

I like that the Horde is losing a bunch of land. Canonically they failed every aggressive push and have solidly lost Arathi Highlands and the Alliance have reclaimed Southshore. Presumably they also have Gilneas, right?

The post-Exile’s Reach cinematic mentions an “imperious” Alliance threatening the Horde that honestly has never threatened the Horde. But if the Horde are the underdog outcasts again rather than the bloodthirsty conquerors, I feel that’s a move in the right direction. I obviously want the Horde to have enough room to develop in interesting ways - they’ve been settled on Kalimdor for a decade now, the area around Orgrimmar should look even more distinctly Horde - but since Cata, everywhere I went other than Southern Barrens was Horde bearing down on valiant Alliance defenders who just want to be left alone.

That sucked.

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Horde players.

I have a question for you.

Do you guys preffer Thrall to be called as his slave name, or his Orc name?

I’ve heard mixed feels on this one, people associate go’el with the green Jesus idea, but wouldn’t the leader of the hordr use his non slave name?

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  1. Thrall
  2. Warchief of the Horde
  3. World Shaman
  4. Chris Metzen
  5. Orc
  6. Green Jesus
  7. Mary Sue
  8. Go’el

I just want to see him in Doomhammers armor wielding Doomhammer

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Honestly I hope Thrall’s axe is still embedded in Helya’s head somewhere and she’s just ignoring it and it becomes a weakpoint during her raid.

That said I’d like to believe Thrall has a moment with Draka where he goes full World Shaman in Maldraxxas or something. Preferably with that heavy war drum beat playing.

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Ayyyyyyyy!!!

[Body seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?]

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Thrall is cool, he deserves to be world shaman levels again, but only if he keeps the melee moveset as well.

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I don’t have strong feelings about whether we call “Mok’Durotan” Thrall or Go’el. I still have lingering fatigue about the character in general, so I’m presently just waiting to see what will become of him over the course of Shadowlands. If we get back to Warcraft III era Thrall I’d consider it an improvement, whatever anyone may call him.

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I prefer Thrall because to me it symbolized Thrall taking a name that was meant for a slave and making it his own. A name that should have received mockery inspired hope for his people and fear into his enemies. It’s also really feels like a giant middle finger to Blackmoore.

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Go el has too much negative baggage, even moreso than thrall which is incredible, i believe the comunity reacts better to his OG name but i got no numbers for ya.

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Honestly, I hate Go’el.

While I’m fine with characters changing their names for this or that reason (for example I was big pissed when Laura in X-Men went back to her codenamed X-23, after becoming Wolverine), but for Thrall it was just…lazy.

Go’el represented the point Thrall stopped being that badass orc and instead became well, Green Jesus. I’m sad they depowered him just so Enh Shamans can get Doomhammer.

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Hey atleast they didn’t kill him just so we can get his weapon.

Tirion says hi.

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After what has been happening to Thrall, honestly…dead is better.

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At least they didn’t forget that your order master is dead and put him in a new quest after.

Hight says hi.

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That’s fair, but I feel they have to redeem Thrall now, he’s up there with Arthas, and Illidan as the OG poster boys of the Warcraft world. Faces people who don’t even play know. He deserves the work and redeeming, plus the Horde needs anyone and everyone it can get.

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You’re not wrong but I don’t think Shadowlands is the expansion to expect it in, seeing as it feels like both factions are sitting the story out (on a faction level I mean; obviously characters from them are involved, but not the Alliance and Horde as organizations).