I see it getting thrown around these forums and a few other places that the Horde owns/controls most of Ashenvale, but I haven’t yet seen anything in game that acknowledges that as true, though me overlooking something isn’t out of the question.
Is there any dialogue or quest text or something of that nature that confirms this take as canon? It seems really odd that the people in the Horde’s council like Baine and Thrall would continue to hold onto it after BFA, especially given how the big message Blizz seems to be pushing nowadays is the whole “gee wiz guys let’s hold hands and work together” angle.
There is nothing no, people are seemingly just… presuming they do.
I honestly cannot imagine it being the actual case, as Night Warrior edition Tyrande would never of stopped until the Horde had been driven over the Southfury river… but there is no evidence to back it either way.
Not that I can think of. I guess it’s just assumed that since we haven’t seen anything since the Darkshore warfront was declared won by the Alliance, the Horde controls it until we hear otherwise.
Well, the main thing is the fact that the Horde got control of Ashenvale and the Night Elves never got it back, neither by fighting nor by having it as a deal in Anduin’s peace treaty, also it’s not going to be addressed in the new book that’s coming out, so a few possibilities are:
The writers wanting to spite Night Elf fans by giving yet another one of their zones to the Horde
Preparing Ashenvale for a new world revamp, making it a Horde zone this time
Letting the Horde secure Kalimdor because the Night Elves have nowhere left to settle and they have no chance of reclaiming it (which was also the whole point of BfA)
Rewarding the Horde a bit more for their heroic deeds in BfA
The fact that Night Elves are facing extinction now suggests that they don’t even “need” Ashenvale (atleast in the eyes of the writers)
I think people are going off of the events of the War of the Thorns, which showed Astranaar basically getting entirely decimated and all its inhabitants slaughtered. After Silverwind Refuge fell, it was arguably the most prominent Kaldorei holding in the zone.
It’s definitely been contested since the earliest days of WoW, and it can definitely be argued that since Teldrassil fell, the balance has shifted in the Horde’s favor. However, there’s nothing definitive that states Ashenvale is a solely Horde-occupied territory now.
It would have been mentioned by Tyrande. Instead of saying “I wont sign the treaty unless it is written with Sylvanas blood” she would have said “as long as Horde occupies night elf land”
Saurfang raised his voice. “Is it true, Warchief? They have abandoned this region?”
Sylvanas nodded. She spoke to the entire crowd. “Ashenvale belongs to the Horde.”
Page 63, A Good War.
That’s the problem with Night Elf content. We are always left to wonder things by ourselves because Blizzard usually doesn’t deem worthy to spend resources showing our victories. We never got the in game cinematic of Tyrande declaring victory over Darkshore. And that still shows only the reclamation of Darkshore and not Ashenvale.
We will probably hear about it in a twitt a few expansions later.
There is evidence to back up the horde owning ashenvale, such as in the books when they wipe out all the night elf towns and then in the cutscene where they are running supply lines through Ashenvale to get to darkshore. Then at the start of the night warrior scenario the horde had a presence on the beach there that Tyrande took out when she arrived but there. There is actually no evidence though saying the night elves are even in Ashenvale anymore, but that’s standard blizzard nowadays never show the night elves winning or holding anything in game.
If the Horde gets full control of Ashenvale and the Night Elves never get it back… well who has it then? Unless stated otherwise, it’s Horde territory now and it seems obvious that those writers would rather give the zone to the Horde than to the Night Elves, that’s not even a question.
It’s realistic after all because a near extinct race wouldn’t be able to reclaim Ashenvale anyway when they couldn’t even defend it before the genocide.
Given Blizzard intentionally crippled them by making the entire Kaldorei military save a skeleton defense force be conveniently absent and the wild gods apparently on holiday… and the Draenei next door with their super advanced magitech apparently all taking a nap.
…despite all of that the entire might of the Horde nearly faltered several times in the War of Thorns. So yeah… they did pretty well and Arguably could hold Ashenvale now.
Some theory like that would require them to already have it reconquered which never happened. Also, Anduin signed a peace treaty with the Horde so if the Night Elves attack and try to get back Ashenvale now, they’re alone against the whole of the Horde since the other races are at peace with the Horde. Same thing if the Horde starts attacking the Night Elves, they won’t receive any support from the Alliance. The Horde would have a very easy time against the Night Elves now that the race and everything related to it is in ruins.
Combine that with the meta knowledge that the writers hate Night Elves and would much rather give Ashenvale to the Horde.
Sylvanas forces aren’t the entire Horde. The Horde could easily hold onto Ashenvale while Sylvanas pulled back her own personal forces.
Again you don’t need to make any theories when the writers want Ashenvale to be Horde territory. The Horde has wanted that zone for ages after all, the writers saw it as a huge opportunity to give the Horde Ashenvale.
thats not a theory honey its something that actually happen, I know questing and playing wow is very hard for you.
the only thing that is a theory is if tyrande did anything in the time Ashenvale was empty of troops thats up for debate sure, but ashenvale was void of any horde troops in 8.2.5
You say this a lot, but I do not think any dev has ever said such a thing, or even implied it. If we are going by typical narrative treatment they hate basically every race except orcs and humans who miraculously have not suffered much since the end of the third war while all their allies have.