As many of you know, Mal’ganis and Varimithras corrupted the Scarlet Crusaders, as was revealed respectively in the Scarlet Monastery and a quest in Icecrown.
Mal’Ganis was essentially the one that corrupted High General Abendis into basically turning the Scarlets into an arm of the Burning Legion, all the while believing that they were serving the Light. Hell, according to Abendis’s journal (Death Knight Origin story item) she thought the Light was TALKING to her.
Mal’Ganis appeared briefly at the end of the shattered shore scenario, but has not appeared anywhere in game since. I’ve been wondering for some time, “where is he? What’s he up to?”
SPOILER ALERT (Mag’har unlock scenario)
When I went through the scenario which took us to the alternate Draenor in the present day, we saw what became of the former Iron Horde and a glimpse of what the Draenei on that Draenor became. High Exarch Y’rel was leading a crusade to bring the Mag’har (formerly known as the Iron Horde) into the Light, and put any who resisted or refused to the sword. While there was no mention of the light speaking to Y’rel, everything else fits.
Sound familiar?
It sounds nothing like the Y’rel that I knew on Draenor as a soldier of the Alliance; or the Draenei in general. It does, however, sound exactly like something the Scarlets would have done had they half a chance instead of being bottled up by the Scourge. It sounds exactly like Mal’ganis’s M.O.
That actually sounds like a very interesting idea, IMO. That could work well to lead to various different things in the future.
I will say, though, that I don’t believe it is what blizzard was thinking, or what they have planned. I don’t think they have much immediately planned for the draenor Draenei, but my best Guess is they will use them as a sort of pseudo light based burning legion. Your idea could work within that framework, but I think they are planning the naaru as being the bad guys more.
Q: Yrel’s Draenei vs. Mag’har story is something we didn’t expect, that was awesome to have WoD plot continue. Any chances for this story to expand beyond Mag’har starting quests?
A: We think it’s cool to be able to revisit characters you’re fond of, and the setting of Draenor, a place we haven’t been in some years. And the Mag’har orc quest line provides a glimpse into how things don’t always turn out as expected. In this case, we explore the complexities of the relationship between the Light and other powers in Azeroth. In traditional fantasy, we often hear “The Light,” and immediately think, “Oh, that’s pure goodness, right? There’s nothing bad about the Light! Light is good and shadow is evil.” But not always. Things are a bit more complicated than that, and this was a glimpse into how tyranny can take multiple shapes and multiple forms.
It’s a story and a setting that we certainly could revisit in the future, but for now, this was just something we were excited to do because it made sense for the Mag’har in particular.
Blizzard didn’t have a story in mind for the AU draenei. They were randomly turned evil for the Mag’har without definite plans for the future. The scenario was meant to show the Light being evil.
Hmm but like other people have been saying, I think this goes against what Blizzard wants to tell as Light being not all that good.
This is told more than once and is explicitly stated in the Alleria short story. I think by making the Naru “bad guys” it allows Blizzard to follow up with a Light bad guy xpac down the road.
They simply should have forgiven the mag’har for their attempt at genocide again and mass slavery/slaughter of their people. Just like everybody was buddy buddy with Grom in HFC despite him needing no fel influence to be a genocidal monster.
I agree with you about the AU, but it is stated that this current conflict in draenor is not based in the past actions of the Maghar, but the new desire for the Draenei to forcefully convert the planet. It is specifically mentioned that they had peace for years until the Draenei decided everyone must worship the light.
This wouldn’t be exclusively Dreadlord territory, though. We have Xe’ra attempting the same forcible binding with Illidan.
The Light not being pure good could be a neat story to develope further but the sudden twist from the Mag’har scenario feels way too much like a Shyamalan meme.
[quote=“Arazlok-kilrogg, post:6, topic:26101”]
Hmm but like other people have been saying, I think this goes against what Blizzard wants to tell as Light being not all that good.[/quote]
How does it go against it? We’ve seen the forces of Shadow poke the forces of light into serving it before.
That’s always been the nature of the Light as depicted in WoW. Forgiveness is supposed to be one of the deliniations between the Light and the Shadow.
Yes, I’m aware of the Xe’ra/Illidan incident. That one incident aside, the Narru have always been depicted as benevolent beings of pure light. Xe’re did what it did out of desperation, believing that it was the only way to save creation from Kil’jaeden and the Legion.
I’m beyond disappointed in Y’rel if she turned into such a tyrant on her own. It doesn’t make much sense in her character. That little girl we rescued all those years ago that hadn’t killed anyone before, or the warrior of light that she was at the end of Draenor. I remember a quiet, humble, but very strong badass who promised Khadgar aid if he ever needed it. It was also strongly implied that she’d forgiven Hellscream (for some reason) for his transgressions against her people, Maraad, her own sister.
Outside perversion just makes more sense to me.
Then there’s the environmental damage. I personally didn’t notice a difference in the section of Gorgrond, but in the dialogue between Grom and Samuro, they spoke of… I can’t remember what they said, but it spoke of a decay in the world.
If you actually read the quest texts, pay attention to the lore, you’d see there’s actually a LOT of subtle interconnections in their writing. Specific examples are in the previous paragraph.
This is probably my only serious issue with this theory. Fact being they actually are converting people into Lightforged. Which is firstly, far less insane than the Scarlet Crusade’s activities. And secondly, one would have to question how Mal’ganis killed all the Naaru. He was able to enact this plan against the Crusade by secretly slaying Saidan. To secretly slay a Naaru, replace it, and remain hidden from other Naaru? That seems a feat.
Have you considered that you’re reading into subtleties that aren’t there, because Blizzard in fact rarely employs subtlety? It’d be rad if Mal’ganis were responsible — don’t get me wrong — but prepare for disappointment.
I strongly doubt we’ll even revisit the setting explored in the Mag’har scenario. It was just a means by which to add Mag’har while shifting perception of the Light further into ambiguity/negativity (probably because Warcraft is simply running out of villains).
Because Blizzard is making the Light a bad thing. With this you’re taking that away and making still purely a good that’s been corrupted. That’s not what Blizzard wants to tell, at least from the Alleria short story and the above interview.
“Making the light a bad thing” is an absurd overreach and you know it. They’re saying that it can be used for bad things, just like they did with the scarlet crusade.
Not buying it. Desperate humans getting fooled by mid-level demons in the middle of a zombie apocalypse is fine. Humans didn’t know about Naru, they frequently misattributed the light to titans like Tir, and their use of the light was always shown to be crude but powerful.
The Draenei show expertise, they show sophistication. They have personal relationships with the Naru. They incorporate the light into their technology. And the light is a universal part of the Draenei culture, not just the tool of some religious specialists. I don’t think even a crafty dreadlord passes himself off as an emissary of the Light for the draenei for long enough that they seem to conquer large chunks of Draenor and start to poison the planet.
While it does sound interesting, I don’t think there is any dreadlord corruption.
We see a naaru freeze time with the light in the recruitment scenario. And summons a light forged warfrane with a lightforged exarch in it.
That is a lot for a dreadlord to manipulate. If he has the skill, I could see him freezing time. But looking like a naaru? To the people who worship them and have contact with 24/7? I don’t think so. The Draenei aren’t strangers to demons. They’d be able to tell if something was off with their holy wind chimes.
i would have liked that yrel joined the alliance before was turned “evil”.
she could have bringed a lot of good things into the alliance.
she could have been a really compelling villain or character, i liked yrel in wod, but i would like to see her again, in the alliance.
what a wasted potential.