If you look at any map, especially of Europe where the settlements there have existed since ancient times. There is always some kind of settlement within like… I think it was about 10 miles or so?
I forget the actual distance, but its about as far as someone could walk in a day. That is basically how roads and villages were started. People walk in a direction, traffic kills the grass forming a path. The sun sets and they make a camp. Larger numbers of people come thought, more and more people camp, until someone builds an inn there.
People work at the inn, want to live near the inn. Trade posts open up so the Inn can be stocked with food and drink… And a little camp becomes a village.
And you can see this irl. Towns sprouted up in a 10-15 mile radius in a hexagonal patterns. Like bees or other insects. Variance only really applying due to geographic boundaries like mountains and bodies of water.
At the very least I presumed places like Brill and Goldshire are supposed to be much larger than they are as presented in game. They way they’re referred to in lore makes it sound like there’s supposed to be more than 4 -7 buildings.
The Alliance is a human supremist Empire with real strong propaganda.
Not necessarily controlled by House Wrynn, rather but the King of Stormwind need to appease the noble houses to maintain their support and resources, which means pushing a pro-human and expansionist agenda.
Blizzard’s tendency to give us unreliable narrators tends to lend itself to this idea. The tendency for Alliance action to be reframed in a more palatable light despite the constant inconsistency with the Horde perspective.
Also the way Stormwind came out in BFA. Despite the number of intelligence agents in Ogrimmar, Stormwind was not able to predict the Horde’s intention to take advantage of unguarded Alliance territory? Territory that Stormwind would KNOW was unguarded because it was Stormwind’s idea to send the Kaldorei fleet south in the first place?
From that “Mistake” Stormwind was able to consolidate the entirety of the Alliance in the Eastern Kingdom, guarding Stormwind City (Which Anduin tried to maintain by not approving attempt to retake Darkshore). Was able to return long lost human holdings to Stormwind Control, such as Kul Tiras and Stromgarde, and even capture Lordaeron City (They did not predict Sylvanas Blighting it), with a possible reinstatement of House Menethil. They completely destabilized the Horde and replaced old, Legacy Horde leaders with those more sympathetic to the Alliance.
I am not claiming Blizzard intended this, I just think it is easier to believe that a council of rich human nobles would screw over some elves across the ocean for a chance to reclaim the Northern Kingdoms and finally defeat their oldest enemy. The Horde.
I wish Blizzard would actually make villages like those two bigger. I mean after Boralus I hope they keep making cities like that and towns that feel like actual towns and not just 4-7 buildings.
Yeah Boralus and Dazar’Alor have really raised the bar on what cities look like. A lot of this is done through generic NPCs who’s only programming is to wander around. That’s a very old trick that seemed to fall out of favor in RPGs for reasons I don’t understand.
I replayed TES Oblivion recently and it does this too with places like the Arcane University. It has a bunch of generic Apprentices and Mages wandering around, making the place feel busy. By contrast Skyrim has a magic school where indeed every NPC has a name, dialogue and usually a role in a quest or two. But there’s only about 12 people total, and only 3 are students, so the place feels like a small town library rather than this wizard college.
Boralus and Dazar’Alor have NPCs like Zandalari Fisherman. Who exists for no other purpose than to wander between work, the market and the tavern. I can see why on paper this might seem a bad idea as a bunch of nameless NPCs with no purpose could be immersion breaking. But in practice it heightens the illusion. Because it’s not like IRL everyone is walking around with a name tag and fetch quest.
It’s certainly better than the alternative. The old cities rely heavily on players to create the illusion of a bustling city. And it works pretty well as having actual people running around certainly makes things feel alive. But when that city falls out’ve the spotlight they become uncanny almost immediately. As outside guards and maybe a few NPCs everyone is standing stock still and staring off into the void 24/7.
Dazar’Alor and Boralus don’t have this problem. Both have been sparsely populated recently but they don’t get that sterile, ghost town feeling because there’s still signs of life.
When it came immersion I couldn’t imagine two cities that did it better save maybe Dalaran in Legion, but even then in terms of size those two cities beat any other city in game.
Bolarus felt lived in. NPCs both hostile and not in every street and corner. The city felt alive and like an actual city one would live in. Dazar’alor felt grand, but an awkward city to live in. It’s so huge being a pyramid, but felt like it was missing something. Maybe it was the sheer size that distracted from it’s potential of immersion. Boralus had everything near it, and the NPCs and general atmosphere felt like a human city.
Dazar’Alor had the meta hurdle of being designed as a raid first. But I think it wasn’t that big of a deal for a city that old. Dazar’Alor is one of if not the oldest city on Azeroth. It’s been around forever so stuff being in weird places makes sense. Maybe you think this is a weird place to put an inn but it’s been there for 300 years so that’s just where the Zandalari are used to it being.
I also loved stuff like the bronto buses. Their a horrible way to get around for a player. They leisurely lumber between the districts and to some of the villages outside the city limits. They’re completely pointless if you’ve an epic mount.
But Zandalari citizens don’t. It’s for them not you. Catching a ride on a brutosaur to their fishing village works fine for them as the jungles many predators aren’t going to harass an animal that big. I loved stuff like that. Like the boat rides around Kul Tiras are useless the second you have a flying mount but random Kul Tirans don’t have those. So they’re still very much in operation.
Highmountain Tauren shed their antlers each spring like the moose do. They use their old antlers either as ornaments or as reagents for ritualistic practices, by grinding the antlers into fine powder.
If Illidan Stormrage had not created the Second Well of Eternity, elves would have become extinct.
Shal’dorei cut off from their Nightwell withered. Blood Elves without the Sunwell withered. Night Elves cannot establish settlements without moonwells - fed with holy waters from Hyjal - to sustain them.
Nordrassil made it innocuous, as far as attracting Otherworldly attention was concerned, but elves - all elves - are dependent upon Arcane magic. The Kaldorei are just more deeply in denial about it than anyone else.
I RPed a Druid of the Antler for awhile. Night Elf with Stag Antlers. And I adopted a similar idea. A very pretty forest elf man with strips of bleeding velvet hanging off his antlers.
I always like to think there are goblins still populating Kezan or even repopulating it. There was a place in the plans for Kezan called “The Undermine” and was a subterranean city. I think it would be interesting if there was still activity in Kezan along with the Crapopilis azerite harvesting.
Revendreth was never about atonement. Revendreth’s true purpose was obedience. The idea of atonement was a lie spread by Denathrius to make the whole thing more palatable. That’s why Vashj was sent to Maldraxxus while Kael’Thas went to Revendreth. Both were terrible people but Vashj was willing to follow orders while Kael’Thas wouldn’t. It’s why Denathrius cares so little for atonement and gets so angry when people disobey him.
• The Shadowtooth Clan might’ve been wiped out by the Twilight’s Hammer, as claimed, but it was the Trolls who had the last laugh. In the tribe’s final hours, rather than retreating from the mountain, the trolls understood what was at stake as the Night Elves had yet to establish a proper defense of Mount Hyjal.
The last rites and ancient rituals performed by the Shadowtooth helped to bolster the roots of Nordrassil against the more typical manners of Old God corruption, rendering any efforts to do so by the lowly cultists moot. This shifted the focus of the TH from tainting the tree directly to instead creating mockeries of the Wild Gods, which took time and effort, and as a result is why we were able to foil their plans so quickly during questing.
Their sacrifice will never be recorded in the annals of history, but without the Shadowtooth- who laughed as they were felled- Azeroth may have met a darker fate.
• Therazane, although she’ll never admit, has grown rather fond of the mortals and fleshbags of Azeroth. After everything we’ve done to protect Deepholm and its inhabitants from the likes of the Twilight Hammer and the Legion, she can also appreciate the fact that we play by her rules when in her realm.
However, there is one particular brand of mortal that’s earned a special kind of ire from her: The Dwarves. Because during the time of the Cataclysm, the dwarves of the Earthen Ring exposed the Earthen of Deepholm to mortal ales and the concept of ‘Brewfest’.
This ‘corruption’ of Deepholm’s inhabitants is something the Stonemother’s never quite been able to forgive.
Whenever I hear the Garrosh theme in Org I like to think there is a no-go zone somewhere in Orgrimmar ruled by a bunch of Garrosh supporters. Maybe Valley of Honor near the arena. And orcs and proven loyalists hang around this place while planning a comeback.
Also in Barrens there are a bunch of Kor’kron NPCs still so I like to think there is a Garrosh loyalist faction around still functioning somewhere.
Also there are unaccounted for NPCs like Shokia and Thalen Songweaver that were loyalists.
Pretty sure Blizzard just forgot about all this stuff which is why it is still in the game and the characters were never seen again. But I prefer my headcanon.
And another faction I like to think exists. The old style blood knights that manipulate the light, still existing within Silvermoon instead of them all being “redeemed”. Maybe they can get rid of Liadrin sometime.
I just watched the cinematic for the “Tomb of Sargeras” and I was thinking, “what if the bronze dragonflight perceived other timelines where the Legion won?” I like to imagine that we are one of the few worlds that succeeded against the Legion.
Well, I think there’s a good chance that there are timelines where we lost the War of Ancients, which is the reason for the Crystalline Eye if Undravius. That said, it could simply be a curiosity!
