Name some of your favorite left behind side characters, especially villains, and why you like them!

Lore Story Forum
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I especially love side villains who are still canonically alive but have not resurfaced yet, have not been off-screened, or maybe resurfaced as a friendly npc randomly one time (Moroes was a friendly NPC in Warlords of Draenor and a boss fight 1 expansion later, in Legion, for example)

People complain about Blizzard constantly keeping characters alive, but I disagree. Killing them off is the worst thing you can do because it ends their potential and their story. There’s a point at which it makes sense for characters to die, but killing off too many leaves you dry with too much ambiguity to anything new. It’s good to let things connect to each other and develop each other more, and for that reason, I really love when Blizzard keeps some characters around for later.

I especially love when Cult of the Damned or Twilight’s Hammer cultists turn out to still be kicking around somewhere having randomly survived Wrath or Cataclysm. Sometimes this is done in such a way that the character had never appeared before but sometimes its actually someone we’ve seen before and that can be awesome.

In terms of Shadowlands I loved seeing Vashj and Kael’thas and such return, though maybe I would have personally envisioned things differently. Perhaps I’m just upset at the direction TBC took rather than the form their return took, oh well!

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Ephial’s arc in WoD was dropped and I totally resent Blizz for that. He killed and raised Taylor, and nobody knows who he serves.

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Yeah, that’s one that comes to mind for me too! Did he really just act alone? And somehow this never came up in the one expansion since then it would have made some sense too, which even features Taylor’s ghost hanging around.

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The Black Birde

She has always been on my list of characters that need to do something and she’s been completely abandoned in Arathi since Classic. Given some of her quotes she seems to really have a bone to pick with the Alliance, more than most, but has been given no story on that front.

Helcular

The fact that we have near nothing for Kel’thuzad’s apprentice fully within the ranks of the Forsaken is such a disservice. We summon him, clear our Southshore, put him on clean up duty for Southshore, and see him defend Tarren Mill, but thats it. He has no real story and has been just left to rot (pun intended) in Hillsbrad. Given everything the Forsaken have been up to since Cata, for better or worse, he’s given no screen time.

Gunther Arcanus

Rounding out my list of Forsaken bodies lying around, we have a full on Lich just chillin on and island in the middle of Tirisfal who freed himself from the Lich King. We nominally recruit him to the Forsaken but hes just chilling there through everything. IDK what sort of powers he has but I just imagine as the Alliance was rolling up on Undercity he just put up a little barrier around his island, got out his lawn chair, and waved to the odd footman or rifleman trying to take him out.

Gallywix

Now I know he has not been gone long or really left behind, and there has been little opportunity for him to show up, but he’s someone Im really looking forward to see pop back up as a villain and lets be real, he’s been a villain since his introduction even while in the Horde. So seeing him pop back up time and again, especially since he is such a powerful individual within goblin land, would be fun.

Jevan Grimtotem

Poor guy turns against his tribe, saves Baine’s life, almost single handedly ensured Thunder Bluff was retaken, takes up a spot in Baine’s inner circle, and we have yet to ever see him in game or heard from him again. Doesn’t even show up in DF to smack talk Kurog.

Roanauk Icemist

Taunka leader. Must I say more?

Honorable former mention: Gorgonna.

She was on my list for a long time until she came back as the leader of the Warsong Clan which I think is very fitting for her, especially with the additional story/background she got with the orc heritage quest. She was always a fan favorite for a long time due to Grizzly Hills and I really enjoyed that more pragmatic and level headed thinking she offered in contrast to her ‘kill, maim, burn’/orky sister. Really when you start to think of all the other main orc characters you meet in Wrath its everyone that Garrosh wasn’t and showed the ‘real’ side of the Horde. I also have a soft spot for anyone who uses the OG High Warlord gear.

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Does Azshara counts as “side villain”?

Because i pretty much want to see her again, but she is main villain status really.

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I’m hoping that Gallywix can take over the Venture Company and serve this kind of role - a minor villain involved in the main plot, but who regularly cuts his losses and runs after the player dismantles his latest plot. (Preferably sending the player an angrily-worded letter afterward. Maybe even send us the bill for all the machinery we broke and minions we slew, because of course he’d at least try.)

For villains, though, I tend to like organizations over individuals - it’s a bit easier gameplay-wise to let players slay individual villains but have the organization keep reappearing.

I like that the Druids of the Flame were brought back in for the last patch, rather than just using more Primalists. (And I wish the Primalists had more lore - about being former Twilight’s Hammer or Druids of the Flame, and showing us how they managed to sway so many new converts to this whole ‘elemental dragon supremacy’ angle.)

I also hope that we’ll get to see some recognizable Scourge names in the next visit to Northrend, and see some of the Scourge politics around their warlords scrambling for power.

The Scarlet Crusade were really fun, exploring the spiraling paranoia and extremism that led to their belief that they were the true and only defenders of Lordaeron and the Light. I liked their start in Vanilla where their recruiters were still trying to get Alliance players to join them, only for the reveal that they were a bit too omnicidal for that. I never got to play through the original Plaguelands, only read the lore pages for it, but I liked the buildup of their desperation-turned-fanatic theme there. Their Cata dungeon reworks felt a bit too comedic to me, and their Gilnean appearance felt like it needed a reason for them to be there other than letting the Forsaken team up to fight them. Still, I’m interested to see if they’ll have any presence with future Arathi Empire stories.

The Defias are another group whose story I want to keep seeing - both the side trying to keep to its original goals, and the side that spiraled into full villainy and is content staying there.

…And to tie into that, the House of Nobles! I want my political subterfuge shenanigans. We had it in vanilla, so there’s concrete proof that those stories can work in WoW’s MMO format. Show them scheming and plotting in ways that sometimes hinder and sometimes align with the PC. I’d love for a web off schemes involving some House of Nobles characters and Defias members, where some of the nobles are evil and some good, and some of the Defias are evil and some good, and the player has to navigate carefully to figure out which is which because all of them are cloaking their real intentions behind righteous-sounding lies.

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In regards to Black Bride in particular, during BFA they were going to bring her back… as the warden holding Baine and we would have to kill her.

Horde playerbase was not happy about that so they replaced her with a different character.

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Gorgonna is a filthy traitor who should be executed since she chose peace over justice.

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I am still upset that we never see nor hear of any Twilight Dragons in Dragonflight. I just find it interesting that we had a group of dragons that, for the most part, did not ask to become what they are. It was forced upon them and you could’ve got from drama from that. Even more so with some of their quotes in BFA during Island Expeditions. Also getting a section in the Dragonflight Codex and Blizzard continuing with Schrödinger’s Goriona (is she dead? is she alive? who knows?) adds insult to injury. Along with the twilight hammer cameo.

Although with Goriona flying west when she fled the Skyfire, I wonder if she flew into the Storming Sea and is on the other side of it. A book mentioning it says a Green Dragon flew due west from the Dragon Isles and was never seen again.

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High executor Anselm led the forsaken military as a warrior and not a mage or rogue or alchemist. He was completely unique amongst the forsaken, and told the vampire boys to sit and spin.

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Nathanos for sure. Dude grew on me. I was super mad when Tyrande killed him. We need more snarky characters not less.

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I was annoyed that Tyrande of all people got to kill him, instead of a Horde character.

Giving validation to Tyrande’s hate for the Horde and primping her up as a hero or justifying her racism against anyone she cares to – It just rubs me the wrong way.

:joy: Would’ve loved Tyrande to be like “He’s mine!” — only for Lor’themar or someone relevant towards the Horde to just sweep in and take it, lol

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Thats such a weird point.

Tyrande had more reason to kill any horde member during BFa/shadowlands than any other character in either faction.

It is also the only time we’re allowed to see the night warrior being powerful and taking a win, so it is my favorite momment.

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As a Dark Iron enthusiast, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention High Justice Grimstone and the Cult of Ragnaros. For as much fire and brimstone we faced at the end of Dragonflight, it was a shame he didn’t make some kind of appearance.

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It’s realllllly weird how much they ignored twilights hammer and other elemental lords in general this expansion.

They should have brought back twilights hammer, and they should have reduced the number of vulpera in the enemy faction also cause that was stupid. Why do wanderers from the desert care enough about world politics to become primalists? Lol

It should have been twilights hammer instead of primalists, but could have incorporated some of the same ideas. And they could have just specified the TH are once again just following strong and ancient deities blindly so there’s no confusion that old gods aren’t super deeply involved in DF lol

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Incorrect.
Sylvanas canonically did more damage to the Horde than she did Teldrassil.
Go read Ogmott’s Dream Journal, then read the events of Legion / BFA / Shadowlands with a new lense.

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Nazgrel. He was just cool in War3 and I became a fan. He needs more love.

I would also like to see the Horde Grimtotem get some attention with Jevan at least being included in the game.

I’m not a fan, but I think Thalen Songweaver should return. He’s just been MIA since War Crimes.

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These two right here; the Defias and the Grimtotem are definitely my 2 favorite groups whose quests I always enjoy encountering whenever they pop up in the game. Honorable mention to the Scarlet Crusade.

As a mostly battleground PvP’er through the years it’d also be cool to see more of the Warsong Outriders/Silverwing Sentinels.

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Sira Moonwarden.
Probably one of my favorite examples of night elven culture integrating into the horde through the forsaken, And if blizzard ever gets back into the faction conflict drama, I would love to see the darkwardens become prominent on the horde side as their own independent arbiters and vengeance seekers.

The scourge and the scarlet crusade:
After we have effectively learned that they are in their warring kingdoms arc post shadowlands, I would have loved to see a revival of this conflict that doesn’t involve in the complete and total lobotomization of the crusade as blizzard is desperate to write as well as an expansion of the lordaeron conflict in general.

The Drust:
The most disgustingly fumbled faction ever handled by blizzard. An opportunity to implement the true blue cruelty of celtic druidism through wicker man sacrifices and dark magic in contrast to the emerald flavour of druidism, in the eternal cycle of spring and summer versus autumn and winter in a pseudo fae court fashion.

They really should have been a lot more prominent than they were and a sort of third faction dynamic against the nightmare and the dream dedicated solely upon the cycle of nature and inevitability.

EDIT: We also still basically know nothing about the wardens. What even is an avatar of vengeance? What are shadow orbs and why do they come in different variety?

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It is apparently gifts of elune, at least Maiev’s blink is, I assume the rest as well?

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