Narratively - What do you want for the Alliance?

Lore Story Forum
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I see a lot of Horde players upset with the story — and honestly, rightfully so — However, that’s not to say the Alliance doesn’t have its own narrative issues either.

Overall, I tend to witness a lot of Alliance players bored with their faction too.

Personally?

I feel from a writing perspective, the Alliance needs more inner-conflict as a powder keg to spice things up. Not too much, or too repetitively to the extent they receive the Horde’s problem — but enough to just get the pot stirring.

Apart from that, getting cultural development and variety amongst their civilisations of each playable race would be AMAZING too — ones that thematically make sense with their lore of cause, especially-so NOT to take away from the other races that hold themes of various cultures one may hijack — but nonetheless, building on the ones we have would be awesome.

:grin: There’s a LOT of potential too!

We have:

The humans

Aside from the humans of the southern Eastern Kingdoms, we also have Kul’tirans and Gilneas. Personally, I think these should NOT be all intermixed EVERYWHERE all the time, since they would lose their individual appeals — but having one area where they ARE wouldn’t hurt — and a few singular settlements spread out of each would make it feel like the humans civilisations are finally recovering after all these years.

The Night Elves

:open_hands: Now I know, I know “Maaaaan, those Bloody Nelfs have had enough man!!” and to an extent I know, I know — I agree … However, aside from the slogs of content we’ve received around them over the years, there’s MUCH more potential that’s been untapped.

The Night Elves overall → From Cataclysm, we’ve had the HIGHBORNE rejoin their society and share their resources (Why / How they got playable mages). It’d be interesting to see apart from the obsessive tree-huggers amongst the Nelfs, they get some of the ancient civilisation ruins restored and have some themes & architectures of which we saw from the Well of Eternity dungeon + Eldre’Thalas fan art return.

  • While the Night Elves were still shy of magic and the arcane, do keep in mind that their humility in accepting the Highborne and magic more-so back into their society proved to be the right choice – When the magic portals saved countless lives of their people during the burning of Teldrassil.

Giving the Night Elves the aesthetic option to hold the mouse-over title ‘Highborne’ and perhaps some arcane rune customisations like the Nightborne have would be a good nod to this too, but I’m not too fussed on that compared to the above.

The Draenei

The Draenei arguably have the most potential amongst the Alliance than any other. Aside from the architecture, magical structures and great sites we saw in both Alternate Draenor and Eredath (formerly Mac’Aree) in Argus – There’s a lot of interesting designs, spiritual potential and intriguing lore to be reclaimed.

I could write several more paragraphs on them, but I’ll hold myself back as this thread’s getting large enough to the point I know there’s going to be folks calling it “AI” already. lol

Now :clap: All having been said,

Adding all this wouldn’t be for naught either.
All of this could have MOUNTAINS of content poured into it too!

We could have necromancers wanting to mass sacrifice the recovering human civilisations to restore their former glory, we could have armies of demons attack the rivival of the lost remnants of the Highborne and Draenei civilisations arising — and other occult organisations wanting to tear them down, claim their artifacts, take their power and run amuck with their ambitions.

There’s not just cultural and narrative pushes forward with the above – There’s rich content to be harnessed as well!

  • Also, I wasn’t sure whether to put this thread into the story forum or the General Discussion, but here I am.

Anyway, feel free to comment & share your thoughts, add further ideas, express your agreements or present your critical thinking process to build on the issues at large, etc :slight_smile:

Narratively – What do YOU want for the Alliance? :grin:

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There was quite a lot I used to want for the Alliance over WoW’s lifetime. Relevance, the chance to hit back at the Horde rather than constantly get beaten down into the dirt while everyone acts like nothing happened, a darker theme, etc…

Right now, though? The best thing that could happen to the Alliance, is for the Horde to actually exist again, because without the Horde there isn’t much point to the Alliance.

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This is more or less exactly the answer. The Alliance has always existed as a defensive pact against Orc aggression (and arguably beforehand against the Amani Trolls).

If we remove that threat from the table, which we have, along with the scourge and the legion, the other enemies the Alliance has mobilised against, we aren’t left with a lot.

Are they a trading block? That’s not really what warcraft is about, economics isn’t worth considering in a setting with instant global teleportation.

So we’ve got NATO in a world where Russia and China don’t exist. A defensive pact with no known aggressors. It should dissolve. Whether we want to experience that dissolution, or have it quietly have occurred in the time skip between The Last Titan and whatever comes next, that’s a good question. I trust these writers to write that kind of political drama about as much as I trust my 2 year old with a paint set, so I vote in favour of it quietly dissolving.

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Yes, the Alliance without the Horde is like Jerry without Tom. They may not like each other, but good god is life boring without them.

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No more “humans and their sidekicks” writing.

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I agree to be honest.

Although you tend to get those on the forums like … well, I won’t present names, but IYKYK — who will insistently argue against the Horde more-or-less so much as existing and although they deny it, their words seem to present the case for the Horde to merely fade into ultimate shame & irrelevance …

So, to present an olive branch → I tried to veer away from that topic at large :face_exhaling: But sometimes, when a problem is just simply large enough – and obvious enough – it’s not really something that can be neglected or ignored, eh? :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

  • I suppose the Horde’s restoration would be phase 1 and the Alliance’s bonus narratives would be phase 2 – But with the treatment of Blood Elves having their literal identity as ‘BLOOD ELVES’ obnoxiously virtue signaled, shamed & ultimately erased @ the Dawnwell narrative with Liadrin’s speech, along with validating those who treated them like scum for changing their name? … I’m not holding my breath for the 1st.

So ultimately?

:person_shrugging: I figured the Horde’s dead.

Blizzard gleefully blew their brains out, pissed on the corpse, squatted out a turd on their face, lit it on fire — Then moved to the Horde’s individual races and seemed to be doing the same there.

I could honestly NOT give a F#!% about the Horde anymore.
There’s no pride left. No valor. No hype. No individualised awe.
It’s just all pathetic cucked dog$#!% now. Lmao

I don’t really see a path of redemption for the Blood Elf identity and as for the rest of the Horde’s? I’m not really holding my breath for if they’ve done this to the most popular played race on the faction, soooo … Yeah.

Players voices over the pass decade have been ignored and trashed upon for the Horde, so I’m starting to just give up on their story. Hence why I mostly fixated on the other non-faction conflict narratives for the Alliance.

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Unfortunately, you’re right. The problem of the Horde not existing as anything more than set-dressing is the main issue. Don’t get me wrong, the Alliance absolutely could’ve stood to be more developed in terms of its individual nations and cultures. That’s in the past though. Right now, the Alliance may as well not exist, because the Horde doesn’t exist. Without one, the other loses its meaning.

I don’t see a path of redemption for retail at all at this point. From Dragonflight they’ve more or less doubled-down on the factions being nothing but a cameo.

In my opinion, it constantly circles around back to Teldrassil. Nothing did more to kill the Horde than that. There’s just no writing around it. At least, not in a good way. It might’ve been the Night Elves that suffered a genocide, but it was the Horde that died that day.

For retail, I don’t see a way to fix any of this. I’m keeping an eye on Classic+, if it happens, because at least there’s a chance for things to turn out differently. Teldrassil won’t have been burned. Vol’jin and Cairne will still be alive. Thrall won’t have been ruined by the World Shaman/Depowering nonsense, Sylvanas won’t have been ruined by the Shadowlands, heck, even Garrosh would be available again.

Best of all? Kael’thas. A Classic+ could theoretically give us a Kael’thas whom did NOT sell his people out to the Burning Legion for power. We could get back the prince who’s only concern was the welfare of his people. We could see the Blood Elves AS Blood Elves again, apologetically sating their addiction by any means necessary, morals be damned.

That’s the only way I see the factions/races fixed. A reboot, another timeline, whatever you want to call it.

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The Alliance IS NOT NATO. If anything it is more like the EU, an organization that has free movement of good and people and have defensive agreements in place.

As for the topic at hand, the Alliance DOES NOT need the Horde to continue to exist as shown by its weaker state in pre-Warcraft 2. But this newer version I think could easily surpass the older version.

I have said it before and will continue to say it. The Alliance is and will likely be the Overwatch of WoW. A shining beacon of hope and who’s goal is to bring order and justice to an unjust world.

And for as long as WoW exist, new enemies will find a way to threaten Azeroth and its people. The Alliance will be on the front line of that ready to beat back any enemy with indiscriminate justice!

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Thing is, I even had a popular thread about warning & cautioning against the Dawnwell narrative.

:pensive: And it was greenlit anyway.

Wouldn’t had been hard for Blizzard to veer away from that, but I’m guessing their pride & arrogance got the better of them, at the cost of good writing.

Anyway yeah, I don’t see much redemption for retail at this point.

Maybe for Iridikron and the Primalists … I’d totally join them if I could - Dragon faction with primal elemental & spiritual powers that actually holds unapologetic macho and aura!? Heck yeah, count me tf in. :joy:

An interesting narrative for a Classic + would be to have a reveal that Kael’Thas was a Dreadlord posing as him, where the real Kael’Thas is locked away with magical devices powering a mind-prism that gives the Dreadlord access to his knowledge, power and appearance.

That way we could still have:

  • Tempest Keep raid
  • The Blood Elf splinter factions
  • and the Magisters Terrace

Followed by perhaps another instance where we rescue the TRUE Kael’thas, who’s kept prisoner by the Legion.

… But something tells me they won’t go that direction. lol

Overall?

It pains me to admit it, but I’m starting to agree with those who say the story has gone “woke” in the sense of insatiably INSISTENT democratized writing.

People can disagree with that, that’s perfectly fine, each to their own — but from most I’ve spoken with, regardless of their political preferences – Many of both sides tend to feel the same way too now. :person_shrugging:

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a trogg - human love story that develops the race as misunderstood/redeemable.

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No.

The Alliance isn’t 12 dudes with guns. Also, god no let’s not use Overwatch as inspiration for anything.

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Gross … That’s such a BORING concept & outcome. lol

That sort of writing is part of what’s killed WoW with it being overdone in such cliche, predictable and overly democratized ways.

The many great and admired story concepts have been overhauled & left a dismantled abomination with such ideological applications.

It’s TOO neat and tidy.
There’s little to no conflict — which is what drives good stories forward.

You WANT the narratives of various orders, factions, characters and overall people to have faults. To have conflict. To have nuance … To have the strive to improve, find common ground, overcome adversities – even if it’s destroying the former common ground to achieve the greater goals, to ultimately revolutionalise not just one idea — but MANY.

And that is what the Alliance lacks.

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…did you really thing Overwatch doesnt have conflict? Like Overwatch just lost its main base and finally is on the backline.

Various characters still have major beef with one another, but the line between good and evil is pretty deleniated and the players are suppose to cheer when Overwatch wins. In the same vein the Alliance has gotten a good chunk of being the heroic force in WoW and the Horde literally had to become Horde because its more antagonistic version is long term been nothing but narrative poison to WoW.

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For Stormwind I want Anduin to return to the throne, Duskwood and Westfall healed, and Anduin’s sword getting a sheath.

For Lordaeron I want the Eastweald restored and a plotline about Calia redeeming the Scarlet Crusade.

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It’s not Woke. Doesn’t even qualify to be called woke. People use that word as a catchall term for anything they don’t like while being unable to coherently explain why they consider it woke to begin to with

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Ideally I’d like to see the humans/Stormwind take a backfoot to Alliance storytelling - and to the extent they are involved, I want them to play a supporting role to non-human interests.

Remember that line from Anduin in BfA about them resorting to conscripting farmers? Play into that. Have Stormwind exist as a setpiece, but be as weak as ever before and deal with human drama/politicking its withered state. Does it send forces to air the Night Elves in Feralas or Darkshore, or protect their remaining territories outside of their immidiate borders of Elwynn Forest, Darkshire, and (potentially, if it’s even still canonically not wiped out) Lakeshire. How far will Stormwind’s commitment to the Alliance stretch, even at the expense of human interests?

Regarding the Dwarves —- play into the idea that Ironforge has supplanted Stormwind as the dominant member state of the Alliance. They and the Draenei seem like the most populous - so why aren’t they leading the Alliance, either directly or as a soft power?

What’s happening with Azuremyst, or the Exodar 2? Where do the Draenei go from here, and what will happen to them god forbid Velen were to pass(assuming that awful comic isn’t canon). Where’s Yrel? What of AU Draenor?

And regarding the Nelves - how are they dealing with the fact that their Goddess basically sacrificed them as a food source for her sister’s domain? Are they still blindly obedient to Elune? Are there justifiable uproars of antitheism? What’s happened to them culturally since Shadowlands / Dragonflight - and how do they feel about Malf/Tyrande? What, if any, progress has been made with Teldrassil, Darkshore and Ashenvale’s restoration? Is Felwood still a dungheap?

And regarding the gnomes - why in the Titans’ name isn’t Gnomeregan reclaimed already?!

I’m fine with any story as long as it’s non-human focused. The only human I care about is Admiral Taylor. My interest with the race will remain when Blizzard resurrects him as a deathknight or binds his soul to a Titan-forged golem. Or whatever. I don’t care about the Wrynns outside of my shipping of Baineduin.

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Same thing i want for horde, differen,t writing team that gives a damm abotu the setting at all

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LOOK its zerde no one should EVER respond to him

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  1. Removing the title of High King and giving power to a newly created council. Yes, I know everyone is tired of councils, but Allaince should have had one from the start.
  2. Ironforge gain political advantage over Stromwind
  3. Stop sacrificing Alliance Aesthetics and npc for neutral content.
  4. More agressive Night elves on Kalimdor.
  5. A greater presence of the Priestesses of Elune in internal politics. More moon worshippers among the Alliance races.
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Rebuilt Eldre’Thalas so that Highborne Arcana Mastery can once again be truly showcased in-game.

Bel’ameth just isn’t cutting the mustard, despite the increased Shen’dralar presence.

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