Some of the living obviously don’t see it that way. To them, the forsaken are an abomination and the last remnants of the scourge within lordaeron.
Gilneas I especially understand why they were so hostile to the forsaken when Genn was king. Things could change under his daughter though
I know I’m ramping up the Horde stuff but honestly I would love an attempt to retake Lorderon with violence vs us being all Koombayah about it, and then of course the alliance helps the horde against the actually evil people pushing the violence, leading to UC being cross faction. Honestly I just want Horde to have access to Iron Forge as some type of compensation. I can’t think of any reason for it, IF is just so comfy and is the equivalent to UC in design it feels like.
That would depend on location. For example, Southshore was not inhabited. So, the Alliance reclaiming it could not be described as displacing anyone. There are also large swaths (as in most of) of territory in the plaguelands that are not even controlled by the Forsaken, let alone populated by them.
Remember, the Forsaken do not exactly have a large population. The entire population abandoned Trisfal and Undercity during BfA and there was no indication it was a big population move. All the evidence we have suggest that even the territories they do inhabit are only sparsely inhabited. And they aren’t really growing.
There is lots of room for Blizzard to portray other population groups moving into former Lordaeron controlled territories that will not displace any Forsaken. And lots of areas that wouldn’t even be Forsaken territories.
There is a very real possibility at some time in the future that we have Alliance settlements in Western plaguelands across from Forsaken ones similar to what is happening in Arathi.
I would love to see the gilneans take back and reinforce some of their holdings that got left behind when the wall went up
Not to retred the whole ‘how do the Forsaken continue to repopulate themselves’ question but casual reminder that we spent 2 years in Maldraxxus where they have not only perfected necromancy but effectively own the entire school and there was not a single Forsaken appearance, even if just to learn how to better keep themselves from falling apart.
And a good chunk of people living in Stormwind are survivors of Lordaeron. In fact the current leader is from Lordaeron. They have as much right to Lordaeron as the Forsaken.
Okay, but there is a key difference here. The surviving Lordaeronians don’t have land in the city or around it. Meanwhile Hammerfall has been claimed, and occupied, Horde land for many years.
Easy fix.
The Horde lost the Fourth War in Arathi.
That only means the Alliance successfully defended Stromgarde, not that everytbing the Horde owned was destroyed.
In fact we know the very opposite.
And things change. As shown by events in Quel’thalas the high elves/their decendants are returning to the city. Right now Blizz is still dithering on whether they want to continue the faction war or we end up in anew age of peace between the factions.
Lets see how Midnight resolves that story. But with the addition of a housing system, maybe Blizzard will let people have their home whereever they want.
We know now.
In Shadows Rising we meet Horde refugees making their way out of the Arathi Highlands, which might well have indicated that their holdings there were not so intact anymore.
Those refugees could have also been fleeing any renewed conflict going on at the time.
It was pretty vague on the reason they were fleeing to begin with
They were Horde in the aftermath of the Fourth War in the middle of the Arathi Highlands, somewhere north of Faldir’s Cove. They were civilian and homeless and Hammerfall, as well as Gor’shek Farms, are the only places in Arathi with Horde civilians.
Them being Horde there in the aftermath of the Alliance’s victory is enough reason for them to flee.
I am not going to go into the whole ‘Forsaken didn’t get enough attention in SL’ because that is just a waste of time tangent discussion. And I think we can both agree it wont go anywhere good. Instead, let’s look at the current situation and the future.
Let’s assume that the Forsaken can raise more, reliably and reasonably easily. That is a logical assumption. Between their own research, what they learned from the Valkyr, and what they would have learned in Shadowlands we can reasonably assume they would have that particular problem at least mostly resolved.
Thing is, that was not the only thing limiting their population growth.
The biggest issue:
They also need a supply of willing corpses. Raising people who did not want to be raised would just cause them more problems. It would cause splinters among them, rebellions, rage, etc. The only reason the scourge could grow like it did was because the raised were mind controlled, they had no choice. That is not something Forsaken can, or will, do. Leaving the only supply of new recruits to be those that choose to become Forsaken. While there will be some, there wont be a ton. Not enough to significantly increase the population.
I think the best way to think of the Forsaken replenishment is that it is around the attrition level.
There would be some who feared death so much they would choose to become undead, though the concrete knowledge of the afterlife would limit the number that would feel that way. And there would be some who would choose to be raised so they could continue fighting for the word. But on the flip side, there would be Forsaken just destroyed in one battle or another. Also there would be some Forsaken who just decide they are done and no longer want the pain of their existence. Those likely are at least close to balancing.
Couple that with the low population they are starting with and their population will never be very large.
Intact? No. Destroyed? Also no.
It is safe to say the Horde lost ground and ended up in a weaker/worse position post 4th war than they were before it. But that doesn’t mean completely wiped out.
Some amount of refugees fleeing does not equal the entire population fled.
Jaina’s probably too old to give him an heir at this point, or nearly so.
For the realm of death the Forsaken, excluding Sylvanas which was the catalyst for the whole terrible story and one prior, objectively did not have enough attention. But yes, wouldn’t be particularly useful other than stating the wasted potential.
Of course a fan theory/suggestion was for the Forsaken to recruit and absorb less cackling evil Scourge remnants, given that is exactly what they are.
There is that opportunity as well for the willing who fear death, and I dont think our knowledge of the afterlife is so well established that people know the concrete details of it. The every day person probably knows rumors, and even the most knowledge only have about 2 years experience/research to draw conclusions off of. They may know they may get involuntarily separated from their loved ones in death and transformed into some new bodily horror and that isnt something I’d call comforting. Would you like to A: me mind wiped and smurffed, B: basically turned into Forsaken and fight forever, C: deal with Lady Moonberry, D: be tortured for an indeterminate amount of time, or E: experience lava eel vore?
Still, we do see this with Zelling and I think if we bring back that route its a complete possibility. Now recruitment and advertisement might be difficult. However, in the context of the new story Im sure there are still plenty of Syndicate lying low who’d die for the chance to join the Defilers and keep being a thorn in the side of the merciless kingdom.
So as always, the opportunity is there but will it be used is yet to be seen.
Rehabilitating the Scourge into Forsaken, however slowly, is such a blatant solution to the population quandary that I can’t wrap my head around why it isn’t happening.
Because it was only a couple of expansions ago that Blizzard began thinking of the Forsaken as anything other than an easy source of conflict.
So, Horde finally had a win against the Alliance. Gladly this will not be retconned, thanks to Metzen.
The Heartlands story makes sense about the presence of Mag’har and Geya’rah in Khaz’algar.
As both Horde and Alliance first met in Boralus, we get to know the different participants:
Alliance:
Horde:
Some new information is given to us, which is pretty interesting.
Oh yeah, the win for the Horde?
Basically, Marran Trollbane is a bigot racist that wants to purge the Orcs out of Arathi Highlands, she is even conscripting children for that.
The Mag’har and the Kor’kron outnumbered drastically the Stromic army + 7th legion and yet Marran send them to their deaths. Wasn’t for Geya’rah wisdom, they would’ve been all killed.
Thanks to Geya’rah many lives were saved, and the future for Arathi Highlands is to be shared between the Stromic people and the Mag’har.
Marran ends up arrested. Her spymaster (that wounded both Thrall and Jaina) is still at large.
Geya’rah is on a good path to become the Horde’s leader in the future.
Oh no they dont! If Shandris doesnt end up with Jarod I am rioting!