If you’re looking for an Alliance villain the truth is that it’s Alleria that is showing signs of being set up for some kind of antagonistic role. In Exploring Azeroth, Shaw mentions that Alleria is absolutely 100% convinced that Quel’thalas will rejoin the Alliance and he worries that the basis for that belief isn’t rational.
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Maybe the common denominator here is X’era since she had a hand in shaping the Lightbound, and she wanted to turn both Illidan and Alleria to the Light against their will. X’era could easily be in hindsight a villain. The Light could hypothetically align with Order since we have seen Titans wield the Light. The problem with Order and Justice as forces in the universe, is that they can be twisted into something unjust, just like we saw with Uther in his afterlives cinematic. “This is Justice!” no it’s vengeance.
Elune is another facet of this, it’s clear that she’s a Light being who possibly created X’era and yet she has a dark form, and that darker form is the spirit of Vengence, or Wrath.
I think these two themes will tie in together in Shadowlands as they explore both Uther and Tyrande’s arcs.
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Which other characters reported to Xe’ra?
Also, during the cutscene when Xe’ra died, we got a focus on Turalyon’s-and only Turalyon’s- face specifically showing us how the golden shine of his eyes faded with her death. That’s the story specifically telling you that he had a notable connection with her that they didn’t bother illustrating with any other character.
The only other character shown so far with nearly as much connection to Xe’ra is Yrel.
And WoW making references to popular culture doesn’t invalidate the fact that the Brotherood is actively fomenting the removal of Anduin or the fact that Turalyon currently sits on the throne. It’s debatable whether this is even a reference to Facebook, as opposed to the the phenomenon of religious/political groups distributing pamphlets in an effort to delegitimize their targets that was all the rage in 1600’s Europe.
Turalyon listening to Xe’ra as she tells him to carry on the fight against X (as he did for 1k years), being okay with forcibly rebirthing people with the Light if it’s for the greater good (Illidan in Legion), okaying the torture of civilians (Shadows Rising), and wanting to defeat the Horde (BfA) are all suitable traits that would allow him to serve as an antagonist.
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Xe’ra absolutely is the single common denominator here. She’s using the fact that she’s a Naaru and a being of the Light to exploit the faith of followers of the Light in order to further her own greater agenda.
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Pretty much everyone in the Army of the Light? By your standards apparently an entire playable race will become PvE villains?
The Scarlet Brotherhood didn’t even mention Turalyon. They mentioned some supposed Menethil heir that they have that we know is fake anyway because Calia herself contradicted it.
Against what? The Legion? That’s a villainous action now?
Xe’ra did that on her own, not Turalyon. He was angry afterward because Illidan had killed Xe’ra, not because he refused her.
He wasn’t okay with it, but he did allow it to happen. This is more a mark in favor of Alleria becoming an antagonist.
lol this makes him the opposite of a villain.
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I mean, they practically did that to an entire faction twice now, so I wouldn’t put the possibility past Blizzard if they really wanted to. 
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Who? Because we’re never shown who they are.
You’re throwing away connections and lore that WoW has already established between Turalyion and Xe’ra in order to play up some random nameless character that has never been shown, mentioned in lore or been relevant to the story.
They don’t mention him, but they do actively want to overthrow Anduin and if Light champion Turalyon goes down the path of zealot, siding with him is definitely within their previously established characterization.
I didn’t say villain. I said antagonist.
Aiding and abetting the villainous actions of a villain in the form of Xe’ra and antagonsistic characters like Alleria and potentially endangering greater Azeroth definitely does make him an antagonist, though. And it does put him in the wrong. And if he doesn’t stop, he will have to be stopped. And it’s all in keeping with his previous characterizations and lore.
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No, I’m pointing out that those connections are extremely specious and only lead to “Turalyon is a zealot/antagonist” if you work backwards from that premise. Which is what you’re doing.
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Xe’ra’s death caused a literal shift in Turalyon’s physical appearance and he’s been shown repeatedly to support/aid people doing bad stuff in pursuit of some greater good. It’s not specious at all. It’s based on stuff that’s actually happened in the story.
The story’s provided no more viable candidate to act as Xe’ra’s chief agent on Azeroth without making up new characters we’ve never seen or heard of before.
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I think that you just desperately want to beat up Alliance characters and are grasping at whatever you think might let you do that.
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Well this is what happens with the Orcs.
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If by “grasping at whatever”, you mean actually following events and lore and not-all-that uncommon story telling conventions. Notice I’m not suggesting any other Alliance characters in this scenario. In fact, I’m pretty sure that characters like Anduin and Velen will be against all these shennanigans from the start in order to keep them and the larger Light unblemished.
And even then, I have no doubt that at some point, Blizzard will have Turalyon “come to his senses” and end up allying with us against Xe’ra and ultimately foiling her plot.
Trust me, if I were really so petty as to want to just want to “beat up Alliance character” I wouldn’t pick Yrel; who was never actually a member of the Alliance, or Turalyon; who’s been absent from the franchise for over 20 years.
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And Forsaken.
And Trolls.
And Goblins were getting it pretty bad too thanks to everyone assuming every Goblin was like Gallywix/Venture Co and not like Gazlowe/Noggenfoger/Revilgaz/Silversnap/B.O.O.M./Steamwheedle Cartel.
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Bro… you’re right but you didn’t have to say it
I was pointing out that even Terry Pratchett used black and white morality to great effect in his stories, I was not assuming or suggesting anything about the authors’ worldviews or religious beliefs (on that note, I know Stephen King is a moderate Methodist who doesn’t like organized religion).
When did that cutoff happen? If I recall correctly, it was more that the Orcs started ingesting Fel, which hurt the elemental spirits, hence they washed their hands of the Orcs for a time.
That does remind me, elemental spirits shamans draw on are all over the moral spectrum. For example, the fire elementals were formerly led by pro-Old-God “burn them all” Ragnaros, but his successor Smolderon is quite the moderate, and the breakers on AU Draenor didn’t seem to care who got caught in the crossfire.
But what is Xe’ra’s greater agenda? Destroy the Burning Legion and unite the universe are hardly bad goals in and of themselves.
The Elements cut themselves off from the Orcs when Gul’dan was revealed to be allied with the guy impersonating Rulkan!
Gul’dan when infecting the Throne of the Elements with Fel threw Elements in disarray causing droughts, floods, snowstorms and heavy rain according to Chronicle Vol.2 so the Elements were quite displeased when they found out the one responsible was behind the Horde’s War with the Draenei
Thank you for sharing that.
I think it sounds less like the elemental spirits cutting the Orcs off for moral reasons and more they cut the Orcs off because the elemental spirits were also negatively effected. Having said that, it still makes sense.
Apparently Turalyon pretty much sorted his stuff out and came to realise that Xe’ra was whack.
He apparently told Andy win that priests and Paladins should be guided by the light but should not blindly following it.
stuff from the “Before the Storm” book
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