This post is part of a larger series on a building a PVP Narrative, post Shadowlands. The OPs to the following posts are considered an integral part of this thread, and must be understood for this post to make sense. I apologize for the amount of content that these entail, but the overwhelming majority of the questions I have already fielded on this topic were already answered in one of these two posts.
Writing a PVP-Narrative, post Shadowlands: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/writing-a-pvp-narrative-post-shadowlands/801368
A Proposal for Warsong Gulch:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/a-proposal-for-warsong-gulch/846078
One question that legitimately wasnât answered was âwhat broke the treaty?â. I didnât regard it as being terribly consequential, but as I thought more about the Arathi scenario, I found myself needing to answer it. So I will attempt to provide an overall political backdrop for this idea, and reference it in the Arathi thread.
The Fate of Sylvanas Windrunner
Begins to turn based on the fate of Sire Denathrius, and Anduinâs critiques of Sylvanas Windrunnerâs stated goals and ideology of free will. The more she questions the Jailerâs motives, the more we learn the Jailer himself just spun Sylvanas a series of convincing lies. When Sylvanas leapt from Icecrown in an attempt to kill herself, he personally intervened to make it look as though she was destined for the maw in order to set his plan in motion. We learn this, and we learn as well that Sylvanasâs soul was split, just like Utherâs - only instead of that soul being allowed to live out its afterlife where it was intended, the Jailer worked to bring it into the maw, into his personal possession, so that this version of Sylvanas could never reveal herself to her former self. Sylvanas is in a moment of doubting when she uncovers this secret - coming upon a small, battered bundle of anima that is all that remains of her other self. Itâs too fragile to speak or to move, and once Sylvanas and Anduin free it, itâs too weak to retain a cohesive form. There is no reconciliation between Sylvanas and her past self - that is denied to her, and she realizes first, that she was once again the fool, and second, that this same thing will happen to her.
This is her turning point, and when she starts to help Anduin and the heroes she once led like sheep to the slaughter to their deaths and eternal torment, to bring down the Jailer. Once this is done, it is decided that she should fill Sire Denathriusâs role in Revendreth. It should be, it is reasoned, that the champion of free will should work to find ways for the damned to find a second chance to exercise it.
While the worldâs leaders try to keep this information secret, that fails, and this is why the Forsaken begin to revere Sylvanas as a sort of god, and believe that Sylvanas will see their sins - to the extent that they have them - as understandable when seen in their proper context. However, very few people canonically actually went to the Shadowlands, and once the Jailer is defeated, it is also decided that mortals should be expelled from the plane of death until it is their time. Because time in the Shadowlands works differently, everyone is deposited precisely at the moment when they entered - leaving the former scourge now with wills of their own - and a political mess for the leaders to now deal with.
Tyrande, Turalyon, and the Treaty
While Tyrande doesnât intervene with Sylvanasâs redemption in order to stop the Jailer, and makes the bitter decision to prioritize her people over revenge, she still does not believe that the Horde wonât cause further suffering for her people, and she still refuses to sign the treaty, even if initially, she abides by it. The treaty provides that there is to be a phased withdrawal from Ashenvale and Lordaeron on the part of the respective occupying powers. While both of them are not technically in anyoneâs control, given that substantial pockets of resistance remained in these areas, it didnât stop both sides from trying to form permanent installations and settlements in their areas. Additionally, the Horde is still having to fight Sylvanas Loyalists, who fled to Ashenvale. The council chooses to fight to remove them from Ashenvale as a gesture of goodwill. Tyrande, Genn, and the militaristic new leader of the Draenic Triumvirate, a paladin named Strelnikov, wait until both sides are at their absolute weakest - and then they strike - arriving with a massive, well equipped force that Tyrande spent the âgoodwill periodâ building up. This attack is what Night Elven questing in Ashenvale looks like, and while Tyrande technically had no treaty to break, because the move had Worgen and Draenie support this is regarded as the opening move in the next war.
Anduin didnât really have a way to object - for two reasons. The first reason is because Tyrande stopped communicating with him. The second is because heâs on the losing end of a power struggle back home. Alleria has by this point fallen to the void, although she wonât show that until later. She has been acting as a corrupting influence on her husband, who has been convinced that the Alliance should not uphold its end of the bargain on the point of fixed withdrawal. He reasons that the Forsaken are a threat, that their populations should be scattered and where possible interned to prevent them from forming a cohesive threat to the Alliance. Whatâs really happening in the north is a genocide - one that nobles in Stormwind know about but look the other way to. Some commanders follow the internment orders to the letter - others are hunting forsaken down and exterminating them, and there are almost no objections to any of this. This is the situation that Forsaken players will quest through and seek to remedy as they seek to reform their nation, and throw back the Alliance.
Hopefully this helps to answer the question of how the conflict would even start. As always, I look forward to informed feedback.
