Clears up a lot of things that weren’t represented in the game, story wise. Should they be? Absolutely. Blizzard has done a shabby job of really representing some amazing moments in WoW lore in the game.
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Absolutely! I’ve read it and it puts a saner perspective on why Teldrassil was burnt down. It wasn’t because she had her feelings hurt by Delaryn but because Saurfang spared Malfurion and the intended wound she wanted to inflict on the Alliance would not be deep enough to ensure a future for the Horde.
The impression I got from reading that novella, and what confirmed my understanding about Sylvanas, is that she is intelligent, perhaps dangerously so, and has a good grasp of strategic warfare.
I’m not saying the destruction of Teldrassil was right or even necessary. It was simply all she had left as she realized things were starting to come apart.
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Her plan was really good until she decided to burn the tree rather than holding it: I get that Malfurion was not eliminated but in the long run, her plan would have worked because the worgens would not have supported the NE retaking their city without them fighting internally the Alliance.
Her decision to burn the tree was emotional rather than tactical, in fact, if you go by the novel alone, it looks tactical although a bit off until the moment you see the conversation between the agonizing NE and Sylvannas.
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No thanks
Im not shelling out more money for content that should be ingame or free download.
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Blizzard needs to stop progressing the story outside of the game. Cairne’s death should’ve been done in game as well as just about every other thing in the books.
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Why should the game story be diced up and dispensed in a book when any capable story teller should be able to get the information across in the game? Games have been doing this and doing it well for decades so please don’t give me the book makes more sense gimmick.
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A Good War is a free PDF download from Blizz https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/story/short-story/a-good-war
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yeah, but in the plan malfurion was alive to pressure anduin
What happens when Genn
Greymane, Malfurion Stormrage, and Tyrande Whisperwind all demand differing actions? He is not a high
king like his father. The respect the others give him is a courtesy, not an obligation.
so at best killing malfurion was a perk if it could be achieved, but not the main goal
the main goal was to create a situation in which the different leaders would demand different actions from anduin. occupying teldrassil was supposed to be a wedge, not a wound
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It’s important to realize that Sylvanas wanted Malfurion dead to break the spirit of the Night Elves. Now that he’s alive, the Night Elves would fight and continue fighting because in his survival, there was hope in the form of a leader.
Let’s assume a scenario where the Horde could successfully maintain an occupation of Night Elf territory. Even if they did, the Night Elves would make the Horde bleed for every square kilometre of territory held. There would be raids on Horde supply lines, guerilla style attacks on bases and depots. Sylvanas already committed and lost a chunk of Horde forces for the invasion. She could not afford to lose any more. She went for the last card in her deck and that card was the “Burn it” order.
Of course, all did not go quite according to plan in the end. Undercity is lost, and the Alliance is sending every soldier it has to fight. Having said this, the best line of the story sums up the decision to burn the Tree:
“He [Saurfang] wanted to kill her. He wanted to declare mak’gora and spill her blood in front of Horde and Alliance alike. But she was right… Once again, Sylvanas had seen it before he had.”
Saurfang understood Sylvanas’s decision to burn the World Tree was in the end the only option, even if it means the Alliance and the Horde are now going to be at each other’s throats bigtime.
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not really, as if you look at the post above yours there is a quote of sylvanas talking about tyrande, malfurion and greymane demanding different actions if they occupy the tree.
Fair point. I used the term wound as Sylvanas described it in the following passage of the novella:
““If you want your enemy to bleed to death, you inflict a wound that cannot heal. That is why I need you to make the plan, High Overlord,” Sylvanas said. “The moment our strike begins, there will be no turning back. We can divide the Alliance only if the war to conquer Darnassus does not unite them against us. That only happens if the Horde wins an honorable victory, and I am not blind—the Horde does not trust me to wage war that way.””
so in other words she screwed up and united the alliance against her by burning the tree. by burning the tree the plan to break apart the alliance failed
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Agreed, but I was speaking from the perspective of the Night Elves as freedom fighters. Of course having the tree occupied was the intention to keep the Alliance in contortions. The dialogue between Anduin and Tyrande in the cinematic is proof of your point. Having said this, Sylvanas understood the Night Elf heart and wanted that heart to be demoralized. Now we have a situation where not only Malfurion is alive, Tyrande has gone Ghost Rider with the Night Warrior transformation. The Night Elves are going to be a formidable resistance now.
See my problem with this is they have a platform to tell major ingame events…in game. I never read the book where Magni turned to diamond and didn’t even know he had turned to diamond until like 2 years later.
I’m tired of “well they clarify this if you just read X book which costs Y money.”
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Thank you for posting this. I’ve been meaning to do the same for some time. I hate when people say the night elves are nearly extinct. The tree was mostly evacuated when Sylvanas burned it. And most of the Undercity was evacuated when the Alliance got there. I agree that maybe more should have been expressed within the game, but there is a lot of detail conveyed much better in the novella.
not only that but they are also getting aid from the gilnean worgen as well
There’s no question the plan backfired and I never stated the plan worked. I was describing where Sylvanas came from when the order to burn the Tree was given. It was not all emotionally driven, though learning Saurfang did not bring her the head of Malfurion probably did not help her mood one bit.
It costs nothing.
It costs nothing to buy a book? I think there’s a word for that.
Absolutely. Everything has come completely undone now but it’s not all bad just for the Horde. As Genn himself said to Anduin, “That’s the last of the soldiers. We’ll be sending farmers next”. The Alliance does not have the military means to beat the Horde back, and Anduin even admits this to Saurfang. That’s why Anduin let Saurfang go.