Revisiting Azeroth: NW Eastern Kingdoms

Lore Story Forum
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Late-ish comment.

A random observation. The story that blizz supposedly attempts to tell is about “cycle of hatred is bad-bad”. Leaving aside how useful attept to tell such story for the faction-based game, and how it reinforces the idea that “faction are the core of the game” (© Ion), this is why it IMO can’t work out.

If for the night elves the story tells that that should forgive the murderers, same message should be consistent across the board.

When Xandria wanted vengeance, that should’ve played in favor of the Jailer’s allies.

When fungarians wanted revenge, that should’ve ended with futility of the effort with even more of them being captured.

So, if the story is about “cycle of hatred bad bad”, if the elves have to forgive their murderers, same should happen to those murderers: to face the choice, to forgive their enemies, or suffer even worse consequences.

Having in the same game “vengeance is fine unless it’s against the dev favourites” would be inline with the overall morally bankrupt narrative we have in WoW, but might just contribute with more people stopping caring about the game. Some vocal negativity first, and further decline next.

gl hf

2 Likes
103

Blizzard just uses the ‘vengeance is bad’ narrative to cut short stories they aren’t interested in advancing. Under normal circumstances, they’re all-in on vengeance. But they didn’t want to develop the kaldorei story post-8.1, so they’ve hamfisted in their forgiveness narrative as a way of forcing everyone to ‘move on’.

This, coupled with their insistence that the Alliance never throw the first stone in any significant way, means the Alliance never gets retribution, because Blizzard always tires of their war stories after a handful of patches.

5 Likes
104

I am in the process of submitting a resume to Blizzard. Part of the resume is an overview of patch one for a mock 10.x expansion. It begins a process of a more Azeroth-centric focus beginning with the Eastern Kingdoms and Outlands. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Setting

Post SL, patch 10.X

Postulations

  • Turalyon is willingly or unwittingly a pawn of The Light.

  • Turalyon, as Regent of Stormwind moves to reclaim (or has already by the time players return from SL) Gilneas and Lordaeron. Solidifies the remaining 6 of 7 Kingdoms that made up the original kingdom of Arathor: Lordaeron, Stormwind, Kul Tiras, Stromgarde, Alterac, Gilneas.

  • Yrel, also a pawn of The Light driven by vengeance and her zealous devotion to it, leads her Army of Light through a new portal opened by the Naaru from Outlands to Azeroth on a “crusade” to help Turalyon drive its enemies from Azeroth - The Scourge, Forsaken, fel demons, void beings, and orcs.

  • Yrel, and to a lesser degree Turalyon, holds a fanatical grudge against Illidan and the Illidari for Xe’ra’s death at Illidan’s hands.

  • Turalyon purges the Scourge, Forsaken, and Scarlet Crusade from the Eastern Kingdoms. He rescues Callia Menethil’s daughter from the Scarlet Crusade and re-establishes the House of Menethil. Lordaeron becomes the new Alliance capital.

  • Tyrande withdraws the Kaldorie from the Alliance citing too few numbers and resources to sacrifice for this cause and moves them to the ruins of Zin-Azshari in Valsharah.

  • Turalyon’s “crusade” against the Forsaken coupled with Yrel’s fanatical vengeance over orcish atrocities against the Draenei of Draenor renew the Horde vs Alliance feud. Only this time it is the Alliance that is clearly the aggressor as The Light uses it as a vehicle for its own conquest of the World Soul inside Azeroth.

  • Turalyon is once again forced to choose between The Light and allegiance to his wife, Alleria the void elf. This time he chooses The Light. Alleria and the Rendorei retreat to Valsharah with the Kaldorei after enduring heavy losses to Yrel’s “purges”. Kul Tiran fleets regularly menace elven ships and ports along the Broken Isles shores seeking Rendorei and Illidari to “purge”.

  • SL expansion continues to lay groundwork for Tauren and Kaldorei to build on their shared worship of Elune and the Pantheon of Life.

Plot

Exposition: Night elves and Void elves are essentially exiled and trapped at Valsharah with limited resources with which to push back against the growing hostility of The Alliance under the control of The Light via Turalyon and Yrel.

Conflict: The Light wants to eliminate all vestiges of fel and void, thus the Illidari and the Rendorei, in order to “purify” Azeroth and conquer the World Soul. Yrel takes her crusade a step farther, wanting vengeance upon the orcs as well as anything remotely tied to fel use for the Draenei’s suffering on Draenor at the hands of orcs and the Legion.

Rising Actions: Faced with impending extinction and submission to The Light, it is revealed to Tyrande, Malfurion, and Alleria that Illidan entrusted a sect of Night Elves and High elves with safeguarding his last remaining vial of water from the Well of Eternity before exiling himself to Outlands. The location of the vial will not be revealed without Illidan’s presence. It is pointed out that Illidan is the only being that is known to single handedly both (literally, with one hand) stop Turalyon and to destroy a Naaru. The sect is adamant that he is key to defeating the Army of the Light. The plan is to summon Illidan Stormrage using 3 items players must retrieve:

  1. Calling Stone: a stone given to Kayn Sunfury and Kor’vas Bloodthorn, the de facto leaders of the Illidari before his leaving to act as Sargeras’ jailer. The stone allows for limited communication with Illidan. Currently located in an Illidari forward camp in Illidari Stand, Aszuna where Kayn and Kor’vas are preparing to launch a final assault against the last remnants of Legion holdouts.

  2. The remaining Vial of Well of Eternity is hidden underneath one of the dead Ancients of War in Ironsong Woods, Felwood.

  3. Raid: Illidan’s staff Nordris. The staff used by Illidan the mage to absorb the powers of others and channel it against his foes. Currently hidden in a secret room in the Temple of Light, formerly Black Temple, controlled by Yrel’s Army of Light in Outlands.

Acquiring each item entails a small sequential series of quests to progress towards the reward.

Once the three items are gathered, the summons is performed and Illidan returns.

Climax

Illidan returns to Azeroth just as Yrel launches an invasion of the Broken Isles Raid event. The Vial of Well of Eternity can now, after instructions from Illidan, be used via the last part of the MQ to cleanse the Temple of Elune (Tomb of Sargeras) and the Emerald Dream (new instances) unlocking powerful ancient powers and artifacts for the players to use. Once these two tasks are accomplished it will unlock other ancient elven sites around the Broken Isles (new instances/phased encounter/events) offering more rewards.

Once the raid invasion event is completed, the patch MQ comes to an end with the elven leaders discussing their next move to counter the continuing threat of Turalyon, Yrel, and Army of the Light. As a prelude to the following patch, the players will learn:

Illidan plans on using old allies of his to recruit to the war effort against the Army of Light:

  • Lady S’theno, de facto leader of the Naga on Azeroth

  • Lord Lor’themar Theron, de facto leader of the Sindorei

The Highmountain Tauren may be sympathetic to the elven plight as fellow worshippers of Elune.

2 Likes
105

Well, there is a lot to consider in the idea.

like this, since afaia the de facto leader of the naga is the leader of the naga, and she is still alive with the help of heroes of Azeroth.

Btw, should there be an option to join Yrel in the process?

gl hf

106

I have the framework for the last two patches of the mock up xpac, but have not fleshed them out yet as they aren’t required for the resume process. However, in a nutshell: during the first patch it appears Yrel and Turalyon are fighting for the survival of Azeroth. This explains why the LFD are a playable race and Alliance. The xpac ends ultimately as players realize the Army of the Light is only after the World Soul, setting the stage for 11.x introducing the Void to Azeroth to counter Lights power grab.

My personal idea is that with the second patch of 11.x players be given an option of siding with Light or Void. This is a paradigm never before seen in WoW and my belief is it would breathe new life into the dynamics of the game.

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As of 9.0 Queen Azshara is still alive, and thus still the leader of the Naga. However obviously she is distracted by chasing this mysterious “throne of power” the mentioned in her closing moments of BFA. So this leaves Lady S’theno as “regent” if you will of the Naga.

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I’m glad that at least someone recognizes that if the Alliance is going to be the aggressive villains it should translate into material gains.

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Keep in mind though that if you’re going to use Turalyon as an antagonist/villain, it’s already been established that he is a good person who genuinely believes in doing the right thing. He does not hold a grudge against the Forsaken simply for being undead, and has reconnected with his mentor, Alonsus Faol, in a reunion that brought him to tears.

He is not a zealot, which seems to be the starting assumption that everyone is using. He has very strong convictions but ever since his introduction in Tides of Darkness, he has been the member of the Knights of the Silver Hand that was the most adaptable in acknowledging if he was wrong, and changing his beliefs accordingly.

If this character is going to be an antagonist, he must be an antagonist that is different from any kind that we have ever seen in WoW. Perhaps WoW’s first Heroic Antagonist PvE threat.

Given the sort of things that the fanbase seems to desire though, I’m not sure that they would be happy with this sort of arrangement even if it were executed flawlessly.

3 Likes
110

Globally, maybe. But for horde, I think Anduin already claimed that title. And yeah, I thought it sucked even in concept and don’t think it could have been done in a way I’d enjoy.

1 Like
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I dont know. I thought Turalyon might be used as a character we would think of as a seasoned hero, but is actually more naïve than Anduin. I think fans of Turalyon are going to be very dissatisfied with the way he is portrayed in the near future, not as a villain, but as a fool.

Turalyon, having missed out on much of the plot development of Azeroth during Varian’s reign, of which Anduin Wrynn was privvy, is just out of touch on issues of morally grey. Turalyon will likely be easy to manipulate by less benevolent human/light forces.

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His actions are done under the guise of doing what it right. Not out over zealous retribution. Clearing the Forsaken from EK is not done out of retribution but simple politics. Forsaken are Horde and stand in the way of reuniting the Kingdom of Arathor.

I’m not building some over sized trope to justify it. Rather I’m just keeping things simple rather than introduce too many plot elements and watering down the lore and the game experience as was done in BFA. Now whether clearing Forsaken and Scarlet Crusade from EK means eliminating them or simply “forced relocation” is yet to be determined.

In the truest sense of the word, you are correct. But there has to be some level of zealotry for him to become a High Exarch. No personality in real world history has ever achieved a station of religious importance equal to High Exarch without some degree of zealous tendency. This much is apparent in the cut-scene where Illidan kills X’era.

Now Yrel is a zealot. And her influence would be the catalyst in pushing him over the edge. Also note, this is not to say the scenario creates an Arthas arch-type reaction in Turalyon. As the scenario progresses from patch 10.x to 10.y and beyond we could see Turalyon pull back from the edge and change direction. The main antagonist in the scenario is Yrel and the Light itself.

I never meant to imply that the Alliance are villains, although it is a matter of perspective from a lore point based on your faction of course. Only that we shift the paradigm away from Horde aggression. If we are to bring the storyline back to a more Azeroth centric setting, we need a fresh approach to the Horde vs Alliance theme to keep it viable and progressive rather than rehashing it to death.

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Precisely the plot point I am using to drive the story.

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I think Anduin has been irrevocably ruined in the eyes of the playerbase through less than stellar character development and recent writing. Varian is a beloved character and Anduin has become something of a meme. This gives strength to the push to bring back the House of Menethil and xfer leadership to a valid, lore established name and start anew.

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“This Alliance character should be manipulated into going to war against the Horde.”

Into the trash it goes. The insistence of some that Alliance leaders must be ‘tricked’ into acting on any one of their many casus belli is mind-numbing, and I am fully aware people only push this narrative to pre-emptively tarnish the Alliance’s very real justifications for war.

While I agree there should be an Alliance-driven war against the Horde, it should be lead with total clear-sightedness from its leaders. The Horde has proven itself an omnicidal, belligerent, unapologetic threat to the people of the Alliance and to Azeroth, from the First War through to the Fourth. Turalyon is more than justified in leading a righteous war against it, and to reclaim the homes of those displaced in recent wars, without being deceived by some otherwordly entity.

1 Like
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I agree wholeheartedly. This is why in the scenario above, Yrel “joins” his cause, trying to co-opt it into a crusade. The Light is not the reason for his reuniting the Kingdom Arathor, rather it hi-jacks it in order to use it as a vehicle to acquire the World Soul.

Turalyons war is not a righteous call to arms against the Horde. It’s simply an attempt to rebuild the original Alliance of Arathor. It develops in to something much bigger through the course of 10.x.

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Why would the army of the Light try to get to the world-soul when the blood elves willingly placed the naaru core into the Sunwell? It’s connected to the ley lines, so the Light influence is injected right into Azeroth.

Gl hf

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Since this cutscene played out at the end of SWP raid, nothing has been done with it. It’s undeveloped lore. We have no offical word from Blizz as to what the ramifications are of Velen having infused the Sunwell with Light. Nor do we really even know yet what the World Soul is.

This is my attempt to push the narrative to having those concepts explained/defined.

One thing we DO know… the Blood Knights, or in the very least Lady Liadrin are acutely aware of the Light. And with all this renewed interest in the Northern Kingdoms and the presence of the Light there the blood elves are definitely going to be involved in what happens given the location of Quelthelas and the Sunwell.

Remember, Quelthelas was a distant ally to the alliance of the Northern Kingdoms.

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Suspicious hiss. :imp:
I can’t figure out if this scenario offends the night elves or not? The new capital on the Ruians is the old one, but to be driven by Kul’Tiras, with the third Kul’Tiras on the sea is the best, with the fourth it will be possible to kill the rest of the Alliance with “impunity” …

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I don’t remember Varian being that beloved for most of his run. If anything, I thought more people only started to like him in the Legion intro cutscene and his death.

4 Likes
121

It was a comparative statement in relation to Anduin.