For one thing, we’ve never gone back to the non-threat status the Horde was between Reign of Chaos and Vanilla. Only a series of armistices where we’ve tempoarily suspended main action from each other but not abscence of “incidents.”.
There are a lot of empty holes in the Alliance narrative. Because it is an ‘Alliance’ and not supposed to be a singular entity like the Horde, and because Blizzard has a propensity to only write for a singular entity per expac, the Alliance seems to always have only one or maybe two aspects of its culture written with priority in any given expac.
In an ideal world, we would see all members of the Alliance get prominence in every expac. Not just the humans in Wrath, MoP and BfA. Not just the draenei in Legion. And even if each race couldn’t get prominence (Because yes, that is admittedly a lot to write for), we could at least have a rotation of who is important. Something that certain races are in dire need of (Dwarves, gnomes, looking at you!)
And yes, it is very ironic that the Alliance has had less changes in its central authority figure (High King) than the Horde has (Warchief) in the past 5 expacs, considering that the Warchief is supposed to be a more or less permanent institution and a High King is something that can seemingly be elected.
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Blizzard real problem with the alliance is that they focus in the most boring characters from that faction aka the lawful stupid and the most interesting one are castrated to behave according to the lawful stupid leader which is Anduin currently.
We used to have Genn, Jaina and Rogers as the war hawks of the human faction that has the numbers and backstory to push a war to put the horde in their place if is needed but nah, Golden made Jaina flip flop again, Genn is now #forsakenlivesmatters and Rogers got Me’dan, so the imaginary son of Golden can shiny as the beacon of the most good thing in all warcraft universe.
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I think the beginning of the downfall of the unique identity of the Alliance was when the Dwarves were shifted from an expansionistic imperial power to a toothless sidekick.
If Blizzard had any sense they’d have built up Ironforge to be the center of Alliance power that it naturally was in Vanilla. The Stormwind Humans have just never had any identity outside of their legions and legions of faceless soldiers. If you’re going to make one culture the main base of the Alliance, at least make it an interesting one.
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It only was because Ironforge was the only Alliance capital with an auction house. Pure merchandary capitalism. The presence of so many sellers made the place “Lagforge” and pretty much untouchable by Horde players. That’s not going to be the case now.
They’re not making that mistake in Classic. Even Darnassus has one straight from the start.
I concur. Metzen backed off of WoW after the ALP backlash and committed more focus on Project Titan, leaving Kosak with the reins. That’s where we start seeing the Night elves being slowly changed into replacement high elves.
Gotta disagree with that. Certain Alliance characters got plenty of story, the faction itself was in the backburner.
Its proximity to Blackrock Mountain, better layout, as well as the auction house made Ironforge the default capital. In lore the Dwarves are also the most stable government at the time, making them an ideal central power in the Alliance.
Yet it still does not have a anvil.
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There is little to add that hasn’t been said already. I guess, I still find it nonsensical that a nation of refugees that’s been rebuilt from literal ashes 2 decades ago in-universe someone has enough resources to be the powerhouse of the Alliance army. Dwarves are the Alliance’s personal piggy-bank but this has never ever been an issue that’s been addressed in-game or otherwise.
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Warcraft’s compressed timeline does it no favors. Stormwind is the most powerful nation on the planet despite being rebuilt literally from nothing 25-30 years ago. On top of that, SW also had to absorb refugees from literally all of the other human kingdoms during WC3.
It’s absurd when Ironforge and its infrastructure remained intact the whole time.
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It all boils down to how Blizzard has to implement that Human Potential into the game. God forbid any non-human race be able to do anything remotely impactful without the Humans help.
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I agree as a whole legion took a step back from faction but there were still events here and there. I would consider anduin meeting calia in the priest order hall an alliance centric instance for example.
The return of Turalyon and Alleria was alliance, they just couldnt start waving blue flgs around, they were in the middle of a thousand year war. They had instances talking about returning home and seeing their son.
How do you distinguish between faction story and story that is exclusive to a specific character? Were the events in stormheim gilnean and forsaken events, Genn and sylvans events, or alliance and horde events? Maybe a mix?
I can see how val’shara wasnt alliance, but night elf. It focused almost exclusively on tyrande, malfurion, xavius, maev, and jared shadowsong. Some have said it isnt night elf but druid lore, which id say its both.
Im trying to see where lines are drawn in relation to lore stuff. I personally consider almost all events to be not only specific to characters but also about their relationship with their faction.
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I just watched it, and I’m ill on your behalf. Well, that plus the way he looks so cheery while ruining my day by predicting Warchief Baine.
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Said it before, I’ll be sorry for you guys if that happens because it’s only a matter of time before “send a piece of yourself to your Alliance masters” is a Horde holiday. The Horde needs someone willing to make amends but he takes it to the point of sycophancy.
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Basically the Horde needs Vol’jin and the Alliance needs Muradin as High King.
Both are perfect candidates for each position.
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I just want someone leading the Alliance who isn’t going to “tut tut” Night Elves for wanting their justified vengeance.
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As it occurred to anyone that we’re perhaps just a bit too fixated on this phrase?
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Totally agree. Thats why all my alliance are dwarf, DiD, and night elf. Working on a lightforged, they get a bit more flack then they deserve.
We should never let Blizzard live that one down lest they try and do it again. It was embarrassing for everyone.
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Pre-Turalyon, yes. I would definitely agree with that.
Now that Turalyon is here, he presents a very strong candidate for SAC as well.
Also, can spirits be Warchief?
Your post was so damn great that it made me bust out my first main who I have now abandoned due to years upon years of feeling disconnected from the Alliance due to aesthetic, thematic, story and roleplay reasons. The treatment of Night Elves in BFA was the last straw that led me to putting him on back burner and investing fully in the Horde.
Sure, the overarching Horde story might be utter nonsense, but at least it’s immersive and evokes emotion and thought.
What bugs me the most is that over the years, Blizzard has had ample opportunity to rectify the issue of the Alliance and increase involvement of other races. But no. The focal point was always Stormwind, humans, Anduin and Varian. And all roads lead to Stormwind.
I mean, take Matthias Shaw for example. In the grand scheme of things, he was a fairly minor character in Cataclysm. Forgotten until Legion, and then bam! Front, centre stage in BFA. People have waxed positively about “his character” in this expansion, and pointing at this to allege that the Alliance War Campaign is “well-written”… yet for me, the story was crap before it began due to them propping up Shaw for ~reasons~.
(In b4 Alliance regs that come in and tell me he’s the head of SI:7 yadda yadda. ![:roll_eyes:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/roll_eyes.png?v=6" ":roll_eyes:")
Listen guy, the story can be written any way - as evidenced by the crapshow that is BFA - so the fault lies on Blizzard. They could have chosen Shandris to spearhead the war effort, or Genn or anyone.)
Honestly, I could bang on about why the Alliance is hot garbage - and no, it’s not a matter of opinion. It is objectively and narratively insipid, uninspired drivel and frankly, I didn’t know it still appealled to so many people in this day and age. Maybe in 2000 when fantasy revival was all the rage, but I thought the West had moved away from that to better, more realistic, inspired settings. I’ll stop myself tho since your post is eloquent and says everything that is needed to be said. I’m just bitter and ranting at this point.
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Cuz it has nothing to do with the main story at present. Val’Sharah is Night Elf prehistory that has no bearing on who the Night Elves in Darnassus are today.
It’s as if I said the Iron Horde story was development for playable orcs. It’s not.
Hope this helps.
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