There are some neat ideas behind the Primalists cult: they hate cosmic powers, and want Azeroth to be free of corruption from these powers; they aren’t insane, and to an extent, they even care about each other. Not to mention the whole primeval and feral vibe of their music and visuals (WoD-style). So, as a concept, they aren’t just a copy of the Twilight’s Hammer.
But generally speaking, they act mostly the same way. It’s an overall “Warcraft evil cults problem”. Different sects have some nuance in their beliefs, but very often the Cult of the Damned, the Shadow Council, and the Twilight’s Hammer act absolutely the same, and all yell at you about the APOCALYPSE!!!
But the mortal followers of the Primalists have a bigger issue. They lack any sort of backstory, and they need it. It’s as if we suddenly got a worldwide army of angry murderous Cenarius worshippers without any word on how they came to be, why they want us all dead, or what even Cenarius himself has to say about them.~
Why do all these trolls, elves, vulpera, and the like want to see the world as they know it destroyed? How’s there an army of them? How did they even start worshiping such obscure story figures as the Incarnates (of whom even Wrathion didn’t know anything about)? And if we are to compare this storyline to Cataclysm, that expansion had these questions covered. These and more. Because we don’t know what the “normal” peaceful Elements think about the Primalists and their invasion. We don’t know what the Elemental Lords think about the Incarnates and their power play.
Another comparison to Cataclysm. It covered the cultists’ idea of their future after the apocalypse: they would become dragonspawn or elemental ascendants, or just go so far in the insanity that it no longer mattered. What about the Primalists? Where are their ascendants?
By the way, since the idea was to have a more grounded villain faction with more reasonable ideas, why not show them fighting something other than the Order and the Titans? Throw them against some faceless ones or demons as well.
For what it’s worth, the Incarnates themselves (at least, Raszageth: we have yet to meet the rest) are rather compelling, their personal motives are believable. A step up after the Jailer. You know, If we had a Total War-like spinoff for Warcraft, I would’ve easily chosen to play as the Primalists and try to claim sovereignty over all mortal races, defeat the Aspects with the mighty Incarnates, and finally cleanse Azeroth of the titans’ stain.~
It’s been months since I posted here last time. Partially, because I’m still in Russia: so WoW can’t be my top priority right now. Blizzard also kind of left the region, but kind of stayed, so there’s that too. I won’t comment on this furthermore here, because of both the forum rules and the new local laws.
Other than that, I don’t see much of the dialogue between the players from the council and the devs, when it comes to the story department. So it burns down the initiative to post here even more.~
But it’s not a big deal. Just for the sake of saying that I didn’t drop the ball. I won’t write big articles for this subforum anymore for all the aforementioned reasons, but shorter posts? Why not?