The good ol’ world - Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms - is in dire need of updating. BfA did something right, at least, in updating two of these zones to reflect the present, Arathi and Darkshore (even if it wasn’t a pleasant present). Next expansion, however, we’ll be going far away from our world, into another dimension entirely, and the Alliance and Horde will have little involvement with the story… giving them plenty of time to clean up the mess that was made.
So, how should the world (as in, physical land) change to reflect what has happened, if we were to get another expansion like Cata, but with rebuilding instead of tearing apart?
Personally, a few ideas I feel are appropriate:
While Tyrande is off in her Shadowlands quest, the Night Elves resettle on Northern Kalimdor. Darkshore, Felwood, Moonglade, Hyjal, Ashenvale and maybe Winterspring too - all retaken, and the border is heavily defended. Horde will be shot on sight with no warning.
With the Alliance’s victory at Arathi, Gilneas reclaimed, and Lordaeron too blighted for the Apothecaries to recover, the Forsaken move further north, away from possible retribution. They strike a deal with the Argent Crusade, giving the order Tirisfal and Lordaeron in exchange for resettling the Plaguelands. Stratholme is rebuilt as their new capital, Scholomance is taken by the Apothecaries, the Scarlet Enclave is taken by the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow, etc, etc.
The Argent Crusade purifies the blight in Lordaeron and rebuilds it into the Vatican, I guess. They’re also there to act as a wall keeping the Horde and Alliance from hurting eachother.
As mentioned before, Gilneas is retaken. With the Forsaken running for the Plaguelands, the Gilneans also claim Silverpine forest, and the Worgen of Southshore reclaim Hillsbrad. The Greymane Wall is blown to tiny bits in an epic cutscene.
Alterac and the valley becomes a zone of its own, separate from Hillsbrad, controlled by the Froswolves.
Stromgarde is rebuilt into a city under the control of the League of Arathor, repopulated by the refugees who went to Stormwind. No Hammerfall.
On Kalimdor, the Alliance withdraws all presence from the Barrens, Dustwallow Marsh, and maybe Desolace and Stonetalon, mostly due to having no more interest in those zones.
As seen on the awful Gilnean Heritage questline, there’re still feral Worgen on the loose in Duskwood. Since Darkshire was pretty much destroyed in Legion, have some Gilneans settle there. Also, perhaps have some Night Elves settle in the Twilight Grove, maybe a small population tired of fighting in Kalimdor and choosing to live where the Horde most definitely can’t reach them, ever again.
What, the Horde gains some territory at the lost of a bunch of it’s territory which all goes to the Alliance. The Horde gets Alterac which it practically already has and the Alliance withdraws from a bunch of areas the Horde has little interest in. The Barrens withdrawal is the closest and frankly at best that is the same as giving the Alliance Ashenvale since the Alliance literally invaded in Cataclysm.
At the same time the Alliance claims Arathi and Gilneas. So basically the Alliance gains some stuff and the Horde only gets back some of what it lost, gets to keep some of what it already had and is handed off a couple of zones to make up for the three it loses.
Its a bum deal. You have a strange idea of what a fair trade entails.
I feel I should point out that most of Azeroth is going to be busy trying to contain rampaging undead while we are off in the Shadowlands. The Scourge are loose now so most of the folks at home will probably be trying to keep them at bay rather than rebuilding.
As I said, this is assuming we get an expansion like Cata, with Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor being brought to the present and involved in the main storylines. Like Cata.
If the story was consistent neither faction would exist anymore and the horde wouldn’t have gone through this rubbish.
Anyway, I said it was a bum deal. I don’t see what consistency has to do with that. Until the day comes that Alliance players pay the Horde players sub fees, story consistency means jack on what counts as fair trade. Horde players don’t pay a sub for the game to be designed for Alliance players.
Well considering both factions are on the ropes and having to fight of scourge forces which have in the past been said to be potentially too much for the living to handle if let of the leash, I doubt either side has much time for rebuilding.
They have made a point that the war in BfA has practically drained both factions of their military power. Their strength is heavily depleted from fighting each other. I doubt the time it takes for Sylvanas to head to Icecrown after we deal with N’zoth will have been long enough to rebuild that loss of strength.
Sylvanas loyalists alone are apparently enough to stand up to N’Zoth
We’ll have as much military strength as we need
Remember how we needed KT and Zandalar because we lost our fleets, and then those two were immediately swarming with Alliance and Horde? Hell, the Siege of Lordaeron seems to have happened with the entire Alliance traveling to Tirisfal by sea.
Felwood’s not lost because of anything the Horde did. Felwood’s lost because of all the horrible stuff in it. Moonglade is a druid grove and literally the intended parties already live there. Winterspring, I guess? Nothing really changed there. Shot on sight is nothing new and is already the standing order on both sides.
The Forsaken are not in a position of weakness and do not have to barter with the Argent Crusade, a force that has all but been snuffed out follow the Legion war, over land that is already under their control by Cataclysm.
No dice on Stratholme. It’s forever burning with the fires of hell. That is a monument to Arthas’ sins that will never go away. I’d sooner the Forsaken rebuild Andorhal and settle, as it’s more advantageous.
If the Royal Apothecaries can’t scrub that mess, the Argent Crusade won’t have much luck either.
If Gilneas isn’t a blight bombed mess still, I could see the SIlverpine Forest going their way. The Western Plaguelands leads into Hillsbrad, however, and have plenty of room to fight for it.
Strategically, they want bases there, because if they need to launch an attack, they have a base right there to operate out of and aren’t in danger of being driven off of that location before the fortifications are planted.
You have a fair few ideas, but I don’t agree largely with your post.
Just my thoughts on major changes I’d personally like to see.
Kalimdor
A night elf/draenei blockade is set up on the border between Ashenvale and the Barrens/Azshara, an in-game representation of the the Alliance not allowing Horde free reign into Ashenvale. Night elves base themselves out of Hyjal.
Night elves clear out Dire Maul and resettle Eldre’Thalas to use as a staging ground to send Army of the Black Moon forces all across Azeroth in secret.
Eathern Ring and Druids begin experimenting with some mag’har know-how to breath some life into Durotar to compensate no free access to Ashenvale.
Theramore gets rebuilt, under Kul Tiras’ banner, to act as a show of good faith between the Alliance and Horde. Likewise, Stonard gets built up as well to serve the same purpose.
With Theramore reestablished as a sign of peace, the Alliance bases in the Barrens are abandoned, but not destroyed.
Cenarion Circle and Earthen Ring members go back to Silithus in droves to try and actually fix the whole Wound thing.
Eastern Kingdoms
With the Stromgarde retaken, the Kingdom rejoins the Alliance and begins to resettle Arathi.
With Arathi resettled by the Alliance, work begins to try and resettle Gilneas, it being a blighted wasteland however means they are really just parked outside, similar to the gnomes.
With Tirisfal Glades also being a blighted wasteland, the Alliance set up a barricade to keep any potential wandering undead out.
The Forsaken are given the greenlight to settle in Stratholme, with help of the remaining Argents to finally put out the fires. The Forsaken and the blood elves state they are going to be working with the Argents to unplague the area. This is to help in the Horde’s actual objective, learning how to actually counter the Blight so they can unblight Tirisfal and reclaim it for the Horde.
Like Theramore, Stonard is built up to be a major Horde settlement in the southern Eastern Kingdoms as a sign of good faith.
Both factions agreed to deploy troops at a rebuild Nethergarde Keep to have an active joint military unit working together, another thing to try and put the past behind them.
Some major take aways I figured I’d mention.
The Army of the Black Moon still exists and primary goal is to neutralize threats to the kaldorei. Helping the Alliance is then an added bonus. They are stationed in Dire Maul away from prying eyes who would object to random assassinations done around Azeroth.
The Horde have every intention of rebuilding and resettling the Capital City of Lordaeron. They are working with the Argents to purify the blight on a massive scale. The goal is to unblight and resettle the Capital before anyone catches wind of it.
We will have as much military strength as they want us to have and they have said they want us to be in a position where we are struggling to deal with the scourge and it requires a joint effort sent to Icecrown to try and deal with the source while the rest of the two faction’s forces hold of the rampaging Scourge.
What their intention is does matter and kind of indicates an intention to have it so neither faction is in a position to be doing much but trying to stay alive while we are away in the Shadowlands.
well in terms of theramore my idea would be a little bit different.
lets say that derek and /or calia build some sort of sanctuary for the forsakens who still want to reunite with their families
and this would be under jaina’s blessing/kultiran banner (or be truly neutral)
it would be kinda ironic that this would accept lordaeron refugees again since that is why it was builded the first time, but maybe this time is shared between living and dead. maybe creating some new cool aesthetics.
but being rebuilded and returning to the alliance would be nice as well.
I’m confused as to why military might was made into an issue with the N’Zoth conflict when neither military is part of anything that happens. It’s the player character, Wrathion, Magni, MOTHER, the Rajani mogu, and Ramkahen.