Something I thought I would ask people, just out of curiosity, should the playable factions have notable second in command characters? These could be figures who we either interact with more to free up the main leaders or be figures that could take over if the primary leader were removed.
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Current writing team can barely keep up coherent story lines for only 1 leader per race. Thatâs why they do everything in their power to dump as much content to a single face per faction. That gave us our beloved High King title!
That being said itâd be cool to have an establish jeriarchy in advance so if bad things were to happen we wouldnât have a random guy taking over out of the sudden.
I believe Night Elves are the ones with more well established characters in their chain of command. And thatâs the reason I fear Tyrandeâs day is coming. Blizzard doesnât really like her and I really donât see her hanging around after Shadowlands.
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Blood Elves, minus the Regent Lord, are represented by a triumvirate of High Magister Rommath, Ranger General Halduron Brightwing, and Blood Knight Matriarch Lady Liandrin, who form his council.
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The Horde has a Council now. While they seem eager to work as one, it also seems their notions of plurality or quorum are not laid out.
Thrall seems to be their reluctant boss in Shadows Rising. While Thrall is gone, Lorthemar seems to be giving the orders so far in Shadowlands. Makes sense, especially if Baine is gone, too. Old Lorthy would be the go to guy.
The Alliance is actually the interesting one.
In BtS, Anduin left Genn in charge in his absence, and in case something happened to him. Genn seemed to be the âchosen heirâ of at least Stormwind, if not Alliance leadership.
But in Shadows Rising, Turalyon is elevated to basically Supreme Allied Commander.
There could be tension in that⌠but it may not be explored.
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Once upon a time the second in command for the Horde was Volâjin and for the Alliance it seemed to be Jaina.
As time went on Volâjin became Warchief briefly before dying (and maybe coming back as a Loa) and Jaina became the not-so-neutral leader of Dalaran before going awol and coming back to become defectors leader of Kul Tiras.
If there is a second in command of the Horde at the moment itâs either Thrall or Baine. For the Alliance itâs likely Genn or Turalyon.
Killing Volâjin after one expansion as warchief was and always will be a terrible narrative decision.
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Second in Command types, hrmn?
I wouldnât mind if Rexxar as the Champion of the Horde fulfilled a role like that. Admittedly his recent (BFA) writing has felt off, but the character himself is a throw-back to the New Horde which Thrall, Volâjin, and Cairne built, and I donât really feel like heâs necessarily been ruined by (BFAâs) bad writing. The only real problem there is that heâs never really wanted to command or lead, but in a way that almost uniquely qualifies for him such a role. A problem crops up and heâs there to fix it, and welcomes the Horde PCâs presence.
Over on the Alliance side I canât say a character really sticks out for such. Maybe itâd be a good time to flesh out one of our B or lower tier characters? Shandris could use some more development. I feel like sheâs mostly plugged in for screen time but never does or says anything particularly substantial. She feels far too generic of a character. Alternatively Blizzard could really go for the mirror route and make Arator that counterpart. With Alleria and Turalyon back I donât see why Arator shouldnât be doing more. He always struck me as a criminally under-used character.
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For Humans of Stormwind King Anduin Wrynnâs second in command would be Turalyon though one can argue that Mathias Shaw is a subtle second in command of the formal military.
For humans of Kulâtiras Jaina Proudmooreâs second in command is her brother Tandred and her mother Katherine. One can argue Taelia is being groomed by Cyrus to be a secondary leader amongst the Kulâtirans.
For Gilneas the second in command of Genn Greymane is his daughter Tess Greymane or maybe his wife Mia Greymane, but they are not as formal in their role as Lord Darius Crowley as chief represented of the nobles of Gilneas.
For Ironforge theyâre ruled by a triumvirate between Moira Thaurissan, Muradin Bronzebeard and Falstad Wildhammer. Each rule in the name of Ironforge. Each answer to their own governing bodies i.e the Ironforge senate, Shadowforge senate, and the WIldhammer clans.
The Draenei Eredar are led by Velen and Captain Fareeya for both the Lightforged and Draenei respectfully. The second in command would be the ranking members of their race maybe Nobundo? Itâs never been expanded upon since the Exarchs have been pretty much defunct since the genocides on the Draenei.
Kaldorei, the Night Elves are led by Malfurion and Tyrande who rule jointly and are each otherâs second in command when the other is absent. After them would be their daughter and chief general Shandris Feathermoon, but we cant say since the genocides if any other elves have risen to the role of second in command maybe Maiev or her brother Jarod Shadowmoon or maybe even Mordent Evenshade on behalf of the Shendralar within the Kaldorei nation.
Gnomes have even less lore to work with Gelbinâs second in command is Erazmin prince of the Mechagnomes who have since joined their fellow gnomes under the rule of Gelbin Mekkatorque.
Pandaren have even less of a second in command outside of their Huojin and Tushui representatives Aysa Cloudsinger and Ji Firepaw. For Aysa maybe itâs Jojo Ironpaw. Has Jojo done anything since Mists?
For the Void Elves it appears that Alleria Windrunner rules with her secondary being Umbric though they appear to rule jointly. Umbric appears to acquiesce to Alleriaâs wishes. Thus in my mind a secondary figure in spite his original position as ruler of the exiles.
For the Horde, the orcs are ruled by Thrall and Geyaârah for the Magâhar. The Ogrimmar orcs donât really have any secondary rulers. Maybe Nazgrel if I remember correctly, but most of the orc senior leadership is either dead or far too old to rule for much longer and have we seen a new generation really take the reins as secondary commanders?
The undead are ruled by Calia and Lilian Voss who is their interim ruler, but she appears to be grooming Calia Menethil to rule. So either of them can be first or second in command and honestly the undead ranks are so depleted that we donât have too many to select as secondary commanders. Maybe Faranell, but he maybe loyal to Sylvanas.
Who speaks for the Darkspear? Rokhan and Zappyboi, I mean Zekhan who is far too young to really be a second in command. In spite his experiences with Saurfang.
Voldunai are ruled by Kuro and his second is Nisha and Meerah.
Zandalari are ruled by Queen Talanji and the Zanchuli Council. So her second in command will always be her generals and council members.
The Goblins are led by Glazlowe and who knows if he even trusts a second in command as goblins are notorious in their distrustful nature. He may though have some Bilgewater liaisons to help him rule.
Tauren and Highmountain Tauren are led by Baine and Mayla Highmountain. Similar to how Draenei share joint rule between their societies. The Tauren were eager to joining with their lost kin similarly the Highmountain were eager to share with their cousins.
The Shalâdorei Nightborne are ruled by Thalryssa and her council Telemancer Occuleth and Valtrois. They also have the nobles of Suramar who were pardoned and allowed to continue their roles within the city in spite the Legion events. So any of the nobles would act as a secondary ruler in the absence of their senior leadership.
The Sinâdorei are ruled by Lorâthemar and his coucil is Halduron Brightwing and Rommath who share secondary rule with him. One can add Lady Liadrin who rules over the paladins. Aethas Sunreaver shares the secondary rule with Rommath for the magi of Silvermoon and Dalaran.
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I might be off-base with my understanding of the character, but I thought Rexxar was mostly an asocial animal lover instead of someone whoâd actually want to be around the horde itself often. Not that his character wouldnât identify himself as a member, but he was more of a loner. I think that goes a bit beyond the ânot wanting to lead makes him a good leaderâ trope.
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Gazlowe has an assistant, Skaggit, who he trusts enough to rely on for a lot of his work. Gazlowe is actually rather friendly and supportive of other goblins, because he thinks that the best way to inspire loyalty is treat those under his authority with respect and pay them well for their time and skill. His introductions quests for Mechagon, even before heâs officially Horde, basically come down to âWeâre not going to be cheapskates like Gallywix, that doesnât make for good results in the long run. If you want quality work, you need to pay for it and respect the time and skill it requires.â
Several of the racial factions have existing characters that serve as support for the leaders, they just arenât often seen or developed much. For example, Halduron Brightwing, the current Ranger-General of QuelâThalas, oversees Silvermoonâs military and sometimes steps up to fill in for Lorâthemar if heâs busy elsewhere. Itâs indicated that he was left in charge of QuelâThalas while Lorâthemar was in Nazjatar and during the confrontation with Sylvanas. Rommath is the other member of the informal triumvirate of QuelâThalas, overseeing the study of magic as Grand Magister. Liadrin actually isnât quite on equal terms with Rommath and Halduron in regard to leadership, as the Blood Knights were initially formed under Rommathâs supervision, and since the Blood Knights are a military order Halduron might have authority over them as well, but she does have a lot of influence due to both her position as Blood Knight Matriarch and her personal history with Lorâthemar.
Rather than just occasionally seeing supporting characters in place of main leaders, Iâd like to see these sorts of characters pop up whenever it suits their skill set and personality. Blizzard has done this to a degree before, Iâd just like to see more of it.
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Youâre not wrong in your assessment of Rexxar, but it was less of a, âNot wanting to lead makes him a good leader,â trope and more of a, ânot letting politics get in the way of doing whatâs necessary makes him a good leader,â trope. As in, maybe thereâs a Quilboar and Centaur alliance attacking the Crossroads. While the Hordeâs new Council is discussing logistics and who can send what aid, Rexxar just goes there and starts pushing them back.
Anduin had already state the Alliance would not fall even if one or two leaders were to fall. I assume if something drastic like Turaylon bring killed happened the remaining leaders would go to Stormwind and quickly vote for an interim leader or coordinate with one another to at least form a response to the apocalyse of the day.
When all else fails, The Doctor is kidnapped, loaded onto a Skyship and is designated President of Azeroth.
He is then given full military control of all factions.
It honestly felt like âwell we killed Varian after he completed his character arc, so we have to kill someone that isnât sylvanas (because she has boobs) or the alliance losers will cryâ.
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Blizzard exec: âHey letâs kill this guy who did nothing during WoD!â
Random writer: âBut. . . We where dealing with alternate realities, we havenât gotten to write him doing anything yet.â
Blizzard exec: âWho cares Vol whatsit is old news and boring, Sylvanas is hip and hot.â
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Poor guy did what for his entire WoW life?
- Retook the Echo Isles
- Kicked off Brewfest for about a decade
- Lead a rebellion
- Became Warchief
- Died two years later
What a legend.
Well more like he did nothing as warchief, but yeah those are few achievements.
He did tell me what a good job I did getting my garrison to tier three, though!
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That he did lol
Especially an expansion where all he did was show up to congratulate you on upgrading your garrison.
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