The War Rebooted

Lore Story Forum
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I am not a fan of the faction conflict.

I would prefer that the Alliance and Horde were genuine allies or at worst in a cold war with a few minor scuffles breaking out between subfactions. But the gods of WoW demand that we must fight an all out war, so this is how I start it.

First I would throw out War of Thorns/Elegy/A Good War as the start of the fighting. Before the Storm would stay. I think it’s essential to getting Anduin into a mental place where he would feel a war with the Horde could be necessary. Sylvanas must still be well and truly lost in his eyes.

Azurite and a dying Azeroth are just as important in this story as they are in BfA… so not even slightly.

A war starts between Kul Tiras and Zandalar. Ideally it would be Morally Gray. Neither side is fully wrong or fully right. Old God manipulation or Zul being Zul would do in a pinch.

Talanji seeks help from the Horde and manages to make it to Orgrimmar without issue. She’s desperate. Her father is so focused on the war that he’s completely neglected the problems in his own back yard and she’s certain that without help the Zandalari are doomed. Sylvanas cares little for the plight of the Zandalari, but she sees an opportunity for a powerful ally, someone who might be able to help her in a future war with the Alliance. Even better, the Kul Tiran fallen will help replenish the Forsaken she lost in Legion. Sylvanas is more than willing to send a token force her way, while keeping the bulk of her forces in reserve until she’s fully assessed the situation and how it might benefit her.

Meanwhile, Jaina has been doing some soul searching and attempted to return home. When she arrives she finds her people in dire straights. The war has already taken a toll and the Kul Tirans were suffering from a multitude of problems before it even started. She pleads with her mother to allow her to help. Instead she’s sent away and told never to return. Determined to help anyway, Jaina goes to the Alliance for aid. Anduin is hesitant to get involved in a foreign war, even though the Zandalari have shown themselves to be enemies of the Alliance in the past. And his own people are still recovering from the war with the Legion. However, he can’t in good conscience ignore the suffering of the innocent Kul Tirans. Nor can he ignore the pain of his dear Aunt Jaina who has finally returned. He agrees to send aid. Not directly for the war effort, but to provide healing and supplies and help deal with the various other crises afflicting the Kul Tiran civilians. He knows that fighting the Zandalari will be inevitable, but his intention is to focus on minimizing the number of lives lost.

Neither the Horde nor Alliance realizes when agreeing to aid their new allies that it will lead them into a conflict that will span all of Azeroth, but inevitably their forces clash.

At first it’s just a few small skirmishes. The Alliance is confining their operations to defending Kul Tiras, while the Horde are more willing to help the Zandalari attack.

The Kul Tirans are losing and the Alliance slowly starts to provide more and more support and commit to sending forces directly to Zandalar. The Horde and Alliance are still not technically at war with each other. Not until Sylvanas decides to take advantage of the Alliance’s distraction to attack the Night Elves. Her reasoning–or at least what she tells the rest of the Horde–is that the war between their allies is destined to spill over into their own lands and they need to make sure that it’s on their terms. No one can dispute her reasoning, not even the most peace loving among the Horde.

Teldrassil burns.

Lordaeron is sieged.

The war is officially on.

Kul Tiras and Zandalar formally join their respective factions.

It’s not a perfect scenario. The details definitely need some work. But the basic outline is one I’d find preferable.

Retaining as much of the existing story as possible, how would you start the faction war?

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Uh…isn’t that still the War of Thorns, just after slightly more buildup?

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/sigh

That’s the point.

Retaining as much of the existing story as possible.

Here.

I’ll edit:

Anything more constructive to add?

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There could be a focus on Azerite research/experimentation/weapons-building back in Horde/Alliance cities during this time, too. It could add some build-up to the claim that Azerite ‘changes everything’ and make that reason seem more grounded. And make Azerite feel actually relevant in the story.

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I guess I just don’t understand why you’d want to keep the War of Thorns and only change the leadup to it so that there’s some fighting on the other side of the world first. I don’t see how the new version makes the WoT any better than what we have now.

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Sylvanas needs to simply not be Warchief, like, EVER. It should be Warchief Vol’jin who puts his foot down and comes to defend Sylvanas’s actions in Stormheim. Then we DON’T burn down Teldrassil, Greymane besieges Lordaeron, Vol’jin charges Sylvanas with leading the war campaign and Anduin is unable to stop Greymane in his quest for vengeance, and the war takes a more focused approach on the Sylvanas v. Greymane conflict rather than Red v. Blue as a whole.

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I think you did a pretty good job to make this a lot more morally grey while keeping the same major events. It would have make the Horde a lot less evil and the Alliance just a bit more proactive.

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Looks like OP wanted to keep many of Blizzard’s planned plot points, (despite these very plot points being what players take issue with)… because I guess changing fewer things might make it seem more reasonable?

Idk… to be honest if OP is already “rebooting” the war I don’t get why they would keep the universally hated War of Thorns story as the catalyst instead of thinking up something that actually makes sense.

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Maybe have Zul, Taelia and Cyrus play a role of convincing the respective factions leaders to add in their efforts in Kul’Tiras/Zandalari war and conflicts in their lands.

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I’m with you, but I still think Lordaeron could have come before Teldrassil. I think it’s even better in this scenario, because the factions slowly come to be at war by seperately agreeing to help potential allies. An attack on Lordaeron in response to Sylvanas assisting an aggressive Zandalar (especially in your scenario where the Alliance are playing defensive) would be even more in the cards, especially if it was with the same high-minded goals of Battle of Dazar’alor (Capture Sylvanas to end the war peacefully, minimize civilian casualties) but goes pear shaped when it turns out Sylvanas is willing to go much further and scorch not only her own turf but the Night Elves as well.

Sylvanas is still escalating things, but the Alliance is on the front foot for good reasons and more of the Horde would have an incentive to initially support the Banshee. Teldrassil is always too far, but a massive overreaction is a far different beast to a massive, seemingly baseless provocation.

Overall I like these changes, even if the Lord/Teld swap doesn’t happen.

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Because the question I’m asking is “How would you change the faction conflict to make it more enjoyable, while changing the least number of things?”

In my version the catalyst is actually the Zandalar/Kul Tiras war. The War of Thorns analogue is more reasonable extension of that conflict (imo). It doesn’t require insane mental gymnastics to justify why the rest of the Horde goes along with it without complaint or question. But it still leaves some uncertainty about Sylvanas’s motives.

This scenario is probably the only one anyone’s suggested to me that didn’t immediately make me think, “What is wrong with you? Noooooo!”

In this case though, the war is already on even if it’s not official until they deliberately start attacking each other directly.

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Okay, I’mma take a crack at this. Like OP, keeping the major plots as it. So there will be a Teldrassil burning and a Lordaeron gassing.

Change 1: THE FORSAKEN DON’T BURN TELDRASSIL. It made no sense, and made Sylvanas look foolish. “Hey, here’s my win condition… lets burn it instead because this night elf hurt my feefees.” Her motivations remain the same, everything is the same up until Delaryn gives her speech. But Sylvanas either coldly kills her, or keeps her alive to see the Forsaken siege Teldrassil. And lets face it, there is no reason for her not to. SYLVANAS CANNOT LOOSE A SIEGE. She literally has an endless supply of troops. Also, the war machines of the Horde cannot reach that far. So instead, she begins the siege, taking the little village and Teldrassil’s foot and storming Darnassus. Instead, the Alliance evacuate the Night Elf civilians, leaving only military. No more genocide. And its the Elves, as a last desperate act, who burn Teldrassil.

  1. The Battle of Lordaeron: Hoo boy… this is hard.

Again, Sylvanas is written as an idiot. SYLVANAS. CANNOT. LOOSE. A. SIEGE. BATTLE. She has unlimited troops. Alliance troops die? She has more troops now! It makes no sense for her to meet the Alliance outside of Lordaeron. All she had to do was seal the gates, reinforce the walls, and wait. Hell, it would have been less a battle and more a recruitment drive. and as for her up and leaving, wasn’t this the same Sylvanas who delivered a minutes-long speech about how she would never allow the Alliance to drive the Forsaken out of Lordaeron?

So Sylvanas needs a reason to leave the city gates. I’m thinking that genn greymane has a Val’kyr or two hostage, as they’re about the only thing that Sylvanas would abandon a strategic advantage to save. Her attempt to save the Val’kyr goes horribly, as she’s basically running into a trap. Therefor the gassing of Lordaeron becomes less “stupid plan to try and kill the Alliance leadership” and more “last ditch act of desperation.”

And the last change: THE ALLIANCE ATTACKS FIRST. Some people have suggested Genn going after the Forsaken. That works. Its hard to say that both sides are equally to blame for the war when the Horde has literally instigated every conflict. It makes them the clear villains, whereas having the Alliance be the initial aggressor makes things… wait for it… morally gray! Just like Blizz says they want!

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Okay, but (speaking for myself) I don’t find this version to be any more enjoyable than what we got. You’d have to change how the WoT went down after it started to make it more enjoyable.

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That’s fair.

Give your own version! :purple_heart:

How would you write it?

Keeping as much from BfA as possible, but making it as enjoyable as possible for you.

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“Our Zandalari allies are fighting their Kul’tiran allies and this will lead to open war between both of us eventually, so lets strike first”

vs

“The king of one member nation of the Alliance tried to assassinate the Warchief of the horde and was not punished. Also there is effectively weapons grade plutonium sprouting out of the ground like daisies for anyone with a grudge (like that aforementioned Alliance king) to use to escalate, so lets strike first.”

Neither of them are actually sound reasons, imo, but I don’t think your version is any less mental-gymnastics-requiring than blizzard’s.

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Also I think the hostile attitude you’ve been taking to some people in this thread is unnecessary.

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Ignoring the fact that Blizzard cannot write a coherent faction war plot to save their own lives…

–Undercity Happens First–

First, lets throw out all the deus ex machinas. Lets be honest, any writer who relies on a deus ex machina, much less three, is a hack who has no business in the field. Anduin gives in to pressure to actually do something instead of the standard “wait for the Horde to do anything” logic that the alliance seems to operate on. One of the faction leaders decides to act without consulting the rest of the alliance (Genn, Moria, maybe even Tyrande) and the rest of the alliance is obligated to participate. They siege Undercity, and decide to shell the place into oblivion instead of throwing lives away by fighting a battle where the enemy has blight without any masks. They also massacre any undead whom happen to be outside of the Undercity at the time. This means Brill died, with no survivors. At the last second, Sylvanas tries to rig a blight-bomb as a last chance to stick it to the attackers, and it succeeds for the most part, killing most of the overtly-zealous alliance members.

As an attempt to counter the Undercity loss, the Kalimdor Horde tries to get ahead of the war and take out the Kal’dorei. Unlike Blizzard, I don’t have a raging hatred for night elves. So there are no stupid “big tricks” for the Horde to play and instantly win entire zones overnight. The Horde win through logical attrition and grueling battles that slightly favors the defenders, but is a largely horde victory. The Horde, in realization that wiping out the Night Elves is going to take more than they predicted, elects to use those dastardly Azerite weapons. Said weapons end up wiping out Teldrassil to the surprise of everyone, but thankfully the Alliance had already started evacuation of Darnassus to the Exodar (because the Draenei can still be usefull outside of the Burning Legion, and lets be honest, Stormwind sucks up enough spotlight). So the Horde player isn’t saddled with being a genocidal maniac sans the Hugo Boss uniform.

Boom, We’re left in a similar state at the start of the expansion, with less Horde war crimes and Alliance stupidity.

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This change would be so easy yet so important because it isn’t adding or removing very many art assets, its just flipping the order of two battles blizzard already made setpieces and models and stuff for.

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Its all just a realization that Blizzard’s writing department is composed of cowards. It so easy to fix, but realizes on the faction the Alliance has to actually do something other than wait for the Horde to do something other than wait on the Horde to act on first. I see no reason why the alliance has to be bound to being a passive reactionary force.

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I had to think pretty hard about how to salvage anything from this disaster, but I think I’ve found something that works for me–swap not only the order of Undercity and Teldrassil, but the way in which they happen.

A Second Front

Sylvanas is physically either in Orgrimmar or Zandalar, and is focused on the Zandalar/Kul Tiras war. The Zandalari have recently won a major victory, so the Alliance decide they need to cut them off from Horde support by tying up the Horde army on another front–Lordaeron. Anduin agrees because he hopes it will end the war quickly and thus save lives. (Fanservice: We get a fully-rendered cinematic of the discussion where he is convinced to go along with the plan, and it ends with a long shot of him sitting alone on his throne, brow furrowed, chin propped on hand, wondering whether he has done the right thing but hoping for the best.)

Lordaeron

The Battle for Lordaeron is a pure military success–the Alliance take some losses, but not enough that anyone would call it pyrrhic. This is largely because not enough Horde forces can get there in time to defend it effectively, just whoever Sylvanas can bring with her from Zandalar, so the Forsaken are pretty much on their own against the bulk of the Alliance forces (who have gas masks). Sylvanas can still blight or blow up the city itself on her way out, to keep it so both destroyed capitals are uninhabitable, but the rest of the province is officially in Alliance hands. Genn Greymane is left in command of the Alliance forces, and those Forsaken who couldn’t escape to Kalimdor retreat to Silverpine, where they later receive reinforcements via portals. A battlefront develops, either in Tirisfal Glades or in Silverpine, as the Forsaken try to push the Alliance out of Tirisfal and the Alliance try to press on to reclaim Gilneas.

Teldrassil

Meanwhile, Sylvanas, furious at being caught unawares at Lordaeron, marches on the Night Elves. Why? Because two can play at the game of split fronts, Kalimdor is where she has the majority of her forces, and the Night Elves are the nearest target. She figures that if she can capture Teldrassil, she can open negotiations with the Alliance and get them to withdraw from Lordaeron in exchange for her withdrawal from Teldrassil. Her forces are bolstered by angry Forsaken refugees who want revenge for losing their city. The Night Elves fight guerilla-style and make them pay for every foot of ground (as mentioned in Elegy), but the Horde still advance slowly but surely, until they’re standing on the coast of Darkshore … only to see Teldrassil go up in flames. It’s already been evacuated (I like Anyaceltica’s idea of sending the population to the Exodar), and the last defenders put it to the torch just before leaving.

Night Elf Focus (optional, but I’m designing this for me…)

This is shown as a painful decision for them, but they ultimately choose to sacrifice their home and deny Sylvanas her prize rather than give her an edge over the Alliance. It represents a moment where the proud and independent Night Elves take another step in becoming truly bonded to their allies, and there’s a scene where the other leaders acknowledge that they know how difficult this must have been. Maybe Genn takes a moment off from the warfront to say, “You gave my people a home when we had none. If I succeed in regaining Gilneas, I swear your people will always have a home with me.” For bonus points, some druids could save an acorn or cutting of Teldrassil in hopes for regrowing it later, when the war is over.

And now the war is officially on.

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