Xalantanth didn’t deserve the destruction of Dalaran. She hadn’t earned that.
You know who would have though? Including an alliance with the Nerubians?
Sylvanas.
I think Blizzard messed up their Elf Lady Villain expansions. Xalalalalalanth should have been working with the Jailer - Syvlanas should be harnessing the power of the Dark Heart and allying with the Nerubians.
Hell, we could have had an entire subtext of the Kirin Tor experimenting with Dominion Magic from Shadowlands that put the Forsaken’s free will at risk as the reason.
Not sure if this is the exact right post to respond to for this but I’ve gotten the vibe that maybe a lot of these people weren’t exactly wanted by empire? Like what if this was a convenient excuse to get rid of a whole bunch of people who were at best problematic to the Emperor? Steelspark herself says that prior to the expedition she’d never had this kind of command
I’d have been immediately more interested in this expac if that had been the arc. Right now, especially as my SP main is Horde, I feel really disconnected from everything going on. I’m sick of Sylvanas but only because Blizzard dropped the ball so very badly with her from Legion onward.
But at this point, it still would have made a lot more sense that we’d be facing her this expac and Xal was with the Jailer or something.
Maybe I just want something to connect my character to in the story and so far there’s not much I can immerse myself in, IDK.
I still haven’t started the hallow fall story quests and after hitting 80 I got a few quests that imply I’ve already done it but the funniest is a little crab guy showing up and is like, you should totally check out the underground crab kingdom nothing bad will happen nope not at all we’re very nice chill guys.
I know there’s a good faction but imagining it from my characters perspective. Every crab I’ve met has tried to kill me and I’m just gonna trust this crab? Yes, because all my characters are idiots.
There’ve been admittedly obscure references here and there to Dwarf women with beards in Warcraft. An old quest mentions one, that unreleased adventure game had some, and apparently one of the books mentions them (though I was never able to find the passages in scans).
Honestly so far I find it funny when questing to do the quests and Moira is acting like my character would genuinely want to help her or be glad to be working with her.
Like, Queen… you’re only slightly more palpable that Jaina for my character. I would genuinely prefer it if Blizzard actually stopped taking the absolute panzee approach and acting like Trolls, Night Elves and co. would be ok with the state of things because a status quo favors orcs and humans.
This isn’t the point you were making, but it’s the point you reminded me of–it is actually nice when Blizzard will give an NPC some extra dialogue like “yeah, I know it’s weird we’re working with them, just go with it.” Obviously, we all want our content to be tailored to us, but I do think it’s nice when they at least acknowledge that not everyone wants to be friends.
Honestly I just want one expansion that ends up being the Night Elves getting the last laugh on the orcs and Trolls getting the last laugh on humans before we put the treaty in.
Mostly because the Kor’kron Player base and Male Human Paladin player base are the same cut of people, and I believe in capital punishment given this is a -Two Player Faction Game- and the orcs and humans have been spoon fed enough lore wins that they not getting the last laugh isn’t going to hurt. Why should we be the only ones to get hammered for their amusement? I say its their turn to pony up.
I’ve said this before, but honestly, getting the Horde to become pacified to the point that they feel like the Alliance is punishment enough. Calia is punishment enough.
I am not saying pacify all the Horde. It’s easy to excuse the orcs getting hammered -hard- without pacifying other groups with valid grievances. Hell, I’d even argue to have the Orcs getting hammered hard being what leads to Baine developing a backbone and having the Tauren be more assertive.
Not overly aggressive, just firmly drawing a line in the sand while everyone gets to enjoy the Orcs having been good and properly humbled.
Then of course humans needing to be humbled. God I hope the Arathi Empire does take over SW as some grumblings hint so we can claim that all SW Humans are clearly onboard with highly aggressive regimes and throw tomatos at them.
It’s a two faction game. It should be treated as such. Just cause the current group who want the status quo maintained are all for having the factions removed before their favored group gets hammered doesn’t mean others agree.
As someone who loves the factions, I’m genuinely glad that there’s a little bit of tension between the factions again, even if it’s just some snarky comments from Turaylon and Gey’arah.
But frankly, this expansion is neither the time nor place for another war. Of course we’re being good buddies with Anduin, Moira and Alleria. The factions have come together to face a vast threat many times before, and now they’re doing it again. Remember working closely with Thrall in the Cataclysm, for instance? He was Warchief only recently, and yet Alliance had to work with him. This sort of thing is hardly new.
It’s good to see some inter-faction tension recognised, if only a little. It’s also good to not be fighting a full-scale war right now.
Lohkash’s attitude here is a great example of why, as much as I wish it could be so, the faction war story can never be told in a satisfying way. People don’t treat it as a story. They get emotionally invested in it. They chant “For the Horde!” or “For the Alliance”, and list off the various reasons why they’re personally offended by what the Horde did or did not do, or what the Alliance did or did not do, or who got fair vengeance for which war crime, and who was forgotten, etc etc.
Imagine if someone definitively WON the war. Let’s just say the Alliance wins, Orgrimmar falls under military occupation, and the Horde is forced to rebuild itself in a post-war collapse. The Horde playerbase would riot. It would feel unfair, unjust! The same would be true in reverse. As a rule, wow players are too emotionally invested in faction pride to take a single L, and so each time there’s a faction war we get some owies then quickly make peace and stand together as equals because there is literally nowhere else the story can go. And frankly, that option feels so unsatisfying because we wasted a whole lot of time and energy fighting a war that led to very minimal changes. The Alliance came out of Battle for Azeroth winning Arathi Highlands and Darkshore… but this was clarified with a single blue post and is not reflected in game yet… woo? It’s a pretty lame set of changes after a massive world war. The Horde had Zandalar attacked and then had to hold hands with the Alliance again because of civil conflict. Again, not exactly thrilling or compelling storytelling. All the inter-faction tension just… fizzled out. Came to nothing, but an unsatisfying peace. But to do anything else would be worse, because nobody can take an L.
So as much as I genuinely miss political plotlines in Azeroth, sadly I don’t think they can ever go anywhere. Because everyone’s blabbering about fairness when a storyline is being told about WAR, something that is fundamentally UNFAIR. The passionate Alliance player feels they are yet owed further vengeance for the destruction of Teldrassil and Theramore, and the passionate Horde player feels they are yet owed vengeance for the attack on Dazar’alor, and frankly they kind of ruin everyone’s fun. You’re not owed anything. It doesn’t need to be fair. To be fair is to be boring and endlessly unsatisfying. Either commit to a story where wins and losses are possible, or keep the factions in a Cold War and face mutual threats. Personally, I’m happy with the latter for now. It’s easier.
If it’s similar to the crafted gear in DF, the set shouldn’t be hard to get. It’ll just take time collecting whatever the new spark is. I think you said in another place you missed playing DF right, so don’t worry about it being hard or a big farm, it’ll get even easier as the expansion rolls on.
The crafting sets are FIRE as I get guys to 80 I will probably gradually get them the crafted sets because the Arathi armors are very cool except cloth we don’t talk about that one.
I feel like Blizzard’s lack of effort in their writing is one of the biggest problems with faction war accounts.
Because an Orgrimmar under Alliance occupation as they rebuild should be a really interesting story. Or the reverse, with Teldrassil under Horde occupation at the start of BfA. Both would be new stories that have never been seen in WoW and give the opportunity for characters to feel something other than honorable rage or raging honor.
But, as you point out, people would hate it. And the reason they’d hate it is because all of us know Blizzard would make it awful. There’s no trust that anyone would be treated fairly or even with any effort, because Blizzard has routinely indicated they are not worthy of that trust.
The faction wars keep going over badly because no one is invested in the actual story, they’re just invested in how badly they’re treated. And that’s a reasonable worry to have because, again, Blizzard has shown they will treat factions badly just by sheer indifference.
