Sometimes I wonder if I am subconsciously a contrarian, but I am pleased with some of these reveals, while it seems most others are losing their hat, so to speak.
I can’t speak to the quality of the writing as far as entertainment or a good story, without reading it. I am not a fan of Golden’s style, so my expectations are not high. But as far as the lore information and clarifications, I welcome them, and they seem to fit.
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Arthas being a sadistic creep
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Sylvanas sent the ambassadors in good faith and didn’t kill them to be edgy, like I feared would be revealed.
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Sylvanas did not order the events of the Wrathgate and the plague to be used on her allied forces.
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Garrosh bullied her in to invading Gilneas and she had little choice because of the position the Forsaken were in.
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She saw Liam’s death as an unfortunate turn of events, and had some empathy about it, even if it was a twisted version.
I mean, we get information and details on events that had a lot of vagueness. I like that. At the same time, they aren’t exactly jaw dropping earth shattering lore events being unveiled in a novel - it is fluffy details about events we know.
People complain that big events happen offscreen in a novel. And people complain that a novel is all details and fluff with no big events.
I guess it is en vogue to bash on Blizzard and Golden, but I am enjoying the lore details and clarifications.
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They eat people so it all has to go somewhere…
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Don’t the argents in Cata EPL have every EK player race and then some present too?
Pretty sure in the book it had to do with the fact that they were going to meet Calia, a woman with an actual claim to her throne. Before that there was no contender to the throne of Lordaeron (except Arthas, technically), so working together with humans in a neutral faction like the Argent Dawn (who had their headquarters next door, in the Eastern Plaguelands) was less of a problem.
Trolls, Orcs, Humans, you name it.
My one takeaway from this book because I’m me and this is my ship…
… is that maybe now that she has her soul complete she can now get in on with Nathanos in the Maw and Dori’thur will be forced to watch… so that’s something to look forward to.
I might just go write fanfic about that now.
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He’ll see the bird and think they’re an item somehow
Nathanos: “… does the bird have to watch?”
Sylvanas: “I swore an oath to submit to Tyrande’s judgement. And this is what she desired.”
Dorithur: “hoot!”
Sylvanas: “Tyrande wants to see if her blade left some kind of soul scar on your neck.”
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Tyrande - I wonder if Sylvanas is doing what I tasked her to do
looks through Dori’thur’s eyes
recoils in disgust at the sight of rough lovemaking
“Treacherous Banshee!”
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Yeah it’s a true rainbow coalition. And it’s across the duck mothering street from Andorhal. They’re neighbors with Hearthglen.
But BtS was just all over the place. The Forsaken having book contraband is bizarre as well. Regimes try to destroy knowledge to erase a history. You can’t do that with the Forsaken for obvious reasons. They’re the one faction that makes zero sense for because a generation can’t die out and be replaced with one the truths hidden from.
Also - they’re the only eyes optional faction! So I figured books were of limited value anyway!
She just decided to have Sylvanas do stuff scary regimes do with no thought to why those things are done or what they hope to accomplish. The Forsaken are literally the one playable faction where that sort of thing isn’t just a dumb retcon, but completely ineffectual.
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And how many Forsaken players cared for Lordaeron anyway? They were written to be the cool chaotic evil faction, ideal for rogue players. The goth faction with warlocks and shadowpriests.
If I was Sylvanas and I wanted to police my population then I would be using body parts as rewards and punishment.
Say something I don’t like? remove the tongue.
Behave well? Here have your tongue back.
Since you know forsaken seem to be able to re-attach body parts like a car. So if you have someone who is saying you don’t like or going where you don’t want its very easy to deal with that.
Like… that sure is a nice book Mr. Graves would be a shame if I took your eyes and gave them to your assistant instead.
Some do, some don’t, some weren’t even Lordaeronian to begin with. More than a few from Dalaran, Gilneas, Alterac and at least one unlucky bastard from Westfall who picked a terrible time to go see Lordaeron.
The Forsaken were pretty free to be about w/e they wanted. Even if that included not being part of the Forsaken. That was Sylvanas’s most interesting quality. She was not a tyrant to her own and for pretty self evident reasons. Hell taking an undead’s free will appears to be the only real crime they’ve.
Anyway in BtS she murders them by the bushel for wanting to leave the Forsaken and then in BFA she tries to supplant an undead’s free will.
Voss and only Voss comments on this staggering abandonment of the fundamental difference between Sylvanas and the Scourge. In a bit of optional dialogue.
And honestly I’m appreciative of whoever put that in. It was something at least.
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It’s as hilarious as it’s unnecessary. Sylvanas was an experienced ruler who defended the Forsaken against multiple threats, Calia was just an inexperienced girl with a title. She didn’t have to fear anything.
Well I mean the Forsaken are unlike any normal population.
Imprisoning is meaningless. They never age or die.
Torture? Maybe but it would be peanuts compared to what they already lived through.
So honestly, if I think of the forsaken instead of money used as currency I can only think about body parts. Need new legs? Well here you go fresh from the Hinterlands!
Makes me think of that forsaken female joke
“Yes they are real! They aren’t mine but they’re real!”
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Which makes me wonder why she needed them and why she took them from someone else in the first place? they are not functional.
They cannot be used in battle, or maybe they can… I picture Alynsa or Sledge’s voice in my head yelling “Battlebreasts!” Imagine if you can take them off and use them like nun-chucks. “Wha-ta!”
Forsaken are an interesting race and Forsaken sexuality should be something the lore explores. They should never have removed the adult humor from the game. They just shouod have modified it, it would be funny if she said “if I ever find myself without a weapon, I can fashion myself a bola.” What’s funnier than an undead being able to take off her breasts and use them as a weapon? That’s the body humor I signed up for when I rolled a Forsaken.
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Forsaken lady just wanted an upgrade and she didn’t even need an appointment with a plastic surgeon. She just DiY’d her own boob job which is absolutely hilarious.
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At some point they forgot or stopped caring Dark Rangers were banshees wearing their dead bodies like a suit of power armor. Because that would explain it.
But at some point they became just any undead elf who knows how to use a bow. They always struck me as being distinctly miserable too. In contrast to their undead human counterparts who ironically make the Forsaken one of the more lively factions.
I always figured it was because the elves had a somewhat intrinsic connection to nature. It’s fainter in the Quel’Dori but as quests in Eversong show you, many like the Farstriders feel a more intimate connection with the wilds.
So my hypothesis was that feeling being lost is what made them so melancholy. This would especially make sense for the Kaldorei who of course feel that call of the trees much more intensely. There’s a bit in SR where the Dark Warden is just furious at all this life in Nazmir and wants to kill it.
And I’m picturing that dude from Paxton’s squad who was really upset his garden was destroyed in the UC. Just happily growing flowers while this elf rages at the concept of a bog.
But turns out maybe that’s not the intimate connection they were missing out on.
Idk Sylvanas you’ve a whole wing of a city dedicated to magical chemistry. I get it might be a little embarrassing but these are professionals. I’m sure they would’ve tried to cook something up to solve that problem.
I’ve now decided that’s the origin of the Crown Chemical Co.
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I wonder if we are ever going to get an answer as to why Blizzard needed Night Elf undead.
Why they would join the forsaken in the first place right after getting killed by their leader and now what they are doing in Lordaeron when they were not even banished by the other night elves.
Its all just so bizzare.
I really think initially they just wanted the Horde to be going full scourge then they walked it back.
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There’s a passage I think in War Crimes where Sylvanas laments her disconnection to nature and trees. It makes her sad because as an elf she liced having a special connection to nature.
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