Warfront: Grim Batol

It’s been awhile simce i did these and I need something to get my mind off of Sylvanas for a bit so i thought i’d bring this back. So for those who are unfamiliar, these threads are just me drafting up potential battlefields for an interesting Warfront in a future patch of BfA.

Today I’m discussing one of the most iconic battle sites in Lore, the cursed and abandoned Wildhammer capital, Grim Batol nesteled in the mountain range overlooking the wetlands.

The Lore: Grim Batol was once the capital of the Wildhammer dwarves but was invaded by the dark irons, led by the wife of Sorecerer Thane Thaurissan, Modgud. The wildhammers sucessfully defended the city, but with her last breath, Modgud left a curse upon it with the ancient dagger, Xal’atath, that would cause the city to become uninhabitable and force the wildhammers to relocate to the hinterlands and other places in the place that would become known as the Twilight Highlands. Years later, during the second war, the dragonmaw orcs used the city as their main base of operations as well as the prison for the Dragonqueen, Alexstrazsa, where they forced her to lay eggs, using the demon soul, to create for dragons for the drakeriders to use. Unbeknownst to the Orcs, they were being manipulated by Deathwing himself, with the help of a lowly goblin. The orcs were eventually routed by a group of heroes comprised of Rhonin, Falstad, and Vereesa Windrunner and the aid of the other Dragon aspects, Malygos, Ysera, and Nozdormu. Then much later during the cataclysm, it was once again occupied by the twilights hammer clan who discovered a large remaining clutch of eggs laid by alextraszsa that they sought to use to create more twilight drakes for thier army, which we players put an end to.

Combatants: Seeing as how Blizzard essentially is using BfA to give nods to the original Warcraft RtS, it’s only natural that they give a nod to the main starts of the second installment “Tides of Darkness” by starring two of it’s biggest players the Dragonmaw orcs on the Horde and the Wildhammer Dwarves on the Alliance. In addition, this particular Warfront would result in unlocking new Dragonmaw and Wildhammer customization options for both Orcs and Dwarves respectively, no new allied race required.

The Plot: So basically, everyone remembers every priests favorite talking knife, friend, Xal’atath. She just so happens to be the very being that once cursed the city of Grim Batol. Due to her power being made dormant after using her to drain Sargeras’s sword, the curse over the city mysteriously dissipates and finally becomes habitable once again. The Horde gets word of this and gets right to work…

The Horde: Till reeling from the decimation of the Zandalari fleet, now seeks a wayto counter the massively powerful Kul’turan navy. To do this, they look back and recognize that the Dragonmaw dragonriders were instrumental in many victories against the Kul’tirans during the second war such as the destruction of Daelin Proudmoore and his fleet. We journey with Gorfax Angerfang in the Highlands to discover an unexpected ally, Warlord Zaela! She had faked her demise in Upper Blackrock spire and seeks nothing more than to return her clan to glory and the destruction of the Alliance. Sylvanas, still has still remembers the role Zaela played in the SoO and isn’t particularly happy to see her alive, but does realize the usefulness of dragonriders, having seen their power when the Horde invaded Quel’thalas during the 2nd war and therefore allows her back into the Horde. Zaela is still iffy about a non-orc being Warchief, but asks forgiveness for siding with Garrosh, believeing he was the key to elevating her clan to greatness. She remembers the PC fondly and still repects them for their aid in freeing her clan from Mor’gor and notes how the player fought with honor during their battle at blackrock. We kick out some wildhammers, slay Kurdran, and re-establish the Bloodgulch as our forward base to attack Grim Batol.

The Alliance:: Being the more reactive faction this expansion, learns of the Hordes’ plans and sends Falstad to reunite the Wildhammer clans, with Anduin having remembered tales of the heroics of the gryphon riders during the second war and how effective they were against dragonriders. Falstad’s former compatriot, Vereesa joins him, remembering Rhonin and have fun little banter between over the course of the questline about who is better dwarves or high elves, being a nice nod to the relationship of LoTR’s Legolas and Gimili, competing on how many orcs they can slay. They kill a bunch of orcs, including Gorfax, and reclaim thundermar as their forward base.

Horde Objectives:
-Secure the Highlands as a forward base of operations in the EK
-Capture Grim Batol and use the remaining Dragon eggs to create and train new dragonriders to use against the Kul’tiran fleet
-Annihilate the wildhammer dwarves and hinder the Alliances acess to Gryphon riders

Alliance Objectives:
-Prevent the Horde from having acess to Dragonriders
-Unite the wildhammer clans under the Alliance banner
-Gain a significant arial advantage over the Horde
-Reclaim Grim Batol as the capital of the Wildhammer

Horde Commanders:

Warlord Zaela: As the leader of the Dragonmaw forces, it seems only natural that she also is a commander in the battle

Lasan Skyhorn: Pretty much volunteers for the highlands mission because he wants to pit his eagle riders against dwarven gryphon riders. The ultimate battle of the birds.

Deathstalker Commander Belmont: Redeployed by Dylvanas herself to keep an eye on Zaela to make sure she doesnt betray the Horde again and fresh from Darkshore and his temporary petrification, he’s back and ready for round two with the Alliance and he isn’t messing around this time either, with a contingent of apothecaries with blight in hand.

Alliance Commanders:

Falstad Wildhammer: Fuming over the loss of his friend and mentor, Kudran, he’s ready to slay the Horde by storm and hammer and drop death from above.

Vereesa Windrunner: There for her friend and companion, Falstad and understands his loss to the Horde and swears that she will hell avenge him by pining Horde skulls against the trees of the highlands.

Cyrus Crestfall: Remembering the horrors of the Dragonriders during the second war, he’s suited up once again and is ready to bring battle to the enemies of Kul’tiras and is dedicated to preventing their return. He is flanked with some of the finest veterans Kul’tiras has to offer. (Both him and Belmont are the first commanders that will involve multiple NPCs to fight)

If you have any other questions on this concept please do not hesitate to ask. If there is any lore i missed or if there are better characters to fill the role of commanders.

Additional Thoughts
Personally, i thought this kind of warfront would be a great way to reintroduce Zaela in a big way. I absolutely adored her character when we met her in cataclysm and i was really peeved when she was just another good orc character we had to kill off in Garrosh’s failed crusade against non-orchood and i though she definitely deserves another chance. Female orcs are something that we surprisingly have a lack of, and Zaela was the embodiment of everything we need in a female orc imo. Assertiveness, a strong voice actress, a unique skillset and identity, and relatability. I also really love Falstad in HoTs and all dwarves in general. Huge fan of Muradin in the Stromgarde warfront, he just has the beat banter and boistrous personality that we really just need more of from the Alliance rather than just the generic, serious, righteous good guy attitude that humans generally possess. But seriously though, Falstad in HoTs is really great, he’s great in the war campaign, and i really hope we get more dwarf stuff in general. Because as it stands, they’re easily one of the most powerful and versatile members of the Alliance with strong magic capability due to their titan heritage, physical strength, and powerful tools like War golems, mole machines, gryphon riders, siege tanks, ect.

3 Likes

I just talked to a Wildhammer Dwarf in Kul Tiras that said that his clan was wiped out.

Are there more Wildhammers left?

There are smaller family clans within the larger Wildhammer population. That guy was probably from the Twilight Highlands, where a lot of the dwarves were killed. There’s still plenty of other Wildhammers around, especially in the Hinterlands which is where their capital, Aerie Peak, is located.

1 Like

The thing about Wildhammers is that there’s a whole bunch of sub-clans. Like you got the Dunwald family clan or the Thundermar family clan. It’s similar to the house caste system seen in Game of Thrones or Kul’tiras.

1 Like

I have a problem with this.

Most of the post sounds alright. Would be fun. Such a nod to WC 2 would be interesting and welcome, especially in an expansion about Call Backs.

I just don’t know about bringing her back. I think she is a fun character and is best left as is. She had a great arc in cata, rose in the ranks, chose the wrong side, doubled down, and lost.

She already had a miraculous survival from SoO and she fell in WoD. I think thats good to leave as is.

(I know this was your haven from Sylvanas but… )

Sylvanas delivers great lines often - and her comments about Zaela are among my favorite NPC lines during a boss fight.

“Bring her down quick - so I can wrap my fingers around her neck.”

I am not a fan of embracing every villain in the world. Whatever Ashvane is going to do for Sylvanas already has me concerned.

I just can’t say the same. I mean as is, WoD already was a trashheap of a narrative. Rushed plot and storylines that went all over the place. I just think that was such a crap ending for Zaela. It’s the same issue i had with Garrosh getting killed, it’s like, what’s even the point of even having them survive SoO if they’re going to get offed straight away at the top of the expansion immediately after?

Not only that, but her death served absolutely no purpose in the greater narrative whatsoever, she was just a dungeon boss just to be a generic dungeon boss and it was a terrible misuse of a potentially great character.

Even I’ll admit that Sylvanas in SoO was one of her high points. And she was only in it for, like, maybe 5-7 mins, but her banter with Lor’themar is such a classic enjoyable Sylvanas moment:

“Oh, you’re still here? I had kind of hoped you perished. You would make a very attractive corpse.”

To which Lor’themar responds with:

“I will take that as a compliment.”

But i’d find it really interesting seeing Sylvanas interact with a character like Zaela, who was trying to kill her not to long ago and whom she wanted to kill. Not only would it be interesting, but it would also lead to some fun banter between the two. Sylvanas needs the Dragonmaw, so she’d have to tolerate her and Zaela needs the Horde so she’d have to tolerate a non-orc warchief. I just think it would lead to some more enjoyable Sylvanas moments that dont involve her smiling and taking pleasure out of watching people burn alive.

Hey, man, if the Horde is going to be evil this expansion, then i say we go all out. Honestly, my other choice was going to be that Cho’gall being raised from the dead by the Old gods and instructed to once again serve the Horde for a time. Im incredibly doubtful that Sylvanas wouldn’t accept a powerhouse like Cho’gall during a time where the Horde could use more powerful figures. And i’d just find the banter between them would be brilliant. Pragmatism and Insanity, and Cho’gall just seems loke he’d be amazing in a cinematic. He’s just such an entertaining character.

That guy was part of the Doyle clan, a smaller clan under the WIldhammer umbrella. His brother he mentions was an NPC in Twilight Highlands back during Cata questing, where we learn the Doyles were wiped out.

wow.gamepedia . com/Stubborn_as_a_Doyle
wow.gamepedia . com/Keeland_Doyle

1 Like

I would love to see Grim Baton taken back and fixed up by either the horde or a Dwarven Clan. I love how the inside looks…