The attitude of many members of the Horde was that after Teldrassil, the Alliance was coming to destroy them and this time they wouldn’t stop.
But along the way we see that even Jaina and Genn felt like all they wanted was Sylvanas. If the Horde PC gave up and switched sides early after the burning, what kind of situation would they have been in? Aside from loyalty to a morally compromised faction, what would have been the downside if they just stopped fighting the heroes of the story?
PC will follow anyone who’s ready to give him 22 gold
Well I would’ve been calling for a new Warchief after the tree burning, purely so I could throw Sylvanas under the bus since the Horde was obviously divided over what happened.
Otherwise as a Horde PC I enjoyed the brief off-the-chain bloody beats Sylvanas gave us but the lack of respect and an absence of leadership over her clear intent leaves me annoyed and frustrated that this was inevitably going to be a short twisted ride where I get screwed over no matter what I did.
I blame the writers.
well that was a lie.
The alliance could never even hurt a fly.
They would get a finger wag and a now you know what honor is. That is about it they wont punish players well they wont intentionally punish players with more than that.
You help a crazed Death Knight escape his prison and murder his jailer one time and nobody lets you forget it.
The Horde wasn’t divided because of burning the tree. The Horde was barely divided at all. They supported Sylvanas. The Horde racial leaders were divided, but still not by the tree. They were divided because of Sylvanas’s plan with Jaina’s brother. Not saying it makes since, but thats what Blizzard wrote so here we are.
As far as what would happen to the PC the Alliance would of probably jailed him like Saurfang.
It is more accurate to say Derek was the straw that broke the camel’s back. When you talk to Lor’Themar after it is all over he regrets not being able to prevent Teldrassil from burning. Saurfang was out right after Lordaeron fell and clearly despised what happened to Teldrassil from his reaction to it.
Baine doesn’t explicitly mention Teldrassil but it is pretty clear he was against this entire war from the beginning. “We wage war while the Earthmother dies”, as he told Jaina upon returning Derek.
The only reason the rest of the Horde leaders were still on board seemed more out of necessity than being fine with what was happening. It takes time to plan a rebellion and doing so in open war has a lot of risks. They had to be sure that the Alliance wouldn’t steamroll them for trying and that there wasn’t another way.
The player will never be in danger of anything.
titan, old gods, you name it, nothing stops the player.
So what “downside” would be from a story perspective switching sides early?
Well,for starters you would betray your faction fantasy and self respect as a member of the horde by working with the alliance.
You would be also a traitor and a coward for abandoning your people in a war that it was started by your faction, so you will be at the mercy of the alliance.
OR you will end up in the winning side and justifying yourself that you did for the safety of your people.
or that is what i can think of.
Apart from all that,i think that working with anduin, aka ghandi with stereoids was the best thing you could have done.
I don’t think Lor’themar says anything specifically about the tree, just about wishing he could of prevented the path Sylvanas was on. He also said she had the support of the people. Baine is always against any attack on the Alliance.
As I mentioned the racial leaders had division, but for most part only after Jaina’s brother. Not even Baine did anything after the tree. Whether that was the last straw or not is pretty irrelevant, and honestly silly after genocide had already occurred.
The Horde itself meaning the actual population wasn’t all that divided and supported Sylvanas regardless of division apparent in the leaders. Based on the dialogue the combined rebel and alliance army may not of been able to defeat the force still loyal to Sylvnanas until her little horde is nothing slip.
We don’t really get to talk to most of the Horde leadership about Teldrassil, to be fair. Blizzard withheld reactions to it from pretty much everyone that wasn’t Saurfang specifically. But what they say much later paints a clear picture that they weren’t on board with the war as it was going.
Derek being the last straw is pretty silly, I’ll grant you. I don’t even really see how it is different from killing that one woman and bringing her back as a Forsaken that we were apparently supposed to see as acceptable? Because Voss cared for her after? That seems creepy as Hell to me but eh. Forsaken.
Forsaken racial identity has been erroded since cata
When you do the quests in Orgrimmar as a Sylvanas loyalist you find a bunch of propaganda posters up with Horde citizens seemingly agreeing with it. When you burn it they attack you (you don’t have to kill them, they have really short leashes so you can just walk away) and the Horde army inside the walls seems to mostly be a handful of Mag’har and a bunch of Dark Rangers. The citizens were also kept inside the city and not allowed to leave, there’s a line of people trying to get to the portals to leave but if you aren’t on an approved list you’re stuck inside the city.
Lor’themar seemed convinced the people were on Sylvanas’ side, but they didn’t show that very well to the loyalist player. The city felt more like a hostile occupation with citizens keeping their heads down than a Sylvanas stronghold.
The alliance and rebels were concerned they couldn’t defeat her with their combined forces. They also mentioned her army had the best chances of defeating N’zoth. She had a significant portion of the horde in her corner, and that was after the rebellion started. We were discussing whether the horde was divided after she burnt the tree
I could ask the same but in reverse.
If we Horde players were going to be funneled into the role of Alliance lap dogs, why not go with some venom and violence as I am dragged down that dirt road?
Being a Champion of various causes with the resume we have, we would be afforded some flexibility when the dust settles, either way.
The PC is never in danger from anything. As long as we keep paying Blizzard that sweet, sweet sub money, we are all safe as can be.
Did it feel like the Alliance was a legitimate threat to the Horde? Again, for meta game reasons it is almost as hard to feel like either faction is really threatened as it is to feel like our characters are in danger. But the Alliance definitely got some good shots in: they beat back the Horde at Undercity and took out the zone, they rebuilt Stromgarde, they raided Dazar’Alor and killed Rastakhan. So insofar as one faction ever really threatens another…sure , they got some licks in.
If Sylvanas, Anduin, Maiev, or Azeroth must be slain to unlock Pathfinder 2, I will cut them down without honor or humanity.
I don’t know why deciding to side with the faction not pointlessly extinguishing thousands of innocent lives in an inferno is being dragged down a dirt road.
The Horde was and is a terrible mess. The value of blind loyalty to it diminished with Garrosh and dropped off a cliff with Sylvanas.
Imprisoned just like Saurfang was. But less likely to be released by Anduin like Saurfang was because we lack his ability to incite a rebellion.
Which Faction is that?
Anduin admits the Alliance must accept their fault in the evils of Arthas and Daelin. Genn assaulted the Horde at Stormheim and was rebuked by his own High King. Jaina acknowledges that Sunreavers have a legitimate quarrel with her because of her Purge.
Siding with the Alliance marauders will lead to future Horde deaths. At least Sylvanas killed a few Alliance in the process.
If the Horde will be ravaged, taking a few of the Alliance marauders down in due course is fine with me.