If Sylvanas becomes a big bad and the rest of the horde turn on her, what will become of the Forsaken?
For the sake of game mechanics at least, let’s assume the Forsaken remain a faction of the Horde. Assuming we must defeat Sylvanas, will the Forsaken still be a welcome part of the Horde?
I keep trying to type an answer but I find myself arguing from two sides: Lore vs. In-Game Mechanics and Balance.
What would likely happen due to Game Mechanics:
Same thing that happened to the Orcs after we downed Garrosh. We assume the ones we fought during the Siege were the loyalists, and the rest are left to forge their cultural identity in the aftermath. The Forsaken cant just split off and go be their own faction, and you cant suddenly tell players they cant play Forsaken anymore; so if Sylvanas gets Raid-bossed, you have to let the Forsaken players keep playing… Which means writing in that Sylvanas finally went too far even for her own people, and the Forsaken Players close their eyes and button-mash during the boss fight.
The more Lore-Appropriate outcome:
Though there are examples of Forsaken who struck out on their own to find their own path sprinkled throughout Azeroth, the overwhelming bulk of the Forsaken are fanatically loyal to their Queen. They even greet each other with “Dark Lady watch over you”, she’s not just their beloved savior/leader, she’s a core aspect of their cultural identity. Even after Teldarassil, I just dont see a lot of Forsaken leaving her side. That being said though, the defection at Arathi showed that there is a growing change in the Forsaken identity. It does seem that some are wanting to reconnect with their past, or move on to find what else is out there for them. Depending on how many of them feel this, you may see some Forsaken choose Horde over Sylvanas… but I still think the bulk stay with her. Lore-wise, Raid-bossing Sylvanas means going through almost an entire Playable Race to take her down.
Honestly, I know we rib the Writers a lot on here, but something still feels different to me about this expansion. It’s obvious that they are purposefully mirroring Siege of Orgrimmar, but I still think there is a strong possibility this doesnt play out like we think it will.
I admire your positivism and faith in the writing team at this point. We’ve been disappointed so many times that SOO 2.0 is the most likely scenario.
More on topic:
Forsaken will always be a playable Horde race no matter what happens in the story. Now, this probably mean we will get a mediocre and lame excuse for that
I just had an idea. Do you think Sylvanas’ defeat will involve the Lich King? Bolvar made some pretty ambiguous remarks during the DK artifact quest chain, and Ner’zhul likely still has a bone to pick with Sylvanas. Perhaps he’ll take her place among the Forsaken, which might open things up for the next xpac.
This is all assuming Nathanos is slain before Sylvanas.
So you’re clarifying the difference between being a part of the Horde and being a welcome part of the Horde. Fair enough.
I guess it’s a question of whether Blizzard believes it can pull enough story value from a “Forsaken as outcasts even of their own faction” story to justify kicking Forsaken players while they’re down. Maybe?
Hell, maybe Blizzard thinks that the players of Forsaken characters will like being the renegades of the Horde so much that it wouldn’t be kicking them to make them feel unwelcome.
Personally, my hopeful answer is that this expansion ends with a huge amount of distance being placed between the Forsaken and the rest of the Horde. I’ve never been a fan of the “family” narrative - the Kalimdor races can be family, sure, but the Eastern Kingdoms races are supposed to be allies of convenience. It’s a better dynamic.
I hardly doubt it, there is no reason given for him to involve in all of this mess right now. Bolvar commands the Scourge, if he starts leading The Forsaken (God forbid) that would mean Forsaken=Scourge which is a huge contradiction in everything the Forsaken culture stands for.
Bolvar should remain independent. He is far to significant and powerful to join a faction.
As for the Forsaken, they are getting painted in a more sympathetic light than the Orcs were in MoP and there was literally no fall out from that. I mean we had Darkspear trolls getting fed to Protodrakes and there were almost no orcs in the Darkspear rebellion. It was only after the fact that we found out that the orc population wasn’t completely behind Garrosh and we only found that out by Tweet.
As a result, I expect very little fallout from this on the inter faction relations.
Nothing will happen to them. They’ll fade back into irrelevancy until the Alliance needs a new antagonist or the Wrath 2.0 expansion comes out where they’ll still be irrelevant but hey, we’ll see some Forsaken guards or something.
Well, they could pull a Desolate Council, develop their own culture and identity that is much less Scourge-based, and become valuable members of the Horde, vastly expanding it’s medical capabilities by having the Royal Apothecary Society looking into curing diseases and developing potions and elixirs to heal Horde Soldiers.
Maybe. That’s certainly the course that would allow their attention to more quickly move on to the plot and development of the next expansion. Plus, they are strongly incentivized by the current Forsaken population to not rock the boat too much and their first loyalty, in terms of Forsaken development, will be to the players that are still playing because of the Forsaken.
Still, this is a legitimate opportunity to streamline and modify the Forsaken as a faction and the developers would have to be fools to not explore some player feedback to make happier and more invested customers. If only to avoid bleeding players when one of their most popular characters gets set on fire and kicked into the void.
I’m right there in the same boat with you. I am not a hardcore RP-er by most people’s standards, but I do it enough that my Forsaken Alt would get booted from that raid every time…
Raid Leader: “Dude, I know this is LFR, but what the @#$% are you DOING?! Are you even using your combo points or just spamming whatever you have tied to your 1 Button? Dont think I havnt noticed you stop attacking every time she has a long Cast as if you’re politely letting her have her rebuttal!”
My Forsaken Alt:*smashing my pointer finger on random buttons while ugly crying …“I’M SORRY DARK LADY! I SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN BOOTY BAY THIS EXPANSION! I WANNA GO HOME TO UNDERCITYYYYYY!” … *more ugly crying…
For the sake of argument, lets say Sylvanas IS cast out. There are a few ways to handle this.
Play Along: Perhaps before Sylvanas leaves, she tells the Forsaken to “play along” because she might need the Horde later.
She owns her crimes to spare her people: Perhaps she admit her crimes, and commands her people to take any pardons or forgiveness the Horde will give them. Sort of a “I will suffer for our sins” moment.
Total Rejection: The Forsaken learn their faith was misplaced. They learn that Sylvanas cares little for anything except herself and her opinion. When she is removed, their story is completely rewritten to something new.
I’d like to believe they have some grand plan for Forsaken going forward that appeals to Forsaken players and not human paladins but after MoP/WoD and their handling of Orcs, I’m not going to hold my breath for too long waiting for meaningful development.
If she’s a raid boss I doubt she dies, it’ll be like Jaina. Hopefully she has some really annoying trash gauntlet that can only be experienced Alliance side too
Anyway, part of me hopes Sylvanas makes it out of this better than Garrosh did. I really don’t know what they can do with the Forsaken without her… aside from Calia taking her place (puke). But at this point I don’t know how they can possibly redeem/reintegrate her to the Horde. There’d have to be some realllly big twists for that. Something of “Teldrassil was corrupted I saved the world by burning it and everyone in it” kind of crazy.
So my point is, Sylvanas has no clear path out of this and by extension neither do the Forsaken.
I imagine a lot would end up dying with her Siege of Orgrimmar style. The rest would probably look for another central figure or reform a council system.