You are challenged to end this faction war in one patch.
Given what we know so far and what we can presume from past patches…
You are allowed a live mini-dungeon or raid.
You are allowed one warfront event.
You have 1 movie grade cinematic for 2-3 minutes.
You have 1 enhanced in-game cinematic for 5 or 6 minutes.
You must end the faction war from where it has been left off so far.
Here are your challenges.
Please both factions to the best of your ability.
And also establish the final enemy of the expansion… either Nzoth or Sylvanas.
What will you do?
This can be a fun exercise to see who was able to predict Blizzard accurately and to see maybe one of us does manage to bring this dumpster fire to a satisfying close.
I don’t know what I would do for any of this other than the cinematic. I’d find some way to have the cinematic basically be a full high def version of the Silent Hill Dog Ending with Anduin and Crithito the Pug in the Heart Chamber. Don’t really care how we’d get to that point but that’s exactly the type of ending BfA deserves.
Getting people to punch their monitors or throw their keyboards into the wall is a sign of enjoyment, right?
Best ending IMO would be Horde player character (or hell, even the Alliance PC) facing Sylvanas in a 1v1 Mak’Gora and taking her down in a single player scenario, all the major characters from both sides looking on.
Of course PC Warchief could make for an awkward situation.
As the Alliance and Saurfang’s forces battles Sylvanas’s Durotar is invaded by Naga and Faceless who aid Sylvanas. This horrifies all but the most fanatically devoted to the Dark Lady causing the vast majority of the troops on Sylvanas’s side to defect to Thrall and Saurfang. A shocked Sylvanas tries to retreat only for to be killed by N’Zoth’s agents.
Her remaining agents split with some surrendering, others trying to avenge her and fail, and some even retreat and defect to N’Zoth.
Recognizing that N’Zoth is not an enemy that they can underestimate both the Horde and Alliance vow to unite against him. Nathanos is discovered among the wound and to Tyrande’s outrage healed and protected by the Horde. While Saurfang has no love for Nathanos he can’t allow for the Forsaken to fracture when everybody is needed for the battle against N’Zoth. Though wary of the rest of the Horde, Nathanos ultimately steps up to lead the Forsaken and personally vows to avenge Sylvanas.
Sylvanas’s legacy becomes rather controversial. Her surprise at the fact that N’Zoth’s agents came to aid and later killed her causes loyalists, particularly Nathanos, to declare that Sylvanas was duped by N’Zoth and used as a pawn. Others in the Horde and Alliance however counterclaim that Sylvanas was only surprised because most of her forces defected at the revelation of her working with N’Zoth and that the old god had her killed for her failure. The presence of some her followers forces joining N’Zoth further muddles the waters with some say that they are following Sylvanas’s will and others declare that they were spies all along.
Loyalists players either defect when N’Zoth’s joins the fray or return to the rest of the Horde following Sylvanas’s death. They may disown Sylvanas as an old god servant or declare her innocent and vow to join Nathanos in avenging her.
Though knowing that everybody is needed against N’Zoth Tyrande is not pleased by Nathanos’s survival and Anduin’s tactic permission on his continued existence. A story where the Alliance has internal problems is slowly seeded.
There’s no real way to make all four groups of players happy without having some plot twist involving Tedrassil. There has to be something addressing that event in a way that gives it some sort of less stupid reason for why that went down that way.
So if we are coming up with scenarios to address this impossible dilemma:
I just want Sylvanas’ 4-d chess plan to involve something along the lines of ‘Tedrassil was all fake’ and she somehow did something to capture all the civilians on the tree instead of killing them all. Keeping them alive in secret as some sort of master ‘4-d chess plan’ that will inevitably sound stupid. Have them all being alive be the reason so many Undead Night Elves are actually really okay with joining the Forsaken, and Saurfang learning that fact be the reason the Horde reunifies.
Why we are on fantasy things that could make everything work out for everyone, have Baine be in on the scheme to save all the Night Elves just so he can help the Alliance out more this expansion.
All fake? I was assuming the Night Elves’ bodies were all intact following the burning and reanimated offering them a second lease on life after Elune abandoned them. The sighting of an Undead Night Elf Priestess from the tree seems to confirm my suspicions.
She would be using the same tactics the Valkyr used to get her to make a pact with him. A torturous form of mass brainwashing! She would claim it is not true genocide since she brought them all back yet her methods(causing mass heat stroke and suffocation) would still be torture and the same thing she did to Derek!
Going to use bullet points because I can be a ramblesaurus rex. Also, damn, this is hard.
(RAID) Sylvanas orders Nathanos to attack Thunder Bluff.
– Nathanos launches brilliant attack, isolating major players on the various plateaus. Raid must move from location to location. Bosses include raised night elf characters.
– Nathanos keeps ahead of players, or interferes with fights to make them harder. Takes down (injury, whatever) major NPCs as players take out his forces.
– Nathanos is final boss, you are assisted by Baine, who Nathanos mocks the entire time. When the fight is over, Nathanos has “enough!” moment, locks down raid (however), and prepares to execute Baine.
(Enhanced in game cinematic) A glaive rips through the air, punching right through Nathanos. He drops, professing his loyalty to Sylvanas along with the “She defeated you all before I even arrive” sort of line. Night elves shown descending on Hippogryphs, cleaning up the remainder of Nathanos’s force. Tyrande gets her revenge for Teldrassil, Malfurion.
Warfront: Stormwind: Tearing in through the docks on bat riders and the best zeppelins goblin tech can whip up, Sylvanas has launched a second assault, with the Alliance’s big hitters a world away. Loyalist forces send Stormwind’s defenders reeling, and refugees fleeing deeper into the city. The Alliance defense is centered on the Cathederal square by orders of the King, with most of the civilians huddled inside. Horde control means they have hostages (no slaughter), Alliance win means they are thrown back into the sea.
Movie grade cinematic: Sylvanas is ripping through Stormwind accompanied only by a few dark rangers, perhaps other loyalists that can keep up with her. She dispatches everyone who gets in her way (remember the Nightcrawler White House scene from X-men? Like that, only more deadly.) Her allies are injured or killed one by one, but nobody can touch her. She storms the throne room, shooting Anduin through the wrist and sending his sword skittering away. Camera work echos Arthas’s march to his father. She draws back her bow, and tells him she will have every person in the city slaughtered, unless he surrenders. Anduin glares at her, asks why she is doing this. Asks her how this is good for the Horde, she looks about to answer, but suddenly, the light goes dark, and shadowy tendrils burst through the windows. Sylvanas whips around, draws back her bow… and we cut to Thunder Bluff, where the suddenly Magni’s voice plays out as if coming through the Heart, that something is very wrong- the stars go out, and N’zoths laughter is heard roaring through the sky…
Climactic scene with the Void Lords peering across Azeroth and then the director yells “CUT” and reveals that everything was a movie the whole time.
All the nearby dead soldiers get back up and go get coffee, Sylvanas takes off her wig and starts chatting with Anduin, Saurfang’s mocap/greenscreen effects get turned off to reveal that he’s actually Andy Serkis, and then the camera pans out to reveal Metzen sitting in the director’s chair.
The raid is set up like Dazar’alor with the Alliance and Horde rebels attacking Sylvanas and the Horde defending. Durotar warfront with the same setup.
At the final battle with Sylvanas is actually a fight with npcs who represent the other faction. After the fight there is a loud cracking sound and a giant fissure opens up like its cata all over again. Fishy eye tentacles start slapping around, and one of them scoops up Sylvanas while she is gloating at her enemies. Others grab Allleria, Glenn, Anduin, Baine, Saurfang and maybe Lothmar and Jaina… They are dragged off into the mists as we look up to see the huge sword in Azeroth sink even deeper into the world. There is a moan heard as the world dies
Mangi shows up and gives us a glowy world map look at what has happened. Azeroth is now covered with tentacles, and the Black City of Nylotha is manifesting itself all over the world. Like the Legion invasions before pockets of the Black City will start fading in and out of the world like holograms, and we have to fight them back.
We are told that Sylvanas prolonged and started the war to kill the planet and somehow raise it as undead, as she believed it would keep the world out if the voids grasp if it and everyone in it was already dead like her. She thought if everyone was busy fighting the planet would “bleed” out and die. She was right but didn’t realize that N’zoth would take advantage of it and use Azeroth’s death to take it fully under his control
The next expac is us traveling to the Shadowlands to defeat N’zoth and his new minions: the brainwashed leaders we just lost. Some might be saved. Most will not
What would be cool: Sylvanas is Azeroth’s real champion. Like the ancient greek gods, the Titans are petty and actually love war. Azeroth is dying and this is her way of making us suffer before she dies
Predictions for what Blizzard will do: iT WaS AlL a DreAm. From the creators of WoD timetravel
