Sorry, what was that? I didn’t hear you over the sound of cars zooming by and loud jazz music and Goblins yelling at each other about hot dogs in the place we’ve all been spending all of our time in for the last couple of months.
Anyway, how would the Man’ari on Argus involved in their own existential stuff even be aware of the Horde to join them? The impetus for them coming back was to reunite with the Draenei and repent for their actions.
I ammmmmmmmmm not sure about that. I think it’s the ones that are regretful for the things they’ve done, regardless of if they joined them of their own will (followed the pamphlets) or were conscripted/forced. Penance is a huge part of what they’re about, they call themselves The Penitent. Making up for their evil deeds.
The main main difference is that if you stand up to the evil green musclemen and you fail, you die and then you go frolic in the Shadowlands with the spirits of the ancestors.
But if you, as a Demon, stand up to the literal devil, you will be destroyed. Not killed. Destroyed. Best case scenario your soul ceases to exist. Worst case scenario you go in the soul engines and spend eternity in utter agony as your soul is slowly consumed by the Legion’s war machines, until eventually your soul ceases to exist.
Demons don’t get an afterlife. If they make the wrong choice, there’s no escape.
The legion was already doing that to other people though, and the manari were helping run that. You don’t have to be a demon to face soul destruction in their engines.
But Demons literally don’t have an afterlife. They either respawn or their soul is destroyed. There’s no third option. So even their best case scenario is soul destruction. If you respawn Kil’jaeden gets you again. He isn’t forgiving.
If the Orc rebels fought Blackhand in WC1 and died, they would go to the Shadowlands be happy with your ancestors. Blackhand didn’t have any soul engines.
But if you (a demon) fought Kil’jaeden and died, there’s no Shadowlands for you. Best case scenario your soul is destroyed. Worst case scenario, soul engines.
A man’ari redepmtion arc (if it had to happen at all) needed to be the focus of an entier expansion. Not a 5 quest chain buried in Dragon Flight and a follow up B plot in the Draenei heritage quest.
In Dragonflight they convinced Velen to let them try redemption. And in the Heritage Quest line they took the first step in the journey, helping Velen save the Draenei from the evil Man’ari.
Then Velen announced a new Draenei capital city. That means there’s Draenei-centered content coming. That means we will see the next steps of Man’ari redemption because that’s the only unresolved story the Draenei have left.
The best time for that Narratively would have been when we went to Argus and if there was a group of rebel Eredar who bonded with the Orcs/Blood Elves for being used by the legon.
After that the only opportunity for playable ones would be reconciliation with the Draenei like we got.
Except, you know, orcs drinking demon blood, fel magic destroying souls, things of that nature.
The orcs weren’t just fighting back against other orcs. They rebelled against the same demons the manari served who could, you know, rob them of the afterlife that was still just superstition at the time.
That said, lol the Man’ari scenario really makes the way bliz tried to create a faction divide specifically between the elves (rather than Frozen Throne’s cordial thing) look hilariously petty.
At this point Midnight could 100% go for a “Ishnu alah, night elves” scenario where everyone is almost immediately back to talking like long lost cousins and it wouldn’t be as much of a shocking swerve as the man’ari redemption thing.
a lifetime of community service? community service tends to be unpaid many times a an alternative sentence for a crime and a lifetime is a life sentence
