Most notably the exciting world of illicit organ harvesting!
But seriously though the Forsaken Worgen rivlarly isn’t so much a rivalry as it is just one side being weirdly precious about a grudge they and they alone care about.
I’m for spooker on spooker violence but think it should be relegated between the Bloodfang and Defilers or some other groups with plausible deniability and located to a ‘We’re destined to do this forever’ BG or EBG located around Fenris Isle and/or Alterac City.
Beyond that Forsaken and Worgen solidarity will ensure they’ll be no meddling with the horror fantasy angle for the foreseeable future.
Glory to Spookislyvania. Bless Elivira. Alghul Akbar. And so on and so forth.
Anything approaching agression between races or factions is being boiled out of the game and we are left with flavourless content. These writers are too afraid to write conflict because they are scared of who it might offend.
Considering how some people react to some content it doesn’t surprise me.
These days its more important be inoffensive as possible than it is to actually entertain anyone.
The Worgen were originally suppose to be a Horde race.
I think sticking them on Alliance will always neuter them. In order to be conflicted or edgy or whatever, you have to a darker side. Blizzard is too allergic to anything negative for the Alliance for this to be happen.
Even if they weren’t, as a secondary race, doomed to limited development, I don’t think you are ever going to see anything but furry characters to the “Alliance Hawk” think that would simply have been done by someone else if they didn’t exist.
I don’t remember hearing about this. Just that it was partly their attempt to draw horde players to the alliance in the same way blood elves did for horde, and a second attempt at a monstrous race since draenei didn’t really satisfy that.
From what I understand, horde were originally going to get ogres for Cataclysm, but size issues and them not wanting to do female ogres made them pivot to goblins so that both factions had a short joke race.
I don’t think that ever was a thing. The Night Elves after all were content to just sit in their forests while the Centaur hunted the Tauren to extinction. I know that there is such a thing as “Tough Love” Friendships, but that’s taking it a bit far.
it was a thing they belong to the cenarion circle, their history is tied, but when the tauren needed the NE they were into a paranoic seclusion, the tauren had messengers to contact them and respected their limits. when they needed their help even their own druids were unaviable and under a deep sleep.
the rest of the NE were defending their grounds from orcs.
I’ll forever die on the hill that blizzard should have leaned heavily into the cursed aspect of worgen. Rather than insta “cure” them in the starting zone, they should have kept the whole potion aspect, but make a stronger one allowing them to return to their human form.
Have the Gilneans join the Alliance but there is this tension, because Gilneans have to take a potion every so often to keep their feral beast in check. Make quests that show what happens when they don’t. Have quests thst shows worgen being savage alongside their allies that make them sideeye and question why they are a part of the Alliance.
Also I’d make the curse hereditary so it does pass down to children, but doesn’t “activate” until they are adults.
Instead we got whatever it is worgen are now where blizzard has made the curse fundamentally change a person to a wolf like creature in body, mind, and soul… but it doesnt pass to their kids? What?
I like your idea Ben except for this part. The Gilneans in particular hate the Forsaken and with pretty good reason. It would take something extraordinary for them to want to make peace let alone want to be friends. How would you achieve this?
I’d like to think of the sanlayn or revendreth found a way to enter the mortal realm and inhabit a place like fenris island (its a keep thats been fairly unchecked on for how long?) that the only ones to notice would be some undead/worgen who are slightly less horde/alliance affiliated than their peers. Maybe they join against a common enemy / intruder to their homeland.
I think worgen fall under the category where they have this huge potential to be an underground sect of badassery except they turn into just another human fighting force who happen to also be wolves. The intro quest where you have to transport underground through a tunnel should be utilized more in the storytelling elements of the game. Yeah maybe a tauren clips through the ceiling but a gnome / running wild worgen should have tiny nooks and crannies that make them feel like they are wild… or just in a world made for somebody larger than them.
The way Blizzard always makes factions work together. Have a common enemy.
My vote is an extremely powerful group of Scarlets. Maybe they have invaded Lordaeron and Gilneas, and are hellbent on killing or cleansing the Forsaken and Worgen.
So we get the two races tentatively working together against the Scarlets, and from there they end up working out their differences as they fight alongside each other to protect their homes.
Hell, if Blizzard would add my idea of worgen beginning to revert back to their feral nature, maybe cause the ritual wasn’t as permanent as they thought, then maybe the Forsaken help with that as a show of good faith?
They the Forsaken are known for their alchemy as well as Gilneans so maybe the two work together to create a potion to help keep the feral nature at bay.
I seriously hope that the Gilneans and Worgen finally reclaim Gilneas as well as Gilnean Towns like Pyrewood and Shadowfang keep along with Ambermill. It’s been like decades and feel like the Heritage Armor Questchain didn’t really gave much story to the Worgen Race other than Tess rejecting the Worgen Curse.
Dont get me started on the Worgen Heritage Quest, having Tess reject the curse and say it needs to die out with this generation of Worgen was straight garbage for racial pride and racial story progression. Cause as you know, I pick worgen to play as a human…
The quest should have been about her accepting the curse and realizing that Gilneans are all about being strong-willed and overcoming the curse. Making it now their greatest strength (you know how the NPCs have been saying for years).
So yeah after the Heritage Quest fiasco I hope to see some cool story beats for Worgen soon, like reclaiming Gilneas.
ALSO, can we talk about how the Heritage Quest goes out of its way to make the worgen curse seem like such a burden, and well, a curse… and yet we NEVER get to actually see this shown in-game? If its so bad SHOW US!
A feel a little bad for the dev that made it, though. IIRC, they were an admitted worgen fan on Twitter so they must have been enthusiastic about making the questline. It’s possible that’s just genuinely how they feel the race is meant to be perceived.
One of most idiotic decisions blizz ever made honestly. They make a pretty cool werewolf race and than just…don’t capitalize on it for some unknown reason. They go all on with the spookyness on the forsaken side, they should have really leaned into the werewolf side for the worgen.
Because like Ben has said numerous times now, nothing had more potentional than the Worgen vs Forsaken in Hillsbrad. That’s years worth of content just between those two races right there
I play Worgen not just for the fun of it but pretty much their race, culture, gilnean pride and legacy of their nation, and just overall being a half man half wolf of a werewolf is freaking awesome.
Plus I think it’s about time Blizzard finally make the Worgens more of a good thing instead of a bad thing when Tess finally becomes a Worgen and leads all Gilneas both Worgen and Human together as One. That is something I much would have rather have seen.
I really gotta go through the Worgen heritage quest, because I have no clue how the conclusion for Tess is “I don’t need to be a worgen if I eventually am leading my people!” when like, a good portion of which are Worgen. Not to mention Genn’s reveal that he became a Worgen too was so cool versus just being a normal human man leading all the Worgens.
Tess feels that she'll never truly be able to understand her people unless she shares the same curse that only some of them have. Genn's like "the hell you say, absolutely not" and Tess is like "if you won't turn me, I'll have the player character do it" and they meet halfway by talking Goldrinn into letting her giving worgenism a test drive in a hypothetical Emerald Dream scenario, because nothing says "werewolf" like informed consent.
Tess dreams about a fictionalized version of the forsaken invasion, she gets angy when she watches her brother die again, and you beat up her doggy soul until she learns that the true strength of her people lies in being Bri'ish instead.
Honestly I feel bad too, especially cause its nice to know some devs care. At the same time, if they want to have the curse be perceived as a curse, actually show us that. Give us quests showing why it’s bad. We dont have that and that sucks.
Which brings me to this, I have no issue with Blizzard writing the worgen curse as being bad. I actually prefer that. Cause what I like about it is that it shows how strong the Gilneans are. They took the curse that overwhelmed their kingdom and turned it into their greatest strength thats what being Gilnean is all about, being headstrong and overcoming stuff. That’s why Gilnean pride is a thing people talk about.
But I do agree I play worgen for everything; the race, the culture, the aesthetic cause who doesn’t want to be a big werewolf badas?? I love everything about worgen and Gilneans, its so interesting. So I hate that Blizzard just reduces them to being Stormwind’s pets while Genn licks Anduin’s boots.
