The Battle of the Barrens
A mournful Malfurion returns to the Firelands, desperate and distraught. Anduin’s simpering peace has failed to appease the Night Elves. Praying at Leyara’s Grave, Malfurion receives a vision…and a dark scheme is hatched.
In Ashenvale, life after the treaty has continued more or less as it always had…save quieter. The ruins of Astranaar loom over the Horde population, a grim reminder of their continued failures. A slow and steady stream of Horde civilians trickles between Zoram’gar Outpost and Splintertree, overseen by a mostly skeleton crew of Horde heroes.
But suddenly, a distant light illuminates the night. Before anyone can realize what’s happening, a massive fire engulfs the forest and begins devouring the civilians. Shamans attempt to control the flame, only to find themselves engulfed. This is no ordinary flame.
The Horde’s attentions are torn between figuring out how to stop the fire and how to protect the civilians. They divide their forces, as one band protects the civilians and ushers them toward the Barrens. The latter goes in search of the source of the flame and finds Night Elf extremists stalking them, claiming that they would rather see the land in cinders than in the hands of the Horde.
The Horde discovers a seed from the Firelands feeding the flames…but no one guarding it. Strange. But the reasoning becomes all too clear in an instant. The Cenarion Circle descends from Nordrassil and discovers Ashenvale ablaze…and the Horde wielding the seed.
The Circle turns its full wrath toward the Horde as the forces realize the Night Elves have set them up to appear as villains wreaking havoc against the land. Refusing to listen to their pleas of mercy, the Horde forces divide further, sending their core up to reinforce the civilians as the flanks stay behind to try to delay the vengeful Druids before they’re destroyed.
The insidiousness of the Night Elves’ plan, however, doesn’t truly hit until the Horde, overburdened by civilians, reaches the Barrens. Night Elf guerrillas attack from saberback, riding in and attacking before fleeing. Their grim plan becomes clear as they ignore the Horde’s champions and target the civilians.
There was never a strategic point to this. It was always about vengeance.
The Horde’s forces engage in a desperate battle against Alliance harriers as they’re driven back to the Crossroads, but they’re outnumbered and desperate. Over a thousand civilians flee Ashenvale. Fewer than a dozen make it to the Crossroads.
News of the attack shakes the Horde. They prepare for an attack. Anduin is furious. A last-minute diplomatic meeting is called, with Tyrande in attendance. She denies responsibility, but Anduin is skeptical. However, Malfurion arrives a moment later with a surprise witness.
Hamuul Runetotem, Archdruid of the Circle in Malfurion’s absence, recounts how the Circle discovered the Horde toying with an artifact of impossible power and set fire to Ashenvale in their own foolishness, the civilians claimed by the inferno purely the fault of the Horde.
Thrall is flabbergasted, but realizes he’s been outmaneuvered, politically and militarily. If the Horde counterattacks, every neutral faction in Azeroth will come down on their heads, believing them to be attempting another campaign of destruction. Neutered, Thrall returns Ashenvale to Alliance hands, the only means of appeasing the vengeful Circle and maintaining that crucial diplomatic link.
The war ends in a complete loss for the Horde: a slaughtered population and a reputation that means there can be no reprisal. But though the Alliance was “victorious,” Anduin realizes that the Night Elves will crush him if he stands in their way and, much more worryingly, they have proved much, much shrewder than he could have dreamed.
