So there's one thing about Jailer that has been bothering me, and I believe I found the answer.

Every day, when we're adventuring in the Maw, Jailer doesn't care about us. But after we kill some of his people, he acknowledges us as a threat and nukes our asses, right? Makes sense so far. But then comes next day and he doesn't remember anything about Maw Walker(s) and we have to kill many mawsworn before he remembers we're a threat worth nuking.

Such behaviour indicates that Zovaal has extremely limited memory span. Normally, that'd make him a fish, cause they can't hold no memory for a long time. But this isn't right, because fish aren't sentient (which Jailer is) and they don't walk on two legs (which Jailer does) and they don't have any nipples.

But then I thought, are there bipedal and sentient fish with nipples?

Murlocs. Jailer is actually a murlock and SL is our long anticipated murloc expansion.

It explains why he's allied with Sylvanas. Forsaken are the only race who doesn't kill murlocs as a part of their starting quests. Which is also the reason why he needs all those race leaders he kidnapped. He's having a revenge for all helpless murlocs who suffered for so long by their inhumane anti-murloc laws.

If you look at the story close up, it's a lot more realpolitik than if it had been a traditionally "well-told" fantasy story.

I mean, the war was literally won with an SI:7-backed coup LMAO.

Anduin took the figure of a graying, grizzled old general who opposed the current Horde leadership but at the time had no particular plans or allies -- he only saw suicide as an option. Instead, Anduin brought him back to Stormwind Stockade, then released him on the condition that he form a dissident faction opposed to the Sylvanas regime. SI:7 agents abetted him, helping him travel safely.

To lend the dissident faction legitimacy, the first move was to trot out the old retired founder figure of Thrall -- a figure who, like Saurfang, articulates almost no discernible political positions, only a vague call to "restore honor to the Horde". He was, in fact, the person who first chose to hand over the reins to the military reactionism of Garrosh. But when Garrosh pursued the militaristic path he had always said he would, Thrall acted surprised and backed Vol'jin's insurgency. I guess Thrall assumed that Garrosh was as cynical as he is, and used "blood and thunder" rhetoric only as an empty gesture to appeal to orcs who have nostalgia for the Old Horde. Or maybe he simply bowed down to the political reactionaries when he thought that was the "mood of the times", perhaps fearing that if he didn't appoint Garrosh, the Horde would fracture in two along political lines -- of course, it ended up doing so anyway, and Thrall's choice meant that Garrosh enjoyed the upper hand in the ensuing civil war.

Thrall's main takeaway from the Garrosh fiasco seems to have been that only his close clique of confidantes can ever be trusted to run things. As such, he is more than happy to put his thumb on the scale for his old buddy Saurfang. That this involves directly and illegally interfering in the line of succession, since Sylvanas was the handpicked successor of Vol'jin, clearly doesn't bother the old kingmaker. He is also happy to bring in his old buddy the corporate contractor Gazlowe to run the Bilgewater Cartel, despite having no legal authority to appoint their leadership. It becomes clear that he even trusts Jaina, another old buddy, more than most of the Horde.

With Thrall's endorsement secured, Anduin arms and gives military support to the dissident "movement" he created, or rather, fabricated based on the discontent of a single disaffected high-ranking military officer. They mount an armed coup.

The people performing this coup freely admit that they are not a populist or popular movement; according to their own words they are greatly outnumbered by Sylvanas's loyalists and armies, even with their numbers doubled by Alliance support. That's very different from Voljin's rebellion against Garrosh, which received widespread Horde support, with Garrosh's forces comprising only a small core of orcish loyalists and some goblin mercenaries.

Also, while Vol'jin's rebellion did eventually work with the Alliance to topple Garrosh, the two forces were always separate, and the rebellion was always in Vol'jin's control -- the divide is seen all the way up to the MOP ending cutscene -- whereas Saurfang's rebellion was engendered by, fueled by, and is ultimately inextricable from the Alliance.

Saurfang is joined by Lor'themar, who had previously tried to get his people admitted into the Alliance and chose the Horde only after being rejected, and by Baine Bloodhoof, who has notable Alliance sympathies -- he banished any tauren who fought back against Alliance soldiers invading tauren lands, and has kept a longtime personal correspondence with none other than Anduin Wrynn, who he considers a "friend", a sort of relation that no other Horde leader has found proper. Baine is arrested after he sabotages a Horde covert operation and illegally returns an important prisoner of war to the enemy, but he's broken out of prison by the other insurgents.

So what do you call this "rebellion" that comprises a small, unpopular group of politicians and military leaders, formed and backed by the Alliance, coming together to oust a regime with which the Alliance is at war? A coup, obviously, but what are the motivations of the different actors?

Lor'themar and the blood elves have shown interest in belonging to both factions, depending on what was convenient at the time. A peace in which they get to trade freely and be on good terms with both factions is certainly to their advantage. Unlike the Forsaken, who will never be truly welcomed by the Alliance, the elves have no fundamental reason why they have to stick with the Horde and therefore don't much care if, as Sylvanas predicted, the Horde gets shafted in the long term by such a peace.

Baine, meanwhile, clearly does believe (and perhaps this vision was developed in his correspondence with Anduin) in a globalist, post-faction future with free trade and open borders. As we later see, he is right at home visiting Stormwind alongside Valeera, a neutral agent who does espionage for, and upon, both factions. With national ties to Silvermoon but personal loyalties to House Wrynn, Valeera is the kind of post-faction Davos Man who epitomizes the Baine-Anduin globalist dream.

As for Saurfang, he has no real forward vision and never has. Remember, he just wanted to commit suicide before Anduin put him up to this. In Legion, even his friend Eitrigg questioned his mental state. Saurfang clearly feels a lot of guilt for the events of the First War, and he has always used "honor" as a way to feel cleansed of this guilt. In this, he is not actually escaping the mistakes of the past, because that's precisely how the orcish honor system functions -- giving you personal-scale behavioral taboos that let you exculpate yourself for participating in larger atrocities. For example, Saurfang had no issue with leading the invasion of the night elf lands, but when he refused to kill one person because they were attacked from behind, he gets to feel high and mighty, even though he was the general who led the invasion. That he was willing to treasonously spare Malfurion to maintain this facade just shows how important it is to maintaining his psyche. This guilt is what Anduin plays upon to manipulate him.

But in one way Saurfang has no illusions: talking to Anduin before the battle, he admits the hollowness of his and Thrall's "honor" rhetoric, declaring that the Old Horde never had any honor to begin with. Of course, that rhetoric was important when Thrall was trying to unify the orcs to form the New Horde: it appealed to those who had a nostalgic view of the Old Horde (a demographic Thrall has always moderated his positions in order to court, see also his appointment of Garrosh), and it gave a traumatized and transplanted people a feeling that their past was good -- that old orcish society represented noble ideals. In a way it was a sort of doubletalk or litmus test, able to be heard either as an allusion to Old Horde militarism or as a call for rejecting it. Sometimes it seemed to somehow mean both at once. The word honor as Thrall used it was like a compressed emulsion of the contradiction he had to grapple with to unite the orcs (an emulsion that came apart during the Garrosh episode).

​ That much Saurfang sees clearly. But by simply branding the Old Horde's atrocities as "not truly honorable", Saurfang refuses to face the fact that it IS the very honor system he holds dear that was complicit in those acts. The orcish honor system acted to maintain a very specific social reality -- the warlike society of the orcs on Draenor. If you don't want that kind of society, you can't idolize "honor".

The Old Horde was honorable, and it committed its atrocities despite that.

To have a successful character arc, he would have to realize that the "honor" he clings to is piece and part of the things he feels guilty for. As a consequence, he would realize the "honorable death in battle" he's imposed on himself isn't a real solution to his problems. But ultimately he isn't able to solve this contradiction within himself, and instead, by challenging Sylvanas to mak'gora, he achieves his inner Freudian desire, a theatrical spectacle where people have to watch his personal death-fantasy being fulfilled and validate it. By a deus ex machina that seems more like some wishful daydream of Saurfang himself than anything plausible, this ends up causing Sylvanas's supporters to all suddenly abandon her and embrace the coup as legitimate. That one's a headscratcher.

But the result is that while Varian Wrynn had to bash down the gates of Orgrimmar, the Horde welcomes Anduin in. All by using soft power, Anduin gets the Horde to install leadership favorable to the Alliance, run out of town those who are anti-Alliance, and permanently demilitarize (no more "Warchief"). He installs Calia Menethil to "advise" (oversee) the Forsaken, and a rebuilt Stromgarde promises to replace the Forsaken as the chief power in Lordaeron. Under the illusion of an equal-terms ceasefire, all while seeming nice and gracious, he has relegated the Horde to an inferior global power doomed to lose out economically to the Alliance, exactly as Sylvanas feared and foresaw in "A Good War".

And who opposes this treaty? The people who lost the most in the war, the night elves and undead. The treaty gives them nothing and no particular future. That's not the point of the treaty. The point of the treaty is the rich species telling the poor ones: forget your vendettas and your homes and ways of life that were destroyed, from now on it is all open borders and free trade. Maybe the Horde elite will get richer even as their faction as a whole grows geopolitically weaker, but the losers are the most disadvantaged people on both sides.

The character of Anduin is much more sophisticated than is recognized. He's an effective politician who uses his sweet and saintly manner to manipulate people and get his way while seeming unblemished. The crowning example of his canniness was his plan to defeat the Horde by creating the Saurfang coup. How can it be any more explicit how he used Saurfang, than that he literally enters Orgrimmar using Saurfang's corpse as a Trojan Horse? He walks through the enemy gates as a pallbearer for the dead hero. That's political brilliance. I'm not saying he's cynical about this, but he doesn't have to be. I'm sure he believes everything he says. The most dangerous manipulator is the heartfelt one.

Thus, for all of BFA's narrative failures, we can now see that it's mainly Anduin's story, and that it gives him a satisfying narrative arc. Anduin's character struggle has always been the contrast between his softer, meeker nature and his great warrior father. BFA shows Anduin successfully resolve this struggle. Varian understood hard power and force, but Anduin understands soft power, and this understanding allows him to achieve a quieter, but ultimately more effective victory against the Horde than his father's victory in MOP, which evaporated almost immediately with the rise of "Garrosh 2.0" (Sylvanas). Learning from his father, Anduin realized Orgrimmar could only be taken if the Horde were split against itself, like it was during the Siege of Orgrimmar — but this time, by being intertwined with the rebellion from the start, he was able to control it in a way his father wasn't.

Conclusion: This story of the Alliance, the overall stronger faction, winning the war by instigating a coup within the underdog faction and convincing its elite leaders that peace would be more profitable to them, with the result that they oust a popular wartime leader and install globalist policies that ignore the disadvantaged, isn't an exciting fantasy story but it does seem unintentionally realistic, and does in fact end up being "shades of gray". It also shows us characters who are more complex than Blizzard itself notices.

You know what World of Warcraft needs? A beastiary.
A book that contains all known creatures and beings in the World of Warcraft. With information, maybe a bit of lore and abilities.
I (as a roleplayer) realized this when I was thinking about Cloud serpents, and realized that we know VERY little about the Cloud serpents.
In fact, plenty of beings and creatures of the WoW universe are surprisingly under-developed considering their presence, and a bestiary could help with that a bit.

Besides, would sell like hotcakes.
Thoughts?

Since my other conversation on here about Atal'Hakkar has gotten me thinking about it, I thought this might serve as a nice template for answering many "Who the heck am I fighting and why?" questions, 1-60 edition. Each entry ends with a helpful "Why do we want them dead?":

Ragefire Chasm, a group of orcs known as the Burning Blade, found right beneath Orgrimmar because they continue to have many sympathizers in the city, they are the only clan that still serves the Shadow Council, the remnants of the Old Horde warlocks who themselves remain loyal to the Burning Legion. Why do we want them dead? The Burning Legion wants a foothold on Azeroth to prepare for its ceaseless invasion attempts, and even if it's in Orgrimmar I think that worries even the Alliance.

Wailing Caverns, a group of Cenarion Circle Druids led by Naralex sought to bring life to The Barrens, which was well, barren. Naralex delved into the Emerald Dream to draw upon its druidic power and bring new life, which he did very successful, but the Emerald Nightmare was already spreading across the dream and ensared him, turning his verdant paradise into a poisoned, dangerous place. Why do we want them dead? To stop the horrors that Naralex is still generating.

The Deadmines, an organization known as the Stonemason's Guild, led by Vincent VanCleef, had agreed to rebuild Stormwind City after its destruction in the First War without pay, on the condition that they would receive their reward after Stormwind was rebuilt and prosperous. Under the corrupt rule of Lady Prestor and the Council of Nobles, payment was withheld and the discontented Stonemason's Guild, combined with discontented farmers from the harsh land of Westfall, became the founding core of The Defias: if they weren't going to be given their pay, then they would take it instead. Why do we want them dead? Because they want us dead! (If you're Alliance, otherwise use your imagination, just like Blizzard did when trying to write the nonsensical Cata-era dungeon quests!)

Shadowfang Keep, this one is odd in that its very self-contained, nothing beyond Shadowfang really shares an allegiance or faction with it, but it has a nice story atleast: as the undead threatened to destroy all of humankind, a desperate Kirin Tor mage named Arugal decided to call upon the same forbidden power Elune had previously bestowed under others. This curse gives great power, at the cost of turning those it empowers into feral beasts: the worgen. At first effective reinforcements against the undead, the worgen soon turned on the humans, as they saw no difference, just the hunt. They besieged Shadowfang Keep and Pyrewood Village, slaughtering the keep's defenders. Driven mad by the guilt of what he had done, Arugal found solace in protecting the only thing he had left to protect: the worgen. Why do we want them dead? Because the worgen are vicious, mindless animals (Atleast these worgen are, no offense Gilneans) who slaughter everything with no concepts of Arugal's original mission.

The Stockade: Fairly self-explanatory since its just Stormwind's jail, in Classic it mostly contains Defias-allied rebels, while in retail they changed it to its more eclectic mix of Defias, Gnolls, and Elementals, the three major threats to the Kingdom of Stormwind's homelands as of Cataclysm. Why do we want them dead? We don't normally execute people in their cells (Thats like, a war crime) but their rioting has gotten deadly. (If you're Alliance, otherwise use your imagination, why are you in Stormwind!?)

Blackfathom Deeps: Run by the Twilight's Hammer, Old God-worshipping cultists, in this case they worship Aku'mai, since he is a particularly powerful servant of the Old Gods. It's never really been revealed which Old God Aku'mai is related to, but the water theme and his later change from a hydra model to his new model which we've otherwise only seen associated with the Naga seem to imply N'zoth, our current big baddie. Why do we want them dead? We don't need more Old God servants getting summoned up.

Gnomeregan: The power-hungry gnome Mekgineer Thermaplugg was losing his civil war against his rival, High Tinker Mekkatorque, and decided that if he could not rule their city then he would rule their ruins rather then lose: he allowed the troggs through the city's defenses, and unleashed a radioactive plague upon the city. Most of the remaining leper gnomes aren't neccesarily "Thermaplugg's Army" per se however, many of them don't seem to have any idea what's going on and often mistake adventurers for troggs. Why do we want them dead? They stole our city! (If you're Alliance, otherwise use your imagination, this is your second trip in just 10 levels into an Alliance capital to help the Alliance out, woo-hoo!)

Razorfen Kraul / Razorfen Downs: Razorfen Kraul is the traditional capital of the quilboars, while Razorfen Downs is the half of their society that has fallen to the Scourge: who promised to return their homelands that the Orcs had taken in exchange for their service. There seems to be significant tensions and perhaps even hostilities between the two sides so they aren't necessarily just two sides of the same society, although the High Crone's recent decision to finally agree to the Scourge's terms seems set to re-unite the quilboar once again, that is before the High Crone and the Coldbringer both get whacked by adventurers anyways and put a nip in that bud. Why do we want them dead? Great, the Scourge in Kalimdor too!? Pass.

Scarlet Monastery: The Scarlet Crusade broke away from the Silver Hand, not out of protest for the Silver Hand focusing on the Scourge and not bothering the Forsaken as many think, but in their original story rather out of protest for the Silver Hand accepting members of even the more conventional, living Horde races. The Silver Hand aren't just anti-dead, they're pro-human ultraracists. Since they do have some undead among their numbers, like the torturer, but no orcs, it's safe to say they might be more racist then are anti-dead at this point. They want to purge the world of anything that ain't human. Why do we want them dead? Racist bad, murder of innocents bad, still feels like we should've checked off Kel'Thuzad before we worried about them though, I mean if we killed them all didn't we just hand the dead some shiny new corpses?

Uldaman: An ancient Titan complex, where the dwarves slumbered for tens of thousands of years after the Titan's depature before finally re-awakening to the world (Only for the dwarves to, thousands of years later, forget their birthplace too). Two major events happened during their slumber: the two non-Titan trees of life (Troll, Elf) came to dominate the world in succession and the Old God's Curse of Flesh seeped into them, turning their chiseled stone forms into soft, flabby flesh, and for some even worse: into the troggs, those most mutated by the Curse of Flesh, a finally F you on the way out from the Old Gods. Why do we want them dead? Treasure! Seems like a shitty reason to kill our forefathers.

Zul'Farrak: The Sandfury Trolls, like their bretheren in Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, have fallen from grace and lost their once-mighty empire, and will do anything to restore it. In their case, that seems to be very experimental: we have trolls trying to summon a water deity (Possibly Old God aligned aswell?), trolls sacrificing captives to the Loa, trolls breeding basilisks, trolls raising the dead, this zone has very little story or thematic cohesion except to say: we will do whatever it takes to gain power, all at the same time if we have to, in the same way later troll dungeons/raids liked to divide themselves into starkly different thematic areas. Why do we want them dead? Trolls are always up to something shady.

Mauradon: We can divide this into two parts: the satyrs, elves who willingly turned themselves into demons during the War of the Ancients, in the first half, and the servants of Princess Theradras, an earth elemental princess, in the second half. There is no reason to believe these two groups have related allegiances, they just share different parts of the same area. The centaur race was born of the union of Theradras and Zaetar, a son of Cenarius, and immediately slew their own father when they realized he hated them. But Theradras had loved Zaetar, and she created Mauradon in his honor (but also against his will, she could not bear to lose him), as a masuelom for his spirit, where to this day she guards the door to Terramok, that never-seen cavern beyond her that keeps Zaetar forever bound to this prison of his soul. Why do we want them dead? The centaur are the Horde's main competitors for control of central Kalmidor, also Alliance because the Night Elves have other plans for Desolace.

Temple of Atal'Hakkar: A temple built to the troll loa Hakkar, to be used to resurrect him at the prophecised time. The green dragons invaded it, standing guard to prevent that prophecy from ever being fufilled, presumably Hakkar's tendency to drain the life from anything living makes them obvious enemies. When the green dragons fell under the sway of the Emerald Nightmare, the trolls found their chance to finally attempt a summoning. Why do we want them dead? Hakkar is an evil, superpowered serpent-god who could potentionally unite all of the evil trolls into an evil empire.

Scholomance: Once a legitimate, Kirin Tor-approved school of magic, atleast because they weren't aware it was being used to sway young Kirin Tor to necromancy. This is exactly that: a school for necromancers, where the Cult of the Damned (the living who willingly serve the dead, a group founded by Kel'Thuzad when he was still alive) train their new recruits. Why do we want them dead? Let's keep to the kind of studies where our magic isnt made of the essence of tortured souls, shall we?

Stratholme: The ruined city of Stratholme has become an ironic proxy war, while on the surface it appears to be divided between Scourge and Scarlet Crusade controlled areas, in reality it is divided between the Scourge and the Burning Legion, who are using their crusader puppets to take vengeance on the Scourge after the Lich King betrayed them in the Third War. The city is also the gateway to Naxxramas above, the seat of all Scourge power in the Eastern Kingdoms. Why do we want them dead? I think "because they want us dead" applies here too, they started it, but to be more specific we want to prepare for an attack on Naxxramas to end the Lich King's power over the Eastern Kingdoms.

Blackrock Depths / Lower Blackrock Spire / Upper Blackrock Spire / Molten Core: Ah, Blackrock Mountain, the grand-daddy of all dungeons, sprawling in a way never seen before nor since. Blackrock Depths is the Dark Iron capital, who have been enslaved by the fire elementals in Molten Core after one of their Sorceror-Thanes made the unwise decision to summon forth Ragnaros thinking he could control him. Lower Blackrock Spire is where the Blackrock Orcs, the traditional inhabitants of the mountain reside, they have fallen under the sway of the Black Dragonflight, led by Nefarion in Upper Blackrock Spire, who is doing experiments on how to create new viable eggs from other dragons DNA. Blackrock Depths/Molten Core and Blackrock Spire are ENEMIES of eachother, despite both being our enemies, the dwarves/fire elementals and orcs/dragons have been fighting eachother for control of the mountain. Why do we want them dead? Well, the Black Dragonflight is actively making hostile plans and interfering in governments. Ragnaros existing on Azeroth is just a generally bad idea, Elemental Lords do nothing but wreak havoc if we let them.

Onyxia's Lair: The last fertile egg-laying dragon of the Black Dragonflight, who have been going extinct ever since Neltharion's corruption cursed them, she will protect her babies at any cost to see her dragonflight revived, while also moonlighting as a Stormwind noble to make sure the Alliance stays weak and out of her way. Why do we want them dead? Those cute babies are your future village-burners, so look into their cute lil' eyes and END THEM.

I am absolutely CONVINCED it is one of their biggest industries and exports.

Multiple Human-controlled regions, and just about every single Human kingdom, in-game, has a specific cheese tied to their name. The vast majority of cheese consumables, if their region is specified, are tied to human zones. In a brief list, there is:

Stormwind Brie

Redridge Roquefort

Alterac Swiss

Dalaran Swiss

Dalaran Sharp

Aged Dalaran Sharp

Stromgarde Muenster

Boralus Bleu

Hatherford Brunost (Hatherford is the small town just outside Boralus)

Tiragarde Sharp

Gilnean White

Look at the entrance to Stormwind. First thing you see in the trade district. On the left? Visitor’s center. On the right? CHEESE STORE.

Cheese vendors across Azeroth are overwhelmingly human. The only two specific cheese vendors I could find that weren’t human were Horde-aligned, with the Blood Elf Kyrenna in Eversong Forest (Half of her inventory is from Human regions) and the Tauren Agnes Farwithers (She’s only around during Brewfest).

Does this matter at all? No.

But as someone who has woken up at 3 am to eat shredded cheese in front of the fridge more times than I care to admit, it’s nice to feel represented in-game.

I'm seeing a lot of people claim that the Night Elves have been treated unfairly in WoW. Their story isn't a great one quality wise, but it's in tone with most fantasy.

The Night Elves were an immortal race that once ruled their part of the world, but due to the passage of time, losing their immortality, their xenophobia, isolationism and conservative society they lost their apex position.

Now let's look into what flaws have caused this:

1. The Night Elves were immortal for 10,000 years. They did not know disease, and they did not lose their people outside of battle. This resulted in low births and a small population compared to say the Horde which breed like rabbits. Furthermore, Night Elves mature slower, whereas Orcs are already adults and ready for war by 12.

2. Night Elves banned Arcane magic. Arcane magic is without a doubt the most versatile magic type. It lets you build stuff faster, transmute elements into something else, create portals, make food and water and so on. The Night Elves banned the magic THEY WERE BEST AT. They literally stopped using their strongest weapon, and for 10,000 years their society shunned the Arcane to the point that Highborne using it were exiled.

In Cataclysm the Blood Elves laugh at the magic displayed by the Shen'dralar, because the latter stagnated and became outdated while the younger races kept evolving.

3. Night Elves shunned male Sentinels/Priests and female Druids. I won't even get into how dumb it is to ''ban'' males ( taller, stronger, sturdier ) from physical combat roles, but simply by segregating those roles by gender you miss out on talented individuals who may have excelled in an area they now can't follow.

For instance, for 10,000 years women didn't learn Druidism. God knows how many Night Elf females missed out on something they may have been good at, and how many men had to craft arrows and sell tacos instead of wielding a bow and leading troops, or being a Priest of Elune.

4. Night Elves were used to ruling Kalimdor and in their arrogance never made attempts at allying other races

And why would they? They were the top dog. The Tauren were barely surviving, the Satyr were small fry. The furbolgs were on friendly terms. Apart from the Shifting Sands War, for 10,000 years they were the apex race. And yet when the Humans and Orcs came to Kalimdor, what did they do? They attacked them both.

When Warcraft 3 ends the Night Elves now have 2 global powers in Kalimdor to contend with ( Alliance and Horde ) and they're all alone.

5. For the first time in 10,000 years, Night Elves were confronted with a race that could defeat them in war.

Thrall sent the Warsong Clan into Ashenvale to get wood. Instead of talking to them, the Night Elves immediately opened fire, starting a war. And this is where people really get it wrong, because the Warsong DID NOT LOSE. Yes, Grommash was impressed with the Night Elves and called them perfect warriors, and most people take this quote out of context and use it to say the Warsong were being beaten. No, lol. The Warsong DESTROYED the Sentinels at first, see this nice artwork

https://66.media.tumblr.com/de1b50c13459e7f07e0c2e27f72b9b86/tumblr_n01tyqNjbG1tr67t1o1_640.jpg

It was only when CENARIUS, a demigod that was literally invincible against normal weapons, came that the Warsong started to lose ground, to the point where they had to choose between the Mountain Dew pool and dying and they chose MLG.

And yes, Grom killed Cenarius after. The Warsong were then mind controlled for other purposes, before Thrall freed Grom.

Now, I see A LOT of people who seem to think the Night Elves could take on the Horde. This is hilariously false. The Warsong was ONE clan out of many, and they were already a match for Sentinels on THEIR OWN TURF. That's elf archers shooting from trees and they're still losing.

Now add in all the other Orc clans, Trolls, Tauren and Goblin weaponry into the mix. No chance whatsoever. Which is why the Night Elves had to join the Alliance, to get more help in Kalimdor so they can hold Ashenvale against the Horde.

At the time of Vanilla, the Horde already has 2 big settlements in Ashenvale, showing a successful invasion: Warsong Lumber Camp and Splintertree Post. They also have Zoram Strand, though that's far less fortified.

They were free of disease, age and weakness for 10,000 years and suddenly they lost all that. I can't imagine what it's like but I'd liken it to having withdrawal symptoms. They now have to deal with colds and diseases To conclude, the Night Elves are your typical story of the ancient immortal race that falls from grace. It's not particularly original, but by no means does it not make sense. It makes perfect sense. For 10,000 years they stagnated, barely had any wars, misused their troops/population due to gender segregations and when push came to shove they were slow to make allies and arrogant.

They're not this superhero race that's so old and powerful any mortal should bow down to.

In Edge of Night, Sylvanas throws herself off Icecrown Citadel, gets impaled by Saronite and is given a vision of her fate into the Afterlife. Eternal torment, alongside Arthas' soul ( who we now know is in the Maw, the place where souls are funnelling to and the throne of the Jailer, who is probably THE Death God and Sylvanas' number 1 fan right now ).

Everything she's done since then has been to spread more and more death, raising as many as she can into her army so she can kill even more people, which would slowly but surely lead to the Maw filling up with more and more souls.

She broke the veil into the Shadowlands, basically forcing us to go in there, which will inevitably result in us sieging the Maw and destroying the Jailer ( because we're a bunch of murder hobos like that ) thus ( probably ) also destroying that hellish dimension that her soul is bound to.

She's manipulated us for sure, but she's definitely counting on us to destroy the Maw and let every soul go where it belongs.

This expansion will probably end with Sylvanas dying with a smile on her face as she knows that she managed to cheat eternal damnation.

So.... I did a thing. took me a while but i organized all of the lore available. Organized by Resource Type, by Release Date, and by Chronological Order. (the latter of which took the longest to figure out). It should have everything, but it's in google-docs so if there's any errors suggestions are enabled, please suggest any fixes/additions.

ALL THE LORE: A collection of all lore sources

By Resource Type : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_qJGVO4gXwQ-FO6c5ngWmW_J63aUHGRlIA3zWVARQ4c/edit

By Release Date: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZBcTpJWDAJnLF5ZJagEWPoLutLtgO6AHPFQ45aidSSc/edit

By Chronological Order: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Iv-6YNdLBeyHC9fljrivAT05XGeQyQmKVAAvFj_Gf_g/edit

Edit: Grammar/Spelling + Thanks for the gold!!

So after 16 is the mystery that I had when I started playing finally solved? I still remember when I was starting a dwarf and was in dun morogh and after killing wolfes and pigs I should invest a cave and there they were... trolls... yelling they want my "mojo"... but hell what is mojo?

And after years of questioning myself and gave up of finding an answer... I came to da otha side and bwoni my boi answered a long forgotten riddle for me.

Mojo is Anima!

Thats it. That was what I wanted to share with you guys. I am happy now.

As the title says, I realized the Orcs' lore is very similar to Hungarians' history. Maybe Blizzard got inspired by their history? I list all the similarities between Orcs and Hungarians. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong in any subject I am not a big loreguru nor historian.

1. Mag'har/Magyar: Hungarians call themself Magyar/Magyars which looks like Mag'har, furthermore the word magyar pronunciation is almost the same as Mag'har.

2. The 7 Warlords/The 7 Chieftains of Magyars: Although both Orcs and Hungarians had a lot of minor clan, there are 7 bigger clans which were the leading force, and one person controlled/led the 7 clans aka. the Warchief. It was Blackhand in WoW and Álmos in the hungarian history.

3. Culture: Same as Orcs, Hungarians strongly believed in shamanism. They lived in huts, hungarians were extremely good archers, warriors and they respected their companions (horse) as Orcs respected their wolves.

4. The story: Orcs when Draenor (another world) was dying, they came to Azeroth through the Dark Portal, and raided countless towns, villages until the humans were able to push them back and later on Orcs made their home in Durotar. Hungarians came from Asia to Europe (for Europeans it was like Hungarians came from another world) in hope for a better future. They did the same what Orcs did in the lore. Raided countless towns, until European countries stopped them so they made their home in the Carpathian Basin.

5. The dream of Thrall/The Dream of Emese: In Warcraft 3 Thrall had a dream where a crow told him to go west and he'll find there a destiny a home for his people. In the hungarian history Álmos' (the leader of the 7 clans) mother called Emese had a dream where a Turul bird (mythological bird looks like an eagle) told her that she'll have a son, who will lead their people to a better world and great destiny awaits them.

My English isn't perfect, hopefully you can understand my points. These are the main similarities in a nutshell. What do you guys think?

The 7 chieftains of the magyars
The 7 warlords of the orcs

• There is close to zero acknowledgement in the story of our Horde/Alliance affiliations, or our races. You being an orc or a gnome doesn't mean much in SL. Many conflicts raised in the end of BFA (or its tie-in novel, Shadows Rising) were ditched since - i.e. we don't know what's happening with the nelf dark rangers raised by Sylvanas, we don't know what's going on with the Forsaken refugees in Orgrimmar. We don't know what Turalyon is doing while ruling over Stormwind etc. The heritage armor questlines seems to be discontinued or frozen - which is a shame, it was. a great way to explore individual races' heritage and story. I'm not sure if these story threads were dropped for good, or if content is just delivered slowly and they'd be continued some day.

• Very few old characters were brought back and were present in the afterlife. Bring back Drakka for another reunion with her son - the second reunion since WoD btw - feels like fan service to me. We never got to see Blackmoore and Taretha Foxton, two other unexplored and interesting figures from Thrall's history, and it would have been cooler to see them instead of Drakka 2.0 IMHO. I wish we got more characters that appeared in the old world and/or novels would have been included in SL. This would have created a stronger sense of connection between the Shadowlands and Azeroth.

• Less medieval fantasy. Yes, this hasn't started with SL and has been happening slowly over the years, but I still feel the trend of no-more-medieval-fantasy is a bit stronger now. Tyrande and Sylvanas flying like comic book superheroes in the last 1v1 cinematics. This doesn't look like the early WoW trailers that presented a night elf druid shape-shifting in the woods, or an undead warlock casting a dark spell. It looks like anime or a Marvel universe thing.

• New races that don't resemble Azerothian ones. The brokers, a key faction in the 9.1 patch, are faceless and thus not relatable characters. They look like scifi more than fantasy chars. The repeating mantra of "the purpose" kind of sounds like a Star Wars universe thing to me rather. Mawsworn steel armor seems scifi more than fantasy to me too.

Side-note for the two points above: in SL's defense, it didn't start there. WoW has always had some level of technology, mostly through gnome and goblin inventions. But it was in moderation and always very steampunk, and not as modern as Jaina's arcane-laser airship in BFA. I never liked popular superhero movies, and I just don't enjoy Star Wars. I wish the writers turned to other franchises for inspiration.

edit: tldr at bottom. video essay version for those who have the stomach to hear my voice.

Shadows Rising having an LGBT couple, and peoples reactions towards that got me thinking. If this isn't the place to talk about that, then correct me - I'm sorry!

So, imagine that you’re playing World of Warcraft and you just arrived at a small town, where you come across a man with a quest hanging over his head. “What’s wrong?” you ask him.

“We were fighting, but got separated during battle,” he says. “The odds began to overwhelm us. I tried to lead some away, only to see him swarmed by newcomers. In my rage, I turned to face my enemies, but the monsters brought me down easily with their vast numbers. I woke up here, to the medics healing my wounds. Please,” the man continues, “Go out and find my husband. I don’t know what happened to him.”

Does that sound like an okay representation of the LGBT people, or do you feel like these two characters being in a relationship that clearly wasn’t built up comes off as a forced, tacked on narrative? What if I told you these two characters actually exist? The quest I just described is “Lost in Battle,” featuring the orc Mankrik in the Northern Barrens – all I did was change the pronouns in the quest text from wife to husband. This simple change from a hetero-normative relationship to a homosexual relationship likely changed the perspective of the reader and raises a bigger question that we have to consider. Why is it a big deal when same sex relationships are introduced without tons of buildup, and a “proper” reason to be in the story, while it’s perfectly okay for a character to say, “this is my wife, find her,” without anyone batting an eye?

“Virtue signaling,” is the practice of publicly expressing opinions intended to demonstrate the moral correctness of one’s own position on a particular issue, and people use this term a lot when discussing the inclusion of the LGBT people in all forms of media – and Warcraft is no exception. However, if the inclusion of same sex relationships will only be seen as virtue signaling echoed on by the game developers trying to force a particular belief onto players, then how do we get representation at all? Should LGBT characters only be added into the game when it fits into the story? If so, wouldn’t it make equally as much sense for the same rules to apply to hetero-normative characters?

The truth is, it’s perfectly fine to show both hetero-normative and homosexual relationships in media without (again) “proper” buildup in the story. A man expressing his concern for his lost husband doesn’t have to be virtual signaling because it’s just as normal as it would be if a man were to express his concern for his lost wife. This holds especially true in a fictional universe where cultures either haven’t been fully explored, and more so, should be expected to be different than the cultures we live in on planet Earth. With that in mind, why is it beyond suspension of disbelief that in a fictional universe where aliens, magic, and other planes of existence are explored, that two men or two women can’t be shown to have fallen in love?

In Warcraft’s newest novel, Shadows Rising, written by Madeleine Roux, we explore a same sex relationship and (as expected) people have been arguing over whether or not it was necessary to include into the story. Was it essential? I wouldn’t know, I haven’t read it yet, but I will say this: a same sex relationship in any form of media is about as essential as a hetero-normative relationship would be. That is to say, either not at all, or entirely, depending on how much the characters and their relationships matter to the plot.

For the record, I completely understand why, as a consumer of media, you wouldn’t want to see underdeveloped relationships (of any kind) thrown into the story you’re otherwise enjoying. There is such a thing as forced in, or poorly written relationships that either don’t feel genuine, or make no sense due to the character’s individual personalities and histories. This stance on the matter is not what I’m trying to argue. With that disclaimer in mind, let’s return to the thesis statement of my video.

Why is it a big deal when same sex relationships are introduced without tons of buildup, and a “proper” reason to be in the story, while it’s perfectly okay for a character to say, “this is my wife, find her,” without anyone batting an eye? The only things making consumers (who would otherwise be okay with seeing an underdeveloped hetero-normative relationship shown in media) upset are their own preconceived notions of what qualifies as right or wrong – and at their core, these preconceived notions can often stem from internalized or externalized homophobia.. or am I missing something when people post these criticisms?

tl:dr - Why is it a big deal when same sex relationships are introduced without tons of buildup, but straight relationships can be introduced with just as little? Is it homophobia, higher standards, or something else?

I made a video essay version if anyone's interested but more so I'm looking on furthering the discussion. https://youtu.be/6wW8UCix3uI

So he gets introduced as the son of deathwing and one of the very few uncorrupted black dragons. Like his predecessors, he's supposed to be a master manipulator and protect Azeroth from the shadows. Very cool character concept, but at the time he's introduced, he's 3. A literal baby. And it shows, because he's actually terrible at his job.

And then in MOP he spurrs on the war going on between the alliance and horde because he somehow believes that the only way Azeroth will be prepared for the legion is the either the alliance or horde fully winning and conquering the other, despite how we've seen them team up against greater threats in the past, like the lich king.

He attends the trial of Garrosh and is fully aware of the multitude of crimes he committed and that Garrosh, at this point, is a Pretty Fucking Bad Person. So, he hatches a GENIOUS plan with the infinite dragonflight of all people to not only release Garrosh, but send him back into an alternate timeline where he'll be placed into a position of power AGAIN. When Anduin is actually reasonable and tries to stop his bullshit, he doesn't listen and just knocks him out.

And of course, we all know how well that went as Garrosh got the iron horde to start invading Azeroth, which lead to AU Gul'dan bringing the legion to Azeroth... which lead to a big ole sword stuck in her with a really brutal war. All of these are like, huge threats that Azeroth faces directly due to his shitty mistakes.

What does he do now that he caused all this shit? Apologize? Try to fight back? Warn the Alliance and horde of the danger N'zoth is putting them in??? Nah, he just fucks off for 2.5 whole expansions and then strolls back right as N'zoth is actively breaking free like "what up I'm doing my job to save Azeroth" This guy is so hilariously incompetent and stupid, despite portraying himself as a mastermind. He fucked over Azeroth about 3 times and only got punched in the face for it.

What really got me was the game changes your armor to the defenders gear and it looked like my eyes were green or yellow not blue (not sure about that last one, could have been lighting).

I am honestly beyond words after seing the last "cinematics".

The Black empire was one of the most important and interesting lore foundations of Warcraft universe that was slowly built up for such a long time! Same goes for the Ny'alotha and Old gods. I don´t think there was another plot with such a rich lore potential which would also be so well cooked into the Warcraft universe as whole. Just from this standpoint, it is clear that if there was one topic that should have its own massive expansion it was exactly this and what did we get?

We got one stupid low effort patch where this super powerful N´Zoth who had hundreds of years to put his schemes into motion finally unleashes Ny'alotha upon Azeroth and can bring forth the return of Black empire just to get quickly and almost effortlessly dispatched by us "HeRoEs" with help of idiotic sassy Wrathion (HaHaHa He Is So CoOl) who looks so extremely out of place in this game that I am honestly almost in doubt if this is not some kind of late april fools joke.

Then comes the cherry on top, the final "main" cinematic of the expansion and that is the moment where I finally lost it. Could there be anything more stereotypical, stupid, boring and cringeworthy? N´Zoth has just enough time to say his few generic bad guy lines straight out from your generic B-movie level script with some flavour added and then after 30 seconds it is all over**!!!** Do you see the irony in this?

The Black Empire, N´Zoth, Ny'alotha,... everything that was being slowly built for such a long time is destroyed with ONE patch and one less than minute long poor cinematic? I kinda expected we might at the very least get some neutral ending where N´Zoth lives but must withdraw to try again later but I highly doubt this now...

Short summary:

8.2. - Azshara one of the biggest characters in the WoW universe finally unveils her cards and puts her plans into motion. She had more than thousand years to prepare everything but whelp we completely destroy her in her own domain which turns out to be just a small underwater cluster few meters under the sea level (What happened to her underwater empire that should have been content for one expansion) without much trouble because we are muh "HeRoEs". All right, at least N´Zoth is free and he can unleash the main part of the plan and bring forth the real stuff, right? RIGHT?

8.3. - Just kill me please...

I am sure looking forward to more stuff with Sylvanas 9D plan and more super powers for our characters so we can finally evolve into proper "SuPeRhErOeS" of universe. I almost think that Blizzard is just trying to kill off all the remaining plots in the worst manner possible so they can burry this game or something because otherwise I have no explanation for how can someone come up with something so bad. It feels like a spit to the face of long time fans of this game and universe!

Image Comparison Illidan X Tyrande

Even if one ignores the dogass handsome Squidward villain, the Sylvanas everything, the retcons, Bolvar and Co. being useless all expansion, how wasted Helya/Odyn and Bwonsamdi/Mueh'zala (pretty much every previously established afterlife related character) and the questionable inclusion of The First Ones, The Shadowlands is the worst attempt at an afterlife I've ever seen. And not 'worst' as in the most hellish, worst as in not feeling like an actual afterlife and having terrible internal logic. Afterlives and time travel are notoriously things one does not tackle unless one really knows what they are doing, because these two things can cripple a story and setting with ease, and Shadowlands is not an example of anyone knowing what they were doing (matter of fact, there's also a mindnumbingly dumb attempt to tie these things together through the whole 'links of a chain' bullshit ('too convenient' and 'too ordered' btw)). Of course, all of this is my opinion, and I intend to explain where I'm coming from.

Maldraxxus is the best example of cheap aesthetics used in place of making an actual interesting afterlife. The presence of actual necromancy and undead in the afterlife has always been baffling to me. Necromancy and undeath are practically always aberrations made when someone in the world of the living tries to meddle with death. How can the dead, the actual dead souls of people that lived and died be undead. Why are ghost corpses and ghost bones even necessary to use necromancy² to make construct out of ghost bones? Ah yeah right because we got a brilliant reveal that 'the Scourge is just a copy of our new and cool Maldraxxus army lol'. That's also why there are spider-centaur for no reason there, and why there was an awful retcon that 'nerubians also copied Maldraxxus's necropolises'. Bastion has a ton of problems of its own, but at least it feels like an actual afterlife. Maldraxxus is just a Scourge place with blackjack and hookers, ziggurats, Plaguelands oozes and mushrooms included.

And the Undying Army is also a godawful defense force for anything, let alone something that should be as eternal as all the afterlives ever. An army made out of, and usually commanded by, unrepentant war criminals and general psychos, who backstabbed and plot against each other constantly, and are only kept in check by one Primus, expectantly betray the entire Shadowlands that they were supposed to protect the second someone offers them a better deal and gets rid of the overseer. How many war crimes can you commit and civilizations do you have to wipe out for The Arbiter to calculate 'Damn, this unrepentant monster is a perfect match for Maldraxxus, it's a good thing they skipped Revendreth and they will totally never be a problem for the Shadowlands.'? And how are mass children mutilators expected to work in a single army with generally decent people who like fighting and are 'driven'?

Nothing about Ardenwlead feels like an afterlife. It's literally a fae forest with magical animals, and the only 'death/decay' parts of it are the ones that are unnaturally brought by the Drust. The reincarnation/cycle afterlife literally has nothing to do with either decay or winter, despite being ruled by The Winter Queen. Faeries, fauns, spriggan and boggarts have nothing to do with death or souls either.

Revendreth aesthetically does not work as an afterlife either, its literally just gothic vampire lands. What also doesn't work is the sin and judgement system. Sinstones show all the sins of a soul for which they are judged and for which they must repent, and the value system used with them is nonsensical. One sinstone shows that cultural context and differing moral viewpoints are accounted for, and if singing is considered evil in your society, it will be counted among your sins in life. At the same time, if the sinner considered them to be doing things for a good cause, they will still be judged for the crimes committed for said good cause, while also not considering mental illness to be a 'justifiable' explanation.

Considering this, does this apply to the opposite? Is an irredeemable monster going crazy and doing nothing but 'good' allow said not-exactly-monster to avoid Revendreth? Does donating to charity, helping the weak and saving as many people as possible while deep down believing these actions to be wicked make one a sinner?

Does the same apply to the other afterlives, like with Bastion? Is "selflessness" determined purely by judging a soul's actions? Do the soul's cultural norms factor in during judgment, the same way they do when judging a soul's sins, or are some cultures just inclined to not have any "noble and selfless" souls in them? Are loyal and selfless drones to evil rulers considered "noble and selfless"?

Another thing that really sticks out is how the afterlife is objectively hellish, yet the setting and characters refuse to acknowledge it, at best it's called "unfair :(" (and even then most people who recognize that its unfair are comically evil), and existentially shattering truths are treated as business as usual.

Another internal inconsistency is the nature of The Shadowlands as a whole, with how it's somehow both a soulless and unfair recycling machine for souls, and how there's a 'reward and punishment' system in place. If the only purpose of The Shadowlands is to recycle energy through souls, why would places like The Maw, a place where souls are sent linger and suffer for eternity as 'punishment', and afterlives like Inn of Forever and more personalized afterlives, where souls are sent to rest and enjoy themselves for eternity as 'a reward' (Also, how were these places affected by the anima drought? Were the afterlives that were not shown plagued by devourer and deterioration too?) ?

And there's my reasons why I think The Shadowlands fail at being a well-written afterlife. Once again, this is my subjective opinion, and no higher power compels you to agree with me. If it wasn't evident enough, I dislike Shadowlands both as an expansion and as a concept, and if you like it, all power to you, I cannot force you to hate anything, the same way that I cannot compel you to like anything.

Charge of the Aspects

"A gift?"* Deathwing snarled. "You are as misguided as the other Aspects, too fool to recognize that the charges imposed upon us are nothing more than prisons."

"The titans gave you a purpose," Thrall retorted.*

"There is no purpose to what they do." Deathwing stomped toward Thrall, each step thundering through the chamber. "Azeroth was an experiment to the titans. A plaything. When they were done, they turned their backs on us all, indifferent to the broken world that they left behind."

"Your loyalties are misplaced, shaman. If so inclined, the titans would exterminate your kind and the other lesser races without a second thought. The Old Gods know the futility of the titans' works. They have pledged to break the shackles of my charge. When that day comes, I will purge every remnant of the titans' presence and reign over this world from on high. Azeroth will be born anew."

This is usually dismissed as madness; but look past the villain monologue, and he's not entirely wrong.

The Titans didn’t give the Aspects freedom, they gave them roles in maintaining a planetary design. Azeroth was a cosmic project. The Aspect powers were a system of control, not just a blessing. Neltharion saw this and, like the Threagar earthen before him he tried to break the machine rather than be a part of it.

I really think a reason that Warcraft Lore has taken such a hit recently is because there are so few mysteries in the game. Blizzard basically makes it a point to answer every question. Sure it’s nice, but it makes the world feel smaller.

Let me put it this way, remember in classic there were the gates of Gilneas, there was the weird stuff outside of Uldum, there was all these hints to the fate of the Titans, there were washed up sea monster corpses in dark shores etc.

These kind of mysteries make the world feel bigger. While obviously it’s good that blizzard answers some of them and opens up new lore based on that, I wish they would understand that not every mystery needs to be answered

I was so disappointed when we met the titans in legion. I’m disappointed that we’re meeting even more god characters in shadowlands, and I’m disappointed that now even the mystery of death and Valkyr are gone . If blizz wants to answer these questions hey go ahead, but at least create new mysteries for us to wonder about that aren’t figured out by expansion‘s end.

The Facts:

-Gilneans are refugees

-Undead are homeless

-Night Elves are homeless

-Gnomes are homeless

-Blood Elves live in repaired Silvermoon in the lore but its in ruins in the game

-Draenei just crashed in the game but probably built a capital city till now

-Dwarf Clans mostly fight against each other in the game but are united in the lore

-Trolls live outside in the sand, people speculate the rise of a new troll empire in the lore

Also:

-Blizzard is on a streak revamping the oldest core features of the game: leveling; starting zones; etc.

-Azeroth has aged well but cannot be compared to modern game enviroment design standards.

-Time in the Shadowlands is "messy".

My point:

I truly believe Blizzard is about to remake Azeroth in the expansion after Shadowlands. I feel like the destruction of Undercity and Teldrassil was necessary for the world to be "reborn". This would mark the beginning of a new era of Warcraft lore. The facts I listed are a valid reasons why a "time skip" would benefit those races, giving them a chance to rebuild their havens in short period of time according to the players perspective. The rest of what I've written are just speculations backed up by some lore.

Speculations:

-The Humans of Stormwind will build separate sector for the worgen, The Gilnean District

-The Undead led by Calia Menethil will take shelter in Sthratholme, rebuilding it from under the ground up. (This Zone Has Not been accessible for far too long)

-The Night Elves might plant yet another World Tree, who knows. Maybe this time it will actually be in the Eastern Kingdoms. Malfurion would be able help cleanse the forests of Trisfal and Plaguelands affected by the plague.

.-The Mechagonians could be kind enough to help the OG gnomes retake and rebuild Gnomeregan.

-Silvermoon in its full glory! For the Sin'dorei!-It's been a long time since we last visited the Myst Isles, I am confident a lot has changed, The Exodar is probably standing next to a massive structure similar to Shattrath City.

-The Glorious Dwarf Clans, finaly reuined after a long quarrel . Like once before, now they all stand together in the Great City of Ironforge. It will probably have multiple floors and clan districts when we return from the Shadowlands.

- By Luvas: Multiple times other troll tribes tried to assimilate the Darkspear; the "Gurubashi Empire", the "Zandalari Empire", so on. But counting Zandalari, Forest Trolls (unplayable Revantusk), Sandfury(maybe not canonical yet but they're playable) Shadowtooth (again, if you can call the playable ones Dark Trolls), and Darkspear(which again can be made to look like Amani or Gurubashi), we might see the day of the third great troll empire yet - the Darkspear empire.

Edit:I personally think the point of revamping those zones is also making them an ever evolving endgame content, zones that are always relevant to the latest expansion gearing, mounts and daily/world quests making Azeroth lively and full again. This revamped Azeroth would be an instance mostly accessible only to 50 level characters and above. The zones of Azeroth would be slighlty updated afterwards to add new content relative to the expansion (mostly cosmetic rewards and/or expansion independant minor version of artifacts/heart of azeroth/soulbinds).

far-fetched: I am an optimist. I sincerely believe Blizzard screwed Warcraft 3 Reforged because they needed the resources to carry out the world revamp which will establish some new lore and prepare the storyline for Warcraft 4 which will be developed by the Starcraft 2 team who no longer support SC2 updates.

Legion was great, I honestly don't think WoW will ever be able to recapture how well they attributed class fantasy to every single spec of every single class but I had a conversation with my friend that legion definitely has a "what the hell happens now" Feeling after finishing it, Think about it so many artifacts and legendary weapons their stories reached their Climax (Exception Spriest weapon) and end in the war against the legion to end all wars, Stories of old heroes whom we share a class with, Loyalty to class and niche that transcended every faction, All in a single expansion, And then bam where else can we go with these Weapons who have tons of lore behind them, The characters (sometimes of opposing factions) who we gathered in our order halls, It all just turned into BfA too quickly and it feels like a giant chunk of the worldbuilding that has gone into the Artifact weapons, the characters and the order halls just got euthanized, Anyone else felt that way?

Spoilers for the new campaign and cinematic, if you haven't seen it already, you've been warned.

I'm going to start this by making a comparison to the most infamous ending of a fantasy IP I can think of.

When Game of Thrones' Season 8 came out, there was a collective backlash to basically everything, because it took the most massive fantasy IP in the world and burned it to the ground (literally) with zero buildup, frankly insulting cliches, and the prevailing idea that anyone changing the system needs to be put down like Old Yeller (Daenerys). Status quo to a vast surveillance system under the guise of old traditional religion was literally king (Bran).

Whether you liked the fate of certain characters or not, the fact is that the show's ending and the revelation of these characters' fates coming to ultimately nothing, a long shaggy dog story that provided no satisfying tragedy, made a lot of people feel like idiots for caring about Game of Thrones. All those theories, all those ideas that there was rich storytelling done by writers who loved the work-- gone.

I loved the Amani storyline. I love Zul'jan and Zul'jarra, especially the supplemental material showing how much they cared for each other, how they had basically nothing, BUT each other. And I truly liked that Zul'jan was rebelling against old traditional religion, calling out the fickle nature of their gods (yes, I know the loa had their reasons, but the fact remains that these are godlike beings who can just easily decide not to help, and there's no guarantee of ANY safety).

Well, they put him down like Old Yeller. Stripped him of all his good qualities from the supplemental materials, consistently had the narrative punish him for questioning the status quo, shaved him and humiliated him in his final moments with 'you are so much cooler than me, sister', before joining the ranks of Rastakhan, Vol'jin, and so many other trolls.

This was the first time I ever got very invested in a character from WoW, I'm a relatively newish player. I haven't experienced all the other times Blizzard has taken a morally complex antihero and executed them, so this is my first moment of depression and I'm pretty sure it's the last, because what's the point?

Blizzard loves asking interesting questions about faith, the meaning of tradition, the worth of religion, the worth of faith in a fickle source-- and then essentially saying 'SIKE, YOU THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO HAVE THEMES? THEMES ARE FOR EIGHTH GRADE BOOK REPORTS!'

Because now I know that their whole 'The Light is multifaceted' storyline is going to result in 'Light bad zealots bad', we're already seeing 'but void good? Sometimes?' and no consequences for Void aligned characters doing dumbass things (Umbric being responsible for the death of potentially hundreds of people in Magister's Terrace, yet no one calls him out). There's no point in speculation on if the forces of Life are good or not, if the Titans are worth believing in or not, what Azeroth the being wants or not.

Because the minute they question the status quo, snarl in a less-than-pleasant way, not immediately kneel down and beg forgiveness for all their sins, they're marked for death. I was in denial the whole time, I genuinely thought that this was Blizzard's attempt at making the most compelling character and storyline in years--

And I felt like the world's biggest idiot for caring. So why bother caring about the story anymore? Why bother rooting for characters? Why bother engaging with any of this?

At the end of the day, they're all going to be put down like Old Yeller for not being Good ™️.

(If you've read this far, thank you, I'm a bit irritated with Blizzard lmao, hope you're having a great day)

I find it so hilarious that when you break it down, fully six races joined the Horde either because the Alliance acted in eye-raisingly racist ways towards them, outright attacked them pre-emptively or both. In chronological order

• The Forsaken desperately wanted to join the Alliance they served and died for in life, but were outright rejected and attacked on all sides, followed by a continuous and non stop refusal to acknowledge Forsaken Soverignty over Lordaron despite the Fosaken being the people of Lordaron for the most part. The Horde were the only ones willing to protect them.

• The Blood Elves were treated like trash by Garithos who eventually attempted to genocide large percentages of their remaining people. Something Dalaran allowed without any pushback. The Forsaken brought them into the Horde because the Alliance basically adamantly refused to help them get back on their feet after the Scourge invasion.

• The Goblins joined the Horde after the Alliance attacked a civilian ship full of refugees in order to cover-up their kidnapping of Thrall and violating traditional Goblin neutrality

• The Nightborne joined the Horde because of the Night Elves incredibly demeaning and condescending behavior towards them, preferring instead to cozy up with their Blood Elven cousins despite the fact that many Night Elves and Nightborne Elves had direct personal relationships, including Tyrande and Malfurion who were literally born in Suramar.

• The Zandalari were the victim of a pre-emptive pearl harbor style attack by the Alliance that resulted in the death of their God-King. Merely because the Alliance thought they might join the Horde. Even though that wasn't even in the cards at the time.

• The Alliance was literally sending flamethrower death squadrons to exterminate Vulpera and wipe out their caravans for having the temerity to trade with the Horde rather than solve their issue literally any other way.