Posted by Spooner | 25 Comments
WAR-craft: The Leaders of the Alliance & Horde
So what’s going on here?
All of us at one point (myself included) have asked for there to be more war in Warcraft and less holding hands with the enemy faction for “the greater good”. So let’s take a look at what’s going on now in the game that can lead into all out war, and if it’s a good thing or not. It all starts with the leaders of the Alliance and the Horde.
HORDE
Thrall: Still pretty much just sitting on his ass if you ask me. Only when the Scourge was raining down frozen hell on Orgrimar itself did he do a damn thing. I refuse to believe that there are so many politics going on in the Horde that he has to sit in his throne room all day doing paperwork or hearing debates. What’s more is that he seems very hesitant to show any kind of assertion. As far as ORCS go, he feels weak. I don’t like this at all because Thrall is a HERO, he’s supposed to be the Warchief for goodness sake. So far the lore of the game and questing has essentially taken his balls away and turned him into a kowtowing overcautious leader that would rather pass the buck to his lieutenants than make any decisions himself.
The direction that the new horde is taking seems to make no sense because it’s so completely contradictory to their heritage. In all cultures and races regardless of their current representation, all retain something (and usually a lot) of their old ways. Enter Garrosh Hellscream. I’m not saying that the Horde necessarily NEED to go around warmongering and conquering lands (though that’d be badass) but at the same time I feel as if they aren’t orcs anymore. Garrosh also kicked Thrall’s ass in the unofficial duel for supremacy. All very interesting developments.
Vol’jin: Not a leader anymore, more like part of Thrall’s cabinet. Absolutely nothing going on with this guy until recently with the Wrathgate quest and even then he just stands outside Undercity as the quest giver. Trolls be ashamed.
Sylvannas: She needs to shine here. This is Northrend and she’s not doing anything. This is the fight against ARTHAS and the scourge. I expected Sylvannas to be moved through phasing to Northrend and maybe put another figurehead in Undercity (like her banshee 2nd in command) to take care of the house while she’s out. The scarlet onslaught should be ripped to ass by her, they’ve only been pestering her since 2004. Oh God Metzen or any other Blizzard folks that I like to fantasize read this site; please take Sylvannas to Northrend and have her do SOMETHING with Icecrown. You did possibly the most amazing job of your careers with the Wrath Gate events. Send Sylvannas out to Northrend to go chase down The other Dreadlords- OOPS SPOILER LOL!
Loth’remar: I like how he has no real role in the game yet. He sits there in the throne room of Silvermoon City arguing with the other leaders of the Blood Elves… in silence. At LEAST have some flavor text in there Blizzard come on. When you pulled the Naruu out of SMC you made the paladins start talking flavor text about Kael’thas and such. Again, so much potential here that seems to be wasted, though it might be planned for use later I just can’t see how. Tie this guy in with Sylvannas more, they knew each other didn’t they? If I can trust Knaak’s (wonderful by the way) work as official canon that is. I really like Knaak, ask him to write something for it.
Cairne: Where the fuck is Cairne? Seriously where is this hamburger? He’s not a druid so you can’t be benching him until Emerald Dream comes out, so what gives? He wasn’t there for the scourge event, he hasn’t been in ANY quests or fights or anything outside of starting Tauren quests. There are A LOT of tauren in this game so show some love. Sometimes I don’t even think he’s there anymore in Thunderbluff. There are Tauren in Northrend right now inducting and entire new RACE into the Horde that are cousins related to the Tauren themselves. Where’s Cairne? There are tauren DEATH KNIGHTS. Where’s Cairne? Undercity got assaulted, Orgrimar got razed, the Taunka got fully brought into the Horde because their capital was destroyed. Where’s Cairne? Raneman over at Sons of the Storm has awesome new art for Cairne. Where’s Cairne? Just kill him off and get Malgatha in charge or something and watch the fireworks. Or better yet have them spawn little moocow babies and really throw some wild shit into the mix.
ALLIANCE
Varian Wyrnn: Granted he can be a jerk but the alliance NEEDS him. He is the SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK & ROLL OF THE ALLIANCE. He’s the HORDE of the alliance. I could go on for hours here but the guy is completely 100% in the right. He comes from another time. He comes fromt he mentality of the days when the Horde was raping and burning and plundering and outright slaughtering humans left and right. It was the horde that killed Lothar (his father figure). It was the horde that killed his real father. It was the horde (or so it seemed) that killed Bolvar (almost his damn brother and the man that watched over his son). It was the horde that held him as a slave for a long time. This guy is a real king, he’s what a king should be. This isn’t world of democracy-craft. You know what? For those that are saying “oh Varian is an idiot declaring war on the horde it wasn’t event he horde’s fault that Putress did what he did” BULLSHIT. If Sylvannas had a better grasp of things going on under her nose in her own fucking HOUSE then Putress and Varimathras wouldn’t have had the chance to commit the atrocities they did. See? That’s me looking at things from Varian’s point of view.
It’s like, all the leaders of the horde and alliance are bi-polar and fickle as teenagers. Sure you can enslave my people in concentration camps, as soon as a BIGGER ENEMY shows up we’ll be friends to fight it off. Then when the battle is over we can keep playing nice so the kids don’t suspect a thing.
Sure you can come invade our world and burn down our cities, wipe off half our entire race, pretty much completely fuck us sideways. All is forgiven now because the devil made you do it. You’re not to be held responsible for your actions at all in Warcraft.
Magni Bronzebeard: I have no idea what his problem is. After the events of the comic book series so far I can only hope that I’ll get closure as it ends. There is MAJOR titan and dwarf stuff going on in the Stormpeaks. WAIT! I KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON! He’s suffering from Cairne’s Disease. the one where all this great lore and battle and wonderful shit is happening to his race, his friends, his family a world away and he’s busy sitting on his throne crying about how his daughter got teen pregnant by his arch nemesis!
The Prophet Velenn: I am pleased with this leader so far. He’s a Ghandi figure. He doesn’t need to fight, he commits his forces to help where they are needed, there are Draenei in Northrend all over trying to help because they are freaking hard for the Light and want to destroy the evil shadow that is the scourge. Velenn also already had a pretty big role in the purification of the Sunwell after Kil’jaden’s defeat.
Tyrande: (and Fandral?) Again, Cairne’s Disease. Though I’m pretty sure that we’re going to see something akin to LIFE coming from her again when the Emerald Dream comes out. Untilt hen she’s content to do her little boob hippity hop thing in her temple by herself for a year or two more. Fandral is a dick by the way, kill him off or have him take full leadership of the Night Elves, break away from the Alliance in a quest chain like the Wrathgate and then we kill him. Give Horde a reason to kill him too other than to win the praise and love of the Alliance.
Mechatorque: LOLGNOMES. Nah Mr. Kaplan I think gnoems are alright to be honest. I just don’t like that so many COCKSUCEKRS play as gnomes. This guy doesn’t exist as far as I am concerned. Gnomeregan is still held by a bunch of 30-something elites. You can’t do phasing for this maybe? It’s not like anybody even WANTS to run through here. At least add a new wing or something kind like you did in Un’goro with the titan weapon quest.
IN CLOSING…
It feels to me like there’s maybe 2 effective and legit leaders of the horde/alliance. The rest are cardboard cutouts or emo crybaby carebears that need to be drug out into the street and shot. Feel free to disagree.
Disagree about the King of stormwind. Do you fail to see the analogy of a war hungry leader, who’s father was besmirched by the horde, using his power to entrench his people in a war against the wrong faction?
Any of this sound familiar?
I wrote a poem in case you don’t see where I’m going:
Wyrnn.
Besmriched by the orcs…
Undercity be damned…
Sylvanas will pay..
Horde will be nevermore.
He’s the decider…
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION
In reality this would be fucking inexcusable, unless you’re like me and the other Americans that have suffered under a fucking retard for a leader for so many years. But in Azeroth where the Alliance is full of sissies and boy lovers, a big dumb lummox of a leader that just wants to bust some heads isn’t a bad thing.
Isn’t it awesome that we’re Horde though?
Yeah it’s awesome, I can’t wait to bust his head in return. We gotta raid SW!
Sorry Ness, but you’re wrong in that the Horde is the “wrong” faction. Thrall and Sylvannas are completely, 100% to blame for everything that happened at the Wrathgate, and if Saurfang wants vengeance for his son, he should mount up Putress’s, Varimathras’, Sylvannas’, Thrall’s, and Arthas’ heads on his wall – IN THAT ORDER. Sure, betrayal is betrayal, but Sylvannas and Thrall sat on thier asses doing NOTHING while Putress and Varimathras plotted the Holocaust of Azeroth. The New Plague was Sylvannas’s baby, her ultimate weapon of vengeance against Arthas. You have to be absolutely retarded if you think she shouldn’t have (or reasonably WOULD HAVE) stopped on down to her Apothecary wing where they are TESTING THE NEW PLAGUE ON LIVE SUBJECTS, NOT CAPTURED SCOURGE. Do you really think there is no way in hell she couldn’t have seen the events of the Wrath Gate coming? It’s not like her apothecary society was exactly being discrete about what they intended to do with their plague. Anyone who quested in Hillsbrad and Arathi at level 30 could have seen where that new plague plot thread was going.
Wrynn is absolutely, 100% right in holding the Horde responsible. They’re not comparable to Iraq – they more comparable to the people who send the money who funds terrorist organizations.
I wouldn’t say they are the people who funded it, so much as, pardon the Iron Man movie referance, Tony Stark thinking he was making weapons for American troops and someone went behind his back and allowing the terrorists to get them.
Sylvanas would use the plague against anyone who came against her… it is even their siege weapon’s missiles for god’s sake. She didn’t know there was going to be a massacre of the alliance and her OWN ALLIES. She though Varimathras was in her pocket. She thought she could direct the use of the plague.
And why would Thrall be held responsible? He didn’t necessarily know what they were doing in Undercity. He never gave us a clue that he knew they were making a plague. He just knew he was allied to the Forsaken through a common need of survival.
BTW Varimathras was badass… I’m sad we had to kill. He was my favorite Dreadlord. (Still like Sylvanas better)
Jim isn’t seeng my point. To compare it to RL politics again, let’s pretend (God forbid) we get attacked by a terrorist cell that was operating inside Russia. Now would we strike against the terror cells, or declare war on the ENTIRE entity of Russia because “they should’ve known it was happening within their borders”. Unless there was PROOF the Russian government was involved, then there shouldn’t be a pre-emptive strike against that nation.
King Wyrnn has no PROOF Thrall and Sylvanas were involved in the Apothecarium’s threat. He can’t find the WMD’s.
The Russian government WOULD be responsible if the entire operation was planned, staged and constructed in a government building, in an area WHERE ANYONE OFF THE STREET COULD JUST STROLL IN.
Come on Ness, the Royal Apothecary Society didn’t even attempt to hide what they were up to. They kept a fucking Tauren (and human subjects) to run experiments on, and they didn’t even try to cover that up. Any average Joe could simply walk in and see for himself the experiments being run – hell, anybody could PARTICIPATE in said experiments.
There are exactly two explainations for Sylvannas not catching on to what was going on: 1) she is a total fucking retard too incompetent to run a lemonaide stand, or 2) she was in on it, and used Putress and Varimathras as fall guys. There IS NO OTHER EXPLAINATION FOR IT.
Now, if the Royal Apothecary Society had thier base hidden somewhere outside Undercity, far away from Sylvanna’s throne room, then you could reasonably argue that she didn’t know what was going on. But for fuck’s sake, not more than 50 yards from her throne room, the RAS was plotting the destruction of Horde, Alliance and Scourge alike. There is absolutely NO excuse for her not knowing what was going on – NONE. For her not to know what was going on, she would have to be twice as big an idiot as you’re claiming Wrynn is for holding the Horde accountable.
…and UC isnt a government building, it’s a huge city, lore-wise, Lordaeron is bigger than what you experience in-game. Millions of people live in UC, SW, Org, etc…. Can you imagine those small spaces filled with millions of people?
Look at this from a matter of persepctive: If Azeroth were “really” as big as it is in WoW, the world would be the size of the state of California. Billion dollar corporations are frauded by their own employess daily, and the mass juggernauts have NO idea it’s happening to them, under their noses, in their own buildings.
Sylvanas and Thrall, LAZY? yes. DROPPED THE BALL? yes.
Guilty of war crimes and the objects of justificiation of war? no.
Everyone needs to work together for the greater good, at least for this time.
The Royal Apothecary Society, and the entire concept of the “New Plague” is Sylvannas’ baby. The entire thing was her idea, fueled by her lust for vengeance against the Scourge. The RAS was conceptualized by her, and it logically follows that she would know their every move. Arguing that she is not responsible for what happened simply does not fly – when the CEOs of Enron testified that they had NO IDEA what was going on in their company, did you believe them? You shouldn’t have, and with good reason.
At the VERY least, Sylvannas is guilty of criminally negligent homicide and depraved indifference. Maybe the RAS isn’t a government building in its entirety, but the room Putress is fought in (the same one with the LIVE [NOT Scourge] test subjects) sure as hell IS a government building. The RAS is a government institution.
With your Russia analogy, if someone under President Putin, but in his administration, were to order a nuclear strike on the U.S. or Britain or whatever, would we retaliate? HELL YES WE WOULD! Arguing that it’s not Putin’s fault that one of his people went bad, and that we shouldn’t go to war against Russia for the attack, would be lunacy.
Again, the only way Sylvannas couldn’t have or shouldn’t have known what was going on is if she is so monumentally stupid and/or retarded that she shouldn’t be running UC in the first place. And assuming she IS that incredibly stupid, then she has no business being in power and should be taken out before she “accidentally” allows another one of her top officials to go all “Hitler” on the Alliance and her Horde allies.
I meant to say, maybe the *UC* in its entirety isn’t a government building. The RAS, however, is government through and through.
Correct, because Varimathras IS part of Windrunner’s cabinet. I concede the charges of her ignorance to you. Leave Thrall and the rest of the fucking horde out of this. Call it an immunity deal. King Wyrnn can ADVISE Thrall to keep more order in his faction, lest thnigs go out of control again. War is sometimes inevitable, but it is not justifiable in all cases of being slighted by a small group of people.
If this were real life, the forsaken should and probably would perform a coup de’etat on Sylvanas and The RAS.
The Forsaken at the very least are justifiable to go to war against. As for Wrynn, his entire family was killed by the Horde. Hell, his whole city was razed to the ground by the Horde and to add insult to injury, he was enslaved by them himself. Everything he knows about the Horde is negative and with recent events (not just the Wrathgate, but all the skirmishes between the Alliance and Horde in the BGs and different quests), he’s seen absolutely zero evidence that Thrall has changed their tune. Plus, can you really call the state of Azeroth before the Wrathgate “peace”? At best, it’s a Cold War. Wrynn declaring war after the Wrathgate isn’t just because of this one event – it’s a culmination of a long series of events, topped by a major catastrophy and a serious personal loss to the King himself.
So, after the events of the Wrath Gate, can you really blame Wrynn for going, “Fuck it, that’s the last straw. Kill ‘em all”?
Yeah, HIM. Maybe he can ask Miss Jaina Proudmoore what she thinks of Thrall and the horde, and how you can put the past to the side and work together to achieve the greater good, which is stopping the Lich King and the RAS in it’s tracks.
I’m sure she knows the truth, and I’m sure the rest of the horde can negotiate and talk to her. Not this wack ass king lol.
Alas though, if the politics of the game were my way, we wouldnt have PvP technically. So yeah let the King declare war on us. More fuel for the fire
Proudmoore is a push-over. She’s gotten nothing out of her “alliance” with Thrall except not getting killed. Her people are stuck living in a freaking swamp, never to expand or prosper, never to thrive, only survive. Both the survivors of Lordaeron and the “New” Horde came to Kalimdor fresh, and guess who gets to take over almost the entire landmass? Thrall and his Horde. Proudmoore and her people get banished to a fucking swamp.
Awesome deal, that. Jaina is the type who advocates peace at ALL costs, even if she gets screwed over in the deal. You can point to her all you like, but she’s a coward who doesn’t have her people’s best interests in mind. If she did, she’d at least get Thrall let let her people have some decent land.
Thats fine because when it’s all said and done, there’s one thing she and her people will have that everyone else won’t.
Life.
Life in a cage isn’t life at all.
Sides, my bet’s on the Alliance. They whooped the Horde at the pinnacle of thier power, and they can do it again. The Horde’s going down.
Alliance nationalism at it’s best.
We didn’t land on Azeroth, Azeroth landed on us!
Horde nationalism at it’s best.
I feel I have to jump in now and throw more fuel into this inferno. Quest in Icecrown. War has already completely broken out. I’m not sure how it plays out for the Alliance but as horde I get quests from the gunship to fly down to one of the many battlefields and find out what the fuck happened. After questioning a half dead orc berserker he says that while the alliance were leading an assault on scourge forces the horde took the chance and came from behind and slaughtered them all! “It was glorious…”
Then he gives you a quest to kill 5 wounded near death alliance to “avenge him”. I LOVE the horde but that sounds so fucking assinine. ALL under the direct influence and command of GARROSH HELLSCREAM not Thrall. And ask Nessaja, me and him go on for ages about how the alliance are fucktards on our server and going into the lore I would agree that POST WARCRAFT 2 ORCS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS the alliance are still fucktards.
But this whole killing each other indiscriminately while scourge forces are bombing the fuck out of both sides at the same time really confuses me. I’ll set Darnassus on fire until I grow old and die because well, I freaking hate them, but not while we have the godamned LICH KING banging on our front door.
This isn’t directly related, but I don’t understand what is happening with the factions. First off it is clear that the forsaken are scourge tat broke away… exactly what the death knights are except they are a particular class. so why do the alliance accept the death knights but not the forsaken. Well the alliance is one thing but what the hell is the scarlet crusade doing with death knights it makes no sense to me whatsoever. any clarification would be appreciated.
It’s a very fuzzy line right now. But looking at everything in a timeline can help A LOT in making at least some sense.
Forsaken – they’re scourge that has been liberated and are unified under the leadership of Sylvannas Windrunner. Sylvannas has pledged herself to the Horde. This sets the standard for the Alliance to oppose them, not to mention they are squatting and essentially took over the old capital of the kingdom of man.
Fast forward to the present now after the Forsaken have cemented themselves as just another part of the Horde. You (as a hero of the Horde or Alliance) die in the defense of Light’s Hope Chapel or some other fight against the scourge. You get resurrected as a Death Knight. The Knights of the Ebon Blade are liberated. You’re then sent back to where you came from as the Alliance or the Horde.
As for the Scarlet Onslaught guys and them having Death Knights… I’ll let you figure out the lore for yourself through quests in Incecrown but if you’re done and it’s still escaped you. The folks leading the new Scarelt forces are BADGUYS. Think about the last boss in the Scarlet side of stratholme. What does the grand crusader turn into when he’s near death? I’ll give you a hint, they have big wings, agents of the burning legion, helped start the scourge, ran a coup of undercity, have names like Balnazzar and Mal’Ganis…
You, sir, write the most concise analysis of the sad state of affairs in WoW right now.
Not only did Blizzard make some very strange character growth changes (i.e. Garrosh going from Nagrand emokid to brash jackass berserker mode), but also Blizzard’s tendency to marginalize the other leaders.
All people ever see of Vol’Jin/Mekkatorque is when they tap the keg during Brewfest, and that’s about it.
As for the “Fourth War”, the other Alliance leaders could do so much more to defuse the situation. For example:
Tyrande: Remind Varian that even though orcs (Grom) killed Cenarius (who, as a demigod, and having known him for thousands of years, could’ve contributed ALOT to the war effort), and yet Furion and herself still made peace to down Archimonde @ Hyjal.
Velen: Prophet of peace, he could play the “Holy Light” card and make Varian see that now is not the time to be engaging in petty war.
Magni: Muradin was thought to be murdered by Arthas for a long, long time, but did he charge out blindly, declaring war on everyone?
HORDE:
Cairne/Vol’Jin: Don’t they have command of their individual troops? Withdraw support for Garrosh and his warmongering, since they’re supposedly Thrall’s closest advisors
Lor’themar: Who?
Sylvanas: Yes, she was naive into thinking that Varimithras wouldn’t work behind her back (Seriously, trustng a Dreadlord??) but, at that time, she needed all the allies she could get.
Man, I’m so ragey now.
Oh feel free to rage buddy, I’ve been doing for a long time now.
My favorite race truth be told are the dwarves. They should have a higher role right now than they do and yet, nothing. Bronzebeard’s not doing anything and I personally feel that’s wrong.
Like we said before all the Alliance leaders are just sitting still doing nothing, but yet the King of Stormwind who has NOTHING really going on in direct opposition to the scourge is leading the charge? As a matter of fact what holdings of human control in southern Azeroth were even touched by the scourge? Darkshire was cursed because of the the Scythe of Elune right?
Whatever it just bothers me that Garrosh went from being a broken hearted lug with no desire to even wipe his ass when he crapped, to this arrogant and brutish hothead bastard that just wants to see the Horde rule the world. None of the other Horde leaders are doing shit, Sylvannas of ALL the Horde leaders should be in Northrend going after Arthas herself.
Alliance leaders are laughable. Velen did his number during the Sunwell event and now we’re tapdancing with the GOD OF DEATH and he’s just sitting there. Magni knows that Grim Batol is in bad shape and we’ve got black dragons in Northrend and yet he still does nothing. Tyrande doesn’t exist in my opinion but she’s got potential in the emerald dream expansion (so does Cairne but he’s NOT A DRUID he’s a warrior/shaman)
Come on Metzen you can do better bro.
I smell a Republican in this discussion…
Anyhow. My prediction is that since Thrall has decided he would rather spend time holding babies and baking cookies, Garrosh will cut him good and take over as new Warchief. Which is perfectly acceptable because the Horde is right without a crazy, bloodthirsty leader.
Sylvanas I can understand being responsible to a small degree. Mainly for negligence. HOWEVER. Knowing her hatred for Arthas and that entire back story and history between the two, I think that she was so preoccupied with ways to kill him that she wasn’t able to keep an eye on everything that was going on. I mean, sure, it was her big project but who the hell knows what else she had up her sleeve? You never really know who will stab you in the back, so I wouldn’t hold it against her.
Varian… Emo kid who has nothing better to do than point a finger. And I damn sure hope that finger gets chopped off by Garrosh.
Oooooook
Lets start at the top
Thrall:
Gotta disagree with you on this part, Thrall has been a fantastic leader for the horde and I’d say the best they are going to get. So far as a WARcraft leader he kinda leaves you wanting since I think most of us are yearning for war and Thrall would do his best to stop it. Its just who he is, Thrall is a more farsighted individual then the horde are used to. He is much more focused on the long term protection of his people then short term blood lust of a sudden war.
This is part of the reason I think Thrall will inevitably be the next Guardian of Tristfal (like Medivh was). I think the fact Thrall still is in control of the horde for this many years can attest to the true power of Thrall’s command considering the somewhat unruly nature of orc’s and the past succession of war chiefs (that being they keep getting killed by their predecessors).
Granted Garrosh did look like he was going to win in their duel but I really doubt when push comes to shove that Garrosh is going to be able to defeat Thrall.
Vol’jin: What you don’t seem to take into account is Vol’jin’s trolls take in a very small portion of the majority of the hordes populace. Darkspear tribe was never really that big to begin with, and the fact they were nearly wiped out by the time they joined up with Thrall’s horde just means the Trolls are never going to be a huge power within the horde like that of the Orc’s or undead.
Granted Vol’jin is a little lack luster in helping out with basically…anything right now. But thats just a design stand point, its easier to create a new character then bring Vol’jin into something for no reason other then to have a cameo in what ever quest. Vol’jin was introduced as a character after the death of his father in warcraft 3, he’s never been that big a character to begin with so its not so bad that he doesn’t have all that big a role.
Sylvannas: Would have been much better if she had been in on the plan with Varamathras and Putruss, but that’s just my personal position on it all. That said she is probably going to be the one that kills Arthas, in my view point anyways. See what I am getting from all these is you want the leaders of the horde to be holding your hand all through northrend and help you deliver flowers to your sweetheart.
Sylvannas and Thrall have more important things to take care of, they have cities to run, their own agenda’s to fulfill. Keeping something like the Horde running is no small task, and there are other things happening in azeroth other then northrend. If they focused all their efforts into killing Arthas or destroying the alliance or giant elf fun bags then their gonna start getting tunnel vision and the rest of the Horde is going to suffer for it.
Sylvannas is probably going to make more of an appearance once we start getting closer to Arthas himself, that’s my opinion.
Loth’remar: Honestly I forgot he even existed and I play a blood elf. Elves don’t really have a true leader yet as far as I am concerned, Loth’remar is nothing more the a place holder until someone who is more suited to the role is introduced.
Useless guy =\
Cairne: Not gonna argue, I keep forgetting he even exists.
Varian Wyrnn: Totally a dick, but I love him. Honestly lets go over the recent events between the alliance and horde and we can decide whether he is in the right or wrong here.
Act one
Horde first shows up in Azeroth, and (almost) immediately attack the kingdom of stormwind. Not only is Verian’s grandfather (who by the way was assassinated by an orc) and father killed in this conflict, but to top it off Stormwind itself is captured and sacked by the orcs. This isn’t just some “OMG they raiding stormwind!” like in WoW, were talking countless innocent people murdered by the orcs. Families burned alive in their homes, akin to genocide being carried out by these orcs. Varian would have seen all this when he was growing up, seen orc’s killing not only subjects of Stormwind but his friends and family; all right before his eyes.
Second war Saw the death of his God Father Lothar, arguably the greatest hero the alliance had known. Thrall’s father at this point takes over the horde through the murder of the previous leader, and continues the war against the alliance. Again Varain’s entire life has been swept with blood shed and loss all thanks to the horde.
We see the occupation of Ironforge’s lands and the enslavement of the red dragon flight, all culminating into the eventual downfall of the horde who attempt to retreat through the portal. Again we see Alliance hero’s laying down their lives to stop the Hordes leader Nar’zul from destroying their home world. Of course this isn’t exactly true as we find out in TBC that some of those hero’s are still alive. But the fact remains that time and time again the alliance has sacrificed to stop the horde’s blood lust.
Fast forward to Varain’s capture and imprisonment by the horde as a gladiator. He again see’s the horde’s dark side as he is pitted into fights to the death for their entertainment. I could go into detail as here as well, but really whats the point? You can see the pattern forming here.
Now take Varain’s perspective. The Horde, the monstrous and blood thirsty horde who murdered millions of innocents in his life time alone now stake claim on Azeroth claiming it to be their home. The undead, part of the Horde, not only hold Lordaeron but they let the tragedy that happened at the wraithgate happen; if not being the cause of it themselves.
But he’s suppose to just forgive and forget? Now that the horde has been stopped from their blood thirsty conquest of the human kingdoms and shown defeat suddenly they are a different people? Suddenly they have repented from their ways and deserve friendship and love? Should he ignore all the things that he saw as a slave within their cities because “their really not all that bad now dude”.
Fuck um, every last one of them. I can understand his perspective.
Magni Bronzebeard: Wow hard to keep going after writing all that for the human leader XD
Magni hasn’t been all that big in the lore, I say he stands down to let Muradin have the throne now that we’ve found he’s alive and well.
Other three I pretty much agree with you, so no need to restate it all. Tryande I don’t feel as adamant about as you do though, she’s fine were she is. Night elves have never really been that big a part of the alliance, their more an ally then an actual member in my eyes.
ALLIANCE
I can justify Variann.
I cannot justify Magni; there isn’t any mention of anything else happening in the world right now outside of Northrend so for the universe’s sake, Northrend is the focus of everybody right now regardless of previous issues. Following the timeline we set as we level, the Dark Irons are defeated, Ragnarose is gone, the ONLY other issue hitting home is his teen-pregnant daughter possibly linking to the Dark Irons and GRIM BATOL which is home to Deathwing according to Night of the Dragon.
Velen is an absentee.
Tyrande is doing dick right now. I excuse her and Staghelm for the most part because the Emerald Dream is pretty fucked right now and there are TONS of Sentinels and Night elves in Northrend right now sporting the seal of Darnassus or simply the armor.
Mekkatorque is a joke and does absolutely nothing. Blizzard SHOULD introduce phasing at level 81 where Gnomes gain more territory or play SOME kind of role. Even expand Ironforge where Mekkatorque is overseeing the construction of war machines or something.
HORDE
Thrall is doing the right thing as leader but hands down is not showing nearly as much initiative as a leader should. He MUST assert himself, period. The Horde is not your normal faction. It’s got a bloody past and very volatile members, you MUST have a strong hand to put down elements such as Garrosh. It’s the HORDE. There are no treaties or political councils and fruit baskets in hotels, there aren’t any NOBLES. It’s “King of the Hill Politics”, Thrall was the smartest, most enigmatic, and most powerful and thus the leader. He can’t afford to keep trying to maintain peace through nothing but diplomacy, the Horde is not strong in diplomacy. Especially in keeping his own brutes in line.
Sylvannas needs to be more active. The scourge has been pretty much BITCH SLAPPED in the plaguelands. The Scarlet Crusade is GONE and completely obliterated by the time to get to Onslaught Harbor in Icecrown. As far as SM and any other presence in the Eastern Kingdoms; they’re a non-entity. Sylvannas has nothing to worry about. She’s not exactly “running” the Forsaken, the bulk of the forsaken is localized in Northrend anyway.
Cairne doesn’t exist.
Loth’remar doesn’t exist either.
Vol’jin suffers from Mekkatorque syndrome. I suggest phasing at level 81 that expands the Echo Isles, make a special dock or something, GREAT idea for maelstrom expansion.
ultimately, I don’t want them to hold my hand in Northrend, I want the biggest lore figures in the game actually have some kind of role in the game outside of 1 single quest.