A more realistic start to BfA

Lore Story
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I know I am nowhere near the intellectual level of Blizzard’s interns writing the story of this game but I figured I’d gather some of the ideas that were floating around prior to the start of this god-awful expansion and make a somewhat coherent fanfic about the start of this pointless war.

Make sure not to pop any bloodvessels in your brain boys.

Ok, so, you know that very cool art of Teldrassil prior to the burning, where it’s glowing in a bright blue light? Some speculated that it might be azerite-infused, which was actually a decent idea. Because, as you remember, Vordrassil’s roots grew deep enough to penetrate Yogg-Saron’s prison and unleash his saronite blood. Well, after Sargeras’ anime finisher move, where he plunges his big rod into Azeroth, her blood starts spilling all over the place. It would not be too far-fetched to consider that Teldrassil’s roots, like most trees irl, would absorb her blood, that is now flowing freely around and about, and be infused, giving it that glowing artistic representation we all saw.

So, let’s imagine that was the case. NOW the Horde have a GOOD REASON to invade Ashenvale/Darkshore, since the Alliance now have a much more convenient Azerite mining opportunity, smack-dab in a capital city. Ok, so, let’s move on.

Using rogues to outsmart the NEs, who by the way have 10,000 years worth of military and scouting experience IN THEIR OWN FORESTS, was idiotic at best. Why not instead use one of the Horde’s Gunships to rain fire down the forests and pave a safe way for the Horde army to advance? I mean, NEs aren’t rly able to defend against a flying warship that easily. Let’s imagine that and continue.

So, the Horde is making progress through Ashenvale and into Darkshore, as the Gunship is raining hellfire onto the helpless NE defenders. Malfurion and Tyrande can’t do much about it, so they decide to retreat and use some of the Highbourn in Teldrassil to open portals to Stormwind and warn Anduin of what is happening. This takes time, of course, and the Horde keep pushing forward.

Now, when Anduin learns of this, he immediatelly contacts Velen and asks him to send the Vindicaar ASAP to defend Teldrassil - WHICH IT DOES. The Vindicaar arrives and possitions itself in front of the Gunship and protects Teldrassil with it’s defensive Matrix. Of course, by that time, Sylvanas and the Horde have occupied the entirety of Ashenvale and most of darkshore, creating a “Dead Scar” similar to that in The Ghoastlands and Everson woods, only it’s on fire!

With the Vindicaar between the Horde and Teldrassil, a stalemate happens. The Horde can’t advance any further, since the Vindicaar is a freaking spaceship with impenetrable defenses. But since the Lightforged (in this Main Universe) aren’t psychotic brainwashed light fanatics, they prioritize evacuating the civilians, rather than killing the Horde (which it can, by the way). So, yeah, a stalemate, while the civilians are evacuated.

So now, what does Sylvanas do? Well, as luck would have it, she’s actually smart this time around and came prepared. The Horde’s bulk fleet flanked the top side of Kalimdor weeks ago and possitioned itself just out of view, on the opposite side of Teldrassil. The Vindicaar is not able to see the fleet, since it’s behind a big tree, so the Horde forces, led by the cunning expert Nathanos Blightcaller are able to board the tree with some 10,000 able soldiers and advance undetected into the heart of Teldrassil.

The Alliance fleet is weeks away from help, and the Vindicaar is preoccupied with transporting the civilians to safety. Nathanos and his forces arrive at Darnassus and, with it’s defenses weakened, is able to ambush the NE forces and advance into the city, eventually securing the Azerite Supply caches throughout the city. He signals Sylvanas with a flare and she begins assaulting the Vindicaar. She knows it’s useless, as no man-made weapon or otherwise can pierce the Vindicaar, but it’s all with the goal of keeping the Vindicaar in position (because if the Vindicaar teleports to kill Nathanos & Co, Sylvanas will use her incrediple catapults to burn the tree, just how she did in the actual garbage lore).

Almost all of the civilians have been safely evacuated and the last remaining NE forces are holding Nathanos and his forces at bay through any means necessary. Seeing how the Tree is practically in the Horde’s possession, including all of the Azerite, Tyrande and Malfurion make a very painful decision to burn the tree, in order to prevent the Horde from gaining yet another Azerite mining location. Once on the bridge of the Vindicaar, they order the ship to fire on the Tree and bring it down. (Note that Malfurion doesn’t have too much of a problem with burning the tree, seeing as how he was one of the people who opposed Staghelm to begin with and warned him against erecting the tree in the first place.)

Having exhausted a lot of energy (Vindicaar doesn’t run on magic unicorn rainbow farts you know) both in transporting the civilians, defending with the Matrix and using it’s artilery to burn down the tree, the Vindicaar makes one last jump into orbit and exits the battle. The tree is in the process of burning and the Horde forces, led by Nathanos are suffocating from the fumes. Here is where Horde players, and the remainder of the Horde forces, use wyverns to rescue the Horde soldiers, mirroring the final Alliance quest. The Battle ends with the Tree burned, azerite denied and civilians alive, but with Ashenvale and Darkshore in Horde possession.

-Evaluation-

Pros:

  • Sylvanas and Co. aren’t a bunch of murderous bastards but actual war tacticians with valid reasons for breaking the truce and invading Alliance territory.
  • The tactics applied are actually realistic, in comparison to catapults that have 22km range of fire.
  • Satisfactory ending to both side - Horde fail to secure the Azerite and did not break the Alliance, but in return gained 2 new lands and a firm foothold in the entirety of Northern Kalimdor. The Alliance lost a major capital and 2 lands, but managed to escape the conflict with minor casualties and almost all civilians alive. Also, the Vindicaar and the Draenei/Lightforged were not useless, unlike the garbage actual lore.
  • Honorable Warrior Saurfang garbage storyline/arc doesn’t exist.
  • Evil murderous Sylvanas garbage storyline/arc doesn’t exist.

Cons:

  • The Horde are shown to be of a significant military disadvantage, since, you know, the Alliance have a freaking SPACE SHIP that saved them.
  • … (I actually can’t think of any other negative aspects, shoot some if you can)

If you managed to read so far, congratulations and thanks. If you want, we can continue to improve the lore by creating an alternate Siege of Lordaeron. If not, I will post my suggestion in the coming days.

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I’ll admit that there’d still be a major outrage over this version of events, but it makes a great deal more sense. The outrage would not be as bad.

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Reminder that if Varian still lived, the Horde wouldn’t have dared lay a finger on us. No one crossed us when Varian ruled.

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except garrosh. and he got away with it because varian was a talker.

now he’s a pile of dust.

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A pile of dust who will be remembered in the hearts of his people through his multiple monuments, and will be respected by both Alliance and Horde. Whereas Garrosh is a rotting corpse whom no one will miss.

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still got away with bombing theramore though. varian punked out of delivering a reprisal, because punking out is what alliance leaders do in WoW lore, which is why the horde messed with the alliance repeatedly while varian was king. so did the defias brotherhood. and various troll tribes. nobody was scared of varian is what i’m saying.

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The attack on Undercity needs to happen before Teldrassil. Genn could be the main instigator here backed up by Shaw and Rogers, each making their case for why a preemptive strike on Lordaeron is just and necessary. Genn and Rogers obviously seeking revenge against Sylvanas for the Broken Shore as well as the war in Gilneas and Southshore while Shaw could present evidence of Azerite weaponry being manufactured there.

Several other characters such as Alleria and Turalyon and the Dwarves could also lend their support for such a move while others such as Velen and Malfurion instead make their case for a more diplomatic approach while at the same time stress the importance of focusing on the wound in Silithus.

Anduin, being young and inexperienced and feeling the need to prove to himself and his fellow leaders that he does not shy away from making difficult decisions in his role as High King (barf) make the choice to give Sylvanas and the Horde an ultimatum: Cessation of all stockpiling, refinement as well as transportation of Azerite from Silithus into Horde cities or face the military consequences.

Sylvanas naturally declines and the Alliance make do on their vow from the MoP epilogue and their recent ultimatum and elects to invade Lordaeron. The battle plays out roughly as it is on live servers. Blight and extensive use of Azerite weaponry by the Horde. No Jainaship though.
Strategic victory for the Alliance but at the cost of soldiers, siege weapons and ships. Capitol city is left a blighted hellhole with the surrounding regions controlled by a skeleton crew of Alliance soldiers.

Horde regroups in Orgrimmar and decide on their next course of action. Feeling vindicated in her belief that peace will never truly by possible with the Alliance, Sylvanas plan her next move: To conquer Teldrassil and secure Orgrimmar and Kalimdor for the Horde. To accomplish this she realizes that her standing army will never be able to penetrate the Night Elven defenses in a direct and prolonged fight and instead will need to rely on subterfuge, speed and the massive amounts of heavy azerite powered siege weaponry that the Goblins of the Horde had constructed in the months after Sargeras went ballistic.

Organizing a feint by feeding faulty intel to the SI:7 spies stationed around Orgimmar she outfits a substantial part of her navy with azerite powered warmachines and sends them on route to Stormwind in an apparent suicide mission to distract the Alliance. Saurfang is disgusted and ragequits the Horde while the Alliance scrambles to mobilize their forces to counter this threat. Ships from all nations of the Alliance as well as the Vindicaar park themselves off the coast of Westfall to prevent the Horde fleet from making landfall while the Horde, unbeknownst to the Alliance at this time blitz their way through northern Kalimdor on their way to Teldrassil. News of this eventually reach the Alliance leadership, realizing that the Vindicaar is the only ship that would ever reach Kalimdor in time elects to send it, along with many of their heavy hitters such as Jaina, Alleria, Genn etc as support. Arriving above Darkshore they realize that the Vindicaar alone won’t be enough to halt the Horde advance and instead turn all their energies and efforts into organizing the evacuation of civilian centers on Teldrassil.

The battle for Teldrassil would also play out mostly as it was on live servers with the notable exceptions of Malfurion not being present for the battle. I’ve argued before that a character with such an insane powerlevel is more often than not a detriment to the story in this game when logic demands that said character should almost single handedly be able to wipe out his enemies. He’d instead be in Silithus tending to the wound and only made aware of the attack by the time the Horde was on the cusp of victory.

There’d also not be any stalemate at the Wildbend River. Sylvanas’ entire plan hinges on the speed of the attack and any such stalemate would only give Malfurion the time needed to fly back and aid in the defenses.

The burning of the tree would be an accident caused by one of the Azerite weapons the Horde brought with them. The Azerite infused tree theory would fit in nicely here as it would provide the means for such a massive tree to actually burn down in the first place.

There’d not be any substantial civilian losses this time around since the Vindicaar along with Jaina, Alleria and the her Void Elves all would provide adequate transportation for the population around Teldrassil.

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A better start to BFA would have been to have Exodar and Silvermoon as the city’s that the factions would lose.

It would truly set in motion a Horde vs Alliance conflict - especially if the Draenei and Velen claimed M’uru’s spark and deactivated the Sunwell. I’d love to see a reborn Draenei vs Blood Elf.
It would give us a “darker” version to the Draenei, but also develop the Blood Elves in a truly interesting way, whereby it would be highly unlikely that we would have a rebellion story arc - especially if the Alliance attacked Quel’Danas first and the Elves were combining the powers of the Sunwell and the powers of Azerite for more mana-bombs.

If Exodar was completely destroyed, again we’d be able to see a darker side to the Draenei, which I believe, is needed.

The residents of Exodar would take shelter between Darnassus and Stormwind whilst the Blood Elves would take shelter between Orgrimmar and Suramar.

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not gonna lie, i like this - but only purely for selfish reasons.

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A very good point, because Blizz would most likely have revamped the zone and might even have given them flying which could have been implemented during BfA - sort of a cushion to soften the (temporary) blow.

Darnassus “refuge capital” of the Alliance?^^ Anyway, much better than burning Teldrassil down.

However, I would give the Blood Elves just Suramar as a refuge point since it is much more “befitting” for the spellcasting clothies (well, the majority of them anyway) than ‘‘rough & tough’’ Orgrimmar^^

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I’d add that due to the extremely heavy casualties among the populace and former Duskwatch, there’ll be many empty residences in Suramar.

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hell no you dont take away silvermoon. And besides it has the barrier from sunwell that arthas and guldan(with help of dragons) couldnt breach, and arthas had to be let in by traitor.
and still hasnt been updated or made usefull for anything.(cant even fly there) just no no destroying silvermoon or exodar.
So silvermoon wouldnt be able to be taken and being city of mages coudl conjure food. so cant even starve them out.

Exodar is repaired and could and would just fly away and its on a Island only reachable by boat,while silvermoon is still on land. it aslo has its own defense not as strong like silvermoon has but it would be enough to get away.

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Think about this from an overall story point of view though.

Darnassus and Undercity haven’t proven anything. They’ve set up stages for rebellion arcs and all sorts (MoP, Garrosh 2.0). Lordaeron City can never be reclaimed and Darnassus was made to drive out the Night Elves, but out of the main Alliance Kalimdor races, the Draenei are the most distant.
Also, a story point of view - Silvermoon being attacked, due to intelligence being received that Sylvanas has ordered her former people to combine Azerite to their Mana-Bombs, which follows on from her initial idea of attacking Stormwind - that would set the stage for a truly interesting faction conflict story.
It could also set up a better and more coherent stage for Sylvanas’ dislike towards the Alliance, as she not only failed to defend Silvermoon once, but twice and having Anduin, Genn, Turaylon, Velen and Alleria be the primary force of the Alliance’s assault would again, set the stage for something better. Also, the barrier - their isn’t much of a defense their now as Ren’dorei and Quel’dorei would also know how such a barrier works.

Now, due to the intelligence being that they wanted to use their newly remade mana-bombs and target Stormwind, Velen and Turalyon retrieve M’uru’s spark and the Sunwell’s power, deactivated.

On the Alliance side, seeking revenge Lor’themar and Liadrin send their own scouts and determine that Azuremyst Isle is receiving Azerite and the Exodar is storing it within. The Draenei Arcanists and Crystal-Magi also seek to use the Azerite, but before their research can truly begin, the Horde begins their assault, starting from the beach that overlooks Bloodmyst and the assault is led by Sylvanas, Varok, Nathanos, Lor’themar and Liadrin.
Similar events occur and the Horde blast the Crystal City with Azerite, causing the deaths of many Draenei.

With this, I don’t believe we would have stumbled into another “Rebellion Story Arc - Nasty Sylvanas - Garrosh 2.0” area. The Horde’s actions would be justified and we’d get a different angle on why Sylvanas hates the Alliance and by extension, we might even be able to rid ourselves of this “Lich King wannabe” as well.

With this, the Draenei would probably take refuge in Stormwind, whilst the Blood Elves would take refuge in Suramar. Now, this whole idea only works if you either have a “Dominance Offensive” or “Suramar” type story/zone, and rather than stalemate Warfronts, we’d get quests that take us back to TBC zones, both for Horde and Alliance.
Horde wise - you could easily have something that involves the Blood Elves Magi on Bloodmyst Isle. You would do this with Rommath.
Alliance wise - you could also find more information relating to Dark’han and perhaps, with Alleria and Velen, see a past scene, where he submits to Arthas.

Again, Exodar and Silvermoon have defenses - but they can be bested and in this expansion, they should have been bested.
Darnassus and Lordaeron haven’t given us anything to truly work with. They were random destructions, that truly haven’t progressed the stories of either the Night Elves or the Forsaken in a truly convincing way. I don’t truly consider Sylvanas/Nathanos secret missions, true Forsaken lore development either and the Night Elves is just the Night Warrior which isn’t much of anything.

The Draenei and Blood Elven changes could give us something so much more and something so much better, than what we’ve got. We’d absolutely get a better idea on Sylvanas’ character and how the Third War still causes her to think back, but fight on.
We’d also see a different arc for Velen as both Sylvanas and Velen are two recent characters who have seen tragedy befall their people.

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void elves are the ones that want to keep the city ,they want to keep it and have rest of belfs join the Alliance. and muru’s spark,it was somethign muru wanted itself. And i dont think would even be possible do it.

and dont have to destroy silvermoon and exodar to not have a rebillion vs sylvannas, just changing teldrasil to accident of something hitting stored azerite is more then enough for example.

And the defenses shouldnt have been bested if guldant he most powerfull warlock of all with help fo chogal and red dragons and the trolls (wo were figuring out how runestones of the elves worked) couldnt break it. And arthas with scourge couldnt break ,the Alliance would never have a chance to get in.

daranuss adn undercity not having done enough for races, it not fault of them being destroyed instead of others but writers not caring/not wlling or not allowed to further it. Like tyrande killign 1valk is her revenge. teldrasil is perfectly fine thing to further to night elves if blizz would follow it up ,which they dont. same for undercity.

and for Alliance it also makes less sense then undercity to attack,undercity is something they wanted back for ages.
silvermoon cant be breached with the barrier(would aslo have help of nightborne now) and is not somethign they particuly care about it outside the void elves and alleria who dont want to see it destroyed or the sunwell. same for the high elves they dont want their home/ancestral city destroyed.

And destroying sunwell(if somehow could even get to it) would screw over the high elves in the Alliance aswell it.

I dont see exodar or silvermoon as a possitive at all in the slightest.

Them destroying ti adn breaking barrier would go against the high and void elves the only ones in Alliance that care about silvermoon adn dont want to see it gone(and would screw over high elves)
it would be just as bad writing as current ,need less of that not more .

And gameplay those cities have never been relevant,escpially silvermoon.

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Internal Alliance conflict.

Something that’s absolutely, 110% needed.
Thalassian Elves, Humans and Draenei have had some…splintered relations in the past and it would be good to explore this once again.

And it would be better, because the attack on Silvermoon would actually be felt more for the Warchief. This is the sort of the story that I can get behind, with Sylvanas.

The randomness of the attack on Darnassus, by Sylvanas, when a book states that she wants to go after Stormwind is so ridiculous. Garrosh, he had reasons to attack the Night Elves. If he had been leading this, attacking Darnassus would have made absolute sense.

Darnassus’ destruction was used to ONLY reflect Silvermoon’s destruction during the Third War and nothing more. That’s why it hasn’t been developed.
It’s a copy/paste story from W3 and it hasn’t worked.

Night Elves and Forsaken are quite distant from their factions.

Blood Elves, due to Sylvanas, are close to the Horde and Draenei, due to Velen and Anduin’s friendship, are close to the Alliance.
I have no doubt, that these races would have actually got something better that goes beyond pathetic warfronts.

He had the help of Dark’han, who was a native Thalassian Elf. Ren’dorei are former natives. They would know how this works.

The internal conflict within the alliance starts when the Ren’dorei just want to destroy the Blood Elves’ manabombs. The Sunwell isn’t to be harmed
The Humans, with Sylvanas leading the charge, want to end Sylvanas, by any means necessary.
The Draenei, they’d fight, but hold split reasons that both back the Humans and Void Elves.

Their wouldn’t be a rebellion story arc because their would be be a very strong backing for Sylvanas as Warchief.
This would be the Alliance attacks, Horde reacts - rather than the opposite and what we’re used to.

Velen’s a powerful Priest, Sage and Scholar.

If Sylvanas and Anduin can mass ress, I’m sure he can do something with a small core, to a small well that is just under 3 times his age.

Internal Alliance conflict.

Something that would make the Alliance worth playing.

Tyrande and Anduin hasn’t amounted to anything, whereas something that concerned Alleria, Velen, Turaylon and Anduin - that would be far more interesting to see play out, because Blizzard do write better for the above four, rather than Tyrande.

We really need to stop our personal biases because our personal biases are what is ruining the current story and think about, just for a second, if we swapped Darnassus and Undercity for something else.
It could even be Orgrimmar and Stormwind or Ironforge and ThunderBluff.

The latter would be most welcomed as we wouldn’t have this “peace-loving, Anduin-f*pping” Baine and Ironforge would also be most welcomed as we’d get to see what the Queen Regeant, Moira is all about and what sort of magic she’s packing.
With this, Moira could have finally got her time and it wouldn’t be an insulting gesture like a warfront because despite it all, Moira is loved by many Alliance fans.

One thing you must know about me. I’m conservative. I will NOT blow smoke up anyone’s backside in order for their ego to be stroked and their favorite race, defended. I’m a fan of blood elves and draenei, but this isn’t relative, nor important, when discussing better options for the story.

Silvermoon, Exodar, ThunderBluff and Ironforge are all city’s that truly means something for the respective factions and leaders. These cities would be better destroyed and would have received better follow-up stories, than Darnassus (who Anduin, Alleria, Turaylon, the Council, Gelbin, Velen, Jaina, Umbric don’t care about) and Lordaeron (which the Horde didn’t really care about anyway.)

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“As long as other fans than nightelves suffer it is good for me!” yeah I heard that one before :roll_eyes:

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If a race that is more favored by Blizzard, they will get the better story.

Night Elves and Forsaken haven’t received anything from their city losses, barring a stupid warfront in Darkshore and fighting over Bashal’Aran and Lor’danel.

This is all personal biases because people don’t want their favorite race/s to suffer and this sort of attitude has RUINED the story.
An actual, deep story with a red vs blue story would start with something that’s closer to the leaders and I can’t think of a better example of Silvermoon going, Sylvanas failing again, but reflecting…straight away, we get a different side to her hatred for the Alliance. We move away from the mustache-twirling cartoon villainy who only a handful of folk take serious, and we have something concrete that would truly flare the faction war and would be a good follow on, from the book.

Also, we’d have the Alliance act and the Horde react. We’d also get internal conflict within the Alliance and the Horde truly standing firm - in fact, I can see only positives coming from this.

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I’m gonna copy myself again :

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and you dont need to destroy silvermoon for that, teldrasil and undercity(which Alliance wanted back for long time) is fine for that.

And for the lore silvermoon wouldnt be lost due its barrier.
and for gameplay it and exodar are still stuck in tbc never had any relavancy whatsoever at all. they need to be made relevant and updated not destroyed (which for silvermoon makes no sense whatsoever)

forskane and nelves not getting further thn warfront is not fault of those cities being hit, if it was silvermoon and exodar youd have same if blizz was writing it but id be worse as that would make them forever unrelevant and stuck in tbc as never gonna get update to be a usefull captial.

Alliance innerconflift is more then possible with current undercity attack, some not wanting it and anduin being pushed into it by genn ,jaina and rogers while velen and alleria would be lot less open to it for example.

And no musctache twirling villain, make teldrasil a accident or bigger then she expecpted in someway (or make azshara do it) or most simple swap undercity and teldrasil when they happen and its 10times better from that alone. ad youd have Alliance act and horde react.

And again for silvermoon the void elfs,high elfs and alleria wouldnt see it destroyed and they wouldnt let Alliance inside barrier to let them destroy it,they want the belfs to go to Alliance not murder them all out and make them more stand with horde.

Is no need to destroy silvermoon or exodar at all, and doesnt make sense whatsoever.

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I have better proposal. As soon as horde steps into sacred forests alliance calls for Vindicar and nukes greenasses from the orbit and bfa never happens