its big city i sure it can be interesting location for orcs to reinforce the town vs unknow enemy alliance,maybe even vs the silver hand
Do the Horde Undead still control Andorhal at the moment?
Nothing has changed as far as we know.
That said, I’d much prefer the Forsaken to get Alterac as a new capital. Big city, defensible position, can dig into the mountain for a new Undercity, the cold maintains their corpses better, located close to Frostwolf allies, and it’s centrally located, with bases and Forsaken villages close by.
They could interdict places like Fenris Keep, Shadowfang Keep and Southshore from Alterac too.
It’s not really that big. Certainly not as big as Undercity.
The largest settlement remaining in Lordaeron, is Stratholme.
If the Forsaken were to look for a substitute, that should probably be the go-to pick.
2 Likes
I like this idea. But I’m pretty sure alliance would not. Though pretty sure we could trade Ashenvale for it.
1 Like
i know from the cataclysm quest quests around altarac that the frostwolf clan didn’t help the forsken and the hord in southshore
That was because of Sylvanas liberally using the Blight.
Now they have non-Forsaken as leaders that dont approve of the Blight.
1 Like
I quite fancy the idea of the Horde claiming Stratholm personally. Location makes perfect sense as it’s in proximity to Silvermoon. Maybe they’ll finally phase that area together with the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms too.
Could serve to reinvigorate the Eastern Plaguelands (maybe they’ll even stop calling them that), same goes for the Ghostlands too. Maybe I nice new quest for the belfs, healing the dead scar in Eversong Woods and the Silvermoon.
[speculations] I feel this would consolidate the Horde in the North and put them in a better place to defend against Turalyon’s light driven mad alliance. You’d have Light’s hope Chapel in the middle too trying to balance things out a bit. Potentially loads of Scarlet fanatics taking over Tirisfal. Loads of good possibilities that’s for sure.
Alterac is an interesting approach too. Frostwolves trying to get along with Forsaken could create interesting internal conflict. Some would naturally distrust them all because of Sylvanas’ actions whilst others would understand that they can’t judge an entire nation based on their past leader’s actions etc.
1 Like
Yeah, but because of Blizzard parity, the night elves would need to gain an entire city and multiple zones too. Since the night elves so far only have Darkshore, maybe Ashenvale and Hyjal too, depending on if the Horde abandoned Ashenvale and the Cenarions are oke with the Darnassian Army of the Black Moon in Hyjal (we don’t know if they are, really).
The Forsaken presence in Hillsbrad, Silverpine, Tirisfal and Western Plaguelands won’t magically dissappear if they take Stratholme as their new capital.
That’s even ignoring the fact that the Argent Crusade (which is still around and probably the strongest faction in the north with Silvermoon and the Forsaken), would be oke with the Forsaken basicly seizing Stratholme from them, as the Argent have made clear that their plans for Stratholme are to make it their capital city for their Light-based nation. And what would happen with Tyr’s Hand, Heartglenn and Light’s Hope Chapel? THey’d all be neutral Argent Crusade cities and villages smack in the middle of Forsaken/Horde territory.
2 Likes
Isn’t the same already happening with the CC now that NEs have set up camp in Hyjal?
I don’t see the Argents make much of a fuss, if the Forsaken are to finally embrace a more moderate stance after ousting Sylvanas.
Like, would the Argents really stand against a faction taking residence in said ruins, while backed by the likes of Alonsus Faol (who essentially founded said paladins entire way of life)?
1 Like
The Argents supposedly control at least three major strongholds and tons of land, including the fruitfully farmable lands of the western plaguelands. And they haven’t had any major threats in their realm since the Lich King fell, while recruiting from every race. They really should be a relevant force that should be able to compete with most playable races. Alas… they haven’t been shown to be able or willing to do anything but hit zombies at all, since Wrath. So yeah, no chance of them being in the way if Blizzard decided to give the Forsaken Stratholm.
I just don’t think it likely, because the lordaeronian cities don’t have the Forsaken aestetics at all. There is a reason why they invented Undercity, instead of settling the Forsaken in the ruins of Lordaeron originally.
I don’t mind as long as there’s a solid explanation! Hyjal becoming a stronghold for the Night Elves would suite their particularly angrier states. I’m saying this whilst also remembering the battle of Hyjal from WC3. It would make a solid point that they won’t be taking anymore sh*t from the orcs.
Basically what Zarao said here:
Not to mention Calia Menethil and this whole new light born undead or whatnot. I feel the Argents would make an ideal neutral buffer between the Horde and the Alliance in that part of the map.
Not sure that’s a problem anymore, well at least not since the Cata revamp. They can just swoop in and redecorate. Maybe they could even make it a nice work in progress through the patches, instead of dumping the whole thing in the beginning of an expansion. So for example:
10.0 the city doesn’t have all its parts, there’s a central hub that’s pretty “forsakeny” in terms of architecture, but mostly all lordaenorian looking.
10.1 there are new wings to the city now looking more forsakeny
10.2 even more
10.3 Stratholm (or whichever other location they might choose) is now full on Forsaken in it’s style, they’ve maintained perhaps an old “historical center” like we have in most European cities where maybe they add some kind of memorial to the culling of Stratholm, you know as some sort of “dark memorial” to never forget where they began as people and where they are now.
Sure, but with that amount of work they might as well just create something new. They could make some cave stuff to get Undercity 2.0, they could use their Maldraxxus-assets and get some giant necropolis for the Forsaken, they could build a new city, that is actually a Forsaken original, they could live on some giant mushroom and yes, they could give them an old one that is changed to be essentially unrecognizable. And I’m sure there could be more fun ideas. If they are still going for the graves, slime and death metal style, which is what Forsaken players kinda came for, I think just giving them an existing city is really the least interesting option.
On a serious note though, how come you think that seeing an existing area progressed, taking in account and respect the past history in a great world building fashion, less interesting, than some random brand new thing? I would have thought the latter is the easy way out. Like you know, “here’s a random new bit of landmass that magically got dug up, and tada, the Forsaken went on it and funded Forsakenopia” would be way less exciting to me at least! 
Don’t get me wrong, reusing some of the maldraxxus assets with small detail changes, such as going for the typical forsaken purple over the weird “diseased green” would be cool.
1 Like
If the direction it is progressed in is decided by out of character reasons like the racial design I don’t see anything interesting about it, more a defilement of what was already there. I’d be fine with the Forsaken actually living in a human city, rediscovering their human identity, and only making changes where it actually serves some purpose. I’d really like soem conflict between the Forsaken and the Argents, when the Forsaken make some power play for some city. I’d be interested in the fallout the decision to claim Lordaeron as Lordaeron, and not to deny their humanity, would have on a global scale. But that’s not what we’re talking about, is it? We are talking about Blizzard giving them something Blizzard style. And I really don’t care to hear “Oh, the Forsaken took Strathholme, made it unrecognizable, and no one had any relevant reaction to it at all”. That’s just taking the old Stratholme away, that’s not developing its history.
At least this adds something to the world without taking something away. Sure, I would prefer them developing what is already there in a respectful way, but that’s just not happening, so adding stuff is the next best thing.
Ah you misunderstand me mate, I don’t mean for them to change things just for a “fresh Blizzard asset look”. I’d obviously want there to be some proper politics, world building, faction conflict and all that good stuff. If anything it needs to be driven by this, if not it’s basically meaningless. Most importantly, I’d want us to experience the change over a longer period of time as opposed to simply installing the next dlc and all of a sudden, half the map is different and you can only find out why by reading engaging with other media.
Can always add a bronze dragon hanging out somewhere that teleports you back to the older version of the area, like they’ve done with various areas. Would allow players to experience the dungeon to their heart’s contempt, or explore old zones for nostalgia or whatnot. One of the few times where the timey whimey nonsense has useful gameplay applications I find.
I find it more likely that we’ll get space and dimensional travel in our lifetime than respectful world development from Blizzard. So no, I understood your idea, I just reject the premise that that is in any way possible in the context of this game. And I’d rather have no changes to the stuff we have ever than have it messed up. I don’t much care for any of the cities up there, so I wouldn’t be very upset if they just dropped Forsakia on Stratholme, but I’d prefer pretty much any other method of giving the Forsaken a capital. Or even better, just not giving them a useless, empty capital, just because they thought it a great idea to take the old useless, empty one away for nothing.
Meh.
The sweet spot would be to have a balance.
Sure, Forsaken players want their shady Death Metal and Green goo stuff, but the Lordaeron background is still part of their core psyche and a large part of the appeal as part of the “twisted human parody” trope that attracts certain people.
Even the Vampire Counts in Warhammer are still heavily imbued in their roots as some parody of the Empire.
I’d find some rather interesting twists to be had if the Forsaken took hold of the symbol of Arthas downfall. And they could still tweak it to match some of their more recent aesthetics.
It worked for Brill, Tarren Mill and Andorhal with their Cata revamp.
Could you give some examples? That Blizzard might actually do, preferably? Because I’m not seeing it.
Sort of. The Army of the Black Moon took the World Tree, but the majority of its citizens are still living in Stormwind as refugees.
Besides, the Cenarions have Felwood and Moonglade still (and ofcourse Val’sharah). We don’t know how many night elves besides the Army of the Black Moon went to Hyjal.
I think they would, honestly. The Argent’s already have the majority of the Eastern Plaguelands as their nation. Why would they give the Forsaken Stratholme because they are “more moderate”? By that logic they might aswell give it to Turalyon (a original Knight of the Silver Hand) and the Silver Hand chapter based in Stormwind and Ironforge.
Honest, I would love this. But only if it makes sense.
Except if the Forsaken claim Stratholme, they are not a buffer between Horde and Alliance lands, because the vast majority of Forsaken lands is still surrounding Alterac mountains.
Which is why I support Alterac, they can easily remodel it in a Forsaken-style city.
Don’t get your hope up. Orgrimmar is still a work in progress too, sadly. At this point, to me only Andorhal and Alterac would make sense as new capital cities, with my preference bieng towards Alterac.
1 Like