Dark Rangers in Stormwind City - RP

You would think it is a no brainer. But, just last night whilst on my monk. I came across at least 5.

Based thing to do is arrest them, in case they’re loyalist spies!

You’re my hero. This is sadly true and already had quite a chunk of experience from yesterday’s patch day. One Dark Ranger was in SW “to search for a sister” and didn’t even use the reason of embassy magic paper. Then we had RPers who went out to literally hunt down Darkfallen / Dark Rangers and bring them to us. Or those who would support them.

It’s all good and great but there’s another problem - combat. Let’s take into consideration Dark Rangers aka Quel’dorei or Sino’dorei → if those would be attacked by unhappy citizens of SW (For a reason!) then Dark Rangers would naturally defend themselves. They don’t know how SW jurisdiction works, they were isolated from it. To them surrender and hope that the Monarchy system will pat their hand and let them go - is just absurd. They’ll most likely end up at the Stockades, being questioned. Just as Genn sent (us, players) to spy on Calia, doesn’t mean that Calia or any other Horde member would send someone to spy on the Alliance. It’s all mind games at this point until armstice is converted into actual, proper peace.

So for Dark Rangers it would instead be a fight and it’s difficult. Every 3rd in SW is an anime character and fights would just turn into quite a mess and people will end up at each other throat OOCly. Not to mention that quel or sin’dorei Dark Rangers are more experienced and sharpened by the constant battles.

I also can’t phantom how Tyralion, a lightforged influenced human, would tolerate presence of the Dark Rangers or well… accept them. Death Knights, for example, were pardoned by Varian so Tyralion can only “accept” this decision and roll with it. But for him to do the same for Dark Rangers without anyone trying to advocate for them? We can but speculate at this point.

But as others said - main issue is that we just got this customization on alliance side without any introduction or excuse. It’s just there, because its a belf/velf model. I can see how Blizzard did this because Velf players would complain that Sindorei got this and Rendorei didn’t, so it was probably a pre-emptive decision done.

I just see that the best (yet it doesn’t mean its the good way at all) way is for guards, at least, not acknowledge Dark Rangers. Its rude, yes. But if we do acknowledge, then it’ll be just wrath from one camp or another and no one will be happy, only mood is ruined for RP.
Best what Dark Rangers can do right now, is RP with responsibility this concept. They can easily just go to Darkshire, but SW? It’s not the place…

I mean, that would make the most sense, considering that without any way of knowing who they are or any guarantees lorewise you just have no certainty as to their loyalties. Think Russian defectors from the Soviet Union. They’d be probably vetted and until their case officer would have any certainty whether their story was true or they were spies they’d be kept safely and under lock and key.

I assume you mistyped the wording here, but it absolutely stands to reason that the Desolate Council, which boasts the likes of Belmont and Velonara, would send spies the same way Genn did.

Yes, my bad. Not feeling well due to minor fever so I tend to mistype/do extra amount of grammar errors by now =| But yes.

As we send spies to the Horde to learn what is going on, so does the Horde send spies to learn what is going on. And if they’d send those, they deffo wouldn’t be the type who’d cause the most amount of attention the moment they step into SW.

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Are Sylvanas loyalists still a thing though?

This is something we should honestly have had addressed already. Turalyon did have his eyes opened a little when he met with Alonsus Faol, with his first instinct being to destroy the undead priest - until he felt the Light being strong with him. At which point he became remorseful for having judged him so harshly.

… but Dark Rangers have no such divine inclinations, nor are they unaffiliated. They are cut from the same cloth as Sylvanas who, until very recently, was an enemy of life itself. So we’re left to try and predict the unknowable ways of the writers.

Almost certainly so. We know that both factions have agents imbedded with the enemy ranks even in times of relative peace, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

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While Sylvanas loyalists may or may not still be a thing. My alliance characters wouldn’t know if its changed at this point.

None would ICly unless guards or others stop them and question them to find any flaws in their legend/story and thus decide to whether person is lying and should be sent for proper interrogation or not. Which, again, implies that all Dark Rangers can be seen as “very sus elf, lets poke it” and with that amount of bother, Dark Rangers would try and conceal themselves to avoid this sort of trouble right away.

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That’s fair, my Alliance character never knew there was a Dark Ranger schism in the first place. It was more of an OOC question, with Sylvanas serving time in the Maw and having made peace with her actions, the loyalist cause seems dead in the water.

I maintain this should be the immediate approach to anyone uncertain of their welcome in Stormwind. Undead, fel-corrupted, known criminals, traitors - you name it. A hood (or at least not camping in the middle of the most populated areas) seems like an obvious first step.

And I know you’re the wrong person to say this to, I just really like emphasizing the point. I’m certain guard RPers would prefer if we lived in a world like that already.

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I’m quite aware of that, sadly. My character has received a full report of last night’s events and spent half an hour rolling his eyes and trying to stop them from blowing up while contemplating whether this is a prank or not. OOC I’m having the same issue wondering to take anything seriously or not. Because once you do… well, you open quite the rabbit hole. Where do you go from there ? Do you just accept we now have dark rangers strolling in every corner of Stormwind city without so much as an issue ? It’s awful. If I was in your position I’d just pass them to SI:7 for interrogation and debriefing and apologize OOC in advance to the other guild for putting some a heavy weight upon them.

Turalyon is… complicated. There’s a tendency to see him as a zealot, but if you’ve read Before the Storm both him, Anduin and Genn meet up with Alonsus Faol in Stormwind’s Cathedral. Alonsus who is now Undead. At first Turalyon looks at him with utter disgust and can’t see anything but an abomination of his old friend and mentor. Yet he ends up falling on his knees before Faol and asking for forgiveness when he recognizes the Light shines bright in him and he’s still his old friend. So I don’t necessarily think Turalyon would be so problematic for dark rangers just on the basis of them being Undead, but it would still need some actual development in lore. And just now it dawns on me once more how simple it would be to make it work. Have Alonsus Faol, the former Archbishop of the Church of Light, Turalyon’s mentor and friend, write a letter to Turalyon about the dark rangers wishing to return home. It’s not so difficult. But Blizzard…

That might be worse, lorewise at least. Since they have a militia who’s constantly fighting undead and not actual, official guards, they’d probably burn any undead they see without a second thought. ''I’ve found a witch, may we burn ?!" :saluting_face:

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It’s… complicated. After last night episodes and witnessing how Dark Rangers just stand in the middle of the streets, chatting, not even hiding who they are… I personally came to a conclusion that for the time being, it’s best not to acknowledge Dark Rangers, until further developments. It’s rude, it’s harsh but (and to sound egoistical even) I also care for my RP experience. I want to draw joy from RP, not sit and try to unwrap the mess between Dark Rangers and people who were involved with them. It’s just so much of a headache that in the end it kills the mood for RP.

This entire thread was exactly to learn the general opinion of the people and understand whenever my decision was right or it should be reconsidered, as it wasn’t a final one. Just a temporary one until things are more clear.

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If anything the revelations from Shadowlands would only strengthen loyalist belief - they stuck with her through the “the horde are nothing”, and Shadowlands proved her right in motivation, even if not in execution.

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I had a dude run over to me to tell me OOC that dark rangers are accepted in the alliance. But, i haven’t seen any proof of it. Unless I’m blind

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The thing with Stormwind is you see all sorts of whacky and weird and wonderful stuff there, along with the more grounded roleplay that happens there.

Yes there can be dark ranger characters in Stormwind, as in people can make that profile and RP them there at their leisure, but there is no pressure or obligation for you to allow it to impact your own RP or allow it to have any sort of long-term effect on your character. People roleplay sin’dorei and nightborne in Stormwind too, I’ve even seen a vulpera once and (more recently) somebody RPing a sethrakk.

RPers choosing to do certain types of roleplay in Stormwind doesn’t mean we have to all acknowledge it. If we did then we could classify both void elves and night elves as ditzy, airheaded idiots who behave like twelve year olds, when both races have much more sincerity and gravitas than that.

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True enough and I agree. But then we have to deal with the outcry “Why is no one acknowledging my character, everyone is so toxic.” which of course is nothing new, just a little old.

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/w Darkránger (Skill issue)
<Darkránger is ignoring you>

This isn’t a real player (at the time of writing), don’t ban me please.

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Which will more than likely be the case.

Agreed. And at the end of the day I believe that’s everyone’s right considering we’re paying for this game. It’s not the best thing to do, but… Saves everyone a lot of trouble. Besides it’s not like SW lacks in weird RP ideas and challenging characters. Having one more to deal with without any basis in lore is just useless pressure.

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You can roleplay unique and interesting characters without bending the lore of forcing people go negative about it. For example I used to have a revolutionist Pandaren “Cho Guevara” that used to make a lot of people to laugh. So there are ways to make things great and unique but also more friendly-ish.

For the record you’ll find most people here agree with you barring the eternal contrarians, the issue is 90% of the players you want to convey this message to don’t read the forums and will not care about these sensibilities.

It’s worth discussing anyway.

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