Helluu!
With the war between the Horde and Alliance becoming more and more relevant to Azeroth and its different peoples' survival, it is likely more and more Death Knights and Demon Hunters will become involved in the faction war one way or another; whether it be to help/control the Azerite flow or simply protect their old loved ones and people.
My question then is; as organizations outside of the Alliance/Horde, how will the Illidari/Ebon Blade react to its members participating in the faction war? Would they allow it? Would they try to stop it? Or just ignore it altogether as long as they kept the fighting off the Acherus/Fel Hammer? Are Demon Hunters/Death Knights participating in the war considered as renegades? Or are they fully sanctioned with access to order resources even?
These are hero classes after all, bringing a significant arsenal of powers and magic with them wherever they go; and will have a far bigger impact than just a few mortal footmen or grunts. They will gain the attention of generals and warchiefs of whichever battlefield they choose to intervene in fully.
And even just as importantly; if a member of the Ebon Blade/Illidari kills scores of their soldiers or sabotage a battle, how will the Alliance/Horde react to this? Will there be repercussions for the Illidari/Ebon Blade?
Lots of question, I know; but feel free to share what you think/know!
EB would ignore it as long as it doesn't damage them or Acherus. EB knights are free to fight for their (for er) faction and do their own thing as long as they put the EB priorities before those of their faction and/or don't try to betray th brotherhood.
1 Like
Turambar's a bit of an outsider in that regard, having left the Ebon Blade not once, but twice. He's strictly Alliance now, and while he tends to take a big picture view of the major threats, Sylvanas currently registers as one of those. He fought the Lich King, why wouldn't he fight the Lich Queen?
As for the Ebon Blade in general, I think Uruk has the right of it. The order itself stays out of these affairs. Individual members have their freedom to fight for their faction, even when it brings them into conflict with each other, just so long as it doesn't bring them into conflict with the Order at large. The Illidari are likely the same.
As for the Ebon Blade in general, I think Uruk has the right of it. The order itself stays out of these affairs. Individual members have their freedom to fight for their faction, even when it brings them into conflict with each other, just so long as it doesn't bring them into conflict with the Order at large. The Illidari are likely the same.
More bodies for the scrap pile. We have to build abominations out of something.
Sure, DKs have been heavily involved in multiple faction conflicts. Two examples:
In MoP we had the scenario of an Alliance outpost being attacked as part of a quest chain. The defenders are pretty easy until the Dwarf DK, who is bored out of his mind until you (the Horde) Commander comes along and then gives him a ‘real opponent’. I expect the Horde version to be rather similar. He wasn’t that powerful though.
Later, doing the Legion Alliance intro to Stormheim we attack the Forsaken Fleet with Greymane. One of the things to go wrong is a ‘Forsaken Dreadnought’ who is actually a very dangerous FDK. They freeze all the ship’s topdeck cannons, demonstrating major firepower.
I have yet to see any DKs acting in BfA lorewise, but I’m sure we’ll show up sooner or later.
As for Elyssa here? Well, let’s just say that she has gone back to her roots as a Kaldorei Warden, and stays far away from official EB business. Still gets on reasonably well with Horde DKs and I RP her as such. It’s the faction war being a problem, not the Order at work here.
In MoP we had the scenario of an Alliance outpost being attacked as part of a quest chain. The defenders are pretty easy until the Dwarf DK, who is bored out of his mind until you (the Horde) Commander comes along and then gives him a ‘real opponent’. I expect the Horde version to be rather similar. He wasn’t that powerful though.
Later, doing the Legion Alliance intro to Stormheim we attack the Forsaken Fleet with Greymane. One of the things to go wrong is a ‘Forsaken Dreadnought’ who is actually a very dangerous FDK. They freeze all the ship’s topdeck cannons, demonstrating major firepower.
I have yet to see any DKs acting in BfA lorewise, but I’m sure we’ll show up sooner or later.
As for Elyssa here? Well, let’s just say that she has gone back to her roots as a Kaldorei Warden, and stays far away from official EB business. Still gets on reasonably well with Horde DKs and I RP her as such. It’s the faction war being a problem, not the Order at work here.
I can definitely see individuals walking away to join their respective sides in the faction war, but I also imagine that the leadership of the respective orders won't be very big fans of that.
You essentially have your experienced or even veteran operators; whom the orders have invested much time, resources and power in; walk off to join different sides of the same war; often on their own; where they can be killed or even kill each other.
And in addition to the loss of vital personnel, if said operators are too successful on the battlefield, it can compromise the relationship & cooperation between the Horde/alliance and the order halls, and heavily restrict the order's ability to act in their respective territories.
I can see the faction war being a major threat to the internal cohesion of both orders, creating tensions within the ranks and undermining the goodwill they earned during the Scourge/Legion wars from the factions.
You essentially have your experienced or even veteran operators; whom the orders have invested much time, resources and power in; walk off to join different sides of the same war; often on their own; where they can be killed or even kill each other.
And in addition to the loss of vital personnel, if said operators are too successful on the battlefield, it can compromise the relationship & cooperation between the Horde/alliance and the order halls, and heavily restrict the order's ability to act in their respective territories.
I can see the faction war being a major threat to the internal cohesion of both orders, creating tensions within the ranks and undermining the goodwill they earned during the Scourge/Legion wars from the factions.
In Wrath, they were all unified against a common cause: Their creator, The Lich King.
Then they all went their seperate ways, or just stayed at Ebon Hold.
Then the Legion attacked and they unified again against a common foe.
And again, after it was done, they repeated the procedure. Faction wise they probably need to have a reason to fight for that faction: Families, Friends etc.
But at the Ebon Hold, they're all brothers in death.
As for Varg: He pretty much do not care, he's more a blade for hire favouring the Alliance. However his best friend in the Ebon Blade is an orc, and that's because of both having a criminal past.
Then they all went their seperate ways, or just stayed at Ebon Hold.
Then the Legion attacked and they unified again against a common foe.
And again, after it was done, they repeated the procedure. Faction wise they probably need to have a reason to fight for that faction: Families, Friends etc.
But at the Ebon Hold, they're all brothers in death.
As for Varg: He pretty much do not care, he's more a blade for hire favouring the Alliance. However his best friend in the Ebon Blade is an orc, and that's because of both having a criminal past.
Faelegar's take on it is staying the fu-.. I mean, the fel out of it.
He has better things to do with his time.
Also, illidari did swear to defend Azeroth. That's their new overall mission, as far as I know.
So why would he be killing off Azerothians because of some political dispute he has nothing to do with?
He has better things to do with his time.
Also, illidari did swear to defend Azeroth. That's their new overall mission, as far as I know.
So why would he be killing off Azerothians because of some political dispute he has nothing to do with?
Tyra's inner demon hungers for blood... the conflict is a good opportunity to sate it without being frowned upon by others.
Thassarian and Koltira already gave us example how this can work. Alliance DK supporting Alliance, Horde DK supporting Horde and both trying to avoid DKvsDK combat as long as possible by stalling and pityful excuses~
In my characters case she wouldn’t care about the faction conflict, it isn’t her consern as her pledge to hunt and slay demons where ever they are is her only goal.
Teldrassil means nothing to her.
This will come down to a personal decision, up to either DK or DH to choose.
One might show no interest in the faction war and try to avoid it, or take up arms against the ones who once have fought by their side, that all depends on each individual character. Speaking of lore characters of Ebon Blade for example, Nazgrim was a bloody patriot in life and I strongly doubt that being brought back from death would’ve diminished his loyalty to Horde in the slightest. On the other hand, I can’t see Whitemane caring enough about the faction war to lift a finger.
In case of my character, while he doesn’t really sympathize with values of Horde and find their traditions rather crude, he still stands where Silvermoon does.
He wouldn’t attack a Kaldorei Illidari unless they attacked him first, and even then he’d try to talk them out of it or would definitely stay his hand not to mortally wound his fellow Illidari in case he failed in his attempts to reach out to them. He is hardly fond of humans, though he usually prefers to keep things civil and keep his opinions on them known to only few others. He has an axe to grind with them and this faction war would be the perfect opportunity for that.
As a member of the ebon blade i will fought those vile orcs again.
I am far too busy hacking down Horde to be honest. If I encounter a fellow Brother or Sister Knight and we oppose each other, then so be it. It is very rare however and our abilities are of limited effectiveness versus each other.
I imagine they’re divided across faction lines. There’s probably a lot of death knights supporting the direction Sylvanas is heading, because they’re soulless killing machines. And a lot of them opposed to it because it reminds them of Arthas.
Demon hunters are probably just straight up supporting their factions. Everything Illidan did, he did for his people. Night elf DHs are probably not happy with the Darkshore events. And blood elf DHs, well, they’re not very morally upright and probably support their people and their people support Sylvanas. For some reason.
All up to interpretation from here, sadly. Because I feel like the EB and Illidari won’t get anymore screentime aside from the idle cameo in questing. Like that Mists of Pandaria questing regarding the Dwarf DK for example maintaining the Alliance front.
Don’t even go there! Are you seriously trying to compare the Demon Hunters along with Illidan’s Legion arc to the Death Knight’s of the Ebon Blade?!
You must be joking! Legion zone’s were very well made both ingame and storywise. But Illidan and his retcon, the Illidari which turned out to be the biggest joke ever, isn’t comparable whatsoever to the Death Knight’s.
Illidan should’ve never returned at all, least of all with his Illidari DH’s who were pulled out of his @ss. There were already established lore clearly that there were never more than five Demon Hunters trained, which three died, one went insane and the fifth actually succeeded.
But to retcon Illidans whole story arc (which was almost perfect, except for the rushed part in BC) but he was the Illidan we all came to love. The flawed Night Elf, who in his pursuit of more arcane knowledge and power, which later turned into a severe addiction to both Arcane and Fel, made him make choices that were based on his uncontrollable urge for more Fel and at the same time, his guilty conscious always came gnawing at his mind due to horrible and selfish choices he made and even struck a pact with the Legion for more power, eventuallt caught up with him.
This is why I hated Illidans retcon in Legion that completely contradicted everything already established in game. Even the DH’s he pulled out of thin air.
Instead of letting Illidan be the flawed character that we all fell in love with, they had to transform him and his small amount of followers so that they were always good intented from the startk which we know isn’t true 
A shame they both destroyed Illidan and Alleria, with her Void Elven followers who yet again contradicts so much established lore.
Why not let Alleria become one of the greatest Ranger in mortal history, while she chose to embrace the shadows in order to safe what she held dearest.
At a great cost, since she now became a slave under the Void, with only Locus Walker to teach her how not to succumb to the almost inevitable insanity and corruption that awaits all.
But no, instead they had to bring in further Elves, which was a mistake.
Same with Illidans DH’s. Image how more exciting Alleria’s story would’ve been if she continued this on her own!
And the whole Bwonsamdi business, where he claims that it’s either Eyir or the Lich King who are powerful enough to be behind this mystery.
And yet, when they visit the Lich King, he acts suprisingly suspicious… He, of all people claims that Sylvanas has gone too far and threaten the balanse, which is pure BS.
The Lich King is the Death-God, no one has messed with the balance of life and death more than him. He is obviously lying. We saw in Legion he had no problem using his tremendous mental powers to manipulate the Ebon Blade into becoming his personal elite army, through manipulation and temptations of power. Unlike Arthas, who just enslaved and enforced his will upon the undead, the new Lich King uses more subtley manipulations, something he probably picked up from Ner’zhul’s cunning and cruelty, after he studied the Dreadlords when they were unaware.