Random thought, but the mythical mermaids of kul tiras were in fact sirens all along. It’s just that the more amicable of their lot nesting close to Boralus have all died or migrated away, leaving only the insular predators lurking in a few coves with no interest in humanity other than as pets and a solid meal.
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Alternatively the sirens are the off spring of a as of yet unknown ancient who feel on dark times with the corruption of the dream or old god, turning them as sour and nasty as their modern day daughters seem to be.
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The central room of Aegwynn’s Gallery in Dalaran now has replicas of the Pillars of Creation on display where the real ones rested during the Legion invasion.
The real ones — having fulfilled their purpose of closing the Legion rift in the Tomb of Sargeras — were taken by the Kirin Tor for safekeeping to an undisclosed location. For the greater good, of course, of course. What happened to the brilliant minds who decided to just leave the Pillars unguarded in the Tomb of Sargeras, allowing Azshara’s naga to yoink the Tidestone, is left to the reader’s imagination.
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I’d like to think the other pillars were also stolen by various antagonists and will be used against us several times
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More kul tiras headcanon for no reason:
Freehold was once a prosperous town with regular shipping routes, regarded an integral part of Tiragarde Sound and its trade routes to the Eastern Kingdoms. The second war changed all this as the horde fleet disrupted trade and the coastlines were raided. The bold people of the beleaguered town held out but in the later stages of the war as broken supply lines made it difficult to reinforce the region, pirates swept the coast and conquered the town for their own use.
The loss of such a valuable port in the last days of an already costly war shook kul tiran society to the core. Piracy, once regarded a crime of desperation and opportunity was relabled a crime against the state with the harshest penalties in all the land.
The pirates for their part had a rare moment of common agreement and renamed the town “Freehold” both as a celebration of their way of life and in mockery of kul tiran common law concepts of land property.
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Adding on to this
Freehold continue to exist to this day for two reasons.
- is regular corruption, some smart pirates know to pay the right people in high standing, particularly the ashvane house make or made up a larger sum of the bribed officals.
- Despite having the firepower and force to clean out the hold and reclaim the town, its the common held belief that doing so would be to costly for what it is worth.
This belief is a direct causality of the former corruption, as the aforementioned people in high standing have spun this narrative over the years.
However with recent power imbalance, Freeholds status as a free hold is no longer guaranteed, and it may now be a matter of when not if, the kul’tirans try to reclaim it.
A reasonable assumption. Largely letting the pirates have their haven as a way to temper their ambitions (and profit under the table from smuggling) isn’t quite so viable anymore since the Ashvanes used these long lulled pirates as an insurrectionary force. Any excuses by state authorities to tolerate this lawless port on their very doorstep is blown to the winds with the embers of the war they brought to the province.
The one thing preventing this solution and conclusion is the manpower shortage following the Fourth War as the Tideguards lost a great deal of their number fighting Lord Stormsong’s cult, the Order of Embers recruiting much of the island’s footsoldiers to finish off the drust and the vaunted navy being needed to patrol the coasts.
An uneasy status quo for sure and many kul tirans want a more proactive approach. Especially the Tiragarde Citizen Brigades whose numbers swell by the day. Untrained but enthusiastic, they make an even match to the pirate menace, keeping them in check.
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With the crews now in charge of Freehold having just returned to fill the power vacuum left behind by Harlan’s death and the Irontide’s defeat, one solution entertained by the powers that be has been to take advantage of the current anarchy in the Freehold by approaching some of the crews letters of marque and bribes acquired from the confiscated wealth of Lady Ashvane.
It is hoped that the crews who are thusly supported by Kul Tiras could manoeuvre themselves into leading positions in Freehold so that an offer of free cityship might be extended, incorporating the Freehold as a semi-autonomous protectorate of the Lord-Admiralty.
It’s not a very popular idea given Kul Tiras’ history with pirates.
Oh, and on the topic of pirates. The Fogsail Freebooters remain within the Horde’s ranks, their having openly sided with the Horde ensuring the Kul Tirans held nothing back when it came to driving them off. With nowhere else to turn, sticking to the Horde seemed like the best alternative so as to not lose your life in a noose.
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I low key want Owings to show up with the freebooters wearing the horde tabard now.
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I really need to get around to making a kul tiran character, don’t I?
Draenei stuff:
Since the Legion’s defeat and the Prophet’s formal renunciation of the title, many find themselves lost. Their end times prophecy came to pass and their revered immortal leader, while not retired, has stepped back enough that they feel a need for direction.
Communal by culture and habit, they crave stable leadership and find it in the exarchs. Once a council of specialists, they’ve transformed into regional governing figures akin to mayors since the arrival on Azeroth but some want more than that. They clamour for a restoration of the state of affairs on Draenor with an empowered council and in want of a prophet philosopher-king, an oligarchy of the most capable and willing, led by a Consul.
The Lightforged offer an alternative to the most devout; to join their ranks as auxiliaries to eventually ascend and know the comfort of absolute certainty in their military. Draenei society as such is divided on the issue and the Lightforged make unsubtle political moves to assert control over the entire military apparatus in their conviction of what is right.
It is a struggle between a meritocratic electoral system and military dictatorship. Thus far, the former is dominant by sheer demographics but this can change quickly should another crisis emerge and demand immediate military control.
A smaller faction still, evenly mixed with Lightforged demands total submission to the Light and its naaru intermediaries but their political influence is small since they spend most of their time either in rigidly regular prayer circles or loudly agitating for change in ways that disturb even the devout.
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We do need more humans wearing Horde tabards now that Alterac doesn’t openly side with the Horde anymore during the Second War.
This is an offer also extended to the other races of the Alliance, which is something that was eagerly accepted by countless humans who found themselves desolate and homeless in the wake of the Fourth War and subsequent Scourge invasion. Having previously flocked towards Velen in times of stark need, they now turn to the Army of the Light and the Blessed Regent.
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Wuh what??
From Warcraft 2 up to roughly 2017 when Chronicle 2 released Alterac openly sided with the Horde during the Second War, providing them with soldiers, sailors and operatives stirring up rebellions around Tyr’s Hand, as well as providing them with free passage through the mountains to attack Lordaeron City, leading to Stromgarde invading the kingdom after this treachery is revealed. This is why Alterac City was in a state of ruin, which never made much sense, but it is what it is.
Chronicle 2 changed all of this so that Alterac’s treason is limited to allowing the Horde to pass through mountain passes left unguarded lest Alterac’s own army attack the orcs, with only Perenolde, some of his loyal nobles and the commander of the army, Hath, knowing.
After the treachery was revealed due to the Horde’s attack on Lordaeron City, Thoras showed up, told the Alteraci of their king’s treachery and marched into Alterac City alongside Alterac’s own army and enacted martial law.
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That still tracks with the Tides of Darkness novel. The Alliance told Perenolde that they’re willing to sacrifice Alterac to bolster Lordaeron’s defenses and called on Alterac to abandon their lands and reinforce the capital in Lordaeron. Perenolde decided he’s not going to be sacrificing his country for the sake of the Alliance and wagered he had better odds at letting the Horde pass through the mountain passes, and only his inner circle knew of this.
He called for an order to abandon the watch towers guarding the passes and the general army didn’t know why. The Horde moved unseen through the land.
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Thalassian is a sort of lingua franca in Dalaran, fulfilling the same role as Latin in medieval Europe: the language of scholarly knowledge. There are several reasons that have contributed to this:
- Dalaran has had ties to Quel’Thalas since its inception, with many of their early arcane texts imported from there, and has always housed an elven minority.
- Some of the more snobbish (or more elvish) mages consider Common to be a language of simpletons that’s inadequate for capturing the nuances of arcane spellcraft.
- Finally, today’s Dalaran has populations of Thalassian elves on both sides of the faction divide; speaking either Common or Orcish could be perceived as making a political statement, but their native language is one that they can all agree on.
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Although at face value the headcanon does make sense, human mages (specifically Dalaran) canonically don’t use Thalassian for spellcasting per Day of the Dragon, where it’s revealed that high elves can’t understand the language of human mages.
Meaning not only don’t they use Thalassian, they also don’t use Common for it. We later see in-game through Khadgar’s incantations in WoD that human mages incantate in faux Latin.
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Are actually a combination of things, including demonic, draenic, draconic and kalimag, so mages use whichever spell-language is appropriate for the task. The human spellcraft probably uses some combination of their ancient vrykul-derived tongue and a human thalassian dialect so mangled over millennia as to be incomprehensible.
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Dalaran’s equivalent of “there’s an app for that” is “there’s a spell for that”.
(Sorry not sorry)
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It may or may not have bizzare side effects but such wackiness is par for the course in the magely sciences, accepted culturally as the price of doing business much like how goblin machinery is prone to exploding regardless of whether or not it’s combustible.
As such, you see the odd five meter ponytail from a miscalculated anti-bald spot spell and nobody asks questions. It’d be rude to make a fuss.
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when Fandral Staghelm used to spar with his peers and or/tyrande he would tell his opponents “barkskin, son!” before proceeding to defeat them
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