How would you finish BfA?

Argent Dawn
1

There’s plenty of grumbling about where the story has gone/is going and problems with it, but occasionally we should try to be productive rather than destructive with our stories. A day or two ago Balop/Yue asked me how I would finish BfA. One of the restrictions is that you can’t retcon what’s happened (or 8.2 datamines), and instead are writing for a post-8.2 world.

So, broad strokes, this is what I had:

Okay, I think I’ve got where I’d go with it. It’s not clear if N’zoth is freed iirc but I’m going to operate under the assumption that a) he is but also b) he slinks back into the shadows.
8.3: Derek kills Jaina and Tandred, and is then destroyed, leaving Katherine the last Proudmoore. Warfront: Barrens/Mulgore as the Alliance launch an assault from (the rebuilt) Northwatch Hold against the tauren, blaming Baine. Anduin is if not removed then sidelined in favour of Genn and Tyrande due to his attachments. Arator is part of the Alliance forces.

Due to the attack any talk about rebellion against Sylvanas is put on ice. Due to political pressure Sylv dedicates forces to ensuring Thunder Bluff is held.

8.3.5: Horde leaders finally confront Sylvanas but there’s so much he-said she-said that rebels lack the numbers to depose her outright. Instead she retains her role with Thrall and Lor’themar as “advisors”, basically keeping her in check (like Cairne and Vol’jin were meant to do for Garrosh - again, it RHYMES). Saurfang is officially pardoned, but leaves the Horde regardless.

Meanwhile Alliance leaders are arguing about their next move. News comes in that Arator died at Mulgore and Alleria breaks down. She leaves through a void portal and vanishes.

8.4: Alleria returns to Stormwind and demands the complete destruction of the Horde - total wipeout. “They’re all complicit.” When Anduin refuses her, she lashes out. N’zoth’s whispers get too much and she goes full voidmode, with faceless ones streaming into Stormwind, setting up for the raid.

Baine and Sylvanas find common ground on needing to stop Alleria. With the Alliance forces lead by Turalyon and Horde by Sylvans they break into Stormwind’s infested streets. Sylv uses Xal’atath’s empty knife to drain Alleria’s power enough for Turalyon to get the killing blow.

So that’s where I’d take this trainwreck. What about you?

4 Likes
2

Simple finish:

Siege of Stormwind.
Sylvanas wins.
Alliance surrenders.

Same what happened to MoP. Mommy blizz goes against alliance now, its their time to be sacked.

4 Likes
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doesn’t work,

But this does,
Sneak telemancy beacons into stormwind.
Telemance Manabombs into stormwind through the beacons.
Done.

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8.3 Whispers of Ny’alotha
I don’t really have a whole lot of ideas with the Horde and Alliance side of things, but personally I hope they start to work towards ending this faction war. Horde rebellion (ugh but necessary) kicks up, aiming to dethrone Sylvanas but she’s not present and Nathanos instead acts as the bad guy of the War Campaign.

Ny’alotha zone where we fight our way to stop N’zoth, something similar to Argus/IoT in terms of story progression, raid comes in 8.3.5.

8.3.5
Tying up Sylvanas’ story with her and the raid. Probably a N’zoth/Sylvanas end fight (or she’s penultimate boss).
Ny’alotha raid to stop N’zoth… but we lose. Enter a proper Old God expansion where C’thun and Yogg-Saron are freed as well. Woo!! End of faction conflict and just factions in general, focus on the bigger threats…

We’re never getting an x.4 again.

6 Likes
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if I could end it.
I guess I would have nathanos of all undead experience a loss of faith in sylvanas after she does something super horrible.
then in a total twist ending, he sides with the other horde leaders. They time out sylvanas in a jail cell and he takes over leadership of the forsaken.

meanwhile anduin thinks he can end the fight with the other horde leaders, (now united) but the night elves and the worgen says NOPE and at best both factions decide that they cannot continue the all out war and instead need to rebuild, so the over all fighting dies down, but does not stop.

in the shadows, in their base of evil, the league of secret villains all discuses which one of their members they should put in charge of their next evil plan.
these ofc being, the black prince, kniafu, keal’thas, kel’thuzad, light crazy Yrel and ofc the void lords.

6

Peace, and the merger of the factions. With a smaller playerbase that may be the best solution.

4 Likes
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I partially agree with Elenthas.

The finale is definitely siege of Stormwind. Alleria goes ballistic and summons N’zoth into the world, out of his prison. Sylvanas, having already gone off the deep end and made the world her enemy once it is revealed she made deals with Azshara, goes there as well and makes a deal with N’zoth - if he wins, he lets the forsaken be. Sylvanas is the penultimate boss of the raid, with Alleria coming before and N’zoth himself after.

The void elves join Alleria, but the velf player breaks away from them and stays with Anduin. As a result, by the end of the raid, the velf player is the last of their kind on Azeroth.

2 Likes
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The player sacrifices himself to save everyone and create a prospering, safe future for them.

The screen then fades to black, and the concerned voices pf your factions leaders disappear.

For a while, it looks like all is over.

Then, the screen begins to light up.

You find yourself bound by your wrists, on a carriage. Pine trees surround your field of view.

“Hey! Hey, you. You’re finally awake!”

15 Likes
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I’d enjoy BfA culminating in a final battle where leaders from both sides actually die and the Alliance and the Horde have to rebuild. It’d not be a story of “we have peace now” but more so a “we cannot fight anymore lest both sides perish in the process”.

That’d be gold for future plots and could lead into more interesting storylines as the Horde and Alliance rebuild.

2 Likes
10

that, to me would be the best outcome, at least for the war.
ending the war in any other way would be a WoD grom hellscream 2.0

I mean we have races on both sides of the war who are very angry and wants to see the other faction pay, zandalar trolls/night elves for instance.

having them make peace, just cuz? would be a new low.

2 Likes
11

You get to side with Sylvanas until the end if you are loyalist and after she loses Ion Hazzikostas personally comes to your house to delete your character and uninstall your World of Warcraft.

4 Likes
12

From one Rebellion straight into another!

1 Like
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Divorcing myself from spurious speculations and just setting up an ideal? At times, the details aren’t mutually exclusive but it’s basically this:

The ongoing Horde focused narrative of the expansion ends with Sylvanas predictably having used the Horde for her own gains. She is defeated as Varimathras hinted, but escapes to the Shadowlands as a genuine villain for the next Death themed expansion.

Wrap up with Nathanos betrayed by his queen (as he was always a tool and means to her ends), siding with the rebels to save himself and the good Forsaken, becoming king in Darkshore as the new undead homeland.

Yes, radically, the lands are not returned. Teldrassil is gone, the Horde controls the interior of Kalimdor and the night elves remain in the East, nuturing a grudge to last millennia. The world is relatively neatly divided into red and blue as a result, ignoring factors like the Horde controlling the seas with the largest land and colonial empire because Blizzard would do that.

Storywise, Thrall is killed by Sylvanas in an epic, dramatic cinematic as she tries to “kill hope” once more and break the rebels but it backfires, emboldening them. This shows how far she’s gone from the Good Warchief ideal. Or maybe Saurfang takes an arrow for Thrall, it’s a toss up.

The Alliance meanwhile actually gets a story this expansion, late to the party and spend the time that the horde spends on fighting itself hunting the source of a new corruption. The Azerite is turning purple and Magni conspicuously tells them not to worry. Cue the reveal that he’s been a puppet all along, guided by an already voidtouched world soul. Shock and horror.

As Varimathras said; thrones run red with betrayal as Corrupted Magni kills two of the Three Hammers, Moira surviving to lead the dwarves, putting her father down.

The big end battle is a Battle for Azeroth herself as N’Zoth tries to shred the final protections and the soul is mercy killed as it loses the battle as phase 2 of the old god’s bossfight. The old god is destroyed. Tyrande expends her Night Warrior juice to slay it or something, that story isn’t going anywhere anyway.

The Heart amulet (corrupted, going crazy like the legion artefacts) is dispersed as the last pure essence of Azeroth returning to the land, promising a rebirth of the world soul in ages to come.

Next expansion is a 5ish year timeskip, letting the factions reshuffle into stability with new homelands. Death rises as Bolvar awakens, Kel-thu-freaking-zad rises from the shadowlands as his rival for the throne and Sylvanas games them for her own bid at godhood.

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No retconning I said! Darkshore is a NElf victory.

So the grand total of the Alliance plot is “a former leader is actually evil and kills two characters”? Come on, you can do better than that. Where’s the intrigue in this?

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It’s still operating under realistic expectations and I’m still forgetting details of old god prophecies to be interpreted and revealed in whichever other way to screw with us. Stuff like the boy-king and old timey puzzebox lines being subverted in unexpected ways.

If you insist night elves win darkshore by killing one val’kyr, Darkshore is a night elf colonial possession to be constantly fought over. Ashenvale can be forsaken; a dead, grey Überwald to live up to its name.

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you can’t do my boy, Muradin, dirty like that.
he is king of the frost dwarves and all around a decent, sadly ignored guy, who should have been dead in warcraft 3.

alliance side of the warfront is the way the battle ends.
because blizzard forbid the alliance to have any real story hooks last for to long as it might risk taking away focus from the horde.

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To specify this quote from Antorus, the Burning Throne raid, he does say this to Alliance before agro when you enter his room.

Varimathras: So, your Alliance still endures. Longer than I expected, though she has already planted the seeds of its downfall. She is patient, that one.
Varimathras: When your thrones run red with betrayal… when your holy places burn and the shattered mask hangs above your hearth… only then you will know. And it will be too late.
Varimathras: It matters not. You are blind to the true darkness closing in around you.

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I believe the appropriate response in the spirit of the times is:

:thinking:

19

Hmm.

Jaina floods Orgrimmar.

Thrall stabs her in the gut.

Kalecgos flies her over the wal- I mean uhm, back to the Eastern Kingdoms.

3 Likes
20

Does Sylvanas sail west in search of new lands?

3 Likes