…what race/character should Blizzard expand or develop in it?
Now that we are reaching mid-expansion point, and given it’s usually a place where blizzard often feels like releasing some book/novel that further elaborates on certain aspects of the events taking place, what race or character should they expand on?
And most importantly, which author should be given this task?.
Bear in mind, it doesn’t need to be exactly about the overarching plot, and more often than not, these novels have expanded on side stories that spice or complete lore voids that complement the main story taking place.
When we were already about to raid Orgrimmar, Shadows of the Horde expanded on what Voljin had been doing. Wolfheart expanded on Varian personally, and in Worgen in a broader fashion.
And Illidan was a prequel.
So, who should take this one? Who needs it most? Or who deserves it more?
Personally (might expand on it later), I’d say orcs should have this one. One about Saurfang, Maghar, and the current orc stance.
Dwarves come close second, as they have never been heavily featured in any supporting narrative and more often than not, their story ingame has been meagre at best. Even The Shattering featured them as more on a supportive role for Anduin and Varian to shine.
Bottom of the list for me, would be Night elves and Forsaken. As their standpoint is being already addressed mainly ingame.
And the rest of new additions have prominent roles in overarching stories that don’t need further elaboration (talking KT and Zandalari here).
Some weren’t that bad…
Shadows of the Horde did a fair good job portraying Chen, and the Shadopan. It expanded on their philosophy and introduced us with a wider knowledge regarding the differences between playable and Pandaria pandaren. Plus, it expanded on the base to create Bwonsamdis current depiction.
Wolfheart was overall…bad. But did have some cool stories that deepened some underlying issues. Night elf approach regarding magic, Mordent, internal Alliance affairs, the distancing between Varian and Anduin, Jarod and Maiev, and the relation between Night elves and Worgen.
Given the opportunity to develop a story properly, these books do expand the story or fill plot holes. Now, it obviously depends on the how and the who is doing such.
Nowadays, there is a certain author I’ve been personally at odds with whenever she touches anything lore related.
But point being, done right it helps the story. It’s often unburdened of ingame restrictions.
In general, I think none of the races - even the ones that have been highlighted got enough really. But it’s more on the fault of writing style in said books than most. In other adaptions, such as TW:Warhammer series, I believe they once had times they released - alongside the games - of stories of each race, the lore premise and also stories of characters of said race. Which gave a better understanding of the entire atmosphere.
I’d like Blizzard to do something like that. It’s one of those moments where indeed, it does not improve anything mechanically, but it fleshes out the world to anyone who plays and allows them to understand what they are playing and what they would like to play.
That said, I would like more on the Tauren. Saurfang and the Mag’har are high up there for me too, for sure, but the Tauren - especially under turbulent times such as these - has not had much written about them except from perspectives of singular figures and WoWpedia pages. Which sucks, really.
I’d rather not take the risk. Thank you very much.
I personally think filling plot holes isn’t necessarily a good thing. The more plot holes and open endings you fill, the less room for self interpretation and theorizing is left for the consumer of said media and it can completely wreck the mystery about something.
Example: The legion / Old Gods / Dragons / ect. used to be that big unknown evil out there back in Vanilla and I used to love these things. Now pretty much every mystery about them is lifted and I utterly stopped caring about it.
IMO: Plot holes are there to be filled with headcanon and wild theories and every time a mystery is lifted, there should be 2 more for us created in the process.
So many races will need a some more background, but as I’m partially biased and have my own preferences, I’d love to see more info on how the “tribal Horde” is doing, especially the Tauren. We only know what Baine is doing and thinking, but I think it’d be interesting to see how the rest of the tribes are holding up in this political climate.
Tauren are diverse in terms of thought and ideas, you can see that very clearly when you compare the Grimtotem and the Tauren tribes in Thunder Bluff. But i’d like to see more on the discussion that should be going on at the moment between all the tribes.
Im taking this question with the premise that the book will actually be good, otherwise there would be no need to discuss.
With that beeing said, there are a couple of things i would really like to be explored more.
Whats up with the Forsaken? Give me a Story that shows some of the original forsaken, who once where part of the scourge. To contrast this, mash them up with forsaken who where risen after the Lich King was gone and the great revenge was taken. Show me the divide between “i clinge to my old life” vs “leave the past behind. This is a new life.” Show me how the Forsaken deal with the loss of undercity and Tirisfal. Do they bother? What do they make of if? Does a gilnean or kul tiran forsaken care about Lordaeron at all? It isnt his former homeland, after all.
Show me more about Stormwind. For a Nation at the forefront of the Alliance, it feels kinda bland. Kul Tiras? I immediatly get the flair of them. Sailors, rough-necks, you get it. Dalaran? Sure. Sophisticated scholars and mages. Probably very high culture and elitist. Stormwind? Well, its kinda just… there. But what is its culture like? Is there something different about an Elwynn Guy versus an Redridge or an Westfall Guy? Do the people in the capital look down at the folks out in the provinces?
By this general template, i would like to see every player race (and allied race) fleshed out more. We know so little about the every day life. About the average guy and how all these big, crazy events have influenced them. Give them more character and flair.
More minor stories of “smallfolk” in the world, like Traveller, please. No major characters necessary, except for the odd cameo here and there, possibly.
I too considered Tauren. The only thing that made me end up highlighting orcs instead, is the fact that at least regarding Tauren we have definite proof that they’ll get their time under the Light with their heritage questline (something Mulgore related apparently), and probably with the war campaign and Baine.
Similar reasons as to why I mentioned dwarves instead of gnomes.
———-
Bit Offtopic here, but are there any worthy or interesting novels that expand on said universe? Must say that beyond those old White Dwarf magazines, and the race books they sold for each faction, I don’t know of any novel Warhammer related.
You’d have to ask Brigante on this, however, when editions and errata were released on the Tabletop versions that worked their way through the End Times (shudder) series, there were lots of stories dictating what certain characters did and their respective factions.
Of these were the End Times saga. Not the best writing… but still, the work that took for them to also stack the Tabletop revisions was by the least admirable. Some of the more (this is my opinion btw so its not gospel!) are such novels like End Times: Nagash.
Without slipping off into a tangent that might take too long to put into chronological order, I can look up a list for you.
There are really great books. Gotrek and Felix, like seventeen novels and numerous short stories are perfect. Mathias Thulmann, the Witch Hunter, is a great trilogy.
You have the Sundering Trilogy, showing the divide between the Druchii and the Asur, how it all began, etc, written from three character perspectives, its a perfect book.
The War of Vengeance trilogy is also great, as is the Black Plague one. That’s just from the top of my head, but Warhammer has novels which I found infinitely more pleasing then most things Warcraft produced.
Otherwise known to more uhh… passionate Warhammer fans of the Old World lore to be the End of a lot of good, fleshed out characters in favour of Archaon and his rise to power to start the Age of Chaos.
My only concern, is if they favour to much the dichotomy between humans vs chaos and leave it at that. I’d like if they expanded on the other races too.
Without spoiling much, is that the case?