I’m a little wary to type this thread as it’s almost begging to become another hurr-durr gimme gilneas mess but hopefully we can have a constructive discussion.
With the latest war now officially over and your average joe knowing nothing about the impending old god threat, what’s actually keeping the gilneans from going home aside for blight?
The undead are mostly gone from Lordaeron, the wilder parts of the peninsula were never really dangerous outside of a steep drop from a high place, and if blight is anything like the plague then it can be dealt with by plagueshifters like what’s been happening in the Plaguelands.
Is there anything at all left keeping it uninhabited?
Liadrin semi-casually chats about it in the Orgrimmar portal room, a hotspot for travellers, and patrols specifically to hunt for N’zoth’s corruption and Loyalists.
Your average joe may be very well aware of the impending doom that will be solved in exactly 1 patch
I gotta be honest… I was writing a sarcastic answer.
But its Blizzard; we burn through cities we will never get restored to us in the same way the Horde burn to Warchiefs(even if we burned through the more cities then Warchiefs anyways)(Hell if Sylvanas gets redeemed the total is 2 warchiefs to 1 High-King and alot more Alliance cities compared to Horde cities).
I suppose w’ll have to see what their plans are with Quel’thalas, Tirisfal Glades, Azuremyst Isle and Hyjal next X-pac!
But apparently faction parity in zones was only fun when it came to the Horde gaining grounds, but when the Alliance lack zones its “phased guys you still have it to level” and “not everything should be equal guys because thats boring okay”…
I think comes down to game mechanics and not showing favoritism to one faction over the other. Alliance loses a city, and horde loses a city.
In lore, I think the blight is an excuse that blizzard uses to justify gilneas not being an alliance city. I can spin the jumbo about how it has no strategic value now that Lordaeron (undercity) has been wiped off the map , but that in actual fact, it would be the perfect place to occupy if one wanted to reclaim the north.
If Blizzard gives the Alliance Gilneas, what does the Horde get in return? It will have to be a city that gives players the same travel value.
Alternatively they could do something with it like they did with Surumar. It could be a contested city where everything tries to kill you. A new leveling zone for Alliance and Horde perhaps? No? Just going to leave it as this beautiful empty space with no purpose? Okay, I suppose.
Gilneas isn’t exactly “uninhabited”, as we occasionally stop by in quests whenever it’s convenient for the writers. I imagine that it’s more a case of Gilneas being untenable than strictly uninhabitable.
Parts of it are blighted, we don’t know where or by how much, there’s fighting between remnant Gilneans and Forsaken whenever the writers want it, the city plays host to edgelord Rogues occasionally, and even long before the blight, Gilneas’ primary physical attributes were still impassable rocks, impassable swamps, and impassable forests.
There’s not a lot of good farmland, especially as much of what used to be coastal farmlands were dumped to the bottom of the sea in Cataclysm, and the shoreline is covered in giant spiky rocks and treacherous shallows.
Beyond patriotism, what exactly would motivate someone to retake it? The Battle of Lordaeron proved that Gilneas and the entirety of southern Lordaeron were apparently not necessary as jumping-off points for an Alliance invasion and as far as we know there’s no significant resource deposits of anything that isn’t found in abundance elsewhere, so there’s no real strategic value.
Between Duskwood and the Wetlands, if you want something spooky or swampy, you’re just fine closer to Stormwind. If you want a spooky swamp, there’s even the Swamp of Sorrows (though I imagine that to be a much warmer climate than Gilneas).
A few civilians really wanting to go home is a nice sentiment, but you’re talking about a second exodus to reclaim an entire country - and colonization is actually really hard. There’s a reason most cultures that did it used slaves in the process.
The Horde has Bilgewater Harbor, which is a bit smaller but more well-developed than Gilneas City, with as many unique assets.
In the Novel: before the Storm, by the time of the end of the Argus Campaign, the kingdom was referred to as fallen, with nothing but “wind, sorrow and ruin” in the land. When Genn arrived at Stromgarde Keep before the events of the Gathering, he told Anduin that both kingdoms were now in ruins, with Gilneas being home to the Forsaken and Stromgarde being overrun with criminals, ogres, and trolls
In the Novel: War of the Thorns Sylvanas is cited as hoping to use the ruined status of Gilneas as an inciter among the Alliance after Teldrassil is captured. She erroneously attributes Genn Greymane’s desire to reclaim his kingdom to cloud his judgment, causing a division within the Alliance between supporters who wished to reclaim Teldrassil and those who wished to reclaim Gilneas. Unbeknownst to Sylvanas, Greymane immediately claims that Teldrassil will need to be reclaimed first, with Gilneas coming after, as a gesture to repay the debt owed to the Night Elves by the Gilnean people.
But By Battle for Azeroth the kingdom appears to have been restored enough to the capacity that it requires Stromgarde to be taken by the Horde before they can assault it. Or at least in Blizzcon it was said, as introduction of the Warfront, the Horde moves towards the Arathi Highlands and attempts to take control of the city of Stromgarde in order to prevent the Alliance to obtain full control over the Eastern Kingdoms, and also to use Stromgarde as a launching point to attack the restored Gilneas
The latest "news’ are from the mission table… tho’ its debatable, how canon it is
The Bloodfang Pack also established a foothold once more on Fenris Isle after defeating Deathstalker Hayward, leading to the Forsaken needing to pull their forces out of position in order to evacuate across the Lake (Mission: Lordamere Lake)
At the same time, Darius Crowley is leading an offensive into Hillsbrad (Mission: Gilnean Assault)
The 7th Legion has also sent aid to Gilneas, led by Captain Tobias Zaren (who has replaced Pietro Zaren), surrounding Shadowfang Keep, which is in the hands of Forsaken Apothecaries attempting to unleash a much more potent strain of blight upon the Gilneans to the south under the leadership of Chief Plaguebringer Harris. (Mission: Shadowfang Plague)
Casually seeing Gilneas teeming with people during the Fangs of the Father questline, while a dev at Blizzard tweets that it’s inhabitable. It’s joy, pure joy isn’t it.
Or just restore the city
It is existing, no work with it… just add an AH, some vendors, trainers and a portal and the Worgen would never leave their city
Heck, if only suramar would have an AH or such things, the Nightborn would hang out there instead Zuldazar and/or Ogrimar >.<
