I think this is one of those “CHAMPION!” moments where we shouldn´t as much look at what the players can do, but rather what the NPCs are doing. If the only ones we see are tauren druids (who are honestly the one Horde race that I could see night elves being absolutely OK with), then that shows what kind of people from among the Horde are going to be visiting the place. Our character is someone important in the end and the assumption is that they did the content, meaning the guy who helped slay Fyrakk is allowed to roam Bel´ameth, not Warcrime McWarcrimey, the humble orc grunt.
While I don´t think this means Horde in general is kill on sight or that Horde characters wouldn´t be allowed in (I can imagine for example Lunar Festival being something that people of all races will be able to attend there), the thing with guards watching you creates certain conditions for conduct. A Forsaken bringing a plague wagon will be at best escorted away, and Warcrime McWarcrimey´s family might get a letter informing them about unfortunate passing of their loved one after he was savagely mauled by a wild hippogryph (whose beak and claws were shaped like night elf glaives, how odd).
I think it´s a given at this point that Silvermoon will be the new capital for Midnight. Perhaps it will be done in the same way Dalaran was, with dedicated areas for everyone, Alliance and Horde.
This is actually one of the few cases where we do see the Horde and the Alliance work together on-screen to fight against the latest threat together. You know, the “avengers assemble” moment where the heroes of Azeroth, red and blue alike, are summoned to join the fight against Fyrakk and his minions.
It’s still bad but it’s a canon example of the Horde taking part in the battle to protect Amirdrassil from Fyrakk, even if you want to think of any Horde adventurers helping out in the zone as non-canon.
Also, Horde players get this, to confirm that the sentinels of Amirdrassil are at the very least wary of Horde characters.
In addition to the night elf stuff, there’s also more trading post stuff, including two versions of Shalamayne that simultaneously have an extremely orcish design and have the iconic Stormwind emblem on them. While I am usually in favour of cultural crossover stuff, my brain short-circuits when I look at that item.
And here’s his HotS Lo’gosh skin with a more directly Horde Shalamayne. https://psionic-storm.com/media/img/skins/fullsize/assassin_logosh-varian.jpg
It split into a sword and axe rather than two swords!
This trading post one is an entirely new design from what I can tell.
Something resembling a replica, then, without the clear ability to split blades. I don’t remember if Varian was using Shalamayne in the arena fights, but if he did, Hots version does look far better.
I don’t think they would make Silvermoon City proper a neutral city, simply because that would fire up the anger of a substantial Blood Elf playerbase.
Making the western ruins a neutral enclave however, now that I could see happening.
Blizzard did say that they want to invest in new characters to sort of join the “cast”. If we get more timeskips like we did with DF, I could easily see Finel follow the same type of a storyline Nagrim did. Questgiver here, more important there, maybe not as a final raid boss but you do get the idea.
He didn’t, Jaina had them (probably stole them, lets be honest) and when the two soulsplit Varians decided to go kill Onyxia together she gave them one each, and then when he merged they became Shalamayne for the first time. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/wowpedia/images/b/be/Lo%27Gosh_Varian.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210326212949
Just another case of humans stealing elf stuff and pretending its theirs
It is a little funny that the iconic weapon of Stormwind/Varian/Anduin is a pair of elf blades that magically got joined together by accident when Onyxia fusion danced Varian back together though.
Like this isn’t some work of Stormwind’s craftsmen or anything, there was no great love or storied history behind it beforehand, it’s no relic of the Kings Who Were. It’s a magical mishap.
The problem here is that we’ll need a new capital for Midnight and there’s no way Blizzard is going to give a huge shining capital to one faction and then restrict the other one to a neutra section.
One alternative would be having separate capitals, but question then arises what would the Alliance one be? Unless we get some restored part of EPL as Alliance hub, it has to be in Quel’Thalas region.
If they’re redoing the entirety of the QT region (and they do seem to be) they can make it much bigger than before, more space for stuff to get added in.
That’s if they add faction capitals at all. In Pandaria all they had was two shrines and two small villages, neither even remotely enough for logistics or large-scale events. In Midnight it may be just the case, with a portal to Quel’Danas or w/e added in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.
