It is though. It’s 100% a Horde capital, and it’s been so for quite a while. The fact that Alliance characters can’t roam freely without it being seen as an aggression is perfectly in line with the history of conflict and friction not only between the main factions, but with high elves and void elves specifically.
I’m personally glad that even with the whole “working together” mantra, that conflict isn’t being completely swept under the rug, because that would be a much more evident erasure of history than “it’s an elven capital”.
It’s an elven Horde capital, from which Alliance folks are normally excluded, for very well established lore reasons.
Silvermoon being Horde isn’t the issue - calling an expansion hub a majority ‘Alliance kill-on-sight’ territory is unprecedented and contradicts the story. Hubs should be for everyone, or evenly split.
This is not a rule. See it this way: Silvermoon isn’t the hub, the hub is the enclave inside Silvermoon. The story has brought Alliance heroes to fight in Blood Elven territory, there is no reason to assume that territory would become neutral or evenly split, the very idea of Alliance calling dibs on half of Silvermoon is quite ludicrous. It’s still a Horde capital and it’s good that it’s keeping that identity.
Not cool idea. They were tearing down the faction barriers lately (was not big fan) and forced us quite literaly to work with each other like talking to that orc and human warriors at begining of df. Gave free and full access to belameth canonicaly rn capital of night elves and full access of gilneas to horde but now suddenly factions do exists and alliance cant have same access to silvermoon? Seems its a big nono once its about horde sharing its zones.
But this is what would not happen.
Silvermoon would need to stay accessible to alliance forever cause new players need to be able to play midnight later on and one day midnight is gonna be the new player experience like df is now.
So what would happen is that the horde would simply loos a city cause it turned neutral.
And that this isn’t gonna sit well with many horde players isn’t strange I would say.
I mean I would go with neutral but then all cities in one go.
That way it’s super fair for everyone but blizz wants to hold onto the faction devide cause they probably want to keep faction conflict as a story point in the back hand or have even already planed the next conflict between them
They have probably already decided what horde leader is at fault this time ![]()
No need to try moving the goalposts - the panel explicitly described Silvermoon as the hub, then immediately called Alliance “kill-on-sight.” No other expansion hub has ever been framed that way. Trying to retroactively redefine “the hub” as just the tiny enclave doesn’t erase the fact that Blizzard themselves created this contradiction.
Seems me and my boys from the Acerhus: The Ebon Hold will have to remind this lesser elfs what happened last time the undead walked their streets. Heres is a hint, it was quite the passionate walk i tell you.
I know, that’s why the hub would remain. That would keep it playable - just less ‘narratively fitting’ than it would be during the expansion itself. I think that’s an acceptable trade-off.
It would also make Silvermoon almost ‘pure horde’ after Midnight, which would please some horde players.
But that’s what it is. If there’s a small part of Silvermoon that functions as a hub, that’s the hub. I guess you can complain about Blizzard not being clear enough from the get-go, but to me that’s such a weird thing to fuss about. I would have been very surprised if they just went and made a whole capital neutral ground, and very upset.
It’s tough luck for those that for some reason wanted Silvermoon to stop being Horde, but it’s good for the game.
If I can attack horde players in Silvermoon I’m gonna be so happy.
That’s not the issue.
The issue is forced pvp situations. Griefing. Playability, in short.
I hope they change their mind. Because forcing these kinds of situations on players is unacceptable.
So I think my idea of a temporary ‘Bel’ameth type debuff’ during Midnight’s lifespan could be a solution. After Midnight it can becomes a ‘horde exclusive city’ with the exception of that hub.
But narratively it makes sense alliance can go there now, while being kept a sharp eye on, of course. The alliance is helping them. If I was asked to help out and then told; stay within these lines or we shoot you, I would say: You know what… Sort out your own damn problems, I’m out of here.
But we don’t have that agency. We’re forced, as players, into this situation and I just don’t think it’s okay.
If I am unable to go to the forbidden zone of Silvermoon, I just use a Horde alter ego of myself and become a tourist ![]()
Hopefully, you don’t get teleported out like in Dalaran. So if you wanna raid Silvermoon, you can ![]()
Eh why not, new pvp achievement!
Dalaran isn’t an Alliance Kingdom. It has always been a Neutral City-State, they have never been formally part of the Alliance.
Shattrath used to be a Draenie City was back before Outlands become Outlands. Today it’s the ruins of a city, run primarily by Refugees with a Naaru watching over it.
It really doesn’t feel like the best decision. If Alleria is now the new Ranger-General, it likely means the Void Elves will gain full access to the city. It is their home too — and they were exiled from it. Now they’re returning to protect the very place that cast them out.
Then I’ll have to invite you to take a look at Classic questing in Silverpine and Hillsbrad. The Kirin Tor were described as being part of the Alliance, and firmly hostile to the Horde.
Those were Stranglers however, as Dalaran was very much closed off from before Classic starting and until WotlK. Even today we still have issues with Rogue Kirin Tor mages in Amberfall, working outside of the influence of the council.
I think it is. I don’t see many horde players complaining about Silvermoon not being neutral.
This depends on how it’s implemented, you can’t judge yet. Ideally it won’t be as rough as it may seem, like “you took a wrong step and now you’re flagged for PvP and have 15 guards and 37 players chasing you”. It all depends on how lenient the system is going to be, and how clear the hub’s limits.
It can make sense. It also makes sense to have tighter restrictions, in light of the fact that they’ve all been trying to kill each other for the good part of the last 30 years or so. They decided to go with a solution that doesn’t turn a horde capital into a neutral capital, how is this a problem? You wouldn’t see me complain if they told us “in the next expansion SW is the hub, but you can’t roam freely”. I’d expect that to be the case.
No, I meant; that’s not what a lot of alliance players want. ![]()
But we do want to be able to just enjoy the expansion.
So a temporary entrance to the city might be the right answer.
But well… It doesn’t look like Blizzard agrees with that assessment.
So that sucks for every single alliance players who’s not into PvP.
Sure. We’ll see how big the hub is, how it works and such. Alpha shouldn’t be that far off.
Or maybe they’ll straight up tell/show us tomorrow during the panel.
I just told you how.
It could possibly force people into unwanted PvP situations and cause all kinds of griefing.
And from a player standpoint, it just feels insulting.
Horde got access to Bel’Ameth. It’s just unfair treatment.