That’s a good point. Though it’s worth remembering Stromgarde has been sacked, rebuilt, sacked and rebuilt again numerous times in recent history. There’s little left of the original Strom - if anything at all.
Its current iteration is very much “generic Alliance fortress” because it was built as just that: A forward base against the Horde in the 4th War.
That being said, I’d also like to see more of their own aesthetic. Swapping those Stormwind colours for Stromic ones would be a good start. Less blue and more red!
I would. Reason being, the Strom we know and the Arathi Empire are currently two totally different things. They have each underwent their own developments and have become two completely different entities. One is a human kingdom, the other is pretty much an empire of half-elves.
Hence why I think that our Strom should have it’s own architecture, or stick to what it is now because, as someone pointed out, Strom got destroyed so often and rebuilt that there’s very little left of what it was originally.
Personally I wouldn’t mind Strom getting an update and using the human Northrend architecture.
It’s only used in Northrend, it looks quite Alliance, but distinct enough (esp with red colours instead of blue) that if/when you get to Arathi you’d be like "oh we’re in another human kingdom.
Esp since Stromgarde is clearly, again, its own nation with their own King that Turalyon and Alleria needed permission from!
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised that once ee encounter the Arathi Empire they’ll be antagonistic and invade and delete current Strom (or they’ll join willingly?) and “rebuild” it again.
High time for the Alliance to follow their destiny as one unified Empire of Arathor, under the Light!
I personally do think that when we see the Arathi Empire after the World Soul Saga ( if we’re still playing by then), they’ll be antagonists, or that there’s atleast potential for them to be.
First, there’s Faeryn’s statement that back home the Empire wouldn’t be as tolerant of seeing all these different people together. The Hallowfall Expedition that we meet, had to trust us and befriend the Earthen, because if they did not, they’d eventually be crushed between the Nerubians and the Kobyss, especially with the Cult of Night turncoats in their ranks. They had to change their ways out of necessity, out of desperation. The Empire however seems to be a pretty big powerhouse, both martial, magically, aswell as industrial if the Hallowfall Expedition consists of only -one- fleet and thus does not need to be super friendly. For speculation reasons and to have an idea, let’s say they’re atleast as powerful as the Alliance or Horde on it’s own ( unless Blizz goes full totally-not-warhammer-fantasy-empire and makes them as powerful as Alliance and Horde combined).
There’s also this quest:
A traditional Arathi family meal involves displaying the various medals, awards, and mementos of the family. Given my mother’s illustrious career, it’s taking quite a while. Would you mind helping with some of the decorations?
If even something as simple as a family-meal involves showing all the military achievements of a family-member, then that is another indication that the Arathi Empire is heavily militaristic if this is a custom throughout the whole Empire. And that they have a rather large army.
And as our own history has repeatedly shown, you often do not maintain gigantic armies unless you plan on using them.
So, hence why I believe the Arathi Empire won’t be as friendly to us as the Hallowfall Expedition is ( Unless we suddenly have to go and aid them against an even worse big bad like Blizz oft likes to have us do.)
Lets not forget that General Steelstrike admits in that quest she got command of the Hallowfall fleet/expedition as a reward for putting down a insurrection in one of the Empire’s provinces.
Edit: she also admits that she constantly pulled practical jokes back home as a way to unwind
In fairness, Varian does the same thing to Westfall, while capital punishment for things like piracy and desertion exist in all Human nations. When you think about it; most of the Eastern Kingdoms are militaristic and expanded through conquest.
Trolls, Gnolls, Drust and more besides died in droves to make the Kingdoms we know today. The Arathi don’t seem quite so different in comparison!
I think we know the reason: Vanilla.
Stromgarde is the only kingdom we´re introduced to fully in Vanilla (if we don´t count the ruined remnants of Alterac and not-Defias that are remnants of its people) and, just like every other human kingdom, it shared the same architecture and overall vibe with Stormwind (and Lordaeron, and Alterac, and Silverpine portion of Gilneas, and even ruins of Dalaran).
Meanwhile, Gilneas was added in Cata (so was allowed to have some focus on it), which included revamping Pyrewood to have their architecture instead of default human one. Kul Tiras was added in BfA, with even more focus on it as it was one of two main areas rather than just starting zone for new race.
Once we get Lordaeron revamp, we will hopefully get update to Stromgarde too. At least Blizzard is aware of the kingdom given their presence in Khaz Algar.
