Did you ever hear the tragedy of Highlord Taelan Fordring the Betrayed?
I thought not. It’s not a story the Scarlet Crusade would tell you. It’s a Horde legend.
Highlord Taelan was once a noble paladin of the Silver Hand, a defender of Lordaeron and a paragon of the Light. He was wise and powerful, but his heart was torn by the betrayal of his homeland and the corruption of his once-pure ideals.
As the plague spread across the kingdom, Taelan sought salvation within the Scarlet Crusade, hoping to find purpose in their zealous fight against the undead. But their cause was poisoned by hatred, paranoia, and fanaticism. The Crusade twisted him, blinded him to the truth, and led him to commit unspeakable acts in the name of righteousness.
He grew disillusioned, tormented by the darkness he had embraced. But in his final days, a hero, guided by Taelan’s father, Tirion Fordring, came to him. This hero reminded Taelan of his true calling—he thought it was stupid to join a cult even if the tabard is cool and something about to serve the Light and protect the innocent, not to wage a crusade of vengeance.
Inspired, Taelan cast aside the Scarlet Crusade and vowed to reclaim his honor. Yet, just as he began his redemption, he was struck down by the very forces he once called allies.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? He found the Light only to lose his life. But in his sacrifice, Taelan proved that even in the deepest shadow, the Light can still shine.
Maybe there is more lore on the Horde side, but from the Alliance perspective, the Scarlet Crusade are really doing nothing wrong. You have a guy in Southshore wanting you to go into SM and assassinate all the leaders there for some really unspecified vague reson of “they lost their way”. And then this Tyrion/Taelan situation, where you basically bring a bag of old relics to a deeply troubled man, it triggers his PTSD and he goes on a killing spree, murdering dozens of his comrades until a high inquisitor stops his madness.
And is what the Scarlet Crusade are doing even wrong on a fundamental level? They want to exterminate all undead, both the Scourge and the free-willed Forsaken. Well given the Forsaken’s track record in all the following expansions, it may well have been a noble goal. Every island and continent and planet has a storyline of Forsaken covertly or openly poisoning and killing everything around them. And of course grand betrayals like Wrathgate, assaut on Gilneas for literally no reason other than to create more undead, and recently the literal genocide of almost all Night Elves on Teldrassil, a people who really did nothing wrong since 10 thousand years ago.
In closing, Daelan Proudmoore, Garithos and Arthas did nothing wrong, all undead abominations must be purged and all illegal alliens from Draenor must be interred in camps pending forced return via the Dark Portal. For Humanity!
They were killing EVERYONE that wasnt a part of the Scarlet Crusade including regular humans who they said were “plagued” and for that they tortured and killed them.
If thats a vague reason then yeah sure all is fine and dandy within the scarlet crusade and they did nothing wrong.
I don’t want to argue you are incorrect, but from alliance gameplay perspective, where does it say anything about them going after regular humans? I’m genuinely curious.
yea, when you get those scarlet quests, they mentioned that eventially all scarlet dudes turned crazy and started killing simply even those who are not part of the crusade. “They now think everyone is plagued who doesn’t wear the tabard of the Crusade. Innocent men and women were tortured because they were supposedly plagued.”