In the context of this ongoing story, they explicitly state in Before the Storm when Anduin calls for The Gathering that it’s not him trying to call for peace in the current ongoing conflict. He acknowledges that they’re at war by that point already.
In the same novel, they call back to Genn’s aggression in Stormheim and how he screwed up. The only reason Anduin doesn’t exercise his right to punish him is because he accidentally ended up preventing Sylvanas from doing something bad, but he still acknowledges that Genn and Rogers started it all unprovoked.
Bonus Before the Storm round:
Alliance are the first to plan the idea of wiping out Horde cities with Azerite in the novel. Muradin and Falstad double team the idea of wiping out the Horde the moment they learn of Azerite’s power at the meeting, and the only Alliance leaders who really disagree with the idea are Velen and Anduin. Moira abstains from speaking her mind.
The Azerite pebble now rested in Muradin’s hands. He glowered. “Enough o’ this and ye could take down a whole city.” “Enough o’ this,” Falstad said, “an’ we could shatter th’ Horde.”
The only reason they don’t do it is because Anduin overrules them. If they had voted on it democratically, there would have been overwhelming support among the Alliance leadership to nuke them first because of a hunch.
I hope you’re only posting this ironically, because I’m confident that most posters here aren’t militant about which faction is in the right / less warmonger-y, we are only bored or just like to talk about the lore.
Or make the hardcore Anti-Horde/Pro-alliance mongrels seethe when their rhetoric gets torpedoed by Blizzard’s clumsy lore snippets of trying to make the factions as grey as possible.
Maybe war is the wrong term, but he acknowledges in that very same letter that there’s an on-going conflict and that the letter isn’t him trying to put an end to the conflict. When he scolds Genn, he acknowledges that he instigated the current conflict, a fact that is echoed through out the novel as they explore Genn’s hatred towards the Forsaken. Even the Horde POV chapters hammer in that Genn started it all at Stormheim.
That’s the point I was making in reference to Levey’s post stating that people are moving the goalposts because Stormheim isn’t relevant to the current conflict, and that Sylvanas initiated all the hostilities herself out of the blue.
She struck the first major blow that escalated things, but she wasn’t the one who started the conflict. That’s entirely on Genn.
No, but then we’re not arguing about international relations. We were talking about who started this current conflict.
The Horde-Alliance War that was sparked by the Wrathgate ended with the Siege of Orgrimmar. The Blood War as they’re now dubbing this one did not start with Wrathgate. You might have noticed there were two expansions in between where there wasn’t an official declaration of war.
i really hoped i shouldn’t have to explain this to you :S
Did it really end? What was Ashran? It never ended for Gilneas - Sylvanas was the one responsible for their ills and she wasn’t brought to justice at the end of the Siege of Orgrimmar. She goes onto abandon the Alliance to the Legion at the Broken Shore which acts as the straw that breaks the horses back.
Its very much the same conflict, no justice came for the Alliance at the end of the 4th War.
