Why is this the Fourth War?

I mean, I know they didn’t name the others that happened during WoW, but the Third War wasn’t between the Alliance and the Horde either, but Legion vs everyone on Azeroth (not counting the whole Lich King / Scourge thing).

If that counts, then Legion should also have been a numbered war, it was at least as big/important.

Also, MoP should definitely count, as well.

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Because Blizzard can’t count.

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Continuity exists to inspire and not tie the hands of the creator.

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I though they did it as an “End of an Era”-style announcement. The era of faction wars is done, this here is a real cutoff point.

But after them setting up Sylvanas Loyalists and Tyrande not buying the peace I have no clue whatsoever what actually is supposed to have ended except this specific conflict.

it’s called a distraction.
By using a shiny cinematic or two.
granting you a title.

They try to distract people from the truth.
while sowing the seeds for more possible conflict toward the alliance only to of course resolve it within a book or half a patch!

I’m not even joking there are books with Alliance plots of internal fighting much bigger than Garrosh and Sylvanas, which are all resolved in no time.

Finally the missive thing is an -explanation-
Why Tyrande and Malf are not there for the final assault.

While sending the internet wild with: Look Tyrande is going to do something.

It got me confuseda as well but than I thought - what if everything that happened since the start of WoW till signing of peace treaty was considered one war? In WarCraft II war starts with orcs uprising in their prison camps, than come the undead, night elves the legion, naga and even more undead and in the end even humans vs orcs once more. Despite so many changes along the way as to who fights who it was all considered one war.
Perhaps it’s same now? Denizens of Azeroth might consider this whole period as one war that started as Horde vs Alliance and than had multiple other actors joining in - Old Gods, Scourge, Legion, Iron Horde who interrupted our “good old” faction conflict forcing us to for a brief moment pause mutual slaughter and join forces but never have some sort of permanent pace till now.
I know it sounds fishy and stretched but it’s only explanation I cam up with.

I think the wars goes like this.

first war = Warcraft 1 orcs vs humans.
second war = warcraft 2, name eludes me now.
third war = warcraft 3
and fourth war = battle for azeroth.

though why warcraft 3 is third war I have no idea, where the war against Garrosh iron horde would have been more suiting.

Tides of Darkness and beyond the dark portal.

Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne.

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I think the 3rd war was the Kul Tiran invasion of Durotar, at least in the eyes of the Kul Tirans

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1st War was Orcish invasion on Stormwind which ended in razing of Stormwind .
2nd War was the war of the Horde against the Alliance that ended with destruction of the Dark Portal.
Beyond the Dark Portal wasn’t actual War with capital W.
3rd War was the Scourge and Legion against everyone else that ended with destruction of Nordrassil and Archimonde.
The Frozen Throne wasn’t actual War with capital W.

I remember reading that 4th War was the one that was covered in Cata and MoP and ended with the defeat of Garrosh at Orgrimmar.

Guess that’s not the case.

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they most likely though that veteran of the fifth war didn’t sound cool enough

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I can see that. Eventually, the numbering would become superfluous. Nobody would be impressed anymore.

Why is this the Fourth War?
Because the stated aim goal here, was to do a ‘better’ faction war story than the previous writing team.
So they are trying to not acknowledge its existence, by entirely skipping it in the War recount.

Numbering wars is about the most boring - and historically confusing - way of naming them anyway… We really need to get some poets into WoW, this is unacceptable. Even a simple “The Banshee’s War” or “The (first?) Azerite War” would have been better. And there is really no lack of more high-minded themes, either. How about “The War for Hope”, “War of broken Honor” or just “The Battle for Azeroth”? :wink:

Let’s just say this is just another example of Blizzard lacking creativity. I really don’t care what number they tack onto it, I find the concept of tacking a number on it much more objectionable in itself. A pity, really, “War of Thornes” was at least something.

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I don’t understand why they gave it another name at all.

Wasn’t it already dubbed as the ‘Blood War’?

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Was that ever ingame, or was that just Blizz talking about the concept? WoWpedia links to a Blizz-HQ picture as the source…

But yeah, even that would have been better than “Fourth War”, though I don’t find it very clear.

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Tbh, I did find it odd when the war campaign achievement popped up - I don’t think it was ever eluded to as the 4th war before that.

I’m hoping it’s a more in-game colloquial name for the war than official. It didn’t feel like enough actually happened for it to be the 4th war, but also the story’s general dumbness just makes me not want to acknowledge it to the same degree as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd wars.

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I too find it silly that Legion wasn’t considered important enough to register as a great war, especially considering how similar it was to the previous wars where we, incidentally, also fought against the Legion.

Battle for Azeroth and its so-called “Fourth War” seems like a petty squabble in comparison to a cosmic war against an infinite legion of demons and their Space Satan overlord.

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I know you put it in humorous terms, but that’s what it is: hell invades Earth but with spaceships and crystallic fusion. That’s the most significant thing the entire franchise has ever seen - even the Third War was just Archimonde failing to even control his own forces (the Scourge). Legion sees the defeat or Sargeras on his own freaking home turf. I look at the Blood War now and I’m like…my toon could almost take a nap through this after Argus.

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