And we return to looking at the games, this time taking a look at Wrath of the Lich King, WoW's second expansion. It's also probably World of
Warcraft's most fondly remembered expansion, which means I'm likely
to get flogged for any negative comments. Lucky for me, I actually
think WotLK is a pretty decent expansion. Which is weird, because
almost all of the main plots are incredibly stupid.
I have split this review up into two parts, because it's been a month since my last review and I'm still not finished with the entire thing (in my defense, I have also been working on the sunwell trilogy). Part two should be coming out soon.
I - The Beginning
Wrath
of the Lich King, as the name suggests, centers around the war with
the Lich King. Not sure where the wrath part in the title comes from
though. Ah well, it sounds cool. It seems that after the events of
The Frozen Throne, where Arthas merged with Ner'Zhul, the duo entered
a long slumber, explaining why the scourge has been sucking at its
job for the last few years. With the reawakening of the Lich King,
the scourge finally starts acting like itself again, with
necropolises emerging over several zones, and a new plague of undead
being unleashed that turns anyone who touches it into a zombie. To
fight these attacks, the horde and the alliance have allied, with
Grand Apothecary Putress and Bishop Lazaril working together to find
a cure. Though they don't fully succeed, they did find a way to limit
infection, with the alliance using Naaru-blessed holy artifacts, and
the horde using zombie brains. You may think that if the groups were
working together they'd use the same cure, but apparently not.
Finally, the lich king launches three direct attacks against enemy
capitals; one against Stormwind, one against Orgrimmar and one
against Tyr's Hand. And this is where our problems start.
Problem
#1: The alliance story should not focus on Stormwind. I
said before that I'm not exactly a fan of Stormwind. As a faction, I
just find them bland. However, they're particularly ill-suited to the
story of WotLK, simply because they don't have any sort of connection
to it. Of all the factions in the alliance, Stormwind has had the
least conflict with the scourge. Even the draenei, who've only been
on the planet for a single year, have more experience fighting the
scourge, as they faced a scourge contingent during the shattered sun
offensive. Let me try and put it in a picture.
The
purple areas represent every territory that has suffered at the hands
of the scourge. The blue area represents the kingdom of Stormwind.
The red area indicates where the two overlap. Notice a problem?
Hell,
why did the scourge attack Stormwind anyway? It's all the way on the
other side of the world! All of the alliance capitals are closer! Why
not go after Darnassus, Theramore or Ironforge instead? From a story
perspective, Theramore and Ironforge would do better as well, since
their leaders actually have a personal connection to the story. The
main villain, Arthas, is the former lover of the ruler of Theramore,
and his turn to darkness was completed with the death of the brother
of the ruler of Ironforge. Those are powerful stories. You could even
have the scourge attack Southshore and bring back Calia Menethil.
Considering her brother is the main villain, you'd think we'd at
least learn what the hell happened to her. But apparently, we're not
supposed to care.
Of
course, the alliance isn't the only one with problems going on.
Problem
#2: The horde keeps Garrosh around. While
the attack on Storwind was just a simple attack, a lot more was going
with the attack on Orgrimmar. You see, over the last few
days/weeks/months, tensions between Garrosh and Thrall have been
rising, as Garrosh is much more aggressive than Thrall. Naturally, we
don't get to see any of these conflicts, because that would be actual
story-telling. Instead, we only get the climax.
Garrosh
Hellscream:
Thrall...Warchief...your armies await your command. Let me lead them
to Northrend to remove this undead menace! With my complete lack of
wartime experience, lack of familiarity with the scourge and
ignorance of tactics, I'm obviously the best choice for a commander.
Sylvanas:
Yes, Thrall. The time has come to kill Arthas. You can take my grand
apothecary with you. His knowledge will be invaluable against
whatever the Scourge will throw at you.
Grand
Apothecary Putress: It would be
an honor, Dark Lady.
Saurfang:
Warchief, it is clear that Northrend represents
the gravest threat to our people, and that we must act against it.
Thrall:
My soul burns for revenge, but the elements tell
me to think clearly. If the scourge was actively trying to conquer
territory, they would have used overwhelming attacks against
strategic locations near their current holdings. Instead, they have
been striking throughout the world, executing minor attacks against
as many enemies as possible, making sure that every faction in the
world will strike back at the same time. Either Arthas is the biggest
idiot in the world, or this is a trap. Instead of attacking directly,
we will send scouts to assess the situation. I will also convene with
the Lady Proudmoore and see what plans the Alliance has.
Garrosh:
Gathering intelligence? COORDINATING A BATTLE PLAN? REAL WARRIORS
CHARGE IN BLINDLY!
Thrall:
Garrosh, remember what happened to your father?
Garrosh:
YOU DARE INSULT MY FATHER? I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL TO THE DEATH!
Thrall:
*facepalm*
During
the duel, the scourge attacks. However, it is a minor attack, and the
horde managed to hold of the attack
Herald of the Lich King:
This small victory will avail you nothing! You should send all your
troops to Northrend instead! This is totally not a trap! Wink, wink!
Thrall: Well, if he says
there is no trap, it must be true! Saurfang, prepare the fleet!
Paraphrased
of course. However, even in the actual version, it is pretty damn
clear to everyone at the meeting that Garrosh has absolutely zero
interest in using either tactics or strategy, will attack allies at
the slightest provocation, doesn't know how to pick his fights and
has crippling daddy issues. And yet we see throughout the expansion
that they keep assigning important duties to him. In this example, he
actually does get promoted to the commander of the warsong offensive,
leading the horde forces in Northrend.
What makes the entire thing even sillier is that Thrall also sends
Saurfang to Northrend. Saurfang not only outranks Garrosh (High
overlord vs. overlord), but he is also a veteran of the first, second
and third wars, universally respected amongst orc warriors, a fan
favorite and he has experience working with the alliance. So why the
hell isn't Saurfang in charge?
Luckily for Garrosh, he isn't the only idiot on Northrend. Problem
#3: Arthas is an idiot. Throughout the
expansion, we'll see just how completely unprepared the scourge is,
and when you actually hear their final plan, you'll end up
facepalming so hard that your skull contents will be in serious
danger. You've been warned.
However, before that, we get some minor bits of
stupidity in the form of the death knight starting zone. Don't get me
wrong, the death knight starting zone is awesome. It is here that you
first see the strength of Wrath of the Lich King, in that it has very
strong quests and a feeling of scope that most other warcraft
material lacks. From the very intro, it's a good experience, and it
makes very effective use of Arthas, unlike some of the later areas
where he will appear. The music is fantastic, with dark refrains of
music from Warcraft III. The introduction of new story elements and
many of the new characters is done naturally.
Sure, there's a few things that I don't like,
mostly comedic elements that feel like they were forced in just for
the sake of having comedic elements. But I'll get to that later.
Instead, let's talk about the ending. After the scourge has overrun
the scarlet crusade holdings of Tyr's Hand in an awesomely glorious
quest-chain, they turn their attention towards Light's Hope Chapel.
A bit of backstory. Light's Hope Chapel is in
the middle of the plaguelands. Yet it remains unplagued due to it
being a powerful holy place. In fact, there is no known location on
the whole of Azeroth that is more holy than Light's Hope Chapel.
While we don't know the exact details, we know that this is because
there is something mysterious beneath the chapel. There's a bunch of
theories, but the most logical ones are that it is either Tyr (since
there is a bunch of stuff in the area named after him and we know
that Tyr had contact with ancient humans) or a naaru (because
blizzard loves them some naarus). Because of this holiness, the
knights of the silver hand placed their dead here, hoping to protect
them from being raised as Death Knights by the scourge.
The chapel is also home to Tirion Fordring, one
of the first knights of the silver hand, and the most powerful
paladins left in the world. So, here's Arthas' plan of attack: He's
going to send in a massive army, 10000 undead strong. Even with the
advantage of holy ground, the mere 300 (oh hey, an actual subtle
reference!) defenders will have a hard time against so many enemies,
and Tirion will be forced to leave the chapel and join the fighting.
At this point, the lich king himself will use a death gate to enter
the fray and kill Tirion. Okay, that's a solid plan.
So, who does he send to lead his armies? His
chief necromancer? One of the San'layn princes? Nope. He sends
Darion Mograine, wielder of the corrupted ashbringer, a supremely
powerful artifact whose full potential only becomes available when
cleansed by the light, which happens when it is exposed to large
amounts of holy energy, like a holy site, or a powerful paladin.
Ashbringer is one of the most powerful artifacts in the world, but it
is particularly potent against unholy energy, like the undead, or
those who use cursed weaponry. Arthas is an undead carrying cursed
weaponry. He's sending the enemy a weapon of which the specialty is
killing him!
Arthas, you're your own worst enemy, you know?
Let's talk about what happens after that as
well. The attack on the Light's Hope Chapel consists of only five
death knights, with tons of mindless undead to support them. Highlord
Fordring emerges when there have been about 500 scourge losses, and
at that point four of the five death knights break away from the
control of the scourge. The fifth, Orbaz Bloodbane, flees, eventually
becoming the leader of the Host of Suffering. Angry at the lich king,
the four death knights vow to go kill him and form the knights of the
Ebon Blade. To do this, they take Acherus from the small force the
retreating scourge left behind, and send the player to either the
alliance or the horde (depending on race) to establish diplomatic
relations.
So what are the problems with that?
Problem #4: Why
the hell did the scourge retreat in the first place? There's
only a handful of rebelling death knights, while there are thousands
of remaining scourge soldiers, as well as baron Rivendare, Prince
Keleseth, Prince Valanar, Gothik the Harvester, Salanar the Horseman
and his dark riders, Patchwerk, Orbaz Bloodbane and Olrun the
Battlecaller. Me thinks that should be an incredibly easy battle to
win. And even if you were going to retreat, why not retreat using
Acherus? It's a flying fortress!
Problem #5: Where
do all the other knights of the ebon blade come from? There's
very clearly only five death knights participating in the attack on
the chapel, and even if there weren't, Tirion killed all present
scourge soldiers bar the remaining four. Yet even during the attack
on Acherus, there are a number of generic death knight NPCs joining
in the attack. Where the hell did those guys come from?
What makes the entire thing even more confusing
is that the death knight trainers of Acherus also join the knights of
the ebon blade. We actually know where these guys were during the
battle for Light's Hope Chapel, and it was not anywhere near the
battlefield. They remained inside the citadel. So how in the world
did they turn? The only way I can think of is that the ebon blade
knights are somehow able to free other knights from the control of
the lich king, but that just raises the question of why they don't do
that for all enemy death knights.
Problem
#6: Patchwerk, our lord and savior, who rose from the grave after
three days. The
scourge leaves Patchwerk behind as part of their token defense force
for Acherus. Patchwerk is killed by the player. Patchwerk later
appears as a boss in Naxxramas. Writers, I think you may be having a
bit of a continuity problem here.
Tie-in Materials
Wrath of the Lich King had several books that
tied directly into the story, so I'm occasionally going to need to
reference them. For the previous section, three tie-in books are
relevant. First of all, there is Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, which
tells the story of Arthas' life. It's also a really damn good book.
While the majority of the book takes place in the past, there is a
tiny bit at the end that explains how the lich king got in his
current state and how Arthas became the dominant personality.
Secondly, there is Ashbringer, which gives the
backstory of the scarlet crusade, the argent dawn and, of course, the
eponymous blade. While it is a good graphic novel, the game relies a
little too much on you having read it, especially with the battle for
light's hope chapel in the death knight starting quests.
Thirdly,
there was the warcraft comic series, which explained the return of
Varian Wrynn. I've discussed the comic series' descent into the abyss
quite extensively already, but I'm afraid we're going to have to
delve into that madness for a bit again. For one thing, I'm going
have to address something I didn't mention at all in my review: The
timing. The book's primary goal, at least for the first two arcs, was
to introduce the character of Varian Wrynn, so he could go play a
huge role in Wrath of the Lich King. However, here's the problem.
Wrath of the Lich King came out on November 13, 2008. Issue #20 of
the comic, which led into Wrath of the Lich King, was released on
June 17, 2009. That means it took seven months before we actually
knew what was up with the guy.
There's also the fact that the comic was an
extremely poor tie-in. The game portrayed weeks of fighting the
scourge attackers, during which the horde and alliance had a small
alliance to figure out a cure for the new plague. However, in the
comic, there is explicitly no pact between the alliance and the horde
during the Theramore negotiations, which happen only a single day
before the attack on Stormwind and there is no mention of the new
plague or the other scourge invasions before that. Several events
that happened in the both the game and the comic play out completely
different. Most notably, the conversation which leads to the duel
between Thrall and Garrosh has entirely different dialogue and
different characters present.
II
– Landfall
It's going to be a while before we see the
Argent Dawn and Ebon Blade again, at least in force. Instead, we're
going to be fighting alongside the alliance and horde during much of
the initial foray into Northrend. For once, both sides actually
differ in their approach, though I wouldn't say it's for the best.
The horde sends two largely independent forces.
Orcs, trolls, tauren, goblins and mag'har have formed the Warsong
Expedition, led by (*sigh*) Garrosh Hellscream. The expedition
operates from Warsong Hold in the western Borean Tundra. The forsaken
have formed the Hand of Vengeance, which is perfecting the new
plague, a potent chemical weapon, while advancing from the east.
During their advance, the horde expedition also encounters and
befriends the taunka, an ancient offshoot of the tauren race that
will eventually join the horde.
The alliance instead has a single main
expedition, the Valiance Expedition, with Varian Wrynn as the main
leader. Other races do maintain individual bases, but these are
single outposts rather than independent factions. The Explorer's
League is also active in Northrend, but isn't here for the scourge.
Instead, they're looking for more information on the titans, and have
befriended the dwarf-like Frostborn in the process.
However,
this leads to Problem
#7: The alliance becomes the monarchy.
For some ungodly reason, someone at Blizzard decided that Varian had
now become the supreme god of the alliance, and all lesser 'rulers'
in the alliance serve him unquestionably. And I'm not even
exaggerating that much.
Take
for example Jaina Proudmoore. While her official title is merely Lady
of Theramore, she is technically a monarch. As such, she is an equal
to Varian Wrynn. Yet throughout the expansion, she's portrayed as
being a mere adviser to the king, forced to follow his orders and
unable to make any diplomatic accords of his own or break away from
the alliance.
Just
to rag on the horde for a minute, let's return to problem 2. Warsong
Hold originally had a much larger base built around it, including a
quarry, farms, stables and a dock. However, thanks to a problem with
the kvaldir, the docks have been lost a while ago, and now the
scourge is taking over the other facilities, cutting off Warsong Hold
from any supplies. Garrosh' solution? There is none, because he
doesn't consider it a problem. Garrosh doesn't believe in supply
lines. Let me repeat that. The guy who Thrall appointed as the leader
of a major horde offensive doesn't believe in supply lines. At this
point, Garrosh' lack of military insight has become so great that its
become incredible. No creature could be this stupid. Even newborn
babies understand that, to get food, you need something that gives
you food.
Saurfang rightly calls him an idiot, as they
can't breach enemy fortifications without additional supplies.
Garrosh counters that they can always raid the humans. Brilliant plan
there, mister frowny-face. Breach enemy fortifications to get
supplies that you need for any breaching of enemy fortifications to
be successful. Can't see any problem in that statement. Plus,
everyone knows that as soon as you raid and destroy a base, you can
draw an infinite amount of resources from it. Saurfang instead tries
to point out the fact that the horde isn't evil any more, so raiding
people just because they have something you want is not done.
Naturally, as an uncorrupted orc raised by the peace-loving
greatmother Geyah, Garrosh just mocks this. Finally though, Garrosh
is sick of Saurfang's talking, so he sends a single person to go hold
off an entire scourge army. Naturally, that person is the player.
However, for once, the player doesn't have the power of plot on his
side, and is actually about to be overwhelmed by scourge forces when
Saurfang comes to the rescue. After saving your ass, Saurfang asks
the player to not tell Garrosh that Saurfang had to interfere,
because god forbid that Garrosh learn from his mistakes.
However, while those two are big problems,
there's something else that's important here. And that is that the
questing experience of Northrend is amazing, the best out of all the
expansions. Rather than having a series of individual quests that
occasionally form into a chain, like vanilla and TBC, or having all
quests form a single long chain, like Cataclysm, WotLK uses a series
of short quest chains. Combine this with the large size for the zones
allowing for there to be a large amount of quest chains per zones,
and you've got the perfect recipe. As all quest chains are short, it
means you can have small side-tracks in which you deal with a matter
that isn't connected to the main plot, but adds to the feel of the
world. And as the zones are big, it means you can still actually have
a main focus between the side-tracks.
And the side-tracks are pretty interesting. For
the natives, we get to meet the Magnataur, Snobold, Tuskarr, Vrykul
and Kvaldir cultures, all of which are pretty well-developed. Sadly,
there's also a few natives that barely get any development at all,
like the wolvar, the polar furbolg and the northern harpies. In other
plot threads, we get to see the forsaken perfect their new plague,
the cult of the damned infiltrate the alliance and the scourge launch
assaults against the dragonshrines and the drakkari empire, which are
actually the two most logical targets for the scourge to want to
control. We also get a few quest chains that are part of larger
stories, like the infinite dragonflight attacking the bronze
dragonshrine and the scarlet crusade, now called the scarlet
onslaught, making landfall. Plus, there is plenty of fighting
scourge.
III
– The Wrathgate
The horde and the alliance have built up their
forces and fought their way through the dragonblight, defeating
several scourge forces along the way. Now, it is time for their final
assault, as they prepare to attack Angrathar, the Wrath Gate, one of
the entrances to Icecrown Citadel. For once, the horde and the
alliance actually send competent people to lead the battle, with
Saurfang the Younger leading the horde forces and Bolvar Fordragon
leading the alliance forces. From the fact that there are still four
sections after this one, you can probably guess that the battle
didn't exactly go according to plan.
It actually starts out pretty fine. The
alliance is the first on the battlefield, fighting an army of ghouls,
geists and bloated zombies. To my ever-lasting surprise, we actually
get an acknowledgment that there are more human nations than just
Stormwind in the alliance, as one of the soldiers yells “For
Lordaeron!”. The various lesser undead are forced to retreat, with
an army of Frost Vrykul emerging from the gate instead. Frost Vrykul
are pretty damn powerful warriors, so the alliance is now slowly
getting pushed back. However, Saurfang the Younger comes to the
rescue, along with the horde forces. Together, they manage to defeat
the vrykul and approach the gate.
That is the point where it all goes wrong. The
lich king himself emerges from the gate, raising an army of undead
from the skeletons around the gate. Saurfang tries to strike, but is
taken down near instantaneously, his soul sucked into frostmourne.
However, before Arthas can kill Bolvar, the forsaken reinforcements
arrive, led by Grand Apothecary Putress. Unfortunately, these guys
are not here to help. Instead, they're unleashing their new plague on
everyone present, whether living or undead. It's actually quite
gruesome, as we see faces melting and we see a long shot of Bolvar
dying due to the poisonous gasses, though the low quality of the
animation on the cinematic kind of detracts from it. Even Arthas is
forced to retreat, clearly injured. Lucky for everyone, the player
just befriended the red dragonflight, and they come in before the
situation can get any worse, destroying the forsaken plague
catapults, but not before Putress himself manages to escape.
At this point, the battle for the Undercity has
started. It becomes clear rather quickly that the attack on the
Wrathgate wasn't actually organized by Sylvanas, but by Tichondrius,
who has mounted a coup. Yeah, the traitorous demon was planning a
coup, what a surprise. Sylvanas and her followers have been forced to
flee from the city, retreating to Orgrimmar. Wait, Orgrimmar? How the
hell did the entire civilian population of Undercity cross the ocean?
And why? The forsaken don't exactly have any large strongholds, so I
can understand that they have to leave their own territory, but why
not flee to Silvermoon instead? It's much closer, and people from
your faction haven't just slaughtered their elite fighting force.
Thrall and Sylvanas team up to retake the
undercity, attacking from the front entrance. It's a pretty damn
awesome battle, with especially Sylvanas standing out due to her
awesome fighting style. Meanwhile, Varian, Broll, Valeera and Jaina
sneak in through the sewers, ready to take some vengeance for Bolvar
and hopefully retake the Undercity for the alliance (they don't know
the horde is already doing that). As they travel through the city,
they find the corpses of the humans that the royal apothecary society
had been experimenting upon. Oh dear.
Up to this point, the battle for the undercity
and its lead-up have been awesome, a few minor laps in logic aside.
However, what happens now completely undermines that. It's
understandable that Varian gets upset to the point where he loses
control. However, he goes so far in this that it becomes inexcusable.
Problem #8: Varian's
sudden personality shift. If you haven't yet, please read my
review of the first seven warcraft comics. It was these comics that
originally introduced Varian Wrynn, giving us a feel for his
personality, and serve as his 'motivation' for things to come. Why do
I write motivation like that?
King Varian
Wrynn: I have seen the Horde's world. I have
been inside their cities. Inside their minds.... I know what evil
lies in the hearts of orcs.
During the comics, Varian
visited both Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, seeing them from the
inside. He has met the people, both good and bad. He has met Hyku,
the brutish blademaster. Rehgar, the slave trader who was oppressive,
but treated Varian with respect nonetheless, eventually giving him
the chance to escape. He has seen the countless civilians of
Orgrimmar, men, women and children just looking to make a living. Yet
here, he dismisses all of that. They're evil, just because they are
orcs.
King
Varian Wrynn (to Thrall):
I was away for too long. My absence cost us the lives of some of our
greatest heroes. Trash like you and this evil witch were allowed to
roam free – unchecked.
I have no idea what he is
talking about. Which heroes died in his absence, and how are Thrall
and Sylvanas to blame for that? The death of the soldiers at the
wrathgate had nothing to do with Varian's length of absence. Had he
not gone away at all, the exact same thing would probably have
happened.
King
Varian Wrynn: The time has come to make things right. To disband
your treacherous kingdom of murderers and thieves. Putress was the
first strike. Many more will come.
Varian is not speaking to
Sylvanas. He is not talking about lack of oversight. Later
conversations show that he actually believes that the massacre at the
Wrathgate was a planned attack by the horde. He is standing in front
of a horde expedition, led by the leader of the horde, against the
guys who performed a massacre that slaughtered horde and alliance
alike, and he believes that the massacre was planned by the horde.
Paranoid delusion, thy name is Varian Wrynn.
King
Varian Wrynn: I've waited a long time for this, Thrall. For every
time I was thrown into one of your damned arenas... for every time I
killed a green-skinned aberration like you... I could only think of
one thing. What our world could be without you and your twisted
Horde... It ends now, Warchief.
Wait, what? What? WHAT?
You... no... wait... WHAT? I... I can't even begin to tackle on how
many levels that is wrong. First of all, Wrynn isn't actually all
that negative about his arena days. He's repeatedly expressed desire
to return to those simpler times. Second, Wrynn only trained in
Orgrimmar. The actual throwing-in-arenas happened in Dire Maul, which
was not a horde tournament but belonged to independent ogres. Third,
Varian has always thought of the orcs as green-skinned aberrations
now? What the hell. Fourth, the idea that Varian universally hates
the horde is ridiculous. He walked into Undercity with Valeera, a
silvermoon-loyal blood elf, at his side, and was freed from slavery
by Hamuul Runetotem, one of the most important tauren. Actually, now
that I think about it, shouldn't Valeera have some choice words for
Varian, now that he's declared war on her people? Hell, Jaina is also
present. She let her own father die to preserve the peace with the
horde. It's a miracle that when she teleports the alliance forces
away, she doesn't just skip Varian and leave him for the horde to
deal with. She probably didn't trust Thrall to actually kill him
rather than take him prisoner. Or at least, that's how I'm
interpreting it.
One of the big problems
here is that Varian has plenty of reasons to be upset. However, all
of those reasons should make him upset at the forsaken. Even being
upset at the horde in general would be understandable. But no, he's
going off against the orcs, despite them not being involved in this
affair other than as victims.
Problem
#9: Where are all the other alliance leaders in this? Varian
is not a lone king. He is a member of the alliance, and as the head
of the central nation, he is its representative. Yet here he acts as
if he needs to answer to no one, declaring war in all of their names.
By doing this, he has forced the horde into taking action, or risk
being destroyed. Stormwind doesn't border horde territory, but many
of the other nations do, or at least have outposts near it. Yet he
doesn't even consult the other kings before taking this action. He
had his little outburst, and now their people are going to have to
pay the price in blood.
By all means, this act
should have sundered the alliance. Tyrande is a proud warrior. She
isn't going to let a foreigner's whims decide the fates of her
people. Velen's goal is to unite the mortal races of Azeroth into an
army of light, not divide them further. With the alliance offensive
broken, he's likely to join the Argent Dawn in their crusade instead.
Lordaeron has no choice but to stay in the alliance, but it is doomed
anyway. With barely any defenses and their soldiers in Northrend,
Southshore is going to be the first target in any horde strike. If
they're lucky, Thrall will enforce tight enough control over the
forsaken that their civilians are going to be spared. If they're
unlucky, the forsaken are simply going to launch their new plague
against it, and the last memory of the inhabitants of Southshore will
be the faces of their loved ones melting away. Jaina has sacrificed
so much already to maintain peace with the orcs, she's not going to
throw it all away, especially when her supposed ally is refusing to
even listen to her words of reason. Even Magni, a close friend to
Varian, isn't going to let his anger issues result in the deaths of
his people. The hundreds of dwarves in Bael Modan, Dun Baldar and Dun
Garok, which would be amongst the first targets during a war with the
horde, come first. With the dwarves distancing themselves from
Varian's declaration of war, the gnomes will also follow. The only
people that would consider joining in Varian's offensive, Kul Tiras,
Stromgarde, Quel'danil and Aerie Peak, are now separated by large
swaths of terrain. Kul Tiras might be able to hold off the strike.
The others are quickly going to go the way of Southshore.
Of course, that's the
pessimistic outcome. In the most optimistic outcome, the alliance
leaders decide to stay together, but tell Varian to go screw himself,
formally distancing themselves from his declaration. Stormwind may or
may not leave (or be kicked out of) the alliance, but the other
leaders are at the very least going to choose a new central nation,
or move to a model where there no longer is a central nation.
Neither of these happen.
Apparently, none of the other leaders of the alliance have any
trouble with Varian playing with the lives of their people at all.
Even Jaina, who let her own father die to maintain peace, does
nothing. As I said before, the alliance has essentially turned into a
monarchy. Only Varian Wrynn matters. At the end of the quest chain,
Varian even calls himself the player's king, no matter what race he
plays as.
Problem
#10: The entire idea of a war between the horde and the alliance.
Now, this is very, very subjective, but I've always disliked the idea
of the alliance and horde going to war. I just don't think it's very
interesting, mostly because it's all already been done. We've had the
epic war for world domination in warcrafts I and II. We've had the
two factions fighting, yet ultimately
overcoming their differences for the sake of survival in warcraft
III. And we've had someone stuck in the past lead to new conflict in
The Frozen Throne. Between the three of those, you've pretty much
covered all the all-out war storylines.
War could still work, but
the writers would have to work really hard to have it not just come
out as a pale imitation of the previous wars. And, let's face it,
World of Warcraft is not exactly a good medium for doing that. While
Northrend is a little better in this regard, all the old zones just
lack the scale to do justice to the battles that it would take to
conquer such a large territory. Plus, there really isn't any
mechanism in place for big battles, with normal NPC AI being way too
awkwardly artificial to give any sense of a true battle.
That is not to say that
there should be no conflict. From both a story and a gameplay
perspective, having separate factions but no conflict between them is
just a waste. However, it should not be an all-out war, for the
reasons mentioned above. Having a full-scale cold war between the
alliance and the horde would actually be pretty interesting, and
could lead to a lot of good questing opportunities.
IV
– The Nexus War
The war against the lich king actually isn't
the only war going on in Northrend. There's actually two others that,
while smaller in scope, could still result in the destruction of
Azeroth. One of these is the nexus war. Malygos, awakened from his
slumber, decided that magic should be restricted, so he started
attacking all mortal spell-casters.
Like most of Wrath of the Lich King, the Nexus
War is a sharp contrast between a bad overall plot and some really
good details. However, unlike the rest of Wrath of the Lich King,
that's something you're going to have to work really hard to figure
out. Why? Because the story is a complete mess, spread over several
different mediums.
Problem #11: The
backstory for the Nexus War. Okay, let's go over the relevant
tie-ins here. In the War of the Ancients trilogy of novels, Rhonin
travels back in time to fight during the original demon invasion of
Azeroth. The main events of the story aren't really relevant here,
but one event is. Originally, the blue dragonflight was pretty much
annihilated during the war of the ancients, as they were the first
target of Deathwing's demon soul. However, Rhonin brought back a few
blue dragon eggs from his time travel adventure, and Nozdormu would
give them to Malygos when he was well enough, and the blue
dragonflight would rise again.
However, there was a bit of a problem. Time
travel stories are hard, since every change to the past will have
wide-ranging consequences for the present. Unfortunately, the books
were written by Richard A. Knaak, and, as we've previously
established, canon is NOT his strong point. As such, even though the
books weren't that bad, there were dozens of problems with the
new timeline. A particularly large one was that the books assumed
that all blue dragons but Malygos had been killed during the war of
the ancients, despite the fact that we'd already seen several. We're
going to do a full dissection of the series soon, but for now, let's
just say that many fans weren't happy. While no official statement
was ever made (there is quite a few people that actually like the books, as they definitely have their good points), blizzard seems to have an official
policy of ignoring all the timeline alterations. Even the other Knaak
books seemed to ignore them, as they featured a number of blue
dragons during a period where Malygos was still having mental issues.
So, we instead get a second explanation for
Malygos' return in the form of the Shadow Wing Duology, also written
by Knaak. In these books, a blue dragon and a paladin encounter the
nether dragonflight, and through a rather complicated series of
events, the nether dragons of that book get eaten by Malygos. While
there are several issues with the book, there are two that are more
important. First, the second book, in which Malygos eats himself some
nether dragons, only came out in March 2011, a full nine months after
WotLK. Second, the series was intended to run for three books, not
two. However, blizzard and Tokyopop, the publisher for the blizzard
mangas, broke ways after book two. Why? Because blizzard didn't have
the manpower and/or management to actually get the book scripts done
in time, so they stopped writing mangas altogether. Okay, that's a
pretty fair point. But couldn't you at least finish your currently
running stories? As it is now, we've got two contradictory
backstories, one of which is unfinished, ending right at the point
where it started becoming an actual backstory, and the other of which
is probably non-canon.
Problem #12: The scope of
the Nexus War. Okay, let's leave the exact details out and
make sense of the current events. Something has awakened Malygos, and
turned him sane. Or possibly left him insane. Both versions can be
argued pretty soundly based on events and dialogue in the game. As
Malygos looked around in this new world, he saw that magic was
running rampant, slowly tearing the fabric of reality apart. So, it
was his duty as Aspect of Magic to interfere, and he planned to
remove magic from all mortals on the planet. This is an explanation
that only works if we go by the “Malygos is still insane” version
of events, because there is no way that the current mortals of
Azeroth are using more magic than the Highborne that were active
during the last time Malygos was up and flying around.
More evidence that points towards Malygos being
utterly whacko is that he seems to focus his attention on the mages
of Dalaran. Sure, Dalaran is the center of human magical studies, but
it's by no means the center of magic in the world. And yet the only
things we hear about is his forces grabbing random individual mages,
and attacking Dalaran. Where are the attacks on the scourge, and
their hordes of necromancers? What about the naga? The blood elves?
The satyr? The mages of Stormwind? The goblins of Kezan? The dark
iron dwarves? The forsaken? By all means, the nexus war should be
massive in its scope, but the only people fighting the dragonflight
appear to be the kirin tor and the other dragonflights.
Now, there is an obvious rebuttal here, which
would work with the “Malygos is sane” version. He's intentionally
limiting the scope of his attacks so that he doesn't have to face the
entire world at once. He's not going to attack the scourge, since
that is keeping the horde and the alliance distracted from his own
plans. However, the problem then becomes: Why is dalaran his first
target? It's one of the largest users of magic on the planet, yes,
but it also has the most allies, even including another dragonflight.
Nazja'tar is a much more obvious first target, as it has more mages
than dalaran, is spreading its magic users faster than anyone on the
planet, uses more dangerous magic than dalaran, and you might be able
to convince other factions to assist.
And again, there's an obvious rebuttal. The
naga are too powerful for the blue dragonflight to face. Okay, again,
fair point. But that just leads into more problems. Malygos plan to
take magic away actually has two phases. First, he's going to reduce
the amount of magic users in the world. Second, he's going to unbind
all the ley lines, redirecting them back to his home in the nexus.
Considering how effective the second plan would be, the first plan
seems more like a temporary measure. Reduce the amount of magic users
before they can fray the fabric of reality any further. However,
without targeting either the naga or the scourge, this seems like a
rather futile effort. With all the bad things that have been
happening to the various magic users in the world over the past few
wars, their numbers were absolutely devastated. Silvermoon lost
9/10th of its population. Dalaran collapsed in on itself
before being overrun by the undead. Half of the dark iron capital was
slaughtered during the first war, and they've been losing more and
more ever since. The satyr threw in their lot with the burning
legion, and were subsequently on the losing end of the third war. The
forsaken, already a small group to begin with, just had a coup that
cost them many lives. The mages of Stormwind were slaughtered during
the first war. The eldre'thalas had the source of their incredible
magical powers destroyed after a purge killed most of their members.
The naga and the scourge are the only ones that have prospered. If
you're not going to target them, you might as well not target anyone
at all, and simply focus on redirecting the ley lines. Especially
considering that most magic used by the third and fourth most
powerful factions, the Kirin Tor and the elves of Silvermoon, is cast
in a way that doesn't mess with the fabric of reality (the elves have
their runestones, and later taught their tricks to the Kirin Tor)
Which leads to the next rebuttal. It's possible
that the blue dragonflight didn't attack Dalaran for its mages, but
for its ley lines. However, my counterpoint is simple: If they were
going after the major ley line intersections, why didn't they strike
against Karazhan, the largest intersection on the planet? And why did
they continue to attack Dalaran after it had moved?
Okay, so the nexus war has absolutely nothing
to do with logical in-universe reasons. Blizzard simply needed
another antagonist to add some diversity to the continent. Because
they're not the main focus, the war needed to be small in scope.
Dalaran is the centerpiece of the action, because you can have an
entire faction that only needs a single city.
And that's just lazy writing. If you have too
little time or resources to show all the impact your story should
have, you shouldn't put that story in. Put it away for later use and
go back to the drawing board.
Alternatively, split up your idea and tell it
over several expansions. Start this expansion with a friendly blue
dragonflight, which occasionally shows up to give the player a quest
to retrieve some magical artifact, or capture an enemy. Start out
with quests that just have you target obviously evil enemies, like
the naga, the kvaldir or the scourge. However, become more ambiguous
over time, asking the player to retrieve artifacts from the tuskarr,
Dalaran and the alliance/horde (whichever faction the player is not),
with increasingly weak excuses. Finally, in the scholazar questline,
have the player steal something from the opposing faction, but
eventually run into another adventurer who is going after the
artifacts of your faction. After killing him, you find a note
explaining that he was also under orders of the same blue dragon. The
player goes to find some help with this affair, probably from the
other dragonflights. After some questing going after individual blue
dragons and hunters, find out that there is, at the very least, a
group of blue dragons who want tighter control over magic. You don't
know how many blue dragons, nor do you know whether Malygos is
leading them. The story arc ends, for now, in a raid. A group of blue
dragons have infiltrated lower Karazhan, and are performing some sort
of ritual that affects the ley lines. They are stopped, but their
exact purpose remains unclear.
Aside from the lack of scope, the events of the nexus war in the game are actually pretty well-portrayed. You first run into the blue dragonflight
in the Borean Tundra, where they're attacking and kidnapping members
of the Kirin Tor, as well as disrupting the rituals of the tuskarr
that bind their ancestors to stone statues. The player also discovers
that the manipulation of the blue dragonflight is actually causing
damage to the very crust of the planet. Far more damage than the
magic users it stopped. Again, if Malygos is supposedly sane now, why
is he doing this?
After that, the player assists a group of
attacking red dragons and kirin tor in Coldarra. You kill a few
enemies, eventually leading to killing the mate of Malygos. You use
her death to taunt Malygos himself, hoping to draw him into the field
so the red dragons can take him down. However, he pretty much kicks
all their asses, taking the lead red dragon to brainwash and replace
the dead mate. The player and the Kirin Tor invade the underground
portions of the Nexus, but its too late, and they're forced to kill
her. While adventuring in Coldarra, the player also discovers that
the blue dragonflight made a few new servants, in the form of the
crystal ancients and the nexus drakes. They don't really amount to
much, but they do add some nice diversity to the blue dragonflight
armies.
More importantly is a discovery the player
makes within the nexus. All the energy from the manipulated ley lines
is causing a tear in the fabric of reality, powerful monstrosities
emerging from it.
Wait... Malygos plan to stop magic users from
fraying reality and destroy the planet and/or attract a horde of
powerful magic creatures is to use their magic to fray reality and
destroy the planet and/or attract a horde of powerful magic
creatures? I... wha? Even if we assume that Malygos is totally
insane, why is everyone else going along with this? Shouldn't there
be mass desertions amongst the blue dragonflight and the humanoid
servants of Malygos?
Anyway, the story continues in Dragonblight,
where the blue dragonflight is now gathering up magic in the azure
dragonshrine to use for an attack on the Wyrmrest Temple, where the
other dragonflights have banded against them and the scourge. Even
the black dragonflight has joined in. There's not really any real
conclusion to the battle here, but a number of wyrmrest dragons do
get kidnapped to join in the Oculus dungeon, where players free them
and use drakes to take out the higher levels of the nexus.
And then... pretty much nothing happens for
about six levels. There is one more dungeon starring the blue
dragonflight, but, honestly, it's not really connected to anything.
After the six levels are over, you pretty much just go back only to
kill Malygos, using a key you got from Naxxramas. Not exactly an epic
ending.
