Factions come and go from expansion to expansion. Obviously, the home factions are fairly perennial, but we don't find ourselves continually trying to get in good with Ogril'a, and I have serious doubts we'll ever have any reason to do more work for Ramkahen.
Yet, there are some of these factions that stick around, and have a somewhat bigger presence. If the Alliance and Horde are the two superpowers of Azeroth, these are like the major NGOs. I'm talking about things like the Cenarion Circle, the Argent Crusade, and the Kirin Tor.
All three of these organizations have played a part across multiple expansions. The Circle was there when we fought the Qiraji, and we linked up again with them in Zangarmarsh. The Guardians/Avengers of Hyjal are, of course, another offshoot of the Circle. Hell, Cenarius himself shows up to guard the eponymous mountain.
The Argent Dawn has been the most important anti-Scourge force (that was not batshit insane,) first guiding heroes through the Eastern Plaguelands and Naxxramas, then holding the line at the Battle of the Dark Portal (part of the pre-Burning Crusade events) and finally taking the fight to Arthas alongside the Knights of the Ebon Blade.
The Kirin Tor were there when we were investigating Karazhan, and again when we went to Northrend to deal with the Scourge and Malygos (and the Kirin Tor also played a big role in the defeat of Yogg-Saron, though we didn't really go to Northrend expecting to deal with that.)
Arguably, the Earthen Ring has been an important neutral faction since Burning Crusade (or earlier, as they had a representative at Light's Hope Chapel who was in constant conversation with the Cenarion Circle rep,) though they never really got to go center-stage until Cataclysm.
These are the constant players. Now, I'm certainly not against the addition of new factions and people, but seeing as this is a consistent world, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the better factions come back in different forms.
One faction that has me very interested apparently only exists in the trading card game. I only found out about this faction via a WoW Insider article, but I would like to sign up. The Timewalkers are essentially mortals who have taken up the task of the Bronze Dragonflight. There is a lot that remains to be seen about the Infinites and whether Murozond is still destined to arise or if killing Deathwing prevented their rise. But either way, we've got a big old cave full of time ways that anyone and his squid-god could choose to screw around with.
The existence of the Timewalkers makes me very hopeful that such a faction would arise, and indeed, that we could have a time-travel expansion. I would love to see the Timewalkers take up the role of the Bronzes and continue to see Caverns of Time dungeons.
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