We're now less than a week away from the release of 5.4 and the final raid of Mists of Pandaria. As I said in my previous post, we still know nothing about the next expansion except that it might or might not be named "The Dark Below," (which we technically always knew) and that it appears it will have us leveling to 100.
But there's actually some stuff we don't even know about the events of Mists. We don't actually know if Garrosh will be dead at the end of this: there's even a vision you get while working with the Timewalkers that seems to show Garrosh as a prisoner of the Shado-Pan (though as a vision, who the hell knows whether this will come to pass?)
Wrath of the Lich King introduced the first full-motion cutscenes to actual gameplay (using in-game graphics, but augmented somewhat and pre-rendered.) While the Wrathgate was the first true cutscene in the game, we also got a short epilogue that showed Arthas' death and the coronation of Bolvar Fordragon as the new Lich King (hopefully not evil this time!) Likewise, Dragon Soul had a number of cutscenes, leading us between various phases of the raid and giving us a similar epilogue that announced the Age of Mortals and also some fishy logic regarding the purpose of the Aspects.
So far we have not seen any such thing for Siege of Orgrimmar. Perhaps they're just saving it to prevent us from spoiling ourselves. Supposedly, each faction will get a slightly different ending, but it does seem we'll be seeing what happens to the Horde in the aftermath of all of this.
For the Alliance, this whole conflict is external. Everyone can go home to Stormwind feeling like they did some good (though the Horde is not inherently evil like the Scourge or Twilight's Hammer, so it won't just be a question of massacring the place and riding off into the sunset.) The Horde, however, is going to have a huge mess on their hands. As far as I know, it's not like Vol'jin has challenged Garrosh in a mak'gora (and our participation in the raid fight might harm his credibility in a duel.) So it's not like there's any kind of orderly transition of power here. Much of the raid will be dedicated to uprooting the entire security structure of Orgrimmar, and while Vol'jin is sure to be popular for his efforts to oust Garrosh, there's bound to be some people who object to his taking the mantle.
Thrall proved himself by assembling the Horde as it stands today. He won over the Orcs by besting Doomhammer in a duel (not to mention the fact that Orgrim brought him on as a protégé) and then brought in the Darkspear, Tauren, Forsaken, Blood Elves (though that was really more Sylvanas) and Goblins. Garrosh had credibility because he had Thrall's blessing, though he clearly squandered that good will pretty damn quickly (killing Cairne was not exactly a PR coup.) But Vol'jin will have to contend with Orcs who might want to maintain Garrosh's ways, only with a different leader, or he might have to deal with a Sylvanas who now has a huge opportunity to wrest more power away from Orgrimmar (I am betting we're going to see those Abominations back in Undercity before too long.) Hell, even his closer supporters might point out that the Darkspear don't really have the manpower to keep Orgrimmar secure.
And even though I kind of dismissed the Alliance two paragraphs ago, the fact is that they're not just going to leave. If I were Varian, I'd certainly want to help the Horde rebuild, the same way that the Allied forces tried to rebuild Germany after WWII. I would want to help reconstruct the Horde, but in a way that it would no longer pose a threat to me. That means putting a treaty together where the Horde had to allow Alliance forces to occupy Orgrimmar. Sure, we'd try to make sure that the city was getting back in order (lest another Garrosh type rise up under the perception that the Alliance was keeping them down) but I'd also disarm them, dismantling their military-industrial base and force a sympathetic government to form.
Frankly, whether through Alliance influence or Horde weariness, I think the very title of Warchief could be abolished.
But the point is: we don't really know yet, do we? The whole story for 5.4 is largely kept under wraps for now. I'm certain that the aftermath of the Siege of Orgrimmar will resonate for several expansions to come. But at this moment, the future is pretty damned murky. I expect it will be far less so on the 10th.
No comments:
Post a Comment