Sunday, March 8, 2015

Universes, the Legion, and Alternate Azeroth

While it's sort of a time-travel expansion - showing us a Draenor as it was when the Horde first arose - we're seeing a different turn of events. It's a parallel universe - Draenor B was always different, and we see that in a few different ways. Rulkan was still alive, Garrosh was never born, Akama was a Paladin instead of a Priest.

But these differences are pretty minute. Different though it was, it's clear that, had it not been for Garrosh's intervention, things would have played out quite similarly to how they did in our world. Small differences would certainly have magnified effects over time, but I think Blizzard's intention is to say that this universe would have been very similar to ours.

Spoilers ahead (though given the nature of WoW, I think plot details come from so many different angles that it's next to impossible to say what is and isn't a spoiler.)

As of 6.1, and those very few who are lucky enough to have already finished the Blackrock Foundry step in the legendary chain (seriously, I'm at about one tablet on my two top toons. Admittedly I've only done BRF on LFR, but are normal people clearing Normal that quickly?) have seen a pretty huge shift in the balance of power. The Legion's hold on Draenor, and Gul'dan's power ranking, has made one hell of a comeback (that was not intended to be a pun.)

With the Iron Horde falling under the sway of the Burning Legion, things are looking a bit higher stakes. The Iron Horde was, as many complained or at least observed, not much of a threat. After all, we defeated the original Horde (ok, some of us were the original Horde) back in the day, but this time we have a vast trove of intelligence. Hell, there could be older Orc commanders who are literally assigned to defeat their younger selves.

But now that the Legion is backing them, they stand to become a far more intimidating threat. The question, then, is what the plan is.

Remember that Draenor is more or less Kil'jaeden's side-project. Archimonde criticizes him, not sharing his obsession with wiping out the Draenei. The Legion has much bigger plans. The planet they really care about is Azeroth.

Why? We still don't know exactly, but there's a huge number of tin-foil-hat theories. My best guess is that Azeroth was created in order to build/give birth to/evolve from mortal species new Titans. Sargeras desperately wants Azeroth in order to stop the Titans from creating something that could defeat him (like us.) The whole Draenei genocide was just Kil'jaeden trying to settle a 25,000-year-old grudge against his former best friend (and maybe even brother? Unless that was metaphorical.)

But the Horde became important to the Legion when they realized that they could send them to invade Azeroth. Sargeras, using Medivh as a puppet, worked with Gul'dan to create the Dark Portal. One of the problems the Legion has is that it takes a ton of energy to summon demons to the physical world. And the more powerful a demon, the more energy it takes. But given that Orcs aren't demons (though I'd guess that after long enough in service to the Legion, they'd become demons,) they could send a ridiculously huge army to eliminate any resistance, and then allow Sargeras to take all the time he needs to get there.

With the Iron Horde falling into Gul'dan's hands, sure, it's likely that they'll want to eliminate us as a threat to their plans, but we don't exactly have a strong hold on the Dark Portal, and they could very easily be building a new one.

But when they do, why would they bother going to our Azeroth?

Draenor exists in what we must assume is a fully-formed, entirely separate universe, with its own versions not just of Draenor, but also Argus, Xoroth, and presumably Azeroth as well.

The only reason why these two universes were connected in the first place was so that Garrosh could get revenge on us for beating him in the Siege of Orgrimmar. Kairoz wanted to keep going to different Draenors, one after the other, and founding new Hordes in each of them, then uniting them into an infinitely large army that... would probably have been pretty scary.

But both Kairoz and Garrosh are dead. The Burning Legion and Sargeras that exist in Draenor are the ones from that universe. We know that the Legion isn't somehow pan-universal, because there was an alternate Mannoroth for Grommash to kill (in a very similar manner, but far earlier in his life, as the one in our universe.) And wouldn't they be far more interested in taking over the unsuspecting Azeroth from their own universe - one with no Alliance and no opposing Horde?

The last thirty-some-odd years have turned basically everyone in Azeroth into grizzled survivors, and it's kicked military development into hyperdrive. During the First War, Stormwind's trump card was freaking horses. Now they've got helicopters and airships and teleporters and nuclear bombs. And that's not to mention that the Horde is just as invested in holding off the Iron Horde, and all the tech that the Iron Horde is using was, you know, theirs to begin with. The original Horde was able to defeat the single Kingdom of Stromwind in the First War, but now you've got the whole Alliance as well as the entire Horde, and that's a lot of powerful people working, if not together, then in parallel. They're all tough. Hell, the Forsaken have actually died and they haven't let that slow them down. We've proven ourselves to be a serious force to be reckoned with. And I appreciate that it's very Orcish to see a powerful enemy and focus on taking them down first, but alternate Azeroth is ripe for the taking. All they need is to keep us distracted while they prepare the invasion.

Predicting the future is always a tricky game. And personally, I don't see us spending much more time in this alternate universe. While it's added in some cool new lore and introduced some cool new characters (or fleshed out old ones,) I think we're going to get back to a single timeline when we pack things up in Lunarfall/Frostwall. But if this alternate Legion is smart, and if we aren't able to stop them in time, there could very well be an Azeroth in that alternate universe that is totally imperiled.

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