The Fourth War

War nomenclature in the Warcraft series has always been a little funny. Obviously, the truth is that the First through Third Wars were just the first three games. But while the first two were the first two wars between the Alliance (or what would become the Alliance) and the Horde, the third was really against the Scourge and the Burning Legion.

And given that there was a whole huge war that spanned from the middle of Wrath questing through the end of Mists of Pandaria - a longer war than the current one - it's a bit funny that they've decided to call the conflict at the center of Battle for Azeroth the Fourth War.

So: today 8.2.5 came, and we got the conclusion to the War Campaign. What does it mean? Well, let's go into spoiler territory.


This is the way the war ends: not with a bang, but an ellipsis.

So, I did these from an Alliance perspective, and I imagine that things are a little different for Horde players, especially those who have remained Sylvanas loyalists.

Essentially: Anduin goes to meet with Saurfang in the nondescript ruined tower he's been hiding out in with his allies. They agree to take the fight to Sylvanas, and soon forces of both sides are besieging Orgrimmar yet again.

The player aids in breaking through the canyon to get to the Draenosh'ar Blockade and then defeats some saboteurs while sending various people off to their assignments.

The ultimate confrontation, however, is smaller-scale. Saurfang, in an effort to prevent a bloodbath, calls Sylvanas out for a Mak'gora.

However, strong as the Old Soldier is, Sylvanas more or less kicks his ass, using daggers imbued with shadow magic. As she does her big villain speech while Saurfang argues in favor of defending the world (you know,) she manages to betray the quite obvious contempt she has for just about everyone else (there's a good reaction shot of the Forsaken standard-bearer giving her the old side-eye.) As Saurfang charges at her, Sylvanas unleashes a powerful blast of dark magic that instantly kills him.

Claiming she basically doesn't need any of these people, she rockets off into the sky, leaving the Horde behind.

The Forsaken soldiers at the gates, however, recognizing Saurfang's honorable death, open the gates and let Thrall, Anduin, and the others into the city, where Thrall and Anduin eulogize Saurfang and hope for peace.

So this is a pretty weird place for things to end. Having not yet seen Wrathion at all, I do wonder if there's more to the story - that I either just didn't see or isn't out yet.

Basically:

Sylvanas escaped, but it's pretty clear that she is no longer Warchief. There is no obvious successor (unless there are any Horde quests that answer this.) Jaina and Thalyssra both mention that her dark magic is unlike anything they've seen before - which I'm thinking is a next-expansion hook (Shadowlands please?) Where she's going, what Nathanos was doing with the Blade of the Black Empire... we still don't know.

The war does seem to be over. There's mention of pockets of fighting that might be continuing, but it seems that there's a real desire for reconciliation. That being said, Tyrande is notably absent from the siege. Genn basically couldn't care less who becomes Warchief next - he feels the goal was to catch Sylvanas and that means the mission was a failure.

One interesting note is that there's an epilogue of sorts in Stormsong Valley. Jaina and the player go and visit Calia Menethil and Derek Proudmoore, whom the former has been helping adjust to undead life. Jaina asks if Calia will do the same for others that might need it, and while Calia is hesitant to take on such a responsibility, I'm seeing strong hints of some kind of larger role for her in the future.

I'm still not convinced we rescued Derek in time to prevent his whole sleeper agent conditioning, but we'll see.

Anyway, while the war does seem to be over, we're still very much in the middle of a story. N'zoth remains to be dealt with (and I feel more sure than ever that he's the final boss,) and we still know next to nothing about Sylvanas' ultimate plans, other than that being Warchief apparently isn't required.