Before the Storm Preview

The new tie-in novel for World of Warcraft is called Before the Storm, and it seems that some have gotten their hands on a preview for the book.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The pages we get contain two scenes. In one, a pair of goblins working in Silithus are complaining to each other about working in a bug-filled desert. There's not much more there, but given what we know about the datamined "Wound in the World" thing following Antorus, it seems likely that there's a resource rush for Azeroth's blood (I'm only hoping that the Titan within isn't dead, just wounded.)

The following scene follows Sylvanas as she prepares to go to the celebrations of the end of the war against the Legion. She finds the pageantry pointless, but she's going along with it even as she worries about her new role as Warchief to the whole Horde rather than just her Forsaken.

With Sylvanas as Warchief, the Undercity is apparently led by something called the Desolate Council, and while Sylvanas is all about giving her people immortality via the Val'kyr, there's apparently a lot of dissent among the Forsaken. It seems that giving people free will doesn't mean they're going to follow your every whim. I'm actually pretty excited about this, as I think fleshing out the Forsaken as a bunch of former humans trying to make something of their new lives is more interesting than a 100% loyal and fanatical cult following a tyrannical leader.

The chapter ends with Sylvanas announcing her intention (to Nathanos, her bodyguard and almost explicitly boyfriend-or-what-passes-for-a-boyfriend-among-the-undead) to invade Stormwind.

This actually catches my attention, given the words of Varimathras from the Antorus raid. As a dreadlord he's hardly someone to trust, but on the other hand, Blizzard wouldn't put those warnings in there unless they wanted us to consider them. Varimathras warns the Horde that they're all falling under Sylvanas' sway and giving up more control than they might mean to. Meanwhile, he warns the Alliance that Sylvanas is already plotting their downfall and has traitors planted within, and that the Shattered Mask (Sylvanas' symbol) will hang above Stormwind.

Sylvanas acknowledges that she does not want to go down the same road as Garrosh, and I really hope that Blizzard doesn't want to do that either. We've already seen a new Warchief drum up an anti-Alliance war, leading to his ouster and eventual death. I don't want to see Sylvanas just go through the same steps and I also don't want to see another war in which the Horde is just a bunch of aggressive assholes and the Alliance is purely reactive. If there's going to be a new Alliance/Horde conflict, I want the Alliance to be the aggressors. Give the Horde a chance to be the good guys.

Now, to be fair, all of this could lead to something very different. One could imagine, for example, that in the wake of a shocking but ultimately failed invasion of Stormwind that the Alliance winds up being swept up in militaristic fervor. If we're going to have a "Siege of Stormwind" raid, I could imagine someone (maybe Genn, or perhaps someone else. Please not Jaina though,) maybe corrupted by N'zoth putting Stormwind on lockdown and lashing out in paranoia at anyone not in total lockstep.

Give the Alliance some internal conflict for once!

But we shall see. We find out about the next expansion tomorrow, but I think that this premise does really point to a world-spanning Alliance/Horde fight being a key part of it. Maybe, as with every odd-numbered year, we predict South Seas and we get something else.