So you know how I was talking about how the biggest problem with the Horde is how there's so little reason to actually hate the Alliance? Every time conflict arises, it's either a measured and proportional response from the Alliance that gets blown into all out war by the Horde, or it's the Horde attacking without provocation.
Well...
Warlords of Draenor is both set in an alternate universe and 35 years in the past. In it, the intervention of both Garrosh (who prevents, at least for a short time, the demonic corruption of the Horde) and the Alliance and... Horde "A," sees the Iron Horde defeated, and then when it becomes what I like to call the "Fel Iron Horde," it is defeated again.
With Archimonde defeated, we sort of let Grommash off the hook (he did fight the Defiler with us, and certainly seems to realize he was in the wrong) and trust that he and the Draenei will make peace and that Draenor B will be way better off than our own is (you know, Outland, that planet that literally exploded.)
Well, when we catch up with the Orcs of Draenor B again, as Horde players unlock the Mag'har Orcs, we find out that this peace hasn't last.
And it's not the Orcs fault for once!
See, there's a /silly line the Mag'har have where they talk about having to deal with "fanatical draenei" on their world, which seems unfair... until you find out what their Draenei have been up to.
Remember how creepy Xe'ra was being to Illidan on Argus? Velen, despite being a very holy holy man, actually understood and sort of tacitly approved of Illidan's act of self-defense. Yes, he's a man of the Light, but Velen's a guy who gets the nuance of making sure that what's most important is to be a good person, not blindly devoted.
Hey, remember how we all loved Yrel? How she was this very likable person throughout Warlords?
Well, it looks like when Velen gave her the Holy Boop at the end of the Shadowmoon Valley chain, Yrel started really letting the Naaru take the wheel, as it were. And the Naaru, while they've been very useful allies against demons and the like, seem to have a, shall we say, inflexible sense of how the world ought to run.
So we actually find the Orcs on the defense in Draenor, with the Draenei and their "Lightbound," which appear to be something like Lightforged are now on a crusade to convert everyone on the planet by force. Some of the Orcs have joined them, becoming Lightbound as well (actually, this term might refer specifically to those orcs.) Amongst them is Grommash's son (it wouldn't be Garrosh, as Garrosh's mom had already died in that timeline, but still.)
So the Mag'har are actually fighting a resistance against a tyrannical theocracy. It's such a huge flip of the narrative that it's kind of amazing. It also introduces an interesting new possibility for how they do the main Alliance/Horde conflict.
It's pretty clear to me that the standard Draenei are good people - they're happy to help others and they are quick to forgive. Under Velen's wise leadership, they've benefited from the aid the Light has given them, but they're not fanatics.
And that's where the Lightforged come in. These are people who have taken the Holy Light into them completely, and on top of that, they've been fighting for eons against the Legion, where there really aren't that many options for them - it's basically either Light or Fel.
Except Alleria found a different way.
And that's how you can potentially prevent the Alliance, and even the Lightforged Draenei, from becoming zealots. The Void Elves could serve to counterbalance the Lightforged - one brings absolute law and the other absolute chaos, and so there is balance.
But it also sets the stage for really interesting internal conflicts within the Alliance. Especially as someone who has a Paladin main, I'd love to see a plot where there's a growing theocratic movement in the Alliance. It opens up really interesting questions about what it means to worship the Light without losing empathy for those who live outside its strictures. Can you use the Light to fight a Naaru? And are all the Naaru like Xe'ra, or are some of them more tolerant?
I know that some people might resent going back to this alternate timeline stuff, but it's this kind of stuff that I feel we really missed out on in Warlords. An actual alternate history! Seeing the progression of time work differently and all the complex repercussions of that transformation!
Oh, and Durotan (killed by the Draenei by this point) and Draka had a daughter, who will serve as the racial leader of the Mag'har. So, Fem!Thrall.
No comments:
Post a Comment