It's ironic, but the Zandalari Empire has very little territory truly under its control. It still feels imperial thanks to the reverence that the other Troll Empires pay to it - we encounter Farraki, Gurubashi, and Amani trolls who live in their own enclaves within Zuldazar.
But King Rastakhan's influence pretty much ends at the border with Nazmir. Nazmir feels mostly like a deadly wilderness with only ruins to inhabit, because, well, it is. Apparently, lorewise, Nazmir was not too different from Zuldazar before the Cataclysm - the rise of the Blood Trolls and the swampification of what had been more of a serene jungle all happened thanks to Deathwing. Nazmir sank, allowing sea-water to flood into the area and presumably kill a lot of the less resilient plant life. Of course, I'd also assume that Deathwing's destruction helped to weaken the integrity of Uldir, allowing G'huun's influence to spread through not just Zul, but all the blood trolls. Vol'dun has been in a state of devastation for a lot longer, and has served as a kind of Australia-like prison colony where outlaws in Zuldazar are shipped as punishment for their crimes and to protect the law-abiding citizens of the capital. Still, it's shocking that they can even get exiles through Nazmir safely enough for them to die in the desert, and it also by definition puts Vol'dun beyond Rastakhan's reach.
Indeed, neither Vol'dun nor Nazmir really have any permanent strongholds for the Zandalari Empire, at least until we show up.
What's interesting about this is that that makes it feel less like trespassing to come there as an Alliance player. While locations around Zuldazar certainly give a sense that you need to remain clandestine (in fact, the last part of the 8.0 War campaign for the Alliance climaxes in a desperate effort to prevent intelligence of the Xibala camp from getting back to Dazar'alor,) going to Nazmir or Vol'dun doesn't feel all that much different from any other zone we've visited with hostile monsters.
But Kul Tiras is different. Now, clearly, it's got problems that the Alliance player spends their leveling experience resolving. Of the three noble houses that serve the Proudmoores, the only one who is present and available is secretly plotting to overthrow Katherine. Lady Waycrest has become Gorak Tul's puppet in using death magic to take revenge against the Kul Tirans while Lord Stormsong has succumbed to Azshara's void magic and has trapped the legendary Kul Tiran fleet using his Tidesage magic.
But nonetheless, Kul Tiras really does feel like a unified whole - the isolation of various parts of the kingdom feels like a very new thing, and one gets the sense that guard patrols cross the boarders with some regularity. Someone in Fallhaven going to do business in Bridgeport is probably seen as the most natural thing in the world.
And this, I think, contributes to the feeling as a Horde player in Kul Tiras that you are really in enemy territory. Now, part of this I'm sure is that I'm more of an Alliance player (though my main Shaman, Rogue, and Priest are all Horde,) and so I've spent more time in Kul Tiras. But while there's a threat of being discovered by Zandalari patrols and military forces in Zandalar for the Alliance, in Kul Tiras, it seems as if any random traveling merchant or farmer could stumble upon your camps - during the first level-cap quests for the Horde War Campaign, you claim a lodge in the hills of southern Tiragarde Sound that I could very easily imagine stumbling into as a Kul Tiran.
The Horde's biggest base by far in Kul Tiras is Warfang Horde in the northern hills of Stormsong Valley (interestingly, this is where one of the major quest chains for leveling Alliance players comes to a climax, where you actually hijack a goblin mech and torch the base, though it clearly doesn't take.) It's ironic to me that when Horde players arrive here, it's a pre-established base and Rexxar encourages you to reclaim "our lands." The notion that the Horde feels a sense of ownership of this part of Kul Tiras is very strange to me (also the fact that Jaina's return is what got him to fight the Alliance - and you wonder why Jaina has trust issues when it comes to the Horde.)
But that's kind of the weirdness of this expansion (and I don't mean weird in a bad way.) Every expansion after vanilla, barring new races' starting zone, every zone was equally Alliance and Horde territory (except for Warlords' Frostfire Ridge and Shadowmoon Valley, which was kind of a proto-experiment in what Battle for Azeroth has done.)
The truth is that, in fact, all six zones are there for players of both sides. But because of the difference in leveling experience gives each continent a very distinct feel.
On the other hand, given that we're still early enough in the expansion that leveling our characters still feels like a significant chunk of the time we've put into it, perhaps as things go on it will feel less strange. I even wonder if part of the plot of the expansion will see the Blue-ness of Kul Tiras and the Red-ness of Zandalar blur into purple. I haven't finished the 8.0 Horde war campaign yet, but it seems as if both end with major preparations for an attack on the other continent's capital city. I doubt that we'll see the territories truly traded, but I do wonder if more substantial presences will form for each faction in their "opposite" continent.
Still, the experiences don't feel totally parallel. One thing I found really interesting is that, when establishing the first Horde base in Tiragarde Sound, you actually recruit some human pirates to mutiny and make their little port into Horde territory. Are these humans now part of the Horde? And if not, do they know what they've gotten themselves mixed up in? Indeed, would it even be possible for the Horde to allow humans to join it?
One thing I've always kind of wondered is what the Horde sees as the ideal conclusion to their war on the Alliance. The Alliance seems to basically not want their cities destroyed and not have their people killed, and they've generally been ok with leaving the Horde their own territories (they even just packed up and left Orgrimmar after the combined effort to oust Garrosh. I bet the Night Elves in particular wish they'd done more there.)
So an Alliance victory seems to be to end Horde aggression, though given the periodic flare-ups that arise despite efforts at peace, they might feel that the Horde itself as an organization has to go, and that individual deals must be made with the Horde's former constituent members.
But the Horde either doesn't think much about the future or they're totally ok with genocide. Remember that the attack on Teldrassil was step one in a plan Saurfang was devising to destroy Stormwind. But say the Horde secures total victory in a war against the Alliance? What then? After Teldrassil, any Alliance races are going to be very skeptical that they'll receive any mercy if they surrender. Certainly people like Sylvanas would simply consider genocide the price they pay for peace, but I imagine most of the Horde would not want to take it that far.
But that raises the question: what does the Horde actually wish to achieve in this war?
No comments:
Post a Comment