The Worgen were the first race to come out that gave me the "not enough classes" crisis. In Wrath, we had ten classes and ten races, so I could have full representation on a single server.
I've often thought that if I had to start all over, I'd probably main a Draenei Paladin and have a Worgen Death Knight as my primary alt (though Lightforged complicate that as well! I might stick with standard Draenei because I like their blue coloration.) But I'm too attached to the characters I've been playing all this time to race-change them, which means that until they make a new class I can play as a Worgen (had really been hoping for Demon Hunters, though I do think the heavy extra customization and new voice acting was really cool for them) I'll primarily stick with the Warrior - sadly leaving my original Orc Warrior gathering a lot of dust.
Anyway, in terms of story and aesthetic, Worgen are one of my two favorite playable races (tied with Draenei, though Undead are a close third) and I've always been invested in the idea that the Worgen should re-take Gilneas.
With the destruction of the Undercity, not to mention the destruction of their sanctuary in Teldrassil, it seems like there has never been a better time for the Alliance to re-capture Gilneas. The Night Elves would naturally find welcome there, and it would help cement the Alliance's position in the subcontinent of Lordaeron.
The Gilneas zone is rather gorgeous in its rain-soaked gothic gloom. Since Cataclysm - and indeed, not really past level 20, at least before level-scaling - Gilneas has been an empty space. The Battle for Gilneas battleground has been the only reminder of the conflict over its territory.
The Gilneans - humans, worgen, and potentially Night Elves, who could be welcomed as full citizens as thanks for their earlier generosity and hospitality - are fully justified in taking the territory, as it was straight-up invaded with no warning or pretext by the Forsaken, and it's not even clear that the Forsaken have truly held it - Darius Crowley, when he wasn't bodyguarding my Warrior on the Broken Isles, has led a resistance to the occupation, and by my interpretation, the quests in Silverpine for Horde players end with the line being drawn basically at the Greymane Wall.
I also think that it gives us a golden opportunity to make the Horde more sympathetic.
Now, to be clear, the invasion of Gilneas was pure Forsaken villainy - yes, they were pressured into it by Garrosh, but that doesn't make it any less villainous (for one thing, "just following orders" is not a valid excuse for war crimes according to international law and, you know, logic and reason.)
But the Worgen have a value that I don't think Blizzard ever really capitalized on since Catalcysm's release: the Worgen are the only monster that ever really scared the Forsaken.
When I was leveling up my rogue through the old Silverpine back in Vanilla/BC, the Worgen felt like a major threat. Yes, I took great satisfaction in putting down the Scarlet Crusade, and I enjoyed stalking through Hillsbrad and dismantling the town one throat at a time, but those werewolves would come out of nowhere and tear you apart. There were some elites that would patrol the zone called Sons of Argual who would wipe you out in a second if they caught you.
Werewolves are one of the classic canonical monsters, complete with 30s Universal Horror movie and medieval folklore, and that's exactly what the Worgen are.
To walk back slightly one of my earlier statements, we do get to see a bit of the scary fanaticism of the Worgen in a Cataclysm context - in Silverpine quests, the Worgen manage to set up an entire squad of Forsaken to be killed in a mine, and when the humans of Fenris Isle accept the curse to fight against the Forsaken, you and your Val'kyr escort know to make a rapid retreat lest you be torn apart by wolf-men.
Ivar Bloodfang - who I think might have been a more or less personality-free "kill this one guy" quest NPC in vanilla - was made into the leader of a grizzled and ruthless resistance unit waging a guerrilla war against the Forsaken in Silverpine. Ivar's still alive, and seems to represent the type of Worgen I'd like to see more of - feral by choice.
Genn and Darius, who are really our most prominent Worgen characters, are both still fundamentally human in their attitudes and behavior. And the Worgen story has been mostly about the human kingdom of Gilneas dealing with their period of exile. But there's a lot of potential there for the Worgen to just let loose and become a real menace to the Horde - and possibly the Alliance as well.
Right now, any Forsaken in the Eastern Kingdoms are either hiding out in Quel'thalas and hoping the Alliance doesn't attack (I think the Alliance would be wise to encourage Silvermoon to sit the war out if they can do so, even if the addition of Void Elves to their ranks gives them a big advantage in taking the area) or trying to cling to their territories through their own guerrilla tactics.
The Bloodfang Worgen would, I imagine, consider it to be open season on Forsaken.
While a king like Anduin is always going to lead the Alliance in an honorable way, I think we need a lot more bloodthirsty and vengeful people in its ranks to make the conflict interesting, and to give the Horde a better foe to fight.
In many ways I feel that the Worgen were always supposed to present that opportunity - for the Alliance to be bad, or at least morally questionable. Yet certainly from the Alliance perspective and largely from the Horde perspective, they haven't really had the opportunity to be monsters.
I think the Allied Races the Alliance has gotten all present opportunities to take the Alliance down a more morally grey road - the Void Elves, the Dark Irons, and even the Lightforged Draenei, who can play the part of zealous inquisitors - and to be fair, I think they're hinting at that a bit with the Battle for Dazar'alor. But there needs to be a tip in the balance - so far we tend to only see the Alliance go dark when the Horde has gone far darker.
It'll take a lot to make the Forsaken seem like they don't deserve any pain they receive, but I think you could do some very interesting things with Forsaken civilians who might not even know that much about what happened at Teldrassil (you've got to assume that Sylvanas has a masterful propaganda game) and all they know is that the Alliance showed up and destroyed their home, and now they're fleeing through the woods as werewolves chase them down, picking them off one by one like they were a herd of deer.
This could be the moral cost that Gilneas pays to take their home back. But so far we don't even know if that's ever going to happen. It seems like it really, really should, but let's see if there's anything about it at Blizzcon!
(Oh man, a Warfront straddling the Greymane Wall would be super-cool.)
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