The Forsaken Post-Sylvanas

Imagine being Forsaken.

No one, not the cursed Worgen, the fel-tainted Orcs, or even the Night Elves, who saw their civilians murdered in the atrocity against Teldrassil, have lived through the kind of apocalyptic horror that the Forsaken endured. Even the Draenei, forced to flee their homeworld and massacred by their Orcish neighbors, at least have been able to remain what they were.

The Forsaken didn't just lose their home and their countrymen - they lost their own lives, and were returned to the world in a cruel mockery of life.

In times of trauma, people look for someone who can give them hope, a purpose, and a sense of progress and strength. Sylvanas gave that to the Forsaken. It was through her that they could rally together to fight the Scourge, to fight against the humans who wished to exterminate them.

Sylvanas, herself, suffered horrible trauma. When her older sister, Alleria, journeyed to Outland and was locked behind the de-activated Dark Portal as Draenor collapsed, Sylvanas took over as Ranger-General, taking on the task of protecting Quel'thalas from invaders.

No one was prepared for the Scourge - an enemy that recruited new soldiers with every defender slain - and beyond that, the High Elves were betrayed by traitors from within like Dar'khan Drathir. Sylvanas' failure to hold back Arthas and his Scourge forces was not from any lack of ability. The odds were just stacked against her.

But her failure was profound - 90% of High Elves were killed. Their entire society was swept away by the Scourge's march. And then, Sylvanas, and all those elves who were slain, were puppeteer by the ones who had killed them, used as fodder for the endless onslaught.

Ironically, it was Kil'jaeden's coercion of Illidan into trying to destroy the Lich King that led to the Forsaken. Sylvanas and about half the undead in the Plaguelands suddenly woke up, their minds and free will restored to them.

The twin horrors of that awakening - first, that your own body has decayed to the point where you can no longer recognize yourself in a mirror, and second, that you might have memories of killing your own friends and family under the Lich King's control - is a trauma that is worse than any that exists in the real world.

Sylvanas, wrestling with her own experience of that trauma, nevertheless did what she had always done - she took a leadership position. Rallying the freed undead, she gave them a new identity, a rebirth, a fresh slate. They weren't humans or elves, and they weren't Scourge. They were Forsaken.

Sylvanas might have been a great hero.

But as we've seen, she embraced first a kind of amoral realpolitik that involved the creation of a new plague and killing any non-Horde living in her territories. She embraced Scourge tactics and began to cultivate a cult of personality around herself. She became the Dark Lady, a figure of religious awe that the Forsaken refer to even in their basic NPC "click" voice lines.

Her goals seemed noble, despite her methods, though. She wanted to protect the Forsaken from anyone who would threaten their existence. The Scarlet Crusade was a primary enemy to them, and the Scourge naturally was their top antagonist.

As we've discovered, though, following the death of Arthas, Sylvanas started playing her own game in secret. She made her deal with the Jailer, and it's become increasingly clear that her objectives were no longer the preservation of her people and their reintegration into Azeroth's multitude of peoples.

We don't actually know what her endgame is. It's tempting to think that she might, actually, be playing the long game for some greater good. But the war crimes and now the damnation of everyone dying in the universe has, at the very least, to force you to question her methods. What ends could possibly justify these means?

On top of all of this, she has abandoned the Forsaken. Again, she had a messianic, religious status amongst her people. Imagine your messiah coming, only for them to abandon you and break the world.

The good news for the Forsaken is that they have the Horde. They've always stayed distant from the rest of the Horde, one foot in the pool, but keeping apart in a way. The Horde has always been a home for the outcasts and weirdos (well, except the Void Elves, apparently) and now the Forsaken must lean on their allies more than ever. But the Horde, for all its flaws, is set up to do that (at least when Garrosh isn't in charge.)

Still, the Forsaken are now forced to look for new leadership. Sylvanas made them what they are - she might not have freed the original Forsaken from the Scourge, but she rallied them and gave them an identity. If you're a newer Forsaken, her Val'kyr literally brought you back from death (and if the afterlife has been broken since the end of Wrath, that's actually a massive favor, given where you'd be otherwise.)

There's a clear successor to Sylvanas. No, not Nathanos. Had Sylvanas simply died, and not become the evil dictator, he would have been an obvious successor. But no, he's the biggest loyalist and has gone into hiding following her departure. The successor is Calia Menethil.

Sister to Arthas, but perhaps more importantly the daughter of Terenas, Calia is actually the rightful heir to the throne of Lordaeron. She has also shown herself to be compassionate and kind. And now, she's undead.

But it's not exactly an easy sell.

Calia was never Horde. She lived among the Alliance even after going into hiding post-Scourge. She was raised from death after being killed by Sylvanas by Anduin Wrynn and Alonsus Faol. While Faol is "Forsaken" in the sense that he's a free-willed Undead, he's never affiliated with Sylvanas or the Horde, and is more of a representative of the Conclave now, with likely ties to the Silver Hand via the Argent Crusade.

Calia would make perfect sense as leader - if she had taken that position the moment the undead regained their free will. She represents the potential for continuity - the rebirth of Lordaeron.

But so much has happened since Terenas' death that achieving that vision for the Forsaken seems extremely unlikely. Sylvanas spent nearly two decades redefining the undead of Lordaeron, putting their human past behind them and embracing their new identity. They've spent most of that time as members of the Horde - practically as founding members of the Horde as it exists today, and it's via them that the Blood Elves and by extension the Nightborne are in the Horde as well.

How, then, can Calia come in and take a leadership position amongst the Forsaken and not seem like a carpet-bagger at best and an Alliance plant at worst?

Now, it's true, this is a time for potential reconciliation between the factions. After all, in 8.3, we saw Baine and Mayla Highmountain visiting Stormwind, standing in the very throne room. If the two most prominent Tauren leaders can come as honored guests to Stormwind, perhaps there's also room for the new leader of the Forsaken to be friends with Jaina Proudmoore - hell, Jaina's brother is coming with her, possibly as her consort or at the very least as a close friend and potential advisor.

Calia is clearly willing to come and lead the Forsaken, but there are two big questions that follow: Would the Forsaken trust her to lead them, and would the Horde accept her as the leader on one of their most powerful factions?

The Horde has the potential to escape the judgement of history thanks to the focus on Sylvanas' actions, but it's heartening to see them reforming things nonetheless. The elimination of the position of Warchief is the kind of big structural change that actually really excites me as a lore enthusiast (and to let reality intrude for just a moment, given what's going on in America right now, big structural changes with an eye toward justice and equality would be really nice to see).

But even if the Horde generally has come around to find that Sylvanas' antagonizing of the Alliance was a bad thing, there are certainly people in the Horde who have a reason to feel bitter. The Zandalari just barely avoided catastrophe with G'huun, only for their affiliation with the Horde to draw the Alliance to their city, killing a beloved (if somewhat incompetent) king and devastating their navy. While I think the Zandalari are going to have to be happy with allowing the Horde in, given the defeat of G'huun, the price they paid for associating with the Horde was pretty awful, and they have plenty of reason to absolutely detest Jaina, even as she's gone through her own journey of balancing a need for revenge against the Horde with her more high-minded desire for a stable peace.

So again, are they going to be happy to see Calia, Jaina's buddy, ruling over their allies?

All this being said, I think there's a really fun opportunity if Calia does take over. Throughout WoW's lifespan, the Forsaken have been one of, if not the most provocative members of the Horde. Remember that it was the Forsaken attack on the Wrath Gate that precipitated the war that lasted from Wrath to Mists of Pandaria - even if that was a splinter faction loyal to Varimathras, Varian's fight through the Undercity showed him the kind of depraved developments that Sylvanas had directed her apothecaries to work on, clearly meant, eventually, to be deployed against the Alliance anyway.

But if Calia gives the Forsaken back their identity as members of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, wouldn't it be kind of interesting to see the Forsaken suddenly become one of the Horde sub-factions most likely to advocate for peace with the Alliance?