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?
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Monday, September 3, 2018
The Guilds of Ravnica and Rotational Antagonists
Ravnica, D&D's newest setting and Magic's 13-year-old-but-still-quite-popular setting, is defined by its ten guilds. The city and plane of Ravnica (which are one and the same) is dominated and governed by these ten guilds.
As a D&D setting, guilds are built into character creation. The assumption is that every player character is affiliated with a guild. There are guildless people in Ravnica, which I imagine the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica will touch on, but I expect that the setting is more or less built on the premise that every player is a member of one guild or another.
In fact, a lot of the new races and classes are pushed toward certain guilds or even certain individual guilds. Simic Hybrids, for example, obviously make the most sense as members of the Simic Combine (though they do say a rebel hybrid might join another guild if they don't agree with the Simc ethos.)
A lot of class options that they've tested out also present themselves as clearly aligned with certain guilds. The Druid Circle of Spores has Golgari written all over it - a druid who uses fungal spores to animate zombies. The Wizard's School of Invention is very clearly affiliated with the Izzet League and its chaotic experimentation.
Similarly, I expect a lot of existing class options are pretty well-suited to one guild or another. The Rogue's Mastermind archetype seems ideal for House Dimir, for example.
One thing I find really appealing about the setting is the option to determine an antagonist for your campaign based on your group. In fact, I think the best way to run a Ravnica-set campaign is to roll characters before you even begin to think about the arc of the campaign (or, given Ravnica's compatibility with noir-like stories, you could have a MacGuffin that any of the guilds would be happy to have - I intend to run a short-term adventure for level 5 characters involving a murder that turns out to be part of a plot to steal a Black Lotus - Magic's most valuable card but also an in-lore as well as in-game-mechanics item of incredible power.)
For example, let's say you have four players and they make Boros, Dimir, Golgari, and Selesnya characters (which were the four guilds in the original Ravnica: City of Guilds set.) Obviously these guys are all going to have conflicting motivations. The Boros Paladin wants to solve the crime and bring the murderer to justice. The Selesnya Cleric wants to ensure that this incredibly rare specimen is preserved. The Golgari Druid wants to claim the artifact for the swarm, and the Dimir Rogue wants to ensure that the person who winds up with this powerful item is in the right position to serve the House's interests in using it.
But then you're left with all the other guilds as potential antagonists - some Gruul extremist wants to use its power to destroy a big chunk of the city. Maybe a Simic biomancer wants to breed the Lotus' incredible magic into a new race of hybrid supermen who will take over the world. Maybe some very misguided Izzet technomancer is curious to see what would happen if they powered their new airship with the Lotus, and unbeknownst to them, doing so would cause a devastating catastrophe.
But on the other hand, maybe you have a Simic Ranger, a Gruul Barbarian, an Izzet Sorcerer, and an Orzhov Fighter who are all trying to keep the Boros, Selesnya, Golgari, or Dimir guilds from doing something dastardly with it.
Some of the guilds are clearly more easily villainous than others, but because of Magic's less polarized sense of morality, you could easily play around with that trope. Hell, you might have a Rakdos Bard who does, truly, just want to entertain people as best they can, and just like to go for a bit of a Grand Guignol aesthetic style, while you might have a villain from the Boros Legion - usually the most obviously "good" guild - who is basically practicing police brutality.
In an interview somewhere (I think it was an episode of Dragon Talk) they seemed to suggest that the Ravnica book actually had about as many monster stat blocks as Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which is incredibly exciting to me. Having essentially a fourth Monster Manual for the edition is great, but on top of that, I would really love to get some of my favorite Magic monsters like Thrulls, or variations on Vampires like the Moroii.
And holy crap, if there's a stat block for Lazav, the House Dimir guildmaster who is also a shapeshifter, I'd be really happy.
As a D&D setting, guilds are built into character creation. The assumption is that every player character is affiliated with a guild. There are guildless people in Ravnica, which I imagine the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica will touch on, but I expect that the setting is more or less built on the premise that every player is a member of one guild or another.
In fact, a lot of the new races and classes are pushed toward certain guilds or even certain individual guilds. Simic Hybrids, for example, obviously make the most sense as members of the Simic Combine (though they do say a rebel hybrid might join another guild if they don't agree with the Simc ethos.)
A lot of class options that they've tested out also present themselves as clearly aligned with certain guilds. The Druid Circle of Spores has Golgari written all over it - a druid who uses fungal spores to animate zombies. The Wizard's School of Invention is very clearly affiliated with the Izzet League and its chaotic experimentation.
Similarly, I expect a lot of existing class options are pretty well-suited to one guild or another. The Rogue's Mastermind archetype seems ideal for House Dimir, for example.
One thing I find really appealing about the setting is the option to determine an antagonist for your campaign based on your group. In fact, I think the best way to run a Ravnica-set campaign is to roll characters before you even begin to think about the arc of the campaign (or, given Ravnica's compatibility with noir-like stories, you could have a MacGuffin that any of the guilds would be happy to have - I intend to run a short-term adventure for level 5 characters involving a murder that turns out to be part of a plot to steal a Black Lotus - Magic's most valuable card but also an in-lore as well as in-game-mechanics item of incredible power.)
For example, let's say you have four players and they make Boros, Dimir, Golgari, and Selesnya characters (which were the four guilds in the original Ravnica: City of Guilds set.) Obviously these guys are all going to have conflicting motivations. The Boros Paladin wants to solve the crime and bring the murderer to justice. The Selesnya Cleric wants to ensure that this incredibly rare specimen is preserved. The Golgari Druid wants to claim the artifact for the swarm, and the Dimir Rogue wants to ensure that the person who winds up with this powerful item is in the right position to serve the House's interests in using it.
But then you're left with all the other guilds as potential antagonists - some Gruul extremist wants to use its power to destroy a big chunk of the city. Maybe a Simic biomancer wants to breed the Lotus' incredible magic into a new race of hybrid supermen who will take over the world. Maybe some very misguided Izzet technomancer is curious to see what would happen if they powered their new airship with the Lotus, and unbeknownst to them, doing so would cause a devastating catastrophe.
But on the other hand, maybe you have a Simic Ranger, a Gruul Barbarian, an Izzet Sorcerer, and an Orzhov Fighter who are all trying to keep the Boros, Selesnya, Golgari, or Dimir guilds from doing something dastardly with it.
Some of the guilds are clearly more easily villainous than others, but because of Magic's less polarized sense of morality, you could easily play around with that trope. Hell, you might have a Rakdos Bard who does, truly, just want to entertain people as best they can, and just like to go for a bit of a Grand Guignol aesthetic style, while you might have a villain from the Boros Legion - usually the most obviously "good" guild - who is basically practicing police brutality.
In an interview somewhere (I think it was an episode of Dragon Talk) they seemed to suggest that the Ravnica book actually had about as many monster stat blocks as Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which is incredibly exciting to me. Having essentially a fourth Monster Manual for the edition is great, but on top of that, I would really love to get some of my favorite Magic monsters like Thrulls, or variations on Vampires like the Moroii.
And holy crap, if there's a stat block for Lazav, the House Dimir guildmaster who is also a shapeshifter, I'd be really happy.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
The Whispers of Barrowknoll Cemetery
Drustvar is Kul Tiras' creepy zone (Nazmir is Zandalar's, and I don't want to claim one is the creepier of the two, though my tastes tend toward Drustvar.) It's filled with witches who are channeling the death magic used by the Drust that seems to tie into basically every undead thing we've encountered on Azeroth.
Now, WoW is known for its enigmatic clues and hints to future story developments. My favorite item I've ever gotten out of Archaeology is the Puzzle-box of Yogg-Saron, which simply whispers to you enigmatic hints when you use it on a one-minute cooldown. It's from this item that we first heard of Ny'alotha, which is now being spoken of directly by enemies in Stormsong Valley and its Shrine of the Storm dungeon.
Il'gynoth was another great source of eldritch whispers, which we're still trying to puzzle out nearly two years later.
And now we can add Barrowknoll Cemetery to the list of enigmatic clues in WoW. What's really interesting about it is that it's so out of the way. Alliance players only go there for a short side-quest, and Horde players visit it once (only once as far as I can tell) during their War Campaign quests. Yet it seems to be the latest place for the kind of writers on WoW's creative team that I would want to be if I worked there get to drop all sorts of clues.
While taking my Warlock (the latest toon to enter the new content, and the first ranged one!) through the early quests of Drustvar (he just hit 111,) I did these quests and was reminded of these quotes, which seem to be worth talking about (it's possible I like speculating about WoW lore more than playing the game.)
Now, the tricky thing here is that the only compiled list of quotes from the cemetery I've found is from WoWhead's alpha database, and so some of these are subject to change or might not even be there. The one I got on the Warlock was "The Burning Ones kept balance. Now, all lost. All lost."
That one doesn't require a PhD to figure out - we've beaten the Burning Legion, and as horrible as they were, they were also probably the most dedicated and coordinated force marshaled to fight the Void in the universe, meaning that the Void is definitely going to take advantage of these circumstances.
So, using WoWhead's list, let's go down and speculate on meaning.
Notably, by the way, Barrowknoll is, unlike the other enigmatic quote sources, not obviously tied to the Old Gods or the Void. Like many, I believe they're building up Death as a primal force to be the next thing lurking behind the Void just as the Void had lurked behind the Legion, which suggests that we might actually be getting a different perspective this time, and while the Void is all about believing all possibilities as equally true, Death as a force (which would seem the most logical connection to this cemetery) might actually be more trustworthy.
So, going from the list (found here,) let's get to the quotes!
"Her blood is making him stronger. Yours will, too."
Easiest guess here would be Azeroth's blood (Azerite) and "him" being N'zoth. We don't exactly know what it would mean for the Old Gods to corrupt a Titan. One possibility I've thought about is if the Old Gods actually sort of consumed the Titan (after consuming each other until there's only one left) and thus sort of embodied the Dark Titan. Is N'zoth intending to simply fill Azeroth with void energy, or does he intend to be the Dark Titan (perhaps even in defiance of the Void Lords' intentions?) This could actually explain the endless fighting between the Old Gods - perhaps the idea was that they were meant to fight each other until the strongest had consumed the others and was thus strong enough to consume the World Soul?
"Night falls. Her song will end."
Could be more Azeroth reference, though I also wonder if this could have something to do with a character affiliated with a song. Jaina's got the Daughter of the Sea, Sylvanas has Lament of the Highborne.
"Her whispers echo loudest of all."
Again, could be Azeroth, who "whispers" to Magni. What would it mean for them to echo? Alternatively, could this be Tyrande Whisperwind? After the burning of Teldrassil, might she go off the deep end in some way?
"The cracks widen."
This, I think, simply refers to the prisons of the Old Gods weakening.
"She seeks that which must be earned by sacrifice."
Ooh, that's pretty interesting. If any character has been searching desperately for a quick fix, it's Sylvanas. She has done a lot of terrible things in the name of keeping her people preserved in their undead state, but it has always been kind of selfishly motivated.
"The burning ones kept balance. Lost now... lost."
As I said above, this is presumably a reference to the demons of the Burning Legion, who aren't trying to kill us (hooray) but also aren't fighting the Void anymore (boo!)
"Their victory is closer than you know."
Old Gods? Given Azeroth's state and the weakening of the Old Gods' prison, it seems very likely that their goal of corrupting (or whatevering) Azeroth is probably closer than it has been since the days of the Black Empire.
"Embrace your fate. All will drown."
Now, this could very easily have to do with Azshara and/or N'zoth. But it might not actually be as bad as it sounds: if we take Il'gynoth's quote "To find him, drown yourself in a circle of stars," perhaps what this means is that we have to go through some kind of ritual, symbolic "drowning" in order to get to Ny'alotha and fight him in the first place.
There are then a few others which seem like pretty standard creepiness: "We are the lucky ones. Not you. Not yet." seems to be the dead perhaps boasting of the fact that they're beyond the reach of what horrors might afflict the world. "I only wanted to help." Just standard creepiness, I think. "Your pride is what led to all of this." Well, we can trace things all the way back to pride kind of on both sides - Garrosh was too proud and turned into a genocidal monster who wanted revenge on the Alliance that defeated him and the Horde that turned on him, which led to the Legion's invasion and ultimately Sargeras' big stab. You could argue that it was prideful of the Horde to not stop him before he got that far, and prideful of the Alliance to deny Thrall the killing blow after Garrosh's defeat. I don't know.
On top of this, apparently there's a ghostly follower who will sometimes follow you around there. I haven't seen this myself, but there are a few notable quotes:
"Beyond this small sea of stars there is only endless darkness." That more or less describes the Void, and reinforces the lovecraftian awe toward it. Also, the "sea of stars" seems to relate to drowning oneself in a circle thereof.
"He is awake now. And he has noticed you." We definitely woke N'zoth up when we defeated the Emerald Nightmare. And again, in Lovecraftian terms, it's always a very, very, very, very bad thing when any sort of eldritch abomination notices you.
Finally, "Has she betrayed you yet? She will..." For the Horde, it seems only a matter of time before Sylvanas screws over her people in some way. But Sylvanas doing harm to the Alliance wouldn't be betrayal - people you already know to be your enemies can't really betray you. So it does make me wonder if there's someone on the Alliance side who is also capable of betrayal. Jaina's a popular choice for that (though I hope it's not her, as I feel like she's demonized unjustly.) But on the other hand, I think Tyrande could pull something extreme out of desperation for revenge. I also wonder what would happen if we met Yrel again, who apparently has become a fundamentalist zealot (at least from the perspective of the Mag'har orcs.) Would she tolerate the Alliance's diversity after decades of Xe'ra B indoctrinating her?
Now, WoW is known for its enigmatic clues and hints to future story developments. My favorite item I've ever gotten out of Archaeology is the Puzzle-box of Yogg-Saron, which simply whispers to you enigmatic hints when you use it on a one-minute cooldown. It's from this item that we first heard of Ny'alotha, which is now being spoken of directly by enemies in Stormsong Valley and its Shrine of the Storm dungeon.
Il'gynoth was another great source of eldritch whispers, which we're still trying to puzzle out nearly two years later.
And now we can add Barrowknoll Cemetery to the list of enigmatic clues in WoW. What's really interesting about it is that it's so out of the way. Alliance players only go there for a short side-quest, and Horde players visit it once (only once as far as I can tell) during their War Campaign quests. Yet it seems to be the latest place for the kind of writers on WoW's creative team that I would want to be if I worked there get to drop all sorts of clues.
While taking my Warlock (the latest toon to enter the new content, and the first ranged one!) through the early quests of Drustvar (he just hit 111,) I did these quests and was reminded of these quotes, which seem to be worth talking about (it's possible I like speculating about WoW lore more than playing the game.)
Now, the tricky thing here is that the only compiled list of quotes from the cemetery I've found is from WoWhead's alpha database, and so some of these are subject to change or might not even be there. The one I got on the Warlock was "The Burning Ones kept balance. Now, all lost. All lost."
That one doesn't require a PhD to figure out - we've beaten the Burning Legion, and as horrible as they were, they were also probably the most dedicated and coordinated force marshaled to fight the Void in the universe, meaning that the Void is definitely going to take advantage of these circumstances.
So, using WoWhead's list, let's go down and speculate on meaning.
Notably, by the way, Barrowknoll is, unlike the other enigmatic quote sources, not obviously tied to the Old Gods or the Void. Like many, I believe they're building up Death as a primal force to be the next thing lurking behind the Void just as the Void had lurked behind the Legion, which suggests that we might actually be getting a different perspective this time, and while the Void is all about believing all possibilities as equally true, Death as a force (which would seem the most logical connection to this cemetery) might actually be more trustworthy.
So, going from the list (found here,) let's get to the quotes!
"Her blood is making him stronger. Yours will, too."
Easiest guess here would be Azeroth's blood (Azerite) and "him" being N'zoth. We don't exactly know what it would mean for the Old Gods to corrupt a Titan. One possibility I've thought about is if the Old Gods actually sort of consumed the Titan (after consuming each other until there's only one left) and thus sort of embodied the Dark Titan. Is N'zoth intending to simply fill Azeroth with void energy, or does he intend to be the Dark Titan (perhaps even in defiance of the Void Lords' intentions?) This could actually explain the endless fighting between the Old Gods - perhaps the idea was that they were meant to fight each other until the strongest had consumed the others and was thus strong enough to consume the World Soul?
"Night falls. Her song will end."
Could be more Azeroth reference, though I also wonder if this could have something to do with a character affiliated with a song. Jaina's got the Daughter of the Sea, Sylvanas has Lament of the Highborne.
"Her whispers echo loudest of all."
Again, could be Azeroth, who "whispers" to Magni. What would it mean for them to echo? Alternatively, could this be Tyrande Whisperwind? After the burning of Teldrassil, might she go off the deep end in some way?
"The cracks widen."
This, I think, simply refers to the prisons of the Old Gods weakening.
"She seeks that which must be earned by sacrifice."
Ooh, that's pretty interesting. If any character has been searching desperately for a quick fix, it's Sylvanas. She has done a lot of terrible things in the name of keeping her people preserved in their undead state, but it has always been kind of selfishly motivated.
"The burning ones kept balance. Lost now... lost."
As I said above, this is presumably a reference to the demons of the Burning Legion, who aren't trying to kill us (hooray) but also aren't fighting the Void anymore (boo!)
"Their victory is closer than you know."
Old Gods? Given Azeroth's state and the weakening of the Old Gods' prison, it seems very likely that their goal of corrupting (or whatevering) Azeroth is probably closer than it has been since the days of the Black Empire.
"Embrace your fate. All will drown."
Now, this could very easily have to do with Azshara and/or N'zoth. But it might not actually be as bad as it sounds: if we take Il'gynoth's quote "To find him, drown yourself in a circle of stars," perhaps what this means is that we have to go through some kind of ritual, symbolic "drowning" in order to get to Ny'alotha and fight him in the first place.
There are then a few others which seem like pretty standard creepiness: "We are the lucky ones. Not you. Not yet." seems to be the dead perhaps boasting of the fact that they're beyond the reach of what horrors might afflict the world. "I only wanted to help." Just standard creepiness, I think. "Your pride is what led to all of this." Well, we can trace things all the way back to pride kind of on both sides - Garrosh was too proud and turned into a genocidal monster who wanted revenge on the Alliance that defeated him and the Horde that turned on him, which led to the Legion's invasion and ultimately Sargeras' big stab. You could argue that it was prideful of the Horde to not stop him before he got that far, and prideful of the Alliance to deny Thrall the killing blow after Garrosh's defeat. I don't know.
On top of this, apparently there's a ghostly follower who will sometimes follow you around there. I haven't seen this myself, but there are a few notable quotes:
"Beyond this small sea of stars there is only endless darkness." That more or less describes the Void, and reinforces the lovecraftian awe toward it. Also, the "sea of stars" seems to relate to drowning oneself in a circle thereof.
"He is awake now. And he has noticed you." We definitely woke N'zoth up when we defeated the Emerald Nightmare. And again, in Lovecraftian terms, it's always a very, very, very, very bad thing when any sort of eldritch abomination notices you.
Finally, "Has she betrayed you yet? She will..." For the Horde, it seems only a matter of time before Sylvanas screws over her people in some way. But Sylvanas doing harm to the Alliance wouldn't be betrayal - people you already know to be your enemies can't really betray you. So it does make me wonder if there's someone on the Alliance side who is also capable of betrayal. Jaina's a popular choice for that (though I hope it's not her, as I feel like she's demonized unjustly.) But on the other hand, I think Tyrande could pull something extreme out of desperation for revenge. I also wonder what would happen if we met Yrel again, who apparently has become a fundamentalist zealot (at least from the perspective of the Mag'har orcs.) Would she tolerate the Alliance's diversity after decades of Xe'ra B indoctrinating her?
Colors versus Alignment in Ravnica
Ravnica, the plane-sized city, home to ten powerful guilds that control everything, is the first plane to be officially both a Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons setting. Magic is set to have its third Ravnica-set card block while D&D is releasing the Gulidmaster's Guide to Ravnica, an official sourcebook for the setting.
Each of these games has an idea at its core that defines the characteristics and behavior of people and entities within it. In D&D, there are the two spectra of alignment: Law versus Chaos and Good versus Evil. Magic, on the other hand, has five different colors that represent different values and practices.
Ravnica was, in fact, built primarily out of a contrivance of this five color system. The makers wanted to do a multicolor set, encouraging players to play decks of multiple colors, but they had done a block only a few years earlier that encouraged everyone to play with all five colors. For Ravnica, they decided to create identities based out of each two-color combination and encourage players to make two-color decks. The result was, mechanically, very effective, as it forced them to give each of these combinations its own identity, and they managed to balance the metagame in such a way that most guilds were rather viable, diversifying the field, which is always a healthy thing for a game like Magic.
But on top of that, they came up with this idea of guilds to explain these combinations, and the flavor behind them became extremely popular.
The Guilds are of course rather definitional to the idea of Ravnica, but in order to let D&D players who are less familiar with Magic come into Ravnica - this isn't some cheap thought experiment; they're really making Ravnica just as valid a D&D setting as Eberron, Dark Sun, or Greyhawk - the book apparently makes no mention of color.
Now, those of us in the know could pretty easily reverse-engineer what colors the guilds each represented even if we somehow knew Magic colors but didn't know Ravnica, but one thing I think is interesting to consider is what D&D alignments each guild would have.
So one thing that I think presents itself when you think this way is that Magic is pretty morally grey. There are plenty of bad guys, but good guys, especially among these powerful guilds, are sort of hard to come by. Law and Chaos are much easier to identify, however.
Selesnya Conclave: Lawful Good: Good could be a stretch here, given their cultishness, but the Selesnya do encourage life and growth, which I think we tend to put more in the good category. And their collectivism is very Lawful.
Boros Legion: Lawful Good: Possibly the only really obviously good-aligned guild, the Boros do, of course, have a zealous streak, and they're the kind of lawful whose zeal can sometimes actually result in chaos. But this is the big Paladin guild, so I'm going to give them the old LG.
Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful Evil: Oh man, is there a better representation of Lawful Evil? They're a church that is also an organized crime syndicate that bleeds money from the citizens of Ravnica to enrich themselves. (Yes, crime syndicate as a Lawful organization is kind of odd, but I actually think a lot of organized crime types see themselves as enforcing their own laws.)
Azorius Senate: Lawful Neutral: This, again, is like your textbook Lawful Neutral to the extreme. They are obsessed with regulation and authority, and they would never let moral concerns get in the way of the law. They aren't actively seeking to harm anybody, though, which keeps them from being lawful evil.
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Neutral: On the other side of things, this is the group that would like to see the city demolished so nature can take its course. They're anarchists, which is kind of the standard chaotic neutral type.
Golgari Swarm: Neutral Evil: To be fair, it might be less evil than neutral, but the Golgari do seem to traffic a lot in necromancy and zombies, and are also probably serving the poor of Ravnica a lot of Soylent Green-like stuff. Of course, in their minds they are true neutral, which could also be a viable alignment.
Simic Combine: True Neutral: Their goals are evolution at any cost, which means that they don't really want to harm anyone, but they also don't care if they do because their ultimate goals are that life itself advances.
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Evil: This is another no-brainer, with a cult that, first off, worships a demon, but also puts on murderous carnival shows? It's like a guild made up entirely of Jokers (like, the Batman villain.)
Izzet League: Chaotic Neutral: These guys could possibly be chaotic good, actually, as I think they've generally been pretty forthright with their goals. They want innovation, and they're kind of insane.
House Dimir: Neutral Evil: Wait, what? This guild doesn't exist! But seriously, this is a guild that does not let ethical considerations get in the way of its ambitions. They can use lawful means or chaotic means to achieve their goals in their quest to dominate Ravnica.
These are my takes on the guilds, and there are certainly areas where I might be off. The guilds very likely see themselves differently than I've put them down, but in terms of look and feel, I think these alignments fit pretty well.
In Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, a character's guild is actually a replacement for their character background, coming with its own interesting features. There's apparently a sort of flowchart questionnaire to allow players to figure out a guild that they would want to be a part of. But I also think it's an interesting way to translate Magic colors into character alignment.
It also allows for some interesting flexibility. You might be a naive member of the Orzhov who thinks that the care they provide for their own makes them the good guys, or you might be a member of the Gruul clans who uses their anti-establishment attitudes only as a pretext for indulging in your violent tendencies.
I can't wait to get my hands on the book - it's probably the non-homebrewed setting I'm most excited to run something in.
Each of these games has an idea at its core that defines the characteristics and behavior of people and entities within it. In D&D, there are the two spectra of alignment: Law versus Chaos and Good versus Evil. Magic, on the other hand, has five different colors that represent different values and practices.
Ravnica was, in fact, built primarily out of a contrivance of this five color system. The makers wanted to do a multicolor set, encouraging players to play decks of multiple colors, but they had done a block only a few years earlier that encouraged everyone to play with all five colors. For Ravnica, they decided to create identities based out of each two-color combination and encourage players to make two-color decks. The result was, mechanically, very effective, as it forced them to give each of these combinations its own identity, and they managed to balance the metagame in such a way that most guilds were rather viable, diversifying the field, which is always a healthy thing for a game like Magic.
But on top of that, they came up with this idea of guilds to explain these combinations, and the flavor behind them became extremely popular.
The Guilds are of course rather definitional to the idea of Ravnica, but in order to let D&D players who are less familiar with Magic come into Ravnica - this isn't some cheap thought experiment; they're really making Ravnica just as valid a D&D setting as Eberron, Dark Sun, or Greyhawk - the book apparently makes no mention of color.
Now, those of us in the know could pretty easily reverse-engineer what colors the guilds each represented even if we somehow knew Magic colors but didn't know Ravnica, but one thing I think is interesting to consider is what D&D alignments each guild would have.
So one thing that I think presents itself when you think this way is that Magic is pretty morally grey. There are plenty of bad guys, but good guys, especially among these powerful guilds, are sort of hard to come by. Law and Chaos are much easier to identify, however.
Selesnya Conclave: Lawful Good: Good could be a stretch here, given their cultishness, but the Selesnya do encourage life and growth, which I think we tend to put more in the good category. And their collectivism is very Lawful.
Boros Legion: Lawful Good: Possibly the only really obviously good-aligned guild, the Boros do, of course, have a zealous streak, and they're the kind of lawful whose zeal can sometimes actually result in chaos. But this is the big Paladin guild, so I'm going to give them the old LG.
Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful Evil: Oh man, is there a better representation of Lawful Evil? They're a church that is also an organized crime syndicate that bleeds money from the citizens of Ravnica to enrich themselves. (Yes, crime syndicate as a Lawful organization is kind of odd, but I actually think a lot of organized crime types see themselves as enforcing their own laws.)
Azorius Senate: Lawful Neutral: This, again, is like your textbook Lawful Neutral to the extreme. They are obsessed with regulation and authority, and they would never let moral concerns get in the way of the law. They aren't actively seeking to harm anybody, though, which keeps them from being lawful evil.
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Neutral: On the other side of things, this is the group that would like to see the city demolished so nature can take its course. They're anarchists, which is kind of the standard chaotic neutral type.
Golgari Swarm: Neutral Evil: To be fair, it might be less evil than neutral, but the Golgari do seem to traffic a lot in necromancy and zombies, and are also probably serving the poor of Ravnica a lot of Soylent Green-like stuff. Of course, in their minds they are true neutral, which could also be a viable alignment.
Simic Combine: True Neutral: Their goals are evolution at any cost, which means that they don't really want to harm anyone, but they also don't care if they do because their ultimate goals are that life itself advances.
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Evil: This is another no-brainer, with a cult that, first off, worships a demon, but also puts on murderous carnival shows? It's like a guild made up entirely of Jokers (like, the Batman villain.)
Izzet League: Chaotic Neutral: These guys could possibly be chaotic good, actually, as I think they've generally been pretty forthright with their goals. They want innovation, and they're kind of insane.
House Dimir: Neutral Evil: Wait, what? This guild doesn't exist! But seriously, this is a guild that does not let ethical considerations get in the way of its ambitions. They can use lawful means or chaotic means to achieve their goals in their quest to dominate Ravnica.
These are my takes on the guilds, and there are certainly areas where I might be off. The guilds very likely see themselves differently than I've put them down, but in terms of look and feel, I think these alignments fit pretty well.
In Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, a character's guild is actually a replacement for their character background, coming with its own interesting features. There's apparently a sort of flowchart questionnaire to allow players to figure out a guild that they would want to be a part of. But I also think it's an interesting way to translate Magic colors into character alignment.
It also allows for some interesting flexibility. You might be a naive member of the Orzhov who thinks that the care they provide for their own makes them the good guys, or you might be a member of the Gruul clans who uses their anti-establishment attitudes only as a pretext for indulging in your violent tendencies.
I can't wait to get my hands on the book - it's probably the non-homebrewed setting I'm most excited to run something in.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
Longform versus Shortform Adventures in D&D
Ending a few weeks ago, in my campaign we had an adventure that wound up taking over a year. Now granted, part of that was due to the fact that I had to be out of town for a couple months while dealing with family issues (that you can read about elsewhere in this blog.)
Having done a lot of relatively on-rails adventures up to about halfway through level 5, I had a lot of time away from the game (for the same family issues) and so, to keep myself occupied with a creative endeavor, I came up with a new type of adventure: the party was captured by a group of Dire Elves (Drow who had sworn themselves to a powerful individual in the Shadowlands - which is my setting's Shadowfell-by-way-of-the-Dark-World-in-Link-to-the-Past-plus-some-Dark-Tower-elements.) The party found themselves lost in a region of the Shadowlands called Red Scar Plains (the name was actually an in-joke from years ago in which my roommate, who is one of the players, had a dream in which I woke him up to tell him I had run a World of Warcraft dungeon called Red Scar Plains.)
Anyway, what was meant to be a sizable excursion wound up going for quite a long time. We had some cool revelations, like the fact that there was a shadowy version of our Paladins Gold Dragon God in the Shadowlands, and that our Rogue was actually an amnesiac who had been a member of an Illuminati-like global conspiracy before he lost his memory. We also introduced a new player in the middle of it.
While I really like what I came up with for the setting, it's something of a relief to have finished it. That same roommate has taken up DM duties for a little side-campaign, and I've been able to play the Warlock character that has been kicking around in my head for years (though we're a few sessions in and still level 1 - I really want a second spell slot and my Eldritch Invocations, lovely as Hex-Eldritch Blast gameplay may be.)
Anyway, while we were doing Red Scar Plains, I started working on the next big adventure, and among other things, it has our first really significantly large true dungeon in it that serves as the kind of second act break of the adventure.
But after spending so much time on Red Scar Plains, I've planned out now three shorter adventures - stuff we can probably finish in one or two sessions a piece. For one thing, it'll give them a chance to get a little more gear and perhaps a level (likely not a full level though) before getting into what I imagine will be a somewhat intense adventure difficulty-wise (though primarily the final boss, and I'm relatively confident that they will get to level 9 at least before that point, maybe level 10 - though I haven't totaled all the XP they'll earn - hell, they could be 11.) In fact, I actually expect (and hope) that they'll feel a little overpowered early on in the adventure, giving them some momentum.
But one thing that's actually quite fun about these smaller adventures is the ability to use monsters and themes that I won't be able to use in rather thematically consistent adventures. For instance, one will be sending them into some ancient ruins of the massively important super-advanced civilization and thus give me an excuse to have a lot of robots (I'm using the gnomish clockworks from Mordenkainen's.) Another is built entirely around Deathlocks and Demons, giving us a bit of a break from the Undead and Great Old One-related menaces that are more prevalent in my setting and allowing me to introduce a faction that will allow for heroic chaotic evil characters (it's a cult dedicated to a prophesied destroyer god, and part of their religion is that they must preserve the world so that it can be destroyed by the right entity.)
Also, given that I did a lot of work for the big adventure (called "The Bloody Baron" - see if you can guess what the big bad of it is) about a year ago, it's also nice to have a reason to plan adventures again.
I suspect this might be my model going forward - I really like the idea of having these major story commitments, but it's good to get some standalone breaks now and again.
Having done a lot of relatively on-rails adventures up to about halfway through level 5, I had a lot of time away from the game (for the same family issues) and so, to keep myself occupied with a creative endeavor, I came up with a new type of adventure: the party was captured by a group of Dire Elves (Drow who had sworn themselves to a powerful individual in the Shadowlands - which is my setting's Shadowfell-by-way-of-the-Dark-World-in-Link-to-the-Past-plus-some-Dark-Tower-elements.) The party found themselves lost in a region of the Shadowlands called Red Scar Plains (the name was actually an in-joke from years ago in which my roommate, who is one of the players, had a dream in which I woke him up to tell him I had run a World of Warcraft dungeon called Red Scar Plains.)
Anyway, what was meant to be a sizable excursion wound up going for quite a long time. We had some cool revelations, like the fact that there was a shadowy version of our Paladins Gold Dragon God in the Shadowlands, and that our Rogue was actually an amnesiac who had been a member of an Illuminati-like global conspiracy before he lost his memory. We also introduced a new player in the middle of it.
While I really like what I came up with for the setting, it's something of a relief to have finished it. That same roommate has taken up DM duties for a little side-campaign, and I've been able to play the Warlock character that has been kicking around in my head for years (though we're a few sessions in and still level 1 - I really want a second spell slot and my Eldritch Invocations, lovely as Hex-Eldritch Blast gameplay may be.)
Anyway, while we were doing Red Scar Plains, I started working on the next big adventure, and among other things, it has our first really significantly large true dungeon in it that serves as the kind of second act break of the adventure.
But after spending so much time on Red Scar Plains, I've planned out now three shorter adventures - stuff we can probably finish in one or two sessions a piece. For one thing, it'll give them a chance to get a little more gear and perhaps a level (likely not a full level though) before getting into what I imagine will be a somewhat intense adventure difficulty-wise (though primarily the final boss, and I'm relatively confident that they will get to level 9 at least before that point, maybe level 10 - though I haven't totaled all the XP they'll earn - hell, they could be 11.) In fact, I actually expect (and hope) that they'll feel a little overpowered early on in the adventure, giving them some momentum.
But one thing that's actually quite fun about these smaller adventures is the ability to use monsters and themes that I won't be able to use in rather thematically consistent adventures. For instance, one will be sending them into some ancient ruins of the massively important super-advanced civilization and thus give me an excuse to have a lot of robots (I'm using the gnomish clockworks from Mordenkainen's.) Another is built entirely around Deathlocks and Demons, giving us a bit of a break from the Undead and Great Old One-related menaces that are more prevalent in my setting and allowing me to introduce a faction that will allow for heroic chaotic evil characters (it's a cult dedicated to a prophesied destroyer god, and part of their religion is that they must preserve the world so that it can be destroyed by the right entity.)
Also, given that I did a lot of work for the big adventure (called "The Bloody Baron" - see if you can guess what the big bad of it is) about a year ago, it's also nice to have a reason to plan adventures again.
I suspect this might be my model going forward - I really like the idea of having these major story commitments, but it's good to get some standalone breaks now and again.
The Parallels and Opposites of Kul Tiras and Zandalar
Though I'm not the first person to point this out, BFA's Alliance and Horde stories are interesting mirrors of one another. Not only do we have parallels running between each continent's three zones and their counterparts across the sea, but we also have a kind of mirrored arc for each side - one with an upward trajectory, the other downward.
We'll start with the Horde, who have really instigated this conflict and whose journey to Zandalar happens canonically before the Alliance's to Kul Tiras.
The Horde starts out strong. Yes, they've lost Undercity, but this planned tactical retreat was nothing like the shocking and unexpected loss of Teldrassil for the Alliance. Sylvanas authorizes a bold mission to infiltrate Stormwind's prison and break out a pair of Zandalari prisoners (I have no idea how Sylvanas knows they're there, or why she expects to be able to make them allies, but it does seem to work.)
As the Alliance flotilla closes in on Talanji's ship, she brings them home to Zandalar, where the Zandalari fleet devastates the Alliance ships, leaving only one of seven still afloat. Talanji returns to the loving embrace of her father, and indeed Zandalar is portrayed as a gorgeous paradise with an immortal king who names you "Speaker of the Horde" to serve as an ambassador and gives the Horde the chamber directly below his throne to serve as an embassy. Not a bad get for the Horde.
The Alliance, meanwhile, shows up with Jaina only for the "Daughter of the Sea" to be sentenced to death and the Alliance emissary (that's you) thrown in jail through apparent guilt by association. After breaking out of jail thanks to Alliance loyalists in Boralus, you're eventually able to establish the Alliance presence on the very outskirts of the city, far from Proudmoore Keep.
Yet over the course of questing, the Alliance discovers several festering problems rotting at the core of Kul Tiras and manages to defeat them - they defeat the Heartsbane Coven that has been plaguing Drustvar, installing the far more reasonable Lucille Waycrest in place of her evil mother. In Stormsong Valley, they fend off an attack by the Horde, another by Quilboars, another by the Naga, and they purge the Old-God-worshipping Tidesages from the Shrine of the Storm (notably, there is a good Stormsong nephew who stands to inherit the house. Finally, in Tiragarde Sound, they foil a coup attempt by Lady Ashvane, and after they rescue Jaina from the Blighted Lands, they come together to both end Ashvane's treachery and at the same time bring the legendary Kul Tiran fleet home. By the end of this story, Kul Tiras is united, Jaina is now a hero to her people, and the Alliance has a kick-ass navy ready to tear things up.
In Zandalar, however, this mesmerizing glory of Zandalar quickly begins to show its flaws. First off, despite its problems, it's clear that Kul Tiras is still largely a unified whole - the entire archipelago is very much part of the Kul Tiran nation. Yet Zandalar, despite being, theoretically, an Empire, shows itself to be actually quite limited. Outside of Zuldazar, they have basically no control over the other regions of the island. The Blood Trolls have made Nazmir a death trap, and Vol'dun is set aside entirely as a kind of Australia like prison-exile land for unwanted Zandalari.
And in questing, there aren't really any big wins in Zandalar. In Vol'dun, we fail to stop the rise of Mythrax, in Zuldazar, Rezan is slain, and in Nazmir, we beat the leader of the Blood Trolls (on fight, like four) only to realize that there's an Old God (or something very much like it) in Uldir that is very much alive and clearly able to spread its corruption beyond its confinement.
Indeed, the questing culminates in Rastakhan selling not only himself, but his entire dynasty, into Bwonsamdi's service - and while it does reinvigorate him with the strength he had lost thanks to Rezan's death, his ability to kill Zul (which isn't going to take, of course, given that Zul, Reborn is a boss in Uldir,) does nothing to stop Mythrax from destroying the Great Seal, finally letting G'huun loose. So Rastakhan traded his entire bloodline for power that does not seem to have been enough to actually solve any of his problems.
These are some seriously different trajectories. Now, obviously G'huun will be dealt with once we kill it in Uldir, and that might put the Zandalari on better footing to help the Horde fight the Alliance. But I also really have to wonder what Bwonsamdi's role in this will be.
One thing that was rather jarring was when I got to the Necropolis on my Undead Rogue and Bwonsamdi was telling me to kill all the undead around his temple, as he finds them to be abominations. I half-expected to have some different quest text for this interaction on an Undead character, but there was none.
Given Bwonsamdi is now the rather literal power behind the throne of Zandalar, how is that going to work if Rastakhan becomes a member of the Horde and thus subservient to Sylvanas Windrunner?
There are a lot of big match-ups I'd like to see play out here, but one that seems almost inevitable is Bwonsamdi versus Sylvanas. How is that going to work?
On Kul Tiras, the story resolves quite well (though I think the jump from Jaina redeeming herself in the eyes of her people and becoming a national hero to her becoming the new Lord Admiral literally seconds later is a bit jarring - unless that title truly is a matter of birthright, and thus she actually should have become Lord Admiral the moment Rexxar killed Daelin.) My one outside-the-narrative concern here, though, is that the Kul Tiran story might be "done." Right now there's not an obvious place for a raid on Kul Tiras (even making a city raid wouldn't work as we already have the Siege of Boralus dungeon.) I think Gorak Tul might be truly dead after we fought him in the Blighted Lands, which is sad as I think the Drust and the Heartsbane witches are some of the coolest stuff in the expansion.
But within the narrative, though they started off in a rough spot, the Alliance now has to be pretty happy with how things have turned out in Kul Tiras, which is now a full-fledged member of the Alliance and has their incredible navy not just available but actually spoiling for a fight.
It remains to be seen how things will turn out with Zandalar after we fight G'huun. But even if the Blood God is defeated, Rastakhan is bringing a big old suitcase of Loa-sized baggage into the Horde.
We'll start with the Horde, who have really instigated this conflict and whose journey to Zandalar happens canonically before the Alliance's to Kul Tiras.
The Horde starts out strong. Yes, they've lost Undercity, but this planned tactical retreat was nothing like the shocking and unexpected loss of Teldrassil for the Alliance. Sylvanas authorizes a bold mission to infiltrate Stormwind's prison and break out a pair of Zandalari prisoners (I have no idea how Sylvanas knows they're there, or why she expects to be able to make them allies, but it does seem to work.)
As the Alliance flotilla closes in on Talanji's ship, she brings them home to Zandalar, where the Zandalari fleet devastates the Alliance ships, leaving only one of seven still afloat. Talanji returns to the loving embrace of her father, and indeed Zandalar is portrayed as a gorgeous paradise with an immortal king who names you "Speaker of the Horde" to serve as an ambassador and gives the Horde the chamber directly below his throne to serve as an embassy. Not a bad get for the Horde.
The Alliance, meanwhile, shows up with Jaina only for the "Daughter of the Sea" to be sentenced to death and the Alliance emissary (that's you) thrown in jail through apparent guilt by association. After breaking out of jail thanks to Alliance loyalists in Boralus, you're eventually able to establish the Alliance presence on the very outskirts of the city, far from Proudmoore Keep.
Yet over the course of questing, the Alliance discovers several festering problems rotting at the core of Kul Tiras and manages to defeat them - they defeat the Heartsbane Coven that has been plaguing Drustvar, installing the far more reasonable Lucille Waycrest in place of her evil mother. In Stormsong Valley, they fend off an attack by the Horde, another by Quilboars, another by the Naga, and they purge the Old-God-worshipping Tidesages from the Shrine of the Storm (notably, there is a good Stormsong nephew who stands to inherit the house. Finally, in Tiragarde Sound, they foil a coup attempt by Lady Ashvane, and after they rescue Jaina from the Blighted Lands, they come together to both end Ashvane's treachery and at the same time bring the legendary Kul Tiran fleet home. By the end of this story, Kul Tiras is united, Jaina is now a hero to her people, and the Alliance has a kick-ass navy ready to tear things up.
In Zandalar, however, this mesmerizing glory of Zandalar quickly begins to show its flaws. First off, despite its problems, it's clear that Kul Tiras is still largely a unified whole - the entire archipelago is very much part of the Kul Tiran nation. Yet Zandalar, despite being, theoretically, an Empire, shows itself to be actually quite limited. Outside of Zuldazar, they have basically no control over the other regions of the island. The Blood Trolls have made Nazmir a death trap, and Vol'dun is set aside entirely as a kind of Australia like prison-exile land for unwanted Zandalari.
And in questing, there aren't really any big wins in Zandalar. In Vol'dun, we fail to stop the rise of Mythrax, in Zuldazar, Rezan is slain, and in Nazmir, we beat the leader of the Blood Trolls (on fight, like four) only to realize that there's an Old God (or something very much like it) in Uldir that is very much alive and clearly able to spread its corruption beyond its confinement.
Indeed, the questing culminates in Rastakhan selling not only himself, but his entire dynasty, into Bwonsamdi's service - and while it does reinvigorate him with the strength he had lost thanks to Rezan's death, his ability to kill Zul (which isn't going to take, of course, given that Zul, Reborn is a boss in Uldir,) does nothing to stop Mythrax from destroying the Great Seal, finally letting G'huun loose. So Rastakhan traded his entire bloodline for power that does not seem to have been enough to actually solve any of his problems.
These are some seriously different trajectories. Now, obviously G'huun will be dealt with once we kill it in Uldir, and that might put the Zandalari on better footing to help the Horde fight the Alliance. But I also really have to wonder what Bwonsamdi's role in this will be.
One thing that was rather jarring was when I got to the Necropolis on my Undead Rogue and Bwonsamdi was telling me to kill all the undead around his temple, as he finds them to be abominations. I half-expected to have some different quest text for this interaction on an Undead character, but there was none.
Given Bwonsamdi is now the rather literal power behind the throne of Zandalar, how is that going to work if Rastakhan becomes a member of the Horde and thus subservient to Sylvanas Windrunner?
There are a lot of big match-ups I'd like to see play out here, but one that seems almost inevitable is Bwonsamdi versus Sylvanas. How is that going to work?
On Kul Tiras, the story resolves quite well (though I think the jump from Jaina redeeming herself in the eyes of her people and becoming a national hero to her becoming the new Lord Admiral literally seconds later is a bit jarring - unless that title truly is a matter of birthright, and thus she actually should have become Lord Admiral the moment Rexxar killed Daelin.) My one outside-the-narrative concern here, though, is that the Kul Tiran story might be "done." Right now there's not an obvious place for a raid on Kul Tiras (even making a city raid wouldn't work as we already have the Siege of Boralus dungeon.) I think Gorak Tul might be truly dead after we fought him in the Blighted Lands, which is sad as I think the Drust and the Heartsbane witches are some of the coolest stuff in the expansion.
But within the narrative, though they started off in a rough spot, the Alliance now has to be pretty happy with how things have turned out in Kul Tiras, which is now a full-fledged member of the Alliance and has their incredible navy not just available but actually spoiling for a fight.
It remains to be seen how things will turn out with Zandalar after we fight G'huun. But even if the Blood God is defeated, Rastakhan is bringing a big old suitcase of Loa-sized baggage into the Horde.
Mothers of Azeroth
I'm not the only one who has noticed a major theme of death, necromancy, and even several references - from the extremely subtle to the explicit - references to Arthas in Battle for Azeroth. But there's something else I don't see a lot of people talking about:
Notice how there are mothers everywhere?
Now, that statement is perhaps kind of an odd one, given that one presumes that any population of, you know, living entities is going to have lots of mothers.
But Warcraft actually has a weird history with mothers. While the game series has long been popular with folks on either side of the gender spectrum (and those in the middle,) it's not terribly hard to see that it was conceived of by a bunch of dudes. There are plenty of stories about fathers and sons within it - Garrosh reckoning with (and taking the worst lessons from) the story of Grommash. Varian, traumatized by his experiences when his own father died, struggling to be a parent to Anduin, and then Anduin having the burden of living up to Varian's legacy. We've got Vol'jin taking over after the death of his father Sen'jin. We've got Arthas murdering his father Terenas. We've got Genn consumed with grief and rage over the death of his son Liam.
Yet over several expansions, there were very few actual living mother characters we had met. Other than Thrall, a lot of characters whose fathers played prominent roles in their characterization barely got any mention of their mothers, and often their mothers went without names.
It's true that we've had some mythological figures who are mothers of a sort - Elune is sometimes referred to by the Night Elves as Mother Moon. The Tauren worship the Earthmother, and while there was some speculation that this might have actually been Therazane the Stonemother, the Elemental Lord of Earth, it seems far more likely that the Earthmother is, in fact, the Titan Azeroth, though the Tauren may not have made that association until learning about this part of the Titanic life cycle.
Still, Battle for Azeroth seems to be pushing the Mother theme a lot, and in different directions.
The first aspect of this that comes to mind if Katherine Proudmoore - Jaina's internal conflict is so tied up in the way she let her father die that he has overshadowed Katherine in her mind. Yet it is Katherine who is allowed to see what Jaina has gone through (ironically through visions of memories that seem meant to torment Jaina) and realize why Jaina had done what she did, and thus is able to forgive her.
Not all mothers are that great, though. We encounter Lucile Waycrest in Drustvar at a gallows about to be hanged as a witch (nice bit of historical accuracy there - at least in Salem, they didn't burn accused witches.) The trial is clearly meant to demonstrate the absurdity of real-world witch trials, but being a fantasy game, Drustvar has this cake and eats it too. The irony is that while Lucile Waycrest is totally innocent of any evil witchcraft, her mother is actually the leader of the Heartsbane Coven, and has zombified Lord Waycrest in order to make him her puppet. The daughter in this case must stand up to her mother, and has this dark legacy to burden her now that she is the head of her house.
What's interesting about the Heartsbane Coven is that it actually sort of zigzags one of the problematic aspects of the "evil hag" trope in fantasy. The trope is obviously born out of a misogynistic and agist tendency in our culture. But by making the Coven actually the work of the male Gorak Tul, it seems as if this is more of a co-opted type of feminine power, and that the true matriarchs are our heroes - Lucile and, elsewhere in Kul Tiras, Katherine and Jaina.
Meanwhile, over in Nazmir, the Blood Trolls have a distinctly matriarchal system, and one that has a lot of parallels with the Heartsbane Coven (I really think of there as being three sets of paired zones between the continents - Drustvar and Nazmir are dark and spooky zones with a supernatural cult spreading corruption through the land, Vol'dun and Stormsong Valley are both areas that seem to be one thing, but actually have some kind of ancient connection to the Old Gods, and Tiragarde and Vol'dun are the zones of political intrigue and plots against those in power.) Anyway, the Blood Trolls are led by Ma'das, which I assume to be at least based on the word "Mother."
A couple other, less central but still kind of interesting references:
One of the bosses in Uldir is M.O.T.H.E.R., a Titanforged guardian who is meant to keep the place sealed (and may be a reference to the Nostromo's onboard computer in Alien, which is of course also about an extraterrestrial menace that is also a biohazard of sorts.)
Then we also have the MOTHERLODE!! dungeon, though the connection here might be as simple as someone at Blizzard saying they wanted a "Mother" theme and realizing that in an expansion about an important mineral, this mining term would work quite well.
Ultimately, I think that this all ties into Azeroth herself. It's odd - Azeroth is, by Titan standards, not even an infant yet - she has yet to be born. But to all our player characters, Azeroth has been the font of life (granted, only relatively recently for Draenei and Orc characters.) As, if I interpret the Tauren religious beliefs correctly, Azeroth is the Earthmother, then this is an expansion about trying to save our mother.
On a personal note, I lost my mother about a year ago to cancer. So having a grand adventure in which we are fighting desperately to save our ultimate mother resonates quite well with me (though I have no idea how stuffing her crystallized blood into a necklace is going to do that.)
Notice how there are mothers everywhere?
Now, that statement is perhaps kind of an odd one, given that one presumes that any population of, you know, living entities is going to have lots of mothers.
But Warcraft actually has a weird history with mothers. While the game series has long been popular with folks on either side of the gender spectrum (and those in the middle,) it's not terribly hard to see that it was conceived of by a bunch of dudes. There are plenty of stories about fathers and sons within it - Garrosh reckoning with (and taking the worst lessons from) the story of Grommash. Varian, traumatized by his experiences when his own father died, struggling to be a parent to Anduin, and then Anduin having the burden of living up to Varian's legacy. We've got Vol'jin taking over after the death of his father Sen'jin. We've got Arthas murdering his father Terenas. We've got Genn consumed with grief and rage over the death of his son Liam.
Yet over several expansions, there were very few actual living mother characters we had met. Other than Thrall, a lot of characters whose fathers played prominent roles in their characterization barely got any mention of their mothers, and often their mothers went without names.
It's true that we've had some mythological figures who are mothers of a sort - Elune is sometimes referred to by the Night Elves as Mother Moon. The Tauren worship the Earthmother, and while there was some speculation that this might have actually been Therazane the Stonemother, the Elemental Lord of Earth, it seems far more likely that the Earthmother is, in fact, the Titan Azeroth, though the Tauren may not have made that association until learning about this part of the Titanic life cycle.
Still, Battle for Azeroth seems to be pushing the Mother theme a lot, and in different directions.
The first aspect of this that comes to mind if Katherine Proudmoore - Jaina's internal conflict is so tied up in the way she let her father die that he has overshadowed Katherine in her mind. Yet it is Katherine who is allowed to see what Jaina has gone through (ironically through visions of memories that seem meant to torment Jaina) and realize why Jaina had done what she did, and thus is able to forgive her.
Not all mothers are that great, though. We encounter Lucile Waycrest in Drustvar at a gallows about to be hanged as a witch (nice bit of historical accuracy there - at least in Salem, they didn't burn accused witches.) The trial is clearly meant to demonstrate the absurdity of real-world witch trials, but being a fantasy game, Drustvar has this cake and eats it too. The irony is that while Lucile Waycrest is totally innocent of any evil witchcraft, her mother is actually the leader of the Heartsbane Coven, and has zombified Lord Waycrest in order to make him her puppet. The daughter in this case must stand up to her mother, and has this dark legacy to burden her now that she is the head of her house.
What's interesting about the Heartsbane Coven is that it actually sort of zigzags one of the problematic aspects of the "evil hag" trope in fantasy. The trope is obviously born out of a misogynistic and agist tendency in our culture. But by making the Coven actually the work of the male Gorak Tul, it seems as if this is more of a co-opted type of feminine power, and that the true matriarchs are our heroes - Lucile and, elsewhere in Kul Tiras, Katherine and Jaina.
Meanwhile, over in Nazmir, the Blood Trolls have a distinctly matriarchal system, and one that has a lot of parallels with the Heartsbane Coven (I really think of there as being three sets of paired zones between the continents - Drustvar and Nazmir are dark and spooky zones with a supernatural cult spreading corruption through the land, Vol'dun and Stormsong Valley are both areas that seem to be one thing, but actually have some kind of ancient connection to the Old Gods, and Tiragarde and Vol'dun are the zones of political intrigue and plots against those in power.) Anyway, the Blood Trolls are led by Ma'das, which I assume to be at least based on the word "Mother."
A couple other, less central but still kind of interesting references:
One of the bosses in Uldir is M.O.T.H.E.R., a Titanforged guardian who is meant to keep the place sealed (and may be a reference to the Nostromo's onboard computer in Alien, which is of course also about an extraterrestrial menace that is also a biohazard of sorts.)
Then we also have the MOTHERLODE!! dungeon, though the connection here might be as simple as someone at Blizzard saying they wanted a "Mother" theme and realizing that in an expansion about an important mineral, this mining term would work quite well.
Ultimately, I think that this all ties into Azeroth herself. It's odd - Azeroth is, by Titan standards, not even an infant yet - she has yet to be born. But to all our player characters, Azeroth has been the font of life (granted, only relatively recently for Draenei and Orc characters.) As, if I interpret the Tauren religious beliefs correctly, Azeroth is the Earthmother, then this is an expansion about trying to save our mother.
On a personal note, I lost my mother about a year ago to cancer. So having a grand adventure in which we are fighting desperately to save our ultimate mother resonates quite well with me (though I have no idea how stuffing her crystallized blood into a necklace is going to do that.)
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