Know Your Lore: The Alliance and Horde

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

To ask why we fight, is to ask why the leaves fall -- it is in their nature.

The Alliance and Horde have been notoriously at each other's throats since the two factions began in the days of the First and Second Wars. And although I have come up with some crazy theories regarding the innate reasons behind that latent aggression between the two factions, they're simply theories. They may make sense, in a bizarre and meta fashion, but they are in no way true. So here we are, left with a simple question: What makes the Alliance and Horde so prone to aggression? Why do they continue to battle, and turn their noses at the thought of making peace?

While I do enjoy coming up with fanciful reasons for all of this, there is one blatant, simple reason that stands on its own: Misunderstanding. Sheer, unadulterated ignorance and a stubborn unwillingness to try and understand. Both sides possess a single-minded obsession with violence and retribution that has never faded, nearly thirty years after the events of the First War. And when you step back and take a look at the conflict between the two factions with a neutral eye, the whole of the aggression turns into a delightful, tragic, almost laughable comedy of errors and escalation.

Let's take a look at where some of the common misconceptions surrounding both Horde and Alliance have gotten us.

The internment camps

Following the Second War, the remaining orc forces of the Horde were rounded up and ushered off into internment camps. As prisoners of war, they treated with cruelty -- and they succumbed to a strange lethargy, listless and unwilling to fight. Thrall famously liberated the orcs from their cruel prisons and led them to freedom, far away from any Alliance settlement, intent on restoring them to their noble heritage -- heritage he'd heard tales of. Thrall was, after all, raised by humans, not orcs. What he'd learned of orcish heritage was tales told by Grom Hellscream and later, Drek'thar.

But let's back up a second. Yes, the orcs weren't exactly treated kindly in the internment camps -- they were prisoners of war, after all. But the very existence of the internment camps was a moment of mercy from the Alliance. Both Thoras Trollbane and Genn Greymane wanted the orcish race slaughtered down to the last after the Second War. It was King Terenas who insisted that the orcs be imprisoned. He was convinced that the orcs would see the errors of their crimes. His actions put a rift in the Alliance of Lordaeron that eventually tore the whole thing apart. Genn left the Alliance of Lordaeron over it.

In fact, that strange lethargy was a cause of concern for the Alliance. Archmage Antonidas was researching it because people thought that it was some sort of disease, and didn't want it to spread. He theorized correctly -- that the orcs had been under demonic influence, and that influence was simply wearing off. If Terenas hadn't shown a moment of mercy, there would be no new Horde today.

Conflict after the Third War

Orc, human, and night elf forces came together successfully to defeat Archimonde at Mount Hyjal in the Third War. So what happened? Territorial disputes. The night elves were unwilling to offer the orcs any kind of useable land or resources, and the humans were equally unwilling to do so. In order to survive, the Horde had to take what it could -- and take what allies it could. Likely the biggest mistake Thrall made in his career as Warchief was allowing the Forsaken to join the Horde. It wasn't something he took lightly -- he had to be talked into it by Hamuul Runetotem, who thought the Forsaken had a chance at redemption.

But that act pretty much closed the door on any hope the Horde had on successfully coming to any kind of negotiations with the Alliance. The Forsaken weren't just misunderstood dead guys -- they were former Scourge. They committed horrific atrocities while they were under the Lich King's sway. What's worse, after they broke free of the Lich King's hold, they went ahead and began slaughtering the rest of the living in Lordaeron. As far as the Alliance was concerned, the Forsaken were monsters -- and in a way, they were right.

Between that, and leftover feelings of animosity from the First War, there was no way any kind of negotiation stood a chance. Thrall's Horde was not the Horde of old -- but the allies it chose to consort with implied that it was the same as ever.

Alliances during the Burning Crusade

Round two, fight! As both Horde and Alliance forces entered the Dark Portal and traveled to Outland, tensions continued to build on both sides. But once again, both sides united to put a stop to the Burning Legion -- this time, Kil'jaeden. In fact, the interaction between the blood elves and draenei was the perfect illustration of what an alliance between the two factions could accomplish. Even though the blood elves had sabotaged the Exodar, causing it to plummet to Azeroth, Velen was able to distinguish between the elves that served Prince Kael'thas, and subsequently the Burning Legion, and the blood elves who were simply blind followers.

Not only that, but Velen was willing to actually help the beleaguered blood elves and restore the Sunwell. The source of all their power -- the thing that caused all those crazy addictions that eventually led their leader straight to the Legion's doorstep. And Velen didn't ask for a single thing in return. In contrast, the blood elves had the help of the Forsaken, yes -- and were forced to send what little aid they could to Northrend, under threat of that alliance being broken.

Is it any wonder that the blood elves considered, even briefly, defecting from the Horde? The relationship between the draenei and the blood elves was barely mentioned by either side. The draenei didn't receive any kind of punishment for what they'd done, and the blood elves received no acknowledgement of their short alliance with the draenei, either. In fact, both sin'dorei and draenei were by and large ignored when the war in Northrend began, their curious alliance completely forgotten in favor of fighting the Lich King -- and fighting between the Alliance and Horde.
The Battle for the Undercity

Although the battle at the Wrathgate proved pivotal in erasing all tentative peace between Alliance and Horde, for a moment it appeared as though that peace would actually come to pass. Bolvar and Saurfang appeared to be almost comrades on the battlefield, fighting side-by-side with apparent respect for each other. It wasn't until Putress launched his attack on both forces that it all came crashing down -- and what the Alliance seemed all too willing to forget was that the attack was not just on Alliance forces, but on Horde forces as well.

When Varian pushed into the Undercity, it wasn't to reclaim it for Sylvanas. It was to reclaim it for the Alliance. He had absolutely no interest in hearing about what had really occurred at the Wrathgate. He had no interest in looking at Sylvanas or the Forsaken with anything but disgust. And who can blame him? The halls of Lordaeron were once Varian's home -- they were shelter and a place of comfort after Stormwind was destroyed in the First War. For that matter, Varian held absolutely no love for the orcs, and why would he -- he was just a child when he watched his father die at the hands of Garona.

If Jaina hadn't intervened, it's entirely likely either Varian or Thrall would be dead right now. And the Alliance and Horde would have wasted their time murdering each other over it instead of focusing on the real issue -- the Lich King. But there's really one moment in history that stands above all as the moment this all began ... and the ramifications of that moment continue to this day.

The Horde invasion

The Alliance held and has continued to hold an impression of the Horde as a bunch of vicious, unruly savages. While there is truth behind that impression -- the Old Horde was in fact incredibly cruel, ruthless, and bloodthirsty -- the orcs behind the Horde were not acting of their own volition. They were pawns and puppets of the Burning Legion, tricked into servitude by the manipulations of Kil'jaeden and a very few orcs who were incredibly willing to serve in exchange for power, manipulating the rest of their race into following suit. But that was only one side of the Dark Portal. The other side of the portal was engineered by the human sorcerer Medivh, who had been possessed by Sargeras in the womb. Sargeras' influence led Medivh to contact Gul'dan and begin the creation of the Dark Portal.

In other words, the invasion of Azeroth was pretty much orchestrated by the Burning Legion from beginning to end, on both sides of the equation. In this, it was a massive success -- because the chaos wrought from that initial battle still continues to plague Azeroth to this day. Never mind how many demons have been killed since then, never mind how many victories both sides have won against the Burning Legion -- in this one simple act, Sargeras and Kil'jaeden guaranteed that Azeroth would be awash in war even without the presence of the Legion.

You know how the Alliance is quietly helping the Darkspear Rebellion in an effort to encourage more Horde casualties on both sides, to ultimately weaken the Horde as a whole? This is the Burning Legion's equivalent of that -- as long as Alliance and Horde are occupied with fighting each other, the Legion can continue to slip in and attack. Every moment the Legion has been defeated to date has been a moment where Alliance and Horde come together. The only exception to this is the War of the Ancients -- which took place thousands of years before the Alliance and Horde even existed.

Sargeras wasn't playing a short game with his possession of Aegwynn. He was waiting for Medivh. He was waiting for Kil'jaeden to complete his complete corruption of the orcs of Draenor. Kil'jaeden wasn't sent to conquer Draenor by any stretch of the imagination -- he was sent to find an army that could take Azeroth. And he did, with resounding success. If the First War had never happened, the Alliance would never have existed -- they'd have no reason to. The Horde never would have existed -- they'd have simply continued their existence on Draenor. And with a Guardian to watch over Azeroth, the world would continue to thrive.

In just a few calculated moves, Sargeras set up a domino effect that changed the face of Azeroth forever. It put into place a power struggle that continues to distract both Alliance and Horde to this day. And while both sides have been willing to put aside their differences until now, the Horde has a new leader -- a true son of Draenor who is willing to do whatever it takes to obtain victory. Garrosh Hellscream isn't just a threat to the Alliance. He's the one creature that currently has the power to push the conflict between Alliance and Horde into all-out chaos -- leaving the world open and vulnerable to another Legion attack. This is what Wrathion sees -- this is why he's trying to determine which side will be the victor in this war. Because as long as two sides exist, Azeroth will remain in constant danger, an ever-weakening target for the Legion to strike.

While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore. Tags: alliance, archimonde, bolvar-fordragon, burning-legion, featured, first-war, garrosh-hellscream, guide, guide-to-lore, horde, kiljaeden, lore, lore-guide, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, sargeras, saurfang-the-younger, second-war, third-war, varian-wrynn, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping, wrathgate, wrathion

Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore

View the original article here

Know Your Lore: The Alliance and the Darkspear Rebellion

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

Sometimes, the storytelling in World of Warcraft sets people on edge -- which may very well be the understatement of the year. So far, nothing in Mists of Pandaria has been quite as contentious as the idea of Alliance vs. Horde story development. We've delved into the seemingly lopsided nature of Alliance development in WoW before, and taken some guesses and speculation on what the Alliance seems to be missing from a development standpoint.

But patch 5.3 has introduced a new element -- the Darkspear Rebellion -- and with that element comes a new wave of discontent. Having played through both sides of the event, I can definitely see where the Alliance are coming from. While the Horde has a really great triumphant moment of smacking down Garrosh's forces, the Alliance doesn't really have an equivalent. Which leads people to ask, once again, when the Alliance are going to get a moment of glory?

It's a good question, and the answer to that question warrants a look into the story behind the expansion, as well as a look at the nuts and bolts of story development.

Why the change in Garrosh?

So why the sudden change in Garrosh Hellscream? Frankly, it hasn't been that sudden at all -- this is something the story has been slowly building up to on the Horde side since Wrath of the Lich King. The Burning Crusade was launched back on January 16th, 2007 -- six years ago. In that expansion, we met an orc named Garrosh Hellscream, and witnessed his brief moment of redemption as Thrall filled him in on the fact that his father, Grom, was not the horrific person Garrosh thought he'd been. And in that moment, we watched a character make a rapid 180 from depression and despair, to an orc that seemed to be full of life.

Keep in mind that this was nearly two years before Wrath's launch, and the arrival of Varian Wrynn. From both a story standpoint and a time standpoint, Garrosh has spent far longer by now a part of WoW than not. Did we expect to see him again, after TBC? No -- because TBC was the first expansion, and we had no idea how future expansions were going to be handled. We didn't know if there was going to be continuity between them or not. We didn't know if any of the new races or characters introduced would ever be seen again, outside of that pocket of leveling experience.

But that character, in that moment of instant 180, displayed a pivotal moment of development that would continue to progress for the next six years. It wasn't just a moment of redemption -- it was a moment that displayed just how emotionally out-of-whack Garrosh was. That rapid mood shift, suddenly overwriting all the years he'd spent growing up despondent in Garadar, was a clear indicator that this guy was a volatile mess just waiting to happen.

Garrosh could have been left as just an odd, sudden moment of happily ever after, Thrall being his deus ex machina to a happy ending. It would have been a really lame happy ending, but it could have remained as it was. But when he appeared again, at the end of TBC and just prior to the launch of Wrath, it was clear that this was not going to be a story that Blizzard left alone.

Wrath of the Lich King

In fact, that brief moment we were shown, the duel between Garrosh and Thrall, was another pivotal exchange right on the heels of the first one. Garrosh made another seeming 180 from being pleased at Thrall's revelation, to being incredibly upset with the way Thrall was handling things as Warchief. And frankly, he had every right to be -- what we were shown of Thrall in vanilla WoW was honestly, very little in terms of character advancement. Thrall didn't seem to really be actively doing anything at all for the Horde, other than sending players on a few questionable diplomatic missions. Based on what we saw in vanilla, it was only natural that Garrosh would question Thrall's right to lead -- because we had been shown that Thrall didn't really seem to have a handle on what the Horde wanted or what it should be.

Thrall sent Garrosh to Northrend, and it was simultaneously the best and worst decision he could have made. It got Garrosh out of his hair, it gave Garrosh a chance to prove himself, and ultimately, it gave Garrosh's ego enough of a boost that he felt completely comfortable continuing to question and badger Thrall at every turn. Yet by sending Garrosh to Northrend, Thrall missed an opportunity to demonstrate exactly who and what the Horde were -- Garrosh had to extrapolate his own opinions out of what he witnessed in Northrend. What he pulled from that experience wasn't really the correct image of the Horde at all.

And from that, Garrosh took the opportunity to needle the other races of the Horde the moment he came back a hero. Why? Because he was a hero. He was a success. He proved he had what it took in Northrend, and he came back to cheers and accolades. Sure, he was reluctant to take Thrall's place as Warchief come Cataclysm -- but it was because he understood being a military leader and being a political leader were two very different things. Unfortunately, Garrosh didn't grasp the nuances of politics at all -- to the point where he began, in his arrogance and bravado, to belittle and push the other Horde races away.

The Darkspear Rebellion

Which is where the Darkspear Rebellion comes in. This wasn't a sudden decision on Vol'jin's part. If it had been, he would've done it the moment he and Garrosh exchanged heated words, shown in a brief scene to new troll players. He wouldn't have threatened to kill Garrosh, he would've simply killed him point-blank without waiting to see what Garrosh would do. He wouldn't have given Garrosh the opportunity to command any kind of loyalty, or build up an army of Kor'kron wholly devoted to defending the Warchief.

Instead, Vol'jin made a strategic retreat to wait and see, hoping that Garrosh would somehow prove himself again. And Garrosh did -- he proved to the Darkspear, and to everyone else, that he only had the best interests of the orcs of the Horde at heart. He proved that he cared little for the other races of the Horde. He proved that he would take whatever ruthless, bullheaded moves he had to make in order to ensure the Horde's survival -- to ensure the orcs' survival. As far as Garrosh is concerned, the rest of the Horde isn't really worth bothering with.

It was apparent to Vol'jin right away, and perhaps in a way to Baine as well, but it took time for the others to see it -- Sylvanas witnessed it in Silverpine. Lor'themar and the blood elves didn't really witness it in full until patch 5.1. The goblins only just witnessed Garrosh's true opinion of them in the patch 5.3 scenario, Dark Heart of Pandaria. Vol'jin would not have had the support of the other Horde races behind him, had he killed Garrosh back in Cataclysm -- and in his own way, he likely knew that. He certainly has their support now.

The role of the Alliance

Yet all this talk and discussion has been about the Horde, with very little told at all about the Alliance. Why? Because, quite frankly, the Alliance didn't need a reason to hate Garrosh. They probably didn't even need the destruction of Theramore, although it sealed the deal -- what Garrosh did in Cataclysm was more than enough to have the Alliance clamoring for Garrosh's head. Varian was certainly gung-ho about going after him in the Ulduar trailer -- and Garrosh gave him more than enough reason to warrant the attack, with his casual insults.

But Varian held back. And he continued to hold back. He held back all through Cataclysm, to the dismay and outrage of Alliance players. There was a logical reason for that, too -- the Alliance simply didn't have the forces to fight back. They lost a ton of good soldiers up in Northrend, some to the Scourge, some to the Horde -- and the Cataclysm wreaked havoc on the Alliance races, too. The night elves were dealing with tremendous devastation in Darkshore and Ashenvale, the worgen had just been ousted from their kingdom, and the dwarves had just lost their beloved leader and were in the middle of a civil dispute for leadership.

That left who -- the gnomes? The draenei? The gnomes were busy with their own troubles trying to take back Gnomeregan, something they still haven't fully completed. The draenei are notoriously renowned for being by and large peacefully diplomatic -- they even helped the blood elves restore the Sunwell. They put together the Shattered Sun Offensive to unite both Horde and Alliance against a common foe, and then watched that unity fall apart. They weren't about to throw themselves into open war.

That meant that the Alliance had to be patient -- that Varian had to be patient. And he's been deliberately patient in Mists, because if nothing else, Theramore vividly demonstrated that charging blindly into a situation regarding the Horde was a terrible idea. He sent some of his best commanders to Theramore to help -- and saw them killed for their efforts. Varian doesn't want to lose any more lives than necessary, and he knows he can't just blindly rush in -- he has to assess the situation first.

Story and game development

But there's a reason for all of this storytelling, and it honestly comes down to simple mechanics. If the Alliance are going to have a Siege of Orgrimmar raid, then the Horde needs a good and viable reason to do so as well. Why? Because you don't want to, you can't make lopsided raid content. It takes months to develop a raid with multiple bosses, and that content is expected to hold people's interest for a long, long time. If the Siege of Orgrimmar was intended for Alliance alone, what would Horde players have to raid? How would you make a raid like that work? How could you feasibly justify the development hours required to make two raids?

More importantly, how could you balance it so that both sides were equally happy with what they got? Blizzard's demonstrated that they're moving away from faction-only scenarios -- they had a couple in patch 5.1, and in patch 5.2 they were promptly made available to both sides, so both sides could experience the content and the story. Blizzard has made it very clear that all content should be accessible by all players -- even the introduction of LFR points to this. There was a giant group of players that had never stepped foot in a raid and didn't really have the time to join a raid guild, and LFR was created to give them an opportunity to see that content on their own time and at their own pace. You can argue about the logistics and effectiveness of LFR, but you can't argue that it's allowed many, many more players to access that raid content -- players that would otherwise never have seen it.

Lopsided story

And that's where we run into the problem of the seeming lopsided nature of the Darkspear Rebellion, and even the seemingly lopsided nature of storytelling so far in the rest of Mists. You can't simply throw the Horde blindly into Orgrimmar and tell them they need to kill their Warchief -- there has to be a logical reason for them to do so. In a way, this is an interesting reminder of vanilla WoW. Alliance players that were preparing to raid Onyxia's Lair had a very, very good reason for doing so, in the form of an epic storyline that played out all the way to a grand finale in the throne room of their capital city.

There was a very obvious reason for Alliance players to kill Onyxia -- she'd been behind every poor decision made in Stormwind for the past several years, even orchestrating the disappearance of the King. For the Horde, the story was a very different one. Horde players were simply told by Thrall that spies noted that Onyxia had infiltrated Stormwind. In the name of diplomacy, not to mention in the name of killing a very, very bad dragon, Horde players were asked to kill Onyxia.

While the Alliance storyline was one of intrigue and deception that involved uncovering Onyxia's plot, the Horde storyline was simply a matter of putting together an amulet so players could enter Onyxia's Lair. It was another case where one faction had to be given some sort of good reason to be doing what they were doing -- only the good reason wasn't really all that good, when you really looked at it. In the end, Onyxia didn't matter anywhere near as much as Orgrimmar does -- because she didn't directly represent one of the two major factions in the game.

Why the Darkspear Rebellion?

This is why there's a Darkspear Rebellion. Because the Horde needs some very, very good reasons to play out their side of the story. They need some sort of justification for what they will be doing in patch 5.4. It has to be put in place. As for the Alliance, there's no need to justify that end of the story to them, because they already have some really good reasons of their own -- it's just a matter of time before they get to carry out their revenge. In the meantime, the Horde has to be shown a viable reason to rebel.

But you can't just release a patch of content without giving both sides something to do -- so Alliance players get to participate in the Rebellion as well, albeit from a slightly different perspective. Varian doesn't want to sacrifice any more Alliance lives. He doesn't want to lose any more people in this war than absolutely necessary. So why not make a deal with Vol'jin and use the troll and his motley army of Horde as a way to weaken Garrosh's defenses? Why not help Vol'jin throw himself at Orgrimmar's gates, then step in when the Warchief is vulnerable?

Alliance players are killing two birds with one stone, here. They are encouraging a civil war that will doubtless end up with plenty of Horde, both pro and anti-Garrosh, meeting their deaths. They are using that civil war to weaken the Horde's defenses, so that in the end, when Garrosh is finally taken care of, the Horde that remains will be a much weaker one. And -- if the Alliance plays its cards right -- helping the anti-Garrosh side may end up in some kind of diplomatic resolution at the end of the war, placing the Horde in a far less threatening role.

Varian may not be the most present of faction leaders at the moment, but even he recognizes the wisdom of the actions taken by Alliance players in the 5.3 quest chain. In a way, it's a very sneaky build-up to what should be, ultimately, an Alliance triumph at the end of the Siege of Orgrimmar. It doesn't matter which way the fight goes between Horde and Rebellion -- all the Alliance has to do is wait for both sides to beat each other senseless, then move in for the kill. Check and mate.

So how do you tell a faction story while making sure the other faction is getting equal attention? That's a good question. I don't know if we've quite gotten the answer to it yet. But it's one of those puzzles that ought to be addressed, and it's a definite challenge in any kind of story development. Until then, we'll have to wait and see how the Siege of Orgrimmar plays out -- and what Blizzard's got up their sleeves next.

While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore. Tags: alliance, darkspear-rebellion, featured, garrosh-hellscream, guide, guide-to-lore, horde, lore, lore-guide, onyxia, patch-5.3, patch-5.4, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, story-development, the-great-masquerade, thrall, varian-wrynn, voljin, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping

Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore

View the original article here

Horde and Alliance Xbox Avatar T-Shirts

We’ve partnered with Raptr to give away a limited number of Horde and Alliance t-shirts for your Xbox avatar! All you need to do is sign up for a free Raptr account and meet the requirements.

Raptr is a gaming community site that tracks and rewards you for playing games, and allows you to share your accomplishments. By linking various platforms to your Raptr account you can track your play time across multiple games and even be offered rewards based on your achievements.

View the original article here

LF RAF Partner (Alliance)

MadMonk, on 01 February 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

Is this US or EU? That's pretty important information.

US.

View the original article here