Faction affiliated Demon Hunters.

[Deleted]

First of all, I basically know nothing about the WoW Lore.

But I wonder, faction affiliated Demon Hunters is something that exists purely for gameplay reasons or there is something lore-based to that?
I don't remember my DH signing Alliance/Horde contract the same way we did with the Pandaren.

[Tragedia]

Gameplay reason. Kael's Blood Elves where never part of the Horde. Illidan's Night Elves where not affiliated with the Alliance either.

[Rhlor]

First of all, I basically know nothing about the WoW Lore.

But I wonder, faction affiliated Demon Hunters is something that exists purely for gameplay reasons or there is something lore-based to that?
I don't remember my DH signing Alliance/Horde contract the same way we did with the Pandaren.

the demon hunters are Illdari, They are allied with the Horde and Alliance, are not part of these factions. demon hunters can talk to each other.

[Seifross]

As others have said, it's purely a gameplay convenience. They're not even a part of the Horde or Alliance story-wise, they're just allied with both, to my knowledge.

[Lahis]

Demon Hunters are Illidari, and lorewise are not part of either faction. Gameplay dictates that the races stay in their factions though.

Death Knights actually have similar situation. Knights of the Ebon Blade are a neutral faction outside of Horde and alliance, and all player DKs belong to that faction first and only after that are they part of the Horde or the Alliance.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

This thread raises a good point: lore-wise, Illidari would be loyal to the cause over and above faction affiliations. Heck, many of them have been ostracized/imprisoned by their original factions, so have little cause to feel loyalty there. If Illidari are active within actions now, it strikes me as purely a means to the end of defeating the Legion.

[Maletalana]

First of all, I basically know nothing about the WoW Lore.

But I wonder, faction affiliated Demon Hunters is something that exists purely for gameplay reasons or there is something lore-based to that?
I don't remember my DH signing Alliance/Horde contract the same way we did with the Pandaren.

I HIGHLY recommend you watch some youtube videos or read some compilations detailing all that goes on during Warcraft III and its campaign (The Frozen Throne), you will be pleasantly surprised to see where all of WoW comes from!


To answer your question, no, there is no reason for them to belong to horde or alliance. That is for gameplay sake.

Demon Hunters are, except for technicalities, all Night Elf. The Belfs exist to satisfy Horde requirement.

They are the survivors of one of the Legion's invasions of Azeroth, I believe the first one. They are filled with Vengeance, Pain, and Fury, and want to wreck Havoc across the demon Hordes, alongside their Alliance of broken and shivarra soldiers.

(HA! SEE WHAT I DID THERE )

On a serious note, of the night elves that lost everything to that war, some decided to stab fel crystals into their eyes and consume the souls of defeated demons to empower themselves.
^^ this is HUGELY paraphrased. Feel free to get more in depth than me if you wish.

They followed in Illidan's path and became his shock troopers.

When the playerbase assaulted the Black Temple, Illidan sent us through a portal to Mardum (other planet) to secure -insert entire demon hunter start zone here-.

During our vacation on Mardum, Illidan was defeated and captured by Maiev Shadowsong (sister of Jarod Shadowsong), leader of the Wardens, a group of night elves determined to secure demons and prisoners of the night elf people and keep them locked up.

Play the Night Elf campaign of WC III tFT to see all this in action.

Anyway, we exit the portal back to Outland to join up with Illidan only to find Maiev and the Wardens who have secured our leader as their prisoner again.
Fast forward to when Legion invades present day Azeroth (Legion expansion) and Maiev lets us out so that we can help defeat the Legion.

If lore were to be considered important, there would be no Alliance DHs or Horde DHs. DHs are aligned with Illidan. We are assisting Maiev only because she let us out and wants our help. We are parallel to the Klaxi in that we only ally with the players because our main commander is indisposed at the moment.

BUT because the players want to BE demon hunters, they now have to shoehorn in Blood Elf DHs, and hash together a redemption storyline for Illidan so that he's a good guy, etc etc etc.

__________________

TL;DR

There should not be Belf DHs, but they wont restrict a class to a single faction, so Belf Dhs were invented to solve this problem.
Nelf and Belf DHs should be aligned to a third faction consisting of Illidan's forces within Black Temple.

At least they're only having DHs and Illidan play a side role in the greater context of this expansion, not like having a whole expansion themed around time travel to an alternate reality so they can bring Gul'dan back into the story, like WoD

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Gameplay reason. Kael's Blood Elves where never part of the Horde. Illidan's Night Elves where not affiliated with the Alliance either.

This is a much better way to phrase my gigantic post. Kael and Illidan were not Horde or Alliance, respectively.

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Demon Hunters are Illidari, and lorewise are not part of either faction. Gameplay dictates that the races stay in their factions though.

Death Knights actually have similar situation. Knights of the Ebon Blade are a neutral faction outside of Horde and alliance, and all player DKs belong to that faction first and only after that are they part of the Horde or the Alliance.

Excellent parallel, should have mentioned this myself!

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This thread raises a good point: lore-wise, Illidari would be loyal to the cause over and above faction affiliations. Heck, many of them have been ostracized/imprisoned by their original factions, so have little cause to feel loyalty there. If Illidari are active within factions now, it strikes me as purely a means to the end of defeating the Legion.

This is entirely correct. We (DHs) should feel like DKs that have rejoined their factions. Remember getting rotten apples thrown at you and jeered at by the citizens from your capital cities? Ahhh good times

[Aeula]

It's gameplay only. They should have just made them neutral towards all alliance/horde factions and unable to gain quests/rep with anything that wasn't neutral.

[Dellis0991]

Lore wise they aren't with horde or alliance they don't give a damn about the horde and alliance's strife with each other, but for game play your are. I bet bgs are quite awkward for DHs.

[Al Gorefiend]

The best action Blizzard SHOULD have taken would be to create a neutral race underneath Pandaren, named Illidari (despite not technically being a race) and made them Night Elves only, complete with a set of racials and given classes other than just DH as the Illidari is comprised of Warlocks, Warriors, Hunters as well (though not personally trained by Illidan, they still joined the cause).

Would have made more sense, but mechanically would have been confusing