Next expansion speculation - focussed on faction rivalries?

[Deleted]

Let's look a bit at the war between the Alliance and the Horde.

Vanilla: Tensions. Peace is breaking. Big world to explore and battle between the Horde and the Alliance in some zones. Temporary truce to fight the Qiraji.
TBC: More Tensions. Still a big joining of forces, but battles here and there.
Wrath: Varian returns. Conflict between Varian and Garrosh. Forsaken attack both the Alliance and the Horde. Sylvanas is distrusted. Horde and Alliance hatred at a maximum. Stab each other in the back. Even fighting in Icecrown Citadel. Somehow manage to kill the Lich King even though not really working together.
Cataclysm: Garrosh rises to power. Warmongering. Horde mostly on the offensive, Alliance on the defensive. Fights all over Azeroth as the world is breaking apart. Beginning of a new kind of hatred that culminates in the destruction of Theramore through a manabomb. Jaina, a peace-loving woman is consumed by hatred.
MoP: Alliance and Horde bring their war to the shores of Pandaria. Cause the eruption of Sha, that were sealed away, through their emotions. Blood Elves kicked out of Dalaran after betrayal. Garrosh rises to become hated by Horde and Alliance alike. Both work together to dispose of him. Still tensions after the battle at Orgrimmar is over.
WoD: Alliance and Horde wanna focus on the Iron Horde, but sometimes still get in each other's way. They just can't let it be. Jaina certainly still wants revenge.
Legion: The Legion returns. Varian sacrifices himself at the Broken Shore, when the Horde abandons the battle, because Sylvanas ordered the retreat. The Alliance wants revenge. Genn goes after Sylvanas in Stormheim to stop her and to get revenge for Liam, Varian and Gilneas. Succeeds. Tensions between Horde and Alliance very high again. People on both sides wanna go for it, but the battle against the Legion is too hard, and too important, and everyone needs to work together for us to defeat them. It's not a battle we can win while fighting each other on the side, like in Icecrown Citadel. We have to work together and lay our petty differences aside. For now.

After Legion: Sargeras is banished. The Legion is stopped (for now). Of course they will return eventually. But for now, it is the best time for the Horde and the Alliance to fight each other. Everybody expects that a new enemy will appear. Like the Void or the Naga. The hints are there, but there is nothing that points to it happening immediately after we defeat Argus and seal away Sargeras to stop the Legion.

So what are people like Genn and Sylvanas gonna do, once the big battle is over, and there is probably the biggest peace we've ever had since the Battle for Mount Hyjal? Go to war.

Sylvanas is gonna try and defeat the Alliance. Genn, Jaina and maybe even Anduin, are gonna call for war against the Horde to finally defeat them and to get revenge for Varian. If there is no other force invading at the beginning of the expansion, then the main force might be the other faction this time. It's at least the perfect time for it to happen. Then maybe, during the middle of the expansion, we accidentally set free some ancient power. Maybe Alleria fights on the side of the Alliance and her messing with the Void leads to us summoning the Void, which will be the surprise end raid of the expansion.

[Deleted]

I like the part "maybe even Anduin". HE IS THE KING, not Genn, his words matters a lot, and he is just not another stupid warmonger with a bloodlust.

And also #lol at Burning Legion returning.

This stuff smells Alliance blind fanboy from a mile. Oh and i play Alliance (human).

[Deleted]

Yeah, sure, why not kinda? I mean, I don't currently have time to finish upgrading my Necromancer into the Reaper, I'm really curious about further main storyline of the Living World and Ranger->Druid looks sexy too. Might be good to have the time again. That Grille 15 won't farm itself either.

[Evangeliste]

I think you may be right in that they will extend the faction rivalries with at the core the Sylvanas and Genn conflict. As for what it will be is difficult to say.

Anduin still showed the unwilling or haste to battle the Horde when in the true face of it all he could have easily blamed Horde for killing his father, but he didn't. He even suppressed Jaina's ramblings that it was the Horde. He didn't need much counsel from anyone that Legion had forced his father's death.
I don't think he will drop that sentiment and even at Broken Shore when he sneaked out, he seemed to be watching the Tomb with distaste rather than looking out for maybe Horde in the horizon behind. Anduin will always withhold fighting with the Horde, even when his last and only parent he knew could be easily blamed on Horde like Genn did.

It will be more of a shitstorm in with restraining Genn who possibly goes behind backs, meanwhile Sylvanas is doing more to find a way to help the Forsaken continue to "pro-create". Sylvanas may even run back to Northrend with her desperation to the one other place she knows can have the undead be raised.
It's a long shot but I don't think it will be Alliance, all guns blazing and heading straight for Sylvanas because in the end, the Horde rallied behind her to avenge Vol'jin by purging Legion. We don't know how Horde will be like once Legion is gone.

And yes, I do agree Burning legion will be back, you cut the head off the snake to kill it. As the phrase goes, Sargeras still lives after 7.3.

[Deleted]

If the Kil'tiras thing is real then i hope we see a full out war going on between Zandalar and Kil'tiras when we arrive.
And we are forced to take sides and then the faction war will go full out.

Horde sides with Zandalar - Alliance with Kil'tiras.

[Trollhammer]

I think they should go opposite and remove the factions.

[ceall]

Well, the legion alliance vs horde plot is mainly, silvanas vs genn 1on1. Nothing war-worthy. Apart from that, last Time we had something war-like was during mop with garrosh Hitler. Since he's dead, all that's left is genn and silvanas and Jaina with her hate against everyone. Anduin is too much into peace to take part in a war and would only go on a war against the legion, who killed his father (haven't seen/played the questline around varians compass, so I don't know whats going on with anduin exactly), which we already do as players.

[Deleted]

Well, the legion alliance vs horde plot is mainly, silvanas vs genn 1on1. Nothing war-worthy. Apart from that, last Time we had something war-like was during mop with garrosh Hitler. Since he's dead, all that's left is genn and silvanas and Jaina with her hate against everyone. Anduin is too much into peace to take part in a war and would only go on a war against the legion, who killed his father (haven't seen/played the questline around varians compass, so I don't know whats going on with anduin exactly), which we already do as players.

Jaina doesn't hate everyone. She hates the Horde. For good reason. Yeah there are a lot of tensions and a lot of hate on both sides, no matter how much you wanna deny it.

[TickTickTick]

If the Kil'tiras thing is real then i hope we see a full out war going on between Zandalar and Kil'tiras when we arrive.
And we are forced to take sides and then the faction war will go full out.

Horde sides with Zandalar - Alliance with Kil'tiras.

That would be a good idea actually. Some actual meaningful conflict, with Naga/old god threat appearing later in the xpack. Something like MoP conflict, and not WoD...

After the legion threat is over, it will be a big test for Anduinn on what to do now. Most of alliance population knows only that the horde left the alliance behind and varian died. They will expect a revenge. Genn and Jaina want it too, on the other side we have Sylvanas and Nathanos and their 'death to the living'. He simply cant just stand there and not take any actions, or he wont be a king at all.

[Deleted]

Let's look a bit at the war between the Alliance and the Horde.
Sylvanas is gonna try and defeat the Alliance. Genn, Jaina and maybe even Anduin, are gonna call for war against the Horde to finally defeat them and to get revenge for Varian. If there is no other force invading at the beginning of the expansion, then the main force might be the other faction this time. It's at least the perfect time for it to happen. Then maybe, during the middle of the expansion, we accidentally set free some ancient power. Maybe Alleria fights on the side of the Alliance and her messing with the Void leads to us summoning the Void, which will be the surprise end raid of the expansion.

I like your idea, and I am really looking forward to stop this clichee ideas of " Azeroth is under attack, Heroes we must kill x y, in order to survive" bullshit. Focusing more on the war between A and H would be a nice break from all this fel themed bullshit also. I don't want to fight titans, i don't want to save fucking azeroth. I want to kill gnomes outside Ironforge while i chill to the nice music Dun Morogh has. Simple as that..

[Lochton]

I like the part "maybe even Anduin". HE IS THE KING, not Genn, his words matters a lot, and he is just not another stupid warmonger with a bloodlust.

And also #lol at Burning Legion returning.

This stuff smells Alliance blind fanboy from a mile. Oh and i play Alliance (human).

Alliance has this cool cutscene where you basically see Anduin taking the decision of becoming the king needed for the Alliance. So, yeah, the maybe part seems off.

[Rend Blackhand]

Faction war, Alliance vs Horde, Humans vs Orcs.

It has always been the core of the Warcraft universe. I have become a bit fatigued over constant world ending threats since around TBC, we need an expansion that's less about saving azeroth and more about adventure and exploration.

[Caerule]

It seems likely faction conflict will play a role.

Kul Tiras seems likely as ally to the Alliance. As for who the Horde could ally with, I'd say Zandalari rebels against Zul, who is behind the Zandalari path of conqueror. The Zandalari main force is probably antagonistic to both, but Jaina would be on Kul Tiras side. So Alliance will be coming to the aid of Kul Tiras, with Jaina as a main character. There's no way they're going to be friendly to a Horde that allies with Zandalari, even a rebel group. Same way they never really distinguished between the Horde, and the orcs of Blackrock Mountain that were a continued threat to the kingdom of Stormwind.

Sylvanas won't help matters as dead Kul Tiras soldiers can be raised like any human.

[Ozrik]

I don't see us returning to the faction war, WoW has come a long way since Vanilla and its not going to turn back, as much as people want it to.

Every expansion brings new zones, new quests, new mission boards, how do you suppose they add all this new content to the already comprehensive azeroth? Each expansion brings 3 teirs, 3 PvP seasons, 4-5 raids. How do you suppose they fill a whole expansion with the only concept to it being a faction war?

If they do somehow drag it out, the community will complain its another shitty filler expansion, if they don't do it and go into another world threatening enemy, the community will complain.

I am personally with the whole South Shore fan theory, I think theres a lot of ideas that actually fit the lore and could be the next expansion, leading to Queen Azshara and Nzoth etc etc. I would love to see a faction war between at the start of the expansion, leading to the discovery of Kil'tiras, lead by Jaina (However, theres speculation of her corruption).

[Deleted]

Alliance has this cool cutscene where you basically see Anduin taking the decision of becoming the king needed for the Alliance. So, yeah, the maybe part seems off.

That doesn't mean Anduin is gonna throw his people into yet another war. He is not the kinda king that would just do that. There has to be some convincing happening from Jaina and Genn. Anduin is the kind of king that would probably try and see it from the Horde's point of view and come to the conclusion that it's better to just let this rest. But since Sylvanas isn't gonna, I'm sure there will be a reason for Anduin to sanction this war. But if not then Jaina and Genn are probably gonna go rogue.

[Ickz]

Doesn't matter. Any sliver of faction pride or whatever has been gone for years. World pvp is no longer a real thing, bg's let you queue as a member of the other faction, arenas/rbgs are the main focus of pvp and they aren't faction based, and on top of all that you can freely switch your characters faction/race at will (I've spent hundreds doing this over the years myself, but I'm just saying). Actually going back to any sort of Horde vs Alliance content at this point would just be weird and wouldn't even feel serious.

Edit: Not just talking about PvP - the story has had the factions be so buddy buddy for so many years now that trying to throw them into war with each other just wouldn't feel impactful like it did way back in the day.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I think we're gonna have some Horde VS Alliance action in the south seas, Kezan and Kul'Tiras being the two main hubs.

[Thage]

I'm not convinced that the factions are in any shape to focus on renewing the faction war right now. They got rocked pretty hard at the Broken Shore--nearly every time that initial push is brought up, the characters talking about it mention how we lost most of our best and brightest there. Since then, the class Orders have leeched further off the factions by drawing heroes to the banner of the individual Orders, and we don't really see an Alliance or Horde presence at the Broken Shore in specific once we retake the beachhead--every NPC in the scenario where we establish a front is referred to by their Order.

While I'm sure many of them will return to their home factions once the Legion is beaten, we still have the fallout of the global invasion and the extended war to take into account. Genn and Sylvanas are definitely going to continue butting heads, and we can add Jaina to that mix once Kul'Tiras rejoins the Alliance, but by and large I highly doubt the full Alliance is going to back Genn--indeed, I feel like the plot there is more about a power struggle in Stormwind between nobles backing Genn's focus on the Horde and trying to get Anduin to abdicate in his favor, and the nobles backing Anduin and trying to get Genn to back down and remember he's a leader of a government-in-exile and a guest in Stormwind (and thus, should really stop trying to dragoon Stormwind's army into his personal grudge-match without a formal meeting amongst the Alliance on the matter).

With all the Void/Old God presence in Legion and the burgeoning Naga activities suggesting Azshara is on the rise, if there is an Alliance-Horde element to the next expansion, it's probably going to be a subplot like back in WotLK rather than the focal point like in MoP 5.1-5.3

[Smank]

I don't see us returning to the faction war, WoW has come a long way since Vanilla and its not going to turn back, as much as people want it to.

Every expansion brings new zones, new quests, new mission boards, how do you suppose they add all this new content to the already comprehensive azeroth? Each expansion brings 3 teirs, 3 PvP seasons, 4-5 raids. How do you suppose they fill a whole expansion with the only concept to it being a faction war?

If they do somehow drag it out, the community will complain its another shitty filler expansion, if they don't do it and go into another world threatening enemy, the community will complain.

I am personally with the whole South Shore fan theory, I think theres a lot of ideas that actually fit the lore and could be the next expansion, leading to Queen Azshara and Nzoth etc etc. I would love to see a faction war between at the start of the expansion, leading to the discovery of Kil'tiras, lead by Jaina (However, theres speculation of her corruption).

Just because the expansion focuses heavily on faction war doesn't mean there won't be new land or an over arching plot. The faction war was pretty intense in wrath and look at everything we got then.

[Bas Prime]

I would like to be able to do raids and dungeons cross faction. It would simply be a game mechanic. So my friends could be Horde but I could be Alliance and we could go a m+ dungeon together or we would have a mixed raid team of 6 Alliance players and 6 Horde players. Would be awesome. Lore could work around the faction war with a neutral faction we see all the time. Of course those Alliance players would still not be permited in Orgrimmar and the other way around. Just the grouping and the queueing.