Invasion Points: Why?

[vondevon]

The lore I've been able to find re: invasion points is that, while Azeroth is as yet Sargeras' most coveted prize, the ultimate goal of the Legion is to exterminate all life in the Great Dark. To that end, the Legion is involved in countless conquests of innumerable worlds; though being on Argus grants us the opportunity to intervene in these conflicts. When I first learned of these, I was thrilled at the concept of seeing new environments and/or new species, even if we eventually lost connection to these worlds after defeating the Legion. I understood the purpose of the Legion's presence on these worlds to be twofold: extermination of life, and consumption of that essence to fuel the Fel.

After doing several invasion points, I can't help but wondering why the Legion is even on these planets. Several of them are completely barren (frozen tundra, molten lava, etc) all of them appear to be completely lacking in sentient life. There is a forest planet, which I suppose at least has plant life, but no animals or critters to speak of. It appears that the Legion has only just begun the invasion when we arrive, so I doubt they have already stripped these planets of life.

Are these planets designated to become Legion staging grounds? Are all of the life-forms just in hiding and not near the combat area? Or do these planets harbor nascent world-souls to be used when Argus is completely drained of power?

Edit: After playing some more (and reading some responses) it seems there are a myriad of reasons one can come up with to explain any one of these planets -- but from a more practical standpoint I think it really does come down to: (a) using existing assets would have people complaining about space travel and/or common-ancestry; and (b) developing new, sufficiently-alien assets would take too long for a small such short scenarios.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Think its more about gameplay than lore, but I couldn't say much about why the Legion is on ANY planet. Aren't they after souls or something?

[huth]

The Legion's goal is to eradicate all life. Not just the sapient or sentient part.

[Rafoel]

The lore I've been able to find re: invasion points is that, while Azeroth is as yet Sargeras' most coveted prize, the ultimate goal of the Legion is to exterminate all life in the Great Dark. To that end, the Legion is involved in countless conquests of innumerable worlds; though being on Argus grants us the opportunity to intervene in these conflicts. When I first learned of these, I was thrilled at the concept of seeing new environments and/or new species, even if we eventually lost connection to these worlds after defeating the Legion. I understood the purpose of the Legion's presence on these worlds to be twofold: extermination of life, and consumption of that essence to fuel the Fel.

After doing several invasion points, I can't help but wondering why the Legion is even on these planets. Several of them are completely barren (frozen tundra, molten lava, etc) all of them appear to be completely lacking in sentient life. There is a forest planet, which I suppose at least has plant life, but no animals or critters to speak of. It appears that the Legion has only just begun the invasion when we arrive, so I doubt they have already stripped these planets of life.

Are these planets designated to become Legion staging grounds? Are all of the life-forms just in hiding and not near the combat area? Or do these planets harbor nascent world-souls to be used when Argus is completely drained of power?

Fact that these planets don't contain intelligent life is the reason they survived so long - they weren't prioritized by the Legion, on the contrary. As for why we are there... not for the planets, actually. Illidan sees this as good occasion to catch powerful legion soldiers out of position and alone, nothing more.

[Magnagarde]

The better question is as to why we would ever follow them there and kill them outside the Twisting Nether.

[Dreknar20]

The better question is as to why we would ever follow them there and kill them outside the Twisting Nether.

demons killed on argus just go back to Antorus to be revived

- - - Updated - - -

are no lore justifications for any plotholes that pop up.

more or less, fighting legion on different fronts, in enviornments that are different from the typical fel-scarred landscape

[Magnagarde]

demons killed on argus just go back to Antorus to be revived

Which is once again why we shouldn't bother with invasion points outside the Twisting Nether because they'll be revived anyway.

Should focus on reaching Antorus instead.

[vondevon]

Think its more about gameplay than lore, but I couldn't say much about why the Legion is on ANY planet. Aren't they after souls or something?

Exactly. The Fel burns souls like engines burn gas. So they accomplish two goals in one: eliminating life and empowering their crusade. But there aren't any souls on the invasion planets so idk why Sargeras is wasting resources meanwhile we are sieging his front door??

The Legion's goal is to eradicate all life. Not just the sapient or sentient part.

Sure but they need souls specifically ^^

Fact that these planets don't contain intelligent life is the reason they survived so long - they weren't prioritized by the Legion, on the contrary. As for why we are there... not for the planets, actually. Illidan sees this as good occasion to catch powerful legion soldiers out of position and alone, nothing more.

I know why WE are there - to kill ambush the Legion. But why is the Legion there? If these planets were a low priority before our invasion of Argus, why are they suddenly going forward with them now?

[Dreknar20]

why are they suddenly going forward with them now?

remaining sraps?

Certain texts suggest Azeroth is the last major conquest for the Legion

[Magnagarde]

The BL seeks to erradicate all that can be corrupted or used by the void.

[Aquinan]

I know why WE are there - to kill ambush the Legion. But why is the Legion there? If these planets were a low priority before our invasion of Argus, why are they suddenly going forward with them now?

Probably because they need any fuel they can get to help push us off Argus

[vondevon]

remaining sraps?

Certain texts suggest Azeroth is the last major conquest for the Legion

I could believe that Azeroth is the final conquest of the Burning Legion, but as I noted before, none of the invasion points are to entrenched Legion worlds. In each case, the assault seems to have only just begun. So why divert the resources AFTER we started invading Argus?

The BL seeks to erradicate all that can be corrupted or used by the void.

Totally, but what is the Legion after on these seemingly uninhabited worlds?

[Asotcha]

I think it's pretty much just something they saw as a cool idea and there are no lore justifications for any plotholes that pop up.

I love seeing what the different worlds look like and to think that they may be out there someplace though.

[Netherspark]

Invasion points aren't a major enough feature to warrant the development time needed to give them unique inhabitants or to make them look like proper worlds.

[nothingsjim]

Gameplay wise, it's for those who's sick of seeing Fel Green all day long, we get to fight Demons on a variety of different environment.

Lore wise, it's to stop the Legion from destroying other worlds. Remember the Sons of Lothar willingly traveled to Draenor in WC2 because they don't want any other worlds to suffer the fate of Azeroth. I imagine the Army of Light, led by the same leader, will have the same motivation.

For Illidan, well, it's probably to ambush powerful demon general when they didn't expect it. Plus, we need to cut off the supply chains of Legion, so we do it by stopping those demon generals from destroying other worlds, no more fuel for the fel. We've been doing minor sabotage works all the time this expansion and have been reminded that "Every bits help", well, stopping the Legion from converting a Planet to Fel fuel seems pretty major to me.

The lack of native npcs in those planets are both lazy on Blizzard's part, but also feels pretty justified to me lorewise. These worlds lack sentient creatures so they don't offer any real resistance and is treated as the loot-pinata for the Legion to use as easily accessible backup fuel supplies in case of emergency. Well, we are attacking Argus now, definitely an emergency for the Legion to call up those backup supplies.

[vondevon]

... snip ... The lack of native npcs in those planets are both lazy on Blizzard's part, but also feels pretty justified to me lorewise. These worlds lack sentient creatures so they don't offer any real resistance and is treated as the loot-pinata for the Legion to use as easily accessible backup fuel supplies in case of emergency. Well, we are attacking Argus now, definitely an emergency for the Legion to call up those backup supplies.

As far as I understood, souls/life-energy are fuel for the Fel. My point is that several of these planets don't appear to have any souls/life-energy... so what is the Legion gaining by being there? The mushroom and forest worlds I can see if plant life can be consumed as fuel for the Fel, but that still doesn't explain several other of the more barren ones. So is there something on those planets, that would be of interest to the Legion, that we simply cannot see?

[GreenJesus]

The only problem with the invasions is that we should be focused on just surviving an infinite army on Argus. Are we really that bored that we sent one of our best fighters to another planet in search of ANOTHER fight?

[Hctaz]

The lore I've been able to find re: invasion points is that, while Azeroth is as yet Sargeras' most coveted prize, the ultimate goal of the Legion is to exterminate all life in the Great Dark. To that end, the Legion is involved in countless conquests of innumerable worlds; though being on Argus grants us the opportunity to intervene in these conflicts. When I first learned of these, I was thrilled at the concept of seeing new environments and/or new species, even if we eventually lost connection to these worlds after defeating the Legion. I understood the purpose of the Legion's presence on these worlds to be twofold: extermination of life, and consumption of that essence to fuel the Fel.

After doing several invasion points, I can't help but wondering why the Legion is even on these planets. Several of them are completely barren (frozen tundra, molten lava, etc) all of them appear to be completely lacking in sentient life. There is a forest planet, which I suppose at least has plant life, but no animals or critters to speak of. It appears that the Legion has only just begun the invasion when we arrive, so I doubt they have already stripped these planets of life.

Are these planets designated to become Legion staging grounds? Are all of the life-forms just in hiding and not near the combat area? Or do these planets harbor nascent world-souls to be used when Argus is completely drained of power?

There is definitely other life on those planets. The Grizzly Hills planet (forest) has little packs of Fey Dragons roaming around. The lava planet has lava golems that you even have to kill as part of the mission. The misty Zangarmarsh area (mushroom) has those giant fel infused mist lurker things... There's life on them. You just aren't noticing it. The ice world has demon hunters frozen in blocks off ice that you're supposed to free.

[Underverse]

The only problem with the invasions is that we should be focused on just surviving an infinite army on Argus. Are we really that bored that we sent one of our best fighters to another planet in search of ANOTHER fight?

The only way to survive an infinite threat is to make it finite. We have to cut off the source. That's why we have to go to Argus. Otherwise we'll eventually be destroyed, no matter how many demons we kill.

[Pikachewbacca]

As to why the Legion would maintain strongholds on these seemingly barren planets: The Legion wants to dominate and destroy all life, no matter how insignificant.

As to why we would invade these strongholds: I see it as an evolution of the storyline of Legion. The expansion started out with invasions across Azeroth. We fought back by using the special crap on the Broken Isles. The Legion fought back by specifically invading particular zones of the Broken Isles to stop us. We fought back in the Tomb of Sargeras. Now we are on the offensive, not only on Argus, but against all of the Legion. WE are the ones invading them now.