So did Alliance strike first?

[Heldamon]

We don't know who burned Teldrassil

We know that Alliance answered with UC siege and that Sylvanas had plans to attack SW

[God Save The King]

Being present at the scene doesn't necessarily mean your guilty. Suspect certainly, but not guilty.

For all we know this was done by a rogue group within the Horde, and She (Sylvanas) and what looks to be Saurfang and Nathanos, may very well be there to stop said attempt, only too late.

Images for reference:
http://wow.zamimg.com/images/blizzar...Teldrassil.jpg
http://wow.zamimg.com/images/blizzar...ssil_Burns.jpg

Either way; whether you like it or not, there's simply not enough info to say who is responsible. Otherwise why wouldn't Blizz just say "Yeah, Horde burnt it down."?

They have basically said it, they shouldn't have to spell it out word for word, but I forget if they don't, people will go to the ends of the world to defend Sylvanas. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure the horde rushed to defend the capital city of their enemy though, makes a mountain of sense. And the alliance just assumed that Sylvanas did it, without any proof or evidence, and then rushed into Lordaeron, risking their armies to get her.

[Highwhale]

- Sylvanas need funds to start war with SW.
- Best way to get it is new founded Azerite.
- Alliance has a lot of this shit stacked from Silithus on Teldrassil (my prediction - look at blue glowing Teldrassil art).
- Sylvanas convince rest of the Horde to "rob" Alliance.
- Something goes wrong and Azerite exploding completely burning the world tree.
- Horde realize they fucked up. But since they tried to "rob" NELFs together they understand that to blame only Sylvanas wouldn't work anymore. They all have their hands in blood and this time Alliance will not mercy them. They forced to cooperate with each other in order to survive.

It will nail factions main themes - when Alliance bands together against common disaster Horde forced to cooperate in order to survive.

[Jester Joe]

Being present at the scene doesn't necessarily mean your guilty. Suspect certainly, but not guilty.

For all we know this was done by a rogue group within the Horde, and She (Sylvanas) and what looks to be Saurfang and Nathanos, may very well be there to stop said attempt, only too late.

Images for reference:
http://wow.zamimg.com/images/blizzar...Teldrassil.jpg
http://wow.zamimg.com/images/blizzar...ssil_Burns.jpg

Either way; whether you like it or not, there's simply not enough info to say who is responsible. Otherwise why wouldn't Blizz just say "Yeah, Horde burnt it down."?

Why would she talk about wanting to take Stormwind on one hand (the book preview), and then defend her enemies with her other?

That makes even less sense. And if it was another group, why wouldn't Sylvanas have Baine (who Anduin likes) reach out to him and tell him about this other 3rd party?

[Vakna]

Alliance striked first by being ugly :3

You understand that you are human IRL right?

[SpellCleave]

N'Zoth struck first and framed the horde. You'll see. Horde was framed.

[Deleted]

Being present at the scene doesn't necessarily mean your guilty. Suspect certainly, but not guilty.

For all we know this was done by a rogue group within the Horde, and She (Sylvanas) and what looks to be Saurfang and Nathanos, may very well be there to stop said attempt, only too late.

So let's see

There are horde boats near the tree, looks like lots of people died, sylvanas was here before the tree caught on fire, can even see Nathanos and Saurfang left in your second pic ( yeah guess they went there to stop the fire, right ? ), with horde boats leaving...

Yeah, definitely not horde's fault

[Syce]

Umm no thats not what the Horde is about at all. You are judging a book by the cover. Philosophy behind the horde is that any action is better than inaction. You can say the horde is hot headed, makes decision based on passion but that doesn't make them evil.

ok, but the horde Came to Azeroth, I think that makes them the "bad guy". because they came to live but with that they have to take land that is not theirs.

In the early years of the Horde, it existed as a ravenous war machine fueled by demonic energy. In the past the Horde was comprised mainly of orcs, but also including forest trolls, ogres, goblins, and undead death knights. It was created through the manipulations of the Burning Legion, in particular, Kil'jaeden the Deceiver, to act as the perfect puppet for their demonic masters and to serve them unquestioningly.

[ReVnX]

"If your Horde fails to uphold honor, as Garrosh did... we will end you"

[Jester Joe]

Sacking Stormwind would make it nearly impossible for the Alliance to then act as a cohesive military on EK. Whereas sacking a Kalimdor Alliance capital only rallies the EK into action. And here we are, Horde nearly; from what we know, pushed out of EK.

Except wasting her army/effort to help the enemy makes it even harder to attack Stormwind.

And they're pushed out of Undercity, not the EK. Apparently the line is being held.

[Highwhale]

"If your Horde fails to uphold honor, as Garrosh did... we will end you"

TBH i have feeling that after BFA there will not be Alliance and Horde anymore. Atleast for players.

[Ailil]

ok, but the horde Came to Azeroth, I think that makes them the "bad guy". because they came to live but with that they have to take land that is not theirs.

again, this is warcraft 2 horde, with was beaten and disbanded
current horde started in warcraft 3, where the horde got rid of demonic control

and only one playable race of the horde is from the outside, so this argument does not work either

[Eace]

TBH i have feeling that after BFA there will not be Alliance and Horde anymore. Atleast for players.

Would Blizzard eliminate World PvP like that? Would you then be friendly with every race's NPCs and be able to visit every city? How would faction specific quests and such work?

[Florena]

TBH i have feeling that after BFA there will not be Alliance and Horde anymore. Atleast for players.

I highly doubt it. If they planned to do that they would be toning down the divide. Not investing in a new wpvp system and dialing up the H v a story.

[Highwhale]

I highly doubt it. If they planned to do that they would be toning down the divide. Not investing in a new wpvp system and dialing up the H v a story.

I mean Alliance and Horde still be there as factions in Lore but players will be outside this circle. BFA could be last showing off for Faction vs Faction for players.

[Magnagarde]

I wonder how the Horde did it. They have neither the numbers nor air /naval superiority to pull it off.

Takes us back to Varimathras and "Alliance courts going red with betrayal".

[Doomchicken]

- Sylvanas need funds to start war with SW.
- Best way to get it is new founded Azerite.
- Alliance has a lot of this shit stacked from Silithus on Teldrassil (my prediction - look at blue glowing Teldrassil art).
- Sylvanas convince rest of the Horde to "rob" Alliance.
- Something goes wrong and Azerite exploding completely burning the world tree.
- Horde realize they fucked up. But since they tried to "rob" NELFs together they understand that to blame only Sylvanas wouldn't work anymore. They all have their hands in blood and this time Alliance will not mercy them. They forced to cooperate with each other in order to survive.

It will nail factions main themes - when Alliance bands together against common disaster Horde forced to cooperate in order to survive.

That's 100 times better than what they'll actually do.

[kasuke06]

I wonder how the Horde did it. They have neither the numbers nor air /naval superiority to pull it off.

tree+fire= burned tree.

in all honestly, probably goblin tech, I'm imagining napalm of some description. because once a fire gets big enough with that much fuel, it won't be stopped by anything short an act of god, and elune like juuuuuuusttt did something for once, so she ain't exactly poised to step in.

not to mention the NE don't exactly have a large naval staging area, what's to stop the horde from getting a few gunboats around the ass-end of the tree by going around to the north starting a big one, and them booking it(or staying and fighting to make sure that it hits said critical mass point)

[Cosmic Janitor]

TBH i have feeling that after BFA there will not be Alliance and Horde anymore. Atleast for players.

I had hopes for that, since large parts of the user base are sick and tired of the lame ass faction war (while another large chunk currently is busy chanting their autistic battle cries). But as you can see, unless this expansion tanks even worse than WoD and I mean people won't even show up to it in the first place (WoD's prmise was garbage as well, and they were called out for that by many, but most still bought it because of hype and left after a month) I don't see blizzard actually giving up that crutch they can always fall back to.

- - - Updated - - -

- Sylvanas need funds to start war with SW.
- Best way to get it is new founded Azerite.
- Alliance has a lot of this shit stacked from Silithus on Teldrassil (my prediction - look at blue glowing Teldrassil art).
- Sylvanas convince rest of the Horde to "rob" Alliance.
- Something goes wrong and Azerite exploding completely burning the world tree.
- Horde realize they fucked up. But since they tried to "rob" NELFs together they understand that to blame only Sylvanas wouldn't work anymore. They all have their hands in blood and this time Alliance will not mercy them. They forced to cooperate with each other in order to survive.

It will nail factions main themes - when Alliance bands together against common disaster Horde forced to cooperate in order to survive.

I do have a feeling you are closer than most probably. I think though that she actually did try some attack, maybe she wanted to take down the military structures first. but the missed or something else happens it was probably amplified by the azerite or other means.

[Deleted]

- Sylvanas need funds to start war with SW.
- Best way to get it is new founded Azerite.
- Alliance has a lot of this shit stacked from Silithus on Teldrassil (my prediction - look at blue glowing Teldrassil art).
- Sylvanas convince rest of the Horde to "rob" Alliance.
- Something goes wrong and Azerite exploding completely burning the world tree.
- Horde realize they fucked up. But since they tried to "rob" NELFs together they understand that to blame only Sylvanas wouldn't work anymore. They all have their hands in blood and this time Alliance will not mercy them. They forced to cooperate with each other in order to survive.

It will nail factions main themes - when Alliance bands together against common disaster Horde forced to cooperate in order to survive.

I would buy that. It would explain lots of things. Only thing I don't think is that the glow from Teldrassil is from 'stacked' Azerite, because I think Teldrassil should actually look that way, being a world tree fully empowered. What I could imagine though, that there's more Azerite there than usual, because the world trees 'collect' it naturally. The way it was described in Stormrage Teldrassil is literally connected to everything on Azeroth, Malfurion could even sense an ancient darkness down deep in the world. So if the world bleeds just everywhere, the world trees would suck it all up.
It's not so bad with Nordrassil, because while there are Nightelves too, the Cenarion Circle holds it and will not use it in any way as a weapon or anything, at least not against Alliance or Horde.
But Teldrassil is Alliance territory and the refuge for the Worgen. Genn might be advocating using Teldrassil's resources for a war.
So yea, good theory, understandable motivation plus an accident. I think that would make for a very good reason for a war, where noone is actually a bad guy... except from the enemy faction's perspective ^^