Rewriting WoD story -- My Fanfic? Ish.

[Saberstrike]

So uh. As we all know, WoD's story was absolute garbage, and it left those of us hoping to spend hours and hours in WoW with p. much nothing to do; I used a part of my time to re-write WoD's story, for all it may be worth -- I figured maybe some of you would like my idea of a 'what if' Scenario.

I know it's never going to happen, so this whole thing is p. much little more than a "Wouldn't it be cool, if?"

Okay; So. Starting from the beginning:

Patch 6.0: Iron Horde invasion.

The original:

We started the pre-patch with the Iron Horde bursting out of the dark portal, taking out Nethergarde Keep off screen, and then being pushed back into the portal within 15 minutes of the pre-patch. Okay. That was horrible; This patch proceeded into Warlords of Draenor leveling, which I admit was surprisingly alright, though it never really made me feel like the iron horde were anything more than a disorganized mess. And orcs orcs orcs orcs orcs.

The rewritten:

Okay, so instead of beating the orcs back in 15 minutes, what if -- The heroes faulter. The pandarian campaign and the virtual destruction of the Horde's military power as they rebuild after a long siege and civil war took a toll on both factions, leaving them drained and unprepared for an attack from the rear. The orcs flow from the portal, defeating any garrisons they find along the way in Nethergarde, Swamp of Sorrows, Redridge, and Burning Steppes -- making those zones phased, and allowing players to level from 90 to 95 in the first patch.

At the end of the patch there will be two raids -- Blackrock Foundry, and later Battle for the Dark Portal where heroes fight through an iron armada, turning the scenarios we've played through in the beginning of WoD into raid encounters, and ending with a pathway cut through the Iron Army into the heart of Draenor, where factions claim the harbor by the dark portal for their upcoming campaign into the Iron Horde mainland;

Patch 6.1: Battle for Draenor

This will include the original 6.0 content with Arakkoa, various orc clans, ogres, garrison-building and establishing a foothold / outposts for operations and Draenor. By now, due to what we'd do in 6.0 the Iron Army would be crippled by the joint assault of both factions securing the Dark Portal, and allowing relatively safe passage between worlds. You'll level 95 to 100, with the 95 raid gear being only slightly worse than level 100 starting raid gear, and on par with level 100 dungeon gear. Now, I didn't think much of the pve systems through but we can imagine that 6.0 came with 4-6 dungeons spanning Blackrock Mountain and various outdoor areas in the vein of MoP scenarios, only more 5-man and with more effort.

The leveling would end as it did in the real 6.0 -- with Highmaul raid, and Shattrath raid that will include first hints of Legion's interference with why the orcs suddenly decided to go for Azeroth. This patch will also establish the original intended faction hubs as ... faction hubs -- the draenei town, and the orc fortress --, with the garrisons and the outposts taking secondary role as daily / rep hubs for max level players, with each zone offering it's own reputation with dungeon-level rep rewards, tabards, toys, cosmetics, all the good daily rep stuff.

Ashran

This will also be the patch that brings Ashran into the picture, when a rogue group of mages and archaeologists opened a portal that misfired and took them to the island; After a brief inspection, it would come to their attention that this place is a concentration of ley-lines that disrupts the flow of magic and forces many portals to end there -- hence faction fortresses growing on opposite ends, as battle lines are drawn mostly due to mistrust of being stuck with the enemy on an island largely disconnected from the other events in Draenor.

Ashran will be much like Tol Barad was in Cataclysm -- it'll have a pve-daily area for reps, and a PvP battle area. The over-arching story would take place inbetween quests and PvP battles, explaining Apexis Crystals and why they're so important. They're a source of powerful but wild magic that the ogres used since time immemorial to build an empire, though due to orcs and demons plus ogres' own lack of smarts the empire fel, with this being one of it's centers of power that continues radiating even thousands of years after the fall. Since orcs mostly use fel / elemental magic it didn't really affect them, but our use of arcane portals leads to this amazing discovery.

In my version, the lore would point towards a powerful Ogre artifact -- a crown of the fallen king -- that is burried deep within Ashran. So, PvPers will rage battles over it to secure it for the archaeologists, who -- as perhaps part of the legendary questline -- will eventually find a phased breathing room to extract the artifact, though it will eventually be damaged and rendered unusable as the factions clash for battle at the digsite.

This plot twist will have Khadgar throw a fit and take the crown, teaching factions a lesson in humility and setting the stage for a final confrontation where they will stand united, but Khadgar will need heroes' help to restore the crown's power with apexis crystals it was made from, giving them more of a justified purpose and not just turning them into an 'arbitrary currency #25354'.

It can bring Explorers' League as a faction that finally does something, Brann Bronzebeard helping either faction to dig up weapons, sources of power, and tidbits of lore that'll tie things together before the final, big confrontation.

Patch 6.2: Tanaan and Farahlon

By this point we can assume that the iron orcs would have suffered heavy casualties, with many native Draenor factions joining the heroes in a fight against what would come to light as Gul'Dan's horde. There will be no Grommash, all the warchiefs fall one after another in raids / dungeons / events that follow -- leaving Gul'Dan with the last remaining orcs to retreat to Tanaan, that remained largely unconquered outside of the harbor area behind the portal due to the very land itsef being hostile and destroying anyone venturing too far.

But Khadgar has a plan! He figured that with the combined power of the Ogre Crown from before, and whatever it is that drives the ancient creatures to madness he can cut a path through Tanaan and into the heart of Hellfire Citadel, where Gul'Dan had retreated along with his Iron Horde forces to call upon the Legion for help, as a last ditch effort.

Tanaan will work somewhat like Isle of Quel'Danas -- Opening up over time as realm as a whole performs quests / does tasks on Farahlon, that will return as an island and serve much the same purpose as timeless isle. It'll perhaps turn out to be another titan's workshop, left on Draenor like Uldum, and offering players lore regarding loose / malfunctioning titan machinery that the Explorers' League (that you helped in Ashran), along with Khadgar will bring under their control;

Eventually, as per Khadgar's plan, the restored crown empowered Heart of Farahlon that awakened ancient constructs to clear the way for heroes to charge into Tanaan, turning it into a level 100 adventure zone with 2 new dungeons (pale orc stronghold, sargarei hold), daily areas, naval PvP area (imagine ICC gunship fight but with players, and sinking ships), Hellfire Citadel, and a plot that would lead us nicely into Legion with a complete defeat of the Iron Horde, and the demons telling heroes how they are too late, and that this all was merely a distraction while our own world begins to crumble under global demon invasion.


I know this is ultimately a huge waste of time as none of this will ever happen, but hey. It's fun to theorize on what could have been!

[SoulSoBreezy]

Neat read. The shoehorning of Farahlon, not so much.
IMO the story of WoD is so disconnected from Azeroth that little more should/could have been done than to kill off Garrosh and destroy the portal. Which happened. As far as a normal denizen of Azeroth was concerned, some brown orcs broke into Blackrock Mountain and were quickly crushed.
And nothing else of note happened.

[Saberstrike]

Yeah; True. I just like titan stuff like Storm Peaks / bits of Uldum that weren't parodying Indiana Jones, so maybe that's why I wanted Farahlon to bring us some of that. But I agree; It's really hard to tie it into what's happening. Could've been a cool side-step though ala Ulduar -- not a part of the lich king story but still a fan-favourite.