peace on azeroth...

[smokii]

does anyone else kinda get the feeling that the siege of orgrimmar is leading towards peace on azeroth? between the horde and alliance at least...

i'm aware of the impending doom from the legion and that it is likely the big contender for the next expansion - but i dont wanna speculate about where we'll be questing or raiding... but more about how the story will get there.

wrathion has shown us the impending doom of the legion landing on azeroth, but he doesn't seem to know when and i'm not convinced it's going to happen directly after patch 5.4 - i'm kinda thinking blizz are gonna pull a time warp on us and let azeroth progress a bit before the legion descends.

this could be a wildly inaccurate prediction, but it's been on my mind recently - i kinda see peace on azeroth happening after garrosh dies in SoO, but then world of warcraft would be kinda lame game if it were a world without war - but, taran'zhu from the shadopan really seems to be pushing for peace and wrathion is trying to convince us all that we need to work together to face the legion, so it could happen, but it might not actually be part of the game and could end up just being a lore blip between 2 expansions.

so, i reckon blizz will base the next expansion 4 (or so) years in the future, leaving the horde and alliance in peace for those 4 years and allowing azeroth to sort out many of it's issues with the horde/alliance divide. allowing people like anduin to grow up, allowing gnomish and goblin technology to advance (possibly leading to spacecraft to explore the nether) and generally just letting the dust settle between the warring factions as we prepare for invasion from the sky. (also potentially allowing for more exploration of the azerothian seas)

this then opens things up for when the legion does land, as they could then do things like cross faction groups, introduce a third faction, or even possibly introduce some kinda dimplomacy options allowing players from alliance to join the horde or allowing alliance players to roll horde races and vice versa.


so, for the sake of discussion - do you think peace on azeroth is possible? can it last? do you think blizz might try and throw the game forward a few years for the next expansion, to move on with the timeline and let some characters like anduin mature?

allowing horde and alliance to play together would be a massive game changer - not only ingame, but also in regard to things like server balance as a quality of life issue. whilst i can potentially see some problems with pvp realms, even if the factions aren't techincally at war, there would be ways around it for the sake of world pvp.

so yea, am i alone in thinking that we'll see a long gap in the timeline between SoO and the return of the legion?

[Trassk]

I highly doubt it. Storywise well you could make something like this work, but due to wow's static gaming mechanics, it prevents anything fundamental happening in the story.

[TJ]

Didn't Metzen say that "MoP" is the calm before the storm or something? Or was that not related to MoP?

[Northem]

I highly doubt it. Storywise well you could make something like this work, but due to wow's static gaming mechanics, it prevents anything fundamental happening in the story.

God/Blizzard hears you! if the Alliance and Horde sign the peace ... would be the end of the Warcraft universe as we know it .. would be disastrous! (narratively speaking)

[smokii]

Didn't Metzen say that "MoP" is the calm before the storm or something? Or was that not related to MoP?

yup, he did say that and i get it that the legion would be the storm... it just kinda feels like the game is moving towards peace between the horde and alliance, even if it's a tentative peace while they fight the legion.

a full on peace treaty between horde and alliance would essentially mean the end of the game, as world of warcraft without war, is world of craft, which doesn't sound too exciting.

i'm thinking more in terms of letting a tentative peace stand, between MoP and the next expansion, to allow the horde and alliance work together over time in preparation for the impending doom, allowing anduin to grow up, to let the new horde warchief settle in to his new responsibilities, to maybe rescue the dwarf king stuck in stone, to allow bolvars grip on the scourge to falter, to allow thrall and aggra to raise their child a bit before daddy runs off to war - there's still plenty of tension between the 2 factons, as well as plenty of tension between them and other factions - i just get the feeling that if blizz were to put in some peacetime between the factions, between MoP and the next expansion would be the time to do it before shit gets crazy with the legion.

meh, maybe i've just drifted off into speculation land

[Skippy88]

It does seem they are going that way. Personally, I would have done it a bit differently though as I think it should be the next expansion is when they realize they need to work together to survive and Cata should have a background storyline that culminates to an event after Deathwing's death that puts them into all out war against each other. But that's just me doing fantasy storytelling.

[Crym]

I don't think they're going to all become one people or anything, but I could definitely see it dying down to the leaders mostly acting civil to one another and the borders only half-heartedly contested (no more orcs slash and burning through the Night Elf forest). More the way it was in BC and Wrath, where they were enemies, but were more focused on just about everything else except where specific land was contested.

[Arrashi]

I really hope that's not a case. Hundred slaughtered alliance innocents a day keeps all harsh feelings away. We need this war !!!

[Lizbot]

When confronted with the idea of peace between the Horde and Alliance, people always say, "World of Warcraft without 'War' -- what's the point?" I never understand why. The fact that the Horde and Alliance are, grudgingly and tentatively, getting along doesn't mean that they can't be out there, slaughtering other people.

Peace between the Horde and Alliance doesn't mean they can't both be clobbering a common enemy. In fact, at this stage, I'd find the whole "adversaries working together toward a common goal" thing a lot more interesting.

[Deleted]

I really hope that's not a case. Hundred slaughtered alliance innocents a day keeps all harsh feelings away. We need this war !!!

Indeed. No war, no Warcraft.

[Deshow]

what would it mean for pvp though? This only has a place in off screen lore. Perhaps between 5.3 and 6.0

[Hodenkrieg]

Indeed. No war, no Warcraft.

there will never be peace.
two enemies fighting a single force together wouldn't be any different than it has been, from us piling resources together to face AQ, to teaming up to batter down the doors of ICC.

Its been like this the whole game

I don't know if they would have the balls to take on the burning legion in the next expac. Sargaras is pretty much the end boss of WoW, if they do we are just going to get a reboot of kil'jaiden or something to that effect

[Venziir]

Indeed. No war, no Warcraft.

War doesn't equal Alliance vs Horde. We've had plenty of war already, war agains the Legion, the Scourge, the Silithid, the Mogu, the Mantid, the Old Gods, Deathwing etc... Honestly the "WAR IN WARCRAFT!" argument is just as silly me demanding more rafts in the game because it's obviously "World of WarcRAFT".

---------- Post added 2013-04-18 at 06:22 PM ----------

what would it mean for pvp though? This only has a place in off screen lore. Perhaps between 5.3 and 6.0

PvP in Vanilla, TBC, Wotlk and Cataclysm merely represented border wars and minor skirmishes between two cold war factions.

[justjimmy]

…will never happen.

[RabidHexley]

Indeed. No war, no Warcraft.

There wasn't a "war" (war between the Alliance and Horde, that is) until Cata. Wrath was really just heating up. And before that there were isolated conflicts, but it wasn't anything like warfare.

Pretty much the best the Azerothians could hope for in terms of peace is an armistice that prevents the other faction from attacking their cities and towns, or from launching unprovoked assaults on their military forces. But territory disputes, resource disputes, and open hostility between the faction races (basically the things that have always been around) are definitely things that are gonna be sticking around.

[Warpaladin]

War doesn't equal Alliance vs Horde. We've had plenty of war already, war agains the Legion, the Scourge, the Silithid, the Mogu, the Mantid, the Old Gods, Deathwing etc... Honestly the "WAR IN WARCRAFT!" argument is just as silly me demanding more rafts in the game because it's obviously "World of WarcRAFT".

---------- Post added 2013-04-18 at 06:22 PM ----------



PvP in Vanilla, TBC, Wotlk and Cataclysm merely represented border wars and minor skirmishes between two cold war factions.

Anglers Fishing Raft

[Florena]

I highly doubt it. Storywise well you could make something like this work, but due to wow's static gaming mechanics, it prevents anything fundamental happening in the story.

Yeah. I mean, they can do major story developments, like the purge of dalaran and darkspear rebellion. But there are certain things I don't see ever changing, among them being which races are on which faction and the separation of the factions. Removing the factions altogether, even if things get peaceful between them, would gut a core aspect of the game, and be a giant hassle for the pvp crowd. So while they still do big story developments, the factions I don't see ever being touched, at least not until WoW 2 or Warcraft 4.

[Darmalus]

The Horde/Alliance conflict is the single weakest part of World of Warcraft. It just doesn't work. They couldn't even manage to have a H/A conflict in MoP. It became Horde and Alliance vs Garrosh, the NPC third faction.

It will always be Horde and Alliance uniting against a common foe. We should just formally tie the knot and wed the factions officially already.

Permanent peace, or unification into a single faction, would be best for the game as a whole in the long run. There would be a lot of screaming and whining at the start, that happens no matter what Blizzard does anyway.

[dariusz2k]

I feel like a lot of people think that if the Horde and Alliance aren't fighting there isn't war, but in reality as long as Sargeras has his eye on the dustruction and corruption of Azeroth there will always be war in Warcraft; Just not between the Horde and Alliance.

[RabidHexley]

The Horde/Alliance conflict is the single weakest part of World of Warcraft. It just doesn't work. They couldn't even manage to have a H/A conflict in MoP. It became Horde and Alliance vs Garrosh, the NPC third faction.

It will always be Horde and Alliance uniting against a common foe. We should just formally tie the knot and wed the factions officially already.

Permanent peace, or unification into a single faction, would be best for the game as a whole in the long run. There would be a lot of screaming and whining at the start, that happens no matter what Blizzard does anyway.

True peace, let alone unification, wouldn't exactly make sense given the factions' histories. They have different governing systems, opposing philosophies and ways of treating the world, races that hate each other and would never want to share the same space (Would an Alliance human want to go to sleep at night with a Forsaken or an Orc around the corner? Or be okay with the Forsaken raising their dead in order to replenish their numbers?). It would take generations to truly clear the air between the factions. It doesn't take a war for there to be conflict between them.