Will Teldrassil and Lordaeron really be gone?

[Azahel]

Now this is an interesting development! I'm glad they're shaking things up a bit, I'm just disappointed that they keep trying to balance the story - "one win for Alliance, one win for Horde...". It's really not necessary as long as both stories are compelling. Playing the underdog for a while is fun.

As much as I love wow, I know it killed the franchise lore. This whole faction balance thing is bullshit, we couldn't even get a movie without having to split the story in two, we can't have one side looking good and the other bad on the story, etc.
As far as 'balancing to keep everyone happy" things go, this is probably the best we can expect.

[Melius]

instead of teldrassil they should have taken goldshire out! that place need to be burned down and im from Argent Dawn so i know what im saying

[Deleted]

From their explanation seems like Undercity will just be destroyed and Arathi will be the place for their new warfront minigame, so maybe the northern part of each continent will be "at war" instead of a complete redesign with new factions inhabiting them.

Seems a bit meh to me.

[The Stormbringer]

The largest group of surviving people with a claim to Lordaeron were pretty much the people living there. Stormwind humans have 0 claim to Lordaeron.

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I'm assuming from the book excerpt then that the Alliance either was planning the same attacks as Sylvannas was, but ends up hitting UC before she could hit SW.

Large, large numbers of Lordaeron humans fled to Stormwind and have been living there for years...

[ohwell]

99% sure Worgen will be reclaiming Gilneas (and adding most/all of Lordaeron onto it).

Night Elves will probably grow another tree or something. I think they've gotten pretty good at it by now.

They actually haven't. The trees needed the blessing of the dragon aspects as seen in the failed one in Northrend that didn't have it which essentially then led to the EN because Yogg was able to get in due to the tree touching his prison. So no, they can't just make a new tree.

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Large, large numbers of Lordaeron humans fled to Stormwind and have been living there for years...

Citation needed

[Niter]

One thing I will never quite understand is how Night Elves are so pathetically handled in WoW as opposed to what actually happened in established lore. Teldrassil was falling to corruption until it was blessed. If it is burnt down, does it mean that the dragons will keep a good deal of neutrality? What about Nordrassil? The Aspects' choice in keeping the NEs the World Tree's guardians paid off as they sacrificed their immortality to destroy Archimonde. Other things to keep in mind is that Nordrassil and Moonglade are not that far. The Ancients are, for the most part, more active then they had been for millennia. They wouldn't back up the Night Elves in defending Teldrassil? Cenarius and the Cenarion Circle are quite strong, aided by some of the most powerful Druids (and that's mostly a neutral faction) wouldn't they have helped? What about the rest of northern Kalimdor? Ashenvale, Darkshore, Hyjal, Winterspring? Are those placed being conquered by the Horde with no opposition? Even freaking MALORNE, that fought Archimonde and lost, but still was capable of putting up a tough fight against a being without equal in Azeroth... Night Elves were sitting ducks when Garrosh attacked in Cataclysm, and they are once again going to lose because of plot device reasons. It is really disappointing, it is bad writing and bad reasoning at its core. Night Elves fought through so much and are going to lose their capital because they have completely forgotten what to do when attacked even though several of them are 10K, 15K years old? Maybe they did not lose their immortality, they've undergone a severe memory loss.

While the Forsaken do not really have any of that strength NEs do have in the books, it is impossible to completely drive them out of Undercity. They can't be starved out. They can get plague out through that portal to Silvermoon, which is not exceptionally far. Their plague ensures that whoever is attacking can be returned as an ally. There is no 'light shield' against their plague, as Bolvar himself experienced first hand. It might even be the case that they can make the ruins and surrounding areas completely uninhabitable for a while should they lose the fight. It would be a target far too costly to hit hard. It wouldn't be worth it.

I may be jumping the gun here in assuming that both Teldrassil and Undercity will be lost to both factions, but I can see Thunderbluff and Silvermoon falling quite a lot more easily than UC, I can see the rest of Gilneas and the Exodar being easy targets compared to Teldrassil, but the decisions Blizzard have made since the end of WoTLK puzzle me more and more.

[Aeula]

Lolno. They aren’t revamping the world so I presume undercity and teldrassil will still exist somewhere and this whole lore development will be mechanically irrelevant.

[ohwell]

As much as I love wow, I know it killed the franchise lore. This whole faction balance thing is bullshit, we couldn't even get a movie without having to split the story in two, we can't have one side looking good and the other bad on the story, etc.
As far as 'balancing to keep everyone happy" things go, this is probably the best we can expect.

Much less Metzen with his boner for orcs had to meddle with the movie and even get a cameo.

[Hardwing]

Instead of Orgrimmar/Stormwind, the refugees of Undercity/Teldrassil could retreat to Silvermoon/Exodar. The isles around Exodar have plenty free space and Silvermoon even has a half of the city still unused. This would be a nice reason to update the area.

Of course it is a different server, but what difference does one load-screen more really make?

[Shrouded]

They actually haven't. The trees needed the blessing of the dragon aspects as seen in the failed one in Northrend that didn't have it which essentially then led to the EN because Yogg was able to get in due to the tree touching his prison. So no, they can't just make a new tree.

Teldrassil didn't have that blessing. Fandral Staghelm spearheaded its growth (without the blessings) in an effort to give back the night elves their immortality, which is why corruption managed to take root in it.

[Biske]

I don't get the outrage about losing cities. When I started playing Warcraft, like half the playable races didn't even live where they live now. It's honestly weird that none of the major cities had seen any real conflict that wasn't the result of some infighting. The only thing I gather from this and the fact that WoW Classic is a thing, is that mmo players really, really hate change.

[ohwell]

One thing I will never quite understand is how Night Elves are so pathetically handled in WoW as opposed to what actually happened in established lore. Teldrassil was falling to corruption until it was blessed. If it is burnt down, does it mean that the dragons will keep a good deal of neutrality? What about Nordrassil? The Aspects' choice in keeping the NEs the World Tree's guardians paid off as they sacrificed their immortality to destroy Archimonde. Other things to keep in mind is that Nordrassil and Moonglade are not that far. The Ancients are, for the most part, more active then they had been for millennia. They wouldn't back up the Night Elves in defending Teldrassil? Cenarius and the Cenarion Circle are quite strong, aided by some of the most powerful Druids (and that's mostly a neutral faction) wouldn't they have helped? What about the rest of northern Kalimdor? Ashenvale, Darkshore, Hyjal, Winterspring? Are those placed being conquered by the Horde with no opposition? Even freaking MALORNE, that fought Archimonde and lost, but still was capable of putting up a tough fight against a being without equal in Azeroth... Night Elves were sitting ducks when Garrosh attacked in Cataclysm, and they are once again going to lose because of plot device reasons. It is really disappointing, it is bad writing and bad reasoning at its core. Night Elves fought through so much and are going to lose their capital because they have completely forgotten what to do when attacked even though several of them are 10K, 15K years old? Maybe they did not lose their immortality, they've undergone a severe memory loss.

While the Forsaken do not really have any of that strength NEs do have in the books, it is impossible to completely drive them out of Undercity. They can't be starved out. They can get plague out through that portal to Silvermoon, which is not exceptionally far. Their plague ensures that whoever is attacking can be returned as an ally. There is no 'light shield' against their plague, as Bolvar himself experienced first hand. It might even be the case that they can make the ruins and surrounding areas completely uninhabitable for a while should they lose the fight. It would be a target far too costly to hit hard. It wouldn't be worth it.

I may be jumping the gun here in assuming that both Teldrassil and Undercity will be lost to both factions, but I can see Thunderbluff and Silvermoon falling quite a lot more easily than UC, I can see the rest of Gilneas and the Exodar being easy targets compared to Teldrassil, but the decisions Blizzard have made since the end of WoTLK puzzle me more and more.

Yeah the whole UC falling seems pretty weird judging by the cinematic. I mean it was pretty much an all out war there, but the Horde has such a good home field advantage in that they can just retreat into the sewers and use it as a choke point. Teldrassil doesn't have that benefit.

[Magnagarde]

It was about time Lordaeron's reclaimation started on a faction level. Too bad the night elves get the boot even though they are one of the most noble races within the Alliance. They're basically paying the price for the rest. The more interesting question is where they'll go after this?

I never imagined they'd go as far as destroying capitals, but the way they've pushed boundaries is amazing and was necessary. Everything became stale and expectable.

[Biske]

Yeah the whole UC falling seems pretty weird judging by the cinematic. I mean it was pretty much an all out war there, but the Horde has such a good home field advantage in that they can just retreat into the sewers and use it as a choke point. Teldrassil doesn't have that benefit.

Obviously, the Alliance stayed up top and Anduin gave the order for everyone to flush the toilets on the surface at the same time to get the Forsaken out of the sewers.

[ohwell]

Teldrassil didn't have that blessing. Fandral Staghelm spearheaded its growth (without the blessings) in an effort to give back the night elves their immortality, which is why corruption managed to take root in it.

Quest text says only 2 dragons refused: Alex and Noz. DW of course is counted out, but Ysera could easily have done so. Malygos was crazy already. The tree in Northrend had nothing.

[Biske]

Quest text says only 2 dragons refused: Alex and Noz. DW of course is counted out, but Ysera could easily have done so. Malygos was crazy already. The tree in Northrend had nothing.

Yeah, but the aspects of life and time are the ones you'd think you need to grant immortality.

[Niter]

Keep in mind that Teldrassil, after the events in Stormrage, was blessed by Alexstraza and Ysera.

[Deleted]

We need to build a wall.

LEt's get Donald Trump in this development!

[Shrouded]

Quest text says only 2 dragons refused: Alex and Noz. DW of course is counted out, but Ysera could easily have done so. Malygos was crazy already. The tree in Northrend had nothing.

Hmmm, I don't remember that part - but the part about Ysera is interesting. Though shouldn't her blessing, if any of them, have kept the Nightmare at bay?

[Kuntantee]

Seems like they are going full commercial, giving up depth in order to add features they think people will like (such as faction pride and repeatable gameplay)
Its the equivalent of grabbing Nicola Tesla and Albert Einstein and using them to make ads for MCDonalds, it's thematic, it's out of place and theoretically, it sells.

I think this is a spot on analysis. Since WoD, they are failing to fully implement their expansion premises. The focus in BfA is faction wars, but mechanically, within game, the players will be far from waging war. They'll be leveling up in separate islands. It's like some abstract story (cinematics, quests whatnot) says one thing, the things you do and see in game says another.