(SPOILER) Who sets the fire?!? Taking all bets!

[Kyphael]

I voted Wrathion, the dark horse. Azshara is quickly becoming the most bankable choice I see, that came out of nowhere. Must be due to the upcoming short stories?

[Escepticus]

The one it's not in the poll: Azshara.

[Leodok]

I predict the cinematic will show a big naval battle between Horde and Alliance, that will, somehow, get out of control and result in the tree burning. I also think it will happen because of Azerite.

Either the Horde uses an Azerite cannon (or bombs) and underestimates how powerful it is, or an Alliance ship filled with the thing crashes on Teldrassil. Either way, the fire begins and rapidly spreads to the whole tree. Alliance goes save who they can, Horde goes away like "eh, guess my job here's done."

[Enkrypt]

Pretty confident it's Azshara. She has all the right motives.

[Melius]

Pretty confident it's Azshara. She has all the right motives.

what are those "right" motives you speak of?

[valax]

some mid-summer torch juggler who lost his job a few weeks ago.
Being serious probably Wrathion , he's been all pumped up for us in mop to jump at each other's throats because " muh legion invasion " only to throw a temper tantrum when Varian spared the horde and then when the actual legion invaded he's gone hiding in some cavern hole .. we never see him since that but he's a stubborn one and it seems his plans for us involve war.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Probably gonna be an ambiguous both sides did it because the Alliance panicked and deployed Azerite they didn't know how to use to combat Goblin (read: explosive) Azerite weapons.

[Neverafter]

Maiev Shadowsong

[Enkrypt]

what are those "right" motives you speak of?

Wouldn't she have a vendetta against the Night Elves (Highborne)?

Also, wouldn't N'zoth and its forces be enough to spurn a war to distract from his hostile takeover?

[Melius]

Wouldn't she have a vendetta against the Night Elves (Highborne)?

Also, wouldn't N'zoth and its forces be enough to spurn a war to distract from his hostile takeover?

my bad, it was a misunderstanding on my part. yes she would do that considering their history.

[vertigo12]

Failed attempt at retrieving Tidestone of Golgoneth. Sargeras is being babysat by jailor Ilidan. She can now focus on domination.

[Steampunkette]

How can a big bad like Azshara do it and the Alliance not know who was responsible? It'd be like if they didn't realize that Deathwing had landed on their roofs. You're telling me there were ZERO Alliance witnesses to the burning of the tree?

Azshara is physically tiny in relation to the tree and doesn't have to stand up in Darnassus to set it on fire thanks to magic.

She could've popped her head out of the water on the North Side of the tree, cast a spell, and slipped back under the water with no one the wiser.

[Bigby]

We know Darnassus is being used as a kind of port-in-the-storm for the Alliance to ship Azurite to the Eastern Kingdoms (which makes no sense, but hey, Blizzard logistics). Either due to the supplies there, or due to a massive Azurite forming under it, the fighting - most likely the Horde's demolishers we see firing on it - will ignite the stockpiles and cause it to go nuclear.

The Bronze Dragon who phases us back in time makes a snip about how mortals throwing fire at nature has a way of destroying things.

In other words, the Horde do it but didn't plan to burn the whole tree down. It's worth remembering that just because Sylvanas didn't intend to burn it down doesn't wipe away her or the Horde's guilt. They still invaded Night Elven territory with the intent of capturing and displacing the population.

I think Azshara is just there so that her appearance in 8.1 isn't too left-field and had some buildup outside of Stormsong. If the Naga/Azshara can run around blowing stuff the size of Teldrassil up, they'd probably utilise that a lot more often and directly. Blizzard villains aren't subtle afterall.

Honestly, I dont want it to be, but I sort of feel like it's gonna be Jaina. She's the only one in the history of WoW who has even mentioned it as a possibility, asking if the Horde doing it would get the Kirin Tor to finally fully back the Alliance in her book, and one of her goodbye voice lines in BfA is "A single spark can set the world aflame."

I don't know why people read into this line so much. Night elves live in a tree, trees are typically flammable, the Horde was going around trying to conquer/destroy Alliance territory. It's a bit of word play just about anybody would probably use in that situation.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Among the most obvious ones is imho that sylvanas is right, the alliance is shipping azerite through Teldrasil and the horde bombs it during the attack and ignites the azerite, which causes a chain reaction and nukes the tree. So.. horde is at fault for playing with fire and the alliance for hoarding dangerous shit in a capital. Other options include some rubbish with azshara /N'zoth.

I see absolutelys no realistic way that the alliance does it via an inside job. Especially infantile rubbish like Genn doing it (after they've taken in his people) is just laughable.

[Bigby]

I see absolutelys no realistic way that the alliance does it via an inside job. Especially infantile rubbish like Genn doing it (after they've taken in his people) is just laughable.

B-b-but Genn is literally Warcraft Hitler! He said a mean thing about my waifu! He deserves to die!

[sillag]

its gotta be azshara because its their only chance at salvaging this terrible story

but its still not gonna be enough because the night elves and forsaken will never be able to forgive what happened even discounting the cities getting destroyed

battle for azeroth was a mistake from day 1

[Ryuda]

Not sure who *did*. I'm fairly certain Billy Joel did not however. He was very, very strong in his denial. :^)

[Zahlen]

I think Azshara would make a lot of sense, manipulating both sides into full on war to benefit N'zoth... but who knows?!

I feel like Azshara is more of a "DROWN THE TREE" type person instead of burning it.

[Melusine]

I'm gonna say untested azerite technology, goblins messed up and the whole thing went up in flames. Sylvanas will be incredibly pissed off that it happened.

Someone's on the same page as I am. Well-played!!!

- - - Updated - - -

Maiev Shadowsong

She's probably dead. She goes AWOL midway through Tomb of Sargeras, and no one knows what happened to her....

[Traveler Voltin]

going by the 1 shot of sylvanas for in the trailer for the 3 new shorts.

horde did not do it.
so i blame aszhara