Yrel's Lightbound Crusade

[Varodoc]

"You thought you could resist the whispers? Let's see how you can resist when we turn the volume up to 11."

Then still resisting but dying is the perfect send off.

Well really I think the Horrific Visions handled it pretty well. She ultimately succumbs to the Void, but she does so in good faith. She believes that the Void is simply the only way, that everything else in a lie, yet I don't catch any pleasure or satisfaction in her words. I think she just realizes that's the only way and there is no point in resisting anymore. She's not someone like Kael'thas who actually revels in that madness. And indeed when she dies she realizes what she's done, she sees the light again.

I think Alleria could be a very good tragic villain, someone whose desire to protect others ultimately led them to their own downfall. As they say, the path to Hell is paved with good intentions. I'm just kind of skeptical that those hacks at Blizzard can handle such a character well.

[Mirishka]

Yrel was one of the few things about WoD that I liked, so I'm on the fence about her 'tyrant of the light' heel turn.

On one hand it is an interesting development and one of the less predictable story beats in recent years - at the same time it almost guarantees that, at some point, she's going to be a raid boss or something.

I'd prefer a story where we ultimately make her see reason (redemption isn't necessary after what the orcs did to them).

[Manariel]

Thanks but no. For starter, the demonization of Yrel comes from orcs who still followed grommash as their leader, despite his many crimes, enslaved Ogres and slaughtered Saberons and Botani as if there was no tomorrow.

Plus, yrel's basically the only thing good out of WoD for the Alliance, so to see her even more thrown under the bus just to allow Mag'har and their seventy or so skin options as Allied Race for the Horde was really infuriating. WoD has been a net loss for the Alliance already, leave it alone.

Also a big fat not to turn Alleria into an evil Void-infested character. VE already are struggling to field two characters, turning one into an evil boss would just make them totally irrelevant - even more so that they alread are.

[Coldfrostzero]

Could be interesting.

I've always seen the Light/void like the Vorlons and Shadows from Babylon 5.

Sooner or later we'll realise that they're all as bad as each other and are just using us as disposable pawns in their fight.

I have no idea who those characters are, since I've never seen Babylon 5, but Blizzard confirmed this idea in a way years ago. When asked how a group/individual does something subjectively evil they are still able to call upon the Light. Examples being the Scarlet Crusade and Arthas. Blizzard stated that as long as you believe your cause is just, no matter how others view it, you are able to call upon the Light. Effectively saying that the Light can be used for nefarious purposes and that the Light isn't aligned with "good" all the time. So the literal "beings of Light" or Naruu don't need to be lawful good, but have to remain in the "lawful" category.

[Soon-TM]

Well really I think the Horrific Visions handled it pretty well. She ultimately succumbs to the Void, but she does so in good faith. She believes that the Void is simply the only way, that everything else in a lie, yet I don't catch any pleasure or satisfaction in her words. I think she just realizes that's the only way and there is no point in resisting anymore. She's not someone like Kael'thas who actually revels in that madness. And indeed when she dies she realizes what she's done, she sees the light again.

I think Alleria could be a very good tragic villain, someone whose desire to protect others ultimately led them to their own downfall. As they say, the path to Hell is paved with good intentions. I'm just kind of skeptical that those hacks at Blizzard can handle such a character well.

I really like this, and sadly I have to emphatically agree with the last part

[GreenJesus]

"You thought you could resist the whispers? Let's see how you can resist when we turn the volume up to 11."

Then still resisting but dying is the perfect send off.

eh.. we killed Nzoth in a patch. Void lords can't be that much harder to beat.

[Fistfighter]

Yes, this is a good theme to explore. Make her the villain, I don't care. I am done with fighting dark and edgy enemies

[Stormdash]

I don't want it only because I don't trust Blizzard to comprehend that she's the villain of that story.

[Niroshi]

Alleria becoming a villain is too obvious to be satisfying. The character plagued by whispers from the dark that she resists on her willpower alone falling to the dark side is about as basic plot as you can get and there's just no fun to be had there. Yrel's problem is similar and just as unsatisfying. Take the only thing the Alliance really had in WoD's story, make it evil for reasons, add zero nuance and create some "Light Crusade" to replace the Legion or something. That would be 2 years of constant salt and boredom.

BFA had no surprise and I'd prefer they avoid stories in the future with no surprises. You want a Yrel "Villain"? Make it faction based and make her reasonable to the Alliance, say maybe the Mag'har saw their younger generation prefering the Naaru over their old culture and ways and reacted badly, to which Yrel "never agained" in the hardest way possible.

I guess I'm also just not on board with making the Light an equivalent villain to everything else we've seen as villains over the years. That seems to me like a way to make everything less impactful. When nothing can be good and benevolent what are you even fighting to preserve?

[MrSaggins]

Yeah that’d be cool. If six mouths hunger then presumably the Light has nefarious ends as well.

I’m working on fleshing out the bones of a story of my own centered around dwarves vs humans, with human paladins as zealous antagonists following a holy faith that feeds all of their souls (and the souls of those they slay) into a hive mind, and partially joins them with it while living (think the Kala in Starcraft). They burn books and demolish schools because the “Stream” has all of the knowledge they need (if it deigns to share it). Meanwhile the dwarves are protagonists. They hoard knowledge and are largely necromancers, guarding their souls from joining the Stream by binding them to golems and risen corpses.

[derpkitteh]

Shes DAMN HOT on that pic. I wouldn't mind if she does her crusade on me. I'll pop her wings up

you should see the better version of that pic. silky smooth.

and yeah, op, i'd like for light and void to come back. i feel like shadowlands is kinda hurting light lore a bit, by showing that someone like uther didn't go to the light upon death.

also, i'd love to get back to AU draenor. get those AU ogres to join the horde, see the southern continent. all of that.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

I don't care how good she looks, I will never ever join her Light crusade. The Light may seem good to the common folks but in the real world. Lucifer is the Light bearer, the deceiver who comes as a benevolent being to fool the masses. Whose to say WoW won't have their version of Lucifer that's gonna get introduce much later down the line when they finally reveal the Light God.

[pacotaco]

I would love to see some focus on the "Light" And the Light's darker side. No more void though please, we've had so much void recently, and Shadowlands will be all.. Necromancy, darkness, void...

The light being the antagonist for once could be cool. Paladins questioning their own beliefs, priests aligning themselves more with the void. Could be an interesting way to actually develop Anduinn as well, make him doubt himself, make him doubt the light... Sadly, it would probably be too Alliance focused, given the Lightforged and the Void elves are Alliance. I guess the angle of Yrel going full on crusade mode would give the Horde a reason to participate too... Though I do prefer my Yrel not being fully villainized. Her story was kinda butchered throughout WoD, but I was enjoying her character a lot in general, and I enjoy the darker side of the Light she and her more devoted show.

We already started to see a bit of that in Legion with X'era trying to "light rape" Illidan, and Velen finally rejecting the Light knowing that "the Truth" that it showed to him wasn't really the truth.

[Maxilian]

They are all dead, Alt timeline is collapsing onto its self.

Isn't it more reason for the people there, mostly those with the power and/or knowledge, to try to look for a way to travel to another timeline? they know its possible, they had visitors from another one, so why couldn't they try to jump ships before everything goes to hell.

[FlubberPuddy]

While in the past I was very vocal against turning Alleria into a villain, now I wouldn't mind seeing that, so long as she gets turned into a badass villain and gets good character development. Bring on the Void war criminal!

So, by Blizzard standards, you want Alleria to be the next Sylvanas

[Kyphael]

Alleria becoming a villain is too obvious to be satisfying. The character plagued by whispers from the dark that she resists on her willpower alone falling to the dark side is about as basic plot as you can get and there's just no fun to be had there. Yrel's problem is similar and just as unsatisfying. Take the only thing the Alliance really had in WoD's story, make it evil for reasons, add zero nuance and create some "Light Crusade" to replace the Legion or something. That would be 2 years of constant salt and boredom.

BFA had no surprise and I'd prefer they avoid stories in the future with no surprises. You want a Yrel "Villain"? Make it faction based and make her reasonable to the Alliance, say maybe the Mag'har saw their younger generation prefering the Naaru over their old culture and ways and reacted badly, to which Yrel "never agained" in the hardest way possible.

I guess I'm also just not on board with making the Light an equivalent villain to everything else we've seen as villains over the years. That seems to me like a way to make everything less impactful. When nothing can be good and benevolent what are you even fighting to preserve?

The Light has already been shown to be used for evil though, first through The Scarlet Crusade and then through Xe'ra, a Naaru itself. It doesn't invalidate mortals' fight for survival. Cosmic forces are neutral and can be used for good or evil.

[ro9ue]

Where's the art from? Looks legit.

[lazaros742]

They also.have alternate world azeroth they can enslave.. they know it exists after all.

[Kyphael]

Where's the art from? Looks legit.

I just found it on google images.

[Aleloron]

Shes DAMN HOT on that pic. I wouldn't mind if she does her crusade on me. I'll pop her wings up

What? Good God. Keep away from the goats on my farm.