Question to the Lore People out there

[GreenJesus]

Hate to break it to ya but Nazgrim died in Siege of Orgrimmar... "lore people" indeed.

He's a Horseman now, he wouldn't take sides in the conflict.

The player character Death knight (leader of the order hall) became the champion of the horde/alliance. Why couldn't Nazgrim take side in a conflict?

[Nerovar]

I'll expand that to "what if you had complete control over the Warcraft IP". I've been thinking about that a lot.

I'd make a CGI Warcraft series, starting with the first war, completely ignoring the first Warcraft movie and all retcons that have been made to any kind of material. I'd base this mostly on the old games, lore from the manuals, RPG books and the first few novels, like The Last Guardian and Lord of the Clans, which were the best ones, in my opinion. Completely disregard all volumes of Chronicles.

I'd go through Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, Beyond the Dark Portal, Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne.

Then I'd reboot World of Warcraft, as an entirely new game, starting after The Frozen Throne.

The Forsaken would not be a part of the Horde, but their own faction.

The Lich King would not have been Arthas dominating Ner'zhul, but a true fusion of the two. The Scourge would be their own faction, never really being outright defeated, but always appearing here and there, causing trouble.

The same I'd do for Illidan, Kael and Vashj. They'd be their own faction of Demon Hunters, Blood Elves and Naga, never going through what happened in TBC, but just being a faction that appears here and there and does things, more like an anti-hero kind of faction, that doesn't do outright evil things, causes trouble here and there but also sometimes allies with our factions when it makes sense, in the same way Horde and Alliance sometimes ally as well.

The Alliance would include Humans, Dwarves and High Elves.

The Horde would simply include Orcs, Trolls and Tauren, maybe Goblins and Ogres.

Night Elves would be their own faction, with Wardens, Dryads and other druidic creatures.

Blood Elves would never join the Horde, all of them are part of Kael'thas forces.

Draenei aren't a thing, only the ones on Draenor, and they will have no connection to the Eredar.

I'd include some things that they've come up with over the years, if I feel it makes sense and I like it (I'm a dictator)

Pandaren would be a thing, but Pandaria would be a much smaller island and would not receive their own expansion.

Less Old God stuff.

No Sargeras did nothing wrong.

No Naaru.

Deathwing wouldn't be a retard, but more of the scheming conniver we've known him as before Cataclysm.

Just a couple of thoughts.

That's pretty based.

[Villager720]

Help Baine find his spine.
Help Anduin realize he shouldn’t be leading an alliance of older, more experienced, responsible factions.
Make Sylvanas get her ultra-powers pulled out from underneath her at a very inopportune time.
Help the night elves win ... literally anything.
Make the high elves re-unify with Quel’thalas and end that charade of a “race”.
Make the void elves actually cause problems for the Alliance; they were set up as ticking-time bombs and that seems to have been forgotten.
Create a lore-maguffin that lets the humans shut down that damned tornado in Westfall after all these years.
Hire someone to scan and fact check all lore sources before we move forward with anything.

[mickybrighteyes]

I'd break the factions as they are and probably do a half assed warhammer bit with some racial story arcs and take Anduin and convert him into a wannabe emperor of man after getting rid of him for awhile.

Toss in Ashborne elves and a REAL nato 'world police' organization that neutral organizations would join and some of the 'faction' groups would play part in.

edit:

oh and malfurion would die. tyrande would be a raid boss real quick and Alleria would either FINALLY get some sense knocked into her or be in the villain pipeline later on

[Nephys]

Assuming I could have my way without outside influence I would write an expansion based on races, each race gets a racial capital (even the night elves) and a racial campaign, similar to legion, only a lot smaller since we wouldnt have time to make something like 20 different campaigns, just something to show players what their race truly is, implement some npcs for players to identify with (for the darkspear trolls there's hardly any npcs, only Rokhan, now Zekhan with bfa but its still too little), and a racial leader, I think its quite silly that some races do not have a leader, it really looks like they are just too lazy.

The each capital city would have a special zone only accessible for the specific race, which would work in a manner similar to order halls with Legion, only this is actually inside the city.

The cities would be something like
Humans: Already have Sw, maybe something related to paladins or rogues
Dwarves: revamp ironforge and finish the parts that are inconstructions since vanilla
Gnomes: Conquer back Gnomerengan and maybe make it habbitable? obviously revamp the place.
Night elves: A new entire city, mostly nature, perhaps on the tree inside Duskwood with a gate to the dream, maybe they could also build a new sacred well?
Draenei: Finally exodar revamped and not instanced, maybe they could even forgive some eredar and accept them back
Worgen: Is there anything to say here? Gilneas back and repaired.

Orcs: They already have their city, others deserve some love as well
Tauren: Upgrade TB, some quest about Shamans?
Trolls: They have been on their islands as long as the orcs on orgrimar yet they still live in tents? No sense, give them a real troll city, different from Zandalar, maybe the other tribes could join up and become darkspear
Forsaken: This one is hard since I don't know how they are going to end with BFA but I would sure get Calia out of the Horde and get a real Forsaken leading them, maybe Belmont, and a new city, maybe darkshore? desolace? Hellheim? And I would focus more on their darkest side without just becoming cartoon villains, more Deathstalkers and apothecaries stuff, but on the service of the Horde.
Belfs: Upgrade city, maybe clean some of the Death Scar, and make it noninstanced
Goblins: Well, upgrade their city and make some more goblin shenenigans

Allied races: Most of them already have their cities
Kul Tirans: Not much here, city pretty much good, just upgrade it with AH and stuff.
Dark Irons: Make the dungeon an actual city, bonus points = new dungeon, same as gnomerengan.
Mechagnomes: Make a good and nice city out of Mechagon
Void Elves: There's not much space where they are, but they could build something I guess, different from belfs I hope
Lightforged: It would be nice if they could park the Vindicar near Stromgarde and make their kingdom there, led by Turalyon, it would be nice to have him lead his kingdom albeit with draenei mostly, they could even say the Vindicar has no more power but can still serve as a building. It could become a half-draenei kinda civilization

Mag'har: Maybe they could build their city on the barrens or stonetalon mountains, and while Orgrimar is more "technological" this one could be more "primal" with gronns, ogres, animals of all kinds...
Highmountain: a bit of an upgrade on their city
Zandalari: Not much to say here, just put stuff like AH in there
Nightborne: their city is already so beautiful, just upgrade it a bit
Vulpera: Even I can't imagine what it would be like, this guys are defined by their absense of lore so...

[Dellis0991]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions.

I wouldn't...I'll probably makes shit even worst.

[Palapop]

I'd make Failduin hang him self.

[Super Kami Dende]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions.

Make it a bit darker, have more true consequences to the actions of characters, stop with the "morally" grey bullshit and actually have characters follow through with what their alignment would dictate.

[Volardelis]

They tried that with Chronicle. They didn't even make it to Volume 3 before retconning Volume 1.

They were retconning things from Vol 1 when Vol 1 just came out. And Vol 1 was written alongside legion, the expansion that began the retcons.

it is no surprise as the team that wrote Chronicles, most of them no longer work for blizzard as writers.

[Newname1234567890]

If i could swing it. An expansion with minimal overarching villain that instead focuses on loose plotlines and abandoned lore. An aggressive push to reestablish Faction (while im not agaisnt faction merger im against this half measure that leave both a husk) and race identity.

[mickybrighteyes]

If i could swing it. An expansion with minimal overarching villain that instead focuses on loose plotlines and abandoned lore. An aggressive push to reestablish Faction (while im not agaisnt faction merger im against this half measure that leave both a husk) and race identity.

This is something I'd love to see. I don't think every expansion can have an 'arthas' type entity presiding over everything that we eventually have to come face to face with... and honestly WotLK was the only time it really worked.

[Selastan]

So many things.

Sylvanas fails in her mission to break death, and learns that the afterlife isn't as bad as she was manipulated to believe. She returns to the Forsaken with the goal of curing their undeath and embracing the cycle. New Forsaken are recruited from willing souls in the Shadowlands, given life in stitched-together bodies on Azeroth, rather than resurrecting the souls of the deceased as before. Sylvanas recruits Illidan, who's ancient magic and demon powers might give them the cure for undeath, as Illidan and other demons have managed to resurrect without the curse. They get married. #OTP.

After walking other worlds and getting a bigger picture of the cosmos, as well as with council from Velen, Anduin's faith in the Light is wavering. He accepts that it is purely a force, and abandons the Church of the Holy Light. This causes a schism in Stormwind, where the faithful call Anduin a traitor, leading to the church becoming more zealous and fanatical, eventually leading to a resurgence in the Scarlet Crusade. The new Crusade becomes a powerful faction, and Anduin finds himself holding less and less power within Stormwind, and by extension, the Alliance. He leaves on a quest of self-discovery.

The Horde isn't happy with the council that currently runs the Horde. Specifically, the orcs aren't happy. They long for the days of a Warchief to lead them, and feel that a council is too tied up with bureaucracy and debating to take any real action. They organize a new faction around a new leader. Someone with experience and wisdom, someone not eager for war yet wouldn't hesitate to defend: Nazgrel. Advisor to Thrall from the founding of Orgrimmar, leader of the Horde forces during the war against Illidan, they believe that Nazgrel would bring stability to the Horde. However, Baine and the others are reluctant to give the Horde another Warchief. Nazgrel is becoming old, and when he leaves the throne, who would lead the Horde then? They view the title of Warchief as a ticking time bomb, and are scared at what may happen in the future, even as the present stagnates.

[Feanoro]

I'll expand that to "what if you had complete control over the Warcraft IP". I've been thinking about that a lot.

I'd make a CGI Warcraft series, starting with the first war, completely ignoring the first Warcraft movie and all retcons that have been made to any kind of material. I'd base this mostly on the old games, lore from the manuals, RPG books and the first few novels, like The Last Guardian and Lord of the Clans, which were the best ones, in my opinion. Completely disregard all volumes of Chronicles.

I'd go through Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, Beyond the Dark Portal, Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne.

Then I'd reboot World of Warcraft, as an entirely new game, starting after The Frozen Throne.

The Forsaken would not be a part of the Horde, but their own faction.

The Lich King would not have been Arthas dominating Ner'zhul, but a true fusion of the two. The Scourge would be their own faction, never really being outright defeated, but always appearing here and there, causing trouble.

The same I'd do for Illidan, Kael and Vashj. They'd be their own faction of Demon Hunters, Blood Elves and Naga, never going through what happened in TBC, but just being a faction that appears here and there and does things, more like an anti-hero kind of faction, that doesn't do outright evil things, causes trouble here and there but also sometimes allies with our factions when it makes sense, in the same way Horde and Alliance sometimes ally as well.

The Alliance would include Humans, Dwarves and High Elves.

The Horde would simply include Orcs, Trolls and Tauren, maybe Goblins and Ogres.

Night Elves would be their own faction, with Wardens, Dryads and other druidic creatures.

Blood Elves would never join the Horde, all of them are part of Kael'thas forces.

Draenei aren't a thing, only the ones on Draenor, and they will have no connection to the Eredar.

I'd include some things that they've come up with over the years, if I feel it makes sense and I like it (I'm a dictator)

Pandaren would be a thing, but Pandaria would be a much smaller island and would not receive their own expansion.

Less Old God stuff.

No Sargeras did nothing wrong.

No Naaru.

Deathwing wouldn't be a retard, but more of the scheming conniver we've known him as before Cataclysm.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Bravo, erases most of the lorelol moments.

[kieraTM]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions.

One of my pet peeves is when people ask a text-based question without using a question mark! You cannot infer tone through text like one would whilst speaking (eg raising ones voice to indicate a question, reminiscent of a text question mark). This person has literally just posted a statement as if it were a personal thought on a blog.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Vulpera: Even I can't imagine what it would be like, this guys are defined by their absense of lore so...

I guess they could take over the Faithless Sethrak city? And same here with the Lore. I find it really weird that they can be Warlocks despite not having any outside experience with demons/fel. Zandalari could have Warlocks that focus on the 'soul-stealing' aspect and not the fel one

[Nephys]

I guess they could take over the Faithless Sethrak city? And same here with the Lore. I find it really weird that they can be Warlocks despite not having any outside experience with demons/fel. Zandalari could have Warlocks that focus on the 'soul-stealing' aspect and not the fel one

But their whole concept is about being nomands, so I think that the concept of a city would not fit with them, maybe they could have caravans spread throughout someplace? Voldun? could such a thing work without being too much of an hassle to transverse?

[TayFarr]

One of my pet peeves is when people ask a text-based question without using a question mark! You cannot infer tone through text like one would whilst speaking (eg raising ones voice to indicate a question, reminiscent of a text question mark). This person has literally just posted a statement as if it were a personal thought on a blog.

Well this has nothing to do with the thread, but thank you for pointing this out.

[Eucep]

Assuming no shareholder influence:

I'd start with finishing Shadowlands with one major change to what is likely going to occur now. I'd put a full stop on further 'long term vague mystery storylines'. Anything that I'd think, this requires lore nerds to figure out, will get tossed out. If there is long term story, it will be out in the open and clear.

Secondly, no more blatant retcons allowed. If they want to change up things, do it by introducing new things and new characters.

I'd let the writers focus more on the core races for main story and let the allied races and the expansion races get relegated to side stories.

As to the story post Shadowlands:
10.0 WoW: Rebirth. Azeroth is waking up, but it's going to violently because of all outside sources trying to mess with her. The land quakes and tears. Exodar, Teldrassil remains, Silvermoon/Sunwell as well as Lordaeron sink down into the sea and the Sunwell itself is pulled down to the core to Azeroth herself. Most of the first part content is focussed on saving the rest of Azeroth by taking out all kinds of cultists and other groups which want to make things worse. Majority of this content is in old world.

10.1 However, once the worst is over and it becomes clear Azeroth can be born without destroying her shell it becomes clear that the inhabitents do have influence on Azeroth and that she can change things for them by those who earn her favour. A new faction war erupts, not just horde and alliance, but other groups also rise up to try and gain this favour to change Azeroth to their designs.

10.2 The war worsens, but the army of the light arrives. It tries to pacify everyone and put everything under their control. Meanwhile the Gift of N'zoth becomes active again.

10.3 The red star fades out, the Titans return. They kill Azeroth because she is to tainted for their plans of a purely ordered universe. Illidan returns, telling of how Sargeras got drained to death by the Titans, he escaped last moment. They take control of the keepers, forcing them to manually reoriginate the planet, then they leave.

11.0 WoW: Upheaval. Having to deal with the Keepers who survived the 10.3 raid and remain under control the various factions start to re-arm. The champions meanwhile deal with the elements in disarray with Azeroth 'dead', but they quickly find it's a fascade by the elemental lords to hide a secret.

11.1 On a new elemental plane do the champions find both Argus and Azeroth, the twins of life and death. Both not fitting in with Aman'thul's plan. The champions get asked to help end the influence of a new Twilight Hammer cult that has been manipulating the various factions into making things worse. At the end the champions take out the leader, who is surprised to be found out that soon. (Am thinking Sinestra)

11.2 With the Hammer gone many factions collapse as several of their leaders got influenced and they have to question their actions. The Alliance however gets taken in by Azeroth and the Horde gets taken in by Argus as their hands. The champions end up going to various old zones like pandaria, outland, draenor, Argus etc to get the resources needed for our titans plans.

11.3 Having built up new forces of life and death get tested by the reborn Old Gods who have been waiting for this moment.

12.0 WoW Crusade of Vengeance. We start hunting the titans.

[Lane]

I would hit Sylvanas hard with the guilt stick. Since I know I wouldn't be allowed to kill her, she'll have her humanity restored and be left with overwhelming regret for her actions at which point she'll either exit stage left until further notice or begin the long process of atoning for her crimes.

I'd try to move away from the two main faction divide and return to racial identity. As much as I hated the Living Story in GW2, I think it could work well in WoW with gradually repairing the damage to EK & Kalimdor a couple zones at a time.

Id write a narrative for each race at least one questline dealing with the conflict de jour of the day. The majority of the issues i see and experience rise from someone writing "The Alliance or The Horde" without the nuance in races which makes it all boring monolith. That being said I would be a horrible hire I wouldn't write anything satisfactory for the red team. And that being said there would be a LOT more Alliance aggression.

Were I forced to continue to write the faction conflict then, yes, I would make the Alliance a lot more aggressive. Otherwise, I'd write internal conflict and make them more interesting than they are, capitalizing on Tyrande's dissatisfaction and Genn's loyalties being torn.

Tyrande and Malfurion are getting divorced. Tyrande starts to hang with Illidan instead.

I could see Malfurion trying to stop Tyrande's rampage, then she leaves him with some cutting remark about how she chose the wrong brother. Getting Illidan back wouldn't be an easy feat, but I'd absolutely love to see him join her and then maybe between the two of them the NE race can return to being badass.

[allawyn]

You become a writer on the blizzard writing/art team, a regular standard writer or the lead writer, what would you do if you were to gain such a position/ or such positions?

Stop hitting the Horde with the villian bat, stop killing Horde characters, start rebuilding Horde lore from the current dumpster fire it is.