Who would you say is the main faction of the story?

[matrix123mko]

Plus a lot of night elf history here.

One small detail, it is also blood elf story. Blood elves are descendants of highborne and for them Broken Isles was huge archeological site.

[Amaterasu65]

In Legion the focus was on Alliance characters like Velen, or characters mostly affiliated with other characters in the Alliance or their race is part of the Alliance like Illidan and Khadgar.

In BFA the focus was mainly on Saurfang and Jaina. And later on Sylvanas and Anduin. Saurfang got 30mins or so of cinematic time and Sylvanas was developed into the one who's pushing the events of the new expansion. Also the Horde did more memorable (even if nasty) things like Teldrassil, Brennadam and Sylvanas ordered some plans like Baine's execution, leading the factions to Azshara etc. So I'd say BFA ultimately led to mainly Horde focus.

I think next expansion is gonna focus evenly on both factions, maybe a little Alliance leaning with Tyrande plot and the probability of having Arthas return as a hero.

[telygroar]

The activision investors.
(After vanilla, the story was swinging so much about who was "winning", but at start, in vanilla, it was the alliance.)

[Niroshi]

They're both severely under-developed these days, so probably Horde as it mostly exists to be plot device for faction wars.

The Alliance has more plot threads to larger threats but I'm doubtful we'll see those fleshed out anytime soon.

[Syegfryed]

WTF did people all ready forget about world of orccraft and green jesus?

world of killorccraft you mean? because they just killed almost all orcs, it only left like 2 "important" ones, majorly can bear one anymore and the other is senile, thats hardly horde favoritism.

They have a statue of an orc in front of their hq

if it was not an orc it would be a human on a horse, and would be lame, like or not, humans are way more generic than blizzard version of orcs

and the company band is horde. Power of the horde song hello?

hardly mean the main faction is horde, metal band it is more akin to horde trash view of things

cata, mop and wod

only cata was an expansion more focused on the horde, and it was not because of thrall, Malfurion and firelands got the same "time" in spotlight, and tbf, thrall didn't much, it was him and other aspects

MOP was just evil horde, villains, and Wod was just shit on horde past lore

Now it's world of undead elfcraft with legion, bfa and shadowlands

world of elfcraft yes, they saw that you only need to put elves in things and people will eat all

[Zig Zug]

The tuskarr will rise again

[Eucep]

Considering this is an MMO, neither is supposed to be the main faction.

Effectivly and annoyingly alliance been to often the heroes and horde the villains and as a result alliance gives the feeling of being said main faction.

[Aucald]

I don't think there's a "main" faction of the ongoing story, but I do think there's a strong narrative delineation when it comes to which faction essentially moves the plot along and which faction is more reactive. The Horde tends to be the more active element as they're the ones who tend to push the narrative along, acting without forethought, or opening hostilities. This is something pretty much carried forward from the halcyon days of WC1, when the Horde invaded Azeroth via the Dark Portal and kicked off the First War. I think the pattern is pretty strongly established that the Horde moves things along, from WC1 to WC2 and even WC3, where the Alliance quite literally follows and/or chases the Horde across the seas. Both factions get a strong focus on their doings, so I don't think either is relegated to background material, but the Horde is definitely the more proactive of the two (either by dint of hostility or just circumstance).

I don't think this is indicative of Horde bias, or favoritism, just that its easier to cast the Horde in the proactive role due to its nature - the Alliance's character doesn't really extend to being proactive, and it seems more or less quite content to just be and only reacts to external stimuli (such as Horde movement or outright aggression).

[Hyral]

Originally both had their own stories to tell. Now I think I would say horde is the main faction since the Alliance is only used as a prop to further tell horde storylines.

[RadasNoir]

If they could get away with, I have no doubt that Blizzard would make the Horde the only playable faction, and have Alliance be an NPC faction that existed solely for whenever the Horde forgot what "honor" means to them. Again.

[Niwes]

here are so much idiotic statements or plain wrong facts.

first: Blizz is and was always a relatively Horde centered company, when you look at major named ppl there. Sometimes you feel that in game, sometimes not. In older days this was, besides other things, because of Metzen is a huge Orc fan. Nonetheless tried Blizz always to get both factions a spot. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not.

second: DEFINE „main faction of the story“. Is the answer to OPs question which faction had the front character (in that case Sylvanas), or get more time spend with story, or had more stories to tell, or had higher quality story ? This question is just idiotic and way too less excatly.

third: In my oppinion (and that are maybe the most important words here, because ppl act in this thread like the answer to OPs question is based on facts and not on taste, spoiler: its taste) BfA is relatively well balanced:

- Talanji and Rastakhan story was very well quality wise (see other thread with poll, it gots second place).
- Jaina and Proudmore story was also very well quality wise (see other thread with poll, it gots first place).
- Alliance had more small but funny stories.
- Horde had main character of the story (Sylvi).
- Both factions had their point of descission.
- Both faction sucked in some corners, like the Layout of Baine and Saurfang stories, which are highly debatted. Or like Alliance descissions with Anduin, Nightelves, Tyrande and others, and the flat Layout of them.

This is based on my experience of 2 chars (one on each side) that raided every raid, did all the quest and have everything else complete. All in all i find BfA relatively equal (more than older xpacs) and can not decide what the „main faction“ should be. Maybe when looked at it from far far away, ppl could assume its Horde, because the main antagonist (Sylvi) is Horde. But thats way too flat thinking for my taste.

But all of this is just my opinion and how it felt to ME.

[Verdugo]

If they could get away with, I have no doubt that Blizzard would make the Horde the only playable faction, and have Alliance be an NPC faction that existed solely for whenever the Horde forgot what "honor" means to them. Again.

Dude, have you seen news recently? Alliance puppets are leading Horde currently.

[RadasNoir]

Dude, have you seen news recently? Alliance puppets are leading Horde currently.

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get yet another bloodthirsty sociopath leading the Horde soon enough, and we can all look foreword to MoP 3/BFA 2 somewhere down the line.

And besides, my original point still stands. The Alliance wouldn't need to be a player faction for its NPCs to have a temporary hold over the Horde's reins.

[Manariel]

The Horde.

It is the one whose turmoils, choices and actions drive the story. Remove the Horde and there is basically no WoW, the Alliance being almost entirely reactive. Without the Horde there can be no Alliance.

Remove the Alliance and replace it by a random NPC faction and the Horde story would remain largely the same.

[Mirishka]

2 sides of the same coin. /shrug

[ravenmoon]

The Horde.

It is the one whose turmoils, choices and actions drive the story. Remove the Horde and there is basically no WoW, the Alliance being almost entirely reactive. Without the Horde there can be no Alliance.

Remove the Alliance and replace it by a random NPC faction and the Horde story would remain largely the same.

Agreed, I think that would work better than what the alliance is. But the horde needs an alliance giant to be able bring out the best in them, blizzard will keep the alliance for that purpose, to continue to show off the horde.

[Zendhal The Black]

Horde gets the development and storytelling while Alliance gets the spoils

We had that with the "fist pump moment for the Alliance" with Metzen indirectly addmiting that horde gets the spotlight

SO horde gets the development, horde gets the story, horde gets the characters being diverse, then they realise they have to give SOMETHING to the Alliance so they give it rushed story, half assed character development and outcome of horde progression (victory in wars in soo/bfa)

[Caerule]

Horde Bias has always been bullcrap. The world and story largely exist to give the Alliance a good story and appealing setting. How it impacts the Horde player experience and what they get up to, is the afterthought.

Counting villain stories that arise from within the Horde as Horde content, may give illusion otherwise. But that's saying Draenor was a Horde-favoring expansion, because of all the orcs. Even though the Alliance got some heavy content-favor in that expansion.

[Aeula]

Alliance.

Horde are just the generic baddies that have the honourable stupid sidekick element to keep them playable.

[Feanoro]

The world and story largely exist to give the Alliance a good story and appealing setting.

Then boy have they achieved epic failure.